18/70 Shelter

can you make on for Maurice Moss :). something golden hour, vintage, light academia, retro computer :)))

Maurice Moss Stimboard

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📺 x 📺

🧷 🌇 👓

Making a playlist because i feel like Moss has a little birdhouse in his soul. This is what I have so far

Send recommendations to my submit box! Preferably nothing pre-2007 (I like to be period accurate)

Update #2: A New Outlining Method, Dropdown Plotter

I've been having a hard time conceptualizing how to plan out a novel lately. It used to come so easy to me. Now that I'm a real adult, it feels like there isn't enough space in my brain anymore for me to have my story all in my head without writing my ideas down somewhere.

So, good outlining methods, which can be hard to come by, are crucial for my writing process.

But, a lot of traditional methods don't work for me.

In my opinion, it's extremely important to have an outlining method that doesn't overwhelm you, and which feels creatively freeing. And when do I need to be more creatively free, than when writing an IT Crowd fanfiction?

So I've come up with a new outlining method that I'd love to share with you all! I call it Dropdown Plotter.

Dropdown Plotter uses the dropdown menu feature, which can be found in both Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel, to help you better visualize (and, most importantly, easily reorganize) the major aspects of each chapter of your story.

Basically, it's a spreadsheet that includes, at minimum, 8 columns.

Chapter Title

Plotlines

Included Character(s)

Perspective Character(s)

Location(s)

Chapter Story Description

Writing Stage

Due Date

Why keep track of these things? Balance. Basically, making sure your characters, plotlines, POVs, and important locations all get adequate page time.

It's a lot easier to conceptualize these things when you have it on a color-coded spreadsheet, zoomed out really far, and can see in a big picture way. For example, you might see that the red color indicating "Legolas" is in a scene, drops off after Chapter 17. You might see that the green-coded plot about his missing shoe is only important for 5 chapters in the middle of the story, or that we're spending almost the entire story in the bathroom and never in the evil lair.

So, how do you use the Dropdown Plotter?

First, you go into the dropdown menu, and you can see all the plots you've selected. There's a handy "search feature" for those writing the next Game of Thrones. You want to click the little pencil icon in the bottom right, which is the "edit" button.

On the right-hand side of your screen, a column will pop up called "Data Validation Rules." From here, you can edit the names and colors of each item in the dropdown menu, and add or delete things as you'd like.

Make sure to click "allow multiple selections" on the bottom of the data validation rules pop-up. This will allow you to select multiple characters, multiple locations, and multiple plots when you're in the dropdown menus.

Don't forget to click "Done" at the bottom!

On top of the dropdown menus, the nice thing about working in a spreadsheet is that you can always drag and drop the rows and columns. This makes it extremely easy to change the order of scenes around, in a way that feels very impermanent and easy.

Here is what my Dropdown Plotter looked like for the first three chapters of The Grant: An IT Crowd Fanfiction.

Looks pretty, right? And pretty outlines build confidence! Not only that, but what I like most about this outlining method is that it encourages me to be less precious with my ideas.

It's way less intimidating to overhaul major aspects of your story, such as the dominant POV, the main plot, etc., when all you have to do is click a little button in the dropdown menu to change everything. When I'm editing a little blurb in a spreadsheet versus an entire step outline, it reminds me that no writing problem is insurmountable, and nothing is ever really set in stone.

Again, it builds confidence.

Unfortunately, I've only built a Dropdown Plotter in Google Sheets, but I've provided a blank version to share with you all. The nice thing about spreadsheets is that you can add and delete things as you see fit. For example, some people might want to add...

More columns indicating multiple scenes within the same chapter!

A "Story Beat" column, to mark the specific plot beats each chapter follows (as in the Hero's Journey or the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet).

An "Important Info" column, to mark any worldbuilding or character details discussed or introduced in a certain chapter.

Literally anything your little heart desires!

Happy outlining and I hope you enjoy the Dropdown Plotter!

Google Docs

Dropdown Plotter Spreadsheet

maurice moss 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9

nbcnews.com

Trans student’s arrest for violating Florida bathroom law is thought to be a first

Marcy Rheintgen, 20, faces a misdemeanor trespassing charge punishable by up to 60 days in jail and is due to appear in court in May.

This girl is an actual hero and we need to donate to her defense fund please

havent watched the IT crowd all day havent watched it since last night what am i gonna do ive been busy ill watch it tonight but i have stuff to do until 10 and i need to sleep but i wont sleep i have to watch the IT crowd

do i amaze you?

i love richmonds weird little spin in this scene . from the moment i saw this i knew i had to draw it

Update #1: Outlining

I'm a screenwriter all of a sudden so the whole last few years I've spent outlining before I start everything. That's just kinda the standard in that field of writing.

But I'm trying to be a lot more loosey-goosey with this one. I'm doing three act structure, some rough outlines of chapters, and filling in the blanks as I go. Talking it out with other people who know the show & who don't mind spoilers for the ending has been great in getting me to whittle myself down to a logline, midpoint, and ending. But I'm restricting it to that! After I have all my chapters roughly in mind it'll be go time.

And yeah, outlining is great, but it also kind of encourages you to get in your own head about stuff. It can be really overwhelming having all these details you want and feel like you need to incorporate. Which is why it's important to remember that you're meant to be writing, after all, not just letting the wheels spin. If they spin too fast they'll fall off. Put the damn car on the road and write!

A lot of times the best details are the friends we write along the way.

Meet my IT Crowd OC! Name: Imogene Prendergast Height: 135 lbs Weight: 5’4” Eye colour: Brown Age: 26 Occupation: Field Services Engineer for Prophecy Electronics Likes: Windows XP, Doctor Who, Alien, the Hainish Cycle, Metroid Prime, 10,000 Maniacs Dislikes: Windows Vista, The Fifth Element, Grand Theft Auto, any & all sports, going outside Looking for: There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don’t.

icon credits: @spreadicons @sugar-violence faceclaim: mary elizabeth winstead

remembering this for the future

what people flagrantly misunderstand about culturally iconic ‘logicians’ like spock and sherlock holmes is that they are fuckinggggg annoying. like you canNOT write for nor adapt either of these characters properly without understanding that they are admirable in many ways, yes, but they are repeatedly and gleefully, ON PURPOSE, fucking massive nuisances to literally every sane individual around them, all the time. they love bothering people, they LOVE it, it makes them SO HAPPY, and THAT, not their brilliance, is what makes them the best. spocks a BITCH