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Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

Just became insanely busy at work, even compared to what I've been used to. Looking forward to writing lots of the winter holidays. Not gonna get discouraged!
 
What’s new around here?

I'm currently considering whether or not to add hints of the extended Smash Bros. universe to my own fanfic.

Also, the simulation reset request was denied. We're stuck with chicken tasting like everything until the next iteration. One of those "we'll fix it after it crashes" bugs.
 
Spent my weekend ill, so I'm working from home today so I don't give everybody my cold.
Also, the cat got in the foodwaste bin, because I was an idiot and left the lid off, and he's a greedy little sod. Hopefully it doesn't make him ill — it's mostly veggie stuff in there since my partner's a vegetarian.
 
So, the Review Game has stalled which means it's time for a general reminder about it! AceTrainer14 has left quite a range of options available to whoever wants to take this on, and don't forget about the bonus Review League points that are available from this!
 
So, the Review Game has stalled which means it's time for a general reminder about it! AceTrainer14 has left quite a range of options available to whoever wants to take this on, and don't forget about the bonus Review League points that are available from this!
"Review_Game.EXE has failed. Would you like to reboot?"
Clicks yes.

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"GODDAMMIT!!! Knew I shouldn't had updated to Windows 10!"
 
Whoops! Took a bit of an unintended hiatus for a month! Just got really busy. Although, I come back to find that the chat thread is a tad dead.

So have y'all played Let's Go yet? Just finished the pokedex myself and spent an hour and a half trying to find a shiny Porygon, to no avail.
 
I'm as busy as ever at work, but I'm gradually adapting. Getting a little more sleep, getting better at my responsibilities, that sort of thing. It's slow, but robust.

I'm gonna return to writing DE because NaNo this year was a bust. We could have made it, but I had overtime and we were both ill so it didn't really work out.

Anyway, hello all! I want to try posting a little more often. I used to post multiple times a day and it's weird posting a few times a week. It's not like I'm lurking or anything, but still.

As for Let's Go, we don't have a Switch and I don't know if we'll get one. The video games I'm fixated on right now are Horizon Zero Dawn and Surviving Mars in any case. Whoops. And if I get done with those eventually I'll return to Crusader Kings 2 and Stellaris.

The other thing I'm determined about is sorting out my finances. I've been living independently for a few months now and I still haven't got a real budget. There are plenty of resources online (even though many are specific to the US) but any advice is welcome. ;3

Hope everyone is doing well. Remember that it's winter now and the long nights will affect you even if you don't realise it. Speaking of which, I'd better start using my sunlamp some more. Take care, all x
 
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I've been dealing with a bout of brain fog for these past few months, so it's been hard to do anything creative, especially writing. It's just hard to focus and put scenes together like I could while I was working over the summer. I've determined that I want to make a balance between working on original material and finishing my PMD series, as the former I plan to write for years to come, while the latter only has a few more stories past Twilit Destinies before I exhaust it. I may have been unsure before, but I feel confident in that.

Provided that I can get rid of the brain fog. I've been hopping around to all sorts of conclusions as to why I'm experiencing it, and I think I've narrowed it down to a lack of magnesium in my diet. It's actually pretty common to be deficient in that, as its primarily found in leafy greens and seafood--both things I don't take much appreciation in. Still, I've already found that I had a lack of Vitamin A because I was experiencing itchy eyes periodically the past few weeks, and after eating a bag of cooked peas--one of the few vegetables I enjoy--I started feeling better.

So, yeah...eat your veggies. Otherwise, you'll end up like me and end up doing nothing. I've got a headache now, but I anticipate feeling able to write again once it passes.
 
I've been dealing with a bout of brain fog for these past few months, so it's been hard to do anything creative, especially writing. It's just hard to focus and put scenes together like I could while I was working over the summer.

I totally feel you. There's so much I want to write about, but putting everything together is just so darn frustrating!
 
Hello everyone... thought I'd stop by again. For those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving — or at least had time off — I hope that the holiday treated you well.

Now, where to start?

I'm gonna return to writing DE because NaNo this year was a bust. We could have made it, but I had overtime and we were both ill so it didn't really work out.
The thing that has always turned me off from NaNoWriMo — besides the inherent insanity involved in writing anything close to novel-length in only a month, complete or not —is that November is almost always one of the most busy and chaotic months of the year for me, which means that creative projects are often the last things on my mind during much of that time... let alone a project as epic as NaNoWriMo. I've sometimes contemplated simply doing the challenge on another month and counting myself as having participated that way, but I've never actually followed through with a plan like that. I'm sorry to hear that you ended up not being able to participate for an even less pleasant reason, though.

The other thing I'm determined about is sorting out my finances. I've been living independently for a few months now and I still haven't got a real budget. There are plenty of resources online (even though many are specific to the US) but any advice is welcome. ;3
While I don't consider myself to be a financial expert by any means, I can definitely say from experience that it's a good idea to make a strict budget for yourself each month and stick to it as doggedly as realistically possible. Personally, I also constantly keep savings in mind whenever I make pretty much any kind of substantial financial decision, including setting my monthly budget. This is reflected in the somewhat complicated budgeting system that I have, where I balance the total money I have with both my set monthly budget and a more long-term "saving budget" that consists of, well, how much money I want to save for the greater future. This balancing can happen several times in any given month, depending on what's happening in said month... let's just say that the calculator is one of the more consistently used apps on my phone. Your mileage will vary as to how complicated things can become with your own particular financial situation, of course.

