I need some Advice, dear indieweb...

[soliloquy]

This is probably way more specific advice than you're looking for, but it might help!

"Flipping the premise"

So take an existing story. Not the story itself, but the broader narrative structure. Take the protagonist/antagonist and their overarching idea, and flip them around

This is actually very very helpful, so thank you!!

And an update (for you, and on the off chance anyone else who's contributed or read this thread may want one): I've been writing! Sporadically, but deeply and with intent. I've got about 1650 words down across two pieces in a collection which surround my Cattails: Wildwood Story OC, Frost. I've got a whole outline planned out which will leave room in each section for further stories in the future.

Maybe I'll have to share my WIP here, and give it its own thread -- I think having some eyes on it would help 

Thank you, to yourself that I'm quoting and to everyone who's taken the time to give advice and words of solidarity.

--ink&

[pepper]

I'm glad you're writing again! I just found this thread just now but I was rooting for you while reading the replies 

Maybe I'll have to share my WIP here, and give it its own thread -- I think having some eyes on it would help 

This is a great idea! I have a thread on the worldbuilding subforum here where I post updates to my own project. It's fun to put my WIPs somewhere and just have a little thread where I can ramble and shoot off ideas and be stupid (i made an entire conlang using music theory as a joke on a whim LOL). It's a nice way to keep myself motivated for doing the actual project itself which lives on my site, and something about posting to melonland about it helps me think of unconventional formats, for instance I have an itneractive short story written as if it's a computer you find in an immersive sim game, and that idea came while browsing melonland and I had a lot of fun writing it.

I'm excited to see what you've been working on, I enjoy your voice you write with on the forum!

[CrabbyJade]

okay all of this advice is good and you should take it instead of mine, but what worked for me last week is becoming so sleep deprived that i became hypomanic (yes that can happen, that is a lesser known effect of not sleeping because it typically shows up later down the line rather than just during 24-48 hours of being awake) and wrote down a short drabble in the solo mode of the fanfic party game frantic fanfic before feeling so confident in myself that i wrote half of a smutty fanfic in an absolutely exhausted haze.

but please don't be like me i have not been writing much since then so i think it was mostly temporary!

[soliloquy]

I'm excited to see what you've been working on, I enjoy your voice you write with on the forum!

Eee thank you, I'll have to check out that subforum so I can get a thread up and running~
I also checked out your interactive short story and I LOVED it, it's such a cool concept and executed beautifully!

The writing bug has come and gone and come again, I'm trying to get a system going where I don't allow more than 2 days to pass without writing *Something*, even if that something is just a lore snippet for a character or species etc . . . It's at least gotten me to have some part of my mind thinking about writing more consistently, which is a first step 

Thank you for your thoughts <3

[soliloquy]

but please don't be like me i have not been writing much since then so i think it was mostly temporary!

  As someone with the psychiatric diagnosis equivalent of a pokedex going on up there, I yearn for the hypomania, yet I must resist its allure... because boy howdy when I'm (hypo)manic I can draw and write for agessss nonstop. But it also inevitably comes crashing down and I'm like that one dude in the chocolate palace in charlie's chocolate factory. Just sittin' there in the sweet sweet rubble of my ego 

THAT SAID... I appreciate the link, I'd never heard of Frantic Fanfic (or maybe I had, but if so, I don't think I'd ever gotten around to checking it out) -- Seems very VERY helpful for getting my writing going... I might have to convince one of my loved ones to sit and watch as I write frantically 

Thank you 

[totel]

i assume you have bipolar since you mentioned (hypo)mania which is what i have too! that + audhd. its amazing how much i can do during it, and then the crash happens...

did you end up making the worldbuilding thread? im pretty curious.  something i find useful to keep myself motivated while writing is sharing it with people!!! im currently working on a story/project together with a friend and its so fun, more fun than just writing myself.

and i also find it useful to take a break when in my low phases instead of beating myself up. thats i think when solo rpg journaling games could help. after all, theyre all just games in your journal and don't need to be shown to anyone. 

[soliloquy]

i assume you have bipolar since you mentioned (hypo)mania which is what i have too! that + audhd. its amazing how much i can do during it, and then the crash happens...

did you end up making the worldbuilding thread? im pretty curious. 

Schizoaffective to be exact! I get the best of both worlds (/lighthearted sarcasm) between Schizophrenia and Mood Disorder symptoms. I'm also AuDHD!

I'm currently debating *where* to put my writing thread, cos I don't think my current work is really to the proper worldbuilding stage yet... So I was thinking I'll just start out in the "post ur Writing" subforum? Cos at this point I'd really just like to share my writing progress in general. Hmm... 

Plus... my writing + art (drawing, mostly, in this context) tend to go hand in hand and inspire one another... so who knows 

[CrabbyJade]

thats i think when solo rpg journaling games could help. after all, theyre all just games in your journal and don't need to be shown to anyone.

i really need to start playing the multitude of free solo ttrpgs i have downloaded, it would probably be good for my writing. i am more than willing to share the itch.io links if y'all are interested!

[totel]

i really need to start playing the multitude of free solo ttrpgs i have downloaded, it would probably be good for my writing. i am more than willing to share the itch.io links if y'all are interested!

i'd personally love that! i love solo ttrpgs (and make them myself, nudge nudge)  i'm always on a lookout for more, i'm also willing to share the ones i got! though perhaps in another thread, so that we aren't spamming OP's thread with this? :0c

personally, they really get me into writing zone. :]

[katevansart]

i am more than willing to share the itch.io links if y'all are interested!

I'm interested!

I came here to see if I could get any advice for my husband. I want to help him write again so badly. He has tons of ideas, and is always talking about them. He's also a DND player/DM and is always creating worlds and ocs. They just don't write anything down! They sometimes make little notes but nothing else.

I'm an artist and I was blocked for three years. I remember he was so patient with me and always tried to figure out what was going to get me to paint and honestly it was nothing!!! One day I doodled some fidget toys in front of me and three years later I've been exhibited in small galleries! I'm not even bragging I'm actually amazed is all, because for a while I thought I'd never make art.

Now I see them struggling and mostly what they say is "writing feels pointless". I know they're also depressed, and that is something I don't know how to help much either, so that doesn't help. But I don't know how to convince them that creativity and writing is the only POINT there really is right now.

They keep saying they don't know HOW to write anymore it's been so long. Like literally how to put words together and all I can think of is you just have to start? That's such bad advice though.

I even try to encourage him by saying let's do it together! I can draw what you write and we can make a webcomic, but that doesn't help either. He says he really likes the idea but then when I encourage him to write it just doesn't happen. I wouldn't even push or care if I didn't think it wasn't killing him to not create anything, ever. 

[shaggy]

I know they're also depressed, and that is something I don't know how to help much eithe

He should go to the psychiatrist. Seriously. He'll give him meds. Meds will either cure him, or give him time and energy to fix what may be causing depression. Sometimes depression... just is. Like a flu. And you just cure it, either by removing what causes depression, or by taking meds.