Tag: writing advice

The four notebooks that control my life

It’s no surprise to anyone who follows me on Instagram that I’m a bit planner obsessed. I’ve talked before about my love of bullet journals, and Notion. Being highly organized is the only way I can keep up with all my projects and responsibilities, and still keep my plants, pets and darling husband alive. 

It’s been a while since I’ve done an updated walk through of the planners I use. At this point, there are four books that I consider essential. So I thought I’d go through them with you today. 

This is the system that works for me, and it works for me in part because I like planners. I like having all four of these. Honestly, you could probably get your system down to two books. And I will discuss how as well. But for me, this works too well to tinker with it. 

My planner

Let’s start with a good yearly planner. I personally use the Magic of I astrology planner because, well, I’m a witch. I like the planetary information is right there for me to see, and I love that the 12 Sabbats are included with the rest of the holidays. This isn’t a sponsored post, and I’m honestly not even trying to sell you on this specific planner.

The point is that this planner works for me and the way I live my life. There’s lots of space on each day for me to write out everything I need. The pages are thick and take everything but Sharpies without ghosting. And I like that there’s a menstrual cycle tracker built in. 

(As a side note for people who menstrate, you should not be using any sort of period tracker app if you live in America. That information can be accessed and used against you in a court of law. I don’t think I need to go into any more detail as to why.)

Here’s a list of the things I keep track of in my yearly planner.

My work schedule for my day job.

Contest and writing deadlines.

Birthdays and holidays, like a normal person.

Launch dates for tv shows, podcasts, books and other content I review.

Scheduling days off and self care events.

Doctor and vet appointments.

Finally, I write a list of gratitude into the remaining space each day. It’s part of my morning routine, and has been for some time. Starting out each day by reflecting on the good things that happened the day before has helped me through some truly dark times. 

Now some people can, and do, keep all of these things in their bullet journal. But I really like the ability to plan in detail for a full year. I also like the extra room for gratitude journaling. If I had to, I could put those in a bullet journal, though. It would likely mean I go through journals faster, but it could be done. 

My bullet journal

If I had to just have one planner, do away with all others, this would be the one. 

A lot has been said about bullet journaling, both here and on the internet in general. I’m a huge fan of this system. I like that it can be anything I need it to be. It’s held book notes, launch plans, cleaning schedules, plant care notes, holiday plans. Literally anything that can be organized can fit in a bullet journal. 

Personally, I keep the following pages in my bullet journal right now. 

Year at a glance calendar.

A reading log.

Grocery list.

Quarterly, monthly and daily to do lists.

Mood tracker

Habit tracker

Social media tracker

Monthly business tracker

My daily tarot pulls

Monthly memory pages

A list of shows and movies we want to watch

If you want to learn more about bullet journaling, honestly there’s no end to the resources you can find online. 

My sketchbook

This is something I used to keep in my bullet journal. But honestly, I had to move it to its own book. And every creative should have a sketchbook.

This is a book I use for outlining and planning creative content. I write notes on reviews, my morning pages, freewriting, outlining chapters, brainstorming, random thoughts, a haiku about that bird I saw. This is a notebook I reach for several times through my day, and it should be. Any sort of creative project I do starts in this sketchbook. As such, it’s a mess. But a good mess.

Every creative should have a sketchbook. And everybody’s sketchbook is going to look totally different. And that’s beautiful. 

My money bullet journal

This is a recent addition to my collection. Yes, I do keep an entire separate bullet journal for money. Because money is complicated and I’m learning. This isn’t something I’ve done in the past, and it’s not something I’m likely to do forever. But right now, as I’m learning more about money and trying to handle it better, I need this extra space. 

In my money bullet journal I keep the following pages.

My monthly budget

My debt payoff plan

My savings plan

A list of minor debts I need to pay off, aside from the big ones

A list of big ticket purchases I want to save for

A page for weekly money checkins

Yearly, quarterly and monthly money goals

A list of things I want to save for eventually

A page to celebrate money wins

A page to keep track of my bill due dates each month.

Notes from the financial books I’m reading

A net worth tracker by month

Finally, a holiday money tracker since I’m starting to make Christmas and Yule gifts this month. 

If you want me to do a full post about how and why I’m using a money bullet journal, let me know in the comments.

So that’s it for my notebooks. Now, it’s your turn. What notebooks and planners do you use? Are you partial to a pre-purchased planner, or a bullet journal fanatic? Let us know in the comments. 

Don’t forget, Season two of AA premiers next Tuesday the 15th with the first two episodes. And you can binge the whole first season now on Haunted MTL. 

And you can check out my Ko-fi shop for writing planners and exclusive short stories. 

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When Morning Pages feel useless

You’ve heard, I’m sure, of morning pages. It’s a habit started, as far as I can tell, from a book called The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I don’t know anything about this person or this book. But I do know that morning pages, the act of writing three freewriting pages right when you get up is a good habit to have. And it’s one that I’ve been working hard to develop. 

This isn’t to say it’s always easy. I’ve had a hell of a time getting this habit in place. See, I have this problem where if I don’t see a direct, tangible benefit to something, I don’t do it. So these three pages in the morning were a struggle for me because they didn’t give me a clear reward. If I write three pages of blog posts, I can then share them with you all. If I write three pages in a novel or short story, then I’m three pages closer to a finished document.

Hell, if I spend the same amount of time on dishes, I would then have clean dishes. 

Now, some of you might say that writing is its own reward. As a professional writer, I should just take the time to write for writing’s sake.

