love that adhd feel when “and there goes my ability to read”
why u ask?
– it’s too noisy – my brain keeps thinking too many Thoughts – re-read it again till u die – BOREDOM!!! – constantly zoning out – the tiny sound in the distance – too stressed out because I CAN’T READ
isn’t adhd fun!!!
– wait… that’s not what it said… or is it?
– i just skipped eight lines wtf
– is this English?
– where the fuck was i
– *gets up to do something* *never returns*
– wait how long have I been reading for
– I remember Nothing (except for a few unnecessary things in excruciating detail )
– must move NOW
– font bad
– song stuck in my head
*GETS UP TO DO SOMETHING* *NEVER RETURNS*
The not being able to read, in all seriousness, is one of the most upsetting, stressmaking manifestations of my ADHD. Reading has always been the way I check out, escape, relax, and when my brain stops letting me focus enough to read, I lose that outlet, and it makes the agitation and stress and anxiety WORSE. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle of suck.
As a person with ADHD I can’t understand how people are able to listen to an audio book while doing something else simultaneously. When I listen to an audio book I need to be in a dark room with no other living creature nearby to distract me, and even then do I find it difficult to listen to an audio book.
As a person with ADHD I can’t understand how people are able to not listen to audio books/podcasts/TV/music while doing something else simultaneously.
Provided, of course, the other thing I’m doing does not require a lot of word/number processing. Often when I do nothing at the same time as I’m listening, I’ll zone out and think about other things instead, because my mind isn’t being effectively engaged.
Having interesting audio while drawing, gif-making, cleaning, walking, showering, playing certain video games etc is how I consume most of my media. It will also keep me from being distracted by outside noises, assuming these noises aren’t loud enough to mess with my auditory processing.
It COULD be however that you simply are not an auditory learner, or that you have particularly bad auditory processing.
I listen to podcasts and music and things when I’m either riding the bus or doing tasks that don’t require my brain to make words: knitting, washing dishes, upgrading my computer, that kind of thing. It keeps my hands busy enough so I can focus on the words I’m hearing.
This doesn’t work when I’m trying to write (even with music – if it has words, I’m not going to be able to focus, and if it doesn’t, I’ll still get lost in the melody from time to time) or otherwise do something that requires the verbal part of my brain to do its thing. Everything turns into noise.
I have to be doing multiple things at once. If there’s a tv on, I’m knitting, cruising Tumblr, or reading, sometimes all at once. If I’m trying to really focus on the tv, I still have to be knitting or I chew my nails to the quick. If I’m walking for exercise, I have to be listening to music or a podcast.
I didn’t really identify the ‘cannot stand boredom because it’s painful’ or the ‘can’t ever be doing nothing’ symptoms of ADHD with myself until I realised that that doesn’t automatically equal frenetic physical activity. It also equals ‘I have seventy tabs open because I want to watch/read ALL of these things, but don’t have the focus now and have to keep scrolling through my dash’. It equals ‘I love this show with every fibre of my being, but I’ll go nuts if my hands aren’t active’. It equals ‘I’m working out and on a beautiful bushwalking track, but if I don’t have a soundtrack I can’t enjoy it’.
do you ever tire of how, like, dramatic anxiety is?? it’s like. bitch. bitch. it’s not that serious. we’ll live. it’ll probably be a pain in the ass, but we’ll live. so stop making me feel like i’m actively dying.
I have been saying for years that neurotypical people have NO IDEA HOW BORING anxiety and depression are. It’s not so much, ‘OMG, the world is ending, how will I cope????’ but ‘Seriously? Again? Bitch, I GOT SHIT TO DO. Outside. You know, the place I’m having a panic attack at thinking about going. FFS, GET IT TOGETHER.’
Instead of telling yourself, “I should get up,” or “I should do this,”
Ask yourself, “When will I get up?” or “When will I be ready to do this?”
Instead of trying to order yourself to feel the signal to do something, which your brain is manifestly bad at, listen to yourself with compassionate curiosity and be ready to receive the signal to move when it comes.
