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#outlining
biscuitsandspices · 6 months
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If you hate writing outlines it's because of how they're taught in school. Toss out indentation and Roman numerals and map out your writing how you want to. Outlines are your FRIEND, dammit. This goes for everything, from political essays to fanfiction. If it's written you need an outline because the outline is for you. It can be general, vague, or a mixture of both! Be as informal as you want, who cares. They're to keep you on track and keep your writing flowing, so don't disregard them even if you dreaded making them in grade school. My outlines by chapter tend to look like this: 1. Character "P" goes to the diner to meet character "Q."
2. "P" tells "Q" about how the confrontation went. (dialogue I thought up on a bus ride) That's when shit goes DOWN. They're yelling, they're drawing attention to themselves, but before they can take it outside, "P" says (dialogue I thought up in the shower).
3. THEN "Q" SAYS THAT ONE LINE THAT "R" SAYS TO HIM IN CHAPTER FIVE BECAUSE THAT'S CALLED COHESION WOOOOO
4. idk they both leave??? you'll figure it out later
5. Self-reflection for "P." Keep your main point on how his moral compass goes to extremes and hurts others. He finally is realizing that HE is the PROBLEM
6. "P" drives to "Q's" house to apologize but GUESS WHO ANSWERS THE DOOR it's "R" and then just end the chapter there This is coming from someone who didn't write with outlines for years. Now I don't write anything longer than 400 words without one! Make them your own, make them so that they're useful to you. That's their purpose, so accept the help!
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Random Plot Points
A little about me as a writer, I love daydreaming about adventure stories. I usually know the general set up and larger plot points but oftentimes struggle with the how, how do characters get from point A to point B. 
So, I made a list of random challenges for my characters that I look at when I'm stuck.
Sharing in case helpful to others! (intended for adventure, sci-fi, fantasy stories) 
characters are delayed/blocked/experience a natural disaster (storm, fire, flood, avalanche, earthquake, epidemic, etc) (BONUS and forced to take a detour from the original path)
character(s) is trapped (quick sand, fall through ice, in room filling with poison, on sinking ship, in a trash compactor on the Death Star, etc) (BONUS- fall into hidden room and discover something) 
characters go to a festival/ball/party/political summit (where inevitably it all goes wrong)
character(s) overhears a secret (at bar, at party, from a whispered conversation below them in a stairway, etc) 
characters are attacked by an animal or mysterious force 
characters(s) caught in a mob/riot
character wins/loses something in a bet
character is brainwashed or possessed 
character is stranded/lost
character is poisoned 
character succumbs to injury or illness 
characters are chased/ attacked by antagonists 
character is captured or arrested (and needs to be rescued)
character is kidnapped and kidnappers make a demand for their release (financial ransom, exchange of information, prisoner exchange, etc) 
character(s) go undercover to retrieve information
characters decide to steal something they need for their quest (weapon, magical object, money, information, etc). (BONUS- time for a well-planned heist!) 
characters need to protect/ retrieve/ destroy something 
characters uncover a network of spies (up to you if they're unexpected allies or antagonists)  
characters discover hidden passageway, room, ruins etc that leads to an important clue
characters forced to hide from someone/something
characters need to escape 
characters lured into trap set by villain (BONUS if the villain doesn't even care who wins but only goaded them to learn how a magical object works, the extent of heroes powers, emergency response system of a government, etc) 
characters set trap for villain (BONUS- use someone or something important as bait) (if in Act 2, they fail) 
characters reveal critical information to villain in disguise 
a character is mistaken for someone else (and then is wrongfully arrested, receives information not intended for them, etc) 
characters receive help (hitch a ride, get help hiding from captors, get help escaping somewhere, etc) from an unlikely new ally 
characters forced to team up with an unlikely ally/ morally grey character, etc
characters learn something from simple library research (an oldie but a goodie)
characters just literally just stumble upon or witness something important (secret weapon, secret society etc) 
characters uncover a secret map/ coded message on the back of an old unassuming document (time for a classic treasure hunt!) 
someone escapes from prison (an old villain or an old ally) that changes the quest 
someone is being blackmailed (or otherwise forced to act against the protagonists)
someone is discredited (rumor, disinformation campaign etc) 
something stolen from your characters 
something (document, magical object, money) turns out to be fake
OR, something unassuming turns out to have special powers or meaning  
something is hacked (defense system, infrastructure, bank, private records, etc)
something critical is attacked (important bridge, port, bank/ financial system, safehouse, capitol building, character's familial home, etc.)
