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!