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?How Our Beliefs and Values Shape Our Behavior Have you ever wondered what fuels your motivations and drives your attitude and behavior? You’d like to think it’s all a conscious decision and the result of in-depth rationalization on your part. There’s truth to that, but there are many other levers inside of you that act subconsciously. Among those, two fundamental concepts live at the root of everything. If you understand what these are, you can not only understand yourself and what is holding you back in life but even scratch the surface of understanding the world and its behavior, at least since the rise of consciousness. So, what drives our attitude and behavior at the most basic level? It’s our beliefs and our values. BeliefsBeliefs are the things we hold as being true, regardless if we have any proof of their objective truth. Beliefs are developed and inherited. As we grow up, we learn and take on the views of those around us, especially those who we look up to. Parents, teachers, mentors, colleagues-they all pass their beliefs to us, and we have the leeway to accept them or not. In time, we might turn them into our own beliefs, or reject them. Beliefs are also developed as a result of personal experiences and the feelings we associate with them in those moments. More so, we develop beliefs through our repeated actions. If you are consistently late, you start to believe that you are terrible at time management when, in fact, a better alarm clock and sleep habits could change that label. In time, beliefs shape our identity, and we become them, to some extent. Some examples of beliefs that you might recognize are: God has created the world; if a black cat crosses in front of you, something horrific will happen; man has evolved from primates. As you can notice, some of these beliefs can be backed up by science, while others are clearly not. Scientific research has constantly changed people’s opinions over time by providing proof to the contrary. Think about ideas such as the Earth being flat and the Sun revolving around the Earth. At some point, people believed that. Later on, science proved they were not true and (most people) stopped believing them. Regardless of the level of scientific or empirical prove, most people have a difficult time justifying their beliefs, and frankly, most of us don’t even like to. As a matter of fact, we all would be a lot happier if everyone else around us had the same beliefs as us, or at least, they would not challenge us on them. That, of course, is impossible, and this is precisely what fuels most of the conflicts in the world. There are three main types of beliefs that all of us as humans have: 1) Beliefs about ourselves Things like: I am smart; I am stupid; I am unlucky; I am beautiful; I am strong. Beliefs about ourselves are the ones that drive or stifle our motivation. They could be limiting beliefs (I can’t, I’m not good at, I just don’t have…), or they could be empowering (I can, I do). Beliefs about ourselves grow on us from childhood, and they are very much related to the environment in which we grew up. Individuals who grew up in a close, supportive family who regularly gave them encouragement, will probably grow with a sense of self-confidence, although that is not a rule. The way that different people absorb these environment-driven beliefs or reject them depends, too, on their personality. People who have a naturally questioning mind and curiosity about the world will not accept the beliefs of those around them blindly. Similarly, people with a strong sense of self will not take on what they are told about themselves. Instead, they will develop their own self-image by analyzing their own strengths and weaknesses. What we believe to be true about us is, in fact, our self-image. These are the stories we tell ourselves, and, over time, we become those stories. The beliefs ingrain into our character, and we begin to filter everything through them. Our speech, body language, the show of emotion–all are driven one way or another by those beliefs. “I’m a procrastinator.” “I’m just a bad speller.” You see, in time, beliefs become labels. We plaster them on our forehead and use them to justify our action or inaction. They serve as a mental pacifier to allow us to keep the status quo. Instead of learning how to spell, it’s much easier to label yourself as a lousy speller. Instead of learning how to manage time, saying you are a procrastinator gives you a convenient carte blanche to maintain your existing behavior. Interestingly enough, an objectively true fact might turn into a positive or negative belief depending on the person. For instance, you might be the shortest kid in your class–that would be a fact–but you can think of that as an advantage or a disadvantage. That belief will then drive how you behave as you interpret it as being damning or empowering. 2) Beliefs about others These beliefs are usually either indoctrinated in our heads by our mentors and parents (such as that group of people over there is evil unlike us who are all saints), while others are instilled inside us by our own experiences. For example, if you get mistreated by a police officer once, you might develop a belief that all police are unfair. More extreme experiences can even create phobias. These beliefs drive our attitude and behavior toward others. Beliefs about others are nowhere more prevalent than when you think about politics and religion. Of course, the assumptions about others are also a result and a projection of the beliefs about us. If we see ourselves unlucky because we haven’t had success in our career, we might conclude that anyone else who is successful is, in fact, lucky. 3) Beliefs about life and the world in general Things like “life sucks,” “everything is terrible,” or, just the opposite, “the world is full of possibilities,” are all beliefs we develop about the outside world. We formulate such beliefs about our closest world (like our home or street) all the way up to humanity as a whole. In our heads, although not proud to share it, we slice and dice the world into little boxes, and we have beliefs about each one of them. And, of course, our opinion about a group of people is relative to our own situation and context. People in high socio-economic environments might think that people in low socio-economic backgrounds do not work hard enough, while the latter group might think that the others had everything handed to them on a platter. Although there is a possibility for these thoughts to be objectively true, they are mostly not. We develop these biases toward the world because of an innate need to justify our place in it. While beliefs about others and the world generate our stereotypes and can lead to xenophobia, racism, and sexism, or the literal opposite of all of those, the beliefs about ourselves drive our self-image. Together, they set the boundaries of what and with whom we feel comfortable to speak, to act, to help or ask for help. The gap between our beliefs about others and those about ourselves creates our attitude and, eventually, shapes our belief about our world in general. Think: I am always unlucky, but everyone else around me is always lucky. I am a decent person; however, I am surrounded by people with hidden agendas. You can see how those thoughts combined might shape different types of attitudes in our minds. These thoughts could lead to cynicism and misanthropy, or to kindness and charity. It all depends on the dimension and direction those beliefs take you. Values If beliefs are things that we believe to be true, values are the compass in life that tells us what is right and what is wrong. Our values are often derived from our beliefs, but not always. Values set our standard for what we would and would not do. In other words, what we think is important. However, note that values do not drive our actions; they simply tell us what the right thing to do is and what is the wrong thing to do. Some very root-level values are easy to understand just by their name. For example, honesty, health, and curiosity. Although different people might define them differently, those definitions will be somewhat close. Other values are more difficult to define objectively because they mean vastly different things to different people. For instance, think about the value of Success. In fact, the entire system of values is like a living organism, and the importance you put on each of them affects the others around you. For instance, a person who values honesty and success might not sacrifice honesty for success if they hold honesty higher in their hierarchy. But what if things were reversed? At which point the value of success might push you to override the value of honesty? Look into politics and business, and you’ll find an answer. Similarly, if you hold the value of fitness higher than the value of health, you might do things for your fitness that are damaging to your health. For that, see professional athletes who sacrifice their health for a medal. In the political system of any country, you can see the system of values at play in the candidates’ platforms. An individual who values equality and human rights will have a very different platform than a person who values social hierarchy based exclusively on financial meritocracy. Note that values don’t have to be always positive. Hitler and Stalin had values, but their application of those values resulted in genocide. Values show us what is right and what is wrong, but don’t drive how we act. Our beliefs do. MoralsIf values are our personal compass, morals are the positive compass of society. This means that if you strip away those values that are negative and only keep those values that are positive and a group of people ratifies them, you get moral values or the values of society. EthicsUnlike morals that are created by groups of people to maintain the good/right balance of society, ethics take it one step further. Ethics are rules or norms that had to be established in a particular context to make sure that they are upheld at all times. You hear a lot about a “code of ethics.” Professions, companies, and countries create these kinds of ethical codes. These are explicit rules that let us know what is good and what is bad. Moreover, ethical standards may result in punishments when they are disregarded. If you see a sign that says “do not litter,” that is an ethical rule. To behave ethically, you would not throw your garbage on the ground. If you do, you might be fined. On the other hand, if you pass by the trashcan and see a candy wrapper that somebody else had thrown, you have no ethical obligation to pick it up. However, you do have a moral obligation to do so. If your own set of values is aligned with the moral values of society, you will pick up that wrapper and throw it in the garbage. Defining Your Belief and Value SystemsAnd herein lies the persistent conflict of our society. Our beliefs and values drive our personal attitude and behavior toward the world. The moral values of society and the ethical rules in place limit our actions accordingly. It is in our purview if we want to live according to the morals and ethics of the society where we live. Even if our personal values clash with those of the community, we might still abide by those because we are afraid of repercussions. Although most people in the world do not murder other people, a big part of that is because if you were to get caught, you would go to jail for life. Of course, there’s a subset of people who would never murder no matter what, but the number of those who’d kill would definitely not be zero, hence the need for laws and a justice system. But here is the great news about beliefs and values: they are not inscribed into your DNA. They are learned and have developed and grown on you since your birth. They grew as they are today because of your environment, experiences, events, and decisions in your life. Today, with elevated self-awareness, you can decide to change those beliefs and values and replace them with a new system that is empowering and supportive of your goals and vision for life and for who you want to be. So, to summarize, your beliefs are ideas that you hold to be true. A lot of these beliefs and your life circumstances define your values or what is important to you in life. Your values and beliefs will determine your attitude, meaning how you treat others and yourself, and how you approach any situation. Lastly, all three will define your behavior or how you act. Therefore, in the end, your action is directly influenced by your beliefs, values, and attitudes. By digging deep into your own character and understanding your beliefs, values, and attitudes, you can determine why you act a certain way. And the best part is, you can go the other way as well. If you don’t like how you act in a specific context, you can identify the root beliefs and values and shift them to allow for different actions. This means that you must first decide what you want to do, which implies either creating a vision for yourself or simply setting up goals to achieve in the future. Then, break those goals into their small parts and identify if your current set of values and beliefs is supportive of those goals. If they aren’t, you simply cannot accomplish them. That’s because your decisions and attitude will not drive the right behavior that would lead to those goals’ accomplishment. Only when your beliefs and values are aligned with your goals, you can be successful. As I emphasized above, beliefs and values are learned; they are not hard-coded into our bodies in any way. We learn to love or hate others. We learn to love or hate ourselves. All are driven by our life experiences and by merely being a human. You’ve lived some of these for so long, and you’ve practiced them, perhaps unconsciously, so much so that some of them seem habitual and drive your rituals. But when you take a more thoughtful approach to decide what your beliefs and values should be based on your vision for your life, things change. Your attitude shifts, and with it, your behavior, and, ultimately, your outcome. This is powerful stuff because it’s an actual lever we have at our disposal for changing our life. The problem is, both beliefs and values have strong momentum and seem glued to our character. We almost feel like they make us who we are. But once you come to the realization that this idea is simply not true, you can begin the process of changing them. Soon, you will realize that shifting those massive internal frameworks is a long and painful process. But it’s not impossible. You have to accept the truth about your ability to change it and also to embrace the pain of going through the process. To begin, ask yourself: What do I believe about myself?How has that prevented me from taking action in the past?What do I want to become, and what do I want to accomplish in the future?What do I have to believe to get there?What is important to me?What is my biggest vision for life?What must be important to me so that I can get there?By doing this exercise, you can begin to change your system of beliefs and values, and shift it to a new system that supports your goals and your vision. Good luck on your journey. It’s a heavy road, riddled with hurdles, but at the end awaits a better version of you. Go and find that you, or, even better, go and CREATE that you.Getting into a Peak State with an Effective Morning Routine Everybody talks about morning rituals and habits nowadays and, as a recent convert (about one year), here’s my take on it. So it’s not just a pure hop on the old wagon on my end, it’s also the result of one full year of personal experience through trials and tribulations with failures and wins. I won’t just regurgitate what I’ve read and researched; instead, I will tell you my take on it based on my own experiments and practices, on what worked and what didn’t.At a high-level, I’ve always considered myself a morning person. Not a particularly effective morning person, but just a morning person in the sense that I’ve always been quick to wake up as soon as the alarm rang and be ready to do something—anything—versus needing time to “wake up.”In the later years, after studying my sleep patterns, I realized that my REM and deep sleep often occur at the beginning of my cycles and I’m almost always in light sleep just around the time that I wake up. I believe this is helpful and can be trained over time by having a consistent bedtime and wake-up time.The point is, I am a person prone to at least being able to wake up early and feel like a functioning individual. I know this might not be the case for everyone, so keep that in mind.What is a routine?Routines, habits, or rituals are things that we do on an automatic pilot. When you wake up and trudge to the bathroom and pick up your toothbrush and clean your teeth, that’s a habit. You’ve done it so many times, you almost don’t even think about it and you don’t forget to do it. It’s embedded in your daily life.This is extremely?powerful because we need to brush our teeth so our breath doesn’t stink and our teeth don’t fall off after a while. So, the routine enables us to perform these activities automatically which frees our brain for thinking of more complex things and making decisions in other areas that require more thoughtfulness. This is important because the number of decisions you make in a day affects your brain’s capacity and the result of the diminishing return is very important. The more decisions you make, decision fatigue sets in and our judgment begins to be faulty.So, to avoid all that, it’s best to set several decisions ahead of time, like brushing your teeth daily and let the body develop them into habits.Now, you might say at this point: wait a minute, I am not a routine kind of person. I don’t have a morning routine and I’m not willing to create one. Let me challenge you on the first point. You DO have a morning routine. Everything that you do in the morning IS your routine.What I am advocating here is instead of having a routine driven by years of fixed-mindset beliefs and the needs of others, to have a morning routine designed with intent by you and for you. A routine that you deliberately create to help you get the most out of your day and live a more fulfilling life in the long run.Now, on the flip side, please understand that a good routine, no matter how good, is not in itself?going to change your life. A good routine should weave naturally with your overall life plan and it will contribute to adding structure and clarity and weed out non-essential things from your life. It will help you become a more organized individual and it will help you accomplish more. But don‘t simply?look at it as “the” thing that will transform you. It’s a piece of the puzzle, albeit an important one. Just keep it in perspective.Why is morning important?The morning is important for several reasons:You are rested, both physically and mentally. Sometimes not emotionally if you carry a lot of anxiety and stress from work or personal life, but at least two out of three is a win. As you wake up and move throughout your day, you will get tired in all aspects, so it’s important to use effectively the time when you are most prone to condition yourself into the way you want your day to go.It’s usually a quiet time where you can afford to be with yourself. I say usually because there are exceptions, especially when you have small children. But generally,?it is probably the quietest and most tranquil part of anyone’s day. This is one reason why?you should?wake up a little earlier than you’d like to. If you wake up before everybody else, you have the time for yourself and you don’t have to feel guilty either.The way you set your mind at the beginning of the day will drive your attitudes and behaviors throughout the day. If you start in a peak state, there’s enough room to burn that energy. If you start at the bottom… you’ll be crawling.Your body is hungry in all aspects (physically and mentally) and very receptive to being fed (however, this doesn’t necessarily?mean food and we’ll discuss this soon.)Now, before you get all “but I’m just not a morning person” on me, let me make one thing clear: having a morning routine doesn’t automatically mean waking up early or even earlier. It simply means using the morning from the moment you wake up until you start your usual activity for the day in an effective manner. Your routine should not depend solely on your wake up time. This being said, of course, waking up earlier will provide you with additional time to perform your rituals, but in as of itself, morning doesn’t have to be early. It’s whatever you make of it.How to get into the peak state?The peak state is a place where you are at your best physically, mentally, and emotionally. When those three connect at their highest, you have the most capacity to go about your day and accomplish your daily goals with a sense of joy and fulfillment. But how do you get there??First things first: Things you should AVOID first thing in the morning?Don’t snooze your alarmThis is tough for most people and it gets me sometimes, too. Think about what snoozing the alarm means: the night before you made a promise to yourself to wake up at a certain time. By snoozing the alarm, you begin your day by losing a bit of trust in yourself, eroding your self-confidence. You fail at the very first thing that day by pressing that button. Don’t let the first action of your day be an act of procrastination!Eliminate input of useless informationAlthough you slept during the night, your brain worked relentlessly. It organized all the information from the previous day, made new connections, committed information to your long-term memory, derived new ideas based on the new information. When you wake up, although it seems like your brain might be void, there’s a lot of new information that just sits there for you to become conscious about and process. This means that first thing in the morning, you need to let that information OUT and not pile new information on top of it. So, the most important thing to not do in the morning is to add a lot of new information to your brain that doesn’t contribute to its growth and acts as an immediate distraction. This means do not:pick up your phone and read the newscheck social mediaturn on the TV or radio?In other words, refrain from giving your brain new things to think about, be worried about, get anxious or even excited about. Doing that, you will bury deep down what is already on the fringes of your brain.Don’t read your emailEspecially your work email. This is a hard one for most people and it was very difficult for me because I am a people-pleaser and knowing that there might be emails out there that I haven‘t read gives me anxiety. But, it took me a while to realize that reading my work email first thing in the morning accomplished only one thing for me: gave me anxiety about the things I have to do and not be able to do anything about them?right then and there. That’s because in the morning I have to get ready to leave, get my kids to school, etc. How is it helpful to know that somebody needs something ASAP and wants to talk to me as soon as I walk in? Between now and that time, it does nothing. I can’t change it or answer it right away, but now I have to run my morning with that thing in my head, deterring me from everything I need to do and making me unable to focus or be present. The email hijacks my brain, literally.Don’t complain.If you open your eyes and the first thing you do is to bitch about everything around you from the weather to the president, you will set up your mind in that negative space from early morning. Those thoughts will come, but don’t let them vocalize. Don’t really quash them either?because that’s avoidance. Instead, switch focus. Understand that there are things outside of your control, like the weather, and no matter how much you complain, they won’t change. But you have the option to choose your focus. A properly designed morning routine will steer you toward the important things in your life. The truth is that it takes a LOT for us to feel happy but very little to feel sad or annoyed. A simple crappy thing and our whole day is upside down. The morning routine will counterbalance this propensity for bitching and in time, you will condition yourself to think otherwise.Don’t eat a huge breakfast.As you may know, I am an adept of intermittent fasting. I understand that many people are not, however, even if you are not intermittent fasting, spiking your insulin levels first thing in the morning is not a good idea. The idea that breakfast is the most important meal of the day has been debunked years ago. There are other ways to fuel your energy than with a triple-stack of pancakes dripping with sugary sauce.Be certain it’s deliberateDon’t setup an early wake-up time for no reason at all. Waking up early just to be up early and not having a plan on how to spend that time effectively?is just as bad. Nobody gets medals for just waking up early. If you don’t have a plan, you’re better off sleeping in. Just wanting to be trendy is not good enough of a reason.Second things second: Things you should DO in the morning?Stick to the wake-up timeOkay, so you didn’t snooze the alarm, but did you get out of bed? When your pre-defined wake-up time arrives, get out of bed. Right away. If you need to use tricks like putting your alarm far away from the bed, do it. If you need to reward yourself with candy every time, do it. Whatever you need to do to get out of bed within one minute after your alarm rang, just f&%#@ do it!Keep a consistent wake-up timeMaintain the same wake-up time throughout the week, including weekends. In sleep theory, there’s something called?the circadian rhythm which is the sleep-wake cycle that repeats every 24 hours. Based on this cycle your body adapts to when it needs to go to the bathroom, when it needs food, etc. During the sleeping period, you go through several cycles of sleep as well: deep sleep, REM sleep, light sleep. Once you keep your pattern steady for a while, your body adapts and learns when to put these cycles in to optimize your sleep and make sure you awake slowly out of light sleep. But, if you keep shifting your bedtime and wake-up time every day, your body can never catch up. That’s why it’s important to keep the same schedule.SmileThis sounds silly, but there are multiple studies that show how smiling releases cortisol and endorphins. Instead of complaining about things first thing in the morning, stretch your hands up and smile for a while.Brush your teethDoh, pretty?obvious but do it as soon as you are out of bed. That bad smell in your mouth, that’s bacteria that grew overnight. You need to wash that out ASAP before you drink anything (and thus swallowing the bacteria).Drink waterHydrate your body with water. Drink a full glass of water with some lemon juice in it. Your body needs some liquid fuel. Avoid filling up on coffee or tea right away. First, give your body water.Breathing ExcercisesOur body needs oxygen. Of course you breathe all the time, otherwise, you’d be dead. However, breathing exercises are a sure-way of calming down and priming your brain as soon as your day starts. You can combine this with meditation or yoga. If you want to experiment with something more extreme, check out Tony Robbin’s priming exercises.Write down your thoughtsPush all thoughts and ideas out of your head to create space. This is where journaling comes in. I know many people hate this idea and it’s really?hard to implement. I’ve struggled with it for years and I’ve tried every single method including the one-line per day method. But journaling first thing in the morning is important because as I mentioned above, overnight your brain was still thinking. As you wake up (and hopefully avoid adding new useless and distracting information as explained above) and you push thoughts on paper they crystallize and become real. In addition, you create space in your mind. One technique that I’ve been using successfully over the past 3 weeks is the Morning Pages. It’s a tool created by Julia Cameron and explained in her book, The Artist’s Way, which I highly recommend regardless if you consider yourself an artist or not. You can read more about the morning pages here, but in a nutshell, they are three pages of a notebook or journal written by hand, not typed. You are not supposed to read them later, critique them, or show them to anybody else. They are just meant to release all the stuff lingering on the fringes of your mind at that moment. Of course, you can substitute this with the regular practice of journaling. Simply write down your reflections or ideas about the day ahead of you.GratitudeThis is another theme that you hear a lot on lately. It’s a hard thing to implement because I believe deep down inside we all think that?we show as much gratitude as we should. But, the reality is we don’t. It requires practice which is where this part of your morning ritual comes in. At the beginning of each day, pick one item you are grateful for. It can be an object, idea, event, or person in your life. Anything. Write it down and allow yourself for a minute to just experience that gratitude. This is the polar opposite of the “don’t complain” above. Both feelings will exist inside of you, but by choosing to focus on the positive one rather than the negative one, you allow your mind to be in that positive space. Some people recommend choosing three things to be grateful for, out of which two should be really small. That’s because we are used to only be grateful for the big things in our lives and we forget the little things. Practicing micro-gratitude is a way to establish that routine in your life which will result in you having more fulfilling experiences.Intense Physical ExerciseIn the words of Tony Robbins, emotion comes from motion. Morning exercise, especially when done in a fasted state, is the best way to put yourself in a peak state physically. I recently published an article where I talk about how simple it is to create a home gym. But you don’t even have to do that. You can run, you can bike, you can use any of the home-based body-only exercise routines available on sites like Beachbody on Demand. And you need not spend over 20 to 45 minutes on exercise. The health benefits of exercise, in general,?are huge and nobody denies them. Why not put them to use in the first hour of being awake? Note that I called this “intense” physical exercise. Make it count!MeditateAt least for 10-15 minutes. I’ve personally struggled with this one a lot. I’ve never believed in meditation and its benefits. Quite simply, I thought it was stupid. About one year ago, my wife introduced me to the Headspace app and I’ve been using it ever since. It has helped me a lot with focus, being present, and learning how to rest my mind. I strongly suggest you give it a shot. Combined with breathing exercises it can make a world of difference in your day-to-day attitude and ability to cope.Review your plan for the dayThis is a great time to review your daily calendar or to create it. If you’ve planned your day the night before (which you should!), review your schedule. Get clear on what your priorities are for the day. Make sure your plan is still realistic and be very aware of when and what you have to do today and what are the top priorities.Advance one goal or priority taskMake one step, even if a tiny one, towards your main goal or highest priority task of the week. This is a critical item. All audacious dreams can be broken down into smaller steps which over time?will carry you toward the big goal. Regardless if you have created a full life vision for yourself or you create smaller weekly goals, making one step in that direction each day is critical. If you are writing a novel, put some words on paper. If you have a home project, do something with it. If you need to research your vacation, do that. If you must pay your bills, pay one of them. Whatever it is, start your day with one tiny accomplishment toward your priority for the day.ConnectNow that your personal morning routine is complete, you should?find yourself in a very good place. Perhaps you won’t be in the peak state every single time, but you are in a good place. Your mind is clear, your plan for the day is defined, you are physically ready and you have a high sense of self-confidence. You are great. Now, connect with your loved ones. If you live with your family, hug your wife or husband. Kiss them. Hug your children and tell them how much you love them. Your cup is full now, give to those around you, unconditionally and wholeheartedly, demanding nothing in return. If you live alone, make a point later in the day to connect with your neighbors or coworkers.?Now, imagine if you could do this every single morning of every single day. Would your life be any different? I think it would. Feel free to pick and choose?from these items so long as you design your routine to touch all four life’s dimensions: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. I also suggest creating these routines step by step. Maybe introduce one item at a time on a weekly basis and see how it goes. Build it to your needs but make sure it’s deliberate and there is a deep sense of WHY. Don’t just do it because I said it’s cool to do it. You must know why and then the how will come to you.Additional tips and ideas1) Remember that the morning routine begins with your evening routine. Set up your morning in the evening. If you workout, prepare your workout clothes. If you drink coffee, make sure everything is set the night before. If you go to work, choose your clothes in advance. Prepare your calendar. Everything you do in the evening, including going to bed at the right time, will contribute to a successful morning.2) Use a?tool to track your different morning habits. I use the Strides app but anything will do, even a piece of paper with a checklist. It serves not only as a reminder, but it also helps with establishing a trend and monitoring your progress. This simple fact will motivate you and act as a confidence booster, especially if properly combined with a system of rewards.3) Do your best to bring all the spaces where you operate in the morning to a neutral state. This means, whatever you messed up, make an effort to put it all back in its place. I said above that the morning begins with the night before. It actually?begins with the morning before. If you leave a mess after yourself, you are much more likely to not stick to your rituals the next day because now you need to spend extra time fixing things. So, make cleaning a part of your morning ritual.4) Your morning ritual is an integral part of the process of?investing in yourself. If you are the kind of?person who thinks investing in themselves is selfish or self-centered, think again. Investing in yourself and putting yourself in a peak state means that you are a more effective person in all of your roles. Stephen Covey says that to be an effective interdependent person (relationships), you have to first be an effective independent person. So, don’t skip on your morning ritual because it makes you feel like?you shut off the world. You’re supposed to, for a little while.I’m always interested to hear how other people manage their mornings. Please leave your comments below and share this post on social media. Thank you!ResourcesOn GratitudeThe Science of Gratitude (audio)How Gratitude Changes Your BrainOn Meditation20 Scientific Reasons to Start Meditating Today141 Benefits of MeditationOn Sleep CyclesNatural Pattern of SleepYour Sleep Cycle RevealedOn Morning PagesWhat are Morning Pages?My Keto Journey – Exercise for Health It’s been a while since I’ve written on the subject of health, although I haven’t stopped experimenting and keeping up with my process since the last article. If you haven’t read my articles before, I have started on a very aggressive Keto + Intermittent Fasting + Exercise path in April 2018. Between then and now, I’ve written two blog posts to document my journey. Here are the links in case you want to check them out:My Keto Journey to Weight Loss and a Healthy LifestyleMy Keto Journey – Intermittent Fasting ResultsIn this article, I will tackle the exercise portion of my plan of action.Before diving in, let me explain that over the past ten years I have constantly considered myself to be an active person. I’ve run races including half-marathons and one full marathon, I’ve done several workout programs and I’ve been a constant visitor to the gym or on the running trail. In addition, during my tenure at Next Jump, I also enjoyed a 24×7 gym in our office.This being said, I’ve never been able to get the results I’ve always wanted. I have a heavy metabolism; I accumulate fat around my waist fast, and I am a hard-gainer, so it’s difficult for me to gain a lot of muscle fast.This being said, once I started the Ketogenic diet back in 2018, everything has changed. Once I added Intermittent Fasting things only sped up. So, by and large, I am attributing my weight loss and the general improvement in my health by 75% to my nutrition. However, during the same time, I continued to experiment with different types of workouts.The question I’ve asked myself a few times was: is exercise truly needed? Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer. I don’t have the drive to experiment dropping my workout routine to test out what happens. In addition, after over one year of waking up at 6:00 am and then 5:30 am (last 10 months), the morning workout has become such a ritual for me, that I almost cannot fathom starting my morning without it.So, from that perspective, this is how I am rationalizing my need for exercise in the morning:It gives me a reason to rise up early and start movingAt the end of the exercise, I feel extremely satisfied for having completed such a hard task first thing in the morningIt helps with toning my muscles and improving my mobility and flexibilityIt contributes to my heart health (I suffer from high blood pressure)It puts me in a sort of peak state physicallySo, although I cannot link directly the results of my workouts to my overall weight-loss and health, the above reasons are good enough for me to keep going.Exercise TypesOver the past year, I’ve been cycling between the following types of workouts:Interval Training (as part of a video workout)HIIT (as part of a video workout)Weight Training (both on my own and through guided workouts)Running (3 / 6 / 10 miles)Yoga (balance, strength, power, stretch)When it comes to the guided workouts, these are the ones I have used over the past year. I am not affiliated with these; I am just linking them here because they are awesome:T25 with Shaun T22 Minute Hard Corps with Tony HortonRev Abs with Brett HoebelBody Beast with Sagi KalevHammer & Chisel with Sagi Kalev & Autumn CalabreseTransform:20 with Shaun TP90X with Tony HortonMethod MakiaGymnastic BodiesTo get a holistic approach to my fitness, I have decided to split my year into four separate sections of CUT / GAIN stacked one after the other. So, it would go something like this:Q1 – Jan-Mar – CUTQ2 – Apr-Jun – GAINQ3 – Jul-Sep – CUTQ4 – Oct-Dec – GAINIt doesn’t have to be that exact, and it hasn’t for me, but you get the idea. Here’s what happens in each of these cycles:CUT:Mostly HIIT and Interval Training for max shred (+running)Full Keto diet (macros C: 5% / P: 20% / F: 75%)Intermittent fasting 5 days / weekWeight-loss stack from Legion AthleticsAbout 5-10% weekly average calorie deficitThe idea is to lose most weight and very little muscleGAIN:Mostly heavyweight training + YogaModified Keto – mixed with Slow Carb (macros C: 10% / P: 30% / F: 60%)Intermittent Fasting 3 days per weekWeight-gain stack from Legion Athletics (incl. Creatine & Whey)About 5-10% weekly average calorie surplusThe idea is to gain most muscle and only very little fatBy alternating three months of intense cutting followed by three months of intense gain, my idea is that over time the proportion of lean muscle to fat will increase in the favor of muscles. So far, I had a lot more success with the cutting and not so much success with the gaining of muscle. I’ve gained a lot of strength and power, meaning I can lift more and I have increased my grip strength and resistance, but not so much when it comes to the overall muscle on my body.Right now, I just finished my gain period, and I started my cutting zone, but for my next session, I will try Athlean-X’s Mass Size program and see where it takes me.Overall, this is how my weight oscillated over time:You can see the steep curve of weight loss when I introduced keto for the first time, followed shortly after by intermittent fasting. After that, I basically kept that lifestyle and experimented with adding exercise. You can observe the up-down-up-down curve as I am going through the various phases of cut and gain, while still remaining within the confines of the 170 lb – 180 lb which is where I would like to be.In terms of fat percentage which is the bigger factor in my plan, I have gone down from 25.5% to 18.5%, although I’ve touched a min of 15.5% during the most cutting phase. I hope that during my current cut cycle I will get down to 15% again. The goal is to get to 15% and hover around there. I don’t think I could go lower, although I might try to push for 12%… We’ll see.Timing of ExerciseAnother critical thing I’ve done in the last 7 months was to workout fasted. Initially, I experimented a bit with taking BCAAs or EAAs before workouts (Leangains-style) but upon further research I have concluded that these break my fast so I abandoned the idea. Given that I am fully fat adapted at this point, my body can sustain very easily even a tough workout after a full 12 hours of fasting.So, in general, I eat my last meal at 8:00 pm the night before, and by 6:00 am the next day, I am doing my exercise. My first meal follows at around 12:00 pm. Initially, I was afraid that putting so much strain on my body might create issues and imbalances, but that was not the case. In fact, I am honestly saying that at this point in time I feel at my peak from a physical standpoint. The combination of workouts and fasting is working really well and I do not intend to take a break from it.I feel like my recovery is fast, the bouts of fatigue don’t last that long and overall, I sleep better and wake up more rested. So, all signs point to this regimen working quite well. I am going to continue experimenting with this for at least one more year before I cast the final verdict. One critical point will be at the end of this month when I will do my annual blood tests and well visit with my doctor (which by the way, you should absolutely not skip no matter how much you hate needles).SupplementsI mentioned that I am using the supplements from Legion Athletics (fat loss stack). The pre-workout powder with Beta-Alanine is a great way to start the morning. It makes you feel super itchy and irritated as though you are getting an allergy attack, but once you start exercising, it all goes away. In the end, this is supposedly helping with fat burn during the workout.After the exercise I take their recovery drink which is carb-free and contains creatine.During the day, for an extra boost of energy, I drink Bang sodas which are sugar-free and packed with CoQ10, creatine, caffeine, and BCAA (I don’t drink it during fasting times).TrackingTo track my progress, I’ve implemented a system where I take the following measurements:Weekly weightcaliper fat reading (this is the caliper + tape measure I use)DEXA reader for body fat calculationwaist, chest, arms, legs, hipsblood pressure (I Use the Omron 10 Series)EKG (KardiaMobile – it works with the Omron app together with the blood pressure machine for easy tracking)Daily weightcaliper readingFor weight tracking purposes, I am averaging the daily readings for the week. I’ve noticed an interesting fact: my weight on Monday and Tuesday is always about 5% more than the rest of the week. Sunday and Saturday seems to be quite random, while Wednesday through Friday it decreases. I believe that by looking at the weekly average, I am getting a much better reading that is more relevant to the trend. I do the same for the caliper reader to assess the % of body fat.EquipmentAs I’ve been working through my habits and rituals and figuring out ways to make them easier and more convenient, particularly since I’ve read Atomic Habits by James Clear, I have created a little corner gym in my basement. It wasn’t a huge investment and I’ve accumulated the objects over time. I only use a space of about 12 by 15 feet in one side of the basement and I wanted to share my setup hoping it might inspire some of you to do the same. It’s definitely cheaper than having a gym membership and the commute from the first floor to the basement is crazy short…First things first – you need a good set of weights. Because I was trying to save space, I have purchased the Bowflex weights. There are several others out there, but I liked this one. In addition, I also bought an adjustable kettle bell from Amazon. Together with a handful of really old weights, this is good enough for upper body weight training.Because some exercise programs require a bar and because it’s a very versatile piece of equipment, I invested in one straight one and one curled. I use the latter mostly for bicep curls. And, of course, there’s the yoga ball which comes in handy quite often.If I am to recommend an absolutely needed piece of equipment, and possible one of the more expensive of all, it would be a good workout bench. Make sure it’s the kind that can go full upright and also decline. The one I got is also from Bowflex. There’s nothing fancy about it–it just does the job. If you get the bench, the dumbbells and the barbells, you are well on your way to a home gym. As you can see from this pic, it all fits in just a small corner.?Next, I got myself a variety of resistance bands. Bands are a good alternative to weights and also can be used extensively in conditioning and recovery. Also, the force the bands puts on the muscles is different from the weights so I think this is a cool tool to have in your arsenal.This is my workout “cabinet” which looks a bit of a mess right now, but let me pinpoint a few things that I think you could get:a forearm resistance machinepush-up helpersWeight lifting beltYoga mats and yoga blocksFoam roller(And, indeed, you can spot gymnastic rings over in the top corner. I’ve installed them because I wanted to do a program from Gymnastic Bodies, but I never got to it. So, I still have them, but haven’t used them.)And, of course, if you have the space, make sure to add one pull-up bar. In this image you can see my static bar (you cannot remove it) together with a pull-up assistant band which is really good if you are struggling with pull-ups (like me…)Of course, since I am doing a lot of video-based workouts, having a TV in the same place is paramount. On the wall, I have plastered a few workout posters. You can buy these off Amazon for about $20 each. I know… a bit expensive, but I thought it was worth it. The ones I have are: Band Workout, Kettlebell Workout, and Dumbbell Workout.One more thing that I find very useful (and essential if you do Shaun T’s Transform:20 program) is a step stool. The one in the image has three height levels, and it’s pretty sturdy yet not very heavy.Last, but not least, I have accumulated a bunch of recovery tools. These are massage devices, foam rollers, balls, pressure pointers, and so on. Rest and recovery are very important parts of the general fitness development and some of these gadgets really come in handy.So, that is my entire setup which allows me to do any kind of exercise from heavy weights to cardio and yoga and stretching. I can’t do things like power squats with the bar on my shoulders, but I’m not at that level yet, anyway. My point is that with not a huge investment, you can create a small corner in your room which will make the habit of exercise easier.Well, that’s about it so far. In my next health post, I am planning to present a lot more data as I am currently working on a master Excel sheet that can extract and display all Fitbit and MyFitnessPal data in one comprehensive dashboard… But that is a story for a different time. Until then, happy exercising!?Best Regards,Iulian??Creating an Effective Author Website In this day and age, pretty much everything exists in some shape or form somewhere on the web. Or the Cloud; however you want to call it. Long gone are the days when we had to seek information away from our keyboards and, most recently, away from our phones. Everything is out there. And if you are a writer, you should be out there, too.This article will guide you through the process of creating a web presence that is both effective and easy to manage. Note that I say web presence because your website is just a piece of your overall persona on the Internet. In this article, I will refer to your “website” as the place where you have:Information about yourselfDetails about your completed worksInformation about your work in progressA way for people to contact youThis is the rather static part of your web presence. It’s static because once you put it out there, there’s little you have to update unless significant changes occur in your bio or you produce new work. The scope of this article won’t cover the rest of your web presence, which includes your social networking and your blog. I will discuss those in a future article.Should I Even Have a Website?Let’s start at the beginning: why do you need a website?I think that a published author’s career can be quantified as successful or not based on the number of published works and the number of sales. You might argue that this is not the only way to value art. I agree, but, at the end of the day, writing is an art, but it’s also a business if you truly want to be a writer full-time. It’s really not that different from being a plumber who really enjoys fitting pipes. In the end, he/she still needs to sell their services to acquire money so that they can continue with their craft.It’s not any different for writers.But here comes the conundrum: well, I want to be a better writer, so I need to write a lot. I have to spend all my free time writing more, getting critiqued, improving my craft. I don’t have time to put any efforts into my website.I believe that is the wrong mindset. If you are serious about becoming a successful published author, you must re-frame that mindset and think about your website as an extension of yourself. It’s a means to communicate outwardly. And, as much as you don’t like to hear this, the efforts you need to put in your web presence are, counter-intuitively, inversely proportional to your success.The more novice you are, the more efforts you need to put in. The more successful you are, the less. And I am talking about your direct efforts measured in time and energy. As you become more successful, the overall web presence will increase, but you will no longer give it your time and energy. Instead, you will give it your money, which by now you have, by hiring experts to do it for you.In this article, I am addressing mostly those writers who fall into the beginning side of things. These are:People who haven’t written anything yet, but have a strong desire to become writers and published authorsPeople who have written some stuff, participated in writer’s groups, and/or took some writing classesPeople who have published some short works in paying or non-paying marketsPeople who have finished one or more novels and are seeking agents or editorsIf you fall into one of these categories and you don’t have a website yet, this article is for you. If you do have a website already, reading this article might give you ideas on how to improve it. I am going to approach this quite scientifically by splitting the process into four separate buckets and each bucket into three phases, as shown in the graph below.Ideally, you might want to complete those in order, but in reality, there’s a lot you can do in parallel to save time. Without further ado, let’s start with the first topic.Basics – essential things to get your website up and runningYour Domain Name – Your e-IdentityWe’ll start with a domain name. Once again, everything today is on the web. Every little thing has a website and a domain name. Domain names are being trademarked, and some of them become quite expensive because of the revenue associated with them. For example, did you know that the domain name was sold for $90 million dollars? It’s true. Having your own, personalized domain name is paramount currently, and this rule absolutely applies to writers. A couple of best practices for domain names:Make them short and simple, even if your name is very complexMake them about who you AREHint about what you DOProbably the best way to accomplish this is to incorporate your name and either one of the words “author” or “writer.” Depending on how long and how unique your name is, you may have to be a little creative here. Most likely, the days when you could actually use just your full name (or pen name) in a domain name are long gone. But, if you do have a unique name, make sure it’s not too complicated.For instance, , although representing a lovely name, might be quite hard for people to use. If you have doubts, run the name by a few friends or members of a writer group. Remember, this will become your brand so think long-term. The idea is that you should be able to easily spell the domain name to a person and he/she should be able to write it down and reproduce it later without error.The second thing to ponder about: to .com or not to .com?Traditionally, .com domain names had been designed to be used by COMpanies. However, since the early days of the net, the .com domain has become the staple of standard, used by virtually everyone. The truth is, in the past, we had no other options. Much later, things like .net and .info appeared. And then, when people didn’t care for those that much, they became an up-sell. As a matter of fact, when you go to a domain name provider to purchase a .com domain, they will try to offer you the .net and .info domains for a big discount. I personally think it’s worthless to get more than one. Stick with one.In the last few years, more interesting domain names have appeared. Things like JohnDoe.Writer or JohnDoe.Author are now possible. Some of them are quite cool, I’ll be honest. For instance, GeorgeRRMartin.ninja is currently available. Go ahead… get it.Just kidding. Let’s get back on track…My personal preference: stick with the .com domain. At this point in time, if you ask anyone about a website, their mind goes automatically to . So, I think a .COM domain is the safest choice.Here is one exception to the rule of getting only one domain name: if you do wind up getting one of those vanity domain names, like something.Writer, then you should absolutely also get the domain and make the latter point to the former. This will ensure that people who automatically type the .com after every address still get to your website and not to an error page.Also, very important: before fuly committing to a domain name, make sure that there aren’t others out there that could be mistaken for yours. You want to avoid confusion. Don’t just add a letter in the middle of the domain name assuming that it will make it unique. Research until you find the right match for you. That’s not that easy if your name is John Smith, I get it, but work on it. Be creative. After all, you are a writer!Once you get the domain name, that will become the central point of your web presence, and everything will be channeled through that domain name.Here are a few places to acquire your domain name:1 & 1As you will see later on, you can always purchase your domain name directly from your website’s hosting provider.Platform – What will your website run on?Once you have your domain name secured, it’s time to decide what platform to use. And why are we putting the horse before the carriage, you ask? Meaning, why are we choosing a platform before we choose the hosting? That’s because you need to know the platform before you can select the hosting type.There are several options when it comes to the type of platform you need:Visual Website BuildersSelf-hosted and developed from scratchContent Management SystemsWebsite BuildersA website builder is a platform that is designed for people who don’t want to dab into any code whatsoever. These are platforms that are usually extremely easy to use and provide a drag and drop type of interface and come loaded with many templates. Most of these platforms come in a free version and a paid version.Here are the differences:FreeYou can’t use your domain name. Your link will be something like johndoe..Your site is branded by the provider. This means you will always see something like “made with XYZ.”You are limited in the number of templates and tools you can use.PaidYou can use your own domain name.There is no other branding than your own.You have unlimited access to templates and tools.Here is a list of such providers:WixuKitIM Creator / XPRSWeeblySite123UCraftI will give you my personal opinion about website builders: they are limited, and in time you will find that those limitations start to matter. If you truly want to put something together fast, this is the way to go. The creators of these sites have put lots of efforts into making them extremely user-friendly and pleasant looking. They are all what’s called WYSIWYG (“What you see is what you get”). This is great for a start, but it’s not a viable long-term solution. Also, to fully take advantage of them, you must use the paid version anyway.I highly recommend that you avoid website builders and go with a Content Management System, described further down.Self-Hosted and DevelopedThis is the way to go for the programmers out there. It requires purchasing a server hosting platform and developing your website from scratch. Although this is by far the most feature-rich version, it is also extremely expensive, time-consuming, and requires a lot of programming knowledge to create and maintain. I would only recommend this to avid programmers who have lots of time, no family, and no friends. So, skip to the next one.Content Management SystemsThis is the best of both worlds. Content Management Systems (aka CMS) are platforms that work on top of a hosted environment and provide you with an advanced editor for building your site. It’s a few levels higher than a website builder in both features and complexity, and a few levels lower than self-developed because you are constrained to the capabilities of the CMS. It’s really the sweet spot where you want to be.Most robust CMS systems come packed with different features that collaborate across three different categories: web content management, blog publishing, and communities. So, this means it encompasses the bare-bones management of the information you put up on the web, a platform to share news and information, and also a place to collaborate and engage with the community.Here is a list of the most popular CMS systems as of today:WordPressJoomla!DrupalTYPO3MagentoAdobe DreamweaverIt’s my personal assessment that at this point in time, WordPress is by far the best choice. Although it was initially created to be a blogging platform, it has evolved over time into a robust web content management system. It is easy to use, full of features, constantly updated, and there’s a huge marketplace providing templates, extensions and tools, and help.For the remainder of this article, I am going to assume that you have selected WordPress, but note that most of the best practices presented apply just as much to any of the other CMS systems.To host or not to host?Just like with the website builders, the CMS systems come in two flavors: hosted by the CMS provider and hosted by you. There’s a very important distinction here. In the world of WordPress, it’s presented as follows: – this is where the CMS hosts the website for – this is where you download the software to host the website yourselfI know this already sounds a little scary: downloading software, installing… But, brace yourself. It’s not that difficult, as you will see in a minute.As you have guessed already, I highly recommend that you go with the self-hosted version. Both versions are free, but the self-hosted version will require you to purchase hosting from a hosting provider.When making a decision, consider that when you allow the CMS company to host your data, there are several drawbacks:You cannot use your own domain name. Your site will be something like johndoe.. However, you can pay a fee to WordPress that allows you to link your domain name to it, but that process is also quite complex.You are limited in what you can do to customize your theme and site’s look and feel.For now, I will assume that you have selected WordPress in a self-hosted environment. So, let’s talk about hosting.What is hosting, first of all? Have you ever heard this meme that goes: I just realized that The Cloud is nothing but someone else’s computer?Well, it’s true… Every website that you see out there is actually hosted physically on a computer called server. Servers are provided by hosting providers and made available for users. But, in reality, they are high-capacity computers that sit somewhere on a rack inside a large secured room with redundant power and a huge bandwidth for Internet access.So, when you “buy hosting,” you are actually renting a piece of a server (most servers are shared), and you are granted the right to use that server as if it were your own computer. Once you get access to that server, you are assigned a fixed IP address that identifies that server as being your own. But, don’t worry: you don’t need to know any of this. This is the beauty of WordPress, as you will see in just a bit.The Domain Name Server (DNS) that the provider uses gives it the ability to connect the domain name that you purchased to your IP address. For instance, let’s take the website of author John Scalzi. If you google it, you will find that it is: . The domain name of this website address is “.” If you go to a “whois” service like and type this domain in there, you will see in the results that this website is hosted by the web hosting service provider called “1&1.”I don’t mean to overload you with information, but I thought this is some cool information to keep in the back of your mind. But in reality, all of that is not visible to you, and you can fully ignore it. The hosting companies provide powerful visual tools that allow you to manage your hosting with very little knowledge about what goes on behind the scenes.Now, when it comes to the practical approach, not all hosting is equal. Because you are trying to install WordPress, you need a hosting service that supports WordPress. Moreso, you need a hosting service that can automatically install WordPress for you. In addition, you want a hosting provider who is reliable, has excellent customer service, has strong security and privacy protocols and processes, and is also very fast.Luckily, there are loads of them. Here are some of my favorite such services:BluehostJust HostHost GatoriPage1&1GoDaddyA2 HostingWP EngineNote that these are all paid services. There’s no such thing as free hosting. The good thing is that they all have huge discounts for new users. Some of them offer a monthly price of $2.95 per account. What this means is that if you go this route, you are better off purchasing multiple years in advance. I usually recommend going for three years.Here’s one more interesting fact for you: most if not all of these services can accommodate the purchase of your domain name at the same time. So, you could do it all at once. After your hosting account is activated, you will log in to your CPanel. CPanel is a hosting management solution that lets you manage your server. Most of them look like the image below, but each provider adds their own flavor to it.Do you see the line under the heading “Scripts”? That’s where the CMS installers reside. You can see WordPress and Joomla! and others. The list there depends on what the hosting provider is willing to support. Each CMS puts a different burden on their servers, so they choose this list wisely. However, I would say that 99.9% of them will have a WordPress icon there. Clicking on that will start the WordPress installer. Follow the steps as they are very simple. In a matter of minutes, you will have WordPress installed. If you bought your domain name from the same hosting provider, you have nothing to do. If you bought your domain name from a separate domain name provider, you need to link the two together through a process called Domain Name Server assignment. Your hosting provider will give you the proper name server and instructions, and you will have to input that into a separate field in your domain name registrar. To avoid this headache, I recommend you buy your domain name at the same time from the hosting provider, and then you’ll have nothing to worry about. After it’s installed, you may have to wait a little bit for your domain name to “propagate” until you can use it. This could be 24 hours, or it could be a few minutes. It depends. You will know when it’s working when you can type your domain name into the browser and it opens up your website.Note that it is not a must that the CPanel of your provider has the WordPress installer. It’s a good thing, but not an absolute necessity.Here’s a very short video that explains how to install WordPress manually, even if your CPanel doesn’t give you the option to do it automatically: , once this is done, you can type your domain name in any Internet browser’s website address and see a default WordPress start page:Congratulations! You now have a website!2) Bring your site to life – add functionality and a faceliftOkay, so you have a website. Hurray! Now what? If you look at what you see, it’s a very bare-bones, default-looking page. How do we make the magic happen?Website’s FrameworkTo make website development simple, all CMS systems include a theme management system. This means that you can install a Theme on top of the CMS and that theme makes your website look and feel consistent throughout all pages and gives you the ability to edit and customize it as you wish. I cannot stress enough how important the Theme is. You want to select a theme that is versatile and flexible, that is mobile-friendly, and is created by a company that will continue to develop it and keep it compatible with new versions of WordPress. If you choose a bad theme, you will pay for it later. It’s tempting to choose the cheapest one, but my advice to you is this: do not make the theme the place where you go cheap. Here are a few important things to look for when shopping for a website theme:Responsive Design – this means that your website will be responsive to the changes in size and resolution of the device that displays it. Your site will display correctly on small mobile devices, medium size tablets, and full-size screens. In today’s mobile world, this feature is absolutely paramount. If a theme doesn’t advertise itself being responsive or mobile-ready, do not waste your time.Upgrades and support – You want a company that stands behind their theme. Somebody that will keep it updated and secured. Don’t buy a theme just because it looks cool. Make sure it is supported and updated.Cross-browser compatibility – Yes, we think everyone uses Chrome, but that’s not true. The browser usage is still polarized between users, and the standards are not fully aligned among the various browsers. You want your theme to display well on Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari, etc.Simplicity – Programmers can go a bit overboard when creating themes. You want a simple yet fully-loaded theme. This one is difficult to judge because, at first look, most themes might seem complex.SEO Friendly – SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Although in decline over the last few years, it’s still an important factor that helps your site get on the map and be found.I know this sounds daunting… How am I going to know all of this? And this is where Frameworks come into play.Theme Frameworks are large developments created specifically to abide by each and every one of the rules above, and then some. Frameworks are robust platforms that solve all the above issues by wrapping them into solid pieces of code that are able to deal with every situation. Theme developers then simply use these framework’s capabilities to create the so-called Child Themes that are built on top of them. The power of this is immense. It ensures compatibility while still providing all the necessary features. Here are some of the most widely used Theme Frameworks for WordPress:GenesisThesisCherryDiviThemifyWPZoomUltimatumI have personally used the first three over the past ten years or so. At this point in time, I am currently recommending the Genesis framework by StudioPress. It’s simplicity, stability, and a huge amount of features make it the perfect candidate whether you are a beginner with WordPress or not. I suggest you at least try it out. You will be impressed.Once you select and install your framework, you are already very much ahead of the game. Note that you will have to follow the instructions from the framework developer to install the framework. Some of them come in the form of a WordPress Theme, others in the form of a WordPress Plugin. Now that the framework is up and running, what about the look and feel?Your website’s theme – your own little sandboxWell, for that you need to add a Child Theme to your framework. There are hundreds of designers out there who create themes for each framework. All of those themes are easy to find and a breeze to install. As I explained above, because the child themes are built on top of the framework, they take advantage of the full set of features that the framework has to offer.Below are a few theme marketplaces where you can browse for your favorite theme. Note that the theme that you choose must be either a plain-vanilla WordPress theme, or a targetting a specific framework. This means that you cannot install a Genesis theme over a Thesis framework. They need to match.Official theme repositoryGenesis Themes MarketplaceThesis SkinsCherry Framework ThemesThemify MarketplaceElegant Themes – for the Divi frameworkThemeforest – huge marketplaceMojo MarketplaceAuthor Specific ThemesOn my website, the one you are currently reading, I am using WordPress with the Genesis framework and with the Author Pro child theme installed. Which brings up a good point: what does an author-specific theme need to have versus any other generic theme that looks good?Well, not much, to be honest. The frameworks described above are so versatile that you can use them to create any kind of website for any profession. But to make things easier, the theme designers create specific themes, too. Sometimes you will find it easier to use one off-the-shelf as I did with this website. As you notice, if you go to the page for the Author Pro theme, my site doesn’t look anything like the one they show there. That’s because I customized it. Having a good base to start your work will make things easier.I urge you to consider the AuthorPro theme first. It’s highly customizable and easy to use. But, just to give you more options, here are a few links to blog posts that list several best themes for authors and writers:26 Best Minimalist WordPress Themes for Writers33 Simple & Beautiful WordPress Themes for Writers, Bloggers and Other Authors21 Best WordPress Themes for Writers & Authors29 Best WordPress Themes for AuthorsAs you can see, the author specific themes usually provide special pages for displaying your portfolio, showcasing works, or even selling books. There’s nothing unique there, to be honest. There are some very fancy themes that are specifically designed to help you sell your books. They may have 3D books opening and closing and all the bells and whistles that come with it. For the time being, especially if you are just starting, work with something simpler. The beauty of WordPress is that you can always install a new theme and your content won’t change. Your theme is like a new fresh coat of paint.In the end, you will have to do your research and find the theme that is right for you. Once you have it, install in on WordPress. If you need help installing a theme, watch this video: Installing a WordPress Theme.Plugins for Safety and FunctionalityBefore you start customizing your site to your needs and creating content, please spend some time adding the proper plugins to your site. A plugin is a piece of code created by an independent company that adds, extends, or improves a functionality of your WordPress installation or your theme. This is important because once your website is online, it is now vulnerable. Of course, when you first launch it, it is unknown, and therefore it doesn’t have a lot of value for anyone to be interested in hacking it. But, hopefully, as your site becomes popular, that might change so you want to start on the right foot from the get-go and avoid future headaches.Note that most plugins for WordPress are free, but some do offer upgrades to a Premium version. Use your judgment based on what you are trying to accomplish.Below is a list of plugins in different categories that I recommend you install and activate as soon as your WordPress site is live.SecurityAkismet – Protects your site from spam comments.Wordfence – Protects your site from hacker attacks and scans for vulnerabilities.Google Authenticator – Provides two-step verification of your login.Google “I’m human” captcha – Eliminates bots by blocking login attempts made by machines.Updraft Backup & Restore – Backup your site often and automatically – Very important!SEOAll-in-one SEO Pack – Improves the SEO of your pages and content.Google Sitemaps – Allows easy discovery of your content by the Google search engine and others.WordPress Ping Optimizer – Prevents your site from being banned if you post a lot.WP Google Analytics – Adds a connection to your Google Analytics account, if you use one to track traffic. You should!Site speed & optimizationAutoptimize – Improves the speed of your site by caching content.WP Super Cache – Additional caching capabilities that will improve your site’s speed.Broken Link Checker – Find those pesky broken links and fix them.WP-Optimize – Compact and clean your WordPress database automatically.JetPack – This is a complex plugin that covers many aspects of your site’s optimization, security, while also providing improved features and capabilities. Highly Recommended.Content and CommentsDisqus Comment Management – Great improvement over the built-in comment system.Yet Another Related Posts Plugin – Allows automatic links between posts to keep visitors engaged.Contact Form 7 – Allows automatic links between posts to keep visitors engaged.Relevanssi – Improves the default search on your site.One word of warning: when you look for new plugins make sure that they are compatible with your version of WordPress, they have lots of good reviews, and they have been updated in the recent past. Yes, I know some of the plugins above break this rule, but that’s because they are based on APIs that haven’t changed in a long time, such as Google Analytics. If you are ever in doubt, read the user reviews in the official WordPress plugin repository.Branding – Make it YoursLogo & PicturesYour name is a part of your brand. When it comes to the website, though, the look-and-feel becomes a part of your brand as well. This means that the color palette you choose, the fonts, the general way that pages are divided and linked, it’s all part of the bigger picture.One thing that I highly recommend is this: get a set of good, professional photographs of yourself. This is not the time to use the pictures your seven-year-old took with your phone. This is your image as a writer. If you create a persona, do it, but be professional about it. Good quality pictures will take you a long way. And don’t be shy using those pictures on your