#I’m back on my mojo!

[heyhellohihowareyou]

Day 12 of Maehara Shenanigans: Sugaya

First let me apologize for being behind on my Maehara shenanigans. Things were happening left and right and not to mention, we were testing for two whole weeks! With all that, my body sort of shut down afterwards I guess. So sorry to you guys and sorry to Maehara as well. He really deserves better. Just note I didn’t give up okay! Even if it seemed like I did.

Now, onto the shenanigans! Sugaya’s just randomly doodling in class and Maehara just randomly comes behind him to watch his process. Sugaya didn’t really mind it although, he found it to be kind of off putting. Once he was done, Maehara was deeply impressed, even though it was just a simple sketch in Sugaya’s eyes.

Anyways, I’d like to think Maehara is pretty mediocre when it comes to drawing. He’s not really bad to be honest but something is always wrong that kind of throws the whole drawing off, especially when it comes to drawing people. Maybe one eye is bigger than the other, maybe the head and the body aren’t matched up really well, or maybe he simply just forgot a key detail that makes the whole drawing look off in the process. Either way, imagine if he tried to get some tips from Sugaya.

So randomly, Maehara might come up to Sugaya while he’s in the mist of doing his bizz and asks him what’s he’s drawing. After that he’ll watch Sugaya and start to draw with him too and becomes like a daily routine for both of them.

Later on, Maehara draws a portrait of Sugaya and shows it to him. Sugaya’s grateful for it and decides to draw a portrait of Maehara too. Except his portrait is WAY more detailed which just amazes Maehara

Maehara: “HOW!? You managed to draw like every single strand of my hair! AND YOU GOT MY DIMPLES!!!”

They kept each other’s portraits and Maehara decided to frame the one Sugaya drew of him because it was just THAT good.

[daffi-990]

Seven(ish) Sentence Sunday ✍🏻

Tagged by @diazsdimples @theotherbuckley @hippolotamus @tizniz and @wikiangela (plus a whole bunch of other people over the past few weeks -> thanks for tagging me even though I haven’t had anything to share xx)

I actually have some words to share today! This is from my secret wip … which I will eventually tell you all about when it’s a bit further along 😘

Buck can see Eddie and it’s agonizing. It feels as if thousands of knives are stabbing into his heart and twisting with every beat.

He can see his usually bright coffee rich eyes, now dulled like a muddy puddle, filled with fear and confusion.

Can see the way his beautifully sun kissed skin has gone pale as blood seeps out from underneath his body, like a tipped bucket of red paint, its contents trickling out and painting the ground a deep crimson hue.

The whole situation seems unreal, a never-ending nightmare that he can't escape from.

And then Eddie’s hand twitches, his eyes still locked onto Buck’s as his fingers crawl along the asphalt like he’s reaching out for something.

Buck feels his heart physically ache, as if it's being crushed in a vice, when he realises Eddie is reaching out for him.

No pressure tagging: @spotsandsocks @devirnis @wildlife4life @watchyourbuck @wellcollapse @alliaskisthepossibilityoflove @exhuastedpigeon @elvensorceress @eddiebabygirldiaz @steadfastsaturnsrings @spagheddiediaz @queerdiazs @neverevan @jesuisici33 @jeeyuns @hoodie-buck @homerforsure @lover-of-mine @lonelychicago @bekkachaos @missmagooglie @monsterrae1 @dangerpronebuddie @smilingbuckley @diazheartsbuckley @thewolvesof1998 @giddyupbuck @captain-hen @sibylsleaves @rainbow-nerdss @the-likesofus @princessfbi and as always, if you have something you’d like to share -> consider this your offical tag 🏷️

[envyenvys]

Stobin Mandalorian AU part 1

(aka s3 stobin accidentally acquire a magic baby)

[You Are Here] [2] [3] [4]

It’s Robin that first hears the baby crying. She insists it’s coming from the vents on her right side — Steve’s left — but the concussion’s left everything kind of soupy so it takes him a few minutes to pick it out from the ever-present hum of the gate-laser and the rush of blood through his own ears. Once he notices it though, it’s hard to stop.

