#thewriteadvice

okay, tumblr, writers... we need to TALK about how to actually finish a damn draft when your executive functioning decided to pack its bags and leave for a permanent vacation in the bahamas.

i'm not here to give you that basic "just set a timer!" advice that makes me want to throw my laptop into the sun. we all know those productivity hacks that work for neurotypicals make us want to scream into the void. (been there, screamed that.)

so here's the ACTUAL guide from someone who's written three novels while her brain was actively trying to sabotage her the entire time.

FIRST: accept that linear writing is a capitalist construct designed to torture us.

i'm serious. whoever decided writers should start at chapter 1 and proceed neatly to THE END clearly didn't have dopamine playing hide-and-seek in their prefrontal cortex.

write whatever scene has your brain chemicals SINGING today. that climactic fight scene that's six chapters away? the tender moment between your characters that happens in the middle? WRITE IT NOW while your brain is actually interested. i have finished entire novels by writing them in chunks and stitching them together like the beautiful frankenstein's monster they are.

SECOND: the 10-minute lie (that actually works???)

tell yourself you're only going to write for 10 minutes. that's it. no pressure. your adhd brain can handle anything for 10 minutes, right? the secret is that once you start, momentum becomes your best friend. sometimes you'll actually stop at 10 minutes (congrats, you still wrote something!) but often you'll look up and realize it's been two hours and you've written 2,000 words. and yes i've seen this a lot, like everywhere, where they tell you "set a timer for 5, and by the time you realize it's 2 hours" i've seen this many times before, and it actually works. at first i thought it didn't but boy, i was wrong.

THIRD: use your hyperfixation powers for good, not evil.

we all know that adhd comes with the superpower of becoming obsessed with random things for unpredictable amounts of time. WEAPONIZE THIS. create artificial urgency around your project. tell people about your deadline. make elaborate aesthetic pinterest boards. create a spotify playlist that you only listen to while writing this specific project. trick your brain into making your WIP the shiny new hyperfixation.

FOURTH: body-doubling saved my writing career and it can save yours too.

find another writer friend (or any friend who needs to do focused work) and sit together - virtually or physically - while you both work. something about having another human witnessing your work process bypasses the executive dysfunction. i swear it's actual magic. discord writing sprints, zoom sessions with cameras off but mics on - whatever works.

FIFTH: embrace the chaos of your natural writing cycle.

some days you'll write 5,000 words in a frenzy at 3am. other days you'll stare at the document for an hour and write "the." BOTH ARE VALID WRITING DAYS. the only consistency we need is returning to the document, not some arbitrary daily word count.

SIXTH: create external accountability that doesn't make you want to die.

deadlines from publishers? great. deadlines you set for yourself? your brain laughs and says "or what?" find the sweet spot - maybe it's a writing buddy you check in with, maybe it's a public progress tracker, maybe it's promising your sister you'll take her to dinner when you finish a chapter.

SEVENTH: the frankendraft approach.

your first draft DOES NOT need to be good, coherent, or even make sense. it just needs to exist. leave yourself notes like [FIGURE OUT HOW SHE GETS FROM THE CASTLE TO THE BEACH LATER] and keep moving. your adhd brain will thank you for not getting stuck in research rabbit holes for six hours.

EIGHTH: find your optimal writing environment through shameless trial and error.

maybe you need complete silence. maybe you need to be in a coffee shop with specific ambient noise. maybe you need to write standing up. maybe you need to dictate your novel while pacing around your apartment. there is no wrong way to get the words out.

i personally write best when i'm slightly uncomfortable (weird, i know) so i often end up writing while sitting on my kitchen floor with my laptop balanced on a chair. whatever works, bestie. a finished messy draft is infinitely more valuable than the perfect novel still trapped in your head. your adhd brain is simultaneously your greatest challenge and your greatest asset as a writer. the connections you make, the unique perspectives, the creativity - all of that comes from the same place as the struggles.

you've got this. now go write something, even if it's just for 10 minutes. i believe in you. ✨ -rin t.

