My biggest writing weakness? Starting the damn thing. Starting it is the hardest part, but once I get going? I'm golden. But it's kind of a Bad Thing because I won't eat, sleep, or use the bathroom until 6-8 hours have magically disappeared.
It's hard to write when I'm lounging on my sofa in PJ's. Dress like you're interviewing for your dream job—shower, brush your hair, wear nice shit. If the library's less than 15 minutes away—walk there. Find a quiet, cozy corner by a window or bathroom and put on some headphones. If your library's got a writing club, join it (I'll explain why later).
2. Bring treats
They say your stomach has 100 million nerve cells—it's practically a brain unto itself. If you wanna trick your brain into thinking writing's fun, you gotta trick your second brain too.
Bring a lunch if you're staying awhile. I'm a lazy son of a bitch, so I'll only pack a handful of nuts or a sandwich if I'm feeling fancy. I'll also bring a sweet tea or lemonade, it's like a dopamine boost I can tap into periodically.
3. Pre-pick a playlist
I have AuDHD, so bringing headphones is literally life-or-death. If I don't pre-make a Spotify playlist before my session, I'll spend three hours organizing my songs down to the alphabetical order. So before I even leave the front door, I'll make a couple of playlists for different vibes. Then if I ever get bored of one style, I can switch between them without fuss.
4. Share It
Doesn't matter where—AO3, Tumblr, Reddit, Substack, etc. One of the best things I ever did for myself was post on the internet.
Most of the time, I'm screaming into a thankless void. But that precious 1% of the time, I'll get a comment or thumbs up that keeps me going. Yeah, sharing my thoughts to strangers is terrifying, but I'd rather be seen than hidden.
5. Get an accountability buddy
The second best thing I ever did was join a writing Discord. Literally hit up anyone, ask them, "wanna trade stories this Friday?" And BOOM. The story will practically write itself. There's something about an accountability buddy that makes us ADHD people zoom zoom. Personally, it's that rush of excitement when I see their username typing up a comment.
My buddy and I like to set a timer for 45 minutes. When time's up, we trade stories and share our thoughts. We might be critical (which is always good), or we'll fangirl over whatever spicy shit we cooked up. It's addicting, fun, and fuck—man, you'd be surprised what you make on the fly.
It takes a special kind of crazy to be a fanfic author. A normal person can't just smoosh together a show that is all about free will and defying fate, with the novel that is centered around the idea that fate cannot be changed or avoided.
Don't do this cas; by the heaven official's blessing no paths are bound.
Hello I'm Felix Leigh, a creative writer, artist, and activist and am the nerd who is currently working on writing a Cozy Fantasy Audio Drama called "The Firefly Café". I'm a queer, neurodivergent, disabled, POC, writer, artist, poet, photographer, singer, wannabe voice actor and signer (American Sign Language).
I write and post poetry on here about once a week on Wednesdays, using the backlog of poems I have in my notebook and Google Drive. For the most part my poetry is very depressing dealing with a lot of taboo topics (death, suicide, self harm, abuse, neglect, poverty, American Politics, queer issues [such as sexually, gender identity, queerphobia ex.] racism, neurodivergence, depression, anxiety and probably a bunch of other things I can't think of right now) and the occasional poem that isn't me just spreading my trauma like a dandelion loosing their seeds to the wind. I have made my partner cry with three of my poems. I am kinda proud of that and is now a formal part of my resume.
On the last Friday of the month I post updates about "The Firefly Café" or as I'm going to affectionately shorten it to "FFC" (which yes does in fact stand for "Flexible Flat Cable" in the electrical world and I don't care) most of the time it's just me yapping about random ideas I had.
When time hasn't aligned with those days of the week, I reblog random things I find, harass my moots, give unsolicited music recommendations in the tags, and post things about my life.
(The Tag list is below the cut.)
Please don't send in asks, tag me in things or message me trying to get me to donate money. Im broke and don't have a job, so I can't donate money. I need the little I have for me. I plan on volunteering at food shelves/banks in the near future and if you can I recommend you do.
**This User is Anti Gen-AI**
Tag List:
Poetry:
#original poem - A poem I wrote.
#poetry reblog - a poem I reblogged
#tw or #cw - means that the poem has some kind of content I have deemed worthy of a trigger warning in the tags. If the content is incredibly prevent I'll include the trigger warning at the start before the poem as well.