Things I did not actually realize was an option
What’s amazing is what happens when you do this with children. I hit on it when working at the foster home, where nearly all our kids were on the autism spectrum, and they weren’t “defiant” around me because I said things like, “How long do you need to stand here before we can move?” and “Come into the kitchen when you’re ready” instead of saying, “Stop staring out the window, let’s go,” or “Come eat dinner,” and interpreting hesitation as refusal to obey.
I have also definitely found that doing the “okay when I finish counting down from twenty is getting up time” has been useful.
Yup, that’s way better for toddlers and younger kids. It helps when they don’t have the self-awareness, attention span, or concept of the passage of time to estimate when they’ll be ready by themselves.
Oh I meant for me. XD Saying it to myself.
WELL OKAY WHOOPS XD I should not have been overspecific, I was just thinking about teaching this stuff to the parents at my job and your reblog made me immediately think of you with Banana and the kidlets.
Another hack: when you want to get up but are stalled by your brain and frustrated – stop. Breathe. Think about what you want to do once you’re up, without thinking about getting up. Treat it like a fantasy, no pressure, just thinking about something you’d like to do in the future. Instead of thinking “I should get up” over and over, think about having a bagel for breakfast, or getting dressed in your soft green sweater. Imagine yourself doing the thing.
I find that exercise often side-steps the block and the next thing I know I’m out of bed and on my way to doing the other thing I thought about.
Works for other things too, if you’re stuck on one step and having a hard time doing it, think about the step after that. Need to do laundry and you can’t get yourself to gather up your dirty clothes in the hamper? Think instead about carrying the hamper full of dirty clothes to the laundry room. And when you get to that next step, if you get stuck again, think about the step after it – you have a hamper of dirty clothes that needs to be put in the wash, let your subconscious handle the “carry hamper to laundry room” step while you’re thinking about the “putting them in the wash” part.
YMMV of course, and this doesn’t even always work for me (particularly not when I need to do a collection of tasks in no particular order, like packing for a trip… “pack socks, pack underwear, pack toothbrush, pack pants, pack shirts” is the kind of non-linear task list where this trick doesn’t help at all), but it’s something I’ve found helpful often enough.
This is one of the most beautiful threads I’ve seen on Tumblr simply because it deals so compassionately with an issue so many of us have and can barely even articulate to ourselves, let alone to anyone else. ❤
I think I get overwhelmed from the thought of all of the consequent steps, so maybe I’ll do the reverse of the advice above and try to focus on the first one.
@the-rain-monster i was just about to say something similar. that can work too sometimes. instead of going “ugh i need to eat something” for four hours, i try to focus on each step in turn.
and i mean each TINY step. just getting out of my chair has this many steps:
pause music
remove headphones
hang headphones on laptop screen
pick up laptop
leg-bend recliner footrest shut
set laptop aside
stand
and i reckon that’s why i get stuck on it; because i’m trying to treat it as one thing, while executive dysfunction is treating it as seven things, and choking on trying to skip to step seven.
concurrent with this is a method i call ‘junebugging’. which is where i go to the location of the thing i want to do, and just sort of bump around the region like a big stupid beetle until the thing somehow accidentally magically gets done. this is an attempt to leverage ADHD into an advantage; i may not have the executive function to make myself a sandwich on purpose, but if i fidget in the kitchen long enough, some kind of food is going to end up in my mouth eventually. and hell, even if i fail on that front, i will probably have achieved something, even if it’s only pouring all my loose leaf tea into decorative jars.*
@star-anise please may i give you an internet hug *hug!* because god how i wish anyone had known to do that for me when i was a kid. my childhood was one big overload, and like 99% of the huge dramatic meltdowns that made me the scapegoat/laughingstock/target of my entire elementary school were simply due to people not giving me time to process the next step, and interpreting a bluescreen as defiance/insult.
