How To Have A Good Morning - Habits Worth Starting

how to write like jk rowling

foreshadow foreshadow foreshadow

become a master of chekhov’s gun everything you mention should pay off a hundred pages later or a couple of books later! the diary they had to go back and get? it has voldemort in it! the locket they were polishing? it’s a horcrux! old irrelevant lady? actually a squib watching over you!

write buried clues! like the fact that ginny has a diary is buried under a list of things the weasleys forget and go bring back on the way the king’s cross or the fact that there’s a locket is listed among a ton of things they’re cleaning!

you can also downplay the importance of characters before the big reveal like how harry asks sirius about his brother and he brushes him off as a stupid young boy who joined the death eaters

speaking of characters, jkr says character is plot and that explains how she writes such strong characters take my favourite one for instance sirius black he’s the textbook case of ‘break your characters’ he’s in an abusive household for eleven years, then thrown into a war, and loses his best friend in the whole world, is wrongly imprisoned for twelve years and then jailed in the house of his childhood while everyone is working and YET he is unfailingly kind and doesn’t stray into the dark

and write flawed characters like the kindest, gentlest, wisest character dumbledore. he was not to be trusted with power. 

also speaking of characters, write killer motivations that aren’t always foregrounded classic example is snape’s motivation to lie to voldemort for years. is it right and good? debatable. is it powerful? yes.

next up, worldbuilding. jkr makes us forever in awe of her world and till date we’re all bemoaning the fact that we can’t go to hogwarts and YET there’s a dark side to that world it’s a distorted mirror of our own

write visual spectacles that make your readers go whoa. my favourite moment was the dragon breaking out of gringotts. it was emblematic of injustices in the wizarding world but boy did it make a good shot.

use extended metaphors

give! every! minor! character! their! own! subplot! even! if! it! doesn’t! make! it! into! your! story! standard example: dobby!

make us nostalgic. like hagrid taking harry out of privet drive in the last book just like in the first

in that vein, ring composition!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

be preoccupied with morality and mortality

take away everything your hero has. his parents. his father figure. his wand.

be unkind to your hero but let him win

give children everywhere something to hope for

finally, jkr said by writing harry potter, she came to know for sure that love is the most powerful force use writing to explore your convictions 

if you’re going to tell me what a terrible person jkr is, make your own post this is a writing blog and i worked really hard on scrutinising aspects of her writing which is objectively wonderful

how to write like jk rowing * how to write like shirley jackson

If you found this helpful, consider buying me a virtual coffee to keep me writing.

Yep. So much.

I want to travel

School and tumblr

That’s so me omg i have a book -new- that I haven’t read it even once for two years

im a simple girl.. i see book, i buy book, i let book sit on my shelf for months unread

“I just feel like heaven and hell are a place that’s inside each of us and we’re the ones who choose which one to explore. I mean, like, you know, I think you have to have both to have an understanding of why they exist. Shit wouldn’t be balanced if we didn’t have hell. I don’t think you’d be able to appreciate how amazing it feels to sit on a rooftop with all your friends as you’re watching the sunset listening to your favorite Lorde song if you didn’t want to kill yourself sometimes. You know and I think we’re all like, you know, a step away from both. I feel like both universes are so near to us. I don’t really think that heaven is all the way up at the top of whatever all of this is, and that hell is all the way down at the bottom. I think it’s all right here in front of us. I think they layer onto our realities like filters on an Instagram image. We see our lives through heaven and hell, and I think we always have a say in which one we can choose. You know because, even when your life is dog shit, heaven is just as close as it was before. You don’t really get further away from it, you just lose the ability to take notice of it, I guess. But I know how you feel, man. I feel like God is really quiet sometimes in my stupid life. But I still know that it’s all still right there in front of my face. It’s not really a matter of looking or searching, it’s a matter of seeing things for what they are. It’s all so much closer to you than you think it is. It’s all just a breath away.”

— CAMERON BEYRENT

So helpful! Thank you! 💖💖💖

Hey guys, so I’m nearing the end of my senior year, and it’s been great so far! I accomplished my academic tasks efficiently and didn’t burn myself out, and I think the main contributor to my success as a student is my organization system. This system has been refined throughout my high school years, but I think now I’ve finally found the most effective methods.