#old, #past trauma, #moving on, #im better now, #im safe now- commonly goes on poems that have to do with suicide, self harm, or abuse. These tags indicate that I don't feel like this anymore and am NOT a risk to my or anyone else's health or safety.
#new or #first draft - means that I probably wrote this the day of or night before posting, I try my best to make sure that there are no spelling or grammar errors but ADHD and Dysgraphia are very very annoying.
#draft - probably not a Wednesday poem, but it means that this is a brand new poem and I'm probably also asking for advice on how to write it.
#required reading - things my partner (or therapist) need to read.
The Firefly Café:
#the firefly cafe - Just things I post that are vaguely relevant to FFC or things that I feel like are similar to the plot or a good representation of one of the characters
#the firefly cafe updates - Those once week posts. If someone else uses this tag besides me, the official cafe blog or anyone else who I have deemed a accurate source of information, it's probably fake.
#the firefly cafe announcement - Announcements! Casting Calls, production updates, etc will be posted with this tag. If someone else uses this tag besides me, the official cafe blog or anyone else who I have deemed a accurate source of information, it's probably fake.
#the firefly cafe bulletin - character posts, art submissions, silly stuff
Other:
#non writing -not writing related
#on writing - about writing but not writing it's self
#on writers - about the struggles or life as a writer
#ask box - came from the ask box
#poll - poll. Because I can't make up own mind without strangers input
#notes - things that I reblogged for me to have later
folks, my 20-month-long Disney World!au project has finally wrapped. it was a pleasure to write (and not just because it was so wildly self-indulgent) and a pleasure to share with you. I have hugged every single one of your comments to my chest and given it a little scritch between the ears.
if you’ve held off because you were waiting to make sure it ended, now’s your chance to binge. come for the wholesome family entertainment; stay for the Chuck Tingle discussions.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
I’ve decided, as a silly, I’m going to out myself a little, lmao.
I have an “x reader” one shot book up on Ao3. It only has one chapter so far, yet I’ve completed(?) a second unpublished chapter (waiting on a friend to beta read) and am currently working on a third.
It is dedicated to G!Sans (or Gaster!Sans), because he’s my favorite, so if that’s not your cup of tea I understand, lol.
Extra blurb (?) under the cut ✨
I’m a big asexual so I won’t be writing anything with any seasoning (sorry not sorry, it makes me uncomfortable), but I do tend to write an ungodly amount of fluff, lol. (And song fics actually. So if you don’t like those *shrugs*, I bid you farewell and wish you good day, lmao.)
Is the reader autistic? Maybe. Is that because I’m autistic (AuDHD) and can’t really seem to write anything else? ..also maybe. Lmao.
Anyways, I thought that sometime soon I might post a small crumb from the chapter I’m currently working on and see how people like it.
I honestly don’t expect many people to see it except those who already have (you know who you are, lmao), but I thought it may be fun anyway, and a good way to get my stuff out there instead of just stressing over not posting any new chapters.
If you’ve stayed this long, awesome! If not, then you wouldn’t be reading this, would you? Lmao, haha.
Thank you so much for listening! I hope to see you again soon for when I post snippets of my one shots, lol.
So many of you might already know this, but ADHD comes with a great big heaping side of Executive Dysfunction. What that is, in its simplest form, is the inability to see the end result of a task, so we won't start it. This is a biological tie over from when we were the 'hunters' of the hunter/gatherer class - we aren't about to go follow a deer we don't think we can catch up to, kill, and eat. It's a waste of our resources and energies.
Well, today that looks like not knowing what the end of a book or story will look like, or what the finished product will be like, or looking at all the steps that come AFTER writing, and we're like: Oh no, nope, too much.
One of the ways to overcome that is with adrenaline, which is why procrastination is a motivator for us. However, that puts us in a negative space in order to accomplish things and it can feel kind of crap.
So writing sprints (where you set a timer and write for 15, 20, or 30 minutes at a time) overcome this whole thing by creating an artificial deadline. It's not quite a kick of adrenaline, but your brain can see the end. It's not even that far away, 15 to 30 minutes can FLY by. This is not for everyone, but if you are struggling to get words down, give it a go for 3 or 4 days, see if it grows on you and gets you writing.
