Tanya Lisle

  • And it’s back to trying to get financially literate! I have been back on a kick of trying to get my finances in order, reduce my costs, and figure out how to make retirement a thing that might be able to happen for me at some point. This book came up in my library searches, and it was actually not a bad one.

    The book is framed mostly around vignettes about the finances of individual women. It starts with the situation, then proceeds to break down some of the mistakes they made and how those mistakes can be rectified, complete with some very specific details that pertain to Canadian finances and how things work in my own country, which is a pleasant change! The situations feel realistic as opposed to the worst case scenarios that other financial books I’ve read tend to do and deal with a lot of the misconceptions of how some of the particulars of how Canada works. Like stating that in BC, you can accidentally end up in a common law partnership with your roommate who may then have claim to your assets should you split.

    It also had a little information about investing and some of the more common mistakes that I know I made when I started, and goes into some of the details around the differences between investment vehicles, while still keeping it in the context of the situation they are talking about.

    Overall, I thought it was a really solid finance book. If you’ve got an interest in getting your financial life together, or even just refining it a little, it’s a good one to check out.

    Get it now

  • Another month and another set of new things that I’ve gotten out into the world! Slowly, I’m pulling all of this stuff together!

    Scrap Paper Trinkets

    I’ve finally got the instagram account set up for this, so do follow me there for more up to date releases of the new products that come out closer to when they come out!

    These items have been released on both of these shops:

    Scrap paper shop
    Etsy shop

    Medium

    And, of course, a few more posts on Medium! I do post here first, but would still really appreciate the support over there as well.

    Check out Medium

    Coming up

    I’m releasing a new workbook in a couple weeks! This is a guided workbook to help with character development, and to generally get you a more rounded character. Tentative date is April 10, so check back soon!

    Also, due to some requests from people in my life and online, I’m also starting to document and write out some of the processes I have implemented to help get my life and my writing together. I’ll be putting them all on Gumroad, along with also releasing some digital versions of the worksheets from the workbooks I’ve made so far.

  • Every once in a while, I will read books on purpose and not just because I randomly saw it in a search and figured that might be an interesting thing to read. For those who don’t know, I work in tech as a product designer and UX… everything lately, let’s be honest. So something about how to do research and design ethically is something that is very squarely something I am reading for work.

    The book outlines a lot of the issues that currently exist within tech and how some of it could be addressed. The vast majority of tech products are designed very specifically by and for a majority population (White, male, cishet, able bodied, etc.) which can cause issues for people who fall outside of those groups to access things. The primary solution to this is participatory design, or getting the larger community involved in the process of designing and creating these products so that they are inclusive of all people who might find value.

    The idea of participatory design is something I’ve been interested in, as has the idea of building off of what a community has already created for themselves and integrating those solutions into the larger landscape of a product or problem space. I do find it unfortunate that there was the acknowledgement that in order to get some of these opportunities and solutions prioritized, you really did need to frame them in a way that emphasized the monetary impact over the human impact, but I am also very aware of what tech in specific and business in general is like.

    No one is really doing this for the good of the people using a product. It’s for the profit.

    Overall, though, if you’re someone in product, design, or user experience, it’s a good read. I imagine the ideas aren’t going to be new, but the framing and context of them, along with the perspective, is interesting.

    Get it now

  • The following is an excerpt from the upcoming Guided Character Development Workbook, specifically the Personality section!

    There are really two main parts to personality, a collection of what they are and how you know, and you use these to determine they interact with the world. They are (what) brooding and you know that (how) because they are always on their own. They are (what) bubbly and vibrant (how) because they are wearing bright colours and always smiling.

    Sometimes it’s easiest to start with a trope or archetype, such as the brooding loner or that bubbly sunshine character, and adjust that character into something that will work better for your story.

    There’s one main thing to remember when it comes to a character’s personality.

    Show don’t tell.

