#but ive found that it is definitely. very easy to fall into this trap lol

[elliebell77]

sorry i havent been posting i think im burnt out rn

[graffitibible]

Do you have any advice for writing or creating regularly? That’s hard for me and I’d like to get better at it.

it boils down to what works best for you personally tbh. i’ve got a system to write semi-regularly (or i did......restricted movement hours have kinda forced me to restructure that lol) and it works for me but that’s just how my brainyot works. i’m a routine-based creature so working writing into my routine was how i got myself to write semi-regularly. 

ive also had significant Brain Junk for most of my life and was gradually able to navigate how best to create in spite of that but im also like, medicated for it and the like so self-care was a factor. i couldnt create shit while i was too busy lying in a pool of my own filth having fits of paranoia about the nature of reality so i was hardly about to make myself try and create stuff when that wasnt even on my radar. 

i can share some of the things i do to keep myself writing though! like again this isn’t something that’s for sure gonna work for everybody cause everybodys wired differently but i hope some of it helps!

1. daily wordcount - i’ve mentioned this before but i have a daily wordcount that i do for my original fiction. i don’t apply the same standard to fic-writing because that risks making it an arbitrary barrier that puts too many numbers on my internal list. that being said, it’s very small. i make myself do 200 words per day. if that gets me going and writing more than that, awesome. if not, i still got a little bit done. 200 words is small, and it’s not overwhelming to catch up on if i miss a day. no matter how shitty im feeling i try to get in 200 words.

2. routine - since i’m a routine-based person by nature i basically found ways to finagle creative processes into all that. it’s not hard and fast because that kind of rigid structure makes me balk and i’m not that disciplined lol, but it’s usually something like “i have an hour-long lunch break at work and literally nothing else to do during it so i’ll write in that time period” or “i have thirty minutes of sitting by the stove making dinner so i’ll write until it’s ready”

3. momentum - or what my housemate fondly calls “The Juice.” if i have The Juice of inspiration i keep that going for as long as i can. if something’s not working for me i don’t scrap it or toss it right away. if i’m having trouble with a scene i make a note to myself and move on to a different one. example of this from my latest wip, which is part iv of mayhem

i hadnt worked out what was gonna go there and nothing was coming to me easy in the moment so i stuck the note there and kept going. my works are full of this shit. if i can’t think of a name or if there’s a statistic or a character i haven’t worked out yet i don’t wanna break my focus and momentum so i slap a note in the first draft and keep going. at a first draft stage the important thing is getting the words Out so it doesnt matter if theyre perfect. ill go back and fix them later, revise all i need to. first drafts dont need to be good, they just need to be there so i can spruce them up later.

on the flip side do not be like me and commit to this momentum so bad that you forget that you are a human being who needs to eat and consume liquids. i do that sometimes because of who i am as a person and it is a serious flaw of mine, do not be like this. sometimes getting some food in you is what you need to get The Juice flowing again and that sounds kinda gross and i am sorry

4. planning and hangups - this ones dependent on how you create. i forget where this analogy came from, but i’ve heard it said that some writers are architects who need a blueprint of where they’re going before they end up there and some writers are gardeners, who don’t need a set plan so much as they need to keep going. i’m definitely an architect - a lot of my works start out as bulletpoints of what scenes i wanna cover, what topics i wanna explore, etc. - though i have on occasion simply Written without any set destination, usually to force myself out of a creative slump. me being a big planner used to be one of the biggest barriers for me creatively because i’d spend hours agonizing over minute universe details and never start the dang story. this still happens from time to time. like heres what my organizational folder looks like wrt “pray for disaster”

that is not even all the files in there. why do i have two dictionaries. jesus. like i make these giant ass fuckin....tomes of stuff i like to keep track of, which i like to call “bibles” lol. except i could tell that getting too organized was gonna be an uphill battle with very little payoff so by the end i just made a “MISCELLANEOUS BULLSHIT” doc and for now i throw everything in there if it doesn’t fit into something like a dictionary or timeline

shit like this is why i like to just sit down and write without a clear destination in mind if i’m having writer’s block. that’s one of those things that goes hand in hand with the way i take advantage of my own momentum - if i reach a certain point where i’m just picking at details and not doing any writing i just go “ok motherfucker sit down and write shit. we will work out the details later.”