Please remember that this isn’t the only organization system you can adopt; this is just the one that works the best for me, and I hope that by sharing it with you, you’ll gain a new perspective on how to stay organized as a high school student.

The first thing I wanna talk about is my notebook system, which I briefly mentioned in my Guide to Note-Taking.

My notebook system comprises three types of notebooks: the Everything Notebook, the subject notebook, and the revision notebook.

The Everything Notebook

The first stage is in-class notes. I only bring one notebook to school every day. I call it my Everything Notebook, and this is where I write down all of the notes I take in class. This way, I don’t have to lug around six notebooks where I’m only going to use a few pages in each of them that day.

Subject Notebooks

At the end of the day, I would revise my notes and compare them to the syllabus so I know where we are in the learning process. I would then transfer my class notes from my Everything Notebook to my different subject notebooks. This is stage two. I also start to jazz up my notes because I use the notes in my subject notebooks to study for tests.

In addition to my class notes, I include material from my teachers’ notes that they might not have elaborated on, as well as points in the syllabus (I’m currently taking A2) that were only glazed over briefly, or not at all, in some cases. (Note: this does not mean they completely skip a chapter or topic; it’s more like they missed a few bullet points that should be in my notes but aren’t. An example would be if we’re learning about phenol reactions and the teacher forgot to mention the use of FeCl3 as a test for phenol.)

Revision Notebooks

Stage three comes a little later, when exam week is just around the corner. Essentially, I rewrite and improve my notes from my five different subject notebooks into a single revision notebook or binder. (Recently, I’ve opted for a revision notebook because they’re lighter and easier to carry around.)

Because my teachers don’t always teach in the order of the syllabus, the first thing I do is organize my notes according to the syllabus. I would then fill in any other missing gaps in the material that hadn’t been filled in stage two.

When compiling material for my revision notebook, I use as many sources as possible: my own notes, my teachers’ notes, youtube videos, online sites, and my favorite, the mark scheme! I add in some answers from past papers (explanations only, so no calculations) mainly to secure marks. It’s safer to memorize definitions straight from the mark scheme than from the textbook or from handouts. I also do this to ease my memorization, especially for topics that require lengthy explanations. It’s a lot easier to remember the 6 points I need to explain the principles of NMRI than to remember everything in the four-page handout my teacher gave me.

Folders and binders are essential to organizing your papers. Some people keep a single accordion folder for all their papers, but for me it’s just too heavy to carry around all the time. The same goes for subject folders that are brought to school every day.

Instead, my binder/folder system comprises my Everything Folder and my subject binders.

The Everything Folder

The folder I carry with me to school every day is this A4 folder I got from Tokyu Hands. It has 5 pockets, one for each day of the week, so all the papers I receive on Monday will go behind the first divider, and so on.

Some people also keep blank papers in their folders; I don’t because my school has its own lined paper and graphing pads that I keep under my desk that I use if a teacher asks us to do an assignment on those papers. If I do work at home, I prefer to just use a plain A4 paper or a legal pad.

Subject Binders

At the end of the week, I’ll sort my papers into my subject binders. Sometimes I’ll keep some papers in the folder if I think I’ll be needing it the next week. This usually only applies to worksheets because all my teachers’ notes are available on Google Classroom, so I can access them even if I don’t physically have them.

Each of these binders have sections inside them:

Physics: 1 for handouts, notes, and tests, 1 for Paper 4 (Theory), 1 for Paper 5 (Practical Planning). I included extra tabs to mark the different topics in the handouts section.

Chemistry: same as Physics.

Economics: 1 for Paper 3 (MCQ), 1 for Paper 4 (Case Study and Essay). A lot of my Economics material is online, though.

English: 1 for Paper 3 (Text and Discourse analysis), and 2 for Paper 4 (Language Topics, which includes 1 for Child Language Acquisition, 1 for World Englishes). Past papers, handouts, and notes all go under their respective topics.

Mathematics: I just keep everything together because I never revise math and just constantly do past papers.

This makes it easier for me to revise each subject because I can just take one binder with me instead of a messy folder with everything just shoved in there.