Okay, but that doesn’t help motivate me. It just makes me feel like I’m somehow failing as an artist. It also kind of ignores the fact that I’ve produced nine novels, two seasons of a horror/sci-fi podcast and nine years of writing advice content. Say what you will about me, but clearly, I enjoy writing. 

And I wouldn’t still be doing Morning Pages if they weren’t giving me something. I’ve written some lovely prose poetry during those times. I come across good blog post ideas or story breakthroughs. There are lots of mornings when I walk away from those pages with something good I can then share with the world.

And most mornings, that doesn’t happen at all. But there are still real, tangible reasons to come to the page every morning for Morning Pages. Even if all you write about is how bored you are or how pissed off you are at your manager at work. Here are my reasons. 

It still builds the habit

Yesterday all I wrote about during my morning pages was a weird dream I had. The day before I just bitched about money worries. But I still came to the page this morning. I still didn’t write anything clever or sharable. 

Seems like I could skip a day. But honestly, that’s a terrible idea. Because even if you’re not doing much of anything, you’re still building that habit. 

Every morning that you come to the page, you are training yourself to come there again. We’ve all heard that it takes 21 days to form a habit. I don’t know if it’s true or not. But I do know that every day you create that habit, you make it stronger. So show up to keep the habit going, because it’s going to make it easier as you go along. 

It gives you room to write garbage

You can use the Morning Pages to get your bad writing out. We all know there’s just a certain amount of bad writing we all need to do. If we can let these Morning Pages be that bad writing, then it’s out of your system. 

I’m lying, of course. You don’t have to write badly to get better. It’s just very possible that you’re going to write badly. And if you can let yourself do that, then you’ll eventually start writing well.

It gives you a space to do some shadow work

Shadow work is kind of a witchy thing, but don’t let it scare you. It’s just spicy therapy. Shadow work is facing the parts of yourself that you don’t like, and working through them. 

Most of the time, I do shadow work on purpose. I’ll get a piece of paper, light a candle and draw a circle for protection. This can also be seen as giving myself specific cues to let my brain know that now is when we are going to safely unpack big emotions. When I’m done writing about these things, I like to burn the paper to release the energy. If you like, this is a way to symbolically tell myself that now we are done exploring these emotions for now and I don’t have to carry them with me for the rest of my day. 

Sometimes, though, I wake up with something digging at me. Money worries, bad dream hangovers, fights. Or you know, just the fact that people are starving and dying of preventable illnesses and the whole world is literally on fire. 

Some mornings start bad, is what I’m saying.

When that happens, Morning Pages give me the chance to get all that anger or sadness out in sort of an unplanned shadow session. Once that pain and anger are out, the day becomes easier. Or at least, possible. The day becomes possible.

Your writing might surprise you

Finally, it’s important to keep in mind that you do not know what’s going to come out of your morning pages until you sit down and write them. Maybe this will be a boring morning when you write about the fly on the windowsill or how much you don’t want to go to work or how you’re worried that the washing machine is making that weird sound again. 

But maybe this morning you write a cool poem. Or you get an idea for a short story or blog post. Maybe you’ll figure out the solution to something that’s been bothering you about your WIP.

If you’re doing morning pages right, you’re not going to know what’s coming until it comes.

So please, if you’re not doing Morning Pages, consider them. And if you are but it feels pointless, keep going. I promise you, it’s not pointless. No writing is ever wasted. 

Paper Beats World is a labor of love. If you love what you see here, please consider checking out our Ko-fi shop.

And check out AA, season two. Coming August 15th on Haunted MTL. (Season one is available now.)

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Storytelling with Tarot, Pt 4 The Tower to The World

We’ve come now to the last part of our tarot storytelling journey. And our Fool has been through a lot. And it’s going to get worse before it gets better, I’m afraid. But we’ll get through it together, don’t worry. 

(In case you missed them, here are links to parts one, two and three.)

The Tower

Let me start by saying that this is honestly my least favorite card in the whole tarot deck. And I don’t know how this happened, but the tower card in my deck has a stain at the bottom. Which just makes perfect sense.

The Tower represents the moment when everything goes wrong for our heroes. When everything comes tumbling down. It is the lowest point. 

This is when Scar is in charge of Pride Rock. This is when Obi-Wan Kenobi is killed. It is a dark night of the soul for your Fool. 

The Star

After every dark night of the soul, there’s a moment of hope. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. 

That’s the Star card. It’s not the happy ending, not yet. Not by a long shot. But it’s a sign that our story might have a happy ending after all. 

My favorite example of this is in an episode of Avatar the Last Airbender. Aang is furious that a forest has been destroyed. To cheer him up, Katara throws an acorn at him. She explains that the acorns will grow eventually into trees. The trees will grow back, and the animals will come home.

This is the Star card. It’s not the moment when the forest is renewed. It’s the acorn that will someday be a tree. 

The Moon 

The Moon is one of the more confusing cards, in my opinion. We see a dog and a wolf howling at the moon, while a lobster comes out of the water. 

Why the hell is there a lobster? Because lobsters represent an emotional knowing of things.

Let’s get back to the dog and the wolf, though. They’re freaking out because they know something is coming.

They don’t know how they know. They don’t know what’s coming. But they know something is coming.

This is the moment when our Fool just knows that something is coming for them. Call it a premonition. Call it an educated guess. Call it foreshadowing because of course you as the author know what’s coming for them already. But whatever it is, your Fool can feel it like a wolf feels an earthquake before it comes. 