site, at least on your home page. This will add “humanity” to your site. Readers will feel it’s all real. The second part is your name and tagline.Your name should be very clear and visible on the site. You can use regular fonts, but I strongly recommend you invest a bit of money in creating a personal logo for yourself. You can go to Google and simply search for “logo design,” and you will find a dozen sites where you can get a professionally designed logo for something like $50. Most of the sites have a portfolio so you can check their style and quality of work.Lastly, think of a good tagline. You don’t have to go overly smarty-pants here. It can be something simple like, “where stories come alive,” or similar. Of course, this is optional, but I think you should do it. If you don’t want to create one, at least use the tagline to hint at the type of works that you do. For instance, “fantasy and science fiction stories,” or “mystery.” It’s a good place to let people know from the start what you are all about.So, your name, hopefully, carried forward by your domain name, a picture, and a tagline. Now you have an identity on the web.Colors and FontsWordPress will let you edit the colors and fonts on your site very easily, but you may need to get an expert opinion on the colors and fonts combinations, especially if you are clueless about it like I am. If you want a place to get some quick suggestions on color combinations, go to this website and peruse their large collection of color schemes: few critical things to be aware of:Contrast – make sure that the color of the text is contrasted well with the color of the backgroundLinks – make sure that the color of the links is very prominent and clearNavigation – the navigation should be large and easy to see, and present on all pagesHeadings – the headings or titles are large, bold and act as a visible split between blocks of textThe advantage of starting from scratch and not having anyone know about your website is that you can play with it freely for as long as you want. Nobody will know. You should share it with your close circle and ask for feedback, but outside of that, it’s like your own personal playground. Play with it and experiment. WordPress has a powerful preview engine that lets you see changes in real time, as you do them. Take advantage of it and customize the looks to your needs.When it comes to fonts, I think you should stick with some of the default fonts like Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica. However, if you want to do something different, read this article about choosing the right font for your site: Pick the best font for your website. Don’t go crazy, though. Most websites use the same font and people are used to them. My opinion here: stick with the default.LayoutYour layout is comprised of the various elements of your site and the location and order in which they are displayed. Here are some of the main elements of a website and how they are used:Header – The header usually appears at the top of the website. It’s used to host your logo and tagline, maybe your picture, and some links to the main parts of the site.Footer – The footer is at the bottom of your site, and it’s usually comprised of a few containers that hold information. It could be your contact info, links to other parts of your site, your copyright notice, or any other notifications.Navigation – The navigation contains the menu with links to all your pages, or at least the main entry pages. The navigation might reside inside the header; it might be hosted in one of the sidebars, or it could be floating or a pop-up element. I recommend that your site’s navigation is always visible.Sidebars – Generally, sidebars are narrow vertical elements containing links and data. In reality, sidebars could be anywhere, but you will see them mostly used as vertical blocks either on the left or on the right of the content. Some sites have multiple sidebars, some even showing them on both sides of the content.Content – This is where the meat of the page goes. The text. Usually, the content exists between the header and the footer and between sidebars, and it will naturally expand downward to fit all the content on the page.Floating – Some websites have floating elements that are designed to give the user additional ways to interact with the site.The layout is the general way that you arrange these items. Here are some generic website layouts:Full-pageA full-page layout allows the entire content to stretch from left to right and cover all the available screen real-estate. This is particularly good for sites that display a lot of images and large text. It might not be very good for blogs or pieces of text because it is not that easy to read very long lines. However, this doesn’t matter on mobile devices. As a matter of fact, most responsive designs will switch your site to a full-page layout when viewed on a small device to make sure that all text is visible.Note that this is different from full-width. Full-width is when your website stretches fully from left to right and fills the entire screen no matter how big or small the screen. A full-page may still be limited in width, but the concept here is that there is nothing on the left or right of the content.Sidebars LayoutThese layouts restrict the content to a smaller box while allowing one or two sidebars to be visible at the same time on the screen. This is probably one of the most common designs out there. I don’t have any statistics on this, but my gut feeling is that the design with one sidebar on the left or right is probably the most prevalent.Mix and matchThis is when you go crazy and mix and match the previous layouts. Don’t forget: most of your elements can be split into sub-elements. A sidebar may have multiple sub-sidebars. The possibilities are infinite.For a beginning website, I suggest you stick with a standard layout. Either a full-page layout or a layout with one sidebar.As explained before, the framework and theme will allow you to choose your default layout and then even go in and select different layouts for different pages. For instance, if you go to my about page on this site, you can see that it is a full-page layout. However, most of the other pages have a sidebar on the right. If you scroll down, you can see that my footer is divided into three blocks: social links, links to pages, and a search box. Also, depending on the page that you are on, the information in the sidebar changes. Experiment and see what you like the most. The layout, the colors, and your brand is what will make your website come together.And once that’s all done, here comes the content!Publishing Your ContentOne of the biggest mistakes that people make is to go through the pain of creating their first website only to leave it as is, untouched and without any content. Or, they’ll post a few things and leave them like that for years. If you do that, you’ve wasted a lot of time and energy for nothing. So… don’t do that. Make a content-generating plan and review your content on a constant basis. That’s the only way that your website will feel “alive” and will serve its purpose.Website vs. BlogAs I mentioned at the start of this article, your website is different from your blog, even though they might reside in the same place and ride on top of the same platform. Your website is your marketing material, your current persona as an author. Your blog is your dynamic persona, your stream of thought, and your way to communicate with your readers and peers.The good thing about WordPress and all of the other CMS systems is that they integrate website capabilities with blog capabilities, and the beauty is that they both share the same theme and framework. This means that you don’t have to do the work twice. Once your website is up, your blog is also up, whether you choose to use it or not.I will not focus on the blog portion, as this is not in the scope of this article. I will tackle that in a future post.Website PagesNow that you have a website up and running, and it’s looking nice and sharp, it’s time to add some content. In the context of the CMS, content is held on Pages.Here are the critical pages you should have on your website:AboutWorksContactAbout PageThe about page is the page where you tell your story. This is where you tell the public who you are, and why they should hang around your website for a while. The about page should be a combination of your bio and your personality. If you make it too dry, it won’t be catchy to readers; if you make it too aloof, you won’t provide the information some might be looking for. I suggest you check the websites of established writers in your genre or even other genres and see how they tackle their about page.Below are some examples:John ScalziJames PatersonGeorge R.R. MartinBrandon SandersonJ.K. RowlingHere are some guidelines that I have regarding about pages. None of these are hard rules, but more like personal preferences. Keep it in the first person. This is YOUR website. It speaks for you, as you. So, I find it awkward when I go to John’s website, and I read “John graduated from XYZ college.” It feels distant. As you can see in the examples above, the rules change when your website is managed by somebody else, and it is reasonably assumed that you are no longer directly involved in managing it, which is the case of the famous authors in the examples. Do have a “press kit” – this is a part of your About page where you can have a short bio (100 words), a medium bio (250 words), and a long bio (1000 words) written in the third person. This will prove very useful when you publish something, and you need to promptly provide a bio.Have some decent photos of yourself, as I mentioned above. It will go a long way!If you have any reviews or testimonials, or even comments on stories you’ve published, include those as well.Works PageThis is a little tricky for writers who don’t have anything to show yet. However, it’s still fine. Maybe as a starting point, you can talk about the things that you like and want to write about. Maybe you have a teaser for the novel or story you are working on.If you have published works, of course, list them. Try to keep short fiction separate from long fiction.Add links to all of the external places where your works appear. The more, the better.If any of your works are available for sale, link to those sales sites as well (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.). If you are a self-published author, you have more leeway as to what you can show here. For example, you can give sample chapters for your readers to enjoy.You may consider displaying your query letters as well in case any agents might stop by.Think of the works page as an extension of your About page. About is just about you. The works page is about your work, so try your best to draw the reader into your world. Together they are all about you as the writer.Contact PageI’m shocked by how many websites I encounter where it’s very difficult to locate the proper way to contact a person. That’s the whole point of having a web presence! Make sure you have proper contacts which should include:A contact form for people who don’t like to send emails.A professional email (johndoewriter@ is okay, but friskybuns19543@ is not. If you have your own domain, it’s best to have a professional email address linked to it, such as contact@. If you love using your Gmail client, you can still link this custom email to it and manage it in there).Links to the social media accounts you use (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn). You don’t have to use them all, but if you use any of them, feature them here.One tiny note about the last point: social media accounts. I think it’s quite critical for all writers to have a presence on Facebook and Twitter, but don’t get hung up on the idea that your website will drive traffic to your social media network. It’s usually the other way around. You will use your social media to bring people to your website. Keep that in mind because it’s a very important point, especially when your site is new.Final round before you release the beastIt’s very tempting to publish your site and right away send it out into the wild. I’ve done that. Many times. And a day later someone tells me there’s a horrific typo on the very first page, or when you open the site on your phone, you don’t see anything. Embarrassing.Don’t make that mistake. After your site is finished, take a breather. A day or two away from it. It won’t make a difference, even though psychologically it feels like it would. It won’t. Take some time away, just like you do after you finish your first draft. You will come back to it with new eyes.When you do come back, follow these steps to proofread your site and ensure that it’s working properly:Use the Broken Link Checker plugin to make sure that all the links on your site are working correctly.Review your linking system: Is your navigation easily accessible?Can you reach your content quickly from all pages?Is it obvious for visitors where your contacts are?Do you have a sitemap?Proofread your text for grammatical and stylistic errors. I recommend using a tool like Grammarly or Pro Writing Aid. In addition to these, the JetPack plugin mentioned in the plugins section also has a pretty good embedded grammar spellchecker.Do all the pictures render correctly?Does your website display correctly on different screen sizes and devices? Use a service like ScreenFly to test your site on various screen sizes and orientations (landscape vs. portrait). Usually, you will find tiny things that you have to fix here and there, but if you run on a robust framework, like Genesis, most of this will be handled correctly. However, don’t just count on it. Check it!Does your website render correctly on most browsers? Use the service at BrowserShots to test it out. You will get a static image across different browsers. Your website should render properly at least in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Edge, and Safari.Use the WP-Optimize plugin to shrink your WordPress databases and optimize them.Turn on all the Caching plugins (Autoptimize and WP Super Cache, or whichever ones you use. Note: during development, it’s not recommended to have these running. Turn them on only at the end.)Take a full back up of your site with Updraft and set up automatic backups to go on daily.Get a glass of your favorite wine and sip it slowly in your favorite rocking chair while humming. Your website is ready!Please don’t skip this phase. Users have very little tolerance, and they’ll move right on to the next site. Proofing your site will increase your chances that your site will become successful.And don’t skip the last part either—the wine. And by that I mean celebrate. However you do it, celebrate this victory. It’s a big step, and you’ve invested your time and money to get here. You’ve also learned a boatload of new things and climbed a new step toward your professional career as a published author. Congratulations!Marketing – Life after creationOnce you’re done with all of the steps above, you now have your very first finished version of your author website. It’s nice and pretty, it works, and you love it. Now it’s time to let the world know about it. Hopefully, you haven’t kept it completely a secret, and you shared it along the way with your safe circle. These are people who can give you true, direct, and constructive feedback along the way.Here are some techniques that you can employ to market your site in the beginning:Tell all your friends and family. Ask them to forward to their friends and extended family.Post about it on your writer’s group site and ask your writer group to check it out.Write about it on your Facebook, Twitter, and or any other social media sites.Submit your site to Google for indexing. Hubspot published a great article about how to submit your site to Google and why it matters.Add a link to your website in your email signature.Open profiles on various writing websites and list your new domain name.Connect your website to Facebook and Twitter using the All-in-One-SEO plugin.Print your website domain name on your business cards.The next thing is to be patient. The web is immense. Quite gigantic. There are over 1.5 billion websites on the world wide web today. Of these, less than 200 million are active. Still, it’s a pretty damn big number. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t get traffic right away. It will take a long, long time. From here, you can focus on writing and publishing. In time, your work will fill your website and your website will help people find it.Be patient and never give up!Recap A-ZBefore I let you go, let’s take one more look at the general roadmap for your website.Most of your money will be spent in the first two groups. Most of your time will be spent in the next two groups. Do them both and don’t skip.If you didn’t get through to the end, ask yourself: where did I get stuck and why? Now, the why matters a bit less. The where is most important. Because for every single step in this process, there is someone out there who can help you out.Don’t give up on the idea of having a website just because you hit a roadblock. Hire somebody or ask someone for help. Heck, ask me! I’ll help you out!All the best and good luck,IulianReplacing Bad Habits with Good Habits What are habits?As much as we don’t like to accept this statement, most of our life runs on auto-pilot. And I’m talking about your day-to-day life; the things that you don’t even remember doing, but you have no doubt that you’ve done them. Have you peed in the morning? Have you brushed your teeth? Did you lock the door behind you? I’m sure you did all of those. Did you have to think really hard about doing them? Do you have post-it notes spread around your house to remind you of them? You don’t because they are habits. Those actions are a part of your daily ritual and are so ingrained into your life that your body executes them automatically.And that’s a good thing because every single action you take is a decision that shapes up your day. But your mind would be overwhelmed if you’d have to make a decision for every tiny detail of your life. The habits are there to generate your routines and put parts of you on auto-pilot, allowing your brain to be used for making really big decisions. There’s an art to making decisions, which I wrote about in a separate post, and you don’t want to waste your energy on small, mundane things.The problem arises when those small, little things on auto-pilot start having adverse effects on your life. How do you distinguish between them? How do you stop the bad ones?You see, life is made up of consistency and intensity. If you want an analogy, your brushing your teeth is the consistency, while going to the dentist twice a year to do a deep cleaning is the intensity. Doing twenty minutes of exercise a day is the consistency, running a marathon once a year is your intensity. For real progress, you need both.If you just go to the dentist twice a year without ever brushing your teeth, all your teeth will fall off. If you never go to the dentist, you will suffer long-term damage from the issues that are not solved by brushing.So, you need both.The intensity is where you use your brain and make a decision to do it. This is when you feel and want to be in control.The consistency is that part that builds up from your rituals. This is where you don’t feel in control. You are actively trying to give away the control and let the routine become a habit so you don’t have to think about it.A ritual is a “push routine.” You have to push yourself to do it. Drinking eight glasses of water a day for the first time is a push routine. You may need to set an alarm, have a bottle on your desk, have someone slap you a few times a day to remind you. Whatever works for you.A habit is a “pull routine.” It’s a routine that has been repeated so many times, that it actually triggers by itself and pulls you in to do it. It’s the way that your stomach growls five minutes before your usual lunchtime. It’s the itch you get on Friday at 5 pm when you go for happy hour. This system is by design and it’s actually a very good system that allows us to strive. But herein lies the problem: not all habits are good for you.What are bad habits?Obviously, defining a bad habit as “bad” is an inherently subjective matter. There are habits that are universally accepted as bad. For instance, most of us would agree that injecting heroin into your vein five times a day is a bad habit. But, the heroin addict will not agree to that. He or she will retort that the heroin injecting is the only thing that makes them feel good. And feeling good is their number one value, hence the habit works for them.To understand this concept, we have to dive into the science of habits for a bit. A habit involves three components:The triggerThe actionThe resultIn the case of a heroin addict, the trigger might be body shakes, sweating, a feeling of depression, anxiety. As soon as they feel this way, it triggers the need to take the action. The action is the thing you do when the trigger is triggered. In our example, you inject heroin into your vein.The result is what happens afterward. Once again, using our example, you stop shaking, the anxiety is gone, and you feel good. Of course, that’s completely an internal evaluation. A person observing the drug addict from the outside would have a very different opinion.Sure, this is an example easy to comprehend because, as I said, some habits are universally, or almost universally, accepted as being bad. But you don’t have to go that far to see a bad habit in action. Let me enumerate a few more:eating unhealthy snacks in the eveningwatching hours over hours of TVdrinking alcohol during weekdayssmokingnot waking up on timenot going to bed on timeplaying hours of video gamesAnd I know you’re tempted to say: hey, not all of these are bad! Maybe they’re bad for you. I do them in moderation.But, here’s the thing. The drug addict also started with moderation. But the habits have this way of taking over and becoming the norm. It’s a bad idea to think that you can control a habit. If you let it form, you will fall victim to it.The reason for this is because we are creatures who seek gratification. But we all define gratification differently, depending on the system of values and metrics we create for ourselves. That system is part genetic, part education, part family, part environment, and part circumstances. But once you define a value that you hold high on your gratification meter, you will start creating habits to fulfil that value.Very soon, we start doing something called “confirmation bias.” It’s basically a self-imposed mental model where we are justifying our habits to ourselves. It’s amazing how many hoops we’ll go through to do so. And what’s crazy is that we do this to ourselves much more so than to anyone else around us.How many times have you said things like this:“I watch TV at night because I’m too tired after work. This relaxes me, so tomorrow I can be fresh.”“I only drink to take the edge off. After a couple of beers, I’m a much better company.”“When I smoke, I really get good ideas. It’s like a reflection time for me.”“I play video games and they enhance my attention, focus, and physical abilities to react.”“I don’t really help with the kids, but that’s because they have a much better bond with their mother.”All of those are “confirmation bias.” You twist the reality to match what you need. Any new information is interpreted as if to justify the original idea. The moment you find yourself doing that, it means that on a subconscious level you’ve actually identified that the habit is unhealthy for you, but the need for it to continue is so strong, that you would rather spend energy to find a justification for it, versus thinking of a way to stop it. And what’s crazy is that for a very short period of time, you actually feel good about yourself. You justified it. You rationalize it.You will go ahead and find other people who do the same and agree with you. You will seek external justification that you are not the only one.So, then, what do you do?Determining your bad habitsIn order to change your bad habits and replace them with good habits there are a few steps to consider:A) Identify the bad habitsB) Replace a bad habit with a good habitIdentifying the bad habits is the hardest process of all, based on what I explained above. If it was easy, people wouldn’t need interventions, friends who can tell them the truth, difficult conversations, shrinks, and mentors. But it’s not. It requires reflection and acceptance of one’s weakness and that’s hard.So, here’s a method that I will share with you.Step 1: The honest audit – take a piece of paper and for every day of the week, write down what you do. Don’t lie, don’t pretend. Write exactly what you do, hour by hour. After a week, you will have a good picture. As soon as it takes shape, you will instinctively sense which ones are the habits you should target. But your own defense mechanism will get in the way. The little demon on your shoulder will start whispering in your ear. You’ll start dismissing items from the list. The confirmation bias and your broken mental models will take over. But don’t give up yet. Don’t throw away the paper. Leave it there and move to…Step 2: Have an outer body experience—Wow, wow… Wait a minute! What??Settle down… It’s just a manner of speech. What I mean is this: pretend you got out of your own body and you are hovering above yourself. Then, replace the “you” down below and your list with your child. If you don’t have a child, pretend you have one. Imagine that your child made that list. You are the parent, watching from above and your task is to teach that kid, guide them and help them figure out the things that they should and should not do.Sounds a bit different than thinking about yourself, doesn’t it?If you are a smoker, would you tell your child to smoke? If you ever drove after a few drinks at happy hour, would you ever encourage your son to do the same? If you’ve ever stolen anything and never got caught, would you tell your child to do it?Think about it.Or, maybe it’s easier for you to think of yourself as your best friend.Whatever it is, imagine that you are not you and your list is not yours. This will force you to approach it objectively.If you do this exercise right and if you are being as honest as you can be, you will identify those bad habits.One parenthesis here: some bad habits require a bit of recursive digging to find their root cause. Here’s an example:you have a bad habit of waking up too late after snoozing your clock five timesthis is a result of you having a habit of going to bed too latethis is a result of you watching TV late at nightthis is a result of you having dinner at 9 pm even though you are home at 6 pmIn this example, the habit you want to fix is waking up early, but the real bad habit that can be traced back is having dinner too late.It’s usually easy to identify these connections if you think of it this way:Outcome – if the outcome is bad (waking up late) something is wrong in your process ->Process – if the process is not working well (sleeping routine) something is wrong with your awareness ->Awareness – if you have a blind spot (that dinner time affects your morning time) check your rituals ->Ritual – this is the habit that you must fix (have dinner one hour early)Of course, this is overly simplified. In your life, you will find many different habits, but almost always they can be traced to some sort of outcome. Something that bothers you or somebody close to you who you care about. Either something that’s happening or something that is not happening. That need or regret should drive your desire to change.Consistency is the KillerI’ll jump back to consistency for just a moment because I truly believe that it’s at the core of why some people succeed and others fail in establishing good habits.People who are unable to keep a ritual consistent are those who start diets and give up two weeks in because they haven’t lost a pound (or worst, because they haven’t lost “enough” pounds). Those people who run for three weeks but give up on their dream to run a marathon because they don’t see enough progress.They are people who expect instant gratification and don’t get the concept of patience and consistency.But you know what’s insane? They don’t behave the same way when it comes to bad habits.You didn’t just start smoking a pack a day, did you? No. There was a day in your life, which you can probably trace quite easily when you picked up a cigarette and you smoked it. And you huffed and puffed, and coughed and said to yourself that this is a stupid thing. Yet, you picked up another one the next day. Why? Maybe because your friends did it and they looked cool. Maybe because you wanted to see if there’s more to it. You never stopped two weeks in by saying: this smoking thing is not doing what I want. Why? Because bad habits don’t have struggle-driven results. They are usually pleasure-driven and pleasure is ephemeral. It’s like an orgasm. You feel good for a bit, but then the rest of your problems come rushing back.Good habits are usually driven by long-term, lasting results, like losing weight, getting stronger, having a family, raising children, and so on.When it comes to BAD habits, we rationalize and justify to ourselves why we do them.When it comes to GOOD habits, we postpone, wait for motivation, and invent reasons why we shouldn’t do them.And consistency is at the root of it all. The consistency in bad habits creeps into our lives and we let it get in there. The consistency for good habits requires work, effort, and we don’t like that, even though we fully agree on the benefits it would bring to our life. But just not today…I’ll quit one day. When I’m 30. Then I’ll be motivated to run a healthy life. Until then, I’ll keep doing this. Yea. I’m a really good person.That’s a bullshit conversation and you know it. And you had that with yourself so many times. I know I did. I am a MASTER at convincing myself and blocking feedback from others. It took me years to understand how damaging that was.Have you ever met a person who bought a FitBit to measure their steps? They wear it all the time and tell everyone how they got it so they get better, right? Then you ask them, so, how are you doing? Well… I don’t really meet my minimum steps per day, because I don’t have time. No time? Yeah, I’m just busy all day. I don’t have an hour to walk the 10,000 steps.Well, have you considered walking for 5 minutes every hour instead? Maybe split your lunch hour into two parts and walk half of it? That would easily bring you to your step count. Have you considered the health benefits of having your brain relax for 5 minutes every hour and your body getting exercise?Or how about a writer who has a lot of good story ideas, but never has the time to write a novel? I say… really? Have you ever calculated that if you were to write for 20 minutes a day you could write about 180,000 words in one year? And even if you would cut that in half, it’s still more words than the first Harry Potter book. And your investment: 7 full 24-hour days.The problem is that this kind of rationalization is scary. It’s very logical, but it requires one thing: actually doing it. People would much rather find a replacement to give themselves the pat on the back for thinking about it. If you don’t have an hour to do it all (intensity) then I’d rather not do it at all (no consistency).The person who bought the Fitbit… Well, they bought it. They’re better than most people, they say to themselves.The writer? Maybe they go to a writing conference every year to call themselves a writer to their friends.But all of those are fake ways to make yourself feel good. They cannot be a true replacement for the consistent work that you have to do to accomplish what you want.Motivation TrapLet’s talk about motivation now, since I mentioned it above. Motivation is a killer for most people and it plays hand in hand with the confirmation bias. It goes something like this, maybe you’ll find it familiar:– I’m tired from work but my kids want me to play hide-and-seek with them ->-> It’s okay, I’ll rest today and watch TV ->-> Tomorrow, I won’t be so tired anymore because my brain will be rested ->-> So, I’ll probably be motivated to play with them.And then the next day, the motivation never comes. Why? Because that’s not how motivation works. Besides the sheer fact that next day you will still be tired because your tiredness does not depend on the number of hours of TV you watch, but on external factors out of your control, motivation doesn’t drive action. AT ALL.It’s action that creates motivation to do more and better.You have to start running one mile every day before you will get the motivation to run a marathon. If you are waiting for motivation to run a mile, you will never, ever, ever, run a marathon in your life.A lot of time, motivation has to do with “feel.” When you say to yourself “I don’t feel like [fill-in the blank]” your bullshit monitor should raise a red flag. You are about to bullshit yourself out of a situation. “Feel” is a huge trap because most people can’t counteract it, so you shield yourself from feedback. If your friend says, “I don’t feel like playing tennis today,” what are you going to say back? Start feeling! No… You’ll enable them by saying, “Oh, I get you. I hope you feel better next week.” So, here’s a habit that I’m challenging you to create and stick to: every time you find yourself saying “I don’t feel like doing X right now,” just do it! No pun intended and no kidding.As soon as the words creep into your brain, squash them.“I don’t feel like working out—” SQUASH! Go work out.“I don’t feel like cleaning—” SQUASH! Go clean.