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And:

Source

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Periodic rent-lowering-gunshots:

Fiction is not reality.

You can enjoy things in fiction that would be awful in the real world. Like playing a murderhobo in a game! In the real world, being or supporting a murderer-thief would be pretty damn awful, while in the game it's just good fun. Same with anything else you choose to do with the pixels on the screen, like kinks that don't affect anyone real, so they're okay in fiction, but would be pretty damn bad in real life.

No one else is responsible for your online experience. They are required not to harass you, but they are not and never will be obligated to not post about ships, kinks, or tropes you dislike just to avoid you seeing them. It's up to you to blacklist words or phrases, block tags, or even block users as needed to avoid seeing content that upsets you.

No one can force you to read anything against your consent. Any content you don't like seeing can be instantly avoided by closing out of the offending post/fic.

You are not owed an online experience free of discomfort.

Nothing that happens in your imagination can ever make you a bad person. Words you write or read about fictional characters will never make you a bad person.

The claim that media consumption influences real-life behavior is intellectually dishonest and serves only to excuse the behavior of real offenders.

Fiction is a safe way to explore horrifying or confusing concepts. Therapists agree that fiction, even (or especially) about taboo topics is a good coping mechanism, especially, but not exclusively, for trauma survivors. Fiction is to adults what play therapy is to children. This doesn't stop being true if the work in question is of a sexual nature.

Sex isn't an inherently worse or better motivation than anything else. A work written to create feelings of arousal isn't dirty, shameful, or in any way less pure than works written to entertain, provoke moral questions, or for other reasons. And worth noting is that multiple purposes can exist in the same story, especially fanfiction.

You aren't entitled to an explanation for why someone reads, writes, or otherwise enjoys certain works, kinks, tropes, ships, etc.

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the only censorship we need is the block, mute and filter option because giving others the power to dictate what can and cannot exist in fandom will eventually lead to banning all nsfw works or even slightly but nuanced ‘problematic’ topics. ​I block and move on because I don’t want to see certain things but to erase them completely is a dangerous slope to having things you like be banned eventually.

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How to Get Inspired to Write and Regain Creativity

The muses are fickle, especially when it comes to writers. Sometimes inspiration strikes at the worst of times—while working, in the middle of the night, etc.—and other times it refuses to strike at all. How do you get inspired to start a project, especially when you haven’t written in a very long time? 

Here are some tips and tricks that may help you get back into the writing groove.

1. Is It Writer’s Block You’re Worried About?

This post is meant to be a resource for people who don’t have any current projects or haven’t written/worked on their current projects in a very long time due to lack of inspiration and motivation. 

In contrast, “writer’s block” is usually used in reference to having a load of inspiration and motivation to write but struggling with a mental “block” that prevents you from doing so. 

These two overlap a lot, though, so if nothing on this post is working, you can find my post on combatting writer's block here!

For some extra help to get the ball rolling once you've regained inspiration, also check out the "Getting Started" section of my FAQ!

2. Set Aside Time to Be Creative

Oftentimes, creativity and inspiration can be lost due to a busy schedule. Life happens! Work, school, and a variety of other things could be restricting your ability to write or do creative things consistently. All it takes is one busy week, or month, or year, and now you feel like you’ve been thrown off of the carousel of creativity and can’t find your way back on again!

The key to combatting this is blocking out an hour or two (every day or every week) that you can use to spend time writing. Set a timer or alarm and put your phone aside (it is your enemy! It can and WILL distract you!) and sit down with the intent to write. Even if you get nothing done, getting in a creative headspace is still incredibly helpful! Baby steps!!!

By blocking out a specific length of time and putting it in your calendar, you can mentally prep to be creative and also can assure that you have ample time to get the juices flowing without worrying about being interrupted.

3.  Check Out Some Writing Prompts

Sometimes, it can be easier to start writing if you’re told what to write. A lot of writers find prompts helpful as warm-up exercises, and use them for projects on the side when they’re taking a rest from their current WIP.

