this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2025
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I'm very slowly coming back around to having a desire to write more. Procrastination gets the best of me at times, my ADHD other times, and my Depression has its moments. But I keep a desire to write a few stories of my own nevertheless.

Right now, I'm working on my first novella that feels like it's gonna become a novel. But we shall see. Especially since I'm thinking most of this up in the moments I have and haven't gotten the things I like written down hardly enough. That being said, I'm learning continually to allow myself to have this Zero Draft and come back weeks later and declutter the passages, spruce it up, and expand on it in my First Rough Draft.


It's taken me quite some time to pin down the bigger elements of the story, but this is what I've got as a WIP summary.

What if plants were weaponized by a group of people that wanted to 'restart' civilization and bring a better balance of nature and humanoids? Would these people be considered bio-terrorists? Are they all bad people? Why go to such great lengths of destruction and elimination of a large group of people? Was there a better way to approach this 'rebalancing '?

Some Moral Reasoning for the 'deranged' bio-scientist and those who follow him.

He sees the nation (and perhaps the world) full of corruption, deceit, separation from nature, and sterilization of what once was in regards of living side by side with nature. Discontentment with the benefits of nature and the animals that live within it. And so he has reasoned that his cursing or mutation of the plants and animals to do his bidding more or less, as a way of cleansing the world. A cleansing of the horrific, (….))) . With the hopes that this will bring nature back to a higher or equal positioning of power of domain that of its counterpart, the humanoid.

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[–] Small_Quasar@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm editing the first draft of my hardish sci-fi novel.

It's the story of an arguably failed attempt to colonise another solar system, that falls into factionalism and civil war thanks to a couple of unexpected discoveries, with themes including the dangers of populism and misinformation.

I'm using Evie (a AI voice app) to read the draft back to me which I've found really useful for catching all the silly little typos that my dyslexic mind just can't see.

I've also started properly worldbuilding the world now that the first draft is complete (if I started this earlier I would probably have used it to procrastinate and not actually get the draft done!). I'm using the Notion personal wiki app for it and I'm pretty impressed by it too.

I'm off work next week and have a fancy new laptop so looking forward to getting a good bit of work done then.

[–] TehBamski@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

I’m using Evie (a AI voice app) to read the draft back to me which I’ve found really useful for catching all the silly little typos that my dyslexic mind just can’t see.

An ingenious way to aid in your writing journey and a benefit psychologically, as having something that you wrote read out loud, via AI or human voice, can have a positive effect on your brain. It becomes better associated in reality by doing so. =)

It’s the story of an arguably failed attempt to colonise another solar system, that falls into factionalism and civil war thanks to a couple of unexpected discoveries, with themes including the dangers of populism and misinformation.

Oh, this sounds like an exciting read! My brain connected it to being similar to The Expanse in regards to " factionalism and civil war thanks to a couple of unexpected discoveries." I love that series! And I hope you don't take it as there isn't enough room for your story in the genre because of it. I want to read your first chapter! =D

I’ve also started properly worldbuilding the world now that the first draft is complete (if I started this earlier I would probably have used it to procrastinate and not actually get the draft done!). I’m using the Notion personal wiki app for it and I’m pretty impressed by it too.

Oh my goodness. Are you me!? Hahaha. I've gone back and forth with wanting to build out the world to have a framework to use as a guide, to "no, no. I need to just write the first five or so pages before then. I need characters and a starting point before the world and what comes with it." That sure didn't stop me from looking for inspiration though hahaha.

I’m off work next week and have a fancy new laptop so looking forward to getting a good bit of work done then.

I'm looking forward to hearing a bit of how you progressed over time. Keep at it. A wise person once said, "Do, or do not. There is no try."

[–] AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip 4 points 4 days ago

I just got to work on doing an updated rewrite of a second chapter to a fanfic I was writing years ago, after recently completely the first chapter rewrite. It's nothing special compared to other works others have done, but I love the updated first chapter because I feel I was able to breath more emotion into it.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

He sees the nation (and perhaps the world) full of corruption, deceit, separation from nature, and sterilization of what once was in regards of living side by side with nature. Discontentment with the benefits of nature and the animals that live within it. And so he has reasoned that his cursing or mutation of the plants and animals to do his bidding more or less, as a way of cleansing the world. A cleansing of the horrific, (….))) . With the hopes that this will bring nature back to a higher or equal positioning of power of domain that of its counterpart, the humanoid.

I'm planning out a similar character! They see humanity as out of control and an increasing affront to nature, so they're looking to 'cleanse' or reset it. Yet he's a pacifist monk, by background.

Procrastination gets the best of me at times, my ADHD other times, and my Depression has its moments.

Yep, same...


On a separate note... how long is y'alls stuff?