It’s a sad, lonely sort of crying that makes his heart ache. Robin makes a dubious sort of noise when he mentions this and insists that it’s probably just hungry — which Steve has to admit is likely, none of the Russians they’ve met so far can really be described as ‘nurturing’ — but something in his gut tells him that’s not it.

He doesn’t get the chance to say anything before the Russians come back with the doctor, and then they have a whole new set of problems to worry about.

The mysterious blue goop makes everything a million times soupier and having pliers around his fingernail is not great, but then Dustin and Erica are there and everything’s great again. Super great, even.

“Can you two hurry up?” Dustin hisses, pulling Steve upright when he starts to list to the side.

It’s a little difficult to navigate when your head is soup and your bones are blue and goopy and you’re bleeding from at least three places you weren’t bleeding from this morning, and Steve makes a valiant attempt to tell Dustin this because it’s important information he needs to know. He starts, then stops because he can barely hear himself over the siren and honestly this is just like earlier when he was trying to hear the— oh right.

“Baby,” Steve says, and Robin whips her head around in slow motion to stare at the vent.

“Did you just call me a baby?” Dustin demands, shoving them into the hallway.

“Nooo, no, no,” Steve insists. He takes two steps in the direction Dustin is going, then checks to see where the vent leads. It’s going in the other direction. He turns around. “Baby. The baby. Gotta get the baby.”

“It’s hungry,” Robin says decisively, even though Steve’s almost positive that’s not the problem.

“I don’t know why these two idiots are so focused on it but I did hear a baby,” Erica says, and Dustin groans.

“And you didn’t say anything?”

“I didn’t think I was the only one around here with working ears,” she says scathingly. “Clearly I was wrong.”

Steve and Robin are already halfway down the hall. Robin stops, cocking her head like a bird, and gasps.

“I hear it! This way!”

She books it around a corner, and she might be only going half as fast as she usually does but she’s still a lot faster than Steve. He stumbles after her, clutching at the weird tubes on the wall for support.

“Get back here!” Dustin hisses, tugging at Steve’s arm. “We have to go!”

“Steve!” Robin shouts at the top of her lungs. “I found the baby!”

Steve manages to drag both himself and Dustin around the corner and into a small room with a metal door. Clearly he needs to start making Dustin exercise because he should not be weaker than Steve is when his bones are soup. Dustin should have solid bones — he drinks a lot of milk, and it’s like, scientifically proven that milk makes your bones stronger. It’s that vitamin — or is it a mineral? Ca— Cancer? No, wrong one. Ca-something. Robin would know.

Anyway Dustin has strong bones so obviously it’s a muscle thing that’s the reason why his arms are really weak and Steve should make him play basketball about it.

Robin’s holding a baby.

“Put that down,” Dustin insists, letting go of Steve to gesture at Robin. She pouts and cuddles the baby closer.

It’s such a cute, perfect baby too. Steve stumbles closer so he can look at the perfect baby. It has soft wisps of brown hair and squishy pink cheeks, and when Robin smooths a thumb over those squishy baby cheeks it stops crying and opens its big brown eyes.

“Steve,” Robin says, staring at him with her own wide eyes, “it’s a girl baby.”

“She’s perfect,” Steve whispers, and he wants to hold her so so bad but he can’t even hold himself up right now and the only thing worse than not holding her is dropping her so he has to leave her with Robin even though it kind of makes him want to cry.

He’s always wanted a baby.

“Okay,” he turns back to Dustin, who’s looking very stressed. “Now we can go.”

“What do you mean ‘now we can go’?”

“We have the baby, let’s go!”

“We can’t just steal a baby!”

“Yes we can,” Robin says, and starts walking out the door. “See? We’re stealing her. Easy peasy.”

“But—!”

“Let’s go, nerd!” Erica says, shoving them all out of the room. “Cry about it later, we need to leave!”

Steve stops to grab a few baby things, though there isn’t much. A white blanket, a few cloth diapers, and a thick stack of folders — the last of which aren’t baby things, but he assumes they’ll be important anyway. The stitching on the corner of the blanket reads ‘Два’, the same as the label on her metal crib.

“Aba,” he mutters, following them to the weird red car. “Like the band?”

Well, it’s probably a beautiful name for a baby girl. In Russian.

[Next]

[worthyheir]

Rereading drafts got me like:

[kowtownart]

Being silly!!