a computer virus is unleashed 
a biological weapon is unleashed 
a piece of information the characters believed was true, is false 
an ancient myth turns out to be true 
a secret is made public 
A law is changed or a vote on a critical piece of legislation loses/wins 
a political opponent wins an election/ a political ally loses an election 
character(s) help a passerby (from raiders, local tyrant, beast, mystical force, etc) 
characters "follow the money" and realize someone who was thought to be their ally is actually working for... (crime syndicate, villain, local tyrant etc) 
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writingwithfolklore · 7 months
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Stripping away Supports
                In classic outlining structure, the midpoint is where your MC loses all the advantages they’d relied on up until that point—allies, resources, powers, etc. In fact, this structure is used in so many films that the ‘characters fight at the midpoint’ is an easily found cliché throughout media.
                However, there are other ways of stripping away your MC’s supports to achieve the same effect.
They fight
Okay I know I just implied we might want to avoid this, but why fix what’s not broke? The important part about following the ‘characters fight at the midpoint’ trope is to ensure the fight doesn’t start at the midpoint, but rather starts from the very moment the characters are seen with each other/meet. The fight should be about something that’s been brewing underneath all of their interactions from the beginning—the one thing they should’ve talked about but didn’t. The ‘elephant in the room’.
                This fight is less of a fight but an unearthing of feelings, thoughts, and problems that have always been there, but have been ignored or avoided up until then. What’s the event that unearths these truths? Typically, something threatening or scary causes people to speak ‘out of turn’…
2. The protagonist chooses to go on alone
Something big happened, something so dangerous and scary that the protagonist intentionally pushes away their allies in order to protect them… Of course, later they might realize that they are stronger together anyway. This is also a bit of a cliché, but done thoughtfully can be very impactful.
3. The allies are in over their head
The reversal of the last trope, instead of the protagonist pushing their allies away, the allies decide this quest is far too dangerous and risky for them… The protagonist is abandoned by their allies. Later, these supports may return, their love for the protagonist stronger than their fear of the situation, but whatever happened must have spooked them bad enough to lead them to betrayal.
4. An integral piece they’ve been relying on has been destroyed
The hideout was found and torched, the old man’s journal was tossed into the sea, the leader/mentor/keeper of information has been kidnapped or killed. Maybe the allies and the protagonist are still together, but one important thing that’s been keeping them together or leading them has been lost, now they have to adapt and improvise on the fly if they wish to continue their quest.
5. An integral piece they’ve been relying on turned out to not be true or important
Similar to the last but with a bit of a twist. They’ve been following the wrong lead all along—where to go next now that the very foundation of their quest is crumbling beneath them?
          
What are some other ways of fulfilling the midpoint reversal?
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dduane · 2 months
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Hi!
so outlining with the Shopping List outline is surprisingly fun and simple? The first story I tried it on it was a little difficult (but I think that’s due to structural issues with the draft I previously wrote for it and was outlining from memory). But the second story idea it worked great and I have had the breakthrough that I’ve been trying to have for years :)
Thank you so much
I'm glad that worked out well for you!
Needless to say, outlining in general isn't necessarily for everybody. But I feel strongly that it's had more bad press than it deserves, and ought to be routinely available as part of the writer's toolkit.
Sometimes, making a list and following it just seems to work best. And the technique C. J. Cherryh gave me has worked well for decades now. So other folks may as well give it a try too, and see if it does anything for them... :)
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what-eats-owls · 1 year
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Occasionally I get asked about my outlining process, which is probably more than a little overwrought, but certainly easier to explain with visuals. I've shared this guide on twitter and insta, so I'm adding it here too, and hopefully there's something useful in it for you!
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so-many-ocs · 2 months
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on plotting: the rule of three
what is it?
about the rule
other people might call it something different, but for me, the rule of three in fiction writing is a foreshadowing tool. to persuade your audience of something and make a twist or story element feel earned, you hint at it at least three times.
things are appealing in sets of three. if something happens once, it’s random, twice is coincidence, and three times is a pattern.
a brief guide
on using the rule
use showing over telling. the whole point of this rule is to convince your reader of something, and unfortunately you can’t “trust me bro” your way into establishing key information.
look into types of foreshadowing. you can call attention to these scenes using strategies like symbolism or irregular description, in which you call unusual attention to a seemingly insignificant detail.
let’s say you want to convey that a specific character is untrustworthy. let’s break this down into three scenes.
first, let’s say we catch this character sneaking out after they said they were going to bed. this raises questions of why they lied and what they’re actually doing. using a direct scene like this first will alert the reader and make them more likely to notice less obvious information later on.