“I don’t feel like writing—” SQUASH! Go write.Make your brain’s innate ability to give you a break from your harder tasks the actual trigger for you to do those tasks.In time, you will train yourself to do the difficult things right away and you will become a more accomplished, happier person versus being someone who constantly regrets what could’ve been.Consistency, motivation, and fear of failureThere’s an interesting correlation between motivation to keep something consistent and fear of failure. The fear of failure acts like an internal filter preventing you to step on the consistent path because you are afraid you might not get to the end of it.If you want to lose weight and fail, you risk having to accept to yourself that you will never lose weight.If you train for three months and still can’t finish a marathon, you might have to call yourself a marathon failure.And oh, my God, what will everyone else think, too?You see, it’s easy to succeed at bad habits because the value you set and the metric you use to measure it are both flawed. For example, I think that someone who dies from heroin overdose has failed at life. But they might see it differently. Up until that last breath, they might be seeking nirvana or ultimate extasy.Or what about a smoker who sets as his value to not die of lung cancer by age 80. He might be walking around at 81 saying things like, “See, this cancer thing is a hoax. I’ve smoked all my life and nothing happened. It happened to my cousin, but he was just unlucky.”Do you smell the bias creeping in?Since bad habits have pleasure as a driver, they are easy to comply with, and most importantly, offer an alternative to hard work because they are convenient. But, I would ask the two people in the example above, what about the lost opportunity? What about what might have been? The reality is that people don’t think about lost opportunities. It’s an ugly topic because inside our heads, we are the absolute heroes of our lives. Just the sheer thought that one different move could’ve brought us in a much better place is something that scares us.And yes, maybe the 81-year-old will eventually have an epiphany and think that maybe he could’ve been a pro athlete had he quit smoking that year when he’d been drafted, but that’s already too late. Don’t wait that long for the epiphany. Start now.Realize that fear of failure is in itself a confirmation bias. It’s made up. Just like you choose to assume that you won’t get cancer if you smoke, you might as well choose to assume that you could run a marathon if you trained hard enough.The more you shift away from the pleasure, your bad habits will have less of a grip over you. Instead of asking yourself: what can I do to produce pleasure for myself right now so I forget about all the rest of the shit in my life, ask yourself: what am I willing to sacrifice and work hard for? It’s a huge mind-shift, but if you do it, your fear of failure will be just something that you learn to live with. I’m not saying don’t be afraid. Just the opposite. Be afraid. It’s a part of life. But do it anyway. And if you fail, do it again. And again and again. Replacing a bad habitGoing back to removing bad habits. It’s f$#% hard, okay? I know because I’ve gone through the process several times. The best way to get rid of bad habits is to switch the trigger to a good habit.I’ll give you an example.For the longest time, I’d come home from work and grab a beer out of the fridge. I’d drink it and feel good. It became my split between work life and home life. That beer signified my coming home and relaxing. In time, that beer became two beers. Then three. Then, maybe a glass of wine too. Why not?Soon, I’d drink every night. The outcome: fuzzy brain the next day. Bad breath. Inability to focus. Feeling shitty. That, until the next beer. I would not associate my feeling bad with the beer but with all the other stuff in my life. The beer was the salvation. Confirmation bias… Justification…So, one day I decided that this was one of my bad habits and that I must change it right away.Going cold turkey would’ve been difficult. So, I applied the following change framework:Remove the temptationReassign the triggerCreate a system of rewards and penaltiesRemoving the temptation meant to remove the beer from the house. Reassigning the temptation meant saying this: every time I want a beer, I’m going to immediately make myself a mint tea and drink all of it.In the beginning, it was very hard. The habit was so strong, my brain craved it. But I didn’t cave in. I kept at it.It is said that it takes about 90 days for all the cells in your body to refresh. It’s not surprising that it takes about 90 days for a habit to stick. That’s why you see so many 90-day workout programs. They are designed to take you to a healthy habit.After those 90 days, I felt the change. My body craved tea every night and beer cravings had disappeared. The shift happened and it stuck. A year later, I applied the same technique when I introduced the ketogenic diet in my life and lost 20 pounds in 90 days. It works.This brings me to one very important aspect: attack one habit at a time. It’s very tempting to try to “fix” yourself by reversing all your life-long bad habits. It won’t work. If you try to change too many things in one go, you will introduce too much change; a shock to the system. That many changes will put too much pressure and you will have a difficult time sticking with it.Prioritize your bad habits list and tackle the most important one. It could be the one that has the worst outcome for you or the one that others have constantly pointed out. Whichever one it is, start with that one. Go for ninety days and then move to the next one. This takes a little bit of self-reflection and being true to oneself. Take the time. Don’t rush. The last point about rewards and penalties just reminds us how much we are still children. Gratification and fear of admonishment are still driving us into adulthood.In my case, I made myself this reward: if I were to abstain myself from any alcohol during the week, I’d be able to drink beer on Saturday. But if I failed, I would not allow myself to watch TV. Reward and punishment. They helped drive the habit when it got hard. Of course, it’s easier when somebody else creates these for you, but when your an adult, there is no one else but you. You MUST take responsibility for your own habits. Your parents, your spouse, your co-workers… They can’t create the habits for you. They can support you and help you and be there for you, but YOU have to do the work.And make it easy on yourself. Make sure that the bad habit is the hardest to fulfill (e.g. remove temptation) and make the good habit the easy choice. Reverse your mindset on its head until you succeed. Declaring intentRemember the fear of failure I mentioned above? I’ll give you a way to quash that: declare your intent publicly. There’s nothing scarier than that!Do you want to write a novel? Okay, post on your Facebook wall that you are starting the novel today by writing 500 words every day. Do it. You’ll be surprised by how much support you will get from your friends. This action will allow you to forget about the fear of failure. At this point, you can’t hide from it, so that burden is off the table. You can now focus on creating your new habit. Declaring intent is a very powerful and liberating tool. Doing things in hiding gives you the ability to wipe it all off as if it never existed. Don’t build that exit strategy. Declare it and work on it.Lastly, celebrate your victories and reflect upon your failures. What went well? What went wrong? Talk with others. Learn and repeat. The road will be riddled with failures but that’s the only way to learn and get better.Enjoy and good luck!Other resources on habitsJudson Brewer – A Simple Way to Break a Habit (TED Talk) James Clear – How to Break a Bad Habit and Replace It With a Good One (article)Benjamin Hardy – 11 Things That Will Happen When You’re Ready To Give Up A Bad Habit (article)Mayo Oshin – 3 Scientifically Proven Ways to (Permanently) Break Your Bad Habits (article).Charles Duhigg – The Power of Habits (book)Habitica – (habit creating app)IulianMy Keto Journey - Intermittent Fasting Results If you’ve been following me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, you know I’ve become quite obsessed with the Ketogenic diet as of lately. It’s not just a phase, it’s my way of starting a new chapter of my life. A healthier, happier chapter. At the time of this post, I am 112 days into this journey, so I am approaching the 4-month mark. So far, everything is going according to plan, which is surprising to me, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.In this article, I will talk about the second leg of my journey: adding intermittent fasting to my Keto diet. But, before diving into that, let me do a quick recap of what happened so far.Last month, I posted an article on my keto journey to weight loss and a healthier lifestyle. It was meant to be the first installment, and in that article, I talked about what my life was before the diet, when the diet started (April 4, 2018) and where I was about 70 days into it.As you will see below in the statistics section, a few weeks before that article was written, I did hit a little bit of a wall. A stale period where even though things were good, there was stagnation and no progress. That sounded like the perfect time to shake things up a little bit, so I decided to add intermittent fasting (aka IF). This article is about that experience.What is Intermittent Fasting?First, let’s start with “fasting.” What is fasting?The official definition for fasting is the willing abstinence or reduction from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. Most people are aware of fasting from a religious aspect. Many religions incorporate fasting into their methods of worship. Fasting is sometimes used by people protesting a certain cause or to make a statement. In other situations, fasting is required, for example before a medical procedure that involves anesthesia.In any case, in plain English, fasting means not ingesting any calories. Basically no eating (or drinking).I have to tell you, and you can ask my wife for proof: I’ve lived my entire life without being able to understand fasting. I couldn’t fathom people not eating for five hours. I’m not even talking about twelve, fifteen, twenty hours! That sounded insane to me. My body wasn’t going to take that. If I hadn’t had my breakfast, or generally pump up my blood sugar every two to three hours, I’d feel terrible. Forget about being “hangry.” I was a f-ing mad dog! And then… it all changed with intermittent fasting.What is intermittent fasting then? And how is it different from just fasting? First of all……Intermittent Fasting IS NOT:IF IS NOT calorie restrictionIF IS NOT starvationIF IS NOT a magic pill or a short-term solution…Intermittent Fasting IS:IF IS timing of foodIF IS eating the right type of foodIF IS a long-term commitmentIf you look at a 24-hour period, intermittent fasting splits this period in two parts:Feeding time: 8 hoursFasting time: 16 hoursThis is the reason why it’s called intermittent. Because you go with it in cycles: feed, fast, feed, fast, feed, fast, etc…If you think about it for a bit, everybody is doing a form of intermittent fasting. When you go to sleep at night, no matter what time, you stop eating. That goes on until you wake up and you have your first meal. Which, by the way, is called “breakfast,” as in break your fast. The intermittent fasting method simply prolongs the fasting time.At a very high level, this is how our body works for a full day:During the day (or feeding time):Eat Food –> Increase Insulin –> Store sugar in liver –> Produce Fat in LiverDuring the night (or fasting time):No Food –> Decrease Insulin –> Burn stored sugar –> Burn fatSo, by this simple equation, the longer you can maintain the second part, the more fat you will burn.And here comes the amazing kicker: combining Intermittent Fasting with Keto.As you know from the previous article, the ketogenic diet’s basis is lowering carb intake, which in turn reduces insulin levels, which forces production of ketone bodies, which then take fat and turn it into energy (which is why you eat so much fat on the keto diet). So, imagine what happens if your body is already “fat adapted,” meaning it’s producing ketone bodies all the time and all cells are adapted to that form of energy, AND you add intermittent fasting.There’s a huge compounding effect. That last piece: burn fat, will increase tenfold. Also, since you are no longer introducing fat in your body during the fasting period because you are not eating, your body MUST burn your existing fat for energy. It’s a very powerful combination.Benefits of Intermittent FastingHere’s a quick list of science-backed benefits of intermittent fasting. You can read more about these by following the links in the below Resources section.Changes in the function of cells and hormones – during the fasting state there are many processes that our body is going through, and they result in: cellular repair and growth hormone production which stimulates muscle development.Reduces insulin levels and prevents insulin resistence – this is a huge benefit especially for people who are at risk of Type II diabetes. By reducing the insulin levels the body is protected from low blood sugar.Helps burn belly and thigh fat – There are parts of our body where fat is really hard to burn. It’s usually thighs and buttocks for women and belly and back for men. During fasting, our body reaches into those reserves and burns that fat for energy. This is accelerated if you introduce exercise in your daily routine.Prevents oxydation – Free radicals in our body damage DNA and contribute to mutating cells which leads to various chronic diseases and cancer, and also accelerates aging. By fighting oxidation and eliminating free radicals, our body is shielded from those negative effects.Reduces inflammation – Inflammation in our body is at the core of many diseases and contributes to us feeling fatigued and in pain. Studies have shown that intermittent fasting reduces the overall inflammation in your body.Improves hearth health – There are many risk factors for heart disease: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, and more. Intermittent fasting helps lowering blood pressure, regulates the level of LDL cholesterol, and reduces triglycerides, thus lowering the risk for heart disease.Helps with cancer prevention – By fighting free radicals, reducing inflammation, and repairing cells, intermittent fasting is believed to be a contributing factor to cancer prevention and improving the ability to withstand the severe chemotherapy treatment.Improves brain health – Several studies have shown that intermittent fasting helps regenerate nerve cells and regulate several hormones that are linked to depression and other mental disorders.May help prevent Alzheimer’s Disease – Studies on animals have shown that intermittent fasting delays the onset of the Alzheimer’s Disease and reduces its severity.Helps increase lifespan – Last but not least, and probably the most important of all – intermittent fasting increases lifespan and delays aging.How I use intermittent fasting?I started intermittent fasting because I hit a plateau, which you will see explained in just a bit. As soon as I implemented it, I started to feel its benefits:Fewer food cravingsIncreased focus and concentrationElevated fat-burn and weight lossMore energyMore timeThe first five days it was a bit rough but not by a lot. I have to say, the physical difficulty was far less than the mental one. Remember, by this time, my body was fully fat adapted. I was in deep ketosis, which means that my body was producing enough ketones to convert my own fat into energy. So, my body really didn’t need that much food. It was more of a mental struggle.It’s like smoking and having to give it up. For the past 40 years, I’ve been used to eating one or more snacks every few hours like my life depended on it. With IF, things were different, and my brain wasn’t ready to cope with it. I had to fight through it. But once I got over it, it became really easy and the results showed up right away.This is how I structure my weekdays:First meal of the day at 12:00 pmLast meal of the day at 8:00 pmDuring this time (12 pm – 8 pm) I eat ALL the calories that I need and I maintain the proper macro %s. I make sure I hit my protein goal, my fat goal, and keep my carbs to a minimum. But the calorie count is essential. I know that it’s very tempting to say: well, I’ll go on keto, jump into IF, and then also cut 30% of my calories. The effects will be amazing! NO, they will NOT. If you reduce the calories at the same time, you will slow down your metabolism, prevent intake of essential vitamins and minerals, and go into all kinds of problems (hair loss, mood swings, etc…). Calorie limitation is not a good way to go…Also, note that I only do intermittent fasting Monday through Friday. During the weekend I have a regular three-meals spread over morning, afternoon, and evening.In popular terms, my method is also known as “skipping breakfast.” Depending on your own schedules, you may choose a different schedule. For instance, you could skip lunch or dinner. Regardless, make sure that you have eight continuous hours during which you eat, and sixteen continuous hours during which you do not eat. It’s as simple as that.How to break the fast?Okay, so I wake up at 6 am and I exercise (I’ll write another post about the benefits of exercising in a fasted state and how to do that; it’s a whole story of its own). Between wake up and noon, I am very careful about keeping myself hydrated. In addition to lots of water, I drink coffee and green-tea which have multiple health benefits besides helping with fat loss.Around 12 pm, I am getting ready to break my fast. This is the series of events:I start with one cup of bone broth, slightly warm.Bone broth has a wide range of health benefits being packed with nutrients, but one of the greatest is the fact that it contains large amounts of collagen. Collagen is an important protein that basically keeps us together. It’s the glue that makes our skin tight, our tendons strong, our nails hard, and so on.However, collagen in our body decreases with age and the older we get the more it becomes obvious (loose skin, frail joints, loss of hair, etc). Because the stomach is very clean after the fasting period, the absorption of nutrients and minerals is optimal. By ingesting bone broth at that moment you will experience very efficient absorption of collagen which will help improve your skin, nails, hair, and so on.I follow with apple cider vinegar.I usually put two tablespoons in the bone broth and drink it all together like a soup. Or, you can buy the bone broth from Kettle Fire which already has apple cider vinegar in it.The vinegar will help balance healthy pH levels, it will kill bad bacteria in your gut, and will stabilize the blood sugar. Another great combo is apple cider vinegar with lemon juice and a pinch of cinnamon. And please, for the love of God, don’t drink it from a spoon. It will burn your throat. Put one or two tablespoons in a full glass of water (or in your bone broth).Once these are in, I wait for about ten minutes and then I take any supplements that I need for the day – my daily vitamins, minerals, etc. This is by far the absolute best time to take them. Your body will absorb them very efficiently.With all these over, I’m very close to my first meal. But before, I take one spoon of MCT Oil. This will signal my body that fat is about to come and it jump-starts the production of ketone bodies (because of the special way that medium-chain triglycerides bypass the digestive system and go straight into the bloodstream).And that’s it. In about fifteen minutes, my fast is broken and my digestive system is “primed” for solid food. Note one thing: if you experience stomach issues like diarrhea after your first solid meal after a fast, it means that your body is not producing the proper digestive enzymes and doesn’t have the right gut bacteria. Consider taking a wide-range digestive supplement that also contains pre and probiotics. In time, you will adapt and won’t need them. But for the start… it will keep you out of the bathroom…For my first meal, I like to keep the calories to about 500-700 kcal, with a very low carb impact. Here are some of the foods that I combine depending on how I feel or what I have at home:Boiled or fried eggsAvocadoSardines in olive oilBacon or pancettaButter (grass-fed)Keto breadMy second meal of the day will be richer in leafy vegetables, some good carbs, and more protein. Sometimes, I add cottage cheese, but I generally try to keep dairy to a minimum.Since I mentioned my second meal, another question that comes to mind is this: how many times do you eat during the feeding period?There are several techniques here:1 meal per feeding period – this is too extreme and most likely won’t work for me.2 meals per feeding period – I do this about 60% of the time (approx. 700 calories meal #1, 1300 calories meal #2).3 meals per feeding period – I do this about 40% of the time (approx. 500 caloriess meal #1, 500 calories meal #2, 1000 calories meal #3).more than three meals – highly not recommended, read why below.If you recall from reading about the keto diet, the goal here is to reduce the number of insulin spikes. Every single time you put food in your mouth that has calories in it, your insulin will spike. During the insulin spikes, your ketone body production will stop and so will fat burn. This means that the fewer meals you eat per day, the less likely you are to get out of ketosis. This is why hard-code intermittent fasters recommend a 1-meal per day program. For me, it just doesn’t work. But two meals per day is very doable. By the way, the 1-meal a day method is an actual thing, look into it: The OMAD diet. But I digress…The NumbersOf course, there was going to be some type of chart here, right? After all, without measurements, what are we? Below is a weight chart that spans a few years. The gaps are those where I haven’t kept proper data.The image is quite self-explanatory, but let me give you some details here:pre-2011 – These were probably my fattest years. Around that time, I’ve been struggling with exercise and not being able to get below 187 lb.2011-2013 – My son was born in 2011 and that was also the year when I started running. During this time, my weight dropped significantly due to running. At the end of 2013, I ran a hat-trick (5k + 10k + half marathon) and I set my goal to run a marathon in 2014.2014-2015 – In January of 2014 I got hit by a car as I was crossing the street as a pedestrian. It was pretty rough and for the next 1.5 years, I was not allowed to do any physical exercise, save for the physical therapy. During this time, my weight just exploded. Besides no exercise, I was also eating like a pig.2015-2018 – In 2015, I joined Next Jump, a company in Manhattan where health and wellness are a central part of the company culture. I began exercising again and eating healthier. My weight dropped a little, but I still suffered from high blood pressure. By the end of 2017, I finally ran my very first marathon in Atlantic City.Q1 2018 – In Jan of 2018, I left Next Jump and I went through a period where once again, I wasn’t eating very healthy, I was drinking way too much alcohol and I wasn’t exercising in a smart way.April 2018-June 2018 – This is when the Keto lifestyle has begun. Look toward the end of June and you can see a slight plateau.June 2018 and after – This is when I introduced intermittent fasting. You can see how my weight took a steep turn. In combination with these, I’ve been working almost exclusively on my balance, mobility and flexibility, and core strength through Yoga, Pilates, and other similar exercises.So, that’s where I am right now. What’s next?I am going to continue with the keto diet + intermittent fasting through the end of September. During this time, I will keep on working on my balance and mobility. Once October 1st comes along, I will enter Phase 3: bulk up with lean muscle… More on that later…Intermittent Fasting ResourcesIf you are looking to learn more about intermittent fasting and how it works with the ketogenic diet, I put together a list of useful resources to check out. Enjoy!Guides and DetailsDiet Doctor’s Intermittent Fasting for beginners16-8 DietJames Clear – The Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent FastingThe Insider – Intermittent Fasting Types and BenefitsScientific American – How Intermittent Fasting Might Help You Live a Longer and Healthier LifeDaily Burn – Five Intermittent Fasting MethodsVideosDr. Berg – Keto and intermittent fasting: the Big Overview for BeginnersDr. Ken Berry – How to Get Started with Intermittent FastingThomas DeLauer – Ketosis & Fasting: Why They Are So Effective TogetherThomas DeLauer – The Right Way to Break Your FastFledge Fitness – Intermittent Fasting MistakesDr. Berg – 3 Intermittent Fasting MistakesAll the best, and, as always, please comment with your own experiences, thoughts, ideas, and so on.IulianMastering Point-of-View Mastering point of view is one of those things that any writer should tackle from the start. It’s not the easiest concept to grasp but it’s not rocket science either. However, if you disregard it, you could create some serious reader confusion. And a confused reader is a lost reader.So, what is Point of View (aka POV or viewpoint)?The proper definition is “the narrator’s position in relation to the story being told.” Basically, it’s who’s telling the story. And that doesn’t mean just purely who is telling it, but how do they tell it, what feelings they bring into it, and how do they interpret it.It’s easy to understand if you think about having two friends who constantly call you and bicker about some common situations. When Frank tells you the story, it’s Frank’s point of view. When Mary tells you her version, it’s Mary’s point of view. You also have your own point of view about it based on your knowledge of them. Later, when you read in the newspaper how Frank and Mary flew in an inflatable balloon and were never seen again, it’s a completely different point of view. None of these represent a different reality. The reality is what actually happened. The point of view is the way the narrator interprets the events at hand, given his or her own biases, knowledge of facts, emotional reactions, and external stimuli.It’s the proverbial “many sides” to every story. The trick in fiction is how to use point of view to tell your story as a whole and not confuse the reader but grab them in a hook that keeps them engaged through the end of your story.First Person Point of ViewYou recognize a first-person POV story when you see the words “I” or “me.” The story feels like somebody is telling it as if they were talking directly to you and narrating what is happening or has happened to them. Here’s an example of a paragraph from “Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins:“When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim’s warmth but finding only the rough canvas of the mattress. She must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our mother. Of course, she did. This is the day of the reaping.”As you can see, as a reader, you are “inside” the narrator’s head. You know everything that they know, and nothing more. You are one with their eyes, ears, mouth, and all of their senses. This allows for a very powerful bond between the reader and the character.In first-person, the reader lives and breaths in the shoes of the character, so the connection they have is very deep. This type of point of view, therefore, allows for very powerful emotional rapport, as the reader feels everything that the character feels and will soon care profoundly about what happens to them.There are some things to be aware of when writing in the first-person. First of all, the character cannot know things that they would not otherwise know. Slipping information that they shouldn’t have will break the point of view and will break the reader’s trust. This is a limitation of the first-person POV. You cannot “tell” the reader what the first-person character doesn’t know.The reverse of that is also true. If your main character is the murderer, then he knows that he is the murderer. You cannot hide that from the reader because the understanding is that the reader is one with your character, so everything that he knows, the reader knows. So, most likely a murder-mystery novel written from the point of view of the murderer will not really be a mystery. The ploy would have to exist someplace else. Maybe in the way that the detective figures it out. But you cannot hide what the character knows.On the other hand, the character should not think things that they already know just so that they get communicated to the reader. This is the equivalent of “as you know, Bob,” in a dialog. Make sure that your character’s thoughts are justified and not simply used for info-dumping.With this in mind, I really like the first-person point of view stories. Especially when they are written in the present-tense, there’s an emergency about them that makes it very compelling and really good for action-packed tales. But it doesn’t have to be action-packed. For example, one of my favorite first-person pov books is “The Cather in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger.Second-Person Point of ViewSecond-person point of view is rare and honestly, not very interesting even when done really well. In the second-person, the narrator is speaking to you, the reader. Here’s an example so you can see what I mean. This is from “Bright Lights, Big City” by Jay McInerney.“You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning. But here you are, and you cannot say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy.”Second-person, as you can see, uses the “you” pronoun to address…well, you directly. The book quoted above is one of the better ones written in second-person. Frankly, I can’t say that I’ve read too many stories written in second-person that I really liked. Maybe a couple of cute short stories, but anything beyond that, it gets to be a little contrived and quite annoying.Third Person Point of View (Limited)This one is definitely the preferred POV and the most popular in commercial fiction. This has the “he/she/they” addressing style where the narrator explains what somebody did or are doing.This POV style is a little less emotionally connected than the first person. That’s because there is an independent narrator that tells us the story. Here’s an example from “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austin:“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighborhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.“My dear Mr. Bennet,” said his lady to him one day, “have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?”Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.“But it is,” returned she; “for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about it.”Mr. Bennet made no answer.As you can see, it is pretty clear that somebody is telling us the story, narrating it for us. This is why as a reader of a third-person book, you do feel like there’s somebody else between you and the character as if someone is filtering the story for you. You don’t get the same bond with your character as you do when the writing is in the first-person.But the third person POV has it’s advantages. Remember how in first person there was a bit of an issue with the character narrating things that they already know? It was info-dumpy for the reader. With the third-person, that is okay. Why? Because you have the narrator who is explaining the story to the reader. Of course, info dumping has to be done cautiously, but you can get away with a lot more in the third-person.Third Person Point of View (Omniscient)Third person omniscient is present when the narrator knows everything. Imagine that you read a book and then you are tasked to tell the story to a group of people. You know everything. You know who is the murderer, you know who thinks what and who said what. You know all of it. A good example of third-person omniscient is George Elliott’s “Middlemarch”.“Shall you wear them in company?” said Celia, who was watching her with real curiosity as to what she would do.Dorothea glanced quickly at her sister. […] “Perhaps,” she said, rather haughtily. “I cannot tell to what level I may sink.”Celia blushed, and was unhappy: she saw that she had offended her sister, and dared not say even anything pretty about the gift of the ornaments which she put back into the box and carried away. Dorothea too was unhappy […] questioning the purity of her own feeling and speech in the scene which had ended with that little explosion.”As you can see, the narrator is aware of all details and can tell us what every character thinks, feels, or does at any point in the story. This presents some pros because you don’t have to use any tricks to communicate the information to the reader. If you establish the POV early enough, you can simply tell the reader.The issue though is that the writing might appear slightly removed. It will be harder to connect with the reader and have them emerge themselves into one character or the other because of the constant hopping. I’m saying it’s harder, not impossible.Managing Point of ViewTypically, when you start your story in one type of point of view, you will write the entire story from that point of view. However, this doesn’t mean that the point of view is stuck to any one character for good.First person and second person are special, though. In the first-person, your main character will be the narrator. Most likely, the entire story will be from his or her perspective. Don’t get me wrong, there are some very good books written with multiple first-person points of view. Personally, I don’t particularly enjoy them, but give them a shot to see how they read.The third person gives you the most freedom. Because you are narrating the story from one character’s perspective, you do have the choice to “jump” from one character’s head into the other’s, but this has to be done with a lot of care. The reader will make an assumption—they “are” in character A’s head. If you move to character B, you should make it very clear, otherwise, the reader will be very confused.In George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series, he uses a very clever technique. Each chapter’s name is a character’s name. In that chapter, the point of view is of that character. He doesn’t change it throughout the entire chapter. This gives the reader the ability to get a part of the story from that character’s POV, before moving to the next. This technique allows the writer to build a very complex story through the minds of different characters, but in tiny, consistent blocks. If he were to mix the thoughts of many characters in the chapter, it would be very difficult to communicate the story, and almost impossible for the reader to bond with any character.One sort of rule that you could make for yourself is to keep a constant POV in each scene. Because the scene is the most basic unit of fiction, and readers are savvy enough to understand that, keeping the POV constant throughout the scene is a good idea. Think of it as a series of movie scenes separated by beats. The omniscient POV is also tricky. Because you, the writer, the narrator, are like a God observing your world from the top, there is a very strong tendency to describe everything, tell everything, disclose everything. Resist that urge, or the story will feel info-dumpy and characters disconnected. If you want to read well-done omniscient narration, read Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Even though most of the story, technically comes from a book written by Bilbo and Frodo (Red Book of Westmarch), Tolkien chose to not use their points of view in the story. Instead, he uses a neutral, omniscient view which gives him a lot more possibilities and doesn’t limit the tone of the book to Bilbo’s of Frodo’s viewpoints. Tolkien is a master of this, and you should definitely study his writing.At the end of the day, just like with everything in fiction writing, don’t try to be too cute or force the point of view to prove a point. You can practice point of view, as described below, but when it comes to stories that you’d like to be in some reader’s hands one day, stick with one POV per story and make it the one that works best.Changing the point of view and the tense of a story will make it sound like a completely different story. It will take time until you establish the experience to know ahead of time which combo works best. In the meantime, keep working on it!Practicing Point of ViewMost writers will gravitate naturally toward one type of point of view or the other. I’d advise you to try them all at some point. Experiment. Here’s an exercise I like to do:Hop on Google and search for “writing prompts.” Find one prompt that seems interesting to you and write the scene from the point of view that seems most natural to you at the moment. Then, flip to a different point of view. Write your story from all four points of view and then compare them. How does one stack against the other? How does one make you feel versus the other? Maybe ask somebody in your writing group to read them and give you feedback.In the end, you will write in the point of view that makes the most sense for the story and that you are most comfortable with. But experimenting and trying out different points of view will broaden your horizon and open new possibilities for your writing.I will leave you with this chart that gives you some kind of idea on how to decide between the first-person and third-person. I don’t know who made this, so I can’t give the credits. If you know, let me know so I can properly link it… By all means, this is not a rule, but just a guideline.Good luck!IulianThe Art of Decision-Making Did you know that experts estimate that on a regular day, an average person makes about 35,000 decisions? Indeed, it sounds like an insane number but think about it for a moment. Picture your out-of-the-ordinary day, or even today. What clothes did you wear? What did you have for breakfast? Did you go through the back door or the front door? Did you walk around the backside of your car to put your bag in the side seat or through the front?Those are all micro-decisions that you had to make so that your day can progress forward. Granted, a vast majority of those don’t feel like decisions anymore because your brain already knows what to do. They are now habits.You don’t have to choose which type of butter to purchase. You’ve tried before, and you know. You don’t need to experiment again with how cold or warm the butter should be before you can spread it on the bread to your liking. You know. Your brain takes the decision for you based on prior patterns.In this article, I am not going to discuss these thousands of mini-decisions or the entire philosophy of practices and habits. Here, I am going to discuss the big decisions.I’ve read somewhere (and I can’t remember where) that a top executive makes about 100 major decisions every single day. And to be a great executive they have to make sure that 98% of those decisions are the right ones. Anything below that, and you should be fired as CEO.Now you start what I’m talking about here: on the one hand, the multitude of quick and easy decisions which your brain is already trained to perform for you, or for which you take a very short time to resolve. On the other hand, the major decisions that have the tendency to put you in a frozen state. How do you get to a point where you approach those major decisions with the same easiness as you do the simpler ones?The answer has multiple folds. After all, decision making is a skill and just like any other skill, it can be trained. So, to make better decisions you have to train your judgment, and you do that by:Making a lot of decisions all the timeAnalyzing the effects of your decisionsReflecting and correctingThat is the basis of pretty much any kind of training. To be effective, though, training requires a plan, a framework, some sort of organized structure that allows you to follow the same pattern over and over again and improve on it with each iteration.I am a particularly bad decision maker by nature. You can ask my wife and she’ll confirm. I tend to jump to conclusions, I am lazy and unwilling to make all the proper analyses through the end. I’d rather pay a high cost for a quick result, and so on. The result of this is that I make a lot of wrong decisions and then I’m spending lots of time and energy masking the bad results instead of self-reflecting and correcting.So, for the longest time, I’ve struggled with this and I’ve looked for a framework that would allow me to practice. And about two months ago, something perfect fell into my lap. It was while I was listening to a podcast where Ray Dalio, president of Bridgewater and author of the best-selling business book, Principles, was interviewing Tony Robbins about various business topics. During this interview, Tony mentioned a decision-making framework that he abides by abbreviated OOCEMR.I was very intrigued by the description and I started to look deeper into it. After a few days of reading and trying it out, I was convinced it was the perfect framework for me to practice and develop my decision-making skills.Now, how do you differentiate a major decision from a minor one?Major decisions have:Uncertainty – lots of things are unknown ahead of timeComplexity – there are many moving and interrelated parts and connections are sometimes unclearHigh-Risk Consequences – the impact of the decision might be very significantMany Alternatives – there are many options and each might come with different sets of uncertainty and complexityInterpersonal Issues – it’s not only science, people’s feelings and emotions are at play, tooAnd you don’t really have to evaluate all these to know if a decision is major or not. You’ll feel it in your gut. You’ll sense it, especially if you are unpracticed at making major decisions all the time. These are the decisions that usually put you on emotional tilt or send you into the “terror” zone. A place where you are frozen in space and time, unable to make the decision either way. So, in this article, I will discuss the OOCEMR decision-making framework and how you can apply it to your major decisions and to train your judgment to avoid going into the “frozen” state. Soon, you will seek the “terror” zone as a training ground.What does OOCEMR stand for?To understand these steps better, I will use a virtual, made-up example and apply the framework to it. It’s overly simplified and borderline silly, but it helps drive the point through.Let’s say you are the hiring manager for a company and from a multitude of resumes, you pulled out one that has the perfect skill set. His name is Roger. After interviewing the person, you are not very convinced that they are the best culture fit for the company, and they also ask for more money than you’ve budgeted. On the other hand, the Director of Sales referred his best friend’s son for the same job. The son is a very good culture fit, but his experience and hard skills are lacking. He does ask for less money, though. His name is Jim. There’s tremendous pressure from Production to get somebody in because of a new looming contract. You have to decide who to hire.OutcomeThe first step of any decision making is determining what do you want the outcome to be. If you don’t know that, you can’t make a decision. Without it, the decision would be a simple coin toss. You need to have perfect clarity as to what you are trying to accomplish and that will have a profound influence on the way you continue through the following steps.Our exampleAs a hiring manager, I want to hire an employee who will stay with the company for the long-run, who fits with the culture of the company, and who can hit the ground running in the short-term to fill-in a gap in production.OptionsThe next step is to list all the possible options. If you only have one option, there’s no decision. So, you need at least two or more options to continue. Make sure you list all the options, not just the obvious ones. Some of them will be invalidated later through further analysis, but start with them in mind. Sometimes having too many options is crippling, but make sure you are not avoiding listing options for that reason only. A human tendency is to remove options to make the decision easier. Don’t do that. Be true to the situation and list all possible options.Our exampleThere are several options here:Hire RogerHire JimHire Roger and JimHire neither one and keep lookingConsequencesThe consequences (direct or indirect) as well as the imagined consequences (things we make up in our head) are usually the hurdles that put us in that frozen state. It’s the fear that the decision you make will have dire consequences and it will all be your fault. Here’s the thing right of the bat: no matter how you turn this around, there is never a way to ensure that the odds are 1:0 in favor. There will always be cons and pros to every alternative. It’s the exercise of actually identifying them and putting them one next to each other that will provide the next level of clarity. Again, be truthful here; don’t emphasize the pros of the solution that you know in your gut is the least-resistence path.Our example:Hire Roger Pros: He can hit the ground running right away, perfect skill setCons: In the long-run, the lacking in culture fit might drive him out of the companyHe’s over the budgetThe Director of Sales might be upset that Roger was hired over JimHire Jim Pros: Good culture fit; probably will work best in the long-runDirector of Sales will be pleasedLower compensationCons: Short-term he will require a lot of trainingShort-term work won’t be covered during trainingHire Roger and Jim Pros: Get the best of both worldsDirector of Sales will be pleasedCons: Way over budget nowHire neither one and keep looking Pros: Keep the search going for a perfect matchCons: Director of Sales will not be pleasedThe position will remain unfilled for a whileEvaluateNow that we have the pros and cons of each option, we need to evaluate not only their impact, but also the probability for that impact. So, if you have an option with a huge negative impact, but a very low probability of it happening, you might want to take the risk. But before you can make this determination, you need to understand what these impacts and probabilities are.Our example:Statistically, we’ve seen about 70% of people who were qualified as a non-cultural fit quit within the first 6-9 months.The compensation committee approves larger budgets in crisis mode 100% of time, especially now that sales are trending up.The Director of Sales tends to overreact so I can expect a strong reaction from him.In about 25% of cases, new hires without the necesary skills were unable to train to the level expected and had to be let go within 12 months.The compensation committee never approved 2 hires when only one is needed, regardless of skills.The number of resumes received for this position is low and quality of candidates not up to par. It will be a long time until another good one comes along.The new contract will be signed within 3 weeks, so coverage needs to happen withing maximum 4 weeks.MitigateThe next step is finding ways to mitigate the negative consequences. This is an important step because a lot of time the specter of the negative impact might drive our decision making into a direction in which it doesn’t necessarily need to go. Since we went through the evaluation step, we now understand what the impact could be. So, with that information, we can think of ways to minimize the negative impact and maximize the positive one.The emphasis, in this case, will be to minimize the negative impact because that’s the part that puts us in paralysis. So, what actions can you take to diminish those bad consequences and how does the evaluation look once you’ve implemented those?Our example:Discuss with the training department to make sure they are able to provide an aggressive training plan spanning 4 weeks.Arrange a meeting with the Director of Sales and the Director of Production to make sure they are on the same page.Offer the candidate a temp-to-perm start for the first three months.ResolveResolve is the last step and it can be summarized by: just do it! You’ve done the work, you went through the process. The optimal solution in the context should be clear to you by now. If it isn’t, you haven’t done the exercise properly. Go back and revise. In the end, one option will surface as the best possible one within the circumstances. That’s the one that accomplishes the outcome you desired with maximum pros and minimum cons.Now, do it. Make the call, send the email, whatever needs to be done. Don’t agonize over it, don’t redo the exercise, don’t question its results. Resolve!Our example:I am sending an email to the HR Manager that I am recommending Jim for the position, copying the Director of Sales. I am sending a meeting request to the Directors of Sales and Production to discuss hiring Jim. Next, I am sending a diplomatic email to Roger explaining that we would not be hiring him. And that’s the OOCEMR decision-making framework.Tony recommends that you always do this in writing. Maybe have a little decision-making notebook and use a page-spread for each one of your major decisions during a day. In time, you will train your brain to run through this process quickly in your head.Imagine, if you need to make 100 decisions every day during your eight-hour workday, you need to make a decision every five minutes. Five! There’s not a lot of time to be writing everything down. You need to train your brain to go through this decision framework little by little.In the beginning, it will be very scientific, as explained above. The more you get used to it, your judgment gets sharper and the decision making turns into an ART. Your own art, marked with your own fingerprint.But, you have to start now and you have to start fast. Training judgment is one of the hardest things to do because most have some sort of arrogance which leads us to believe that we are already at our best. Or, we swing to the other end of the spectrum where we believe we are such a mess that we’ll never get better. Neither one of those extremes is true. You can train this skill. And you can also go past the fear of being judged. We don’t like when people question our judgment. But to get better at it, you have to start by questioning your own judgment and training it. Day by day, one step at a time.Good luck on this journey. I’m just at the beginning of the road myself, and I don’t see the end of the tunnel. At least, not yet.Best,IulianReferenceTony Robbins – Making Tough DecisionsTony Robbins Podcast – Ray Dalio EpisodeCharacter Development Worksheet In my opinion, character development is one of the most entertaining parts of story creation. After all, stories are interesting events happening to interesting characters, so the better work you do at creating strong, compelling characters, the better they will carry the story forward for you.There are, of course, many ways to create characters and most tutorials involve some sort of chart where you write down various things about your character and you keep building on them.In my Master Novel Outlining and Tracking tool, I have included a character development worksheet and you can use it freely. But, I thought it would be a good idea to also write a separate post on using just that particular worksheet from the tool because I think it’s that important. And besides, creating characters is one of my favorite activity in the pre-writing period.Below, I’m breaking down the different dimensions tracked by my sheet as well as the more advanced tools you can use to shape your character’s personality, or simply allow it to come alive.Basic DetailsFirst things first: give your character some basic physical appearance and ground him/her into a culture within the context of your story’s universe. You can always come back and tweak these, but I’d probably start with the most basic details first and build from there.Basic things to decide first:NameNicknameGenderDate of BirthPlace of BirthFather’s NameMother’s NameEthnic Background / RaceReligionSexual OrientationLanguages SpokenAgeHeightWeightBody TypeEye ColorHair ColorHair StyleFacial HairClothing StyleGlasses / ContactsFacial PiercingsSkin ColorDepending on the type of story you write, some of the items above might be unusual. For instance, if you are working on a Fantasy or Science Fiction story, the specifics of your world will define the breadth of options you have. Feel free to add any other specific parameters that are relevant to create your basic character. In my blog post, Creating a Fantasy World – Names, I discuss name creating in-depth, so feel free to check it out as well.DetailsNext, we start to tap into the character’s life. We are still not getting too deep into his/her personality, we are hovering at the surface of the day-to-day life.Marital StatusEducationMilitary BackgroundOccupation HistoryChildrenPetsFavorite FoodFavorite Fiction GenreHobbiesSpecial Skills of AbilitiesLife PhilosophySome of the items in here might be later utilized in the story as methods to ground your character. So, maybe one of the favorite foods, let’s say hummus, is something that your character would eat at his or her grandparent’s house and is forever linked to a sentiment of peace and calmness. This means that some of the items you decide in here won’t stay static on paper as a “just because.”QuestionnaireThis is by far my favorite part. You get to ask your character questions. To answer them, you, the writer, must put yourself in the shoes of your character. You have to become your character and give honest answers. This is a great moment to bond with your character. Remember that to some extent, you are the puppet master, yes. But don’t be too much of that. Let your character grow through your answers. Ask these questions in order and don’t be afraid to give long-winded answers. The more you answer, the better the character will be shaped.To make this more grounded in reality, I will use the example of a character called Dan. Please make sure to fill-in the gender, name, and nickname of the character first (even if they’re temporary), because the worksheet automatically uses those to create proper questions in the questionnaire.Are there any distinguishing facial features?Any birthmarks or scars?Who are Dan’s friends?Who is Dan closest to?What happens when Dan is angry?What is Dan’s biggest fear? Who has he told this to? Who would he never tell this to?Does he have a secret?What makes Dan laugh out loud?Has he been in love? Had a broken heart?If Dan could have a superpower, what would it be?What does Dan like to eat?What does he like to read?What about sports?What does Dan like to wear on various occasions?Verbal Idiosyncrasies / Speaking mannerismPhysical Idiosyncrasies / Noticeable body languageWhen Dan thinks of his childhood kitchen, what smell does he remember? Why?Spring cleaning is due. What does Dan throw easily and what is he holding on to?What is Dan doing over the weekend?What is Dan’s strongest bad memory?What is Dan’s strongest good memory?What is Dan’s idea of perfect happiness?What does Dan think was his greatest achievement to date?What is Dan’s favorite occupation?What is Dans most treasured possession?What does Dan dislike the most?What is Dan’s greatest regret?What talent would Dan like to have?What trait Dan most deplores about himself?What trait does Dan most deplore in others?What does Dan most value in his friends?Who are Dan’s heroes in real life?Which living person does he most admire?Which words or phrases does Dan overuse?If Dan could change one thing about himself, what would it be?Of course, you can add or edit the questions to match better with your world. For instance, the concept of “weekend” might not exist in your world so adapt the questions to your needs. Be wary of too many physical details and too many idiosyncrasies. I think a handful for your main characters are okay, especially if they are linked to something relevant. But, don’t give every single character a scar or birthmark because that just looks weird. Story Context QuestionsBy now, we are starting to have a pretty decent idea of who the character is. His inner self is starting to shape up. That’s good. But now, we need to put him into the context of the story. The story might change the character, or it might not. One way or another, your character will act within the confinements of the story, so we need to have some ideas about the character’s state.These are extremely important to establish the character’s motivation. If you have a great character doing things for no reason, readers will not connect with him or her. You need to know what they want and why they want it. It’s a very critical part of integrating your character into the story. If you don’t do this step correctly, your character’s actions will feel forced and readers will walk away.What does Dan want the most?Why does he want it?How far is he going to go to get it?If he fails, what happens?If he succeeds, what happens?Character Arc QuestionsKeep in mind: not all stories have to have a character arc. This being said, it’s always a good idea to understand what happens to the character throughout the story. Do they change? If so, how? If they don’t change, that’s something important to know as well.Describe Dan before the story beganDescribe Dan as the story startsHow do the events change Dan?Describe Dan in the middle of the storyDescribe Dan at the end of the storyWhat lesson did Dan learn?What lesson did Dan teach others / the reader?Character BioNow that you are done with the Q&A, you should spend some time and write down a short bio and a short storyline from the perspective of the character. The first part is probably easier, while the second part might not be known at the beginning of the story. If you are an outliner, you probably know what happens and you can project the story from the perspective of the character. If you don’t know, that’s okay. Leave this part for a later time. When you come back to it and write a few paragraphs to describe the story from the character’s perspective, interesting things happen. You discover new dimensions of your character and then you can go back and fold those back into the story.Character’s Backstory – brief bio, life events, what happened before the storyCharacter’s Perspective – how is the story unfolding from the character perspective – do this part *after* you complete the scene listGeneral AttributesThis last piece of the puzzle is just a top-level attribute listing with levels. If you are familiar with gaming, this would be like building a game character. I don’t particularly use this a lot, but if you have groups of characters you could use this matrix as a comparison, or to make sure that a “team” covers all required characteristics for a certain task.Attributes (Answer 1-10)IntelligencePhysical StrengthCharismaDexterityPropensity for EvilPropensity for GoodWisdomPersonality TestsI’ve written another article a while back about how to create memorable characters where I do a deep-dive into using the Myers-Briggs test to attach personality traits to your characters. My latest novel outlining tool has an embedded personality test that can produce quite an extensive response based on your answers to 60 questions. Once again, you are answering as your character, so taking this test is actually lots of fun.Below is a sample report of such a personality test generated from within the Master Novel Outlining and Tracking Tool. And, be honest: you’ll do this for yourself, too, won’t you? Go ahead, I did mine and it felt good…Here are some additional links you could use to generate a personality test for your character online:16 Personalities Free Personality TestPersonality Perfect Free Personality TestHuman Metrics Personality TestZodiacNot everybody believes in the validity of the claims that the astrological sign defined by the date of birth has any effect on your personality. I’m not a very firm believer in that either, but I do see a lot of similar traits in people born in the same month or year. Regardless of that, using a zodiac sign report could give you some additional details about your character and provide some hints as to how he/she could behave. This is not to say that it will override what you want. After all, this is your character. But, perhaps it will give you some more ideas about how the character could behave or how he/she could approach different situations.The worksheet available for download with this article also includes the Zodiac data. Simply, enter the birth date of your character and see what comes up in the Western and the Eastern Zodiac boxes. Note that the Chinese zodiac is approximate, especially for birthdays that fall in February or March. This is due to the way the Chinese New Year is calculated.Use this tool as liberally as you want, or skip it all together.Final NotesThe Excel worksheet should print properly on two or three pages. You can put it up on the wall and check it every now and then as you progress through your novel. Make sure to create one worksheet for each major character. For minor characters, you can skip the questionnaire and the character arc questions but keep the story context questions. Every character should have a motivation, even minor ones, so that part is important.DOWNLOAD – Well, I hope this was helpful. Without any further due, please download your copy of the character development worksheet.As always, if you find any bugs or have any ideas on how this could be improved, please comment below! If you enjoy this post, please share it on your favorite social media networks.Thank you,IulianMaster Outlining and Tracking Tool V This is version 3.0 of my Excel outlining tool. I’ve used it successfully for my most recent novels and I’ve done several bug fixes and feature improvements since the previous version.Version History:Version 3.0 (May 30, 2018) – Current ReleaseVersion 2.0 (October 23, 2016) – Master Outlining and Tracking Tool V2.0Version 1.0 (July 7, 2016) – Master Outlining and Tracking Tool V1.0Because Version 3.0 has a bunch of changes and improvements, I’ve decided to re-write the instructions from scratch rather than pointing only the changes. So, if you are downloading and using version 3.0, you don’t have to look at the previous blog posts for version 1.0 and 2.0.Enjoy and please comment with your thoughts and suggestions.What is it?The Master Outlining and Tracking Tool is an Excel spreadsheet that helps writers organize their novel idea into a complete outline. It helps you progressively grow that singular idea step by step all the way to a full scene list. If you are an outlining writer by nature, you’ll love this tool. If you are more of a pantser, you might still use it. Once your novel is done, you can use this tool to help drive your synopsis creation and also to create your novel’s emotional intensity map and do corrections during the editing phase.And I know that most people think that Word is the tool for writers, while Excel is mostly used by financial professionals, I’m here to prove you wrong. Because of its way of organizing data in tabs and tables, Excel is an excellent planning tool for many things. I love Excel and I use it every day at my job, so it was only natural that I’d attempt to use it for outlining my novels. You’ll be surprised at how versatile Excel is for this purpose and I’m sure that in time, you’ll learn to love it.The latest version of this tool has been designed in Excel 2016. It should function correctly in Excel 2013 and 2010 as well. I can’t vouch for Excel 2007. If you read this and try the tool on Excel 2007, please tell me if it works. Same for Excel on Mac – no idea if it works since I don’t have access to a Mac. If anyone could test it, please post your findings. Thanks!One small caveat to mention: because of an Excel limitation, no mathematical calculations can be made with dates that are prior to Jan 1, 1900. So, if your novel is set in the past, the system won’t be able to compute age differences and things like that for dates preceding that date. One trick I recommend, if needed: Make a convention that 7000 is 1000. So, Oct 10, 1859, would be Oct 10, 7859. It’s a cheap trick, but it does work! General UsageThe spreadsheet is organized into tabs and their progression is from left to right, for the most part. You have to do some hoping around, but overall, the idea is to go from left to right and build. The tabs are color-coded into groups so navigation is going to be quite easy and intuitive.The first tab of all is Instructions. That’s where I memorialized detailed instructions for each tab. If you read this post fully, you probably won’t need the Instructions tab.BasicsThe Dashboard is your first stop. Here you’ll fill in the basic information about your novel, such as the name, market, genre, and so on. Because all stories happen in space and time, this dashboard asks for the “present” date. This might not be relevant if you are writing some sort of time travel or backward type of story, but the vast majority of stories will have a “present” day. The Checklist is a simple way to track your work through the entire outline. Once you complete one task, mark it with an “X” and move on. You can use the links in the Worksheet column to jump straight to those respective tabs. The last informational tab is Summary. This will not be too useful until you complete more of the work, especially the scene synopses and the characters. So, leave this one there for now and we’ll return to it a bit later.From Idea to ScenesBefore we chat, here’s a quick visual of how the process goes from idea to scene.As you can see, you take the one nugget and keep breaking it into three parts. Each part can be thought of as a beginning, middle, and end progression. At each step, you go a little deeper. If you want to think about it in text mode, look at each box as one sentence. At the next level, expand that sentence into a paragraph made out of three sentences.The outlining tool will guide you through the steps.In Part 1 you will enter the entire tree represented in the chart above, by water-falling down one step at a time.In Part 1 Recap you will be able to see how does your storyline maps to the standard 3-Act Structure. If you don’t use the 3-act structure, feel free to adapt this to your structure. At this stage, you have 27 steps that should be defined enough to give you almost a complete picture of the story.In Part 2, you will take your 27 steps and break each into three parts – this is already your scene level, the lowest unit of your outline.Scenes – this imports all data from Part 2, but gives you additional abilities to map and organize your scenes.When it comes to scenes, really walk through the columns and set the different parameters. It will be very helpful later on.[describe columns] SynopsisLet’s be honest: writing your novel’s synopsis is a pain in the butt. It is! But what if you could build your synopsis little by little as your story grows and gets outlined? Well, this is exactly what’s happening in here. Once you’ve documented your scenes, move to the Synopsis tab and make sure you have one to three sentences for each scene. In this way, your entire story synopsis gets built right then and there:One Line Synopsis – this is basically your story one-linerQuick Synopsis – the description of your main beginning, middle, and endShort Synopsis – this is the combination of all Level 4 synopses (the green boxes in the chart above)Full Synopsis – the combination of all synopses of all the scenes in the storyOf course, as you write along, some of these things might change. Make sure you keep them updated as you go along.Also, if you use Scrivener to write your novel, I’ve written a separate article that discusses how to organize your writing in Scrivener. You’ll see a very clear parallel on how to take the data from the outlining worksheet and move it to Scrivener. Glossary & IdeasThe next two tabs, Glossary and Ideas are for informational purposes. If you have any sudden ideas about your novel, but you are not sure where to put them yet or what to do with them, accumulate them in the Ideas tab.The Glossary is very useful if you are writing speculative fiction. If your novel is science fiction or fantasy, you probably need to document some of the unusual terms that appear throughout your story. This will make it easy for you to remember what those are.Plot, Setting, and HistoryEvery story is made out of Characters (Who?), Plots (What? How?), and Setting (Where?). Layered between these is the concept of Time (When?). PlotsYour plot will ooze naturally out of your scenes outline, but it’s a good idea to memorialize the different plot lines. Most stories have a main plotline, but some might have a multitude of plot lines. They all depend on one another, intersect, touch, diverge, etc… One way or another, it would be good to have an idea of what they are. Think about The Game of Thrones, for example. I can’t even think how many plot lines are there… Use the Plots tab to document your various plot lines and their interdependence.SettingsThe Setting is, of course, the place where things are happening. If you are writing a fantasy, science fiction, or other types of speculative fiction, your setting might need to be created from scratch. If you use our world as we know it, you may have to just hint at the place. For example, apartment in the center of Paris is pretty obvious. In any case, the Setting tab allows you to define multiple locations for your action. To define the setting go from big to small. First, define your Conceivable Universe, then go down to Visible Universe, Tangible World, and then actual Physical Locations. Again, this might need more work for complex fantasy or science fiction worlds, while for Earth-based stories, it will be a lot simpler.Just make sure you duplicate the Location Worksheet to capture as many locations as needed. HistoryThe historical context of your story is different than the timeline. The history is the big picture. If you were to take a step back, as far as possible and look at the entire history of your story, what does it span? Note that it doesn’t matter if your story is time travel, backward, filled with flashbacks and overlapping time periods. At the end of the day, the time flows forward and there’s always a “beginning of time” and an “end of time.”How wide that is, depends on your story. A lot of times, your reader won’t get more than a glimpse of that, but it’s important for you, the writer to know the history.The Historic tab allows you to build that history in steps. Note that you only input data in the Red columns; the others are calculated.There are 4 types of predefined Event Types:Scene – something that happens in one of your scenesLife Event – some event such as Marriage, Birth, Death, Divorce, etc. (document the sub-type on the Life Event column)Historic Event – something that happened in history (regime change, war, natural cataclysm, etc)Other – something else that is not classified aboveWhen you enter a Date in the Date column, the following columns will show the relative time from the Present Time (remember when I told you that the “present day” that you set at the start will be important?). This helps establish how far from the present are those events.Next, if any of the events involve a Character, put their name in there. The system will look to see if there is a “Birth” event for that character and if there is, it will automatically calculate the Age of the character at that point in time. So, for instance, you may have Dan James with a Birth event and a Wedding event, as below.You can see how this is a good tool to have. You can basically wave in all your characters among the events that they participated in, active or inactive. The Age column is particularly useful if you have many family members and want to keep track of what ages they are at different points in time. You really don’t want your 150-year-old grandpa running a marathon, right? Unless the story is just about that, of course…Time lineThe Timeline is different than the historical context. Timeline is a subset of the history; it’s the precise series of events in your story. So, if you take every scene in your story and you align it on a horizontal timeline, where do they fall? And again, it doesn’t matter how you handle time in your story and how you reveal it to your readers. In the end, each scene happens somewhere in time… The Timeline tab allows you to track that.Once all your scenes are named, they will appear on the B column. Use the actual date row to enter dates. At the intersection of a date and a scene put an X. This will let the system know that the scene happens on that date. The data from here is used to build out the cards.Character DevelopmentCharacters are the backbone of every story. No story can happen without characters. So, I am giving special development tools for characters:Character ListThat Character List is pretty straightforward. List your characters, their role in the story, and their relationship. On the right-hand side, you have a small tool that calculates how many first names begin with the same letter. It’s recommended to have the main characters’ names begin with a different letter so as to not confuse readers. Tom and Tim, Celina and Celia, things like that could add confusion. Obviously, this is merely a suggestion.Character Development WorksheetThe Character Development Worksheet is a complex tool that allows you to create your character touching on the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. I felt like this is important so I wrote an entire blog post about how to create characters using the character development worksheet.GenealogyGenealogy is a singular chart that can be duplicated. Each tab should be used for one character only to define their ancestors. The sheet itself is pretty self-explanatory.Other ToolsCardsThe Card view gives a quick snapshot of your story in the form of index cards. It pulls some data from your tables, such as the Scene location (Act, Chapter), the scene name, date from Timeline, if it’s a Major or Minor scene, and also the Intensity Index from the Scene Intensity column. I’ll be honest, it’s not that useful, but it was quite fun to program this one in…IntensityIn every story, the writer must take the reader on an emotional intensity ride. It goes up and it goes down, and that rollercoaster of emotions keeps the reader engaged. Obviously, you can’t have a story that stays only in high or low emotional intensity for a very long time. That becomes either tiring or boring. It must be a balance of ups and downs.As you plan your scenes, you’ll know more or less where the intensity goes up and where it goes down. The last column in the Scene list is where you can set the intensity level (measured as a number between 0 and 100). The Intensity Tab gives two charts that show the intensity by scene. This gives you the opportunity to make sure that your intensity pattern has some peaks, some valleys, and it’s otherwise balanced and matched to what you think your story should be.ChaptersThis is less important, but it tracks the number of scenes and words by chapter and charts them out on the right side. There is definitely no rule about it, but if you are trying to keep your chapters kind of balanced in terms of size, you can use this worksheet to track it. Just make sure that you do enter the Actual Words per scene in the Scene List tab once you finish writing each scene. The statistical data will build in this tab.TrackerOnce you’re done with your outlining and summary process, it’s time for the best part: writing your novel. I’ve designed a very simple tool to help you track your work. It reads from your dashboard the start date and estimated date. Then, as you complete daily or weekly writing sessions, put the date in and what is the current total word count. The system will compute where you are and also let you know if you are ahead or behind schedule. It’s pretty simple, but it does the job!Final WordsSo, this is it. I hope you find this useful and helpful and I would love to hear if your next novel started with this tool. As always, please feel free to comment, add your suggestions, bug reports, and any other issues.DOWNLOAD – Without anything further, please download your copy of the Master Novel Outlining and Tracking Tool in Excel.Thank you!IulianMy Keto Journey to Weight Loss and a Healthy Lifestyle My blog is mostly about fiction writing, but I also dab into other areas. This time, it’s all about health and wellness. I’ve struggled with this for a while and I feel like I’ve finally found a path that works for me and I wanted to share my results and approach with everybody in hopes that it would help somebody else along the way.This is the first article in what I hope to be a series of posts that will take you through my journey to a healthier me. In the past, I’ve tried many different things-diets, exercise regimens, supplements, etc. Each of them worked to some extent, but I’ve never been fully happy with my results. So, over the past few months, I’ve done a lot of research into today’s diets. After going through many, I’ve decided to test two of them: the Ketogenic Diet and the Slow Carb diet.I’m not going to give much detail about what a Keto diet is or it’s pros and cons in general. If you are interested, I added a bunch of links and resources at the end of the article so you can get an idea. I won’t discuss the Slow-Carb Diet yet; I’ll keep that for a separate post (you can read a brief of the slow-carb diet here).This initial post discusses the WHY of this and presents my journey through the first TWO MONTHS of Keto.Warning: this is a looooong post, so get yourself your favorite drink and get in a comfortable position because this is going to take a while. Also, the post is filled with links to outside resources that explain various concepts or products. I suggest you first read this post, then go back and check those references to get an in-depth understanding of those concepts that interest you the most.My Keto JourneyBeginningsMy wife and I lead a borderline healthy lifestyle. When I say borderline, I mean our house is devoid of the generally-considered bad stuff, including soda, heavily-processed foods and related. Instead, we have plenty of fruits, vegetables, and nuts. We watch the products that we buy erring on the side of organic, money permitted. But at the end of the day, we do splurge occasionally with large pasta dishes, french fries, pastries, and alcohol. So, you win some but lose some. In the end, however, the net is more on the side of losing. The bad stuff, even if small, accumulates. Over time, I gained weight, my blood pressure spiked higher than usual, and I started to feel… old. Heavy. Tired. Lacking energy. All of them together.In the summer of 2017, on June 1st to be precise, I started a very scientific nutrition and exercise routine. I was working at Next Jump at the time, a company that fosters health and wellness and encourages employees to work on their health. My plan involved moderate physical activity every day with bursts of intense cardio or weightlifting a few times during the week. I combined this with reduced caloric intake and healthy foods.I had some moderate results. Just before this, my weight has peaked at 197 lb (89 kg) and my waist was at 39″+ (99 cm+). About six months into the new diet and exercise, I got down to 187 lb (85 kg) and 37″ waist (94 cm). And that’s where I got stuck. Totally. No matter what I did, how I did it, my weight kept oscillating between 186-192lb and my waistline between 36.5″ to 37.5″. I had hit a wall.By this time, I had increased my physical exercise, but to no avail. There was no progress, just more fatigue. In addition to everything, I was on high blood pressure medication. My attempts to get off the medication failed every time. As soon as I’d stop, it would shoot back up. However, within eight months of the new regimen, my