I've begun to really embrace 3 Act structure. Save the Cat feels so rigid when I try to use it: inserting a beat that doesn't align exactly to the model gives me the sense that I'm doing something wrong.
Yeah! I find that's the big complain with Save The Cat for some. Others really enjoy that "rigidity" as guidelines. It's so interesting playing around with what structure speaks to us!
@@KateCavanaugh yeah I’m the one who enjoys the rigidity cause otherwise I have no idea wtf to put next 💀 or for how long. then again I’m a beginner writer so I suppose I’ll get the hang of it!
Lovely video! Re: daily goals, definitely break them into smaller parts. Avoid the feeling of repeated failure when you schedule a task for Monday and it really needs ten days. I chop everything up. Even dishes. Soak dishes. Wash pans. rewarm soaking water. put on gloves. etc. It helps so much. So glad you are feeling better!!! Love you!
Actually, we all need to breakdown not just goals - but whole stories (Roy Peter Clark -Writing tools) -Tool 45 - Break down to: Beginning, Middle and End - (Everything: Scenes - Chapters - Acts - and the Whole Story. And write toward the end. You can't just copy and paste whole scenes or fragmentate either to other locations in the later chapters without re-writing them or parts of them for story escalation needs etc.. Cliff-Hangers usually get messed up doing that or other Plot-Hyper tools etc as well. (William Noble) Writing gets really hard not following a structure of Beginning- Middle and End. Motivation & Reaction units are usually the biggest problem where we put in subjective POV and Author narrative modes in the wrong place within and between M&R Units that build our scenes etc.
Kate, idk if you ever watch your videos with the subtitles on but at 14:25 it picked up your keyboard as "applause" and it made me so happy lol Now every time you write you can just imagine your subscribers cheering and clapping for you! :D
I like STC, specifically STCWAN. I find that structure just feels right. I recognize it in every good story I consume and when I started using it, my own stories began to look how I envisioned them.
I use Todoist, which is excellent for breaking tasks down into subtasks and further subtasks. It's like a massive brain dump. Then I can focus only on the tasks assigned on a specific day, which seems more manageable. It's made me SO much more productive. As for my writing, I use the eight-sequence structure and find it helpful.
My partner was just recommending I try Todoist again, so I'll have to give that a go! And ooooh, I've never heard of the eight-sequence structure. Off to Google! 👀
I have to say I love the positive vibes and the love you have for your work. As writers we go through phases. I am on my 5th draft and while 85% of the time I’m excited and proud and just overall having a good time, when it comes to rewriting a scene and making it as good as you think the other bit is always gets me stuck. I needed your passion to truck on through😂
Ahhhh!!! That really is so hard, but it's clear you know now what will make the story better!!! All part of the writing/rewriting experience. I just realized I need to change the voice a little so I'm about to have to go over Act I again and rewrite bits I JUST rewrote bahahah. WE GOT THIS. Even though the changes feel daunting, we can celebrate the epiphanies!!
@@KateCavanaugh Yes it's bad but a necessary part of the process. But now I know better and the new synopsis sounds better so I'm overall a bit happy. And thank you really needed someone to vent to😂❤️
Woohoo! Fantastic work ☺ I just wanted to say, I've been watching your videos a while and I love your keyboard, so I bought a similar one for myself and oh my goodness its the best! I feel like it helps me focus and also gives me a sort of instant reward for writing, just in the form of those little clicking noises. It actually makes me want to write more. Anyways, thanks for introducing me to the magnificence that is a mechanical keyboard!
I love that!!! Which kind of gameification has worked best for you? (Also I was gone off Twitch for so long, and then when I came back it was SO COOL seeing how much your channel has grown!! You’ve been so consistent and tried so many different types of streams, I always have people mentioning how you’re one of their favorites, way to freaking go!!)
@@KateCavanaugh That means so much to me for you to say! It has been a ride when it comes to twitch but I truly enjoy it. As far as gamification goes, one of my favorite things to do is compete with others on the more menial tasks I have to do and then get like a nice sticker or something as a reward. I know it sounds lame but there's a reason teachers do it in their class.
I’m currently doing a read through for a developmental edit on my ghost wip. It’s a 5 act structure. I love the save the cat 3 act structure, but breaking it down & giving it more beats instead of just ‘fun/games’ & ‘baddies close in’ helps because those are too open ended for me.
