Niner niner

Back to 2D but with color 🖍

Author

John Lim
March 15, 2024

Daylight savings time: a contradiction in terms â°đŸ˜©

Color in between (and on) the lines 📖

Every year, no matter how much I prepare, I fall prey to PTDST: post traumatic daylight savings time. I’m still not fully recovered as I write this. Ever since Sunday, I’ve had a bad case of morning đŸ€Ź: sleep walking to the gym, wincing that much more when I take a cold shower to wake up, and grogging through 3:30 pm. It doesn’t matter if I set my non-smart clocks back three days ahead of schedule, drink a gallon of water before bedtime, or go to bed at 6 pm. None of these parlor tricks are enough to soft land the brutality of time skipping ahead one hour. For me, DST is worse than 12 hour jet lag or crossing into CST while traveling west, both cakewalks by comparison.

Anyway, now that I’m partially awake with my annual soapbox rant out of my system (mostly), let’s get back to business before it’s time for a power nap. Last week, we looked at creating an ideation map from your list. This week, we’re going to convert this back into a 2D format: a smart outline, which will serve as the foundation to the house that is your book. But don’t worry, this will be fun as you’ll also need to break out a box of crayons.

-John

Moving Forward

Episode 461: Formulating your book outline from your ideation map

Today, we convert your map into a smart outline and put the final touches on the pre-drafting organization for your book. But wait? Why go back to an outline? Didn’t I say that lists are confining and restrictive for ideation? First, congrats for paying attention. Second, don’t be a smart a$$. Top-down lists have an important place in the pre-writing stages of your book. After all, we started with ideation lists and now, we’re going to reformulate your map into an outline that will serve you well in the drafting process.

The reason we went to a map last week is that a visual format is much more forgiving when it comes to the idea dump. Specifically, our brains don’t always think linearly so it helps to have a looser format to arrange the solar system of random thoughts, knowledge points, and serendipitous connections.

But now that we have the ideas out on our canvas, we can go back to a 2D format with a smart outline using our beginning-middle-end (B-M-E) framework. The beauty of this approach is that organizing the messy “spaghetti on the wall” should be a lot easier. Moreover, you’ll start to see big ideas become chapters, small ones parts of chapters; all organized according to B-M-E.

So, let’s get cracking because next comes the fun part where you get to tap into your grade-school-crayon-scribbling-young-self or alternately, that nerdy-college-freshman-past-self that highlighted everything on the page except for incidentals.

Learn more on this week’s episode, now playing on Spotify.

❝

You can start looking at your map and that’s when you’re really going to use those B-M-E markers to figure out, ok, which bubble or bubbles should be chapter one.

-I forgot who said this

What else on this week’s episode:

  • Why going back to an outline (top-down) format is optimal after the mapping process.

  • How to turn map bubbles into chapters.

  • How to keep your outline calibrated to B-M-E.

  • A brilliant way to color code your outline.

Hacks

Bring some color to your outline so it can guide you on those days when life (or DST) makes it hard to write

On this week’s episode, I talk about the power of outlining from an ideation map. From your B-M-E tagged map, you’ll start to see which bubble(s) are natural fits for chapters and which ones will comprise sections or parts of chapters. Since you did the hard work with the map, translating it into an outline should be much easier like going down a hill on roller skates, except with fewer bruises.

From there, use your highlighter (virtual or actual) and pick two or three colors, designating one for “easy to write,” and one for “difficult.” You can also pick an optional third color for “in between,” meaning a chapter that won’t be difficult to write but may require some extra research. Try not to go beyond three colors as the point of this is to have a quick, easy reference for your drafting days.

Next, highlight the chapters or sub-chapters according to your color code. I’ll reveal why this is a huge time and stress saver on a future episode but credit to author Suzanne Brown for teaching me this brilliant hack. You can learn more about it and her writing on MF 373.

“Amateurs! I use seventeen colors because I play on another level.”

If you want to learn more about ideation, smart outlining, and a step-by-step process to start, finish, and self-publish your first book, my next writing course starts March 28th through The Johns Hopkins Odyssey program. Don’t wait, there are only three spots left!

Movie recommendation

A stunning film about Gen MDCLL

Barry Lyndon (*****) This past weekend, I checked out Barry Lyndon from the library after spotting the criterion collection DVD (affiliate paid link) in the stacks. Even though I’d seen it three times prior, it wasn’t until this viewing that I truly appreciated the subtle performances and intricate plot. The other times, I was caught up by the film’s depth and scope.

