hey yall! bit of a short writing tip for today, coming from an fellow author

youve probably heard that to keep working toward your goal, you need *discipline*. and thats definitely true! having a word count to reach daily leads to progress and inspiration

but you also need *system*. i consider system a monitoring effort of all your writing, whether thats outlining, writing, editing, marketing, etc.

well, ok, artless. how do i do that?

what ive got is a main spreadsheet detailing the writing ive done . it includes the following:

date

project

words

scenes

activity

notes

cumulative total

this system is a very good method of visually seeing your progress and its amazing to see your hard work fill up this space!

ive just recently started mine and even the thrill of logging my data keeps me disciplined

this was my first entry into my system on a novel ive been working on, and unfortunately the date couldnt fit in my ss. very basic format but works like a charm!

if youre interested in more info, check out Jed Herne’s ‘Why You Cant Finish your Fantasy Novel’!

thats all for now folks 🤍✌️🎧

[ISBW] The Epiphany of Writing Routines: Embracing Structure in a Creative Life

S20 Ep8: The Epiphany of Writing Routines “The Epiphany of Writing Routines” is brought to you in large part by by my supporters, who received an early, expanded version of this episode. You can join our Fabulist community with a pledge on Patreon or Substack! Some links below are affiliate links and I may earn some money at no cost to you when you use them.    I Should Be Writing Season 20,…

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10 Tips for Staying Motivated as a Writer

Staying motivated as a writer can be a challenge, especially when faced with rejection, writer’s block, or simply the daily grind of putting words on the page. But keeping your motivation levels high is key to maintaining your creativity and staying focused on your writing goals. Here are 10 tips for staying motivated as a writer: Set achievable goals: Breaking down your larger writing goals…

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The Art of Writing Every Day: Challenges and Balances

Behind writing there is living. I embarked on this challenge because the idea of ​​publishing an article every day seemed enticing to me, a form of exercise to improve my writing skills and build an online presence. However, behind this ambitious goal lie significant challenges that require delicate balancing. Writing daily is a discipline that demands dedication and consistency. Every day, one…

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Mastering Free Writing: Unlock Your Writing Potential and Improve Skills

Introduction to Free Writing as a Tool for Enhanced Writing Skills Imagine your writing ability as a form of fitness, where free writing is like to a gym session tailored to strengthen and develop the essential muscles for enhanced writing prowess. In the realm of building muscle and achieving peak fitness levels, we apply a twist—it’s all about honing the skills and stamina needed for superior…

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focus of February 2024 (the last two weeks left of it):

outlining scene chunks in newly bought journals for BCNC and Sonata

Drafting out already outlined scenes of June in preparation for publishing in four months

JUNE ALL OVER ME

BCNC

SONATA

(no room for other wips, mich! STAY focused!)

your commitment to constantly rotating wips before getting any significant progress made is a manifestation of your subconscious fear that your work is simply not good

STOP IT. Work through this psychological blockage.

Fully Fueled

“The brain makes up 1/50th of our body mass but consumes a staggering 1/5th of the calories we burn for energy.” I read that this morning in the book, The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan, and I’ve been thinking about it since. I’m not sure there’s a better argument for eating well and for managing your blood sugar. Continue reading Untitled

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One thing that I feel is really interesting and often forgotten about Essek is that fundamentally, his characterization has been from the start based upon his desperation for external perspectives and connection, which, along with much of his narrative and mechanical positioning, means that he actually has an extraordinary and almost (but not actually, as I'll show) counterintuitive capacity for both growth and trust.

(Buckle in. This is a long one.)

In particular, I would argue, knowing now that many places where the plot touches Ludinus have long been marked for connecting back into the current plot, that he was quite possibly built as a prime candidate for radicalization by the Ruby Vanguard. He felt isolated from his culture, he was desperate for other connection, and he was certainly of the type to believe he was too smart to be drawn into such a thing, given his initial belief that he could control the situation and the fallout. If things had gone any other way, he easily could've been on the other side by now.

