In Case Anyone Is Having A Bad Night

so I got into grad school today with my shitty 2.8 gpa and the moral of the story is reblog those good luck posts for the love of god

I feel attacked

“I need to stop fantasizing about running away to some other life and start figuring out the one I have.”

— Holly Black

desi chaotic academia

desi chaotic academia, a concept: teachers snidely remarking that you’re gonna become a doctor because of your terrible handwriting. “how to cram for an exam” is something you’re constantly searching on youtube. studying for the wrong exam and realizing only the night before. grabbing a cup of coffee, putting on your headphones and playing punk rock to keep you going, you attempt to pull an all-nighter. managing to study for only a few hours because you took one look at your geography textbook and went straight to bed in disgust. waking up the next morning mentally prepared to flunk, but somehow you manage to top, to no one’s surprise but your own. you keep getting into arguments with your history and political science teachers. soon enough, your friends join in (albeit on different sides) and y’all get kicked out of class for behaving like you’re “in a fish market”. being forced to watch ramayana on tv with your family, but you keep getting yelled at for pointing out historical and mythological inaccuracies and spoiling the fun. your room is what you call an “organized mess”- perfect for hiding your stash of kurkure, sting and snickers because no one dares to enter it. you return home from school, toss away your tie and blazer, and collapse on your unmade bed, staring up at the star-shaped stickers on your ceiling. you feel like you’re 5, looking up at them for the first time. you wish you were 5 again, young and carefree and happy. but the hope of studying, being amongst actual stars, holds you back.

things i did as a neurodivergent person to get straight a’s for the third year in a row

hi hello hi how’s it going. welcome to the 3am-burst-of-motivation-tumblr-post-of-the-day, where i’m sharing all of my study tips that allowed my adhd/austism/ocd/bpd brain to somehow squeeze out straight a’s for the third year (sixth semester) in a row. 

1. study differently for different subjects. contrary to popular belief, flashcards and rewriting your notes does not work for every subject (unless it does for you, in which case ignore me and do what works for you). different subjects, at least for me, require different environments, techniques, and associations. 

2. association! sensory stuff works great for me because i tend to associate physical things with emotions and even personality types, so have something be constant every time you study. example: i have two tubes of chapstick, one peppermint and one pomegranate. i put on the peppermint one right before i go to bed and the pomegranate one after i eat breakfast - i associate the different scents with different activities (going to bed and starting my to-do list). 

3. to-do lists! mine are written on sticky notes and stuck to my mirror because i hate hate hate having the sticky glue stuff from sticky notes on my mirror and i’m not allowed to clean my mirror until all the sticky notes are off of it. when i can’t see my mirror, they’re on the outside of my backpack because they’re bright pink and the social anxiety makes me think people are staring at me if they are on my backpack. 

4. change your location often. specifically for my adhd peeps who have the attention span of an overexcited puppy, walk around. do things. go to a park or a coffee shop or a grocery store or a sidewalk or a bench somewhere or my personal favorite, the bank. when you’re understimulated go somewhere with lots of different noises and when you’re overstimulated so somewhere quiet or control noises (listen to music, noise-cancelling headphones, humming). 

5. keep a piece of paper next to you for the Random Thoughts That Come at Inconvenient Times and write down the stuff you want to look up/do/tell someone about and like… i don’t even know why that helps but it does. just having your thoughts out there i guess?

6. body doubling. find a person who will study with you. bonus points if it’s another neurodivergent person. they are depending on you to finish the studying and get the good grade. THEY ARE DEPENDING ON YOU. DON’T DISAPPOINT THEM. (side note anxiety people i would not recommend this for you)

7.  go to a place that will remind you to pee and eat and drink things. starbucks is great for this. so are most restaurants. 

8. get a new thing to study with every week. i like new things. if i have a new thing i am going to use it until it’s no longer exciting. i get a pencil, just a boring, manual pencil from the drugstore every monday afternoon for like sixty cents. it’s a fantastic method, at least for me. 

9. don’t drink something with caffeine in it while studying. you will either fall asleep or end up on a roof. it is not a good situation. caffeine for neurodivergents is like sleep pills, for me at least and most of the other ND’s i’ve met. if not for you, you’re lucky. 

10. spaced reps. in other words, find a big pair of dice and write vocab terms on each side, then hurl it at the ground and define each term. do this for like an hour. it’s fun and gets a lot of energy out. 