doctor cut both my pills in half. So, there was some progress. But not enough, and definitely not fast enough.So, I started to research. After a couple of months of reading, listening, analyzing, and researching, I have come to the conclusion that a Keto diet is what I need. As I mentioned, I won’t go into the details of why Keto diets are great and what they are, but just to set the context: it’s a diet based on very low carbs, low to moderate protein, and very, very high fat, with one additional caveat: by carbs read “good” carbs, and by fat read “good” fat.Month 1, Week 1, Day 1The journey started on Sunday, April 1st when I sat down with my wife and we went over all of my research. We brainstormed and shared ideas about how to go on doing this together. We both committed right away and we decided to try this for at least a month and see where it takes us. At the time of this writing, we are already into our third month.I’ll take a break and mention that if you are going to embark on a similar journey, I highly recommend doing it together with someone. Your spouse, partner, best friend, etc… Doing it as a team works a lot better. You can encourage each other, you can keep one another accountable. Teamwork!Now, back to our plan.I’m a very organized person in general, but it was my wife that had the genius idea: let’s sit down on Friday evenings and plan the entire following week: what are we going to cook (for us and the kids), what are we going to eat, when are we going to eat and what. This led to a little spreadsheet (yes, I love Excel) where we plan the ingredients and create a shopping list. The goal was to eliminate waste as much as possible and save money while still being on the Keto diet. Taking the guess-work out of it was a brilliant idea.Before we start, let me document my measurements on Day 1:MeasurementValueWeight192.5 lb (87.3 kg)Body Fat %24.7%BMI26.83Waist37.2″ (94.5 cm)The DecisionsAnd so, I began.Emotionally, I felt really excited. The science was there, the research was done. All I had to do was… do it. But, first things first.WHAT TO GET RID OF?Before deciding on what to eat, I first had to decide what not to eat. So, I resolved to eliminate all of the following items from my diet, effective immediately:All fruits (because of the fructose) except for blueberries and raspberriesAll sugars (in free form or added), including all artificial sweeteners (except for Stevia)All Starches (this includes ANYTHING made from grains: bread, pasta, rice)All “tubes” (potatoes, yams, sweet potatoes)All Legumes (beans, peas, etc)All vegetable oils (Read here why you should stop using Canola Oil)All alcohol (yep, will explain why later)TIMING OF FOOD AND EXERCISENow, once I had a clean slate in terms of what I should never eat, the question was: when can I eat?I’ll make a short parenthesis to tell you that the concept of Intermittent Fasting is a practice that works really well with the Ketogenic diet (resources at the bottom). Because I didn’t want to introduce too many variables from the start, I did not do any fasting during the first month. So, more about fasting later.UPDATE: I’ve written a follow-up article that discusses details about intermittent fasting on the ketogenic diet.For the time being, I decided to go with a three-meal plan. This meant eating only three times a day with no snacks in between. The goal here was to keep the insulin spikes very low and controlled.This was the original plan:10:00 am breakfast2:00 pm lunch7:00 pm dinnerThis means that overnight, my body benefits anyway from an uninterrupted session of fasting. However, I would break this fast early morning before my workout either with a Bulletproof Coffee or otherwise with some fat for energy. But, like I said, more about fasting later.As for exercise, I chose the following general routine:6:00 am—daily—30 minutes of HIIT or Resistence workouts (P90X3 / Insanity / 22 Hard Core, etc)Afternoon—twice a week—weightlifting at the gymAfternoon or Evening—once or twice a week—running or swimmingMACROS CALCULATIONAll right, so I knew what not to eat and when to eat. But now… what to eat?The Keto diet requires extremely low amounts of carbs, very moderate amounts of protein, and high amounts of fat. But how many, really?I headed to the website to compute my numbers. This is a very detailed calculator that I highly recommend to anyone trying to change their diet. It helps you determine your caloric intake and breaks it down for you between the different macronutrients (fat, protein, and carbs). So, I entered my numbers, and these were my results:2480 kcal for Daily Maintenance — if I intake this amount of calories, I would maintain my weight (given my exercise regimen)1984 kcal for Weight Loss — this intake allows for 495 kcal deficit, which means a theoretical loss of about 4 lb (1.8 kg) per monthCalorie Composition:30 g Carbs (6%, 120 kcal)109 g Protein (22%, 436 kcal)159 g Fat (72%, 1428 kcal)Note that the protein seems high at first sight, but in my case, it does come to 0.75 g/lbs which is good enough to maintain the existing muscle mass. That, combined with working out to keep my muscles “hungry” should ensure that no muscle gets catabolized during the process and I only burn fat for energy.One more note here: the Carbs above are actually NET CARBS. Net Carbs equal Total Carbohydrates less Dietary Fiber. So, for example, an Avocado has 12 grams of Carbs, but 10 grams of those are Dietary Fiber, so technically the Avocado has only 2 net carbs. That’s an important distinction as you start adding more veggies to your diet. Eating only 30 grams of carbs sounds crazy, but it’s not really… Trust me.Note that for simplicity purposes, I have rounded up the max calories to 2,000 kcal.Now onto the day by day…I started week one energized and hopeful, but also quite apprehensive. I wasn’t sure at all where this was going to go, but I knew that the only way to find out was by trying it out.So, here’s what I ate on Day 1:Breakfast (10 am) Wild Planet – Sardines in olive oil, lightly smokedAvocado, 1 mediumBoiled Egg, 2 largeLunch (2 pm) Mixed Green Salad – Field Greens, 6 cupsOil – Olive, 2 tablespoonMexican Cheese, 0.33 cupGuacamoleGrilled chicken, 4 ozMCT Oil, 1 tbsDinner (7 pm) Mixed Green Salad, 2 cupsOrganic Tahini Butter, 30 gOil – Olive, 1 tablespoonSalmon Cakes, 2 cakesAlmonds, 18 gramsBlue Cheese Crumbles, 2 TbspThis resulted in the following nutrition for the day:Calories: 2,011 kcalNet Carbs: 29 g (100 kcal / 5.1%)Protein: 110 g (440 kcal / 22.5%)Fat: 157 g (1,413 kcal / 72.4%)As you can see, pretty close to the plan.Now, let me describe what happened on that first day. By 3 pm, I started to feel a bit strange. First of all, I was peeing non-stop. That was a sign that my body was slowly starting to flush out due to the decrease in carbs. With that came dehydration and depletion of electrolytes. I was drinking water, but it was not enough. I felt weak and dizzy. So, I bought an electrolyte supplement (Ultima Replenisher) and that made things better.Not bad for day 1. I was a bit anxious and quite hungry toward the end of the day. I drank lots of tea in the evening and had to fight the urge to drink a cold beer… I think that the excitement of actually doing this kept me going.I woke up a rather restless and very hungry. But the hunger was a bit different. It was not the starvation feeling you get after you had a giant carby meal the night before. It was more of a mental hunger with some stomach complaints.The morning routine started to shape up:First thing after I woke up, I drank one glass of warm water with my daily vitamins. I add a B-complex supplement, Vitamin D, and Potassium—all things you need in abundance during a Keto diet. More about supplements later. This was just day two, so I was adding things one by one.Before going to work, I drink another glass of water with 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (for digestive tract health and counteracting the body alkalinity) and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (to prevent the formation of kidney stones because of the aggressive flushing of calcium through the kidneys).This was only day two and I already started to feel very fatigued. Like my body wasn’t responding. I felt sleepy, unmotivated. Things were starting to change, but I wasn’t feeling any benefit yet.Also, all my muscles felt weak. Deflated. I was slowly losing all the glycogen reserves and my body was reacting to the lack of carbs. Literally, everything was hurting from joints to bones to muscles.But I pushed through.I did one gym session which was excruciatingly hard. My body just wasn’t taking it, so I only worked out for like 20 minutes before giving up.I woke up at 6:00 am again and I resumed my morning exercise routine. At the time, I was doing P90X3. The humor and positive energy from Tony Horton rubbed on me and I felt a bit better than the day before. I was in week ten of the program, so quite advanced. But on that day, despite Tony’s constant encouragements, I could barely get through to the end. Everything hurt, and I had no energy. No power.This was the day when I started to have doubts. Maybe this was not for me. Maybe I can’t do it. Maybe it just doesn’t work. The broken mental models and mindsets were clawing at me like tiny demons up on my shoulders whispering in my ear: Give up! Give up, fat boy. So, I punched them and told them to go f*$% themselves.In the meantime, my macro nutrients ratio had improved slightly:Calories: 2,012 kcalNet Carbs: 18 g (72 kcal / 3.7%)Protein: 84 g (336 kcal / 17.4%)Fat: 169 g (1,521 kcal / 78.8%)Day four was the first weekend day, Saturday. I was very concerned about my ability to stick to the plan. This was also exacerbated by the fact that my wife hasn’t started yet (her plan was to start Monday), so our fridge was now a mess of old stuff and new stuff.It was a tough day. I stuck to it as best as I could. The hardest part was the time when my son’s soccer practice finished and our family joined some friends at a pizza place. Ah… the smell, the craving. It was bad. But I held on.By this time, we received in the mail our Keto measurement kit. I’ll talk later about measurements some more, but I decided to use a basic urine test that simply gives you a range. That evening, I took my first measure and I was already scoring “high.” This was good. The system was working. My body was generating ketones and it was starting to use fat as fuel instead of sugar.This was one of the days when I felt at my weakest. By this time, five days in, I assume that all my reserves of glycogen in the system had been depleted, mostly because I also worked out too much and kind of recklessly.But, despite the physical challenge, something was happening with my brain. I can’t exactly explain it, but it was some sort of clarity.You know how when you wake up in the morning and everything is blurry? And then in the evening, you are tired and exhausted and your eyes are just closing? Somehow, that was gone. I had this sense of mental energy, of focus, of clarity.Also, seeing how I went through these 5 days successfully, my mental state has shifted. It seemed very clear that I can do this, so the sense of failure from a few days ago had been replaced by a new sentiment: a strong desire to see it through the end.On this Sunday, we were invited to my mother for Easter. Imagine all the food that was there… But, my wife and I, we both kept the diet. High fats, low carbs, no alcohol. It worked! Somehow, the cravings were no longer there. It seemed like a switch had occurred…That night, my wife and I sat down and made a full meal plan for the whole week. We committed to eating mostly the same, save for those situations when one of us likes something or not, and do a combined shopping list to make it efficient. Yes, to those people who went nuts on my FB page—that’s how that shopping list came to be…On day 6, I went to the gym again and did a chest workout. It was extremely painful. I wasn’t able to push the weight that was not an issue in the past and definitely not as many reps.Overall, I was able to maintain the Fat % between 75% and 80%. Protein is between 15% and 20%. So, good ratios.At the end of the day, I weighed myself and—lo and behold—188 lb. I had dropped 4 pounds. And, yes, I know it’s probably 100% water weight, but still. I had a huge boost in morale once I saw that.It was happening. I could see actual results.On day 7, I broke the record again with fat content at 78.9%. By this time, I was no longer craving carbs at all.However, something else bad is happening: I’m starting to get severe indigestion and the food is going through my body without being digested. What was happening?Well, after 7 days of no carbs, the bacteria in my gut that helps with digestion had probably died by and large. All that was left are the bad bacteria which accumulate toxins. Also, my pancreas was probably unable to generate the necessary enzymes to digest the large amounts of fiber from vegetables.I also have a weak stomach by default. The excess fat I was ingesting was creating inflammation and my digestive system was getting clogged.To combat that, I added a few items to my supplements list: Chlorella, Turmeric, a powerful probiotic, and additional digestive enzymes, including Lipase, which is critical for digesting vegetables, especially leafy greens.After a couple of days, the digestion had regulated itself. I planned to add organic Bone Broth to the following week to strengthen the stomach’s flora and prevent future problems.So, that was the quick and dirty track of the first seven days. Next, I’m going to jump through the months as a whole.MONTH 1 on KetoThe first month was tough, I’ll tell you that much. But once the first three weeks passed, once I went over that adaptation period, the last part of the month wasn’t as horrible anymore. Things started to settle and my body was okay with the new regimen. Here is what I scored after the first 31 days:Nutrition – Daily Averages over 31 days (Month 1: April 4, 2018 – May 4, 2018) Calories2,014kcalCarbs34gNet Carbs20gProtein102gFat164gNet Carb Calories79kcal4.0%Protein Calories408kcal20.7%Fat Calories1,478kcal75.2%Sugar9.5gSodium1,794mgPotassium1,583gHere are my BEFORE and AFTER stats after 31 days:MetricBEFOREAFTERChangeWeight192.5 lb (87.3 kg)182.8 lb (84.0 kg)(5% reduction) (9.7 lb)Body Fat %24.7%22.8%(8% reduction)BMI26.8325.50(5% reduction)Waist37.2″ (94.5 cm)36.4″ (92.5 cm)(2% reduction)By the end of this first month, I was quite psyched about the results. Overall, mind and body, I was feeling really good. In the meantime, my wife had similar results. So, things were going pretty well.MONTH 2 on KetoMonth two was a little bit easier. But there were also a few more temptations along the way. I started to feel some sort of melancholy for old food that I can’t eat anymore. I particularly craved bread. I craved it so much that I baked myself a Keto Bread. It came okay-ish, but nothing like real bread.Also, during month two I consumed some alcohol as opposed to month one where I haven’t touched it. The thing is, once on keto you can forget about beer and sweet wines. You can also forget about not-so-sweet wines, too, but a glass of white wine here and there is acceptable. What I did drink though was hard liquor like vodka and whiskey. These do not have an impact on insulin so don’t technically pull you out of ketosis, but they do stop the ketosis process while the liver is dealing with the alcohol. So, I had to keep it to a minimum. My wife and I had to go to a wedding during this period so that was tough. Tough, but doable…Here is what I scored during the next 26 days:Nutrition Daily Averages over 26 days (Month 1: May 5, 2018 – May 30, 2018) Calories2,041kcalCarbs33gNet Carbs19gProtein95gFat168gNet Carb Calories75kcal3.8%Protein Calories379kcal19.3%Fat Calories1,511kcal76.9%Sugar9.8gSodium2,210mgPotassium1,527gHere are the overall BEFORE and AFTER stats after 57 days:MetricBEFOREAFTERChangeWeight192.5 lb (87.3 kg)179.2 lb (81.3 kg)(7% reduction) (13.3 lb)Body Fat %24.7%22.5%(9% reduction)BMI26.8324.9(7% reduction)Waist37.2″ (94.5 cm)35.3″ (89.7 cm)(5% reduction)So a few things to notice in Month 2: I upped my calorie intake by a little bit while improving on my percentages. I still maintained a higher % of protein (closer to 20%). The goal for the last 30 days is to try my best to lower that to about 15%. If you are going on the keto diet, you have to pay attention to protein. It’s very tempting to eat lots of steaks and sausages, but keep in mind that too much protein will pull you out of ketosis. Protein gets converted to glycogen, too, if the body has the opportunity to do it. So, protein has to be kept to the limit of maintaining muscles and “pushed” into the muscles with exercise.Also, notice that I have increased my intake of Sodium, but that didn’t seem to affect my blood pressure, most likely because a lot of it got eliminated via urine and sweat.Intermittent FastingIn the last two weeks of month two, I started to introduce intermittent fasting. I put some links in the resource section about this particular type of fasting. This is not about starving yourself, it’s about changing the timing of your food intake to allow for the maximum fat burn. If you read the research, you can see that there are multiple benefits and lots of them extend far beyond just weight loss. The benefits go deep into slowing the aging process, lowering your risk for cardiovascular disease, and improving your quality of sleep. It’s a very tough one to tackle, though. But once you are on it, you’ll start to feel its benefits very quickly.To begin, I started with fasting only two days per week with the following schedule:Eat my last meal of the day between 7 and 8 pmEat my first meal next day between 12 and 1 pmThis gave me a window of about 16 hours of fasting (including type asleep) and a window of 8 hours to get all my calories in. For the time being, I keept with the three-meal plan, but at some point, I will transition to only two meals per day.Because of the way Keto is designed, you don’t really feel the hunger fatigue you get when you are on carbs. It’s actually quite easy to go without any food until 12 pm, something I haven’t been able to do in the past, and my wife can attest to my levels of “hangryness”… But this time around, I found it quite easy. But that first few days of doing it… Damn, that was hard!The way you break the fast is also important. There’s a science behind the way that allows you to reap the most benefits out of it. This is how I do it:I drink one cup of Bone Broth (I use Kettle Fire) to provide collagen and get the stomach ready for nutrient absorption. Wait 10 minutes.I drink 2 tablespoons of MCT Oil (more about this in the Supplements section) to signal my body to start making ketones. Wait 10 minutes.I eat any supplements I have for that day. Wait 10 minutes for max absorption.Begin with my first solid meal of the dayIt sounds hard and it is hard in the beginning. But once you get the hang of it, it’s really not that bad!General ObservationsHere are a few general observations from the past 2 months:ProsAs soon as you stop the carbs, your body begins to drop water weight. It’s almost within 24 hours.After about 5 days, the cravings disappear, you no longer feel hungry even during long periods of fasting.Once ketones are present, you will start feeling a different type of energy: mental acuity and mental strength. Maybe this is in my imagination, but I feel like my short-term memory, my focus and my attention have improved.The skin starts clearing up and get “tight.”No more bloating!Fast weight loss and size decreaseConsYou pee a LOT. All the time.Electrolyte unbalance – as you lose water, you lose electrolytes. This makes you dizzy and weak. You must supplement.Reduction in strength – because of the lack of carbs in my muscles, I had dropped about 30-40% in my strength and resistance.There is no such thing as a cheat day! If you cheat and eat carbs, your body will stop the ketone production and insulin will spike. You will need another few days to resume. So, no cheating on this diet!You need to take a lot of different supplements to make this work.The diet takes a toll on your digestive system. If you approach it correctly, though, you can fix it after a while.One thing to note is that the cons are expected. This is the phase known as “keto-adaptation.” It takes about four to eight weeks, sometimes more, to get into full ketosis. So, all these symptoms are perfectly normal. I’m expecting them to subside and disappear over the next 30 days or so.ExerciseSo, after doing some research, here is the dirty truth: at the beginning of the Keto diet, during that adaptation phase, you have to take it easy with the physical exercise. I experienced this on my own skin. If you are a gym goer, be ready to take like seven steps back. I found out that lifting same weights for 8-10 reps no longer worked. Running in fast sprints no longer worked either.If you are not a gym goer, this is good news, because you can start easy. I had to take a step back and lower my speed in cardio. Make the workouts easier but longer.My body was still in shock, rebuilding cell structures to allow the creation of energy from fat instead of carbs. During that time, while the transformation was not complete, I couldn’t maintain the same workout regimen as before. Below are several stats from my physical exercise. What you’ll notice right off the bat is that I do over-train. By a lot. I will work on scaling it down. The fact is that on this diet, overtraining is actually hurting the diet. Once I complete my P90X3 / Hard Corps routine, I will try to reorganize my workouts and scale them down until I transition out of ketosis.I use the UA Record to track my exercise, and here is the overview of my workouts for this period of 57 days. Note that the Gym portion (legs, upper, treadmill) is not entirely accurate because I haven’t entered it all the time, especially in the beginning. But at least it gives some sort of general guideline.As you can see, I worked out 58 times in 57 days, burning an average of 353 kcal per session and each session being about 30 minutes long. So, basically, on average, I worked out 30 minutes every single day. Of course I didn’t work every single day, but some days I worked out twice. This is my general schedule:Mon: 6 am P90X or similarTue: 6 am P90X or similar + 2 pm weights at the gymWed: 6 am P90X or similar + abs and core in the eveningThu: 6 am P90X or similar + 2 pm weights at the gymFri: 6 am P90X or similarSat: 8 am P90X or similar + short run in the afternoonSun: long run in the afternoon + abs and core workout in the evening OR gym workout + swimmingOf course, I haven’t kept it as strict as on paper, but it’s a decent guideline. Note that I haven’t actually tracked the abs and core workouts in the evening, but they usually consist of 10-15 minutes of deep ab work including ab vacuums, reverse situps for lower abs, and lots and lots of planks.I have gotten addicted to my FitBit as well. I use it to track my steps, my intake of water, and calorie burn. Below is the chart view from FitBit showing my steps over time. I’m averaging about 10,300k steps per day, so that’s a good thing.Lastly, I use Runkeeper to track my running sessions. As I mentioned above, I had to scale running back significantly. Not just distance but speed, too. My normal running speed in races like this is between 8.5 and 9 minutes per mile. Here, you can see I am averaging between 10 and 11 minutes. So, definitely a decrease in stamina when it comes to running.SleepThanks to my Fitbit, I also track my sleep patterns. I’ve done extensive research on this and I have to tell you this: you will not lose weight if you don’t sleep properly. This is not the place to explain this, but do some research into the effects of sleep on weight loss and general wellbeing. Below is what I’ve collected over a period of 37 days. As you can see, the percentage split between REM, Light, and Deep sleep is pretty much in line with what would be expected.Charting the sleep cycles over time, I can’t say that I see any significant changes, neither good nor bad, during the period of the Keto diet. So, at this point, I don’t have any reasons to believe that my sleep has been affected in any way. One thing though that I really have to work on is a longer sleep altogether. Only six hours per night is a bit too low, for sure. I will work on going to bed earlier by at least 30 minutes to slowly push that average toward 6.5 hours and then, maybe 7.Measuring Level of KetonesIf you don’t measure, you don’t know where you are, so you can’t tell if you’re doing good or bad. That’s good advice in almost any context. When it comes to the ketogenic diet, it’s very important to measure where you are. To do so, you can use several methods: Urine test stripsFinger-prick blood analyzerBreath testBecause I don’t particularly like finger-pricking, I chose the urine test. It works pretty well, even though once you are in full ketosis and your body adapts, it will make just enough ketones for you to function and eliminate a lot less via urine. This means that in time, the urine test will be less effective. At some point, I will invest in a blood tester. Ideally, one that takes ketone levels and glucose levels at the same time.I never used a breath tester (which measures the level of acetone in your breath) because I simply couldn’t find one.SupplementsBecause of the restrictions on the food you are allowed to intake during the ketogenic diet, there are minerals and vitamins that don’t get into your body. On top of that, lots of them get eliminated. In addition, your body might have difficulty absorbing some of them. So, to overcome that, I knew that I had to introduce several supplements into my diet. Below is a list of what I’ve taken over these few months. Obviously not all at once…Vitamins and MineralsMultivitamin — This is a pretty obvious one. I keep it simple by taking one Centrum Plus every day. You should use whichever one works for you. One good idea is to do a blood test before you start on Keto and notice if you are low in any vitamins and select a multivitamin that has those.Vitamin B — Because our body doesn’t store vitamin B, you might experience low vitamin B. However, if you have a diet rich in meat, nuts, and seafood you might not need this. If you do, a good B-complex is a very good idea. However, you might get that already in your multivitamin. Make sure you don’t take too much. Vitamin C — There’s not enough space to write about the benefits of vitamin C. On keto, since you cannot eat fruit and vegetables are limited to a set, you probably don’t take enough vitamin C in. If you do eat about 10 cups of leafy greens every day, you might. Just count it. If you see you are deficient, supplement vitamin C.Vitamin K2 + D3 — This might not be for everyone. One cause of high blood pressure is the accumulation of calcium in arteries. The combination of vitamins K2 and D3 results in the mobilization of calcium and moving it out of the system or into the bones where it belongs. In time, this is supposed to lower the blood pressure. At this point, I can’t testify to that because I have just ordered the package. Electrolytes — If there’s any supplement you must have at your disposal at all times, it’s electrolytes. As I mentioned, during keto I lost a LOT of water very fast. This resulted in losing electrolytes which put me into some sort of “keto flu.” It comes with brain fogginess, weakness, restlessness. Basically, your body loses sodium, magnesium, potassium, and calcium too fast. Those are the elements that help our brain communicate with our organs. So, during Keto, you probably need to supplement the electrolytes together with drinking enough water.Digestive SupportProbiotics — Once you deplete your body of carbs and start taking a lot more fat in, the healthy bacteria in your gut will begin to die. Behind it, you’ll get a bunch of left-over bacteria that can hold on to toxins. Basically, you create an imbalance in your gut. That’s why at the beginning of keto I suffered from a lot of indigestion. Taking a good probiotic has helped me regulate my gut and get back on track.Digestive Enzymes — Bacteria only is not enough to regulate your digestion. You also need digestive enzymes. Since in keto you start eating a lot of leafy greens and lots of fiber, your natural enzymes might not be able to break them down because they won’t be enough. You will start seeing undigested greens in your stool and that means your body is not absorbing nutrients. Buy a good enzyme support, especially one that has Lipase, an enzyme that helps with digestion of leafy greens. After only one week of this, my gut was back to normal and has been since.Garlic Extract — Garlic is a natural detoxifier and also helps with reduction of inflammation. You can use raw garlic, but an extract pill packs a lot more and it comes without the smell. Garlic is said to help with reduction of cholesterol, blood pressure, and have antioxidant properties.Glycine — Glycine is the simplest amino acid and it has a significant role in the body. It promotes muscle growth, lowers inflammation, increases liver’s production of glutathione which is a powerful anti-oxidant and free-radical fighter. Read more about the benefits of glycine.Muscle SupportCreatine Monohydrate — This is a classic workout helper that has been used by athletes for years. It is totally safe during Keto. I only take 5mg before I do a weight-lifting set of exercises, and sometimes after. Best to combine it with BCAAs. Read more about the benefits of creatine monohydrate on the keto diet.BCAAs — BCAAs are essential amino acids. In other words, they are a type of protein that is very important to our cell growth, especially muscle cell. Because during Keto you are limiting the protein you intake, you might find it difficult to maintain or grow muscle mass. This is where BCAA in combination with Creatine comes in handy. I take 10 g of BCAAs before my morning workout and 10 g after. Learn more about BCAAs on keto.Hormone Support and RegulatorsAdrenal Support — The adrenal glands are two small organs above each of our kidneys. They are essential in producing a lot of hormones and regulate multiple functions in our bodies, including cortisol levels. On keto or not, you want your adrenal glands to function well. Most adrenal support are natural, plant-based ones. 7-Keto DHEA — 7-Keto DHEA is a by-product of DHEA which is naturally produced in the skin, adrenal glands, and the brain. Studies have shown that 7-Keto DHEA contributes to weight loss and can increase the metabolism in the body. The substance works by increasing the activity if the thermogenic enzymes that are known for the oxidation of fatty acids.Tribulus Terestris — Tribulus Terrestris has played a vital role in Ayurvedic, Chinese, and European medicine for centuries. In Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine, it has been applied as a remedy for urinary and reproductive problems and fatigue. It is helpful in boosting testosterone production in men which helps with fat loss and muscle gain.Fat SupplementsMCT Oil — Once you get on a Keto diet, you WILL learn about MCT Oil. Probably you’ve never heard about it before and neither have I. It stands for Medium-Chain Triglycerides. It’s a special type of fat that is able to “go around” the digestive system and the liver and run directly into the blood and be fuel for ketone production. MCT Oil is a staple of the keto diet. The MCT oil is usually extracted from coconut so some of the oils you buy will have a coconutty-flavor and smell, but you will find some that are smell-less and tasteless.Brain Octane Oil — This is a type of MCT oil produced by the Bulletproof company. They make a variety of products specifically designed for the keto diet. You probably heard of the Bulletproof Coffee. That’s basically coffee with Brain Octane Oil and Ghee Butter. I love it!Ghee Butter — Ghee is similar to clarified butter, which is produced by heating butter to remove the milk solids and water. However, in comparing ghee vs. clarified butter, ghee is simmered longer to bring out the butter’s inherent nutty flavor and is left with a higher smoke point than butter, meaning that it can be heated to a higher temperature before it starts to smoke. Not only that, but ghee is rich in beneficial nutrients and contains several fatty acids that are important to health. Plus, there are numerous benefits of ghee, and some of its components have been shown to do everything from boost weight loss to improve digestion and relieve inflammation. You can buy ghee butter at your local grocery store into the “health” section or, of course, online. My favorite drink is coffee + one tbsp of ghee butter + 1 tbsp of MCT oil, mixed in a blender.OtherPolicosanol — Policosanol refers to natural substances derived from cane sugar, beeswax, and a number of other foods. Policosanol has been shown to lower total cholesterol levels, boost HDL cholesterol levels and prevent the oxidation of LDL cholesterol in several studies. The same studies found that policosanol may lower triglycerides, prevent the oxidation of LDL cholesterol, and slightly lower blood pressure: several of the key risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease.Alpha-Lipoic Acid — Alpha lipoic acid is a strong antioxidant, and the bulk of its benefits arise from that fact. Being uniquely fat and water-soluble permits this antioxidant fatty acid to work in a broader range of body tissues than other antioxidants, like fat-soluble vitamin E or water-soluble vitamin C. ALA can also bind with toxic metal ions such as mercury, copper, iron, and others so they can be expelled from the body. ALA plays a role in energy metabolism in every cell’s mitochondria. Research has shown that ALA’s antioxidant properties support liver health, cardiovascular health, the nervous system, brain, skin, and muscle recovery following intense exercise. Additionally, ALA supports a healthy weight and normal blood sugar levels.Ketogenic Diet ResourcesKeto Video ChannelsThis is a list of my favorite Keto-related YouTube channels. I highly recommend subscribing to all of them and you will get a weekly stream of high-quality videos about keto. These channels were the place I started and I am watching them to this day. It’s a good idea to go to each channel, subscribe and add notifications, and then watch the videos under the label “most popular.”Dr. Eric BergDr. Eric Berg DC, age 52 describes the truth about getting healthy and losing healthy weight. He is the director of Dr. Berg’s Nutritionals and author of the best selling book, The 7 Principles of Fat Burning. He has conducted over 4800 seminars on health-related topics and trained over 2500 doctors worldwide in his methods. Dr. Eric Berg presently lives in Alexandria VA.Visit YouTube Channel: Dr. Eric Berg Video ChannelDr. Ken D. BerryMedicine in Plain Words presented by a Board Certified Family Physician practicing in small-town America. Dr. Berry has treated over 20,000 patients during his career, spanning more than a decade. No big medical words here, just plain talk you can use to stay healthy and happy. If you like it limp-wristed and sugar-coated then you should probably look somewhere else.Visit YouTube Channel: Dr. Ken D. Berry Video ChannelDr. Jason FungThe Aetiology of Obesity is dedicated to exploring the root causes of the modern plague of obesity and diabetes. There are in-depth analyses of modern nutritional fact and falsehoods resulting in a surprising conclusion about diet and disease. Topics explored include obesity, diabetes, insulin, the role of fiber, salt, cholesterol, dietary fats, and cholesterol.Visit YouTube Channel: Dr. Jason Fung Video ChannelThomas DeLauerThomas DeLauer has built his name around helping the busiest people in all corners of the world find the time to make small, easy changes within their diets and their lifestyles to not only become healthier but to become top performers within their respective areas. On this channel, you’re going to find close to all the information that you need to begin making a change for the better without having to sacrifice your favorite things. As someone that has been in the healthcare space for his entire career, Thomas brings a wealth of knowledge to the table and alongside him is a remarkable research team that backs everything with science and evidence to ensure that you get the most out of what you are doing.Visit YouTube Channel: Thomas DeLauer Video ChannelKeto ConnectKetoConnect aims to provide informative videos centering around the Ketogenic Diet. We(Megha and Matt) started our keto journey together and our results were too good to keep to ourselves, so we have made it our mission to spread the word! We share recipes and lifestyle information at our website as well. Check it out . We are working hard to provide you with all the tools needed to get you up and running on the Keto diet. We love eating, so we are always keeping up with the latest and greatest keto snacks and we often give reviews of them. Check us out and get in touch with us for all things keto! Thanks!Visit YouTube Channel: Keto Connect Video ChannelHeadbanger’s KitchenOfficial channel for the Headbanger’s Kitchen show hosted by Demonstealer (Demonic Resurrection/Workshop/Reptilian Death). A show that brings together his love for food and passion for heavy metal music. We’re now creating Keto Recipes though.Visit YouTube Channel: Headbanger’s Kitchen Video ChannelKeto Websites, Blogs & PodcastsRuled.meKeto DashDiet DoctorKeto AdaptedHealthful PursuitLiving La Vida Low CarbLow CarbyumKeto Diet AppKetovangelistEat Fat Lose Fat BlogKetogenic GirlKeto BooksThe Essential Keto CookbookKeto Clarity: Your Definitive Guide to the Benefits of a Low-Carb, High-Fat DietDr. Colbert’s Keto Zone DietThe Keto Diet: The Complete Guide to A High-Fat DietQuick & Easy Ketogenic CookingKeto Articles and VideosLastly, here is a list of my favorite Keto articles and videos. If you want to start on the ketogenic diet, read and watch