*this happened when i was trying to do dishes actually but the principle is sound
yeah i absolutely echo what j’s saying about the steps, it’s a lot like that for me too. i get overwhelmed at the prospect of something that should be simple, and have to slow down and sort out how many steps it’s actually going to take, and what a complicated endeavor it actually is, even if no one else thinks so.
also, i thought i should put in: try to honestly figure out what you’re averse to, that makes things so tough. making a whole bunch of decisions really fast? the potential of things to make a horrible noise? the shame of failure? having to put down what you’re doing now? having to clean up whatever it is you might go do when you’re done?
for instance, for me, the difficulty rating on anything goes waaaay up when a step of a task is ‘go somewhere people will look at you,’ which is for me about the unpleasantness equivalent of ‘jump into a very cold swimming pool right now’. you know you’ll be fine and even have fun once you’ve settled into it, but it still takes a lot of shuffling around and bracing yourself first to go for it. and some days you just don’t fucking want to go swimming.
i discounted this factor for years because i wouldn’t admit that i was so daunted by something so silly as as people looking at me. but, now i know what i’m so aversive about, i can factor it in to plans, and work around it, and be kind to myself. for instance, i was never able to get fit since highschool PE, because i couldn’t make myself go to a gym, or even out jogging. once i figured out the big problem wasn’t avoidance pain or difficulty, it was avoidance of doing a New Thing that i was Bad At in front of Unknown Quantities Of Strangers, which is like a triple threat of stressors, i started working out quietly and safely in my room at night, and i’ve been doing really good on it!
I always picture myself doing the thing before I do it, checking possible outcomes. It is good for my executive disfunction because my brain thinks “Ah, O already did it, just repeat”, and sometimes it works. Also, it helps me to to avoid mistakes. The drawback is that everything takes more spoons because in my brain I do everything several times. And I developed this before I knew what Executive Disfunction was … I was just trying to survive. I was actually surprised to learn that most people “just do” things. How is that even possible?
I find usually when I’m stuck, it’s because I’ve grouped too many tasks together, so I go “of all the things I intend to do when I get up, which is most crucial?” and I decide to do only that one thing, never mind all the other things I was going to do.
I know this post isn’t for me, but I think I’m going to use it too. For like, getting out od ved and doing homework, because the only modivation for either is that if I don’t, I’ll be in trouble. Maybe I should focus on the result of the action rather than currently doing it? Idk. I almost never can get out of bed while still kinda tired or upset when my mom isn’t there to tell me I have to, and somedays I just can’t do homework. Does anybody know if the tactics above also work for when you have a lack of modivation? I don’t have anything wtong with me, but I am easily distractible, and I tend to abandon work for things that are more fun and make me happy. If you don’t want someone changing the subject though, I’ll get off your post. Y’all are just so observant. Like, seriously, looking at the big picture? That’s hard. I think we all need to do that.
This thread got even more amazing since I last reblogged it.
imma try this next time i have to fight my ED
Helpful.
But also like, god, there are people who just… do things. They decide to do things. And then do them.
Cannot imagine.
I didn’t realize my ADHD was more that “I am loud, can’t pay attention, get hyperfocused, am very smart and get bored easy.” until I got to tumblr.
Now it’s like “Wait. Hang the fuck on. All these things I can’t get right unless someone is mad at me or I’m in a real crisis are my ADHD?”
The lack of explanation I have about what this really means, when I’ve had a diagnosis 21 years… it’s tremendous. It is.
I just thought life was this hard for everyone and I was just… weak. God. Just god.
why caffeine works for some of us, but not all, and even then it often depends on the way you take it and the dosage
how come all of us have gastrointestinal problems?
addendum to the above: what exactly are our gastrointestinal problems? are we genetically more likely to have autism be comorbid with gluten sensitivity/colitis/IBS/lactose intolerance/whatever else or is it something completely different? is it psychosomatic? the fuck
okay but how does being sensory-seeking work. and what does stimming do to your brain. what neurological function are we facilitating with flapping hands and rocking back and forth and spinning? wouldn’t it be great if we had a serious long-term study of the brain on stimming?
are you more likely to be autistic and LGBT?
what are things we do better than neurotypicals?
but no it’s always “how do we train the animals to be something they’re not” or “but what made you this way??” or “Time To Find A Cure”
why do we all have sleep disorders
what’s up with the joint problems
and the faceblindness
what are the communication patterns here? how come I can meet one autistic person and immediately grok how they communicate, and be confused by another, but all neurotypicals are confusing? what’s going on with that?
how much of what we currently recognise as ‘autistic symptoms’ are actually ptsd symptoms? or autistic ptsd symptoms?