It could be helpful to find a couple of prompts and see what cool things you can come up with! Even if they don’t seem like something you’d want to work on long-term, the very act of writing in and of itself will wake your “writing muscles” back up and get them in the groove of being creative again.

You can check out #writing prompts on my blog, or check out these amazing prompt blogs:

@writing-prompt-s

@creativepromptsforwriting

@promptsforthestrugglingauthor

@daily-prompts

@promptsonpaper

4. Write Fanfiction (If you’re just struggling with original works)

Fanfiction is a great way to get back into being creative because all of the hardest parts about getting started (character creation, setting, lore, etc.) have already been done for you. You don’t have to post your fanfiction or even complete your fic, just write a short scene or story about two characters with pre-established backstories, personalities, and dynamics. It’ll get you back into the basics of describing setting and writing dialogue. 

5. Make a Fun Playlist or Pinterest Board

Making fun playlists or Pinterest boards based on a certain genre, character, or piece of media you like can really get the creative juices flowing! After all, having a playlist to listen to that perfectly encapsulates the mood, tone, and pacing of your scene or story can really get you inspired! And with a Pinterest board for visual references to back you up, descriptions can come a whole lot easier!

I don't really use Pinterest except for art references, but if you don’t want to make your own writing playlist, feel free to borrow some of mine! Just a note: I find words in music very distracting when I write, so all of these are instrumental. Sorry if it’s not your cup of tea! 

Here’s a link to my master list of instrumental playlists.

6. Read!

I know. It’s hard. And I can’t even talk; I haven’t read a proper book in a year, probably. For me, the hardest part is starting; I drag my feet for months before finally picking up a book, whip through a good chunk of it in one or two sittings, but once I put it down, I never return to it. But reading is an excellent way to get inspired as a writer, and to improve your way of writing! 

By learning and getting inspiration from fellow writers, you not only get an idea of the creative possibilities, but also learn how different writers work their process. Fanfiction counts, too!

7. Get a Writing Buddy!

Sometimes, creative things such as writing can be hard because they’re traditionally a “solo sport” so to speak.

But having a writing buddy, someone to just be in the room or on call with you while you both be creative together, can do loads for your inspiration. Sure, there’s a chance that you’ll just distract each other and fool around, but if you really work to hold each other accountable, even getting into the creative headspace is a great way to start.

Also, you have a partner to bounce ideas off of!

Hope this helped, and happy writing!

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How to Get Back to Writing-

Now this is straight from experience. If you haven’t written anything in a little while it is hard to get back in the swing of things. Everything you write feels a bit contrived, a bit desperate, but you know what, that’s okay. I had to take a few weeks off while traveling and when you go from writing every day to not writing at all, trying to get back into it just does not happen easily. But here’s how I got back into it in the quickest and least painful way I possibly could: 

Don’t work on anything you’ve been working on before at first. Likely you’ll have a standard for your writing that goes into your ongoing projects and if you have taken a long enough break from writing, you won’t return right away at that standard. You’ll just get more frustrated. So instead, pick a prompt and write something new. It can be a short story, a few scenes, something to go alongside of another project - anything like that. 

If your first sentence sucks, don’t delete it. The second one might be better. This goes for scenes too. The first scene was just meh… the next one might be eh - okay.  And it will improve from there. If your writing is just sounding horrible to you, just keep writing. Going back and editing and fixing it will not help you here. Just keep writing. Write 100 words. If it’s still eh… then write 200. I wrote 2,000 words just the other day before it started looking alright again. But, you know, it worked. 

Anything that sounds terrible just needs to be edited six months from now. Use that as your golden rule in times like these. Just until you get your mojo back. Just keep saying, yeah, I know it’s bad, but I can fix it later.  Believe it or not, that helps a lot. Just get to the story and keep telling the story. 