all of them. They’re filled with valuable information and probably will answer most of your questions.Keto ArticlesHere’s a list of articles I think you should read before getting on the ketogenic diet.Ruled.me – Keto Diet GuideKeto Dash – Keto DietHealthline – Ketogenic Diet 101Dr. Axe – Ketogenic Diet Food ListDiet Doctor – Keto DietHealthline – Intermittent Fasting GuideJames Clear – Guide to Intermittent FastingNerd Fitness – A Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent FastingThank you for reading!If you stuck through the end of this article… thank you! It was a long one. I hope you found it informative and useful. If you did, I’d appreciate if you could share it across your favorite social media networks. Also, if you have any comments, ideas, thoughts, or suggestions, please post them in the comments below. I am very curious to hear from other people who went through similar journeys and had good (or bad!) results. Thank you!Using Scrivener to Organize Your Writing Scrivener is a software created by a company called Literature and Latte. It’s a word-processing application which offers a lot more than just a simple replacement for Word. I don’t even think of Scrivener as a Word-replacement, but as a complementary tool.Scrivener allows you to organize your writing and structure it from the top idea down to the smallest units of writing. You can split your work down into scenes, or even beyond that. Its usage is subjective to people’s liking, but the system is flexible enough to make it the go-to tool for many writers.I’ve been using Scrivener for about eight years and I’m thrilled with it. Over time, I’ve learned how to use it more effectively and I’ve developed my own rules that work for me. In this short blog post, I will discuss some of those rules and best practices. Remember, these are working for me. They might not work for you, but at least it will give you an idea of what is possible.The good thing about Scrivener is that it works regardless if you are an outliner or a seat-of-your-pants writer. In the end, you will have a properly organized final draft that is ready for self-editing. At the editing stage, you want to have your manuscript in a good place, with a good structure and with the ability to go from section to section without losing a lot of time.And that’s a critical part. As a writer, you’d like to spend most of your time writing and some of your time editing. But it’s the admin tasks and repetitive actions such as scrolling and searching that suck up a lot of your writing time.One tiny caveat about this article: I’m using and showing the Windows PC version in this tutorial. If you use Scrivener for Mac, most steps are very similar. Getting OrganizedBefore I work on my manuscript, I always create my top-level structure: what are the categories, tags, and colors I will be using. Create these first to take the guess-work out for later. I use the three-act structure a lot, but you don’t have to. However you structure it, apply the same logic to it. To separate my sections, I create three Chapter labels (to access labels, click on the menu Project -> Meta-Data Settings… or press Ctrl-Shift-M.)As you can see below, I have three chapters with three different colors. To edit the color, double-click the color square. I use my own outlining tool called Master Novel Outlining and Tracking Tool, and in there I use the same color scheme for the three acts. This makes it easy to keep your work consistent with the different tools.Also, as you can see below, I have two types of scenes: Minor Scene and Major Scene. You can create your own labels here, but keep in mind that if you create too many, it complicates things. I like to stick with two.Note the Separator label there – we will talk about this a little later.Once you defined your Labels and colors, head on to the Status tab in the same settings window and make sure you have the status set for each of your sections. I use To Do, First Draft, Revised Draft, and Final -Level OrganizationNow that you have your colors and names created, create your chapter structure. Again, if you are an outliner, you already know this. If you’re not, this will build up slowly as you write. To edit the attributes of each chapter, make sure that the Info Panel is visible on the right side of your screen. If it’s not, click on the large [i] icon there and you can see the General Meta-Data for the selected chapter:Below is an example of how my Chapter structure looks like for my novel “The Silver Spider Web.” You can see how the colors allow the three-act structure to appear pretty clearly. Note, by default you might not see the tabs colored. If you don’t, click on the menu option View -> Use Label Color In and make sure to check the Icons option (you can also toggle it with the key F6).You can also press F5 to show the colors in the Binder as a full-width colorful band, but I find it too distracting. This is how it looks like:Scene LevelNow that you have your chapters on, it’s time to add scenes. Let me make a parenthesis here. Sometimes you need to have a separator between scenes. If you write fully contained scenes, you can use Scrivener’s built-in scene separator. But if you don’t, you’ll find it annoying. I wish there was a checkbox at the scene level that would allow us to toggle the separator on and off. Because there isn’t, I’m using my own system. Here’s how to do it.First, eliminate Scrivener’s built-in separator. Click on the Compile button:Which opens the Compile window. Click on Separators and change the first one (Text Separator) to Single Return:Then, create a text section between any two sections you want to separate, name it “——————–” and set its Label to Separator. The body text of the section should be one carriage return, three “#” centered and one more carriage return. Then, set its meta-data to be “Compile as is”. Here’s an example:Now, every time you want to put a separator between two scenes, right-click the separator text and choose Duplicate. Then drag it to where it has to go. This will add a nice separator between the scenes you want to separate and you don’t have to worry about how and when the system does it.Also, don’t forget to classify your scenes with labels. As you can see in the sample above, I have red scenes (Major) and purple scenes (Minor). Cork boardThe cork board is a cool visual of your organized work and I recommend using it. To switch to the corkboard view, click on the middle button on the top bar:Before you fumble with the cards, click on the bottom-right button to open the cards’ settings:I like the cards ratio to be 3×5, but you can change it to you want. Also, depending on how much text there will be on the cards (will talk about this later), consider checking the “Use small font” box and making the Size larger. Once you are happy with the way your cards look like, click on the menu View -> Corkboard Options and check all three options:This will make sure that your corkboard also shows the colors you defined above. Here’s an example:Do you see the second card on the first row? It has two extra lines on the right: one red and one green. What are those? Those are Keyword markers. Basically, each piece of text allows setting of one or more keywords. I use these to mark my characters. So, in my example above, Chapter 1 involves two of my main characters, Justin and Cora. Here’s how the definition looks like in the Meta-data panel:To add new keywords, click on the + sign. If you want to edit the color of a keyword, click on that settings gear which will take you to the keyword edit panel. Over there, you can double-click the color and change it.So, by using this method, when you look at the corkboard at the manuscript level, you can have a broad view of your manuscript.OutlinerThe outliner is the third and last way you can look at your manuscript. It looks like this:You will have to do a bit of work to make it look like this. First, go to View -> Outliner columns and check on and off the ones you want. My structure is as you can see above. Note one difference between “Word Count” and “Total Word Count.” Word count is the count for that section, while Total Word Count is the word count for that section, plus all the sections under it. So, in the example above. Chapter 1’s total word count is 2,529, composed of the specific word count of four sections that belong to it.I like this view because I can see where I am with the word count in one shot.To edit the word count goal for each text section, open the section in the regular viewer and click on the icon in the bottom-right corner. Once you set your goal, the system will calculate the percent of completion against that goal.Scene Titles and SynopsisThe last step I like to do is to give my scenes titles and write the synopsis for each scene and chapter. As before, if you are not an outliner, you will do this at the end of your novel. Regardless, do it anyway. It will be a tremendous help later one when you have to write your synopsis.Keep your scene titles short and to the point. Something easy to understand in the context of the scene. You can see in the example above, I use things like “Justin is sad.” The synopsis text though is longer and more explicit. However, try to make it enough to fit on your corkboard cards. Remember that the scene titles and synopsis text flows into all the views.Corkboard:Outliner:Info Panel:In a later article, I will talk about how you can take the metadata and generate a synopsis directly from the Scrivener compiler.So, there you have it. Those are my best practices for setting up a visually helpful project in Scrivener that works well with any outlining tool. If you are not an outliner, this method will serve you well at the end when you are starting the editing process.I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Please comment with any other tips on how you use Scrivener to organize and structure your writing projects.Best,IulianHere are a few links to similar articles on the web that talk about getting organized with Scrivener:Setting Up Your Scrivener Project for Easier CompilingHow to Write Faster and Get Organized with Scrivener8 Ways Scrivener Will Help You Become A Proficient Writer OvernightArticles On Writing Over the years, I’ve written a number of articles about writing. I’ve written these pieces as I was developing myself into a writer. On the one hand, I did it selfishly to memorialize what I know, and on the other hand, to share my thoughts with you and get feedback so that I can get better. Please help to share this and if you have any thoughts and ideas, don’t forget to comment below.On Writing Faster and MoreUsing Scrivener to Organize Your WritingOrganize Your Weekly Writing ScheduleWriter’s Block or Will-Power BlockWriting when busyHow to complete your NaNoWriMo 30-Day NovelHow To Write A Fast First DraftWriting By Time Might Work For YouWriting On VacationRe-reading Favorite Old BooksWriting Inspiration in Everyday ItemsWhy You Should Write Short StoriesOn Writing BetterMastering Point of ViewCreating Multi-Dimensional, Memorable CharactersQuick Manuscript Editing TipsStart with the Beginning AND the EndingHow To Self-Edit Your NovelOn WorldbuildingCreating A Fantasy World – IntroductionCreating a Fantasy World – Geography (Part 1)Creating a Fantasy World – Language (Part 2)Creating a Fantasy World – Names (Part 3)On Writing OrganizationMaster Outlining and Tracking Tool for Novels V3.0Character Development WorksheetMaster Outlining and Tracking Tool for Novels V2.0Master Outlining and Tracking Tool for NovelsOtherShort Story Submission StrategyWriters – Protect Your DataI hope you enjoy these articles!IulianNo crushed balls in Heaven, please! Did you know there’s a passage in the Bible that addresses the particular situation of your balls and penis status as it relates to your entry into Heaven? Yes, yes there is. You can find it in Deuteronomy 23:1.Here’s the King James Bible translation: “He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.”Christian Standard Bible translation: “No man whose testicles have been crushed or whose penis has been cut off may enter the?Lord’s assembly.”If this seems far-fetched and not real, Google it. Or check it out right here: , I know how humans work, okay? It takes fifty people to die at an intersection before anybody puts up a red light. So, back in those biblical times, exactly how many people had to have their balls crushed or penis cut before someone decided that this shit must be duly memorialized in the Bible? A thousand? Maybe more? Makes you wonder.What was going on in those days with people’s testicles being so close in the vicinity of large, moving stones?And why deny them entrance into Heaven? I think it went something like this:Archangel Gabriel sneaks behind God, who’s eating at his table, all alone.“God?”God startles. “Jesus!”“No,” Michael says, “it’s just me. Jesus is making wine.”“What is it again, Michael?” God says, making no effort to hide his frustration.“I want to bring up an issue—”“I’m eating.”Michael clears his throat. “It’s important.”God smashes his cup on the table and pushes it to the side, rolls his eyes. “Fine, Michael. I’m all ears.”“So… we have a bit of an issue with all these people with crushed balls and penises cut off roaming around.”God winces. “What?”“It’s true. They’re all over Heaven, Father. They are freaking out the cherubs, complaining all over. They have really high voices. I mean, it’s just a mess.”“And?” God raises a brow. “What do you want me to do about it?”“Some… God stuff?”God hits his fist on the table. “You know, I don’t have time for all of this admin stuff. I’m God. I’m All-mighty and All-loving. People’s balls and their level of crushness is not my problem. Make the people put that stuff in the Bible.”Michael eyebrows fly to the top of his forehead. “Really?”“Yes.” God turns to his food. “Now can you let me finish—”Michael dashes out and finds Gabriel behind the wall.“He said it,” Michael whispers.“For real?” Gabriel rubs his hands. “I’m calling Satan to let him know a bunch of people with crushed balls are coming over.”Michael grins. “He’ll be thrilled. He surely deserves it.”“It’s been a tough century,” Gabriel agrees.Well, maybe it didn’t go down like that, but I’m sure it was pretty damn close.Post-Trump Election Doomsday Scenario (Act 1) (Act 1)It is the Year of our Lord, 2019. We are a couple of years into the Trump presidency and things are going moderately okay, if judging solely by the quality of ham, egg, and cheese sandwiches. If everything else is considered, things are quite terrible, but people get by.Taking advantage of the short-term chaos, California manages to sneak-in a vote for secession. The vote passes with 99.99% of votes; the only 3 entities who voted No are Chuck Norris and his two fists. Trump doesn’t pay any attention to this event because: a) he is quite happy to rid the US of all these liberals and b) he is busy with some new messages that the CIA had just recovered from Hillary Clinton’s StarCraft account which seem to implicate her in some sort of Intergalactic conspiracy.The secession goes through and the population of California nominates Arnold Schwarzenegger as President. As first ruling, Arnold declares that from now on the official transportation vehicle of the Country of California will be the Chopper.A few more years pass by and California and Mexico start talking like good-old pals. After a couple of negotiation rounds, the two countries decide to merge. The new country is named Mexifornia and its flag is a hand giving the finger. Arnold learns Spanish. The official vehicle of South Mexifornia is El Helicóptero.Florida petitions right away to be integrated in Mexifornia. Mexifornia tells all Floridians, very politely, to go fuck themselves. Which they do. Obviously.Trump, once again, doesn’t pay too much attention to this potentially destabilizing event. By this time, he is occupied with plans to invade Canada because the King of Canada made fun of his tiny hands. Over the last ten years of him running the US (after craftily altering the Constitution), his hands have progressively shrunk, baffling all scientists. They had shrunk so much they now look like tiny Barbie-Doll hands. A team of experts had to attach two robotic arms to Trump’s elbows to enable him to properly grab cats.Anyway, years go by and Mexifornia flourishes. Its neighbor, Texas grows progressively angry because of the loads of Texans that skip the state into Mexifornia. Texas decides to build a wall to prevent Texans from fleeing, but they realize that all their workers had already left so they can’t build shit. The Governor has a brilliant idea: all Texans will march into Mexifornia and take it over by force.Texas begins their attack, but they forget an important aspect: by now, the tacos in Mexifornia are filled with significant amounts of Cannabis, like most food. Governor Tom Cruise had passed a law that a taco truck must legally exist at every single corner of every city in Mexifornia. When the Texans storm in hungry, wearing their Don’t Mess with Texas t-shirts, they first go for the taco trucks.Not surprisingly, all Texans fall into a deep high and now lie on the ground in an eerie human chain, chanting Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”With all Texans incapacitated, Mexifornia goes on attack. Its armies comprised exclusively of unemployed actors and singers cross into Texas and seize the territory.Seeing this, Florida makes a second petition to be included in Mexifornia. Mexifornia sends them a note with the word NO spelled in every human language, delivered by a guy who can sign American Sign Language. Florida gets offended. Nobody cares. Obviously.By now it’s been like fifteen years of Trump ruling. He’s tired of it and he’s trying as hard as he can to lose the election, but he can’t. He assumes that letting Texas go might do it, so he does nothing about the invasion.Having secured the land, Mexifornia decides to turn Texas into a Save-the-Chimps project. They build a wall around Texas (made from recycled materials and tears) and purchase all chimps from all zoos around the world. They bring them here in hopes of rehabilitation.All humans leave and let the chimps alone there to develop. Little did Mexifornia know, but Gary Busey was locked inside Texas too because at the time of departure he was asleep in a tanning salon. So, over the next decade or so, the chimps learn about humanity from Gary Busey, aka The Wise One.The chimps develop quickly. They learn how to use the machines, extract oil, build houses. One chimp keeps sending emails to darwin@ with the text “You were right. We do evolve. Beards are awesome.”Shortly after, the chimps realize that there must be a world beyond the wall, so they breach the Northern wall. They franticly run over now empty US states and wind up in Utah where they meet the Mormons who are, surprisingly, still there.The Master Chimp gives the Mormons a book detailing a new religion they created with the help of the Prophet Busey. The religion worships a monkey with three heads. The side heads are always angry, while the one in the middle keeps laughing maniacally. There’s also a Heaven where you get all the bananas you need, but if you go to Hell you get no bananas, and that’s terrible.The Mormons take the book, read it, come back after one day and go: “Yeah, that seems plausible. We will adopt this as our new religion.”(END OF ACT 1)Feel free to post your version for Act 2 in the comments section.Master Outlining and Tracking Tool for Novels V A few months ago I published a post that contained the first version of a novel outlining tool for Excel. This is the second version of that tool, including several fixes, improvements, and additions. I strongly suggest that you read the first post before jumping into this one to get a full understanding. In this post I am only discussing the new additions. What’s New?The new version includes a few bug-fixes, updates in the general look-and-feel and various text edits here and there. I also tried my best to improve the documentation and add comments on the headers wherever I felt an explanation is needed. So, wherever you see a little red triangle in the top-right corner of a cell, you can hover your mouse and a text-hint will pop up, like in the image on the left.Changes in the Scene ListNot too much changed here, except for one thing: I’ve added an Act column. If you subscribe to the 3-Act structure, or a different similar Act-Based structure, this is helpful and it plays out into the Cards, which I explain below. Below is the new header.Plots TabIt’s not unusual that a novel-length story includes multiple plot lines. They might be parallel, intertwined, connected, complementary, you have it. Either way, there will be a few most likely. This tab allows you to track the plot lines. At this point, I’m not entirely sure how this will play out in the overall picture, but as I was plotting my own novel, I found like I needed to know this. The Plot Status at the end of the novel should be “Closed” in most cases, but if your novel is a part of a series, there might be plot lines that are left be open or uncertain. The difference between open and uncertain is: “open” is the hero swearing to kill xyz on the last page of the novel, and “uncertain” is the alien egg that appears in the last scene. Timeline TabAs soon as I started outlining my own novel with this tool, I immediately realized that the concept of Timeline was missing. As I was writing the manuscript I was making mistakes such as having people travel way too fast between places, not allowing enough time for things and so on. So, I realized that a way to track the time when things happen became critical. So, I came up with this worksheet called Timeline. The header is loosely divided into PAST, PRESENT, and FUTURE. Feel free to copy/insert columns if you need more space. The Actual Date row header allows you to put actual dates and on the following rows, it calculates the difference in days, months, and years relative to the START which is your novel’s “present date” set up in the Dashboard. The scene list is automatically copied from the previous tabs, so you don’t have to worry about that. At the intersection of each scene row with the date column, you will make the cell black (background) and put an “x”. That’s important as you will see in a bit when we get to cards. As you start filling in the cells, you are actually defining the timeline of your novel.Cards TabLots of people love the way that index cards look like when outlining. I thought this could be kinda cool to have here. So, I created a fully-automated Cards tab. It draws all its data from the Scenes list without any intervention. Here’s a snapshot:And here is a more detailed anatomy of an index card:If you used the Acts column in the Scene list, as I explained above, the sheet will automatically color-code your card headers with different colors for Act 1, 2, and 3.When you are done with your scenes, don’t forget to use the filter on column V and un-check the “No.” This will hide any blank cards. This sheet prints on landscape by default and you will get 20 cards per page. If you move rows around in your Scene List, the cards will update automatically.?Intensity TabEven though there’s an intensity chart in the Charts tab, I felt like a very visual intensity model would help when put parallel to the scenes. So, in this tab, you have the scene list on the left and the graphical representation of the intensity (represented by a number from 0-100) on the right. As you read through your outline, make sure the intensity you plan matches the scene you plan. You should see some mountains and valleys as your novel’s intensity goes up and down as the story progresses. This is derived directly from your Scene List tab.?Chapters TabLast but not least, the Chapters Tab. Just like everything with writing, there’s no set rule about chapter length or the number of scenes per chapter. But, I personally find it’s a lot easier to read a book when there is some sort of structure or flow. I’m not saying that chapters should be equal, or close, or anything. I’m just saying, be aware of it. This tab gives you a quick view on how each chapter stacks against the others in terms of word-length and number of scenes.If you reached the end of this post, but haven’t read the original post, I strongly recommend you check the text describing the first version of the novel outlining tool before downloading.?Download Version 2.0Here is the download link: Master Novel Outlining and Tracking Tool.?What’s Next?Now that I’ve gone through a few cycles with this, tested it myself and gotten some feedback from various people, I think I am ready to start moving this idea into a full-fledged software application. If you have any ideas, thoughts, or would like to collaborate in any way, feel free to contact me.And yes—people have asked—I will move my a$$ and create a full sample of the tool with an outline from a-z. I just didn’t have the time…All the best and happy writing!IulianMaster Outlining and Tracking Tool for Novels UPDATE (Oct. 22): I have posted an updated version of this tool: Master Novel Outlining and Tracking Tool V2.0. You should read this post first before moving to the update.Have you ever felt tired and unable to write a single word in your masterpiece novel? Have you ever felt stuck in your plot and unable to advance, unable to talk to your characters and understand them? If so, you are not alone. Thousands of writers around the world suffer from the same affliction. So, ask your doctor about Deprocrastinify and Ideastificator. Side effects might include…Okay, I’ll stop the cuteness right there. We all know such magical solutions don’t truly exist. We all wish they would, but they don’t. So what’s a writer to do besides, well, write? I’m sure every writer has a set of tools they use whenever they’re stuck either with plot or characterization. In this article, I’m not going to reinvent the wheel. Instead, I am going to show you how I’ve used technology to simplify two related processes: the outlining and the tracking process.If you are a pantser, you’re probably thinking this is not for you. But wait, there’s more! I believe that this outlining method will help you verify your structure after the fact and, most importantly, it will help you with another dreaded task: writing a synopsis. Bah! Just writing the word gives me shivers—the bad kind. But, truly, I think this tool will help you too, pantser! Just read a little bit more.So, what exactly is this? It’s a tool I’ve created using Excel that allows you to take one idea and grow it step by step into a full-fledged outline and scene list. It goes even further than that to character sheets and even family trees.As I said, it’s not a new idea, it’s just a different way to put it which I believe is easy to use and gets you where you need to go fast. My idea is loosely based on the Snowflake Method by Randy Ingermanson. He took the concept of starting with a simple structure and growing it time and time again, like a fractal. He put that idea in a software called Snowflake. I still use it today and I highly recommend it. My method is a twist on that and works really well for people who like Excel, regardless if they are a beginner or an expert user.At the end of this article you will be able to download a full blank template of my tool. Feel free to use it as you wish.One last word: this tool, just like any other tool, is not a substitute for writing. Your novel won’t be made using tools, but with writing. So, don’t get stuck in analysis-paralysis and agonizing over your outline. Keep it short. The method I present here should allow you to outline a full novel in one weekend. One! I mean it.So let’s dive into it.The workbook is divided into worksheets that cascade one from each other from left to right, and each step brings you closer to the full scene list. Most settings transfer from one page to the next, so you only have to type them once. This blog post serves as the full usage manual for the worksheet, but the sheet itself has an Instructions page at the start which you can refer to.If you want to follow along with the Excel file open, click here to download the Master Outlining and Tracking Tool for Novels (MOTT).Setting Things UpThe first worksheet is “Dashboard.” Here we setup the basic things about our novel, such as name, word count, date, etc. This information is further used in the subsequent sheets. Two important values here: the estimated word count and the present date. What I mean by present date is the time when the action takes place in your novel. For instance, if your action happens in the 80’s, then Jan 1st, 1985 might be the day. This date is used to calculate character ages. If your novel jumps all over the place, put whatever you think is most relevant here.Part One – Level 9In part one, you start with one sentence that describes your novel. Think along the lines of:“A farm boy on a far-away planet journeys with a Jedi master to rescue a rebel princess and fight against an evil empire.” – Star Wars“A boy wizard begins training and must battle for his life with the Dark Lord who murdered his parents” – Harry Potter (Thanks to Randy Ingermanson for this one)Come up with the one liner for your novel and type it in the first box.Note the rudimentary word counter on the right. It’s designed to keep track of the word count in your sentences. Try to keep your outline sentences up to 25 words. Don’t go too wordy here.If you want to learn more, read Rachel Gardner’s post ” Writing a One-Sentence Summary.”Then, take that one idea and split it in 3 separate sentences. Think like this: beginning, middle, and end. Each sentence should encapsulate the story idea for those segments.Now, take those 3 ideas and expand each of them into 3 more. Once again, think in terms of the same beginning, middle, and end, but this time take it one step further: the beginning of the beginning, the middle of the beginning, and the end of the beginning, and so on.Now you have 9 lines of outline. Let’s take it one step even further. Now, expand each of those lines into 3 more! I know it sounds hard and complicated, but it’s not, once you give it a shot. It’s like unfolding your story, three steps at a time. The worksheet passes the clue right in front of your eyes, so all you have to do is read it again and then expand it into three steps:At this point you have a 27-line outline. This is a good start.Part Two – Review Level 9On the next sheet, I reorganize the 27 lines you came up with in Part One. Read them again from top to bottom. Does it make sense? If you were to read this to somebody, would they get the gist of it? Try it out. Read the current outline to a friend and see what their feedback is. On the right column you will notice some hints for a possible 3-Act structure. This is definitely optional, but if your novel does follow the 3-act structure, this is a good guideline that hints if you are on the right track.Part Three – Level 81Can you guess what we’re doing in Part 3? I hope you got the pattern… We take each of the 27 steps from Part Two and we split each into three sub-steps. It sounds awfully long and complex, but I believe that the way that the spreadsheets presents it, makes it easy. The 27 steps you already have are on the left, and on the right you get the 3 “splits.” Go from top to bottom and just expand each of them into three. At this point and depth, you are actually describing scenes in your novel.Here’s a glimpse:Part Four – Scene ListSo, after the three steps above, you wind up with a hefty list of 81 scenes. Before we move to analyzing your structure using some other tools, simply read your list again. Ask yourself if this is the story you want to write. With 81 sentences, you should be able to capture the basic idea and a minimal level of detail. If you craft this part well, you should have a decent, factual synopsis of your novel.A few questions to ask yourself:Is there a clear beginning where you set things up?Is there a clear ending where you wrap all your plot and sub-plot points?Does the overall structure reflect the original one-line idea or did your outlining take a whole new dimension? This is not wrong, but if it happened, go back and adjust your one-line or maybe even the 3-sub-steps of your one-line.Make sure you don’t move forward until you are happy with how your one-line translates into your 81-scene list. You will thank yourself later when you have to summarize your novel into a short or long synopsis. Having done this work ahead of time will be invaluable.A question you might be asking: what if you find that a certain step is too simple or too complex to break in 3 parts? If it’s too simple, you can leave blank rows. If it’s too complex, copy and insert new scenes where you need to. The links in the file will maintain, except for your manual scene which will stand independent.Here’s how the Scene sheet looks like:Scene AnalysisOnce you’ve completed the 81-scene list, it’s time to start tweaking it.There are a bunch of columns following each scene’s description that allow you to categorize and tag your scenes in preparation for further analysis. Let’s take them one by one:Chapter – This is the chapter number that contains the scene. You will fumble and play with this a lot, but it’s helpful to start grouping your scenes by chapter. You most likely want to do this last after you get a good sense of how things are coming along.POV – this is your point of view character for that scene. Obviously, in a first person story this will always be your protag. In a third person story though, you should strive to have one POV per scene. This makes it easy for readers to be in the “shoes” of the POV character. If you do head-hopping because you are writing an omniscient POV, this field is probably useless.Setting and Character – These are minor fields that you may consider using to give you a quick idea about the scene. In the characters’ column type the name or initials of the people in that scene. In the Setting, just type the location where the scene takes place (“New York,” “kitchen”, etc.)Major / Minor – Even though your novel can probably not exist without all the scenes (because you should never have useless or pointless scenes in your novel!), some of them will always be more important than others. You will probably find your major scenes at the beginning and at the end, as well as on the cusp between beginning and middle, and between the middle and the end. Either way, there’s no rule about it. You must use your unique knowledge of the story to identify the major scenes. Making this distinction now will come in handy when you start writing. That’s because if you write your major scenes first, it will be much easier to fill-in the gaps with minor scenes.Purpose – Every scene in your novel must have a reason to be there. If it doesn’t, it does not belong in your novel. There are several reasons for a scene: Develop a Character, Advance the Plot, Describe Something. Figure out what is the reason for each scene.Type – Active / Reactive – Every story has a sort of ra-ta-ta-tat-a rhythm that is not easy to describe, but easy to feel. It’s a series of active and reactive scenes that when stacked together create this rhythm. An Active scene is when something is happening to the POV and a reactive scene is when the POV does something in response. It’s like a tennis game and the reactive scenes are when the ball is in your court. If you have too many active scenes one after the other, the story will feel like a bunch of stuff is happening to your character and him/her doing nothing. If you have too many reactive scenes, it will feel like your character is doing a bunch of things for absolutely no reason. You need to strike a good balance of action/reason followed by reaction/reflection. This will give your story rhythm. Tag your scenes and see if you had accomplished that with your outline.Actual Words / Actual Cumulative Words – As you write scenes, you will fill in the Actual Words for each scene. This is optional, but recommended. It will give you an overall idea if some scenes are too lengthy versus too short. Again, there are no rules. The only rules are those established by you and by your story. But I do find the guide provided by the actual word count useful.Estimated Words / Estimated Cumulative Words – The sheet estimates the average word count based on the overall word count. This is simply a mathematical guideline, nothing to be too crazy about.Actual Intensity – Each scene in your novel will have a certain level of emotional intensity. Most likely major scenes and scenes around the climax and disaster will have very high intensity, while minor scenes will have lower intensity. Your story should read like a roller-coaster and the size of the ups and downs will depend on you. But the last thing you want is a flat lazy-river. Nobody wants to read that. Your novel needs to bring us up on a peak (which can be physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual) and then drop us back to a calmer road. And again, and again.This is what intensity is doing for your story. There are literally hundreds of graphs out there that show the intensity charts. Your story’s chart will be different as it depends on your story. But, here’s a peek at an example from the web:This shows a “standard,” generally acceptable structure of a story. Using the intensity column, you can plot your own intensity. Look at the Charts sheet to see how yours looks like.After you finished categorizing all your scenes, take a look at the whole outline and ask yourself these questions:Is there a sense of rhythm?Do enough reactive scenes balance the active scenes?Does the intensity make sense?As I said a few times before, there are no real rules when it comes to creating the structure of a novel. With experience, you will develop your own style and you will start dreaming this stuff up. But until then, I suggest looking into some standard structures that have been working for a very long time. I’m talking about the 3-Act