The Sun

Now we come to the best part of the story. The part where our Fool wins the day. The sun has risen, and the journey is almost at its end. 

This is the moment when our Fool has defeated their foe or reached their destination. It’s Frodo and Sam destroying the One Ring. It’s Aang defeating the Fire Lord. It’s The World Turned Upside Down in Hamilton.

We won. 

This could also be called the climax of your story. But remember, the climax and the ending aren’t the same thing. We’re almost there, though.

Judgement

After the battle is over, there are consequences. Even for our most honest and well-meaning fool. All actions have consequences. 

Okay, that sounds terrible. And sometimes it is.

This is the moment when Mulan has to face the Emperor. It’s when you have to bury those lost in battle. It’s when the Blues Brothers have to go back to jail. 

But it’s not all bad. At least, it had better not be all bad or that would be a shitty ending to your story. This is the moment when your Fool is praised for saving whoever it is they saved. It’s when they get all the good things that are coming to them.

I like to think of a scene in American Gods. An elderly woman passes away, and the Egyptian God Anubis comes for her. He weighs her heart against the weight of a feather and judges her. After letting her sweat for a minute, he judges her well and takes her to a beautiful afterlife.

I’m not saying your Fool has to die. But their story is at its end, and it’s time for them to be judged. 

The World

Even if you did decide to kill your Fool, the world keeps spinning. And you probably have characters that still exist in your world. So, what is their life going to look like now? 

Where do we go from here? How has the journey changed the world, the people, the community? 

You don’t need to go on for pages and pages, of course. But the events in your story had an impact. We should see a little bit of what that impact is. 

To end this on a happy note, I’ll compare this to the very end of The Lion King. Simba and Nala watch proudly as Rafiki holds up their newborn child for the whole kingdom to see. We know nothing about the baby, or what kind of life they’re going to lead. But we know that the world is going to keep spinning. And there are more adventures to come. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tarot storytelling adventure. Please let me know in the comments if you have a favorite card, or if you’ll be trying this method of outlining for yourself.

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Storytelling with Tarot, Pt 3

We’re back with part three of storytelling with tarot cards. So far we’ve set the scene with our main character, our Fool. We’ve met other characters. Their lover, their Emperor, their Hermit. They’ve found their strength and their chariot. 

Our Fool is going to need those things because today we’re getting into some of the heavier cards. 

(By the way, if you missed part one or two, you can find them here. You can also find my long-winded disclaimer that this series is meant to teach storytelling, not tarot. I am not qualified to teach tarot.)

Justice

The Justice card always reminds me of Vulcans. If I were to make a Star Trek tarot deck, I’d put Tuvok on the Justice card. 

(Yes, I know there are Star Trek decks. No, I don’t know if Tuvok is included.) 

Justice is about getting what we deserve, based purely on facts with no emotional involvement. 

This is a great time in our Fool’s story if they’ve dotted all their I’s and crossed all their T’s. But what kind of story would that be? It’s far more likely that our Fool has, well, acted the fool in some way or another. Some way that is going to come back and bite them on their ass.

The best comparison I can think of this is the Beast in Beauty and the Beast. He was cruel to a helpless woman, and for that, all of his household was punished. He fucked around and everybody found out.

There was no emotion here. There was no compassion for Mrs. Potts, Lumiere, Cogsworth, or even little Chip. The witch didn’t consider those emotional considerations. She simply handed out Justice.

Where in your story will your Fool find Justice smacking them in the face? 

The Hanged Man

Through tarot, we find so many biblical symbols. The Hanged Man is a strong example. 

The Hanged Man stands for wisdom through suffering. Enlightenment through hardships. This is Gandalf the Grey dying and coming back as Gandalf the White. It’s Aslan dying on the Stone Table and coming back stronger. It’s Oden hanging from the Tree of Life. And, if you’re into Jesus like me, it’s His sacrifice on the cross and coming back as more than a man. 

American Gods by Neil Gaiman did this the best, I think. When Shadow spends all night tied to a tree and dies, only to come back stronger. Only to come back as a demigod himself. 

This is likely a moment later in your story. When your Fool has to go through something terribly hard to gain the strength to become the hero. 

Death

I learned most of what I know about tarot from a book called Kitchen Table Tarot by Melissa Cynova. As Death is so often a misunderstood card, I would like to quote Cynova regarding it. 

“Death means change. Death means change. Death means change. Death means change. Death means change.”

The Death card means that change is coming whether we want it to or not. It’s the death of a friendship, a job, a circumstance. Maybe it’s a change for the good, maybe for the worse. Either way, there’s no stopping this change. 

Sometimes, in a story, it can mean death. Like when Dumbledore dies in Harry Potter. This changes the entire world that Harry lives in.

What happens in your Fool’s story that changes their whole lives?

Temperance

I love the Temperance card. It’s about peaceful balance. Not tragic, unfeeling balance like Thanos. But a simple, karmic balance. It’s getting out of the world what you put in. 

This is a moment in your Fool’s journey when something they’ve done is coming back to them. Usually something good. Maybe they helped someone out earlier in the story, and they show up with something needed now. Maybe they picked up some innocuous bottle earlier in the story, and it turns out to be Fai repellent when we’re being attacked by the Fai. 

I’d consider this a bit of luck, one way or another. It’s like in Stranger Things when Dustin falls in love with a girl who just happens to have the correct mathematical equation needed. 

The Devil

Alright, I know this is the card that gets people in a bit of a tizzy. But the Devil card is honestly misunderstood. 

