#hithering

[wizzard890]

Hi!! I'll definitely be interested in the fashion consult, do you think you'll be taking them a month from now? I have to wait for a solid paycheck before doing so, as it goes.

Oh dude, I’ll be doing them as long as people are interested. I’m going to be paying off medical bills for the remainder of my natural life, so a little pocket money is always a help. 

[thebibliosphere]

Joy do you have any advice on how to make yourself sit down and write? (I couldn't find a post you might have made about it, but if you made one sorry for asking!) I have five different things outlined and fiddled with, and a fair few projects that got started and died around 20k words. I can't seem to keep myself interested or focused, and I have a very hard time forming habits enough to write daily. Any advice?

I go through this a lot, either due to mental health stuff (I can literally be screaming internally at myself to do something and my brain just...doesn’t do the thing, like I’m fully capable of it but the message gets lost somewhere between thought and action) and also just plain creative burnt out.

The latter is easier to remedy because I allow myself to rest and let my brain reset by doing something like reading a book, playing a game or visiting somewhere interesting.

The former...not so much.

The thing that helps me the most when I am well and truly struggling to write (so most of the latter half of 2016) is to set myself realistic goals. While some days I can churn out a 5000 word chapter, there are other days when I will struggle to write 5. And on those days five whole words can seem like a god damn epic.

So what I do now is I set myself a goal, every day, of achieving 500 words. 

It doesn’t have to be a good 500 words, or even words that end up in my book, just so long as it is 500 words. Even if you never use them, they still count towards the developmental process of your manuscript. It’s engaging your brain and getting you into the mindset you need to be in in order to turn out the work you want to finish. One of my favorite exercises which I’ve talked about before, is the cafe exercise.

If a story stalls or I start to lose my way with a character, I take them out of their world, and drop them into a cafe somewhere in the world. Doesn’t have to be anywhere interesting, London, Paris, the Starbucks two streets away where the tea tastes like pond swill but the wifi is free*. I let them people watch, I let their senses meander through new experiences, the smell of coffee, the copper tang of their change lingering on their fingers from the coins, the sharpness of their tea, the mellowness of the flowers behind them, the way the light makes things look like they’re not quite real, the sound of traffic, the ugly sweater that person is wearing, the way they feel right then and now. I let them have silly conversations. I do all the inane little things with them that humans enjoy doing without the stress of over arcing plot (and we wonder why there’s so many coffee shop AUs) and just generally...gives you a break from your own world, while still letting you develop your characters and practice writing. And that’s the main thing.

And you do need to be in a habit of writing every day. It’s a skill that needs to be used every day, and it has to become habit otherwise it withers and dies. Great plot was never completed by talent alone. Even Stephen King, master of writing entire novels in mere days, had a dry spell where he thought he’d never write again.

It doesn’t have to be prolific and it doesn’t have to be profound.  The wheel is already invented. Fire is discovered. You’re not trying to be original (I hate that word) what you are in fact trying to be is interesting. You are trying to engage and light up the parts of the human brain that says “hey do you know what would be cool, if the wheel was on fire.”

And if the 500 words isn’t going to be achievable, well, I allow myself 250. Because any progress is better than none, and tomorrow I will try again.

(*If you suffer like I do at the mercy of your own inability to focus, fucking turn wifi off. Just, don’t let yourself get bogged down by shiny. Don’t start writing then go “oh actually I should look that up”. Make a mark in your document to go back to it later during a rewrite and insert the relevant researched info afterwards, it doesn’t fucking matter on the first write, you’re just trying to tell yourself the story and get the lay of the land right now, you can fill in the interesting tourist info spots after we’re sure we’re not about to walk off the edge of a cliff.)

[foulserpent]

Re: your post about what makes a good horror story, do you have any recommendations for good horror? I'm trying to get good at writing it but I don't know where to start and want to find some good authors to read from

now that youre asking ofc my mind goes Completely blank

uh one i personally like a lot is this search and rescue officer series, which is like a collection of accounts but it does a good job of keeping it vague with a lot of different events seeming to have the same mysterious underlying cause

https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/3iex1h/im_a_search_and_rescue_officer_for_the_us_forest/

(warning, its mostly about mysterious disappearances. theres explicit and implied death (including children), some body horror, one bit of unpleasant gore that is pretty brief but involves a child so if anyone needs to skip it, it happens after a guy is talking about being sent to climb a tree to retrieve a lost kid.)

otherwise honestly im sorry to send you to reddit but the top voted nosleep stories have quite a few good ones, so id read thru those otherwise. sorry i dont have more specific recs tho

https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/top/

edit: this post is kinda old and these arent all that great but it has a few other good ones

http://realfootage.tumblr.com/post/142718781703/do-you-like-creepy-pastas-have-any-favorites

[interplanet--janet]

hithering replied to your post: Hi its my birthday and i can drink legally now wtf...

omg happy birthday!!!! enjoy that legal drinking

thanks!!!! its nice because i look maybe 14 at best so legally being able to drink is a lot less stressful lmao

[interplanet--janet]

hithering replied to your post: i texted/faxed my senators about the ahca and i...

nice!!!!! :0 that’s awesome that you did it!

yeah i was still even nervous about writing a text haha!!!! i think one of NE’s senators seems like an ok guy, not sure about the other senator tho. so we’ll see. i only wish i could get a response haha

[interplanet--janet]

hithering replied to your post:hithering replied to your photo:Other than minor...

oh nice!! Though yeah that does look like a pain omg… I wish you luck! (also u can totally be ur own wife, i am with a bunch of characters sooo)

Thank you!!! I’ve been look at other ppl’s cosplays for reference and holy crap lol. if my armor can look half as good when it’s finished u kno? (also yes good to know c;)

[interplanet--janet]

hithering replied to your post:and now that im home. back to ur regularly...

I’m glad you were able to make it back home!! <33

me too!!! i mean. the 15 minutes i saw of seattle that wasnt the airport was nice. but i really like my house and im glad to be home!! <3