Not socialist in a “I won’t have to work” type of way but socialist in a “I’ll still be working but I won’t be worried I won’t make the rent” type of way. In a “billions won’t be hoarded by one person” type of way. In a “janitors, fast-food workers, child care workers, preschool teachers, hotel clerks, personal care and home health aides, and grocery store cashiers, will live comfortably” type of way. In a “the sick and elderly will be cared for” type of way. In a “no child should work” type of way.

the fact that we only have “herculean task” and “sisyphean task” feels so limiting. so here’s a few more tasks for your repertoire

feel free to chime in i ran out of ideas much faster than i anticipated

people as the four humours

phlegmatic: sunlight on a still lake, faded jeans, dog-eared notebooks, comfort films, wide smiles, buttered popcorn, warm blankets crowded on an unmade bed, hands linked by little fingers, smiley faces on torn up bits of paper, daydreams on the second-to-back seats of the bus at 4pm

choleric: sharp eyeliner and sharper words, lighting in the summer, black coffee and half a cigarette, lipstick kisses and mascara tears, the seductive allure of a stranger’s smile, angry words written and never sent, a cold mask for a breaking heart, you see yourself in the night sky but do not know whether your kinship is with the endless darkness or the lonely star that mars it

melancholic: warm tea and comfortable silence, soft eyes, messy hair, ink-stained hands, the sound of rain, a heart traced onto a fogged up windscreen, yellow clothes on the days where the sun seems to have left forever, waking up to tear-stained sheets and feeling a little bit lighter, hopscotch in puddles, love at first sight, nostalgia for the dreams of some beautiful future that you doubt will ever come

sanguine: gold rings and lopsided smirks, half-finished paintings, naps on the beach with your throat to the sun, the surprised burst of laughter that cracks a silence wide open, easy promises, broken hearts, lazy smiles at pretty girls, pretty lies to pretty boys, a type of light that makes people wonder if maybe you’re the sun and maybe we all just orbit you

yeah sure say fuck you to jk rowling but dont forget to like. actually support trans women.

It’s super important we all see this and help in our own way, making this a world a little more kinder and a little more safer for trans people.

this post hasn't left my mind since i've first saw it

people jest but this is literally how i worked out i was gaslit for like 15 years of my life

People who “want trauma” are recognizing, on some level, that they were traumatized but in a way that’s not “socially recognized” as trauma. What they really want is for people to see that they’ve been traumatized and be on their side

Hold up

I think it’s also important to talk about mental illness, and how the pain and trauma of being mentally ill as a kid is often diminished because of the lack of outside actors. If you spent your childhood being suicidally depressed because your wee little kiddo brain decided to be a chemical shitshow, it doesn’t matter how much mom and dad loved you, that kinda thing fucks you up. And having people only look at your external surroundings and argue that “nothing bad happened” ignores all the pain you went through internally. So wishing you could have something external you could point to in order to justify that pain and enduring stress -- just so people could understand -- makes sense. 

^^^ this.

And you should take more from this post than just “Leave people who ‘want trauma’ alone”. This applies to way more things like this. If someone’s behavior seems to make no sense, you’re often not seeing the whole picture.

Over the last year as I’ve started using my Facebook and people from high school have started seeing things like my posts on struggling with ADHD and witnessing firsthand how my aunt treats me, I have gotten SO MANY MESSAGES basically saying “holy shit everything I thought I knew about you was wrong and SO MUCH of the way you were in high school makes sense now.”

Many of the things to which they refer are things I thought everyone went through, until I started therapy.

There are so many things you don’t know.

Your brain sounds a lot like my brain!

First of all, it is perfectly understandable that this would be demotivating. We tell stories because we want them to be heard, we want to share a piece of ourselves and have that resonate with someone else. Feeling this way doesn't make you needy or immature and it doesn't mean you're not a real writer because you crave that connection.

(I only say this because I've felt that way, and it is not a good time. I'm just writing from my own experience here)

Kudos and comments and hits are a marker in the world that our brains can latch onto and say "See? That thing I put all that work into mattered to someone!" and get that sweet dopamine release.

But, like Ao3CotD said, you can't depend on it. And the thing about needing more comments over time to get the same dopamine hit? Verrrrry true in my experience. And it really, truly isn't a marker of quality.

Of course, knowing that and feeling it are two different things. Yelling into a void can be fun and cathartic at times (or into a pillow, at the ocean, whatever) but it's generally not what we're aiming for when we go through the additional effort of posting a story on top of writing the thing.

I think it's important to add that the best way for these interventions to be effective (in my experience) is to stop looking at your stats.

Not forever, maybe, but at least for a time. If you find yourself obsessively checking, consider stopping. Here's a post to help with that.

So, some tips to add to OP's that have helped fuel my own motivation-starved brain:

👆 excellent advice from an excellent writer. I 100% agree that writing the most self-indulgent scenes and fics you can (rare pairs or non-existent ships, for niche or weird little tropes or subject matter, whatever) can be a huge help in writing for yourself cause like... you don't go into posting with the idea that a certain number of people should be seeing or liking it.

Also, non-stats writing goals are fantastic and can take many, many forms. Breaking your own word count record is a good one (I did just that over the past ~6 months and it's been a wonderful experience), but it can backfire if you wind up feeling like you keep putting even more work into your fics and never get a proportionally increased response.

Some examples of challenges I've set for myself just to Try It, without feeling overwhelmed by scope or length, or worried that I'll put months of effort into something nobody cares about:

Some of these were inspired by seeing someone else do something and thinking Oh that's cool.. I want to try that. Some were just me wanting to do the thing.

Were they my best or most popular works ever? Nope! But because I wrote them just for the challenge, every comment and kudos was a lovely surprise and honestly more than I had expected. Succeeding at the goals I set myself was a huge dopamine hit, and helped me develop my writing skills and self-confidence, and definitely contributed to worrying less about the external response.

Aside from that, there's just.. always going to be times when you feel underappreciated. Best we can do is ride them out and remember that popularity doesn't reflect on our worth as a writer or as a person.

Know your Tropes

So this is a list of the different tropes in crime and mystery stories. I will probably add on to it.

I NEED MOTIVATION TO DO A PART 2!🥺