Content Note: Mentions of chronic illness, medical stress, and fluctuating productivity.
Welcome to The Crippled Cryptid.
Disability, chronic illness, service dogs, and survival without the performance.
If you’re new here, hi. I’m Sky.
Professional cryptid.
Unwilling amateur cyborg.
Medically complex enough to make my chart a jump scare.
I cope with sarcasm, snacks… and an ever-growing pile of drafts.
Most days are lived in a haunted meat suit with a questionable warranty and a long-standing feud with my nervous system.
Some days, though, we make things anyway.
Stories.
Worlds.
Half-finished sentences that glare at me from across the room like they pay rent.
Bed Jail™ & The Creative Process
I spend a lot of time in Bed Jail™, writing between symptoms, breaks, and whatever chaos my body is serving that day.
I’m rarely alone.
There’s Luna.
Medical alert service dog. Guardian. Enforcer.
Official “you’ve been typing too long, fix it” supervisor.
And there’s M&M.
My Player 2. My soft place to land.
The one who asks how the writing is going, reminds me to hydrate, and gently bullies me into finishing things when my brain tries to wander off into the void.
This space exists for:
Disability without apologies.
Chronic illness without inspiration porn.
Creativity that exists anyway. Messy. Nonlinear. Real.
If you’ve been here before, welcome back.
If you’re new, you’ll find your footing.
Welcome to the Wyrm Workbench
This is where we track word counts, chase ideas, and occasionally wrestle a story into existence.
On today’s workbench:
Word counts, writing goals, research rabbit holes, and whatever narrative gremlin currently has me in a chokehold.
The Numbers (and the Feelings About Them)
At the start of this week, we were still sitting at 12,795 words.
And if I’m being honest?
I didn’t feel great about that.
I told myself it could be a lot of things:
- The neurosurgeon appointment
- The thunderclap headaches
- Easter stress and family obligations
All true. All valid.
But also… not the full story.
Because even though the number didn’t move much-
I’ve still been writing. A lot.
The Invisible Work Still Counts
It just didn’t look like progress in the way we’re trained to recognize.
I’ve been:
- Building out the world
- Writing lore and history
- Filling Notes app pages at 2am
- Expanding systems, cultures, details
- Making Everwynd feel like a place you could actually step into
There are at least 4,000 words living in scraps across my phone, Notion, and paper.
That’s not nothing.
That’s foundation.
Because I don’t want my stories to feel written.
I want them to feel lived in.
I want you to be able to:
Touch the grass.
Walk the market.
Hear the voices.
That kind of immersion doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because of this exact kind of “invisible” work.
And next week, I think I’m going to take you behind the curtain and show you how I research and build all of this, because it matters to me that even my fiction feels real.
Right now, I’m sitting here with a cup of Door County Vanilla Almond Kringle coffee, letting the words come as they will.
Luna’s asleep at my feet, completely off-duty for the moment, dreaming whatever important service dog dreams she’s got queued up. (Maybe even dreaming about her egg hunt yesterday.)
It’s quiet.
It’s calm.
And for once, my brain isn’t fighting me every step of the way.
This is what the work looks like, too.
Feels a little less like survival. A little more like living.
So Where Are We Now?
Still at 12,795 words in the draft.
And somehow… also much further than that.
Because the second I finish this post?
I’m going right back in.
Not out of obligation.
But because I want to know what happens next.
Workbench Stats
- Draft Word Count: 12,795
- Worldbuilding Words: ~4,000+
- Current Status: Research rabbit hole (send snacks)
- Vibes: Chaotic, stubborn, and quietly promising
Luna Rating 🐾
Stayed asleep for most of it.
Briefly opened one eye when I paused too long.
No emergency alerts. No enforced breaks.
Verdict: Acceptable productivity. Continue, but hydrate.
If You Needed Permission Today
If you’ve ever stared down a blank page and felt it stare back—
You’re not alone.
If your progress is slow, messy, inconsistent, or invisible—
It still counts.
We build what we can, when we can.
That’s enough.
—Sky
© The Crippled Cryptid
Disability. Honesty. A little chaos.
(Maybe a few unfinished drafts.)
🔗 https://linktr.ee/skylanarissa
There’s never pressure to donate. Reading, sharing, or simply staying is more than enough.
If you’d like to support the long, slow work of staying alive, stable, and still creating:
💜 https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-skys-journey-to-health-and-mobility
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