It does not, in any way, mean anything about worshiping the Devil. 

The Devil card is temptation. It’s us humans doing ourselves in with our favored vices. And your Fool for sure has vices.

Maybe your Fool has a drinking problem. Or an anger problem. Maybe they’re the kind of dumbass who can’t stop telling on themselves. Maybe they can’t control their spending or their gambling. 

My favorite example of this comes from Hamilton. That’s right, you knew I had to reference that at some point. When Hamilton is stressed, he defaults to his vice. His vice happens to be Miss Maria Reynolds. 

We all self-sabotage. It makes sense that your Fool will do so too. 

That’s it for this time. I hope you’re having as much fun with this series as I am.

We’ve just got one more post to go. Let me know if there’s a care you think I got wrong or if you’ve got an alternate interpretation in the comments. And I’ll see you next week. 

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Storytelling with Tarot Pt 2, The Lovers to Wheel of Fortune

If you missed last week’s episode, please check it out here. I went through a lengthy disclaimer that I don’t think anyone wants me to repeat.

The short version is this. Tarot cards tell a story. It’s the Heroe’s Journey told in playing cards, with The Fool as our hero. Being both a witch and writer, I like to use the Major Arcana cards of the tarot to outline my story. This is not a lesson on how to read tarot, but a lesson on how to use tarot as a tool to write a detailed outline in a fun way. 

One thing I don’t think I mentioned last week is this. This is not a list of plot points that we’re going to hit in order. This is a way to hit some important plot points, as well as discover important characters and relationships. Some stories will have all of these things, and some won’t. This is just a fun way to get you thinking about the details of your story. 

We’re talking about some of my favorite cards today, so let’s get started. 

The Lovers

Ah, the love interest. The character that makes your Fool’s heart skip a beat. The one who seems to light up the room when they come in.

The one that isn’t necessarily needed, in my opinion.

Look, I got five books into Station 86 before Sennett found a partner. 

But love can be a wonderful addition to a story, even if it’s added later. Love stories like Jack and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, or Chuck and Sara from Chuck. These sorts of warm, lovely relationships can be a breeding ground for plot bunnies. 

The Chariot

This is one of my favorite cards to pull because it’s so empowering. It’s all about having control of a situation.

In your Fool’s journey, this is when they realize that maybe they do have this under control. This is facing a challenge that is well suited to our Fool’s strengths. Like Klause Baudelaire in a library, this is the moment when your character has everything under control. 

Strength

This card is all about grace and success under pressure. It’s handling a battle, struggle, or uncomfortable family gathering with ease. Especially when this was something that would have once felled the Fool. 

This should be something difficult. Like when Mulan climbs the pole to fetch the arrow. She does so using her strength and intelligence, both of which she’s earned. This is the moment, maybe after our Fool has failed and become more determined to meet their goal, that we start to think they might really win this thing. 

Or at least not die. 

The Hermit

There are times when we all need to do something alone. Or at least, take some time alone to sort ourselves out. That’s the moment the hermit card represents. It’s a solitary time to grow. To be alone, but maybe not lonely. This is the time to grow, to learn. To like our own company. 

Maybe your character was cast out of their home or friendship circle. Maybe everyone they love was taken from them or walked away.

The best example I can think of this is going to show my age. But it’s the song Close Every Door from Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat. Joseph is tossed in jail, away from his doting parents and jealous brothers. And he takes that time to figure himself out. He comes out a better person than when he went in. 

Wheel of Fortune

Plot twist! 

Maybe our Fool is doing well. Then it’s time for them to face something way too powerful for them. Maybe our Fool’s been a sad sack so far, and they’re in desperate need of a win. Wherever we are now, it’s time for the tides to turn.

How many examples can I possibly reference here? Think of Cordelia in Angel, after her family loses all their money. Whatever moment your character’s world flips upside down, that’s the Wheel of Fortune. 

Another way to think about this is karma. What character in your story needs to get what’s coming to them? Either good or bad. There’s a great line from the first episode of Firefly that I always think about when I see this card.

Mal, the main character, looks at Badger, the underworld mob boss who just betrayed him. “The wheel never stops turning,” he says. Badger responds, “That only matters to the people on the rim.” 

We are all on the rim, Badger. And sometimes when that wheel turns, our characters are going to get chucked off. 

That’s it for this time. I’ll be back next week with the next five tarot cards. And I want to hear what you think. Have you tried using any of these tarot cards as outlining prompts so far? Let us know in the comments.

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Storytelling with the Tarot Pt 1, The Fool to The Hierophant

If you know anything about tarot, then you already know it tells a story. It’s the tale of the Fool, traveling through a series of challenges and misadventures. As a writer and a witch, I love this. I love that we can find the Hero’s Journey in this spiritual tool. 

Using tarot to help you tell a story can be a fun exercise and a great way to fight writer’s block. So explain how each card of the major arcana can represent a plot point found in most stories. Of course, the major arcana is 22 cards long, and I’m shooting for this post to be under a thousand words. So this is probably going to be a mini-series. 

If you don’t know anything about tarot, you might pick up some info along the way. I am not in any way a tarot expert, though, just an enthusiast. And this isn’t a description of the card’s interpretation. Only an interpretation of how the card might apply to a story. 

As a final note, I’ll be referencing the Tarot of The Divine deck, by Yoshi Yoshitani. It’s a deck inspired by fairy tales and lore from different countries. It felt the most appropriate for this sort of thing. 