As such, he has been hallmarked by being fairly open to suggestion, perhaps for this reason, but the thing about that kind of trait is that it is both how people are radicalized and deradicalized. This is certainly true of Essek, who experienced genuine kindness and quite frankly strangeness from the Nein and was able to move from the isolation the Assembly had engendered to meaningful and genuine connection, largely propelled by his own internal reflection. By the time Nein are aware of his crimes, he's already begun to express regret to an extent and, furthermore, doubt in the Assembly, including explicitly drawing a line against Ludinus, even in a position where he was on his own and probably quite vulnerable.

Similarly, when the Nein reach the Vurmas Outpost some weeks later, he has moved from regret for the position he's ended up carrying a heavy remorse. This makes sense! He's fairly introspective, seems used to spending a lot of time in his own head, and was left with plenty to mull over. It's not some kind of retcon for him to have progressed well past where the Nein left him; it just means he's an active participant in the world who has done his own work in the meantime.

This is another interesting aspect to him. I've talked about this a bit before but I cannot find the post so I'll recap here: antagonists in D&D have significantly more agency than allied NPCs. Antagonists are active forces, against which the party is meant to struggle; allies are meant to support the PCs, which means they tend to be more passive in both their actions and their character growth. Essek was both built as an antagonist, in a position that gives him significant agency, and also was then given significant opportunity to grow specifically to act as a narrative mirror for Caleb's arc. Even when he becomes a more traditional D&D ally, he still retains much of that, though he occupies a supporting role.

I believe that this is especially true because of the nature of Caleb's arc, which I've already written on; the tl;dr of this post is that Caleb is both convinced that he is permanently ruined and also desperate to prove that change is possible. Essek is that proof, because he is simply the character in a position to do so. But this also means that his propensity for introspection and openness is accentuated! He has to do the legwork on his own, for the most part, because that's where he is in the meantime.

But he still ends the campaign necessarily constricted; he is under significant scrutiny, he's at risk from the Assembly, and he goes on the run fairly soon after the story ends. He spends most of the final arc anxious and paranoid, which is valid given the crushing reality of his situation. It would be very easy to extrapolate that seven years into this reality, he would be insular, closed off, and suspicious of strangers, even in spite of the lessons he's learned from the Nein and their long term exposure.

So seeing his openness and lightness now is surprising, but at the same time, given this combination of factors in his position in the narrative over time and his defining traits, it's not by any means unreasonable.

But one thing that I found so delightful is how much trust he exhibits, which is obviously a wild thing to say about Essek in particular, given much of what he learns is both earning and offering trust, which was something he says explicitly in 2x124 that he's never really experienced: "I've never really been trusted and so I did not trust." It makes up much of the progression of his relationship with Caleb, and the trust that he is offered by the Nein in walking off the ship is the impetus he needs to grow.

But I think it's easy to talk about trust when it comes to people who have proven themselves to you or to whom you've ingratiated yourself, and that's really the most we can say about Essek by the time he leaves the Blooming Grove. There is this sense in a lot of discussion of trust (not solely in this fandom) that it is only related to either naivete or love, but there's far more to it. Trust at its best is deliberate—cultivating an openness to the world at large is a great way to combat cynicism and beget connection instead. It allows a person to maintain curiosity and be open to experience, but it can be incredibly difficult to hold onto.

It is clear that the Essek we meet now is a very pointedly and intentionally trusting individual. He trusts Caleb and by extension Caleb's trust in Keyleth, as he shows up and picks up a group of strangers from a foreign military encampment and walks in without issue. He trusts the Hells to follow his lead moving through Zadash and to exhibit enough discretion so as to avoid bringing suspicion upon all of them. He trusts that Astrid will respond well to his entrance, but he also trusts himself and the Hells enough to execute a back-up plan in the case that she doesn't. In the end, he even trusts them enough to give them his name and identity.

He doesn't scan as someone who has spent half a dozen years living like a prey animal, afraid of any shadow he runs across in an alley, withdrawn into himself and an insular family, which would've been an easy route for him to take. He scans as someone who has learned the kind of trust borne of learned confidence and a trained eye for good will and kindness, which are crucial weapons one would need for staving off cynicism in his circumstances—as if he has survived thanks more to connection and kindness than paranoia and isolation. (If we want to be saccharine about it, he scans quite poignantly as a member of the Mighty Nein.)