Another idea could be to document your purchases and transactions so that you can have a better idea of how much they're cutting into your budget, as well as to make sure that you're not spending too much money, or that said money isn't missing or otherwise unaccounted for. I've found that this - along with all of the financial plotting I referenced above - has helped me resist making many tempting but financially questionable purchases of things that I want but arguably don't really need at the moment (or at all, in the grand scheme of things), because I always have the future — rather than just the moment — in mind.

Hope everyone is doing well. Remember that it a winter now and the long nights will affect you even if you don't realise it.
Winter is a funny time of year for me, in that it's simultaneously the most exciting and the most depressing time. It's exciting because of things like snow, the holidays, and extended family time, all of which are wonderful... and yet there are also things like the shorter days and extended nights that literally make me more depressed than usual. It's still better than fall, though, which can be equally as gloomy with the excitement of the winter season to at least partially counteract everything else.

I've been dealing with a bout of brain fog for these past few months, so it's been hard to do anything creative, especially writing. It's just hard to focus and put scenes together like I could while I was working over the summer. I've determined that I want to make a balance between working on original material and finishing my PMD series, as the former I plan to write for years to come, while the latter only has a few more stories past Twilit Destinies before I exhaust it. I may have been unsure before, but I feel confident in that.

Provided that I can get rid of the brain fog. I've been hopping around to all sorts of conclusions as to why I'm experiencing it, and I think I've narrowed it down to a lack of magnesium in my diet. It's actually pretty common to be deficient in that, as its primarily found in leafy greens and seafood--both things I don't take much appreciation in. Still, I've already found that I had a lack of Vitamin A because I was experiencing itchy eyes periodically the past few weeks, and after eating a bag of cooked peas--one of the few vegetables I enjoy--I started feeling better.

So, yeah...eat your veggies. Otherwise, you'll end up like me and end up doing nothing. I've got a headache now, but I anticipate feeling able to write again once it passes.
It's funny... my diet pretty much is leafy greens and seafood at the moment, and yet I can't help but feel like I've been experiencing a lot of that same brain fog lately, at least when it comes to creative endeavors. But maybe that last little detail there is the clue in my case, because I've been thinking a lot about money and the future lately and there's definitely no brain fog involved there. Priorities, maybe?
 
My fog has since developed into more of a headache, but I think that has to do with my body getting back used to a healthier diet. A sort of purge of undesirable stuff, so to speak, especially since I've been drinking a lot more water than I usually do, alongside going to the bathroom more often. ANd that only really started after I changed the way I've been eating.

Still, this particular brain fog is different that what I've dealt with before. In the past, I often reached a creative block and just set my projects on hold, but then I kept active in other ways that could get my mind active again, such as board game design. For the past few months, I've found it hard to do anything creative, or even school. My performance is significantly reduced because I can't focus or remember as well as I usually can.

Long story short, this fog affects all parts of my life rather than simply a part of it. It's been pretty miserable, especially with my college calculus class being far worse than my high school one ever was--and for all the wrong reasons. I'll still pass--no doubt about that--but I know I could have gotten a higher grade if I didn't have this fog--or headache, as it now is.
 
@lucarioknight56, best of luck with your brain fog! Diet, exercise, sleep, affection, hydration and sunlight are all really key to functioning okay, and even with entire industries telling us this, we nerds have a tendency to neglect those things. Listen to this guy, everyone. Eat your fucking greens.

@InfiniteBakuphoon, thanks for your financial thoughts, I'd intended to do more or less as you suggest, I think. You're right about November — of all months, why November? It's busy, it's dark, it's cold, it's miserable. It's sales season at my job, everyone gets ill, SAD hits hard. It's a frustration.

I've had an okay week. No Thanksgiving for us Brits, but Christmas markets have started up where I am and it's all starting to get festive. I'm old enough now (24) that I genuinely appreciate some bright lights and fun at this time of year instead of making a fuss about commercialism (it's still fucked up tho) or Christmas lasting two months or whatever stick I used to have up my ass.

Goals for the weekend: post here some more, relax, make a budget, do some writing, attend the local market, quality time with my partner, prep for RPG sessions, look after myself. It's a lot. I'll do my best.
 
NaNo feels like one of those things that, no matter what month it is, it's going to be busy for a lot of people. In general, life never makes it feel like a convenient time for anything, at least for me lmao. NaNo's the original, but there are some more creative monthly challenges popping up now, like National Poetry Writing Month in April, Inktober in, well, October, and a new one I saw today was 30 Days of Creepymas, for artists who wanna experiment with a more horror style. Oh, and "Camp NaNo" is in July, and it's a small scale version where you set your own goals. But really... who's to say someone can't do their own NaNo in, I don't know, March? #YOLO

I did cross the NaNo finish line at 50,146 words on the last day. I was busy, but that's what made it all the more rewarding, to prove to myself that I could do it. Still, I'm grateful to have a job and school program that makes scheduling flexible for me; without that, I don't know how well it would've gone. I have a lot of editing to do now! :p I'm much further along in the fic than I was 30 days ago, which is nice (i.e., letters 15-27 of Flying in the Dark are now complete, and I only anticipate 3-4 more letters before the end of the fic entirely).

As for brain fog... sounds a lot like depersonalization for me. It hits hardest when big life changes happen, or with a lot of stress. But it's lowkey pervasive even during times of stability. Writing's been one key thing that's helped me fight through it and have access to my own thoughts in a meaningful way again.

<3 Take care of yourselves this season, all of youuu
 
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