second, we maybe include a scene where they directly contradict something they said earlier. it helps if it’s a minor detail that wouldn’t make much sense to lie about, such as their birthday.
the third scene is the one that should cement this item in your readers’ minds. maybe this scene is a step above the others; maybe this time, the character tries to pit everyone else against each other. maybe they steal or participate in a much bigger lie.
if you’re building up to a betrayal, this can either be the betrayal itself or the scene directly before.
use this rule in moderation. if you bring up something too many times without solidifying it, the story risks becoming repetitive.
brainstorm, create brief outlines of the scenes you want to include, and then decide where in the story these scenes should go.
when i’m using the rule of three to revise, i create a list of all the scenes and chapters i currently have and tack the new scenes on as sticky notes where i see fit.
this may be a bit excessive.
instead, you might consider creating a rough outline of the plot or plots you want to write and jotting down a list of scenes according to where in each arc they should fall, or simply having a document or notepad where you write down ideas.
in action
media examples
the hunger games. the poisonous plant nightlock is specifically mentioned three times, once in the capitol and twice during the games, before it is used for a major plot point.
the karate kid. the crane kick technique is introduced early on, and there are scenes where the main character specifically practices his crane kick before it wins him the match at the end of the film.
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thanks for reading! hope this was helpful :)
tip jar | so what even is radio apocalypse?
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projecttreehouse · 2 years
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write EVERY DAY. here's how.
where inspiration fails, habit will always have your back. this is why it's important to build writing into your life as a habit, if you ever want to finish a project or improve your skills.
back in 2018, i (nat) was a college student without much going for me. i was feeling creatively stifled and insecure and like i didn't have TIME to write good. and i was right. i didn't have time to write GOOD. but i did have time to write SOMETHING. so that january, i built the habit. i wrote every single day in 2018, and almost every single day since.
because once you establish the habit, it becomes safer to skip a day (or three days) here and there. you will at least THINK about writing every day, even if you go straight from work to social plans to bed, or you're on vacation, or you're too sick to write. and that thinking is part of the habit!
here are the tips i followed to make this happen.
-pick a reasonable goal. starting off, mine was 300 words. now, i don't follow a goal, because the habit is so solid i don't need to. but 300 words is easy and quick. and if you give a pig a pancake, they'll probably have days where they write 500, 1000, even 3k words.
-log your word count. this is interesting to look back on every new year's eve, and it provides accountability. do this however you like; a spreadsheet, a physical notebook, a note in your phone, each day's section in your planner, whatever works for you. i have a channel in my personal discord server where i log mine.
-do NOT edit as you go. just write write write. if you feel like something you wrote needs work, yeah, it probably does-- everything needs to be edited, but that's a problem for later. highlight sentences you can't get right or make note of them to edit LATER. but do not edit as you go!
-write self-indulgent crap. fanfiction, shitty poetry, manifestos, rants, self insert fantasy romance, whatever floats your boat. having a shitty self-indulgent backup story to work on when i didn't feel like writing for the projects i cared about really helped get me in the habit. write for an audience of one!
-journal if you can't write. this may not necessarily build your skill as much as writing regular prose would, but it does help you maintain the habit and it can be useful in lots of other ways.
-think outside the box. write trivia questions. write a list of your favorite childhood toys. write a review of the book you're reading. i'm writing this post, that's going toward my word count for the day. again, this is still writing, and it helps maintain the habit.
-get comfortable writing on your phone. this took me a long time, but making it over this hurdle has saved my habit so many times.
you'll be surprised at the cool shit you end up writing on those days when you swore you weren't inspired enough. and you'll be delighted with how much progress you will make honing your craft!
happy writing! if you have any questions about how to implement any of these tips, our ask box is always open.
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dinkflocculent · 14 days
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It's torture being a writer that can only survive off an outline. I want to write a silly short whump AU of my OCs but my brain requires a 50-page detailed outline.
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writing-with-olive · 2 years
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Outline I like (especially for shorter works)
Note: I learned this in film class (which is why it says "defines the movie" at the top, but I've also had success using it for non-film writing. It's basically a three-act structure, but I find for non-novels it's easier to work with than Save The Cat, for example.
Another note: Unraveling The Map is rarely a whole scene in and of itself in my personal experience - I usually use it to create an opening image that leads into the Launch Point, which I make the first scene
Unraveling The Map - Do you have an opening scene that defines the movie?
The Launch Point - Where are we, and who are we with?
The First Leg - What’s a normal day look like in this world?
Change Course - What sets our characters off on their journey from normalcy?