So it is easy to imagine this trust and openness as a natural progression of his initial search for perspectives external to his own cultural knowledge. Though he makes those first connections with the Assembly to try to vindicate his personal hypotheses, he finds in them exposure to the deepest corruption among Exandrian mortals, which could've—and did, for a time—turned him further down that same dark path.

But it's also this same openness to exposure from the wider world that allows the Nein to influence him for the better, and in spite of the challenges he's certainly faced simply surviving over the past seven years, he seems to have held onto this openness enough to move through the world with self-assurance and a willingness to extend the kinds of trust and good will that he has been shown.

(I would be remiss not to mention that I was reminded about my thoughts on this by this lovely post from sky-scribbles and their use in the tags of 'light' to describe Essek's demeanor this episode, which is really such an apt word for it.)

4 ways to fill your education void.

Long form articles: This is a great way to keep learning because they offer a thorough and well-detailed explanation of complex issue that short form articles may not cover. They also serve as educational resources, providing readers with comprehensive knowledge on a subject they might not have encountered otherwise. You can find long form articles in The New Yorker, the Atlantic, The Cut etc

Books: Reading books especially different genres offer unique viewpoints, themes, and storytelling styles. Exploring diverse genres exposes you to new ideas, cultures, and ways of thinking, broadening your worldview. And being being comfortable with various genres can make you a more adaptable reader. You'll be able to appreciate a wider range of literature and adjust to different writing styles more easily. I am reading Southern Gothic literature books.

Podcasts: First, podcasts cover diverse subjects—history, science, technology, storytelling, personal development, and more. You can find podcasts on almost any topic, allowing you to explore areas of interest or learn about new subjects.

Courses: There are courses on virtually anything you want to learn. I recommend taking a course in something you enjoy and want to learn about. I am currently learning about wineries and art auctions. My degree is remotely different from the courses I am taking. These courses are taught by experts that have built their reputation doing what they love. Knowledge is an asset, you own it and you can apply it in ways that best suits you

The secret to create healthy habits.

Motivation > discipline > consistency > habits. That's the process from start to finish, for changing your life around with healthy choices.

Motivation is only the launchpad to start with, after that you can't rely on it because it comes and goes on a whim! A lot of people make the mistake on relying on it all throughout, and then wonder why they can't stay on track while other people do.

What you need next is discipline: when you commit to something and stick to it even when it's hard, even when you don't feel like it, because that's how you fill the gaps inbetween to create a routine.

And you create a routine by staying consistent. Today, tomorrow, again and again.

When you stay consistent over months, over half a year, it becomes a habit, and when something becomes a habit, it's effortless to keep going because that is now your default setting. It becomes your new normal, the choice that comes easiest to make because you don't even have to make it or think it; you just lean back into it.

Going to the gym regularly becomes like having a meal; if you don't do it, you'll feel restless and off, genuinely craving the movement and the boost of endorphins. When you eat healthy regularly, you feel it right away if you get off track and indulge in too many treats: you'll feel it in your body, in your mental clarity, in your emotional wellbeing and it's so much easier getting back on track because healthy is your new default.

So Tired of Being an Aspiring Author

I’ve been writing since high school and mostly it ends up collecting dust, forgotten in some forgot folder. I really do love it. Writing is something that has always been a source of comfort and release. It’s helped me through hard times and harder times. Still after years of writing, world building for dozens of worlds, countless characters, and an endless amount of loose scenes I still don’t…