okay so try to picture this: you're deep in your manuscript, probably three coffees past reasonable human consumption, and you're writing this villain monologue. you know the one, where they explain their master plan and you as the author get to flex your "look how evil and wrong they are" muscles.

except.

except they start making points.

good points.

points that have you staring at your screen like "wait… are they… are they RIGHT?"

this happened to me last month and i'm still recovering. my villain, let's call her vera because i'm not ready to say her real name out loud yet... was supposed to be this corrupt politician type who wanted to tear down the magical council system in my fantasy world. classic power-hungry antagonist, right? wrong. (i promise you the plot is good, it sounds basic, but its good.)

turns out the magical council system i'd built was actually a bureaucratic nightmare that perpetuated class inequality and suppressed innovation. vera wasn't power-hungry, she was FRUSTRATED. she'd tried working within the system for decades and watched it fail people over and over again.

and suddenly i'm sitting there at 1am realizing my protagonist has been defending a broken system this entire time just because it's "traditional."

soooo the thing nobody tells you about writing morally complex villains is that sometimes you accidentally write someone who's more ethically consistent than your hero. and that's when the real work begins.

because now you have options:

option one: rewrite vera to be more obviously wrong. add some puppy-kicking or unnecessary cruelty. make her methods so extreme that her valid points get overshadowed. (this is the coward's way out and also boring)

option two: lean into it. let vera be right about the problems even if her solutions are questionable. make your protagonist grapple with the fact that the world they're trying to save actually sucks for a lot of people.

option three: the galaxy brain move, realize that vera isn't actually your villain. she's your protagonist's wake-up call. maybe the real antagonist is the system itself, and both your protag and vera are just people trying to navigate it.

i went with option three and it changed everything. suddenly my story wasn't about good vs evil, it was about different approaches to change. my protagonist had to evolve from "defender of the status quo" to "person who recognizes that sometimes revolution is necessary."

but here's what really broke my brain: i started agreeing with vera more than my protagonist. like, significantly more. to the point where i had to step back and ask myself if i'd accidentally written the wrong person as my main character.

(spoiler alert: i had)

the weirdest part? this made my story SO much better. because when your villain has legitimate grievances, your protagonist can't just sword-fight their way to victory. they have to actually engage with the problems. they have to grow. they have to earn their hero status instead of just being born into it.

so if you find yourself nodding along to your villain's speech, don't panic. you might have just accidentally written a story with actual moral complexity.

just maybe don't tell your beta readers you're team villain until after they finish reading.

trust me on this one.

okay listen. LISTEN. before you come for me in the replies about "finishing what you start" and "discipline" and whatever other capitalist propaganda they're teaching in writing workshops these days, let me explain something.

those 47 unfinished drafts? they're not failures. they're not evidence that i can't commit to anything (though my dating history might suggest otherwise but that's IRRELEVANT). they are pure, crystallized inspiration caught in digital amber.

here's the thing about inspiration that nobody talks about: it's not supposed to be monogamous.

you know that feeling when you're three chapters deep into your current WIP and suddenly—SUDDENLY—your brain goes "but what if there was a world where music was illegal and the protagonist was a black market violinist" and your fingers are already opening a new google doc before your rational mind can intervene?

that's not ADHD (okay it might be a little ADHD). that's your creative brain doing exactly what it's supposed to do: making connections, building worlds, birthing stories that NEED to exist.

and yeah, sure, i could force myself to ignore that violinist story. i could be "disciplined" and stick to my current fantasy about the girl who talks to shadows. but here's what happens when you ignore inspiration: it dies. it shrivels up like a raisin and takes a little piece of your creative soul with it.

so instead, i honor it. i give it 2,000 words and a basic character sketch. i let it live in its own little document where it can breathe and exist and maybe—MAYBE—become something beautiful later.

because.. the secret: those 47 drafts aren't separate projects. they're all connected. the magic system from draft #12 might be perfect for the world in draft #31. the character voice i developed in that werewolf story i abandoned last month? she's exactly what my current protagonist needed.