Lovely to see you making progress on this and looking so joyful doing it too! I don't 'get' beats. Am in the process of reading Save the Cat - or trying lol chapter two is 50+ pages long and so I stalled out pretty fast lol. I write very much what the story wants me to and sometimes I shift things around or insert things earlier, but usually, the structure comes out fairly solid. I have seen so many people talk about beats and save the cat and so I want to know what the fuss is about, but part of me also just wants to reject it entirely because I hate thinking in that formulaic way (even though I know that knowing this stuff means you can break it in effective ways). I WILL conquer reading that book soon lol
Bahahah I'm excited to hear what you think when you complete it! If you're a big reader -- or big watcher of shows/movies -- I think you intuitively "get" story structure, so I'm not sure I completely buy into it either. (Or it doesn't work as perfectly for me as some people say.) BUUUUTTTT I find it super helpful when I'm "stuck" and something feels ever so slightly off. Then I can turn to Save the Cat or Romancing the Beats and be like "ahh yes, this is what I'm missing" and then fit it in naturally where I want to. So it still helps me! Just not as much as some people swear by bahaha.
@@KateCavanaugh We're all different, and that's a gorgeous thing! I've been writing for decades, publishing almost ten years, and consume over 150 books a year, as well as who knows how many shows and movies. I definitely think I've soaked up a lot about story as a result 🤣
@@cassie_hart LOLOL YES YOU HAVE. Congrats on almost a decade of publishing, that's incredible! Now I'm even more excited to hear what you think once you finish Save The Cat bahahaha.
So impressed that you worked while you were sick! I would've been a blob (but then again, your vlogs motivate me so much so maybe not hm). As for progressive to-do lists, I love the idea of them, but I'm always impatient to cross out my to-do list entirely, so to have and see things still waiting for me to do at the end of the week/month/quarter will ultimately end up being more stressful than not for me ahaha
I think that's why you're supposed to keep the like Main List in a separate place. So you're not forced to look at the super duper long number of items bahahah. But that's exactly the type of feeling I try to avoid, so I know what you mean!! And thank youuu, it was definitely slow going, but I think it actually helped me mentally in some ways. I was just SO TIRED of being sick and tired bahaha.
i'm currently working on project fae, and i guess it's in 3 acts??? i haven't thought about it yet for this project lol, but i have a sense of how the story needs to build towards the ending
Oh noooooo! :( :( I'm so sorry you were sick, Manvel! That's the worst. And I managed to pull myself to write -- but it took about 1.5 weeks to get through a single chapter bahaha. I actually enjoyed writing in my notebook more during that time (and even then wasn't too much). No need to be hard on ourselves when our bodies are working overtime to get better though! Hope you start feeling well again soon. 💙
I usually just create new Scrivener documents for each new draft! And then I name them "Draft 4" or whichever one I'm on. But you could also use Notion, I think, for that!! They have some fun timeline and project features you can play around with. :)
Oh! And I might've shown it in this video, but I'll use Notion to get a calendar view of which stories I'm working on at what time and for how long! It helps with goal setting/making sure I'm not overloading myself bahaha.
Have you heard of Sarra Cannon and her HB90 method? SHe is an indie author, a TH-camr and an entrepreneur. SHe develped her own system for goal planning that is flexible and takes into account what time you actually have available to do things AND builds in buffer days. You should check out her system. SHe does have a full course she offers, but she also has a lot of videos that really show how she uses this method.
I publish under a pen name that I'm keeping secret (at least for a little longer bahaha), but you can find my first horror short story, written as Kate Cavanaugh, in the anthology WE'RE NOT HOME.
I've begun to really embrace 3 Act structure. Save the Cat feels so rigid when I try to use it: inserting a beat that doesn't align exactly to the model gives me the sense that I'm doing something wrong.
Yeah! I find that's the big complain with Save The Cat for some. Others really enjoy that "rigidity" as guidelines. It's so interesting playing around with what structure speaks to us!
@@KateCavanaugh yeah I’m the one who enjoys the rigidity cause otherwise I have no idea wtf to put next 💀 or for how long. then again I’m a beginner writer so I suppose I’ll get the hang of it!
Lovely video! Re: daily goals, definitely break them into smaller parts. Avoid the feeling of repeated failure when you schedule a task for Monday and it really needs ten days. I chop everything up. Even dishes. Soak dishes. Wash pans. rewarm soaking water. put on gloves. etc. It helps so much.
So glad you are feeling better!!! Love you!
Definitely will need to do that! Thanks Regina!! LOVE YOU!