    I know, we’ve all heard it before, but that is imperative for personality more so than any other aspect of the character that you show the audience what they are like more than you tell the audience what they are like.

    To do this, we’ll go through the first impression, how a friend perceives them, what the character thinks of themselves, and what you, as the creator of this character, know to be true. This could all be the same, but it often isn’t. This is where some of that depth and dimension comes in, from knowing that different people might interpret differently a character’s actions.

    I will start off with an example of how I, an actual person, have been interpreted in the past. I went down to the States to visit friends and while at a store to pick up a couple of things. When I handed the cashier some cash and told them to keep the change.

    To the cashier who had never met me before and would never see me again, I was probably stupid because it’s common knowledge that you can’t keep the change at a store like that. I was likely also apologetic and chatty because not only did I keep apologizing, but I also had a brief exchange with the person behind me in line to apologize and ask where she got her earrings.

    To my friends, I was generous and respectful because I was trying to tip the cashier, as they believed I, as a Canadian, thought it was customary to tip all low-wage employees in the United States and they had been watching me apologize like it’s an accent the whole trip so far.

    And to me, I was nervous because I was overly aware of the line behind me and also polite because I had inconvenienced someone.

    The truth of it is that I was anxious because I talk when I’m anxious and tend to change the subject to the first thing I can think of (The earrings) to get the attention off of the thing I did.

    Plus, there were pennies in the change. I can’t use those back home. It would have been easier for them to keep it.

  • You know what’s annoying? When you keep reading books that seem to keep calling you out specifically in weird ways. And let me tell you, it’s worse when that book is a fiction book that is about robots and tea and somehow it still manages to get in your head in strange ways.

    This is the story of a tea monk named Dex who runs into a robot named Mosscap. The robots gained sentience ages ago and human let them go to live their own lives, rebuilding their world without. Mosscap is here as a representative to understand what humans need, and so it joins Dex as they travel the countryside.

    The whole book is a series of Socratic dialogues, which I was not expecting. I honestly thought this would be more of a road trip book, but instead it was a series of conversation about life and purpose and meaning and perspective changing those things with the framing device of a robot and a monk travelling a quiet countryside where little would interrupt their dialogue or provide any external stakes to distract from the internal conflict.

    There isn’t really that much in terms of narrative to cling to, but there is a degree of character progression. Dex is someone who keeps chasing purpose and cannot seem to find something to give them that feeling of fulfillment which, well, hits a little too close to home at this moment. Through the winding series of conversations, there isn’t so much a resolution as peace that comes out of it all and the whole thing leaves this feeling of calm that I really appreciated.

    Overall, not what I was expecting but still one of the more interesting reads so far this year. If you need something pretty calm that will let your mind wander into some more philosophical places, this might be a good one to check out.

    Get it now

  • After a series of books that I’ve read recently that feel very much like they are calling me out specifically, I have decided to take the hint and start to get Scrap Paper properly into alignment with how a business should be run. Or, at least, to run it more seriously.

    I’ve always struggled with the idea of taking it seriously mostly because I have a day job. I don’t need Scrap Paper Entertainment to be financially successful, so instead it is what I use to put out all of my side projects and to give a bit more structure around the new things I try.

    But then my company had a major layoff and, while my job remains safe, it was a good reminder that jobs are never really safe. Fear is a fantastic and unfortunate motivator.

    But also, a series of books recommended to me by mentors have also helped me to start to put together an idea for how to at least figure out a way to make it into a business that I can feel comfortable running. They also helped me figure out how to conduct my day job career as well, and that was the original intent, but I now have just… so many ideas around how to make some of the other things come together.

    Which, by the way, if you want to see some of the initial spiral those articles are over on Medium.

    (I am going to make a habit of cross-posting to Medium, by the way, and if you want to follow me there I would really appreciate that!)

    So this is going to mark the start of me trying to make the business actually come together as a business. First up, I need to at least organize what I have and then set up the framework into something that actually works with the way I am comfortable with working. Let’s do this.