Barry Lyndon, played to perfection by the late Ryan O’Neal, is neither a hero nor a villain. He’s spoiled, middling at best, and drifts through life using his charm, good looks, and a hint of decency within a persona of chicanery. Yet, to call him a grifter or wastrel would be an oversimplification. Whereas Forrest Gump is a story about a simple man whose earnestness allowed him to achieve greatness amidst the turbulent 1960s, Barry Lyndon is about a complicated man whose contradictions prevented him from doing the same through the chaotic 1760s. In the hands of a less capable actor, Barry Lyndon would be a villainous fool or a Quixotic underdog. But through O’Neal’s layered performance, you neither root for nor against Lyndon. You see him for what he is: a byproduct of his circumstances and strange upbringing, followed by a series of ill conceived choices. He’s gotten through life with the listlessness of someone who’s permanently stuck in DST morning funk. Even when he tries to be noble, you can’t help but suspect it’s an act, and when it backfires, quite literally, you’re neither surprised nor shocked but neither are you wholly satisfied with the outcome. If you don’t know what to make of this character or the film on your first watch don’t be surprised. It took me four to fully appreciate the subtlety and brilliance of director Stanley Kubrick’s most underrated work.

It’s easy to get distracted by the sweeping cinematography; the rich landscapes of Ireland and Great Britain, and see this as a beautiful “sterile” film as some critics have labelled it. However, that characterization overlooks the brilliance of the direction and performances. That this is an ambitious cinematic piece about mediocrity makes it more stinging commentary than irony. How many Barry Lyndons do we see today: portraying themselves to be something they’re not, aspiring to the shine of greatness without any substance; relying on charm and charisma until age lines reveal cracks in the makeup. I imagine if Barry Lyndon were set today, he would be a mid-tier social media influencer, portraying himself through a carefully curated image with platitudes that are barely a step above cliches. He would have a large but not a massive following. If you want a glimpse into Kubrick’s directing and O’Neal’s acting choices, check out this short interview clip from 2012 with fellow Kubrick luminary Malcolm McDowell for The Oscars. Lyndon isn’t Salieri or The Joker. He‘s neither crafty nor nefarious but rather aimless and rudderless. He doesn’t desire greatness so much as the appearance of greatness. I suspect it’s because he doesn’t know the difference.

Barry Lyndon was nominated for a number of Academy Awards, winning for best cinematography, art direction, costume design, and best score. That it didn’t win for best picture, actor, or director is as much a testament to this brilliant and misunderstood film as the fact that Barry Lyndon isn’t even the titular character’s real name. You can watch Barry Lyndon on Tubi or YouTube Movies or purchase the criterion collection DVD (affiliate paid link).

Weekly quirky news

States that found a ➰ around the federal DST mandate, that’s Cillian with a đŸ„ș, a chart proving 🐈 are liquid, another 2ïžâƒŁđŸ”„đŸž bad 🎞 roast

  • If you’re wondering why states don’t just ignore daylight savings time, it’s not quite that simple since it’s a federal mandate. However, two states got around that rule by choosing not to “observe” it. I wonder if this can serve as precedent for “not observing” other things like Mondays and inflation?

  • How to pronounce Oscar winner Cillian Murphy’s first name. And for the sake of completeness, his last name is pronounced “Mer-fee.”

  • A guide to cat shapes. Let’s all give a disapproving bastet to DST.

  • Finally, if you need a post-DST pick me up, here’s another hilarious Double Toasted bad movie roast (the anti-Oscars) of the notoriously bad and unintentionally hilarious film: Miami Connection.

Upcoming

Don’t wait until “one day” to write your first book unless that day is March 28th.

Write and Self-Publish Your First Book With a Step-by-Step Plan with John Lim | Johns Hopkins Events

If writing a book is one of your 2024 goals, take my next writing and self-publishing class, which starts March 28th. It’s through the Johns Hopkins Odyssey program and open to the public (discounts for Hopkins alum).

events.jhu.edu/form/odysseylimterm2spring24

Resources

Teach a man to fish, you know the rest (if you don’t, check these out).

  • Book a coaching call with me on Clarity.

  • Follow me on Goodreads for book recommendations.

  • Check out one of my favorite daily newsletters Morning Brew (affiliate referral link).

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Affiliate disclosure

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