11. stim. vocal stims, physical stims, self-talk, fidget, yelp, squeal, tap your foot, walk around, shrug your shoulders, twitch your nose, jump up and down, ribbit like a frog. stim, stim, stim. it helps. 

anyways. it’s 3:17 am. happy studying!

book quotes that i will never recover from

"he is half of my soul, as the poets say. " - song of achilles

"write me a letter telling me how to live the rest of my life without you." - how to make friends with the dark

"they were my birthday presents." - shatter me

"she had realized that she had forgotten the precise blue of his eyes and the depth of his laugh." - clockwork princess

"my name is sam cortland... and i will not be afraid." - assassin's blade

"you chose me four years ago. would you choose me still?" - these violent delights

"we were all supposed to make it." - crooked kingdom

"i remember everything." - the invisible life of addie larue

"come home and shout at me. come home and fight with me. come home and break my heart, if you must. just come home." - cruel prince

"i wasted all those yesterdays and am completely out of tomorrows." - they both die at the end

"you hated the idea of me." - the final gambit

"bob says hello." - house of hades

"abuse can feel like love. starving people will eat anything." - nightfall

"i missed you only with an ocean between us. but if death was separating us... i would find you." - queen of shadows

"i loved him. i love him. as best i could." - we were liars

"i'm the villain, even in my own story. but you were supposed to play a different role." - finale

"i will find you again in the next world—the next life. and we will have that time. i promise." - a court of wings and ruin

"i spent half of my time loving her and the other half hiding how much i loved her." - the seven husbands of evelyn hugo

I'm blogging this cause this is genius

There’s a trope known as “What You Are In The Dark”, and it’s really useful for showing your audience what kind of person a character is.

It’s essentially where a character, usually- but not always- the protagonist, is in a uniquely tempting situation. They have the opportunity to do something they want to do, something that’s selfish and usually, objectively wrong. They WANT to do it on some level, it’s a benefit, and there won’t be any negative consequences for them. And the cherry on top: Nobody who’s opinion they care about will ever know what they’ve done.

Sometimes, it’s something like not saving someone who was horrible to you. Sometimes it’s a little more active, like an alter ego they can use to express their desires. But it’s always, metaphorically speaking, “in the dark”. Nobody sees, or anyone that sees doesn’t know it’s them, or nobody they care about sees and knows it’s them.

What the character does in that situation tells the audience who that character really is. What they’re like under any facades or pleasantries they may put up. What you are in the dark defines you. You are at your most YOU when nobody is looking.

Usually, if the character is a hero, they’ll throw away this opportunity. They’ll face the little voice whispering, “No one will ever know,” and tell it, “I’LL know.” Because they know whatever they have the chance to do is wrong, and they know they’d be torn up about it. Even with no external restrictions, there’s a little guiding force telling them to do good, or at the very least, NOT do evil.

If the character takes the opportunity to do something bad when no one is looking, they’re not a good person.

And yes, this trope CAN be invoked accidentally.

I really admire how you've grown your Tumblr. Can you share how you started off on this platform and what advice you would give a new Tumblr use who's a writer who wants to do the same?

Growing on Tumblr...

So You Want To Start A Blog? Here’s a little bit about getting started. Some advice, some resources, some things you may want to keep handy, etc. 

Post consistently and try to keep a comprehensive theme/sensibility to your content and your blog. You want people to visit again and again, and you want them to immediately be interested in whatever you post when it appears on their dashboard. You want to stay in their mental orbit when they’re logged on, and you want to continue capturing their attention by regularly posting things they’d expect based on what they can see on your blog. Do what you have to do to stay motivated and keep that goal in your mind. 

How To Motivate Yourself To Write

Healthy Forms of Motivation

How To Have A Productive Mindset

Why “Burnout” Is Okay - The Creative Cycle

“Does What I’m Writing Matter?”

Taking Writing Seriously For The First Time

Finding Time To Write

Take advice with a grain of salt. A lot of this is luck and algorithms. Do what you can and remember that your speed of growth often has little to do with the quality of your content. The only thing I can guarantee is that if you stop posting and stop producing content, you’ll stop growing. Every like, every reblog, and every follow affects your blog more than you know. 

Tips & Advice for Aspiring Authors, Writers, and Poets

How To Write An Article People Will Read

On Getting Started As A Writer

Tips on Getting Higher Engagement

For Writers Who Want To Become Popular

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Masterlist

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Shoutout to my $15+ patron, Douglas S.!

I cannot believe there's absolutely no way to watch free shows and movies anymore, there are too many paid streaming platforms and pirating websites have viruses and ads preventing you from watching it uninterrupted((.)) id rather follow the rules and purchase media moving forward because it is too inconvenient. Seriously, free and no ads or viruses with 1080p streaming is DEAD.

The sound of Cutting HoneyComb - Satisfying

me wearing all black minding my own bussines :

random mf : whose funeral is it?

me an INTJ mastermind : gotta decide.