  • Today in books that I was recommended by mentors that seem like they are chosen very specifically to call me out, another career book of trying to try and help me figure out how to specialize in my field and instead has seemed to push me over the edge toward trying to get my side hustles all order at last.

    This is one of those books for people who are a little lost in the midst of an already established career, rather than one for someone looking to just start out. The main idea is that you should look through your entire history, focusing more on the history of things that you have done arguably as work and what satisfied you there, and then using that to try and find a common thread to help you focus on what you should do for your next steps.

    The book does have a significant focus in the latter half on entrepreneurship and finding a path for yourself, either to pursue as a side hustle or to take the leap and do as your main thing, which was interesting. After What Colour is your Parachute, I was so primed for hearing about how to get into that dream job more so than discussing the idea of forging your own way. Which I am mostly for, but there is an uncomfortable amount of examples of coaching in there.

    Or maybe I noticed those more because I have been seeing a truly bizarre number of ads for coaching and setting up coaching services lately.

    Overall, interesting read! I did like how it tied back to How to be Everything, and it was a lot more designed for someone in my current stage of career uncertainty than some of the others than I have looked into. I don’t know if I appreciate just how much it seemed to be calling me specifically out, though…

    Get it now

  • If you’ve ever been stuck while you were writing, there’s a common practice for computer programmers that might help you out! As a person who used to make websites (And still kind of do) I can say that I have tried this method both to help me fix code and to work through writer’s block, and it works! Most of the time.

    Step 1. Get a rubber duck. Or some inanimate object with a face that you can talk to.

    Step 2. Put it on your desk.

    Step 3. Tell the duck that you have a problem and you are going to go over it with them.

    Step 4. Explain the problem that you are having and where you are stuck in as much detail as possible.

    Step 5. At some point, you will figure out how to get through it. Congratulations! Your duck is happy for you and will await the next time you need help.

    It’s a very simple practice that can help you get through the strangest of writer’s blocks. Often just talking through the problem can help you figure out a solution, but finding someone who is both non-judgemental and who will not interrupt can make it difficult to make it work. Therefore, get yourself a rubber duck or some other small, supportive desk pet.

    Maybe not a cat.

  • Today in books that mentorship has directed me to, the updated version of a book I read back in 2020 when I lost my job! It’s 2 years later and I’m in a very unstable and uncertain industry, and currently undergoing through a process of trying to figure out how I want to progress in it so I’m at a different and better place to check this out.

    What Colour is Your Parachute is absolutely a book that you need to come to at the right time, and I think I am in a much more receptive place for it than before. It walks through the self discovery needed to uncover a job that you can find truly fulfilling by starting with uncovering what you are like as a person, your needs, and your skills, then taking all of that and turning it into an actionable path forward.

    This isn’t necessarily an idea that I fully align with (The thought of my income, which is largely out of my control, being dependent on my passion sounds like the worst possible scenario for my mental health), it does give a lot of pretty interesting guidance for people who are either at the start of their careers, or who are at a juncture where they are feeling restless and need to check back in to determine what to do next. I’m actually currently trying out a few of the exercises in the book over on Medium right now!

    I do like this book a lot more this time around, but I am sure that this is very much because I am in the right place in my life for it. If you’re at a junction for your career, this might be a good one to check out!

    Get it now

  • February is just about gone and here’s what’s happened so far!

    Scrap Paper Trinkets

    I’m going through a bit of a rebrand! I’m splitting the handmade stuff off into a seperate account, since it seems that the people who like the jewelry and handmade stuff are not the people who are interested in the books and author-related stuff. I’ll still be posting everything here, but nonetheless!

    These items have been released on both of these shops:

    Scrap paper shop
    Etsy shop

    Medium

    And I’ve continued to post some extra stuff on Medium, but I think I’m going to start putting some of that content here first. Still, I would really appreciate it if you followed me over there as well!

    Check out Medium

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