ogachukwu-the-freak

[ogachukwu-the-freak]

The Neurodivergent Writer’s Guide to Fun and Productivity

(Even when life beats you down)

Look, I’m a mom, I have ADHD, I’m a spoonie. To say that I don’t have heaps of energy to spare and I struggle with consistency is an understatement. For years, I tried to write consistently, but I couldn’t manage to keep up with habits I built and deadlines I set.

So fuck neurodivergent guides on building habits, fuck “eat the frog first”, fuck “it’s all in the grind”, and fuck “you just need time management”—here is how I manage to write often and a lot.

Focus on having fun, not on the outcome

This was the groundwork I had to lay before I could even start my streak. At an online writing conference, someone said: “If you push yourself and meet your goals, and you publish your book, but you haven’t enjoyed the process… What’s the point?” and hoo boy, that question hit me like a truck.

I was so caught up in the narrative of “You’ve got to show up for what’s important” and “Push through if you really want to get it done”. For a few years, I used to read all these productivity books about grinding your way to success, and along the way I started using the same language as they did. And I notice a lot of you do so, too.

But your brain doesn’t like to grind. No-one’s brain does, and especially no neurodivergent brain. If having to write gives you stress or if you put pressure on yourself for not writing (enough), your brain’s going to say: “Huh. Writing gives us stress, we’re going to try to avoid it in the future.”

So before I could even try to write regularly, I needed to teach my brain once again that writing is fun. I switched from countable goals like words or time to non-countable goals like “fun” and “flow”.

Rewire my brain: writing is fun and I’m good at it

I used everything I knew about neuroscience, psychology, and social sciences. These are some of the things I did before and during a writing session. Usually not all at once, and after a while I didn’t need these strategies anymore, although I sometimes go back to them when necessary.

I journalled all the negative thoughts I had around writing and try to reason them away, using arguments I knew in my heart were true. (The last part is the crux.) Imagine being supportive to a writer friend with crippling insecurities, only the friend is you.

Not setting any goals didn’t work for me—I still nurtured unwanted expectations. So I did set goals, but made them non-countable, like “have fun”, “get in the flow”, or “write”. Did I write? Yes. Success! Your brain doesn’t actually care about how high the goal is, it cares about meeting whatever goal you set.

I didn’t even track how many words I wrote. Not relevant.

I set an alarm for a short time (like 10 minutes) and forbade myself to exceed that time. The idea was that if I write until I run out of mojo, my brain learns that writing drains the mojo. If I write for 10 minutes and have fun, my brain learns that writing is fun and wants to do it again.

Reinforce the fact that writing makes you happy by rewarding your brain immediately afterwards. You know what works best for you: a walk, a golden sticker, chocolate, cuddle your dog, whatever makes you happy.

I conditioned myself to associate writing with specific stimuli: that album, that smell, that tea, that place. Any stimulus can work, so pick one you like. I consciously chose several stimuli so I could switch them up, and the conditioning stays active as long as I don’t muddle it with other associations.

Use a ritual to signal to your brain that Writing Time is about to begin to get into the zone easier and faster. I guess this is a kind of conditioning as well? Meditation, music, lighting a candle… Pick your stimulus and stick with it.

Specifically for rewiring my brain, I started a new WIP that had no emotional connotations attached to it, nor any pressure to get finished or, heaven forbid, meet quality norms. I don’t think these techniques above would have worked as well if I had applied them on writing my novel.

It wasn’t until I could confidently say I enjoyed writing again, that I could start building up a consistent habit. No more pushing myself.

I lowered my definition for success

When I say that nowadays I write every day, that’s literally it. I don’t set out to write 1,000 or 500 or 10 words every day (tried it, failed to keep up with it every time)—the only marker for success when it comes to my streak is to write at least one word, even on the days when my brain goes “naaahhh”. On those days, it suffices to send myself a text with a few keywords or a snippet. It’s not “success on a technicality (derogatory)”, because most of those snippets and ideas get used in actual stories later. And if they don’t, they don’t. It’s still writing. No writing is ever wasted.

A side note on high expectations, imposter syndrome, and perfectionism

Obviously, “Setting a ridiculously low goal” isn’t something I invented. I actually got it from those productivity books, only I never got it to work. I used to tell myself: “It’s okay if I don’t write for an hour, because my goal is to write for 20 minutes and if I happen to keep going for, say, an hour, that’s a bonus.” Right? So I set the goal for 20 minutes, wrote for 35 minutes, and instead of feeling like I exceeded my goal, I felt disappointed because apparently I was still hoping for the bonus scenario to happen. I didn’t know how to set a goal so low and believe it.

I think the trick to making it work this time lies more in the groundwork of training my brain to enjoy writing again than in the fact that my daily goal is ridiculously low. I believe I’m a writer, because I prove it to myself every day. Every success I hit reinforces the idea that I’m a writer. It’s an extra ward against imposter syndrome.

Knowing that I can still come up with a few lines of dialogue on the Really Bad Days—days when I struggle to brush my teeth, the day when I had a panic attack in the supermarket, or the day my kid got hit by a car—teaches me that I can write on the mere Bad-ish Days.