Actually, we all need to breakdown not just goals - but whole stories (Roy Peter Clark -Writing tools) -Tool 45 - Break down to: Beginning, Middle and End - (Everything: Scenes - Chapters - Acts - and the Whole Story. And write toward the end. You can't just copy and paste whole scenes or fragmentate either to other locations in the later chapters without re-writing them or parts of them for story escalation needs etc.. Cliff-Hangers usually get messed up doing that or other Plot-Hyper tools etc as well. (William Noble) Writing gets really hard not following a structure of Beginning- Middle and End. Motivation & Reaction units are usually the biggest problem where we put in subjective POV and Author narrative modes in the wrong place within and between M&R Units that build our scenes etc.
Kate, idk if you ever watch your videos with the subtitles on but at 14:25 it picked up your keyboard as "applause" and it made me so happy lol Now every time you write you can just imagine your subscribers cheering and clapping for you! :D
I like STC, specifically STCWAN. I find that structure just feels right. I recognize it in every good story I consume and when I started using it, my own stories began to look how I envisioned them.
I use Todoist, which is excellent for breaking tasks down into subtasks and further subtasks. It's like a massive brain dump. Then I can focus only on the tasks assigned on a specific day, which seems more manageable. It's made me SO much more productive. As for my writing, I use the eight-sequence structure and find it helpful.
My partner was just recommending I try Todoist again, so I'll have to give that a go! And ooooh, I've never heard of the eight-sequence structure. Off to Google! 👀
I have to say I love the positive vibes and the love you have for your work. As writers we go through phases. I am on my 5th draft and while 85% of the time I’m excited and proud and just overall having a good time, when it comes to rewriting a scene and making it as good as you think the other bit is always gets me stuck. I needed your passion to truck on through😂
Just started act 3 and realized I have to change everything from the beginning it feels so daunting 😭
Ahhhh!!! That really is so hard, but it's clear you know now what will make the story better!!! All part of the writing/rewriting experience. I just realized I need to change the voice a little so I'm about to have to go over Act I again and rewrite bits I JUST rewrote bahahah. WE GOT THIS. Even though the changes feel daunting, we can celebrate the epiphanies!!
@@KateCavanaugh Yes it's bad but a necessary part of the process. But now I know better and the new synopsis sounds better so I'm overall a bit happy. And thank you really needed someone to vent to😂❤️
This is so exciting! I’m so happy to see your progress on Project Death year after year.
Ahhh thanks Zara! It feels so close!
Woohoo! Fantastic work ☺ I just wanted to say, I've been watching your videos a while and I love your keyboard, so I bought a similar one for myself and oh my goodness its the best! I feel like it helps me focus and also gives me a sort of instant reward for writing, just in the form of those little clicking noises. It actually makes me want to write more. Anyways, thanks for introducing me to the magnificence that is a mechanical keyboard!
So excited to see how this project comes along! It's easy to get overwhelmed with goals I feel which is why I try to gameify goals myself. 😅
I love that!!! Which kind of gameification has worked best for you? (Also I was gone off Twitch for so long, and then when I came back it was SO COOL seeing how much your channel has grown!! You’ve been so consistent and tried so many different types of streams, I always have people mentioning how you’re one of their favorites, way to freaking go!!)
@@KateCavanaugh That means so much to me for you to say! It has been a ride when it comes to twitch but I truly enjoy it. As far as gamification goes, one of my favorite things to do is compete with others on the more menial tasks I have to do and then get like a nice sticker or something as a reward. I know it sounds lame but there's a reason teachers do it in their class.
I’m currently doing a read through for a developmental edit on my ghost wip. It’s a 5 act structure. I love the save the cat 3 act structure, but breaking it down & giving it more beats instead of just ‘fun/games’ & ‘baddies close in’ helps because those are too open ended for me.
The current novel I'm working on started as a 3 act stucture but I think it's developing 5 acts. It's been an interesting process.
Lovely to see you making progress on this and looking so joyful doing it too!
I don't 'get' beats. Am in the process of reading Save the Cat - or trying lol chapter two is 50+ pages long and so I stalled out pretty fast lol. I write very much what the story wants me to and sometimes I shift things around or insert things earlier, but usually, the structure comes out fairly solid. I have seen so many people talk about beats and save the cat and so I want to know what the fuss is about, but part of me also just wants to reject it entirely because I hate thinking in that formulaic way (even though I know that knowing this stuff means you can break it in effective ways). I WILL conquer reading that book soon lol
Bahahah I'm excited to hear what you think when you complete it!
