Zoe Carmina's Blog: Zoe Jane Carmina, page 23

Master Plot Formula – Case Study

Hello lovelies! This week I am going over the Master Plot Formula Case study. If you arent familiar with this method, you can read more about it in this post, but to summarize, Lester Dent was born in the early part of the 1900s and wrote 159 Doc Savage novels using this formula he created to do so.

Meant for 6000 word stories divided into four equal parts, Dents formula can also be expanded to use in full novels.

Today we are going to walk through a story from Lesters own mind. Lets get into...

The Hero’s Journey – Case Study

Hello and welcome back to the blog, lovelies. Today were going to walk through The Heros Journey. Also called the Monomyth, this plot method was developed by Joseph Campbell, and if you need a refresher, you can visit my post about it The Heros Journey Plot Theory.

In general, you can think of the Monomyth as a circular diagram. For our purposes, we will look at Star Wars: Episode IV, in which the Heros Journey was certainly used to create the tale. Fair warning. This will not be...

Master Plot Formula – Plot Theory

Have you ever heard of the Master Plot Formula? Lester Dent was born in the early part of the 1900s and wrote 159 Doc Savage novels using this formula he created to do so.

Meant for 6000 word stories divided into four equal parts, Dents formula can also be expanded to use in full novels.

Divide the total word count goal for your novel into four parts. Lets use 60000 words as our target. Each part, then, is 15000 Words.

FIRST PART (0-15000 WORDS)

First line, or as near thereto as possible,...

Heart Breathings – Case Study

Last week we talked about the cool plotting method that I found by author Sarah Cannon of Heart Breathings. Her entire plotting method can be found over on YouTube, starting with this video. I again want to highly recommend checking her out and subscribing to her channel! Go buy all her books. Leave her comments and reviews. I binge read the book in her series which she gives as an example to see how it all came together, and actually ended up loving the book.

Now, if you are familiar with...

Heart Breathings – Plot Theory

Im back this week with another plotting method that I just learned and totally love. This one is from author Sarah Cannon of Heart Breathings and her entire plotting method can be found over on YouTube, starting with this video. So I highly recommend checking her out and subscribing to her channel! Go buy all her books. Leave her comments and reviews. I binge read the book in her series which she gives as an example to see how it all came together, and actually ended up loving the book.

Now,...

Plan Your Hour

Is there a system out there that is better than the Pomodoro Method?

Ive talked about my love/hate relationship with the Pomodoro technique multiple times on the blog now. I love learning new methods for productivity, and am always looking for another way to hack or otherwise motivate myself into getting work done, yet I find that there are always drawbacks to each system.

One weekend, I was thinking about this, and came up with a new system that I hadnt ever heard of before. Its kind of like...

Time Blocking Your Month for Success

Okay, so we’ve talked about time blocking your day and your week for success, but how far can you really time block out and still make it effective? Well, turns out, you can time block a lot of things pretty far out. I set up my calendar for the entire year, but I’m a crazy person, and anyway, that’s beside the point.

If you are just trying out time blocking and finding some success, you might consider time blocking a whole month out. You already know your deadlines, your fast and slow days,...

Time Blocking Your Week for Success

Have you ever noticed that you do a lot of the same tasks every day? If you have 10 emails come in at different times, is it more efficient to answer them right away and get them dealt with and out of your inbox the moment they come through, or to gather them and complete them all at once? The answer may surprise you.

Every time you switch your brain to doing some other task, it comes with a mental cost.

Physically speaking, when you try to multitask, or when you decide to switch tasks, your...

Time Blocking Your Day for Success

Let’s continue our discussion on using our time wisely, and talk a little bit about the Pomodoro Technique because it is an important tool for task management big and small. I’ve talked about this in a few previous posts, which I will link to below.

I have to tell you that the moment I heard of this, I immediately loved the idea and could see the many applications of it.

What is the Pomodoro Technique?

The Pomodoro technique is something invented in the 1980’s. If you were wondering, Pomodoro...

How to Do LESS but Get MORE Done

What if I told you that 80% of your successes in life came from 20% of your actions? Crazy right? But that’s exactly what we’re talking about today.

What is the Pareto Principle?

The Pareto principle is a concept developed by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto back in 1895 after he noticed that 80% of the land was owned by just 20% of the population. This lead Pareto to the conclusion that all economic activity could be subject to this principle.

This rule says that 20% of your activities will...