The Fool

The Fool represents our hero at the start of their journey. They are young, innocent, and dreaming of a better life. This is Ariel looking out at the castles of the people on land. It’s the heroes of countless fantasy stories, living in their sleepy villages and looking for adventure. I can almost hear Belle singing about wanting adventure in the great wide somewhere. 

The Magician

The Magician card is the part of the story when we learn something amazing about our main character. The thing that sets them apart from other people. 

This is Hagrid showing up to tell Harry he’s a wizard. It’s Luke finding out he’s a Jedi. It’s Luna coming to tell Usagi she’s Sailor Moon. It is, in short, the moment when our Fool finds out there’s something terrific about them. 

The High Priestess 

Now is when we start calling in the support team. 

The High Priestess is the learned elder. Think of Kit Snicket in Series of Unfortunate Events or Haymitch in Hunger Games. This is the character that’s in a perfect position to help our Fool because they’ve already walked to The World and back.

The Empress

Still rounding out the characters, the Empress is a character who acts maternally towards our Fool. It might be their mother, or legal guardian like Aunt May. But it’s someone who wants to look after and protect our Fool.

A thought on the Empress. I would also consider Mother Gothel to be an Empress personality in the life of Rapunzel in Tangled. She certainly has an interest in protecting Rapunzel, even if it’s for selfish reasons. 

I’m just saying, this doesn’t have to be a good character.

The Empress also doesn’t have to have anything to do with our next character. 

The Emperor 

Maybe this is a father figure. Maybe it’s a king or a leader. It doesn’t have to be a man. One great example is Melinda May from Agents of S.H.I.L.D. This is generally a ‘my way or the highway’ kind of character. Which is often why our Fool is butting heads with them. Again, this can be a good or a bad character. A father’s protection can be a blessing. A father’s watchful and judgemental eye can be a curse.

The Hierophant

The Hierophant has a lot of different meanings. It can mean a religious leader or a message from God/Gods. I consider this the inciting incident card. Or the call to action card. Someone or something has called to our Fool. Maybe their hometown was destroyed. Maybe their dog was killed. Maybe they’re destined to kill a dark wizard and someone’s just come and told them like an idiot.

Whatever it is, the journey is serious now. There are implications of real-world consequences for more than just our Fool. 

We’ve gone through the first six cards of the tarot and gotten to the real start of our story, so I think we’ll leave off here for now. But I’d love to hear what you think. Am I interpreting a card wrong? Let us know in the comments. 

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Alternative Memory Keeping

Paper Beats World is a labor of love. If you’d like to support us, you can do so on Ko-fi.

My birthday was this past Wednesday. Like most people, I spent a little time around the day, when I wasn’t enjoying extra coffee and the best brownie ever, reflecting on the past year of my life. And it’s been an interesting one. Some ups and downs, both personally and professionally. I’ve grown some and learned a lot. There have been better years of my life, for sure. But by God, there have been far worse. 

I enjoy having the ability to look back on the past year. Memory keeping isn’t a huge part of my life, but it’s still important. 

Here’s the thing, though. I don’t keep a journal. Frankly, on top of all the other writing I do in a day, it’s too much. And while I take pictures, I don’t often get them printed. I don’t scrapbook, though I do like it in theory. 

Record keeping is something that takes time. And time is something most of us just don’t have a lot of. It’s often something we do for holidays, birthdays, and vacations, but not so much on an everyday basis. I mean, who’s got that kind of time, right?

But the regular days hold so much joy. It’s on average Tuesdays when we find a new book series that will become our whole personality for the next three months. It’s a common Thursday when the dog finds the bag of flour and makes himself the cutest ghost ever. The creative breakthrough, the new coffee shop, the cozy rainy afternoons, the really good talk with your partner. These are things that I want to remember just as much as what we did for my birthday. 

So today, I want to share with you four things I do to collect memories daily. They aren’t large things, they don’t take up a lot of time. But they create a net that traps the everyday memories that I treasure looking back on.

Bullet journaling

Most of you know that I keep a bullet journal. Mostly this is to keep myself organized and my plants alive. But it also catches memories. I have a page every month dedicated to recording the best memories. Here I’ll track big events, of course, but also little things. When I discovered the musical Six. When the power went out in our little city. 

Even my everyday to-do list in my bullet journal tracks some memories. Looking back I can see exactly how long I struggled with a short story. When I went through a big cleaning phase and cleared out a ton of house tasks. When I had to run every errand known to man in a single day. These are fun things to look back in, even if they weren’t fun at the time. 

Notes on a perpetual calendar

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen my Peanuts perpetual desk calendar. Because it’s one that I can use year after year, I decided to use it as a mini memory keeper.

On November 15th of 2022, I started writing one sentence about my day on the calendar page. This might be something like, we finished Reboot today. Or, I went to visit my grandma today. 

As the days and years go by, I’ll be building on these little notes. So this becomes more and more precious as time goes by. 

Instagram

I post something on Instagram most days. Often it’s pictures of things that made me smile that day. A new plant, a nice sunset, or the cute way Harper curled up next to my book.

Yes, I also post info about my books and blog posts. But even that’s kind of a fun look back. I spent some time on my birthday just looking back at what I’ve posted in the last year. Between this year’s picture of my birthday coffee and last year’s. And I was awash with memories. What I was reading. What I was passionate about. When my one air plant sprouted flowers without warning. A hundred little mini-adventures, snapping silly pictures of dogwood blossoms while running errands. 