The more I do it, the more I do it

The irony is that setting a ridiculously low goal almost immediately led to writing more and more often. The most difficult step is to start a new habit. After just a few weeks, I noticed that I needed less time and energy to get into the zone. I no longer needed all the strategies I listed above.

Another perk I noticed, was an increased writing speed. After just a few months of writing every day, my average speed went from 600 words per hour to 1,500 wph, regularly exceeding 2,000 wph without any loss of quality.

Talking about quality: I could see myself becoming a better writer with every passing month. Writing better dialogue, interiority, chemistry, humour, descriptions, whatever: they all improved noticeably, and I wasn’t a bad writer to begin with.

The increased speed means I get more done with the same amount of energy spent. I used to write around 2,000-5,000 words per month, some months none at all. Nowadays I effortlessly write 30,000 words per month. I didn’t set out to write more, it’s just a nice perk.

Look, I’m not saying you should write every day if it doesn’t work for you. My point is: the more often you write, the easier it will be.

No pressure

Yes, I’m still working on my novel, but I’m not racing through it. I produce two or three chapters per month, and the rest of my time goes to short stories my brain keeps projecting on the inside of my eyelids when I’m trying to sleep. I might as well write them down, right?

These short stories started out as self-indulgence, and even now that I take them more seriously, they are still just for me. I don’t intend to ever publish them, no-one will ever read them, they can suck if they suck. The unintended consequence was that my short stories are some of my best writing, because there’s no pressure, it’s pure fun.

Does it make sense to spend, say, 90% of my output on stories no-one else will ever read? Wouldn’t it be better to spend all that creative energy and time on my novel? Well, yes. If you find the magic trick, let me know, because I haven’t found it yet. The short stories don’t cannibalize on the novel, because they require different mindsets. If I stopped writing the short stories, I wouldn’t produce more chapters. (I tried. Maybe in the future? Fingers crossed.)

Don’t wait for inspiration to hit

There’s a quote by Picasso: “Inspiration hits, but it has to find you working.” I strongly agree. Writing is not some mystical, muse-y gift, it’s a skill and inspiration does exist, but usually it’s brought on by doing the work. So just get started and inspiration will come to you.

Accountability and community

Having social factors in your toolbox is invaluable. I have an offline writing friend I take long walks with, I host a monthly writing club on Discord, and I have another group on Discord that holds me accountable every day. They all motivate me in different ways and it’s such a nice thing to share my successes with people who truly understand how hard it can be.

The productivity books taught me that if you want to make a big change in your life or attitude, surrounding yourself with people who already embody your ideal or your goal huuuugely helps. The fact that I have these productive people around me who also prioritize writing, makes it easier for me to stick to my own priorities.

Your toolbox

The idea is to have several techniques at your disposal to help you stay consistent. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket by focussing on just one technique. Keep all of them close, and if one stops working or doesn’t inspire you today, pivot and pick another one.

After a while, most “tools” run in the background once they are established. Things like surrounding myself with my writing friends, keeping up with my daily streak, and listening to the album I conditioned myself with don’t require any energy, and they still remain hugely beneficial.

Do you have any other techniques? I’d love to hear about them!

I hope this was useful. Happy writing!

[ogachukwu-the-freak]

Wait really? Are you sure? Everyone I saw talking about it was so certain, was it on the wiki you saw this?

Finding out that Alestor isn't even canonically aro is my fucking villain origin story.

[ogachukwu-the-freak]

Women can write m/m. Men can write f/f. Asexuals can write filthy smut. Lesbians and gay men can write m/f. It's all arbitrary anyway. Who give a shit.

[ogachukwu-the-freak]

In my heart of hearts this is going to follow me around for at least a couple of months, and I will encourage it all the way. I really really fucking like stories and premises like this, they keep me warm, 2 weeks from now staring at an uncertain future at the back of my mind will be Alrekr, eyes closed in a feild, feeling the sun behind his eyelids breathing crisp cold air, 1 month from now the description of Yeruslans hand on Alrekrs shoulders will accompany every hand I put on myself, solid, warm, grounding, groundbreaking, and maybe I'll come back to this blog to read it again. Google translating the counting to realize 'ah the extra warmth was the heart put into this piece of writing in that the other character is Uzbekistan of course of course' and all the little stories I've attempted with a piece of myself, my culture, fixed into it no longer feel silly and now feel they have the capacity to be as beautful as this and all this to say,

Thanks for sharing.

If I had enough sleep in the past 24 hours this would be a better letter of praise and gratitude, for now please accept my rambling gratitude instead.

The big bad had been sealed for a thousand years and finally was released. Turns out, a thousand years of solitary confinement isn’t great psychologically.

[ogachukwu-the-freak]

Fandom Problem #4913:

"Proship artsyle" "Proship art style" what the FUCK is "proship artsyle"?????

It just seems like another scare term antis like to use that none of them can even really agree as to what it's even referring to. Is it just, being good at art? Because all the proship creators I follow are really really good at art. Being good at art is problematic now??