Putting up a few older things that i forgot to post after i made them; art block is kicking my ass rn

[creative-chaos-apparently]

I’m trying so hard to get past my writer’s block but it’s so funny because at 1:00 AM this last night I sat down and I just wrote the most boring and random ass conversation between Jedediah and Octavius I have ever seen in a fanfic.

This is the content I have y’all waiting months and months for and I’m so sorry

[honeyedmiller]

you ever just change a plot to one of your wip’s that’s been in the drafts since january….

🧍‍♀️

husband javi coming soon

[mxviko]

Does South Park tumblr enjoy videos because I’ve been trying to cook up a cover of curses and was thinking of doing a silly video with it

Hellpark designs I will not do you justice if I do it

[pit-crew-chronicles]

I see your robot has side-side flywheels. How are those working for you? My team is currently trying to re-design our whole shooter to be top-down before our first event. Similar to mechanical advantage’s robot this year

They’re working really well! We had problems with dead space between wheels during prototyping, but we figured that out pretty quickly. Mechanical Advantage’s does look pretty cool. It looks like our designs are different so you probably won’t have the same problems as my team did.

[ervotica]

i need a cute multifandom url… pls if anyone has ideas i need em

[brokendeerteeth]

working on something interesting

[jrrtfanforlife]

I feel sorta disloyal, but I’m trying out a different roller derby league today.

The practical reason is that - the city I live in doesn’t have roller derby, so I have to go to a nearby city either way. The one I went to initially was just the first one I found googling, and my therapist is there anyways, so I figured eh alright, this is the convenient option. But actually the other city is a little closer, so in a way more convenient for me.

The positive reason is - I have gotten very excited about roller derby and skating in general, but there aren’t any public skating rinks here, so the best way to get more time on the skates is to join a second league so I get four opportunities per week to skate instead of just two.

The slightly less positive reason is I’m a bit annoyed at some aspects of how my original league is run. I got the chance to play in two scrimmages, and I had a fuckin blast, and only after that second scrimmage did one of the trainers passive-aggressively hint that actually I shouldn’t have been in the scrimmage. Overall they’re super strict about what you’re allowed to do. Some trainers even more so than others. And like yes, it’s a dangerous sport, but there are ways to more safely do stuff and it feels a bit stifling

…..

Anyways I didn’t finish writing this. But I went and did the thing, and it was a beginner training cuz it’s fresh meat day, but it was still a lot of fun. I absolutely will get a chance to do more scrimmages there. Well, as long as we get enough people interested. Cuz at the first place the issue is the team is too big and too focused on the official Bundesliga games. The second place, it’s almost too small. They said only 8 people regularly show up to practices. Ideally you need 15 for a game. Theoretically you only have 5 on the track at once, but it’s a damn hard sport so you need time to catch your breath.

The way my initial team talks about it all they say they’re just focused on safety. I shouldn’t play in scrimmages because I don’t have enough control over all the finer points of skating yet. Which, I’m sure that is a real part of it. The new team has a different perspective though - they think the initial team is just very focused on funneling people into the Bundesliga games. For now I’m happier to go to the second team where they’re more chill overall. In fact, I’m allowed to do both, so I’ll just do that for now

[mochiwrites]

man I miss writing.

school has seriously killed my passion for my projects. I feel like I’ve hit a giant brick wall, and I open up a doc to write but no words come out.

I have ideas, but none of them seem good. I want to work on the crime au and post new things, but I feel like I’ve lost the ability to write it well, or write something emotional. and I’m worried that everyone has moved on, that there’s no more interest in the crime au.

I’m terrified I’m losing interest in things that once made me excited because of new hyperfixations.

I miss writing things that made me feel like they were good and full of emotion.

I miss getting so emotionally invested in a project that it’s all my mind can focus on.

I miss the engagement I got from people. It makes me worried that well… no one’s interested in my ideas, or my writing anymore.

I miss. Writing.

[purpelflurpel]

How to stop idealizing and falling in love with ppl whose personalities don’t exist the same way you’ve created in your mind?

Better yet, how to stop being disappointed when they don’t end up being who you’ve decided they are?

[bookishdiplodocus]

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!

[sinistermojo]

Now….now listen here….you…..