hi mel!!!! hope you’re doing well 🫶 i’ve been wondering about this for a while but i’m dying to know what your writing process is like. i’m trying to get more consistent at it, like sit down and Actually write (without getting distracted by my phone) and it’s so hard 😭 and i feel like you have it down to pat and i want to develop an attitude like that… like the writing itself really isn’t hard but the like. sitting down and doing it 😞 like, do you ever write on your phone? or is it just a laptop? do you sit down at a desk or just do it whenever (like on the couch or something)? idk what is it like for you? do you perchance have any tips for a poor soul… thank you!!!! 🫶🫶

omg hiii!!! i've been pretty busy n kinda burnt out w work 😔 but otherwise pretty good!! hope you've been good too!

i do most of my writing on my laptop, probably like 95% of it. when it comes to editing, i'll do it on both my phone and laptop, but actual substantive writing, it's pretty much all laptop. i am old enough that i learned to type on a computer keyboard first, not a touchscreen, and when it comes to creative prose, i prefer a computer keyboard. i also get a lot less distracted that way (too many apps and notifs and impulsive checking of apps and impulsive scrolling for hours on end on the phone. much less scrolling on the laptop).

i dont have a desk or table in my apartment that i can rlly use to work at, so i do all of my writing on my couch lmao. i usually have my phone on vibrate with the screen turned over so i have to pick it up to look at any notifs. but even then, i'm guilty of getting distracted by the phone, or even by tumblr on my laptop. if i feel like im getting too distracted, i'll turn on "focus mode" on microsoft word (if u use google docs im sure it has it's own version of this) that makes the document full screen so u can't see the taskbar at the bottom (aka you don't remember that ur other apps exist), u don't get notifs from ur laptop, etc. i'll also tuck my phone away behind my laptop screen so i can't see it. i'm very much an out-of-sight, out-of-mind person (no object permanence lmao) so those are big helps.

i've also started doing this thing where if i'm working on, say, a kun fic, i'll leave my tumblr tab open to a picture of kun before going into the word doc, so that if i'm tempted to go back to tumblr to scroll and waste time, i'll be reminded of what i'm supposed to being doing and go back to work on the fic instead. it very much gives that 'do it for her' meme but it also works surprisingly well for me.

i've talked some more about my writing process in other asks (x, x, x, x) and i have a writing tag where i post about more general writing stuff instead of specific fics!!

being gone almost a week, my turtles, all my animals and my garden and plants are all happy to see me. they told me so. oh and I grew a spaghetti squash!! a little stunted I think but its turning high yellow and Im happy to get even one and you never waste anything the garden gives you so that will be a fun snack. Its like everything else, Im no master gardener and no matter what hobby or interest I might indulge, from astronomy to music and art, Im working with a zero budget. That, and the fact that you don't have to be good at something to engage in it. I love playing bass. maybe Im not so good at it and so what, I engage with something I enjoy and then share and pass on/show off our shiny new Frankenstein creation or a new picture of the moon or a drawing, whatever. I enjoyed and communed with the universe, the goddess, the unnamed power to create something new. I will do this until the day I can't. creation fuels my passionate, burning desire to live! to somehow pull the fire out of every minute. Im branded as talkative, verbose, animated. Even in day to day conversation I want to pull the mirth and the raw power of the very moment out for any group of or even one on one in private, I always wear the mask of performance. forever a chameleon in flux. life is so shiny and beautiful and I can't help but animatedly point to its beauty and complexity. there's so much to see. there's so much out there yet to see. just like on social media, if my furtive, verbose, animated nature offends I force myself upon no one. I wish we had a block button or one of them there snooze buttons in real life. go ahead and snooze me Im bingeing strange new worlds and I got 79 gifs sitting in the cutting room ready to go, its going to be a whirlwind! buckle up or check out. and just think, a real life block button for the telemarketers and bill collectors. Block skip, lock skip, block skip, block skip, block skip. That would actually feel kind of good. So far it's a good day. The pain level is moderate. The noise is at a minimum. The cats are playing and the plants are singing to me. the feel of autumn is in the air and the young ones are all smiling and laughing as life flows by in its unstoppable surge. pops talks a lot. they already know, trust me. even the plants know I talk too much. the bell hasn't rung yet, but its just around the corner. chemo by pill this time. when they say go I go. a few more tests and then its on. me and the bear. Im already laughing at him. The air smells so good today. some moments you wish you could scoop up and keep close to your heart. keep them forever to pull out and savor. they pass by like water slipping through your fingers. transient monuments, lost to the wind. every moment we live we mourn the moments lost around us. The now is so precious. its all we have. We can plan ahead for hours and we can plan ahead for years, but we can only affect things around us in the course of minutes. So important is the minute. I fight the bear this very minute to buy myself more minutes so that I can write on my Tumblr page about the minutes that go by. You grab them take them and hug them put them up to your nose and smell their beauty every minute that you get of every day. The celebration is every one of us to Celebration is you, alive, exalting in the beauty of everything that is, was or ever will be.

by all that matters, celebrate every one!!