Cicada Desk written, not shouted

Cicada Desk · est. 2026

Skip the course.
Open the file.

Pre-made files for people who want the result, not the lecture. Concrete steps, templates and wording you can open and use the same afternoon — no courses, no calls, no upsell.

See what is on the shelf Read the free guides

On the shelf today

2 files · PDF · instant download

01

1,000 Chinese titles — 20 niches

1,000 title lines in Chinese, the English meaning under each, tagged by the structure it uses. Sorted into 20 niches. Copy a line, swap in your subject, post.

65-page PDF · 20 niches × 50 titled lines · instant download

1,000 Chinese titles — 20 niches $14.9

02

IELTS Speaking 6.5 → 7 Pack

Forty Part 2 cue cards with a 5W1H idea matrix, twelve Part 3 themes with a claim-because-example frame, and sixty sentences for the moment your mind goes blank. The frame, not a script to memorise.

20-page PDF · 40 cue cards · 96 Part 3 questions · instant download

IELTS Speaking 6.5 → 7 Pack $12.9

Everything is sold through Whop, which handles the card payment and any sales tax. Seven days to change your mind, no form to fill in.

What this is not

Three things I keep off this desk.

  • Not a video course. I have nothing against them; I just know that a document you can search is worth more at 11pm than a 40-minute video you have to scrub through.
  • Not dropshipped. Every file is written from scratch and checked against the platform or the exam it describes. Nothing here is a repackaged copy of someone else's PDF.
  • Not a promise. Nothing here says “10k followers in 30 days” or “band 7 guaranteed”. You get the mechanics, the wording, and the traps — the rest is your own work.

Written up, in full, for free

5 guides

The mechanics are on this site at no cost. The files on the shelf are the part that saves you the assembly time: already sorted, already worded, already checked. The cross-stitch notes — thread substitution, Pattern Keeper, how a chart is cleaned up by hand — live inside the Cross-stitch section rather than as articles.

RedNote

  1. 01 How to open a Xiaohongshu account without a Chinese phone number The registration order that works, what the verification screens are actually asking, and the two setup mistakes that quietly limit a new account. 9 min
  2. 02 Reading Xiaohongshu's limit notices: what the app is actually telling you When a note underperforms, Xiaohongshu often says why — in Chinese, in a notification most people dismiss. What the common notices mean in English. 8 min
  3. 03 Chinese captions that get saved: the structure, not the vocabulary Why a translated caption keeps the meaning and loses the performance, and the four-part structure that Chinese-language captions on Xiaohongshu share. 10 min

IELTS Speaking

  1. 01 Why your Part 2 answer stops after forty seconds Most candidates do not run out of English. They run out of angles. A six-slot matrix you can fill in during the one minute of preparation. 9 min
  2. 02 6.5 and 7: where the half band actually comes from The four criteria carry equal weight, so a 6.5 is usually three 6s and one 7. Here is what changes in each one — and which of them cannot be fixed in a month. 11 min

Browse by subject

3 subjects · one desk

The shelf is grouped by subject, not by format. Everything on it is the same kind of thing: a file you open and use, not a course you sit through. New subjects get added when they are finished — nothing is announced before then.

RedNote Registering without a Chinese number, reading the app’s limit notices, and caption structures that survive translation. 2 guides · 1 file for sale IELTS Speaking Why answers stall at 6.5, how to build a Part 2 answer under pressure, and the wording that separates a 6.5 from a 7. 2 guides · 1 file for sale Cross-stitch Counted charts with a colour grid, a symbol grid and a DMC key — botanical, folk, and small things. 6 charts · being test-stitched

How it arrives

01

You pay by card

Checkout is handled by Whop, which also takes care of tax. You do not need an account here.

02

The file unlocks

Downloads are signed and time-limited, so links cannot be passed around forever.

03

You keep it

PDFs are yours to print, annotate, and use as often as you like. Seven days to change your mind.