it's like having a massive creative compost pile. everything breaks down and feeds everything else and eventually you get this rich, fertile ground where your REAL stories can grow.

also can we talk about how arbitrary "finishing" is? like, who decided that stories need endings? some of my favorite pieces of writing are fragments. half-thoughts. the literary equivalent of a really good tweet that makes you feel something indefinable.

my 47 drafts are love letters to possibility. they're proof that my brain is CONSTANTLY creating, constantly reaching for something new and exciting and weird. they're evidence that i haven't been beaten down by the publishing industry's obsession with "marketable" and "complete."

and honestly? having 47 unfinished drafts means i never run out of things to work on. writer's block who? i don't know her. i've got a cyberpunk fairy tale, a cozy mystery with necromancers, and a romance between a time traveler and someone who's stuck in a time loop just WAITING for me.

commitment issues would be giving up entirely. this? this is commitment to the craft itself.

(draft #48 is already calling my name but i'm trying to finish this blog post first. see? growth.)

45 minutes, 788 words. No set goal for the day.

What’s Playing: “Witchcraft” - Pendulum.

Sentence of the day: Weeks and weeks of should have had already been piled on her shoulders—should have known Rhi would pull a stunt like that, should have had a backup plan, should have sent Aden instead—and now, more, and more, and more.

.

It was harder to write today, I think because I’m trying to convey a lot of emotion and having problems finding words that don’t rely on “felt like”--showing, rather than telling. 

50 minutes, 1418 words. No set goal for today other than starting.

What’s Playing: “Family First” - Woe, Is Me.

Sentence of the day: The Monster had woken, and she had no notion of how she was going to deal with that.

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Hey there. 

As I’m starting a new NaNo month, I’m thinking of the things I’ve learned from past months and the best advice I’ve received, and I wanted to share what rules I use to keep myself going, or get myself started, in this horrible, amazing, whirlwind of a month. I’m calling them tips because these are rules you can always break, but I try to stick to them as best as I can:

1. Get a head start. I can’t stress enough how helpful this is later in the month (-cough- Thanksgiving weekend -cough-) when you don’t want to write again and you find yourself falling further and further behind. Get those words in now while you’re fresh, and give yourself some much needed slack later.

2. Make a daily goal. Whether that goal is the standard 1667 words, or something that changes day to day, it’s always helpful to have an end game in mind. 

3. Get yourself a writing buddy. Or, if you don’t write with people, at least make sure to announce to someone that you’re doing this! It helps to have someone you’re accountable to. I tend to announce not only on the NaNo website, but also on social media, and to close friends I spend time with. That way, I have multiple people checking on my progress, and also, no one is offended when I back out of plans to write instead. (For all of you introverts like me, writing for NaNo is an excellent excuse to stay at home and hide.)

4. Don’t delete anything. Even bad words count towards your word count! If you don’t like it, make a note to go back to it later, whether it’s putting the section in brackets, highlighting it in your word document, or changing the text color to blood-of-thine-enemies red. 

5. Don’t revise, just write. This is imperative. I tend to reread some or all of what I wrote the day before, so I know where to pick up, but I don’t edit more than obvious typos. If you have to, write a note, highlight, comment, but don’t change your words. Not only are you possibly changing your word count, but you’re wasting time you could be spending moving forward! Plus, revision always works better when you come back to it days or weeks later with a fresh eye.

6. Have fun. Because there’s really no point in doing this if you don’t want to do it. Having fun with it could mean trying out new writing styles, or writing new character types, or writing in a new genre. For me, this means not holding back any ideas, no matter how wacky or wild.

7. Take some time for yourself. Whether it’s a day off for yourself or family, letting yourself skimp on the word count for a day or two, taking a nap instead of researching... just make sure to take some time to relax! Your story will be there waiting for you when you sit back down, and your poor little writer’s brain will thank you for some rest. Take care of yourself first.

And most important, JUST GET THE WORDS DOWN ON PAPER (or into your word processor). The words you create now can always be changed later! But only if you’ve got something there to work with.