It's crazy, I never noticed before. I wanted to search something about a game yesterday and the first five hits were Reddit threads, the others were clickbait. And I didn't even append "reddit" as a search term. It was a simple search.

Look, a three headed monkey!

That's a big novel, congrats to your brother! Finishing a first draft is always something special! I'll try to give some advice! :) (And as always I couldn't make it short, fantasy writers, am I right ....?)

I'm not a poet, so I'm not too familiar with your process, but I bet we share some common trends. But I will try to give some insight in my work.

Disclaimer: Since two years I'm in the lucky position to work only part-time (25h per week and home office) and I'm really free in when to put my hours in. There are only some mandatory times I have to be online; for meetings for example. The only "negative" thing is: I'm a technical writer so I write at work and in my free time, albeit the topics are *very * different.

But I still can share some of my process, since I used to work full time for a while and I also did write back then. I agree with your brother that it is quiet draining, working 8 hours (+ commute if no home-office), doing chores and so on, especially when he is just starting out. That was difficult for me, too!

What I used to do: I tried to write every day, even if it was just a few minutes/a few words. Music helped me to get into the headspace I wanted to get into. My work always allowed flextime, so it was easier to write before work and I didn't have to get up crazy early. I tried to get up an hour early and write then, because usually I don't have the energy after work. The downside was that I was home at 8pm or something like that.

(Some days I had enough energy to also write after work, so I seized the opportunity whenever it arose.)

On the weekends I used to write more than in the work week. I put aside some hours that were sacred to me and where only moved in an emergency. Also, I regularly took some "writecations", a few days off, to focus on my writing or editing. Depending on where you and your brother live this might be a bit harder. Here in Germany I have 30 days PTO per year.

But of course writing is slower when working full-time. I had to remember myself often that writing is not a sprint, it's a marathon. So slow and steady, conserving energy and doing it one page, one passage or even one sentence at a time is what I would recommend.

It helped me a lot to structure my day around writing, noticing when I had half an hour of free time to write (e.g. when I still was commuting, I would write on the train; or at my lunchbreak for days where I couldn't write before work etc.)

Also, taking a lot of self-care moments/hours/days, to not burn out. He shouldn't beat himself up, if he cannot write everyday, sometimes life gets in the way.

The important thing is to keep going and not giving up. :)

Hope that helps!

On Beehaw

I'm new here, so I don't know much about this community, but I'm really grateful for how welcoming everybody is! The "no down votes" is such a nice thing, I really love it and am more conscious about what I upvote. I'm surprised and grateful for this thread. It's such a nice thing to do, practicing gratitude and encouraging others to do so. Also, it seems to be so easy to comment or post here in comparison to other platforms. It feels like one belongs to the community.

In real life

I'm grateful for being able to write. I was editing my last novel(s) for so long that I feared that I would've completely forgotten how to actually write something new. Of course that is not true, but feelings are feelings. I recently started another story and it flows well, I like the characters and I'm feeling like writing all the time. (Of course, I am still procrastinating here, but a little bit procrastinating is healthy!) Also, I'm grateful for my partner who always has my back and supports me in my creative endeavors. And of course I'm grateful for being healthy, having a roof above my head and enough to eat.

Thanks for making me thing about all that! :)

Hi! :)

Like so many others, I came from Reddit and I'm gonna stay here. It's nice.

I'm somewhere between 30 and 40, a writer and full time nerd from Germany, I stream and game, I paint and draw and I have two wonderful cats. I like pen & paper rpgs, games in general (except horror), reading, knitting, crocheting, animals, manga, comics, music and listening to the same song on repeat. Also, I probably forgot something.

Thanks for having me here!

I have no idea how running a server or instance works, but I can only guess that it is a lot of hard work, especially with so many of us wanting to join.

So all I can say is: thank you for your hard work!

I experienced very few problems and I was approved really quick! I really like it here and the feeling I get from the community. I learnt so much from you all and I think I understand the Fediverse a bit better now! :)

I have the same problem with some communities from other instances but not with all of the communities from that instance, it's a bit weird. I guess we just have to wait a bit until the servers are more stable.

Maybe I should finish the game, before the patch and then after, to experience the differences!

... Who am I kidding, I will probably procrastinate playing, since my backlog is too long and then maybe play it in September. Looking forward to the DLC, it sounds great!