A BRIGHT FUTURE AWAITS

current release date: june 2024

current writing stage: first drafting!

Jasper Martin (They/them) is an aspiring sci-fi novelist currently in high school. Growing up, they lived in a very classist, conformative community. After moving to a much more accepting area, they discovered their queer identity as well as their passion for writing. Now, they write many stories that deal with overcoming predjudice, finding your community, and issues that they recognize within queer spaces.

my daily goals are the most rigid. it's 750 new words per day. that can be changed if i don't think it will work with another goal (for example, ive had to increase my daily word count goal to 1,200 this week, because i wasn't going to meet my monthly goal). these daily challenges keep me motivated with consistent, low-stakes tasks to complete. i get a little dopamine hit every single day. it's fantastic.

next up, i have weekly goals. these are pretty much always just my daily word goal times 7, but they help keep me accountable for the daily goals. it's a deadline that's far-off enough to not be last minute, but close enough that i don't forget that it exists. also, if i finish a weekly goal super early, i get to relax for a day or two! it's built-in downtime, which keeps me from getting burnt out.

next on the scale, i have monthly goals. these are word count totals i have to hit. they're mostly there to keep me on track, and make everything fit into perspective. they let me look back at when i started in mid-august and realize exactly how far i've come, and exactly how far i have left to go. these goals are much more aproximate, and i'll almost certainly end up changing them wildly as i get closer to the end of drafting. for now, they're my north star, always pointing onwards.

and, of course, i have my overall goals. days that i have to be done drafting, be done editing, and the absolute last day i can start submitting to publishers. these are less goals, and more deadlines. there's no fudging the numbers here. without these deadlines, this project would stretch on forever, and i'd immedietly get bored and move on. that's not an option, so the deadlines are my solution!

1. write slow, write bad, but write

you aren't going to want to write. where once you might have slammed out 1,000 words in a single sitting, now thinking up a single sentence can feel like pulling teeth.

my advice is this: write anyway! add 20 new words one day, delete them and write 50 more the next day, do whatever you need to keep going. the one thing you can't do is give up!

2. write something else

the best advice i ever got about writing something long-form like this was, if i'm ever stuck on a scene, to skip it and write the "fun part" first.

you might balk at this idea - if you don't write in order, then how will you ever finish writing? but, in the same vein as my first tip, sometimes you just need to push through the writer's block until it solves itself. and sometimes, that means writing that punchy action sequence or heartfelt, angsty conversation that you've really been looking forward to, instead of all the buildup to get there.

and if you truly aren't excited about any part of your story, or if there's an idea rattling around in your brain that you just can't get rid of - write that instead! get the plot bunnies down on paper, and you'll find your brain cleared and ready for action.

i've always found it helpful to take 5-10 minutes at the stary of every writing session to just brain dump, no matter what i'm thinking of. it's meditative!

3. get comfy

when writing is hard, it's tempting to lock yourself in your room with a blank word document and not leave until you have your masterpiece. but discomfort won't do you any favors, and can often be more distracting than the "distractions" you find comforting!

light a candle, wrap yourself up in a blanket, and keep your favorite snacks and drinks within arms' reach, and you'll find that writing comes much more easily to you than it was when you tried to deprive yourself of Cosiness.

for all my chronically fatigued friends (hi! POTSie here!), don't be ashamed to write in bed if a desk or a couch is too energy-intensive. it's not a crime to be comfy!

writing with ADHD (which i have, as you may have guessed already) can be tough, and even if your brain works Totally Normally, it can be tough to break out of The Slog. but remember to always always ALWAYS keep writing! your masterpiece is in there somewhere, i just know it!