Work in sprints. Don’t let yourself stare at a blank screen for hours. Write for 15 or 30 minutes and then take a break. I do 15 minutes on, 15 minutes off and I get a lot more writing done that way than a solid 30 minute session and can keep that pace up for hours.  Maybe read a book in the 15 or 30 minute break. It helps to see good writing and to let yourself be just a little bit influenced by another writer. I don’t recommend this as a permanent solution, but a temporary aid. 

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Suddenly hating the same story you wrote & loved yesterday or vice versa is very normal

Me when I read a story I wrote three years ago: "Damn the English is so bombastic it sounds like a read a dictionary back to back and wanted to show off the vocabulary. So embarrassing."

Me when I read a story I wrote three months ago: "English so simple it looks like a 6th grader wrote it. Yikes!"

The truth is that human beings are complex and moody. It makes sense to perceive the same piece of art differently over time. You already wrote the story. Let it be. It's still art and it still came from your heart and your talents.

The important thing is that you got to artfully express yourself and someone enjoyed and appreciated it; as evidenced by the kudos, votes, likes or notes on it.

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One of the worst feelings in the world: when you are just desperate, like claw-your-own-skin-off desperate, to create, but the only thing that even vaguely appeals to you to work on is a nebulous half-feeling that might be dreamily related to some half-formed notion of a concept. I must! Make! No thing! Only make!

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Big fan of media that makes you feel like this

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"Wow, so terrible that Google Docs deleted somebody's file for allegedly violating the terms of service! So glad I'm using [other cloud storage service]!"

Listen to me. With more and more puritanical laws coming into place, you can't trust any cloud service to be safe forever.

Download LibreOffice and store your files on your own devices.

Don't trust remote storage for anything.

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Pssst

Hey, are you an artist or writer with WIPs?

Come here... I got a secret for you pssst come ‘ere

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write fanfic that three people in the world will read, because those three people are going to be fucking pleased that it exists

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sorry if you read my fics and you see the same very specific phrases over and over again

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I hate having to post political posts like this nut he we are again. Anybody from the UK wanna sign this. Folks from outside the UK maybe share it?

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presented without commentary or apology

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The Psychotic Feeling

There isn’t really a word for it. It’s very difficult to describe. You’re not necessarily hearing things or hallucinating. You’re not necessarily hallucinating. There doesn’t have to be any positive symptoms present. The psychotic feeling is there, though.

Everything feels off. Your friends and family don’t look right. Drinks and foods don’t look like things you can consume. The inside doesn’t feel like home. The outside feels like another planet.

Internally, you feel like you’re losing your grip. You feel like any one of your known symptoms could happen at any moment. You don’t feel like you have your footing. It’s as if you could be swept up into space in an instant. Grounding techniques have no effect because none of your surroundings are grounded.

It all amounts to having this feeling in your head. All you really know is that it’s extremely uncomfortable. It feels like it’s never going away no matter how many times you’ve experienced it. There are no words. It’s just…The psychotic feeling

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sometimes i really love my fics. i wrote that because i wanted to read it. i love it. nobody visits my fics more than me. they remind me that i’m a hard worker, that i created something. it’s mine and i cherish it and love it because it’s exactly what i wanted so i made it.

and other days i’m crippled by self criticism and hate everything and can’t bear to look at my own work because i know it’ll never compare to the greats

but i live for the days i love my work. because it’s mine, and i made it. i didn’t wait for somebody else to make what i dream about. i went and did it myself.

so don’t feel like your work is awful

it’s the stuff you dreamed about. it’s the stuff you decided to make a reality. it’s not about quality, or poetry, or how perfectly your sculpt your words or keep it so deeply in character; because it’s what you dreamed and it’s what you wanted to see, so you made it.

keep writing; it’s yours, and you made it. and if you want to continue to sharpen and improve yourself? then do it. it’s all yours and you can make it whatever you want.

keep writing.