I keep a magazine file for each of my A-Level subjects (English and Mathematics are combined). All my textbooks, revision guides, and subject notebooks are kept here, so if I need to revise one subject, that’s the magazine file I’ll take out.

These magazine files prevent any small things (like my book of flashcards) from being shoved to the back of my bookshelf, or materials from different subjects from getting mixed up.

In my senior year, I mostly plan using this app called Edo Agenda. It syncs across all my devices for free and has all the features I need: a to do list to organize tasks, monthly and weekly calendars to organize events, a journal to organize notes and memos.

I used to bullet journal regularly, but it takes too much time during weekdays, so now I just bullet journal for the therapeutic effects it gives me, and I use an app for organizing tasks and events. Sometimes at the end of each week, I’ll transfer my tasks to my bullet journal and then decorate the page, but again, this is just for its therapy.

Organizing your school supplies is just as important as organizing your papers and notes. With a more organized backpack and pencil case, you won’t waste time looking for your things at the bottom of an abyss.

Pencil Case

I don’t find it necessary to bring so much stationery to school unless I plan on making notes at school (usually during revision week).

Backpack

Because we’re already in the revision term, I don’t really carry a lot of things in my everyday backpack, just the following:

Pencil case

Everything Notebook

Everything Folder

Revision notebook

Kindle

Phone

Wallet

Earphones

Calculator

Speaker

Drinking bottle

A pouch with things like a hairbrush, pads, and lip balm

And that’s all for now! I hope this post will help you organize your school life (if you haven’t already) or at least provide some useful insights on some ways to stay organized as a high school student.

Cute.

Well that’s adorable.

💞Back To School Glow Up💞

Alright y'all, with school season comin back, here are some prime hoe tips to get y'all ready to slay.

1. Develop a skincare regimen at least once daily: wash, exfoliate*, mask*, toner, essential oils, moisturize.

*once weekly, to avoid overshocking your skin.

2. Tea tree oil is bomb for acne and acne scars. Apply that shit.

3. Coconut oil and castor oil for brow/lash growth every night.

4. Go through your closet, and toss clothes you don’t wear. Invest in more neutral colors and fits to configure a wider variety of cute ass outfits.

5. Don’t be afraid to thrift shop; places like TJ Maxx and The Goodwill have bomb ass brands for cheap.

6. Get your books/supplies ready a week before. Prepare yourself.

7. Have all of your test dates/assignment due dates in your phone before classes start. Make sure to request off days of work the nights before major assignments and exams if you can help it.

8. Things to keep in a bag in your locker: pads/tampons, an extra pair of panties, a spare change of clothes & shoes(in case of a wardrobe malfunction), hairbrush and hairtie, nail file & clippers, makeup remover wipes, concealer, masacara, gum, water bottle, extra pens, some spare cash, phone charger, and earbuds.

9. Keep a water bottle in ya bag at all times. A hoes gotta be hydrated.

10. Keep up with ya studies (see my School and Studying Tips post for more details on how to boost that GPA)

11. A week before school starts, develop getting sleep schedule for school by going to bed half an hour earlier every night. This’ll make waking up earlier less of a hell, trust me.

12. Have a go-to makeup look for school that takes 30 mins or less as a default, if you beat your face in the morning.

13. Replace coffee with tea for a more healthy caffeine fix before class.

14. Prepare yourself a decent breakfast before you go to bed, so you can easily grab and go in the morning. Breakfast kickstarts your metabolism and decreases cravings throughout the day, and generally boosts your mood and brain power.

15. If you wear a uniform, make sure that shit is comfortable and actually fits you. Make sure nothing hangs off of you, cuts off circulation, itches, irritates, etc.

16. Need a break from studying? Work out. Burn some calories, clear your mind, and stimulate your brain with some exercise. Swear to god this keeps my grades up and my body lookin fly.

17. Invest in a hair mask (any pharmacy or makeup outlet will have them), or make one yourself. They make your hair super soft and shiny for flipping it when you walk past that group of girls who hate you lol

Thats all I can think of for now hoes, get good grades, I believe in all of y'all✨

I cried. I really needed that. Thanks

hey if ur ever feelin shitty use this