Now look, I don’t suggest sharing your whole life on social media. And I caution you to remember that Instagram in particular is a highlight reel. But if you do use social media, consider using it in such a way that you’re reminded of good moments when you look back over your account. 

Gratitude logs

Finally, this is a practice I’ve used for almost a decade. Every morning I write at least three things I’m thankful for from the day before in my planner. 

First off, this is just a good way to start the day. Even if the day before was a hard one, I can at least think of three things I was thankful for. I made a really good cup of coffee. I slept well. I took a shower with a shower bomb and it was nice.

This also has a built-in memory-keeping factor. I keep all of my old planners, of course. And I can look back to any day and be reminded of at least three good things that happened. 

And on hard days, I can look back on other hard times. I can see that even at my lowest, I still had things to be thankful for. Hard not to feel good about that. 

What about you? What’s your favorite memory-keeping habit? Let us know in the comments. 

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What writers can learn from The Far Side

Welcome to the final in our collection of writing lessons from cartoonists. At least for now. I might well realize suddenly that Baby Blues taught me a lot and do another in this series. Or, perhaps you out there will have a suggestion I never even thought of.

But for today, we’re ending on a high note with The Far Side.

Written by Gary Larson, The Far Side comic strip ran from 1980 to 1995. Even though the strip technically ended, The Far Side still has fans all over the world. A wide variety of fans, too. Kids love it, of course. But scientists love it. Almost any scientific discipline has a Far Side comic they can claim as their own.

I personally love Far Side. Like Calvin and Hobbs, it’s another strip I was introduced to from my grandmother’s bookshelf. Here are the lessons I’ve learned from it. 

Your style doesn’t have to be everyone else’s.

When you look at a Far Side strip, you’ll notice that not a single character is cute. Or aesthetically appealing. Everyone is fat, everyone has hairs sticking out of weird places. Even if it’s someone who shouldn’t have hair, like a fish. Everyone in the Far Side world is, well, kind of ugly. And it’s kind of the only strip that is ugly the whole way through. Most strips will at least have a cute cat, a pretty girl, or a guy with a rugged chin.

But that’s just not Gary Larson’s style. In the Far Side world, that’s what things look like. And it works out pretty great for him. 

For starters, it’s recognizable. You see a Far Side strip from across the room, you know what it is. Among a flood of comics that can sometimes look very much the same, you can point Far Side out.

More importantly, though, it’s Gary Larson’s style of writing. He didn’t try to mimic anyone else. He didn’t compare his dogs to Snoopy and lament that they didn’t look as good. He just drew in his style. And that’s great. 

Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t try to improve your art and get better. But maybe the best way to do that isn’t by trying to write like someone else. Maybe it’s by finding your style or voice and making it as good as it can be.

Write above people’s heads and they’ll reach for it

I bet you’ve read a Far Side strip that you didn’t get. I know I have. Hell, there’s even a joke about that in an episode of The Simpsons. The reason for this is simple. Larson frequently talks about scientific theories and facts that I don’t know or understand.

Here’s the cool thing, though. I’ve been reading Far Side since I was a little kid. Growing up, I’d go back to the collections on my grandmother’s bookshelves over and over again. And every time I read them, I got more of the jokes. I am not the only person who’s described this very thing.

And isn’t that cool? Isn’t it a great feeling to look at something and realize you understand it now? It’s a mental version of a mark on the wall to see how much you’ve grown since your last birthday. 

Don’t try to dumb yourself down. Talk about the topics that you want to talk about. If it’s not for some people, that’s fine. The people that it’s for will find it. 

Never stop having fun

Every strip of Far Side has one thing in common. They feel like the creator laughed when he came up with them. Larson is a fan of his own work.

And that’s awesome! You’ve got to be a fan of your work. You’ve got to have fun when you’re writing, at least when you’re coming up with an idea. (Not all the writing is going to be fun. I say this as someone about to start the fourth draft of her latest book. Not all the writing is fun.)

But you should be having fun with your art. It should be feeding your soul. Otherwise, why do it at all? Why not go get a real job? There’s lots more money to be made elsewhere. 

Being a likable person goes a long way

I have heard a lot of things about Garly Larson. He’s met some amazing people, like Jane Goodall and Robin Williams. What I’ve never heard from anyone is an unkind word about the man. Because Gary Larson is a likable guy. He’s not a pushover, as several legal issues will attest to. But he’s a good guy. 

Being a decent person, and treating other people well will get you places in this world, even when it doesn’t always feel like it will. Especially in the writing field, acting like a professional and a decent human being is a good idea. It might not open doors for you, but it will sure as hell not shut them like being an unprofessional dick will. 

Notice here that I’m not saying to be a pushover. I’m also not saying to not call out people who are being abusive or toxic. But there are ways to do that in a classy manner and ways to do that that will make people not want to work with you.

So be like Gary Larson. Stand up for yourself, but be professional about it. And be kind to people. It does more for you than you think.

I would love to know what your favorite Gary Larson comic strip is. Let us know in the comments. 

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What writers can learn from Garfield

Yes, that’s right. We’ve talked about Calvin and Hobbs. We’ve talked about Peanuts. We’ve talked about Cathy. Now, I’m back from Nebula Con, and I’m fighting allergies for every breath that goes in or out of my body. So I’m pissy and ready to talk about Garfield. 

 A cautionary tale for writers if there ever was one. 

Unlike the other comic strips in this series, Garfield is a lesson in what not to do. As in, what not to do with a franchise that is smart, edgy, and popular.

