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When the Party's Over

@normanioath

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normanioath
yasemin-writes
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yasemin-writes
Anonymous asked:

Your adhd writing advice post was amazing advice. If you're able to, I'd love to know if you have anymore tips for neurodivergent writers + readers ❤️

lkjsdfadf thank you 🌝 ok oh god, didn't actually expect people to find it useful... Using "Advice" quite liberally, here's some stuff that works for me or my ND friends:

More Tips & Tricks for ADHD Writers

  • Body Doubling with other people. They work, you work, side-by-side. (Discord or Zoom with friends, at coffee shops or through body doubling apps.) -> only works for me if there's regular progress check-ins
  • Write With Me/Study With Me live streams or YouTube videos can serve the same purpose
  • Batshit goals. ADHD brains process time differently. That's why 3-month-goals don't work for us. Writing a novel in 2 weeks? Yeah, that I can do. Fuck "be kind to your mind" and embrace the chaos demon in your brain. Short-term-gratification is where the brain goes brrrrr.
  • ADHD brains mirror their surroundings. A lot. We mirror behaviours, speech patterns, accents. That means, I don't read books while working on a first draft or I'll start mirroring writing styles. (Audiobooks are fine for whatever reason.)
  • Write on whatever medium your brain demands. I'm currently revising a novel - the first draft of which was completely written in the notes app of my phone. Why? Cause my brain wanted to be on my new phone.
  • -> Not a recommendation, but a sidenote: I get obsessed with new tools/software, etc. - I'm (thankfully) able to splurge on a 20$ bluetooth keyboard just because it's pink and clic-clacs while typing. That turns into me writing non-stop for days because I'm obsessed with the new tool I got.
  • Brown Noise. Look it up.
  • Get a visual timer for your writing sessions. (Image) Nothing like pressuring yourself into productivity with the constant big red reminder that you should be writing faster, faster, faster. ESPECIALLY if you work with noise cancelling headphones. I recommend switching off the alarm, so if you drift into hyperfocus, it won't pull you out.

And some advice for ADHD Readers

The act of "reading" in and of itself often isn't enough stimulation for me. Especially starting a new book (Executive Function?!) -> once I'm hooked on the book, the need for outside stim usually fades

I try to combine reading with other activities:

  • I set Audiobooks at 2.0x speed while doing something with my hands, like drawing or repotting my plants.
  • Physical books are harder to get into, but walking on a slow treadmill works, or putting on the TV in the background (music isn't enough stim) - I also REALLY love reading on public transport
  • If you MUST read a book, for class or sth, and are struggling - get the matching audiobook. Put on the audiobook at a comfortable speed (2.0x for me) and read the physical book simultaneously.

And the big one:

  • Read what you're in the mood for. Sometimes that's a thick fantasy book with complicated worldbuilding and 5 sequels... sometimes it's a free & unedited monsterfucker ebook. If I'm not in the right mood for a specific book, reading will feel like work. Even if I've been looking forward to that book for years.

Also the OG post that the Ask is referencing was this:

normanioath
sassymajesty
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ravens-play-exy-too

i saw the words “ur not the first person in your lineage to be queer” and it’s rocking me to my core. how many generations down the line did one of my ancestors feel the way i did, feel differently than i did and so damn queerly it was a crime? how many of us were there? did they have hope? did they find peace? i don’t know. at the very least, maybe i am proof their identity was never wasted. reincarnated.

normanioath
linkinmoon
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florizels

You are so young, all still lies ahead of you, and I should like to ask you, as best I can, dear Sir, to be patient towards all that is unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms, like books written in a foreign tongue. Do not now strive to uncover answers: they cannot be given you because you have not been able to live them. And what matters is to live everything. Live the questions for now.

—Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

normanioath
butmakeitgayblog
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meanwhilepoetry
“Sometimes I think of you, Medusa. Inside your temple, mournful, surrounded by a hundred stone statues. The men who came to kill you and never left were named lost heroes, warriors, demigods whilst you were called monster, gorgon, terror. (Because the stories were always written by men) But this was never a story about a monster. It was always about a woman burned for a Sea God’s sin, a pawn in an ancient game the fates would never let her win. You did not desecrate that which is sacred, it was him. (But your story was always written by men) You begged him not to visit you, you pleaded with every God. But the Gods turned away when you needed them. You did not want to be remembered this way. And then one day, whilst you slept, a son of Zeus came. And killed you before you could even look his way. (And he too was named hero because the stories were always written by men) Someone once said, words cut deeper than a knife. That history is told by the victors. That he who tells the story is the one who controls the world. Women did not get to write your story, Medusa. Because if we did, a very different tale would be told. (And in our tale, you would not be Monster. But Priestess. Goddess. A maiden who once had a heart of gold.)”

— Nikita Gill, Excerpt from Maidens, Myths and Monsters