5. motivation - the ways i tend to motivate myself are weird so idk how true this is for anybody else but i’ve been writing for a pretty large part of my life. i went to college for english/creative writing and got a whole dang degree cause i still wanna make this my vocation somehow. one thing i cannot ever turn off is the writer part of my brain that’s going “oooh huh that’s not how i would’ve written that” in literally every piece of art i consume - tv, movies, books, songs, etc. sometimes that’s enough to inspire me into doing something on my own time. most of the time though if i’m feeling stumped i tend to crack open some of my personal favorite works, like books or fics that have really resonated with me, to fall in love with the art all over again. seeing the way different authors and artists do their craft helps me get in the zone of wanting to write more cause i get this nice feeling of “damn, these people really did those things with those words.....that’s fuckin amazing.....i wanna do that.” 

you do risk falling into the trap of “ugh i can’t write like them though” but that’s the beauty of writing. nobody can write the way anybody else does. ofc i can’t write like terry pratchett, only terry pratchett can write like terry pratchett, and if i compare myself to terry pratchett i’m only gonna get sad and mopey. but i can write in a way thats totally unique to me so i should not try to write like terry pratchett because that’s just impeding my own creative energy in the interest of trying to cookie-cut myself into someone else’s zone. only terry pratchett can write like terry pratchett but only i can write like zero graffitibible.

i hope that was helpful? like this is all stuff that works for me so no guarantee it’ll work for everyone else.

oh right and idk how many of yall are minors because let it be known that i do not condone underage drinking; i am an adult who occasionally will get crunk because i like to write drunk and edit sober. if you too are an adult who can legally consume alcohol feel free to write while buzzed because that is a nice way to write with zero fuckin inhibitions. i dont get blackout drunk or nothing just a little buzzed and sometimes what i write makes no sense but i am at times at my most productive at 2am while mildly buzzed. its a thing.

like again i’m not really an authority on this by any means - this is just what works for me. but if it works for you too, great!! find your zone and all that

[lokbobpop]

Difficult

1 : hard to do, make, or carry out : arduous a difficult climb. 2a : hard to deal with, manage, or overcome a difficult child having a difficult time coping with her death.

c. 1400, "not easy, requiring or dependent on effort; troublesome, arduous," apparently an unetymological back-formation from difficulty. French has difficile, Latin difficilis. Of persons, "hard to please," from 1580s.

Difficult diff i cult diffi cult dif ficult

Writing the word difficult

I find everything difficult because ive believed my mind for all my life and it said to me over and over again you cant do this your no it good enough to do this so dont do it dont try even doesn’t waste your time so i didnt I couldn’t do it so dont do it but i see this hasn’t all been so bad ive ended up in the most perfect place i am right now discovering me and if i had done something different i might not be doing what im doing right now so my mind has been perfect for me as it has now fell into the trap of me and theres no getting out of me.

Reading the word difficult

Process is difficult shit it hard dealing with the mind 24/7 but ive got this now i can do this but i see seeing it as difficult makes things worse for me by seeing it as difficult if i saw it a easy i think it would make things much easier its when i fall i see that i go into fuck the mind got me but if i was to laugh and say oh well and just get back up why would it be hard it just wouldnt be hard im making it hard by believing it is hard it’s isn’t hard it just vigilant being aware of self and what im allowing in any given moment of my life and this is a gift not har this is a gift most having had comping to the physical i need to embrace my gift of what i have and who I can become by freeing myself from ,mu mind and working within my mind instead.

I have found reading very difficult and writing very difficult being dyslexic but i am getting over now in later life and i wish i did when i was younger I wish i embraced that about myself and seen it as a gift not a hinderance so from now on who i am always is fine it good is completely fine im working on me to help me to help others.

I find it difficult when we are appart i feel we all should be together in Australia living together living the way we do right now isnt good we all need to get together and support each other.

There are so many thinks that are difficult when you think about it climb a mountain swim a sea run a marathon build a house nothing is easy and for some on this earth even eating is difficult because they have no food we are faced with difficulties every day but its who we are within these difficulties but maybe not for the starving there difficulties never end and how they view life i dont know they dont have the luxury i do thats for sure but if i can change me and help others to change we can change this world for sure.

Saying difficult out loud

Being difficult i can be difficult as in i dont want to do something and the rest of the family does being difficult i can be this i see morels can get in the way thoughts of cant be bothered gets in the way and just the want and need to be difficult comes up lol like i like being difficult lol

My perception of difficult has changed i see things i thought were difficult aren’t and i was only living in fear of most of them and now seeing my confidence grow im ready to grow more and more all the time and things aren’t difficult anymore.

I find it difficult to deal with the girls when they are angry they had a bad fight leilani wants to leave move out and trin wants her to leilani isnt coping with life right now and needs to chill but its har with your sister who has rot pick up the slack.

Sf

Does this definition support me no it had a mountain of thoughts of life is difficult but im in elitist position compared to so many and i need to stop the oh this is difficult and start with this is life right now and it needs changing for the better and you can be the better part if you check in with self often enough to see what you are living.

Difficult diff i cult

Difficult

Is it is it really or is it your mind telling you and you are believing the mind only ? Ask yourself first before saying this is difficult

I will live this seeing what im allowing within believing something is difficult check myself first yes sure doing some physical can be hard work difficult but i need ot be sure what is and what isn’t according to the mind and my true self.