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1. Ah Fai was a chief animator for McDull’s animated features. He’s super cool. Ultimate senpai. 

2. Previous post on breakdowns right here 

Some thoughts on acceleration and force

I presented this in the order of how I slowly understood the trick of delivering force - first an abstract concept of impact taught by Ah Fai, then a more complicated discovery on the acceleration pattern, last back to a more abstract concept of breakdowns. 

Like I’ve previously stressed, 2D animation is everything but one single approach. There’s no one rule that rules them all, but interchangeable ideas with math, or physics, or music, etc. There’s no “perfect” animation either, but what is perceived as organic and dynamic. E.g., using the Fibonacci numbers to animate didn’t bring me a perfect animation! On the other hand, a tiny change in the pattern could already make the feeling of force so much more powerful. 

Not so much of a tutorial than a personal experience. I hope you find this interesting hahaha 

I grow our own vegetables. Many hybrid and heirloom varieties are bred for flavor rather than for commercial appeal and travel. There are entire species on the allotment that you can’t easily buy in stores because of this - like salsify, a root vegetable that tastes of fish and shellfish. Our neighbours happily take it to make vegan latkes of alarming similarity to fishcakes. You cannot sell it in stores because - despite looking like a white parsnip - it turns brown when you pick it if you scrape/bruise/cut the white root in any way, or damage the delicate little hairs, for some reason, it BLEEDS RED and is very upsetting to look at.

There are whole classes of foods like this. Foods that just don’t ship well or look good on supermarket shelves. Forbidden fruits. Vegetables that bleed and taste like meat. Sorry about this

#231: Is It Really That Bad?

Resistance, as Steven Pressfield describes it, is the bane of my existence. For some reason, my brain keeps looking for ways to distract itself from the task at hand. This happens even when I know what’s the most important task to finish. Sometimes, it happens even when I know that there’s no avoiding it. That I will have to do said task sooner or later.

As it turns out, many writers struggle with the same thing. It’s a weird, irrational phenomenon that probably has something to do with the fact that our stone-age ancestors spent a lot less time contemplating the human condition and focused on getting something to eat.

A thousand years spans about 30 generations on average. If you do the math, you’re only about 150 people away from your stone-age grandparents that lived on the savannah in 3000 B.C.

Although the symptom is the same, many different things can trigger resistance. The most common include self-doubt, fear, ego, laziness, indecisiveness.

Instead of getting to work, your brain comes up with an elaborate theory to justify why it’s not the right time yet. Recently, I’ve been avoiding this one task. I didn’t know how long it would take. In my mind, potentially weeks of work. And because of that, I always justified postponing it again and again for years.

Over time, the thing grew into almost mythical proportions. I developed this narrative in my mind that it would be too difficult and time-consuming.

This Friday, I had a bit of time in the evening. I finally decided to get this thing started. Two hours later, I finished it. I couldn’t believe it. The whole thing was done.

I’d spent hours agonising about the task over the past year — all of them a complete waste of time. If I got over the initial resistance and sorted it out right away, I could’ve saved myself a lot of time and anxiety.

Sometimes, the narratives we create about ourselves and about what we want to achieve are the problem. When you start working on the thing, you might find that it’s nowhere near as bad as you thought it would be.

Particularly when it comes to writing stories, there’s no downside to starting before you feel ready. Dive right in! Worst case, you’ll have to start over. You can always fix things later.

About the Author

Hi, I’m Radek 👋. I’m a writer, software engineer and the founder of Writing Analytics — an editor and writing tracker designed to help you beat writer’s block and create a sustainable writing routine.

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Past Editions

#230: Working Backwards, January 2022

#229: Luck for Writers, January 2022

#228: Following Through, January 2022

#227: Dealing with Change as a Writer, January 2022

#226: 12 Most Popular Writing Quotes of 2021, December 2021

#225: What Fears Hold You Back as a Writer?, December 2021

Dino nuggie keychains by MadeByAeo ✨

Art Prints / Stickers

Raylee Art on Etsy

Character’s rooms say a lot about them

Whenever I show a character’s room for the first time, I always find myself thinking long and hard about it. 

So much so, I often avoid it out of fear of getting it wrong. 

I think it’s a very important insight into a character and there are so many small details we can use. 

Is there bed made or a mess? 

Is the room tidy or a mess? 

Do they have posters up on the walls? 

Are there photos anywhere? If so, of whom? Friends? Family? Random places they’ve visited? 

What useless junk is there? A snow globe from a visit to the zoo? Some figurines from a show they liked as a kid? 

What not useless junk is there? 

Do they have a hobby and where can we see that in their room? 

Do they have a large or small desk? 

How big is their closet? Is it an open or closed design? 

Is the window open? 

Are there plants by the window? 

Are the curtains pulled? 

Where are their dirty clothes kept? Thrown on the floor or in a laundry basket? 

Are there any empty bowls or dirty plates? This tells us a character comes to their room to eat. Why? To avoid others or because they don’t want to be away from their work? 

There is so much you can tell about a character from their room! It’s kind of intimidating but also amazingly fun to think about. 

As usual,  check out my socials and book here.

Maybe I’ll do a full post going into detail about character’s rooms. I’ve been doing a lot of shorter posts lately, I’m kind of going through a bit of brain fog. It makes sense. I’m on a restricted diet (for health reasons, not weight related or anything) so I’m a little hungry, I’ve managed to somehow get into a schedule of waking up at 8am, leaving home at 9am and not getting back until 10pm. University plus apprenticeships was maybe not my brightest idea. But oh well, thankfully I enjoy my apprenticeship and my university course. Plus I’m finding just enough time over the weekend to keep up with Tumblr and TikTok. 

I’ve said this plenty of times before but, if you have any questions, request for writing advice, anything! Right now they’re more aprecitated than ever because you’re saving me having to actually think of a post! (Although I do have about nine posts in queue so if my answer takes a while, blame my efficiency!)