#stygius textpost

think about the scene you're going to work on that morning not when you sit down to write, but the previous evening. this is daydreaming but with purpose. think about what might happen and how the characters feel about it. get excited. don't write a single word.

go about your evening normally, doing whatever else you do. your subconscious is a slow cooker and while you do other stuff, it's working on your idea for you.

get up early, like an hour before you'd need to start your day if you were cutting it close. everyone else in the world is snoozing their alarm, so no one can bother you rn. you're free! no one can judge your writing, not even you!

(optional i guess but it really helps me) unless the first few words of your scene are already clear in your mind, warm up. I've abandoned the idea of warm-up drabbles or whatever the hell people recommend. instead, I pull up a story by someone whose writing I love, and I type out a fragment of it in a blank doc, reading the words out loud as I go. this wakes up my writing brain as I become aware of how their prose and dialogue work their magic, when and where they reveal new information, how each detail leads to the next. I'd advise doing this with work that is of high quality and purposeful, so you can learn their tricks, but I'm not the boss of you.

write!!!!!!!

don't stop to judge if it's good or not!! it's too early for that shit!! if the draft sucks you can fix it later but you need the draft done first!!

do stop once yesterday evening's daydreaming prep has run out and you're out of steam. (sometimes the momentum can reveal the next part of the story you hadn't actively considered yet, but don't depend on it.) if you hit a wall where you have no idea how to continue, or it's still too vague to put words down, trying to push through will only bring frustration. and even if you do manage to write a bit more, the chances you'll end up scrapping it later because it doesn't fit are significant. just call it there, you're done.

take a minute to appreciate what you accomplished. you now have words you didn't have yesterday. you won the day, and meanwhile everyone else is still asleep, the absolute losers

if you use a word tracker, go ahead and input your word count for the day. maybe you got a lot done, or maybe you didn't; it's a victory either way. on mornings when I've been struggling, writing and then erasing and writing again, if I'm too pissed off to check the word count I just put down a symbolic number, like 50 words. it may not look like much, but when I look at the month's stats it feels good to have proof that I showed up and did the thing even when it was hard.

now you can start your day. and frankly at this point I don't give a shit how annoying my day is, because I already did the thing I care about getting done, so I'm not going through work resenting every task for stealing brain juice I could've used for writing in the evening. "I'll write when I'm done with work" is the ADHD hubris devil speaking.

of course Thanatos wants Zag to stay put at first. even his own characterization aside, he's Death. he represents endings, the final stop. he collects souls that will be assigned a place to be for all eternity, and never leave that place.

(the same could be said for Meg, too—the Furies torture the souls of condemned shades, perhaps forever! no moving on from that!)

but Zagreus is Life, he needs to move forward, he can't stay put!!

Adjusted sleeping hours to an earlier schedule. Turns out the "woohooo I am untouchable and free and I can do anything now the world is asleep!" high that staying up late gave me can also be obtained at 7AM. And early mornings have the added benefit of being brainable, so I can spend some time on hobbies before work.

Eliminated ambitious goals after sundown. Writing after work? Forget about it. It's not happening, we're out of brain juice by then. (Writing in the morning before work does happen, though!) If the sun has gone down, give up the lofty ambitions and just play a game or do something hands-on that lets the brain be mostly off.

Adjusted diet. Been slowly getting into cooking (great evening activity) and the increase in my energy levels when I eat food that tastes good and interesting is so tangible it's insane. And there's a surprising number of uncomplicated and cheap recipes that achieve this.

Implemented a walking routine to fix a recurring bug (wiggles). I was already working out regularly because picking up heavy things is a drug, but have noticed the classic ADHD restlessness can often be cured with a walk or some physical activity to burn it off. Fresh air helps too.

Eliminated phone use (preferably no screens) for at least one or two hours before sleep. When I started doing this I was like "but what about my nighttime fanfic binges?" but I gained something better in exchange: the freedom of being unreachable for a few hours. I usually read a physical book and/or spend time with my pet. And I sleep better, too.