The Foot of the Mountain - Okay, we’re going on this journey together. (choosing the direction for solving the problem)
Climbing The Side - It starts hard, but you get used to the problems as you go.
Through The Cave - Do you have a B story? Set that story off on its own now too.
Reassess the Problem - You’re at the middle. Is there another way to get it done?
Try and Fail - Things begin to fall apart, can they handle it?
The Fall - The worst thing happens, something so bad you don’t think you can get up.
The Hidden Clue - What do your characters discover about themselves/the problem that they never saw before?
Race To the Finish - They’re up and running no matter what
The Treasure Chest - Did they get what they came for?
Where We Go From Here - Show us the world in a new light, hint what’s next.
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wordsnstuff · 10 months
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Sorry if this question has already been asked, but I haven’t seen anything similar anywhere. So I really love world building and characters, and I can spend hours figuring out their intricate details and visualizing them in my head. I would love to start turning them into stories, but that’s where I simply blank and have difficulty coming up with even a basic plot line. How would you recommend coming up with basic plots when you already have worlds and characters thought out?
Making a plot for your world and characters...
I often consider the outline of a story to surround the three pillars of events, environment, and characters. When you are struggling to develop any one of these elements, I find it helpful to examine how the other two are interacting. If you begin (in this instance) with a fairly developed environment and set of characters moving within it, you can analyze the interactions between the two and discern where there might be opportunities for conflict. Approaching plot development this way will primarily put your story in the character-driven category. 
A more detailed example might look something like this: 
You have an ensemble cast of characters who live in a dystopian society where death has been eradicated during their lifetime. They are all old enough to remember a world before immortality, and society has witnessed cultural conflict in response to this advancement in technology. This could be approached from many angles, such as dissent or advocacy from religious groups, cultural groups with practices related to death, social classes who have lesser access to the technology, political groups who manipulate the issue to their benefit, etc. Each character in your ensemble will have their own personal views and be affected individually by this factor of the environment you’ve put them in, so find the conflict in each of them. Perhaps one of the characters is inheriting a leadership position in a cultural group that advocates against the use of the technology to prolong life as it goes against their beliefs. Maybe another character is of a social class that has limited access to the technology and is going to great lengths to cure a sick family member. 
That is the thought process of development that will make it easier to create a central conflict and plot for your story. 
Identify unique factors of the environment 
Consider your characters’ established place within the environment
Anticipate conflicts between the two
Exploit those conflicts to create tension
Outline the development of all conflicts to find the through line plot of the story
I hope this helps, and as always you can feel free to reach out if you have further questions.
x Kate
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physalian · 5 days
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You don’t have to pay for that fancy worldbuilding program
As mentioned in this post about writing with executive dysfunction, if one of your reasons to keep procrastinating on starting your book is not being able to afford something like World Anvil or Campfire, I’m here to tell you those programs are a luxury, not a necessity: Enter Google Suite (not sponsored but gosh I wish).
MS Office offers more processing power and more fine-tuning, but Office is expensive and only autosaves to OneDrive, and I have a perfectly healthy grudge against OneDrive for failing to sync and losing 19k words of a WIP that I never got back.
Google’s sync has never failed me, and the Google apps (at least for iPhone) aren’t nearly as buggy and clunky as Microsoft’s. So today I’m outlining the system I used for my upcoming fantasy novel with all the helpful pictures and diagrams. Maybe this won’t work for you, maybe you have something else, and that’s okay! I refuse to pay for what I can get legally for free and sometimes Google’s simplicity is to its benefit.
The biggest downside is that you have to manually input and update your data, but as someone who loves organizing and made all these willingly and for fun, I don’t mind.
So. Let’s start with Google Sheets.
The Character Cheat Sheet:
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I organized it this way for several reasons:
I can easily see which characters belong to which factions and how many I have named and have to keep up with for each faction
All names are in alphabetical order so when I have to come up with a new name, I can look at my list and pick a letter or a string of sounds I haven’t used as often (and then ignore it and start 8 names with A).
The strikethrough feature lets me keep track of which characters I kill off (yes, I changed it, so this remains spoiler-free)
It’s an easy place to go instead of scrolling up and down an entire manuscript for names I’ve forgotten, with every named character, however minor their role, all in one spot
Also on this page are spare names I’ll see randomly in other media (commercials, movie end credits, etc) and can add easily from my phone before I forget
Also on this page are my summary, my elevator pitch, and important character beats I could otherwise easily mess up, it helps stay consistent
*I also have on here not pictured an age timeline for all my vampires so I keep track of who’s older than who and how well I’ve staggered their ages relative to important events, but it’s made in Photoshop and too much of a pain to censor and add here
On other tabs, I keep track of location names, deities, made-up vocabulary and definitions, and my chapter word count.
