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Before I first started Vyvance I had no idea how to use FL Studio. At the end of the day I had a pretty ok song. This is a good indicator of how poorly I was able to focus before I was diagnosed, especially considering I had owned FL for 2 years at that point.

Basically my system is to always try to write something. You're never going to regret booting up lsdj and messing around for 15 minutes, and if you do that every day you're going to hit that magical "wow I wrote that" feeling (the one that allows you to write a song in 1 sitting) more often than if you only write on a whim. Worst case scenario you don't get anything special out of it, but that's ok. Most of the time you're going to either figure out something new or at least get a cool loop that you can incorporate into a song when you switch on "wow I wrote that" mode. I don't think there's any point in forcing yourself to continue a song you're not feeling, but if you at least try to make something on a regular basis you don't have to force it. Give it a shot often enough and you'll write more because of frequency. Don't let not getting anything useful get you down and start writing less, just make yourself give it a shot maybe 10 minutes a day and then decide whether to continue.

Here are some things I do that help me improve and be productive:

- Write in a different style: Think Roboctopus is a pretty cool guy even though you write hard house or whatever? Maybe you should write with whatever physical instrument you have nearby in mind. Try writing what you think someone you admire would write; chances are it won't be the same, but the point is to step outside your comfort zone and maybe you find something you didn't know you were good at.

- Copy down something cool from a song you like: Man, that arp in the backgroud of X is neat, I wonder if I can recreate that. Maybe I'll try to put the bassline in next, make a mistake, decides it sounds cool and different, and roll with it. You like music and probably want to write music that you like, so if you borrow something you know you like it gives you a starting point to create something new. Most of the time when I do this I don't even end up using the borrowed part in the final song. (I'm not suggesting you straight lift a melody off someone, but try taking a drumbeat or chord progression in a different way than the original song did. Plagarism is not ok, tasteful sampling is.)

- Write outside of the DAW you plan to produce the finished song in: Every so often I like to leave netflix running on another monitor and mess around with a piano VST in FL Studio to see if I can write something before I need to worry about what sounds to use. This never feels like a waste of time because it's always at least entertaining, and sometimes it's really helpful to not worry about what sounds you're going to use, so writing with something you for sure know isn't going to be in the finished product can be very freeing.

This is a subset of the previous one: download some new software. There is a deep well of free tracker software on the internet, and you're never going to run out of things to try. I can recommend Arkos Tracker specifically, it comes with a ton of demo songs to dissect (Even some 8bc era Ultrasyd!) and it's simple enough to pick up in a few minutes.

- Know when to walk away: Sometimes you're just not going to get anything useful done, and this is ok. Writers block happens to everyone and if trying to punch through it doesn't work there's no shame in just taking a 2 or 3 day break to come back with fresh ears and a positive attitude. I've broken a lot more songs through over-editing than I've fixed, so I'm very wary about continuing when I'm no longer making progress. You can just let future you deal with that riff that can't seem to fit any chords, or that patch that sounds amazing but you can't seem to write with.

This stuff is all I really do when I'm having trouble. If you're like me and can't write well while actively trying to, these might help a bit. I can't make it dark and stormy, but I can make sure I have the diabolical contraption ready when lightning strikes.

Satie fan? You'll fit in just fine.

Man, I wish samples in lsdj didn't sound like shit on GBA so I could get that nanoloop kick on all my trap songs.

I'll bite. This could be fun.

I got a 1.6 cartridge recently, is it worth it to update?

#rare

I wouldn't worry too much about the stuff from LSDJ and you articles until you're really comfortable with the program itself. That's not to say you shouldn't try it, but it's not a big deal if you're confused about something. 

I think the video that pulled me from being a beginner and threw me into being intermediate was Danimal Cannon's Advanced LSDJ Tutorial. Advanced is a bit of a misnomer, but this video really helped me understand what commands are doing to the sound and how I can completely abuse that power.