structure and the general graph of intensity.I won’t go too much into the details about why they are important (you can read yourself about the Three Act Structure and the Story Intensity Diagram), but this Excel tool uses those as a basis for analysis.TweakingThis brings us to tweaking. Read your outline one more time, but this time think in terms of intensity. You will probably find that your major scenes map to higher intensity moments, while your minor scenes to less intense ones. That’s obvious. Keep reading and tweak those intensities as you see fit.As you make changes to your intensity, you will see that the graph on the Charts page will divide into two lines: the red line shows the story intensity for your own story, while the blue line shows the original, standard line. This will allow you to visualize how different your story is, intensity-wise, from a standard distribution.Adding / Deleting ScenesNow that you’ve completed this stage and you are certain that your one-line translates well into your scene list and the scenes are properly categorized and assigned an intensity, it’s time to see if anything is missing.If you did things right, most likely you won’t have to delete anything, but you might have to add something. Let’s say that a certain concept that you split in 3 scenes, really needs four or five or more scenes. What do you do? Well, simply insert lines in the place where you want to add scenes and write manual scenes. The formulas that bring the cascade of outline elements will be preserved, but your manual scenes will stay fixed. Perhaps you can mark them with a different background color to make sure it’s obvious they’ve been inserted.Word CountsIn the beginning, you set your story’s word count and the scene count was set to 81. By default, the sheet will divide your word count equally between the scenes. If you’ve added manual scenes in the step before, make sure to edit the number of scenes in the dash board so the system properly determines the average word count per scene.Additional ToolsCharacter Template SheetWhen outlining, I find it critical to learn more about my characters and develop them. Sometimes, it’s best to describe your characters before you start outlining. Learning and discovering who they really are will give you new ideas for your plot.To help with this, I’ve added two Character Worksheet templates—one for major characters and one for minor characters. Both include a list of basic things about your character, as well as list of questions and answers that will help you shape your character in multiple dimensions.I suggest duplicating the major character template sheet and have one for each of the following characters:Main Character (Protagonist)AntagonistSidekicksOther important charactersAll minor characters, or at least most of them, should get a minor character sheet.Each major character sheet also has a place for you to set the value of the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator. This value describes the overall personality traits of your character, based on a survey which you must fill-in as your character. So, answer all questions in the same way as your character would answer them and you will get their indicator. If you want to learn more about this technique, read my blog post on creating memorable characters.Character GenealogyFor me it’s always important to know a lot about my characters before I throw them into action. Most of time, the reader will never get this information. But it’s important for me to know because it allows me to develop that character and understand how he/she would react in different situations. For this, I am using a simple tree-like genealogy chart. With it, I can take one character’s family history all the way to his/her great-grandparents.I know it’s a kind of unilateral and simplistic view of life. In reality, people divorce and die and remarry and run away and kill each other. But here, with this genealogy tree, I am just trying to get a snapshot of my character’s family history at some point in time.Feel free to delete this if you don’t use it, or duplicate it for more characters. I usually like to create one for my protagonist, antagonist, and sidekicks. It makes my characters feel more realistic and gives them history.To use this, simply fill in the name of each person, their place and date of birth, their place and date of marriage, if any, and their place and date of death. On the right side, the sheet calculates each person’s age (as relative to the Present Date you set in the Dashboard), and the person’s age at death, if applicable. For characters who are dead already, the Age can be interpreted as: how old would this person be if he/she were still alive today.A little Excel quirk: if you need to use years prior to Jan, 1 1900, the age calculator will not work.Word Count TrackerThe last tool in this worksheet is a word count tracker. It allows you to set your writing goals and track your progress. It’s pretty self-explanatory-simply type the date of your writing session followed by the total word count after you stopped writing. The sheet will compute your session’s word count and the percentage of completion:On Going UsageOnce you are done with this worksheet, you are ready to start writing!As you do, remember to adjust:Word count as you advance through your storyScenes’ actual word count (which will drive the word count in your chapters)Chapter assignments as you complete scenes and decide if they belong here or thereFinal ThoughtsAs I was hinting in my intro paragraph, this is just a helper tool. It will not work for everybody and, most importantly, it will not work for every type of story. If you have a lot of parallel sub-plots, this tool might not be the best for you (unless you create one sheet for each sub-plot).So, try it out and see if it works. If it doesn’t, I hope something else does… If it does work, let me know; I’d like to hear about it.DownloadWithout any further ado, please click here to download the Master Outlining and Tracking Tool for Novels (MOTT).Feel free to use these at your own leisure, modify them, and share them in any way, shape, or form. However, I’d appreciate if you left my credit and links in the dashboard. Also, if you share it on your blog, please link back to this post. I’ll appreciate it.Also, I truly welcome your feedback on this:What do you like and/or hate about this method and tool?How would you improve it? What would you add?Any other thoughts?Thank you!Creating Multi-Dimensional, Memorable Characters Characters are at the heart of every story. The characters (who) together with the plot (what) and the setting (where) are the basic elements that must?work together to create a compiling story. It is very rare that a story can exist without one of these elements. And even if the setting is fuzzy and if?the plot is missing (like in a vignette), it is virtually impossible to have a story without characters.It’s obviously not enough to just throw in some characters to have a good, memorable story. You need the right number of characters, and all of them need?to be built from the ground up in such a way so they feel real and believable. The reader must perceive those characters as actual people because that’s?the way readers connect with them. The reader must be able to put himself into the shoes of a character and get a sense of realism, of plausibility, but?also feel entertained and emotionally connected.You’ve probably heard this before: create 3-dimensional or multi-dimensional characters, be aware of and avoid flat or cardboard characters. What does that?mean?This advice spawns from the fact that nobody in our real world is a one-dimensional individual. Nobody is just bad or just good, or just stupid or just smart. People are generally bad about some things, and good about others, they are stupid about certain things, and?smart about others. They have positive traits and negative traits, and all of them together make that person who he is.Moreover, a person evolves and changes over time. A person is influenced by his environment, his family, teachers and friends. Someone who started as being?a cynic might change later on when a stressing event occurs. Someone who was a loving person might turn into a misanthrope after they had lost their loved?one to an accident; a god-fearing person might turn into god-hater after they had lost their child to a disease. Either way, people change – in good or in?bad – and that makes them real too.The combination of personal traits and the way that those traits change during one’s life are what define that person in multiple dimensions. It’s what?makes that person unique. In the context of fiction, it’s what makes that character interesting and worth caring about.So, to create powerful, memorable characters you must answer 3 fundamental questions:1) Who is this character?2) What does this character want?3) How does this character change?Let’s take a look at each one of these, one at a time:Who Is This Character?In this article, I am not worried about the way a character looks, i.e. his/her physical appearance, even though in some instances the way a character?looks is integral to his/her personality. I am mostly talking about personality traits. Other things such as name and looks are just bonuses that, when?used correctly, will propel your character further. Just imagine Darth Vader being exactly as he is, but instead of the ominous black suit, he’d be wearing a yellow overall and his name would be Skippy. I know, it’s an exaggeration, but I wanted to make a point. After you read all of the text below, an apply everything you have learned about personality, give your?characters some physical features and a name that matches. Then, you’ll have a real winner!Let’s go back to personality now. In order to define a full character we will turn to something called the Myers-Briggs test.Now, don’t get scared: you won’t have to become a psychologist just to create powerful characters. I will give you an easy, child-proof way to?reverse-engineer the Myers-Briggs test. I will only touch on the basic points here, but if you want to learn more, you should check the Myers & Briggs Foundation site for some in-depth information.Basically, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a way to take the 16 dimensions defined in the theory of psychological types described by Carl Jung,?and apply them to people. Each person will be defined by a combination of 4 factors, each factor having one dominant feature, and one minor:a) Favorite World: do you prefer to focus on the outer world (Extraversion (E)) or the inner world (Introversion (I))?b) Information: do you prefer to focus on the raw, basic information you have (Sensing (S)) or to interpret and add?meaning to it (Intuition (N))?c) Decisions: do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency (Thinking (T)) or first look at circumstances and their influence on people (Feeling (F))?d) Structure: in dealing with the outside world, do you prefer to get things decided (Judging (J)) or to stay open to new?information and options (Perceiving (P))?What is great about this is that none of us is only one thing or another. We all have things we are extroverted about (like cursing out loud at a soccer?game) and things we are introverted about (like asking a stranger a question). The test is conducted through a series of questions and depending on the?answers you get allocated a letter of each.So, for example: INFP = Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, PerceivingObviously you have 4 x 4 dimensions which results in 16 possible combinations.If you want to try it out and learn about your own personality, and thus learn a little bit more about this, here is a link to one of these tests: Human Metrics.So, now let’s build the personality code for a character:a) Favorite World:a. (E)xtroverted: (Keyword: OUTER) i. Acts first, thinks later (trigger-happy)ii. Feels deprived when cut off from the outside world (hates isolation)iii. Open and motivated by the outside world (feels great in crowds)iv. Enjoys a wide variety people and the way people changeb. (I)ntroverted: (Keyword: INNER)i. Thinks first, acts later (over-thinker)ii. Needs private time to recharge (loner)iii. Motivated internally (others find hard to read him or “break thru”)iv. Prefers one-to-one communications (hates crowds)Think about your character; which one of these is he/she leaning towards? If you like numbers use percentages (for example 70% extroverted, 30% introverted), otherwise just say (E) first, (I) second, to signify that this character is more extroverted than he/she is introverted.Let’s keep going. Use the same method for the other 3 parameters:b) Information:a. (S)ensing: (Keywords: PRESENT, REALITY)i. Mentally lives in the now (carpe diem)ii. Uses common sense and easily creates practical solutions (practical)iii. Good memory of details of past facts and events (facts!)iv. Improvises well from past experience (street smart)v. Likes clear and concrete information (hates guessing)b. I(N)tuitive (Keywords: FUTURE, POSSIBILITIES)i. Mentally lives in the future (opportunities)ii. Uses imagination and creates/invents new possibilities (theoretical)iii. Good memory of patterns, contexts, and connections (feelings!)iv. Improvises well from theoretical understanding (book smart)c) Decisions:a. (T)hinking: (Keyword: DETACHED)i. Searches for facts and logic in a decision situationii. Looks at work as a task-based process, independent of peopleiii. Can provide an objective and critical analysisiv. Accepts conflict as a normal part of lifeb. (F)eeling: (Keyword: ATTACHED)i. Uses feelings and impact on people in a decision situationii. Sensitive to people’s needs and reactionsiii. Seeks consensus and popular opinionsiv. Unsettled by conflict; dislikes disharmonyd) Structure:a. (J)udging: (Keyword: HAS A PLAN)i. Plans many details in advance before taking actionii. Focuses on task-related actions, completes segments in orderiii. Works best when is able to stay ahead deadlinesiv. Uses goals, targets, dates to manage life and workb. (P)erceiving (Keyword: AS IT COMES)i. Plans on-the-goii. Likes to multitask and mix work with playiii. Tolerant of time pressure, works best close to deadlinesiv. Avoids commitments which interfere with flexibility, freedom, and varietyOkay, so by now you should have two columns: one with the dominant characteristics, and one with the minor ones. For example:Dominant: ENTJ (Extrovert, Intuitive, Thinking, Judging)Minor: ISFP (Introvert, Sensing, Feeling, Perceiving)What you should do next is read the description of those two types. Your character will be a LOT of the first (dominant), and a little of the second?(minor), which is why you want to read both.You can read these descriptions on the Myers-Briggs Site or on the PersonlityPage. I like the PersonalityPage in particular because they have a short description?and a long, more detailed description for those who want to go deeper. In addition, they name each type with a matching label. In our example above:ENTJ?= The Executive – Assertive and outspoken – they are driven to lead. Excellent ability to understand difficult organizational problems and create solid solutions. Intelligent and well-informed, they usually excel at public speaking. They value knowledge and competence, and usually have little patience with inefficiency or disorganization.ISFP?= The Artist – Quiet, serious, sensitive and kind. Do not like conflict, and not likely to do things which may generate conflict. Loyal?and faithful. Extremely well-developed senses, and aesthetic appreciation for beauty. Not interested in leading or controlling others. Flexible and?open-minded. Likely to be original and creative. Enjoy the present moment.Here is a quick chart that gives you an idea about each of the 16 types.ISTJThe InspectorThe Duty FulfillerISFJThe ProtectorThe NurturerINFJThe CounselorThe ProtectorINTJThe MastermindThe ScientistISTPThe CraftsmanThe MechanicISFPThe ComposerThe ArtistINFPThe HealerThe IdealistINTPThe ArchitectThe ThinkerESTPThe DynamoThe DoerESFPThe PerformerENFPThe ChampionThe InspirerENTPThe VisionaryESTJThe SupervisorThe GuardianESFJThe ProviderThe CaregiverENFJThe TeacherThe GiverENTJThe CommanderThe ExecutiveJust a little note here: Each of these types can be additionally decomposed to provide a deeper understanding. For example, a?person who is an ENTP (The Visionary), can be described as follows:DominantExtraverted IntuitionAuxiliaryIntroverted ThinkingTertiaryExtraverted FeelingInferiorIntroverted SensingYou probably don’t need to go that deep, but if you do, the PersonalityPage mentioned above can give you all of these breakdowns. Their detailed descriptions?are really good. After you found your character’s personality, read the description and ask yourself: Does this sound like the character I had envisioned?Now that you have your character described, the trick is to show the readers those traits through the character’s actions or dialogue. The reader probably?doesn’t know the personality code, but we are all more or less versed in reading these types naturally. Read the description for The Executive above; take?all those features and figure out how to show them in your prose. “They value knowledge and competence” – show the character praising this and show them?display hatred of the opposite.Make sure you choose at least one or two of the traits from the minor type and show that sporadically in your story. Maybe your executive is also loyal and?faithful. He’s portrayed as this mean boss-type person, but at home he’s a loving husband and father. Give your characters 75% of their main type (which?already is a combination of 4 different dimensions) and 25% of the minor type. You will wind up with an actual person, someone who is real, and someone?with whom the readers can connect.Obviously you will use actions, body language, and dialogue to load your character with the above traits. There’s something called “visual identification,”?which is a method by which you observe a person and figure out his/her type from their body language, speech mannerism and so on. Since you know your type?now, you need to figure those body language cues and manners of speech that would indicate that. You are in luck, because psychologists have been dealing?with this for years. The 16 types info site has some?descriptions related to visual identification. Use those cues to bring your character to life.To do some of this on your own, use a simple Q&A method. If this person “plans-on-the-go” what does that mean? Brainstorm: he doesn’t have a calendar?planner, he’s late, he improvises, etc. Take all the bullet points from above and figure out what does your character need to do, say, and how he/she?should act in order to ooze that particular trait.In addition to this, besides the personality traits, to make characters even more human you should give them flaws and redeeming features. Your protagonist?is the hero, he saves everyone, but he also has his/her own demons. Your villain or antagonist is mean and bad, but he also has some characteristics that?makes us like him/her. Everyone agrees Darth Vader is evil, but the fact that he can’t kill his own son and turns against his master at climax makes him real. Indiana Jones saves everyone everytime, and does so selflessly, putting his life on the line. But he’s afraid of snakes. Sherlock Holmes is a great detective, putting criminals behind bars,?but he’s a drug addict and his ego makes him behave rather mean towards people he considers of lower intellect. See the pattern? Give a lot, take some?away.Readers also love unexpected acts of kindness especially during stressful times or from characters who don’t seem like they would be inclined to act that?way. Dr. Kimble in The Fugitive movie risks blowing his cover, while on the run, only to help read a patient’s chart.Just be aware of one thing: don’t tack good traits on a villain or flaws on a hero just for the sake of it. It will feel forced. Make sure that those?traits flow naturally and actually integrate with the plot. We all hate Valdemort, but we do feel a bit of sympathy for the guy given the life he had.?That’s much better than showing that he loves dogs.All these things make the character more human. All these little facets give your characters depth and make them easier to understand and believe.2) What does the character want?Kurt Vonnegut once said: “Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.”Stories need conflict and conflict arises when a character wants something and he is unable to get it. So, make sure that you make this clear from the?beginning.During a complete story, characters will want:1) To solve the story’s main question (what is the one thing the character wants that is directly related to this plot?)2) To fulfill their life-long desires – these are things that exist with or without this story; they are inherent to the character. The story could be?about something, but your character might ALSO want to get a better life, or find a wife, or kill an enemy. There are things all of us want and we continue?to want them throughout our life. The story might not be about those, but they do add to the character’s dimension, making them have a life outside of thestory, thus more realistic. Those things should be mentioned and hinted at in a subtle manner.Once you establish what the characters want, make sure, absolutely sure, that it’s extremely hard for them to get it. Nothing bothers readers as much as a?well-defined character that dashes through the story and succeeds at every step. That’s because in reality, life is not like that, and we all know it. And?in the end, we actually despise people that have it easy in life. In reality, for most people, very few things can be obtained without a struggle. (Have?you ever thought kindly about the kid who inherited a fortune and is now flashing it everywhere? Of course not, even if he saves a squirrel.)Since I quoted Vonnegut, let me continue with his advice here: “Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things?happen to them-in order that the reader may see what they are made of.”Now we’re talking. You have defined a real, multi-dimensional character, you gave him/her something to desire, and then you’ve made it hellishly hard for?them to get it. We’re on the right path!3) How does the character change?I think deep down inside nobody thinks that they change. I have to struggle to remember what my values and thoughts were in my twenties. I am sure they?were vastly different, but because change happens in us so slowly and gradually over time, we fail to notice it.Sometimes the ones around us notice it, especially those whom we haven’t seen for a long time. So, we are aware that people change, but we see it in others?more than we see it in ourselves. That’s why we are also very much aware when a character changes in front of our eyes.A story is a slice of life and to create memorable characters you want them to change throughout the story.Now, don’t get me wrong, not ALL characters must change. Allow me a parenthesis to explain. There are 4 types of stories in general: Milieu (it’s a story?about a place), Idea (it’s a story about information), Character (it’s a story about a character’s character), and Event (it’s a story about something that?happened). Each story has a little bit of each of these types. For the purposes of this section, we are mostly referring to the Character-heavy stories.?Those are the stories where we follow the character arc and we can clearly see a beginning character, a path of change, and an ending character.The Indiana Jones movies are Event stories. The emphasis is not on the character’s character, which is why Indiana Jones is pretty much the same from?beginning to end.A Christmas Carol is a Character story, and here we see the evolution of Ebenezer Scrooge from a cold, miserly person to a selfless person who cares.There are few ways that you can modify a character in your story:Change – your character turns from a regular person into a hero (Frodo)Growth – your character becomes a better person (Scrooge)Demise – your character becomes a worse person (Michael Corleone)When it comes to the character arc, this is also not a one way street. Throughout one’s life, a person might find himself on a growth path for twenty?years, then something happens, and the rest of the life is a downward spiral. That in itself could be an interesting story to tell.James Scott Bell wrote in his Plot and Structure that, “As opposed to the plotline, the character arc is a description of what happens to the?inside of the character over the course of the story.” He goes on and provides us with a simple list to follow this arc:“A beginning point, where we meet the character and get a sense of his interior layersA doorway through which the character must pass, almost always reluctantlyIncidents that impact the layersA deepening disturbanceA moment of change, sometimes via an “epiphany”An aftermath”When you work on your characters’ arc, try to follow this simple forward-looking list. Your arc should span the entire novel (or even more, an entire?series) and should be clear enough so that readers can understand it.AlignmentBy playing with the character arc, in the context of the personality, you can create very memorable characters. One critical keyword I want to mention here?is “alignment.” Make sure that the change is possible for the personality type. A very introverted, heads-in-the-clouds artist is unlikely to change so?radically as to become the President of the United States (unless you are writing comedy, in which case all bets are off). So, make sure that your?character evolution is aligned to the character’s personality so that it sounds plausible. That’s why you define the personality in the first step by?walking your way backwards, learning more about your character as you develop him/her.If you defined your character’s personality well enough, gave them something to desire, made it very hard for them to get it, and established a path by?which they change, you probably have a very strong character, one that readers can relate to and who will stay in their minds long after they’ve finished?your book.In your novel, you should go through this exercise for your protagonist(s), antagonist(s) and, perhaps on a smaller scale, for your sidekicks. If you?populate your story with these well-defined characters, you are already one step ahead towards a memorable novel. Of course, these great characters must do?something exciting and interesting, but that’s a whole other story for another time.I hope you enjoyed this post. Please give me your thoughts. I am curious what is your approach to character development?Some additional reading materials:Mayers-Briggs PersonalityMyers-Briggs Type IndicatorProfiles of the Sixteen Personality TypesPersonality TestAlternative Personality TestCharacter ArcCharacter ArcThree Types of Character ArcCharacter Arc in ScreenwritingCharacterization15 Days to Stronger CharacterStrong Characters versus Weak CharactersHow Do You Build A Strong Character In Your Writing?All the best,IulianROUNDTABLE: New Short Fiction Markets I have recently participated in a roundtable on new short fiction markets organized by “Nerds of a feather, flock together.”Besides myself, speaking on behalf of Fantasy Scroll Magazine, the roundtable pariticipants included: R. Leigh Henning of Bastion Magazine, and Ana Grilo and Thea James of Book Smugglers Publishing.We discussed various issues faced by new short fiction markets and how our magazines are trying to deal with those issues in this very active and fast-changing publishing world.To read the entire discussion please follow: Roundtable: New Short Fiction Markets. I’d love to hear your comments about this discussion.Post image credit: Only in my dream, by sunjaya.Thank you,IulianOrganize Your Weekly Writing Schedule The more I write, the more I appreciate the value of being well organized. In this post, I will try to give you a summary of my own organization process and explain why I believe it is extremely helpful.If you are like Danielle Steel and can sit and write for 20 hours without stopping, this article is probably not for you. But if you are like me: easily distracted, quick to procrastinate, yet eager to do a million things at the same time, you will probably benefit from this method of organizing your writing.I have developed this after a few years of trial and error and it has worked for me. I feel like I am able to accomplish a lot more in a shorter time than when I used to leave everything happen haphazardly.Tasks, tasks, tasksIf I ask you right now what do you do for your writing in general, you will probably answer with a list that includes one or more of the following items:Write new short fictionEdit short fictionSubmit short fictionWrite new long fictionEdit long fictionBrainstorm for new ideasPromote worksNetworkThis is just a sample list, there are a lot of other tasks that you probably do on a weekly basis. That’s a lot of stuff to do, and the problem is you have to do them all. Every now and then you will have a certain focus, such as working exclusively on a novel, but probably most of the time you will do a little bit of each, as shown above.Take a paper or open a new document right now and write down every single independent task that you do for your writing. You might even include things such as: read a new story by a favorite writer, read a specific chapter in a book on writing, or attend a webinar about writing. Just be honest and make sure you make a complete list.It’s long, isn’t it? Now that you are looking at it, I want to ask you: do you feel like you accomplish all of those things? If the answer is no, then keep reading.Now you must think about the average time you spend on each task, enough so that you feel you have been effective at it and didn’t get burnt out.For instance, for me, I can write for an hour continuously, and then I have to take a break. Most of the time I don’t even have the luxury to write for more than one hour. So, step number one is to establish blocks of time allocated to each of the tasks above.Before you move on, let me just briefly mention the Pomodoro method that has worked for me. It postulates that working in short bursts, separated by shorter breaks, promotes productivity. So, based on this method working continuously for 25 minutes, taking a 5-minute break, then work for another 25 minutes, taking another 5-minute break, you will be more productive than working for 60 minutes without stopping. You can read more about the Pomodoro Technique here. This might not work for you, but it has worked for me. There are several apps for various platforms that help you work with this method.Okay, now with that out of the way, let’s look at an example:Write new short fiction1 hourEdit short fiction2 hoursSubmit short fiction1 hourWrite new long fiction1.5 hourEdit long fiction2 hoursBrainstorm for new ideas0.5 hourPromote Works1 hourNetwork1 hour?Now that you have this setup, convert your weekly word counts back into hours. (if you want to read more about quotas and how to make them, read my article on how to complete your NaNoWriMo novel in 30 days). For example, let’s say you write 1000 words in one hour and your weekly quota is 7000 words. This means that you need about 7 hours of writing during the week to get there. That’s either one hour a day, or two hours in a few days, or any combination of that.Use Excel and create yourself a seven day plan that includes all of the above, sprinkled throughout the days. Here’s an example:MTWTFSSTotalsWrite new short fiction1.001.001.002.005.00Edit short fiction1.001.001.003.00Submit short fiction1.001.00Write new long fiction1.001.002.004.00Edit long fiction1.001.001.003.00Brainstorm for new ideas1.001.00Promote works0.500.501.00Network0.501.001.50Totals2.002.503.002.502.003.504.0019.50In this example, you spend 2-3 hours per day and a little bit more on the weekend. In total you spend almost 20 hours a week between all these tasks. It sounds like a lot, but as you can see, not only the hours are spread through the week, they are also spread throughout the day. By doing things in small quantities, you get to accomplish a lot, without getting burnt-out.The Sunday PlanOn Sunday evening you should plan your week according to the schedule above. This is extremely important, especially if you have multiple novels and short stories in the works. When Monday comes and you look in your schedule and see that you must do one hour of writing or one hour of editing, the question then becomes: what will you write and/or what will you edit?You do not want to leave that decision to the moment when you must start doing it for two reasons: first of all, deciding what to do takes time. Why waste 10 precious minutes going through your notes to decide what to write? Second of all, deciding what to do is like looking at a white paper. You are leaving it to the way you feel at that moment and that’s not good. Decide ahead of time and take the guess-work out of it.That’s where the Sunday plan comes into play (btw, I call it Sunday but it can be any day of the week, as long as you plan for the entire week). Fill-in the blanks with actual things to do:MTWTFSSWrite new short fictionstart “My cool story”start “My other cool story”Finish “My Cool Story”Finish “My other cool story”Edit short fictionEdit “some old story”Edit “My Cool Story”Edit “some other old story”Submit short fictionSubmit 4 finished storiesWrite new long fictionWrite “Chapter 3”, Novel 1Write “Chapter 4”, Novel 1Write “Chapter 5”, Novel 1Edit long fictionEdit “Chapter 7” Novel 2Edit “Chapter 8” Novel 2Edit “Chapter 9”, Novel 2Brainstorm for new ideasCome up with 5 new short story ideasPromote works0.500.50Network0.501.00See how your week is now becoming organized and how things are much more clear?How to track it?In this day and age, nobody wants to keep things on paper or even in an Excel anymore. You need tools to help you organize your time. Lately, my favorite tool for this is Remember The Milk, but you can use any calendar type of tool. I like Remember the Milk for personal reasons, but any system that lets you calendar things and have them recur will work.What you do is first enter your main schedule and make each task recur weekly. So, for example, set up your “Write new short fiction” task for the following Monday and then make it recur every Monday. Once you enter everything in your main schedule, you are halfway there. Your basic organizer skeleton is now in place.During your Sunday Planning, you will make the tasks in that week more specific. So “write new short fiction” becomes “write My New Cool Story.”At this point what you’ve accomplished is this: you’ve taken all the things that you know you must do in a week to advance your writing and you put them on a recurring schedule. By making the schedule recurring you are essentially setting it on auto-pilot. The only thing you must do once a week is make that week’s schedule more specific by tagging the actual things you are going to be working on.The overall goal here is to limit the time in which you think what to do and when to do it. Your time should be spent doing it rather than thinking about doing it.Note that in my example above I don’t talk about scheduling during the day. That’s because my days are usually hectic and I don’t know ahead of time when I will have time. All I do is make sure that by the end of the day I complete the tasks that are due on that day. In your case, if you know you always have 2 hours in the morning, and one in the evening, you can set your tasks with hours as well. That will make it even more specific. If you have trouble finding the hours in your day to accomplish your writing tasks, read my other post about finding time to write, or my other post about writing when busy.CheatingMost systems have flaws, and this one’s is the fact that you can postpone your tasks indefinitely. I advise you to do that only in real exceptions. For instance, you have a terrible migraine today and there is no way you can write anything. Is there ANY other task on your list that you can accomplish? If there is, complete that one early and postpone the other. If there isn’t then postpone your tasks, but make sure you catch up on your backlog later on.When I postpone my tasks I sometimes let them double up just to remind me that I have to work hard and recover the time lost. So, if I have a “write a new short story” task Monday and Tuesday and I fail to accomplish it on Monday, I’ll postpone it for Tuesday and now I have two of them. That just tells me that I should “write a new short story” but work a little longer than I would normally do, just because the day before I wasn’t able to.Also, remember that you are the owner of these tasks and you should be free to change them on the spur of the moment. If you wake up Saturday morning with an awesome idea and spend 5 hours writing 6000 words – good for you. Let that be a replacement for your tasks. We are not worried here about the good moments, the moments when your muse is sitting on your shoulder and words just flow out of your fingers. When you have that, just run with it. This method takes care of the other times when nothing seems to come through your head. In those moments, having an organized schedule will help you advance.It’s like waking up at 7 AM to go to work. You do it because you have to, otherwise you get fired and don’t make any money. Think about your scheduler as your boss. You must do what’s in there or bad things will happen. Punish yourself when you fail, and give yourself a little prize when you succeed. If you train your mind, it will overcome your body and your writing will become faster.Will this cure the writer’s block? No, it won’t. It will still crawl in every now and then, and you have to learn how to deal with it.I wish you good luck, and I’d love to hear the ways in which you handle your organization? Leave a comment below.All the best,Iulian Ionescu ................
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