Launching in 1976, then titled Jon (The name didn’t change to Garfield until the strip was syndicated in 1978) the Garfield comic strip is probably as well known as Mickey Mouse.

In the beginning, it was way darker than most people realize. Jon once had a roommate named Lyman. He was Odie’s original person, and he vanished without a trace. He’ll make the occasional appearance, but for the most part, he’s not around. When questioned, Jim Davis would for the longest time say that no one should look in Jon’s basement. 

Man, I loved that. I also loved the series of comics that seemed to suggest that Garfield was left alone at home, without food or family, to starve to death. There’s a fan theory that nothing after that strip is real, it’s just a fever dream of Garfield’s to comfort him as his life ends, lonely and starving. 

Lots of people have dark fan theories about Garfield. And they’re fun. At least to a twisted person like me. 

The strip itself used to be fun. You had Jon, a successful cartoonist who isn’t successful at anything else. He strikes out constantly with Dr. Liz. He has no friends, except Lyman. His pets don’t respect him, and his neighbors hate him.

That’s funny. 

Then, there’s Garfield. He’s smart-mouthed, violent, and self-indulgent. He eats too much and doesn’t work out enough. He hates Mondays (even though he doesn’t work) and loves lasagna, his bear Pookie and his grandma. (Jon’s Grandma, who is exactly who I want to grow up to be.)

Add Odie into the mix as the idiot with all the luck, and it’s a cute mix. 

Then, things got stagnant. The stories came to a standstill. Then, like everything else that stops moving, it started to rot. 

Now, to my dismay, Garfield is a joke. It’s a strip that tells the same five jokes over and over. It’s a cartoon that has the laziest artwork I’ve ever seen. It’s a cringe-inducing movie. It is, in short, a disappointment.

So today, let’s discuss how we can learn from this. How can we avoid being Garfield? 

Don’t stop growing

Some of you reading this are going to be stars. It’s just a numbers game. Someone reading this is going to make it big. You’re going to be a household name, a Stephen King or a Toni Morrison. 

Many of you reading this will achieve at least some success so long as you keep writing and keep submitting. Again, it’s just a numbers game. To succeed in writing you need talent, persistence, and luck. And talent means the least of those three.

When you succeed, do not stop growing. Do not stop learning and becoming a better writer. 

That’s what, I think, happened to Jim Davis. He had success. Like, a lot of it. His characters are well-known and loved all over the planet. 

So he stopped getting better. 

Do you know who hasn’t stopped getting better? Stephen King. I know, me praising the King? Big surprise. But it’s true. His books keep on getting better. The Outsider was better than anything he’d written to that point. Then he wrote If It Bleeds, and that was even better still.

I would like to think that the same can be said of my work. I think Quiet Apocalypse is the best book I’ve ever written. I think the book I’m working on right now is even better. (It damn well better be. It’s the last Station 86 book. It had better blow your minds.) 

That’s how art should be. Every story should build on the talent and strength of the last one. The dialog can always get better. The story can be more creative. The characters can feel more real. You are probably already a pretty good writer, my friend. But don’t ever stop getting better.

Don’t give up your edge

Garfield is at its best when it’s a little edgy. When it’s a little dark. When Garfield is trying to send Nermal to Abu Dhabi without air holes in the box. When he’s smoking a pipe. When he’s shredding the neighbor’s dog within an inch of his life.

Garfield is at his best when he’s at his worst. When he is the hedonistic, unmotivated rage ball that we all kind of want to be at times. And because he is that so much of the time, it’s all the more endearing when he is kind. When he lets slip how much he cares about Odie. When he’s cuddly with Pooky or sensitive with Arlene. He is in that way a mini version of an anti-hero. We love Loki and Magnito for the same basic reasons. They do horrible things we would never think to do but might secretly want to. At the same time, they have kindness in them that only a precious few ever see.

That doesn’t work when the balance gets tipped. When the bad sides of a character are blunted. 

If you want to write a compelling anti-hero, let them be sharp. Let them do terrible things for their warped reasons. Let them do the things that you would never do, but secretly want to. Like, I would never stab a guy at a bar for touching me without my consent. But it feels so good when a character does it. I would never eat a whole lasagna, kick someone I don’t like over a fence, or cause an uprising in a vet’s waiting room. But I kind of want to.

And Garfield stopped doing those things. Maybe it’s because he was expected to be a good example for children. Or maybe it’s just because Jim Davis got soft. Either way, the strip doesn’t really without it. 

Don’t say yes to everyone who wants to play in your sandbox

Finally let’s talk about Garfield, the movie. Released in 2004 and almost universally despised, this could have been good. It wasn’t, but it could have been. 

If it wasn’t so cheap.

If it wasn’t so lazy.

If the characters didn’t suck and have little to nothing to do with the originals.

Here’s the thing. The Garfield movie was not done by people who loved the source material. It was written by people who wanted to make some quick money off a popular name. And it worked, sadly. 

This wouldn’t have happened if Jim Davis had been protective over his intellectual property. And it shouldn’t have happened. 

I’m all for shared worlds. Star Wars has been such an astounding success because so many diverse authors have been permitted to write in it. But not everyone who wants to write with you wants to do so with good intentions. Some people do not care about your characters in the same way you do. Some don’t care at all, except for what they can get out of it.

Remember, your story belongs to you. Your characters belong to you until you agree to let someone else play with them.

You always have the right to say no.

So that’s it. I hope you’ve been enjoying this series. If there’s a cartoonist I’ve missed, please let me know in the comments. 

