u/returnvector

I'm curious about any books that do this. My thoughts are that it would obviously be jarring. I know first to third gets done a lot. I feel like third to first would feel like pulling a rug out from under a reader, though; they get used to reading a passage in third person, then switch into first. Especially if they—like many people seem to—prefer third person.

On the other hand, though, I'm thinking of prologues (which I know are divisive) that might be told from another character's perspective, before switching into the main characters. Or multiple storylines, like The Martian, which is the only one I can think of off the top of my head, and I think it was done very well.

I even remember when I was a kid reading the Percy Jackson series, the transition from being first person with Percy to seeing his name in third person in the Lost Hero series onward tripped me up. I almost couldn't finish reading. I can't imagine if it was the other way. And that was even in separate books.

Have you seen third to first done well? How did you feel about it?

TL;DR First foray into actual responsibility and saving for adult goals (house, car) instead of just fooling around and spending as I please. I'm scared I'm gonna mess it up without proper guidance.

I feel like my frontal lobe snapped into place or something these past couple years. Things are looking very good for a second job that I applied to that has flexible hours at $35/hour, working less than 30 hours a week; I expect to receive an offer some time next week. Right now, I will also stay in my current full-time, salaried position at 50k/year. I expect to go to 55k in August, assuming my employer follows the same pattern they've had for the past couple years.

My first goal is getting a new car; mine is on its last leg. I'm aiming for a 10k downpayment on it. I'm thinking of getting a car at about 19-23k. I haven't looked at loans yet; I'm still only rough-sketching my budget, but I've spent the past year rebuilding my credit, and have gotten to a cool 700 (way better than I've ever had).

After that, I'm hoping to save for downpayment for a house in the 400k-500k range in the next ten or so years. Again, still a rough sketch.

Rent will be $700/mo. with utilities included as of July. Assuming I work 20 hours a week, I'd end up at 2k/month. With my salary, that puts me at about 5k take-home total per month.

The plan right now is to put my whole salary into SoFi direct deposit, and to live day-to-day only off my part-time job. Realistically, I'd probably only need $1500 to live on my own. So I'd put that extra 500 from part-time into emergency savings, and not goal-oriented savings.

This is a lot more money than I've ever had. I know it might not be a lot to some, but for me, it is. When my goals seem nebulous, or unattainable, I tend to just spend all my money away instead of saving it (a habit that I'm obviously trying to change).

So, basically, this is my first go-around actually, genuinely, saving. With low rent, low utilities, and extra income, it's actually realistic for me to focus on goals now instead of living paycheck-to-paycheck. I have a lot of resources and no idea what to do with them. I'm worried I'm going to fumble. Does anyone have tips for saving? Is my plan too idealistic, and if so, how can I tighten it up?

EDIT: I forgot to mention outstanding debts. All my credit cards are paid off. Should I maybe use those to keep building my credit score, keeping utilization under 30% and paying them off monthly? Additionally, my student loans are paid off via my parents. They paid it so I wouldn't have to pay interest, but I'm paying them $500/month until it's paid back. I'd like to bump it up higher if I can, just out of respect for them, to maybe $1,000.

I'm a very heavy outliner, to the point that it's going on 60k words. I've only written, really, for myself, but now that I'm considering writing for an audience, I can't exactly be as messy and ridiculous as I've been in the books I've written without caring about what anyone else thinks.

Before I get into the actual draft, I'm curious if it would be beneficial to have a second pair of eyes looking over my outline. Just to check out places where it starts getting mucky, loses momentum, doubles back on itself, or seems too contrived (all problems I historically know I've had). I reckon it might be a good idea, so I don't waste time making my outline into a pretty little first draft, if there's parts that simply don't work story- or pacing-wise. Anyone else done this?

EDIT: I now understand that I meant developmental editing, and not proofreading. Thank you for pointing that out to me! My question still stands if this would be a good time to ask for feedback on pacing and structure.

For me, it's not necessarily speedrunning a book from cover-to-cover, though when a book is a pageturner, that's definitely a factor—I get book hangover from literal sleep deprivation.

I love books with strong worldbuilding, especially in species. I could get downright drunk learning about this new world that the author created for me, and when I read a passage that has a lot of that—even if not much happened by way of plot—I end my reading session feeling pleasantly dazed.

What is it for you that makes you get so into a book that you put it down and realize you've forgotten the time, the place? And you get that fuzzy feeling in your head as you try to readjust to the real world?

I was recently prescribed Vyvanse, and so far, it's been working great. But I've started finding that I'm struggling to do other things. I begin a task at the start of my workday, and then end up doing that task the whole day, even when the deadline for some of those things within the task aren't until tomorrow. I have other tasks to do today, though, but I'm struggling to switch.

Any practical tips to stop a task halfway and do something else that needs done? I've tried getting up and walking around, or setting timers, but that hasn't been working consistently.

I'm being serious. I've been into too many books that I feel are just beautifully written with complex plots and threads and deep backstory and worldbuilding. But my brain kinda hurts now. I just want a palate cleanser. CW shows are kinda dumb, have cheap plots, and you could probably follow them if you were jazzed out on wisdom teeth laughing gas, but they're entertaining. So I'm looking for books like that.

Fourth Wing hits that spot for me. I'm looking at From Blood and Ash, but it looks like it might not be so much "shallow" as it is "actively bad."

Just a shallow, fun page-turner that doesn't take up too much brain power but will still be enjoyable to read. Good writing is a bonus. Good romance is even more of a bonus. Spice is preferred, but I'm fine without it. Ideally, it would hit all the good tropes like enemies to lovers, one bed, forced proximity, etc. Overall, I'm happy to suspend disbelief and just write off things that don't make sense for the next week or two with a book that is the equivalent of chocolate ice cream. Maybe it's not good for me in the long run, but it's simple and easy to eat and at least I had fun consuming it.