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the idea came to me in a migraine induced dream but now im obsessed with the concept of a mu qingfang who knew the abuse bunhe was going through at the hands of og!shen qingqiu/shen jiu and did his best to treat the kid whenever he could (and bring his concerns to zhangmen shixiong, which were obviously very much ignored) and his constant worry over the situation means that when the qi deviation happens he is suspicious of shen qingqiu’s changes for all different reasons and very much protective of luo binghe -who is a sweet child and an earnest disciple who seems to always find the most incredible medicinal herbs to bring to his mu shishu as thanks for the care bestowed upon him- which means that when the whole shen qingqiu dying thing happens instead of bad mouthing luo binghe or fighting him at every chance he does his best to come over and keep an eye on things to try and help him and make sure luo binghe won’t kill himself trying to bring shen qingqiu back because he remembers that earnest kid and he’s witnessed luo binghe’s devotion to this shen qingqiu first hand and knows there is no way that the kid who cried when ning yingying found a bird with a broken wing and begged mu qingfang to fix it and the kid that would always borrow medical texts and try to find new herb combinations as if it was a game between him and qian cao disciples is actually doing anything nefarious to shen qingqiu’s corpse.

anyways in this essay i will-

Emma must see that hurt, too, because her gaze falters. “Does she love you?” she asks Regina, as though love is something that they can ever experience. As though there is space for love in a life that has been negotiated away, in a sister resting beside her or a soaring ride on a dragon’s back. In a girl who has gotten bruised and bloodied for her, over and over again, only so that Regina might feel a little less powerless. In Rumplestiltskin's castle, powerful girls are traded into his service and trained to be assassins and warriors and spies. Regina is the best of them all– until a new girl with unimaginable power is brought in, defiant and afraid and insistent that she's a kidnapped princess.

Impact Hour

I listen to podcasts or audiobooks pretty much every day – while walking, doing puzzles, or driving (three activities I seem to spend a lot of time doing). I’ve gotten addicted to a podcast called Primal Potential. I found it because I was trying to figure out how to lose the menopause/COVID/drinking-too-much-wine-weight that is not going away even though two out of those three causes…

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Fig's line "I don't think I'm an artist, I think I'm just a good friend" has not left my head at all. Just...

You're Fig Faeth and your horns came in over the summer and you pick up the bard class as a form of adolescent rock 'n' roll rebellion, and it works! It's exactly the outlet you need! You give a guy you just met drumsticks and you start a band and it's good enough that within a year and a half you're touring. You are, in every sense, good at being a bard.

And then, finally, your junior year, you start to take it seriously. Your art goes from an outlet and a form of rebellion to a practice. A discipline. (Can rebellion exist within a discipline?) Your classmates know what they want to do with their work. They all have a thesis statement. And yeah, there's cohesion in the music you make, but you've never had to think about why you make it. You've never sat down and dissected what it is about bass that speaks to you. You've never poured over your lyrics to pick at any deeper meaning. Why should you? You don't play music for a grand design, you do it to... huh, why do you do it?

(Your art is the one form of self-expression that feels as safe as Disguise Self does, because even if you're pouring your heart onto the page and then screaming it in front of thousands of people, it's not like you're really making yourself known. You can sing I'm lonely, I'm scared, I'm furious, and your fans will sing it right back, and there will still be the distance between performer and audience to keep your heart safe.)

Now you're being asked to look inward to explain the artistic choices you're making, and you can't help but recoil at that, because you'd rather do anything than look inward. Meanwhile, your classmates have no problem with it, so you start to wonder if you're a real artist at all. Can your art be authentic if it only exists to bolster a thesis statement? Has your art been unauthentic this whole time because you've never really thought about a thesis statement before? Is that what makes it art, and not just the next track on somebody's teen angst playlist?

You can't think about yourself— acknowledging your own existence makes you want to puke. So if your music is an extension of yourself, (and it is, even if it's just because the spotlight reveals only what you want it to,) you can't think about your music. You can't. You have to. Your grade depends on it.

You're Fig Faeth, and you keep multiclassing because you'd rather be a good friend than a great artist. If introspection is what great art demands, then fuck it. You must not be a bard at all.

5 articles that will awaken the creative giant in you

Here are articles I have read that will alter your thoughts and perception of life

The Daily Routines of Famous Creative People

Kurt Vonnegut Urges Young People to Make Art and “Make Your Soul Grow”

Steve Jobs on Creativity

The Key to Creativity

Warren Berger’s Three-Part Method for More Creativity