[ogachukwu-the-freak]

Found this on twitter. I don't… really know what to say.

a confession from one of the type of people that harass darkfic authors on ao3:

a reminder I guess, to kudos and comment supportive things to your favorite authors

[ogachukwu-the-freak]

Not sure how many people are here for "eating popcorn and watching discourse for fandoms they're not in" but if you love the taste of chaos, then spying on what's going on with Black Butler fandom (at least in the anglophone sphere) is for you. With the new season of the anime release it has been wild.

(Slaps roof of fandom) this baby can fit so much drama:

Old fans who've been gone for years returning to find all the fandom spaces infested with antis

Antis posting unhinged "how to consume the erotic shotabait bl adjacent shonen Manga in a God honoring way" style posts, only to be shocked when they get made fun of

Antis angry about how the anime is "misrepresenting the show" by adding sebaciel fanservice in the ED

Old and new fans posting sebaciel in the main tag on tumblr or Twitter blissfully unaware that they're in shark infested waters

Folks outside the fandom discovering the dumpster fire that is dadbastian antis

The main subreddit for Black Butler banning sebaciel and mods declaring themselves as fighters to "end underage ships"

And of course people posting discourse takes that fandom already fought over many times many years ago (does that ever end?)

Anyway, look forward to seeing all of this again and more when the next arc is animated in 2036.

--

One of my favorites to rubberneck from afar!

(Man, the sheer cognitive dissonance of antis liking that...)

[ogachukwu-the-freak]

STOP whatever you're doing and LOOK AT THEM

This is the Council. They believe in you. Reblog to let others know the Council believes in them.

Nothing bad will happen if you do not do so, but in the interest of full disclosure, your odds of getting to pet the Council goes down if you do not share their support with others.

[ogachukwu-the-freak]

I assume, get ones of a slightly bigger size that barely stretch enough to wrap around your head

question: is there actually a comfortable way to wear hard headbands (meaning not stretchy) or is it just normal for them to be painful for the sake of cuteness

[ogachukwu-the-freak]

QUIET PART OUT LOUD QUIET PART OUT LOUD QUIET PART OUT LOUD

Validating to actually experience this utter shitfuck take with my own two eyes, add it to the list. Someone @ rainystudios or one of their mutuals so if they want they can add this one to the archives cause this is literally exactly what they had been talking about.

[ogachukwu-the-freak]

I present, this… assfuckery:

Bonus: New challenge unlocked, make your own western style proship wanted poster with this template

H-have y'all seen–pffffff. ohmygod💀

Have y'all seen the Proship Wanted Posters?

[ogachukwu-the-freak]

H-have y'all seen–pffffff. ohmygod💀

Have y'all seen the Proship Wanted Posters?

[ogachukwu-the-freak]

Even if something isn’t real and is drawn or pixels on a screen doesn’t make it any less gross. Racial stereotypes aren’t real and almost always depicted in fiction even the most prevalent stereotypes came from fiction (example: the idea black Americans are ignorant and stupid, Mammies, and Jim Crow even came from a fictional character) we can admit they’re still gross though. Propaganda is fiction and a common way to use it is through comics or art doesn’t negate from its harm.

When creeps can’t get their fix of real children they typically move onto the next best thing - fictional.

In children’s media it usually shows that mice like cheese, cats - milk, sharks - humans

But in actuality cats can’t drink milk (they’re usually lactose intolerant), mice aren’t fond of it, and shark attacks are typically rare.

Where did these beliefs come from? Fiction.

Of course it’s not on the same level of actual CSEM, I’m painfully aware of that but it’s not any better.

Wow that's so interesting, show me where I asked?

A fictional story meant for adults that already know that assaulting children is bad is not and will never be on the same realm of propaganda, which is intentionally made to change someone views

Same goes for content made that accidentally changes someone views because they don't know enough about the subject before hand. Everyone knows hurting people is wrong, a fanfic will not convince them otherwise unless they already wanted an excuse to hurt people

Something being gross is still not an excuse for it to cease to exist

Saying that fictional content, which will always have no direct victims, is "not any better" than actual CSEM, in which there is ALWAYS a direct victim, is very, very telling

CSEM/CSAM isn't bad because it's "gross," it's bad because it is hurting someone. It's bad because it is hurting a child. Fictional content, like lolisho, does not hurt anyone. You can find it gross all you want but CSEM/CSAM will always be way worse than lewd lolisho content

As well, "creeps" creeping on fictional characters will always be better than having them creep on real life people. Because of the aforementioned "it's bad because people are directly getting hurt, not because it's 'gross.'" If you fail to see that then I really have nothing else to say to you

[ogachukwu-the-freak]

anyway i hope the new season brings in more sebaciel content for everyone but at the same time i am not looking forward to the influx of tourists we are about to experience if the comments underneath instagram kuro videos are anything to judge by

[ogachukwu-the-freak]

honestly nothing shows the sad and pathetic state of media targeted toward minors better than the fact that inside out 2 does not and cannot introduce "horny" as one of the new pubescent emotions

[ogachukwu-the-freak]

......if I drew sebaciel, would anyone like it?

[ogachukwu-the-freak]

Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

current wip 👀