ALL. OF. THIS.
OK, so I decided to check out which of these had been researched and what they found.
Caffeine – not much, but this study looks interesting. It suggests that if you’re not a regular caffeine consumer, caffeine might temporarily make you act less autistic.
Oh, hey, this study has a potential answer to both caffeine response and sleep problems! There’s apparently an enzyme that affects both caffeine and melatonin metabolism.
GI issues – this study didn’t find a link. The rate of GI issues was 9% for both autistic and NT children. The most common GI issues for both groups were food intolerance, usually lactose intolerance.
This study found a much higher prevalence of GI issues in autistic kids (17%), although they didn’t compare them with NTs. They also suggest that there may be a link between regression and GI issues, and confirm yet again that the MMR vaccine has nothing to do with autism. The most common GI issue they found was constipation, followed by diarrhea and food allergies.
This study compared GI issues between autistic kids and NT siblings. They found that 83% of the autistic sample and 28% of their siblings had at least one possibly-GI-related symptom. They also give data on specific GI symptoms, such as gaseousness (54% of autistics and 19% of siblings), abdominal discomfort (44% of autistics and 9% of siblings), and so forth. They found 20% of autistics and 2% of siblings had three or more poops per day, 32% of autistics and 2% of siblings had consistently watery poops, and 23% of autistics and none of their siblings had large changes in consistency. Also, apparently parents felt that 49% of the autistics and none of the siblings had particularly foul-smelling poops. And another for the sleep question – this study found 51% of autistics and 7% of siblings had sleep problems, with sleep problems being more common in autistic kids with GI issues.
Stimming and Sensory-Seeking – I couldn’t find much. This study I found is interesting, but it’s about more OCD-like compulsions, not actually stimming.
Oh, here’s something. A big detailed review of neurophysiological findings of sensory processing in autism.
LGBT – I’ve written up stuff about this elsewhere, but in short, autistic people, especially AFAB autistics, are definitely more likely to be asexual, bisexual, kinky and trans. Some relevant studies here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, and there’s plenty more to be found.
Autistic Strengths – Well, Laurent Mottron and his team, including autistic rights advocate Michelle Dawson, have done a lot of research on what they term ‘enhanced perceptual functioning’, which they theorize explains the Block Design peak sometimes seen in autistic people. (Block Design is one of the subtests of the Weschler’s IQ test, and autistic people often show a relative strength on this test relative to other subtests on this test.) In general, I highly recommend looking at their research. It really shows what can happen when an autistic person gets involved in autism research.
This study by a different research team finds that children gifted in realistic still-life drawing have higher rates of repetitive behavior typical of autism (though none of their sample were actually autistic), and show similar visuospatial profiles to autistic kids.
This study finds that perfect pitch is associated with autistic traits. On the AQ, musicians with perfect pitch scored higher on the imagination and attention-switching subscales than musicians without perfect pitch and non-musicians. This study found a subset of autistic kids have extremely good pitch perception, with no relationship to musical training.
People in STEM fields are more likely to be autistic or have autistic relatives, especially mathematicians. (Which probably comes as no surprise to anyone who’s spent time in the math department of any university.) This study also finds that autistic kids tend to be better at math.
Sleep – as a couple studies above mentioned, sleep issues in autism could be related to melatonin metabolism or GI issues. This study found that 53% of autistic kids, 46% of kids with intellectual disabilities and 32% of NT kids have sleep problems. Autistic kids are both slower to fall asleep and more likely to wake up early than NT kids.