The Word Count Guide:
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This is the most frustrating to update manually, especially if you don’t have separate docs for each chapter, but it really helps me stay consistent with chapter lengths and the formula for calculating the average and rising totals is super basic.
Not that all your chapters have to be uniform, but if you care about that, this little chart is a fantastic visualizer.
If you have multiple narrators, and this book does, you can also keep track of how many POVs each narrator has, and how spread out they are. I didn’t do that for this book since it’s not an ensemble team and matters less, but I did for my sci-fi WIP, pictured below.
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As I was writing that one, I had “scripted” the chapters before going back and writing out all the glorious narrative, and updated the symbols from “scripted” to “finished” accordingly.
I also have a pie chart that I had to make manually on a convoluted iPhone app to color coordinate specifically the way I wanted to easily tell who narrates the most out of the cast, and who needs more representation.
Google Docs
Can’t show you much here unfortunately but I’d like to take an aside to talk about my “scene bits” docs.
It’s what it says on the tin, an entire doc all labeled with different heading styles with blurbs for each scene I want to include at some point in the book so I can hop around easily. Whether they make it into the manuscript or not, all practice is good practice and I like to keep old ideas because they might be useful in unsuspecting ways later.
Separate from that, I keep most of my deleted scenes and scene chunks for, again, possible use later in a “deleted scenes” doc, all labeled accordingly.
When I designed my alien language for the sci-fi series, I created a Word doc dictionary and my own "translation" matrix, for easy look-up or word generation whenever I needed it (do y'all want a breakdown for creating foreign languages? It's so fun).
Normally, as with my sci-fi series, I have an entire doc filled with character sheets and important details, I just… didn’t do that for this book. But the point is—you can still make those for free on any word processing software, you don’t need fancy gadgets.
I hope this helps anyone struggling! It doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Everything I made here, minus the aforementioned timeline and pie chart, was done with basic excel skills and the paint bucket tool. I imagine this can be applicable to games, comics, what have you, it knows no bounds!
Now you have one less excuse to sit down and start writing.
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maxkirin · 1 year
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How to Outline a Novel for Length (AKA Outlining a Novel for NaNoWriMo) in 4 Easy Steps ✍️💖
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I swear there is no better high than writing; even just frantically outlining a novel concept that I feel really excited about has left me with a lasting like "omg I am a genius I am such a good writer the best to ever do it" even though I know full well that once this honeymoon period wears off I'm obviously going to have frustrations/writer's block like we all do, but like for now AHAHAHA I AM GOD
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writingwithfolklore · 5 months
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Hello, i wanna say that your advice is genuinely really helpful and no doubt aids a lot of writers in the making of their stories! Could i ask how you write a scene that triggers the start of some kind of character development?
Thank you!
And I'd love to talk about this. The scene that triggers the beginning of character development is known as...
The Inciting Incident
This is the scene that breaks the world of the protagonist so badly, they have to deal with it and try to fix it. The attempting to fix this breakage is their character arc, and the journey they will be on for the rest of the story.
To make this work, the beginning before the inciting incident introduces and reinforces the norms of your world. This is when your protagonist is just going about their day, everything is normal, they're comfortable in their life (or at least complacent).
Then, something or someone comes along and destroys this normal.
Rapunzel lives in her comfy tower and while she wants more, she's not really willing to actually do anything about it. Then a man breaks into her home, giving her the opportunity to leave. Marlin takes care of his son and tries to keep him safe. Then, Nemo ventures too far and gets kidnapped.
These incidents force the protagonist to begin change, and the challenges they face while trying to achieve their goal perpetuates this change.
If you're ever stuck in character development, consider what you can do to push your protagonist further out of their comfort zone. That's where development is--in the dealing with the unknown.
Hope that helps!
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dduane · 6 months
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A while back you gave amazing advice on a good way to outline. Something like breaking down each plot point into three action items and then again into three points or something. I liked the post at the time, but despite looking in my likes for a couple days, I can't seem to find it. Is there any way you'd be willing to reiterate the method? Thanks!
No problem! The full discussion of the process is over here at Out of Ambit.
(BTW, my apologies that due to the ever-increasing crapfest going on at The Site That Once Was Twitter, the tweets that kicked off this discussions are no longer displaying correctly. :/)
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nightingaleflow · 9 months
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I don't know why I even bothered with an outline lol
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