If you're a big reader -- or big watcher of shows/movies -- I think you intuitively "get" story structure, so I'm not sure I completely buy into it either. (Or it doesn't work as perfectly for me as some people say.) BUUUUTTTT I find it super helpful when I'm "stuck" and something feels ever so slightly off. Then I can turn to Save the Cat or Romancing the Beats and be like "ahh yes, this is what I'm missing" and then fit it in naturally where I want to. So it still helps me! Just not as much as some people swear by bahaha.
@@KateCavanaugh We're all different, and that's a gorgeous thing! I've been writing for decades, publishing almost ten years, and consume over 150 books a year, as well as who knows how many shows and movies. I definitely think I've soaked up a lot about story as a result 🤣
@@cassie_hart LOLOL YES YOU HAVE. Congrats on almost a decade of publishing, that's incredible! Now I'm even more excited to hear what you think once you finish Save The Cat bahahaha.
@@KateCavanaugh If I'm not too afraid of the die hard fans, I'll make a video about it when I'm done! lol
So impressed that you worked while you were sick! I would've been a blob (but then again, your vlogs motivate me so much so maybe not hm). As for progressive to-do lists, I love the idea of them, but I'm always impatient to cross out my to-do list entirely, so to have and see things still waiting for me to do at the end of the week/month/quarter will ultimately end up being more stressful than not for me ahaha
I think that's why you're supposed to keep the like Main List in a separate place. So you're not forced to look at the super duper long number of items bahahah. But that's exactly the type of feeling I try to avoid, so I know what you mean!!
And thank youuu, it was definitely slow going, but I think it actually helped me mentally in some ways. I was just SO TIRED of being sick and tired bahaha.
Oooh a new video! Can't wait.
OMG the 5-4-3-2-1 technic in order to make sure you're incorporating all the senses is such a bright idea.
YAY! HI CAD.
@@KateCavanaugh Hi Kate. :)
The inspiration I never knew I needed!
Okay, I knew, was totally avoiding it 😂 always always always enjoy your vlogs, never fails to motivate meee!
Lolol glad I could help! :) YOU GOT THIS CLAIRE.
@@KateCavanaugh thank you Kate! 🥺💚 I made a list of all my WIPs (I have five lol) and tonight I WILL decide which one is going to be finished first 😅
i'm currently working on project fae, and i guess it's in 3 acts??? i haven't thought about it yet for this project lol, but i have a sense of how the story needs to build towards the ending
Been sick the whole week too (and it was my Spring break dammit! 😂), and unlike you, I could not pull myself to write. Good job with the act, tho!!
Oh noooooo! :( :( I'm so sorry you were sick, Manvel! That's the worst. And I managed to pull myself to write -- but it took about 1.5 weeks to get through a single chapter bahaha. I actually enjoyed writing in my notebook more during that time (and even then wasn't too much). No need to be hard on ourselves when our bodies are working overtime to get better though! Hope you start feeling well again soon. 💙
I hope your feeling better soon
Thanks Hero!!! I know I'm 4 days late to responding, but I'm almost at 100% again now. :)
I hope to get a job like what you have
Hurray!
:) :) :)
I was missing you Kate 🥺♥
I knooooow, it had been a while!!
Hey Kate! Can I ask you what website you use to keep track of your different projects timelines (draft 1, draft 2, draft 67, edit 1, etc...)?
I usually just create new Scrivener documents for each new draft! And then I name them "Draft 4" or whichever one I'm on. But you could also use Notion, I think, for that!! They have some fun timeline and project features you can play around with. :)
Oh! And I might've shown it in this video, but I'll use Notion to get a calendar view of which stories I'm working on at what time and for how long! It helps with goal setting/making sure I'm not overloading myself bahaha.
@@KateCavanaugh Thanks so much for taking the time to answer!
Have you heard of Sarra Cannon and her HB90 method? SHe is an indie author, a TH-camr and an entrepreneur. SHe develped her own system for goal planning that is flexible and takes into account what time you actually have available to do things AND builds in buffer days. You should check out her system. SHe does have a full course she offers, but she also has a lot of videos that really show how she uses this method.
Yes! I have some friends who use her method, but I haven’t tried it out myself!! I’ll have to give it a go. :)
congrats on the achievement!
Thanks kae!! :)
❤♥️♥️❤♥️❤♥️❤♥️❤♥️❤
☠☠
Have you published a book? And if so, what's the name of your book so I can read it? 💕
I publish under a pen name that I'm keeping secret (at least for a little longer bahaha), but you can find my first horror short story, written as Kate Cavanaugh, in the anthology WE'RE NOT HOME.
The little Vin feet appearing in front of the camera 😊
🐈⬛🐾 It made me giggle!
Bring your boyfriend in your next video.