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What writers can learn from Cathy

Paper Beats World is a labor of love. If you love what we do here, please consider supporting us on Ko-fi. 

The comic strip Cathy has gotten a lot of shit over the years. It’s seen as kind of sexist. Written by Cathy Guisewite and running from 1976 to 2010, it’s a strip that follows a ‘modern’ woman struggling to balance her career and social life. And yes, there are some arguments to be made there. Cathy is obsessed with shoes, chocolate, makeup, and home decor. She is annoyed by her long-term partner’s obsession with sports. She lavishes attention on her dog, Electra.

So, why am I, a modern feminist, talking about Cathy? 

Well, for one thing, Cathy was a modern feminist in her time. By that I mean both the character and the creator. For another thing, I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with liking shoes, chocolate, and putting effort into your appearance. I like all of those things. Lots of men also like those things. I also like the Penguins, the Steelers, Star Trek, dragons, and things that drip blood in the night. And for a third thing, the comic strip never said that all women like those things. Cathy likes those things. Cathy has an unhealthy relationship with food. Cathy spends too much on clothes and shoes. Cathy has a difficult relationship with her mother. And again, I’m talking about the creator and the character here. 

So yes, we’re going to talk about what writers can learn from the comic strip Cathy. Rather than disregard it as a ‘fluffy’ or ‘girly’ comic. I want to do this because women’s interests are often treated as silly and frivolous as a way to condemn female-leaning people as also being those things and I’m sick of that. I also want to do this because the strip is, ack, good. And yes, there’s plenty that writers can learn from Cathy.

Write realistic romances

Cathy has a long-term partner in the strip named Irving. They dated, broke up, and got back together more times than Ross and Rachel.

Unlike Ross and Rachel, they had a realistic relationship. Cathy was kind of a mess, and so was Irving. He was never a knight in shining armor. Never drop-dead gorgeous. They didn’t have a meet-cute. They had a million reasons for everything not to work out.

They did work out because they made it work. Because they put in the work with each other. They put in the work on themselves. Sometimes they were both childish, selfish, and stupid. They grew up together.

Just in case you’ve never been in a real relationship, that’s how they look. Real relationships are built on mutual respect and care. Cathy tries her damndest to get into golf so they have something to do together. Irving goes shopping with her. The two of them struggle with each other’s families. They bond with each other’s dogs. They sit down and talk about money, even though it ends in a fight. They go from two rabidly independent, career-oriented individuals to being a family. That’s not something you’ll find in a Hallmark movie. But it’s honest.

Write realistic families and friends

Cathy has a difficult relationship with her mom. An even worse one with her mother-in-law. She is her daddy’s girl. She has friends who push all her buttons, but she still loves like sisters. She has a boss who’s kind of an idiot, but a well-meaning one. She has relationships that make sense.

One thing in particular that I like is that the other characters make sense in their little world. They are not only side characters in Cathy’s life. They are the main characters in their mind. Which is something I am still learning the trick of myself.

As a side note here, Cathy doesn’t have a relatable life, aside from her relationships. I will point out here that Cathy is a Boomer. She was a young, independent career woman in a time when a single person working a full-time job could buy a house and still have money for things like food, expensive shoes, and really good chocolate. Yes, she is incredibly entitled. I think it’s important that we accept this, and keep it in mind as we keep talking.

Start where you are, and get better. But start!

Looking back at the start of Cathy, way back in 1976, you might be a bit surprised. The artwork is not great. It’s pretty damn bad. If by some chance this blog post ends up in front of the eyes of Cathy Guisewite, I’m sorry. But girl, you know it’s true. The artwork and storytelling in Cathy were kind of shitty.

But by God, it was there. It was published and went out into the world. And it got better. Over the years, the comic strip got so much better.

Some people might say Guisewite should have worked at her art harder before she published. It might have killed her career to put out a subpar product.

Let me be as clear about this as I can be. Thinking like this will lead your creative career into a never-ending holding pattern. Because you will never, ever think your work is good enough. 

We learn best by doing. I certainly did, and so did Cathy. When I started this blog I didn’t have any idea how to add graphics. I’d never published a book hadn’t published anything except for some poems in high school. I started this blog to provide some structure and a reason to build a writing practice.

Lines improved. Color and detail improved. Stories, characters, descriptions. All of these things got better as Cathy grew as a creator. The same can be said of me. 

And the same can be said of you if you can give yourself that opportunity to grow. 

Write honestly about who you are, and people will find that relatable. 

Cathy is not relatable because all women love shoes and chocolate. Cathy is relatable because she’s written by a real person about her reality. And that is what makes her relatable. 

Of course, we’re not all writing semi-autobiographical comic strips. I write about ghosts, dragons, and spaceships. But into each one, I place a part of myself. It’s not on purpose, it happens. I write about my experiences, and in doing so breathe a part of myself into my characters. I hope that people can relate to that. And if I come off as a bit of a cliche, I guess that’s alright. I am a broke, bisexual Millennial with a side hustle, trying to fulfill a creative dream while not starving I treat my dog and cat like children. I suffer from depression and a coffee addiction. And yes, ack, I like chocolate and shoes. I am none of these things because they’re trendy or popular. I am those things because, well because I am. Cathy was all of the things that she was because she was.

Write from who you are. You’ll be amazed how many people can relate to that. 

As an aside, there will not be a post next week. I’m attending Nebula Con, and taking a long-needed staycation with my family. I’ll see you back here on May 19th.

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