PSA That Has Been Given 100 Times Already But Needs To Be Said Again:

good things will happen 🧿

things that are meant to be will fall into place 🧿

Made this beauty to serve for tomorrow. Absolutely delicious. My mom loves the dark ganache icing and I love the apricot jam between he layers.

I did something different from the recipe and I think it turned out better. There are other alterations I'd like to make and will add to the recipe as a separate way to prepare this.

Google Docs

Nevarran Hazlenut Torte

Cake: 1 ½ cups (225g) Sugar 2 cups (320g) Finely Ground Hazelnuts ¾ cups (111g) Sifted Flour 2 tsp (8g) Baking Powder 8 Eggs Separate White

What I did differently...

The things I did differently in my first bake was. I divided the sugar between the cake and the icing. That way the icing isn't so bitter. I did not use all the apricot jam, more like 2/3 of it (same with the icing). I also toasted about 112g of hazelnuts and chopped them for the decoration. Toasting the hazelnuts gives a deeper flavor.

K. M. Alexander

Fantasy Map Brushes

Welcome to a project I call #NoBadMaps. Here you will find brush sets and tools to create fantasy maps that can add a touch of historical au

look at these cool map brushes i found!

Kid Pix just became pubic domain, so the remade (but pretty much exactly the same) version is now available here. It's uh, wild, highly recommend checking it out not only for the wonderful nostalgia but you can legit make some incredible looking stuff!

FIND IT HERE

me: *writes fic*

me: great! time to post to ao3-

ao3 summary box: *exists*

me: 

ao3 summary box:

me:

ao3 summary box: 

me:

For those saying "you CAN heal!!" or stuff like that- no, we can't.

Like, yeah, we can go to therapy and live meaningful lives, but people with C-PTSD's brains develop differently. That's something we have to live with forever.

It's not a 'woe is me' thing or 'guess I'll never try to heal'. I'm happy. I live a great life.

But it's a lot to process and come to grips with, no matter how much work we do on ourselves. We deserve to be able to grapple with the enormity of that without positivity shoved down our throats.

insane to me that because of how my parents acted towards me as a child my brain was irrevocably changed and now i just have to suffer the rest of my life because of it

Hiding government and public services to reduce how much they're used and "prove" that they're unneeded is a tried and true Republican technique. It's not a conspiracy, these things are deliberately made difficult to access to discourage people from using them because "more use = more funding" and "less use = less funding" is how public service funding is generally decided.

Musk outright lying about "deleting" a whole IRS program for low income tax filing is just a progression of common Republican tactics. Don't fall for it.

Writing Advice: tips, tricks & helpful links, from your friendly neighbourhood fanfic author ✨ (part two—the resources)

see part one—the advice here

verbiage: • show, don't tell—a guide by @lyralit • this crazy big list of dialogue tags from @slayingfiction

diversity & inclusive writing: • a collection of helpful posts about BIPOC, gender, and body neutral inclusion in writing collated by @lavenderursa • this post on writing disabled characters by @cripplecharacters if you're not writing from experience

adding depth to your characters: • exploring character backstory and good traits gone bad by @saraswritingtipps • dark past ideas from @sas-soulwriter • @lyralit's list of things to think about when crafting a character

story structure and depth: • plot structures and this story planning template from @wordsnstuff • this collection of links from @oflights including fantasy name generators, child development guides, and height comparison visuals • finally, @writingquestionsanswered full stop, they have some fantastic guides and advice on things like this post on how to deal with writer's block and this one on how to start a story.

smut (i'm not gonna lie, there's a lot of smut resources): • the classic—quinnanderson's 'ultimate guide to writing smut fic' on AO3 • smut synonyms from @plaidstiel-wormstache • @maybeeatspaghetti's smutty dictionary • another smut thesaurus from @prurientpuddlejumper • this list of praise kink dialogue, also a good site for sex positions • sex positions for deep penetration (with diagrams) • this guide by @void-my-warranty • and not quite smut, but this post on how to write a kiss scene from @youneedsomeprompts

writing software: • a collection of alternatives to google docs, by @the960writers • here is @yekokataa's AO3 template for scrivener

prompts, for when you want to write but need a nudge: • @creativepromptsforwriting • @deity-prompts (who also has an excellent masterlist of writer's advice)

I may update this list occasionally who knows, but for now I hope some of you find it helpful 💗

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!