I'm at 107k and still pretty early in my fic. I'm writing it for the sake of getting it out of my head, and the virtue of being so sprawling is what holds my interest, but it does add a sort of... existential anxiety, especially when I get stuck (or even obsessed with) reworking a tiny part.

[–] Pacrat173@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 days ago

I think I’ve convinced myself that my 2 zombie short stories are finally done and I’m still trying to make myself finish that alternate history shorts document I’ve had sitting on my Proton docs for a year and a half.

[–] Ceedoestrees@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

I learned inkle/inky and I'm almost finished a text based story/game. ~erotica~

But I keep learning new functions or better ways to script, and go back to add more neat things.

What started as a simple diverting plot now has character creation, time, skills and an inventory.

[–] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

I just wrote this poem. https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/53549551 Never been happier with a poem I wrote. (Not a medium I'm very knowledgeable about)

I'm also trying to formulate a concept about identity politics leading to fascism as a dialectic evolution. https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/54011437

Also just discovered what a krasue is and tried to write a story based on it but I see it as a visual story unfortunately, dont think I can turn it into a satisfying written story. Issue is ive been obsessed with film history and now I'm seeing stories visually and far too many of my ideas come to me as movies, smth I can't really make. Annoys the living hell out of me that I can't scratch that creative itch.

Also a story written in 2 halves, the first being tragedy, the second as farce.

Inspiration from: Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce. Zizek even wrote a book titled, first as tragedy then as farce.

Here I know my themes, ideas and philosophies. I know the structure and understand the motifs to use.

Only issue is I dont know the plot. One idea is for part one to be the construction of the taj mahal and the second the making of a film.

[–] Ceedoestrees@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Your poem reminds me of something Chuck Palahniuk spoke about, writing a story with

spoilerfags
in the title, using F's and similar "ah" sounds for an interesting flow. F alliteration is underused.

Lmao yep. I'm just an alliteration fan. I remember a poem where the f sound resembled the flickering of fire now that you mention it. Its one of my favourite sounds for poems

[–] dsilverz@calckey.world 1 points 4 days ago

@TehBamski@lemmy.world

I oscillate between the urge to write (hypergraphia from Geschwind, which I guess I have) and the feeling of pointlessness of whatever I'm doing. The latter gets exacerbated by self-loathing and Imposter Syndrome-like perception that my texts would be mistaken for the output from some AI out there, so I often catch myself refraining from publishing.

Same goes for drawings: even though I try to post my artworks alongside their behind-the-scenes (e.g. screenshot from the app I often use for drawing, disclosing all layers), it doesn't feel... enough "proof".

I still write things sometimes, but not as often as I used to do in the past, when I had a peak for my inspiration (gnosis): at that time (November 2023, IIRC), I wrote a book worth of mythopoetic ideas in mere two nights. The majority of my texts are surreal stories with strong occult elements, sometimes really imbued with ritualistic intentions.

Speaking of which,

What if plants were weaponized by a group of people that wanted to ‘restart’ civilization and bring a better balance of nature

My most recent story I published hours ago ( https://calckey.world/notes/ad2zi2yh2x ) touches on similar motif of global reset. In my case, however, there's anti-anthropocentric tone: human extinction, sparked by cosmic forces. I got inspired by the ongoing 80th UNGA phraseology I've been listening to (their recurrent, diplomatic jargon) to make a Lovecrafian-like ARG where a Headess of State ("Her Majesty of the Kingdom of Babylon") uses the rostrum to summon Ereshkigal (The Mesopotamian Goddess of Underworld & literally "Queen of the Great Earth" in Sumerian), followed by a non-human voice telling us how wildlife finally got to thrive once again with no humans.

Would these people be considered bio-terrorists? Are they all bad people?

Allow me to expand this idea to "cosmic terror", beyond human agency. I must nod to Sagan's Pale Blue Dot, but without the colors: cosmos is ancient (timeless), ineffable, indifferent. Ain't cosmic good or evil, even when humans would be rendered helpless (so, yeah, "bad" for us) if, say, the Vacuum Anomaly vaporized matter at light-speed, or if some other unknown, cosmic phenomenon took place... in fact, much of the cosmos is unknown, especially what lies beyond where light can't escape, as well as universe itself: maybe we're inside a cosmic black hole and/or it's all non-existent, zero-sum (illusion of) universe.

Deep down, we're adrift in abyss, falling without touching ground, for there's no ground but a "continuum" everywhere, sanding our biological vessels as we fall towards entropy: neither good nor bad. She, Primordial Chaos, can snap Her lips and all Ordo is buh-bye at the blink of an eye: not good or bad, She just is.

Similarly within the Pale Blue Dot: we're just another species. A hungry jaguar isn't good or bad, pathogens aren't good or bad, hurricanes aren't good or bad, Mother Nature isn't good or bad. They just are.