The number one tip on the top of every single "writer's advice" list is to write every day. rain, hail, death in the family. Write.Every.Day.

An auxiliary problem is that once you find that you've managed to write something like 50,000 words, you realize the difficulty of going back and editing it into something good. It takes a couple of hours at a careful pace just to read that much text.

Man, I had no idea how much effort it takes to actually write and the sense of scale there is to five or ten thousand words. I've been working on a fanfic recently and just breached a thousand words so far on the first chapter. It takes a LOT of effort to write that much, especially in trying to keep it up to my own standards. Mad respect for authors that put out 10k a week. I've always preferred longer chapters, but damn if trying to write, myself, doesn't put things in perspective.

Thanks for helping me out in some tough times, LessWrong crew. Please keep supporting one another and being positive rather than negative.

How likely am I to die from taking SSRI's?

This review says:

In conclusion, this review suggests the need for caution in the use of SSRI therapy, particularly among patients with other risk factors for bleeding and those taking NSAIDs. The estimated rate of hospitalization for upper GI bleeding in the US during the 1990s was ∼ 155 per 100,000 population per year [46]. The data examined suggests that the risk of GI bleeding may be increased 2 – 4-fold in patients taking SSRIs and 3 – 12-fold when combined with NSAIDs. However, one must recognise that the incidence of upper GI bleeding increases with age. As such, the risk/benefit profile of these compounds could be influenced by the patient’s age and other co-morbid conditions.

on which I performed calculations like this:

1. It's a 4-fold increase with 155 per 100.000 population getting hospitalized for bleeding by any cause
2. Bleeding has a 30% mortality rate
3. The increase of chance in death is +0.001395 per year
4. Which is 1395 micromorts per year

Which seems like a lot, for just one sideeffect of SSRI's. Would somebody please check my calculation to see whether I haven't made a major error?

One thing I've neglected is that GI bleeding appears to occur more with the elderly and its mortality rate rises sharply with age, but I haven't found any good data on that. Does anybody have some experience with this?

I'm suffering from a recurring depression (in my 4th depressive period now) which apparently often responds well to SSRI's, but I'm still not sure how much of a risk it is.

IANAL, but I'm not requesting medical advice, just help with math.

You guys voted to develop Righteous Face Punching Style and add Kagome to your party. What do you need my help in decision-making for? (But, seriously, I probably shouldn't have taken the time to get caught up, much less actively participate. Fun read, though!)

Ha! I give Lighting Up the Dark—also by Velorien—last pass editing.

Thanks for the rec. It looks really good.

There is another collaborative writing project I follow, though it is an actual work of multiple people. Hosted on Sufficient Velocity, Marked for Death is also a rational naruto fic.

As mentioned, it has multiple authors -- Eaglejarl and Velorien -- as well as two other people that help them out, one on the mechanics (it is player-driven and functions as a collaborative story in that regard as well) and one on worldbuilding, AugSphere and Jackercracks respectively. If you wish to speak to them about their experiences with this and compare it to your own, I'm sure they could get help too.

Meta discussion of the Crazy Ideas Thread

An AMA by Federico Pistono, author of "Robots Will Steal Your Job, But That's OK" and "How to Create a Malevolent Artificial Intelligence."