This study found a correlation between autistic traits and sleep problems in autistic kids. Repetitive behavior is related with being slower to get to sleep and not getting as many hours of sleep per night; communication problems are related to being slower to get to sleep, not getting as much sleep, and parasomnias (night terrors, restless leg syndrome, etc); and social differences are related to being slower to get to sleep, not getting as much sleep, waking up at night, parasomnias and breathing problems while sleeping.
This study found a strong correlation between sleep problems and sensory hypersensitivity among autistic kids. And this study found that autistic and/or intellectually disabled kids showed strong correlations between poor sleep, anxiety and behavior problems.
And this study found that 67.9% of autistic kids have sleep problems, and parents of kids with sleep problems were under more stress. Boys and younger children had more sleep problems.
Joint problems – This study found that people with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that causes joint hypermobility, were more likely to be autistic. (And also to have mood disorders and attempt suicide.)
This study suggests that people with joint hypermobility have larger amygdala and various other brain structural differences, which was correlated with anxiety and higher sensitivity to internal body sensations. And this study found that 31.5% of people with ADHD and 13.9% of NTs have benign joint hypermobility syndrome.
Faceblindness – This study confirms that prosopagnosia (faceblindness) is more common among autistic people, with 67% having some degree of facial recognition difficulties.
This study reviews three theories about why autistic people have prosopagnosia, and concludes that the most likely of the three theories is the idea that avoiding eye contact impairs face recognition.
This study found that autistic people are slower to notice faces in scenes, and pay less attention to faces.
The last two questions I’m not really sure where to start.
“When we step back and ask, “What does everyone with ADHD have in common, that people without ADHD don’t experience?” a different set of symptoms take shape.
From this perspective, three defining features of ADHD emerge that explain every aspect of the condition:
1. an interest-based nervous system
2. emotional hyperarousal
3. rejection sensitivity”
Oh
I’m reblogging first, then clicking through to read the article (less likely to lose it or forget to do either), but just from the piece quoted – oh. Yes. That does lay it out rather succinctly, doesn’t it?
I needed this when I was fucking TEN.
Interesting fact: this article was written by Dr Dodson, who introduced the term ‘RSD’ for ADHD.
ADHD is related to several sleep problems, but the most frequent seems the delayed sleep phase syndrome, a disturbance of the circadian rhythm. Research of children and adults with ADHD (when compared to controls) shows that the majority of these individuals has a late sleep onset that is associated with a late onset of the sleep hormone melatonin (van der Heijden et al, 2005; van Veen et al, 2010). Melatonin is produced by the pineal gland in the brain when it is getting dark in the evening, and we wake up by light in the morning. The onset of the melatonin production helps to fall asleep. For most adults the onset of melatonin is around 9.30 pm; in ADHD children compared to controls this occurs at least 45 minutes later, and in adults with ADHD even 90 minutes (van der Heijden ea, 2005; van Veen ea 2010). After melatonin onset, it normally takes 2 hours to fall asleep, but in adults with ADHD it takes at least 3 hours (Bijlenga et al, 2013). So it does make sense that so many people with ADHD have difficulty falling asleep on time. This late onset of melatonin is driven by genes that regulate the biological clock, and those genes have been linked psychiatric disorders like ADHD and bipolar disorder (Landgraf et al, 2014). What the exact relationship is between this late sleep pattern and ADHD is still unknown.
Does anybody have any writing tips for adhd writers?
@quousque Do you have any helpful tips or resources?
@bookcaseninja @kingarthurscat hmmmm depends on what I’m writing, but I do have a bunch of methods that I’ve worked out that really help. Since most of what I write is academic papers (thanks, college), that’s what I have the most developed method for, but I do have strategies for fiction writing, too.
General tips:
#1 tip is meds. It’s nigh impossible to write anything when you can’t focus for longer than like 8 seconds. Me without meds = 2 sentences per hour. Me with meds = four hours writing continuously, end result is 20 pages of Iliad Sci-Fi AU.
#2 is, if you happen to hit that Hyperfocus Highway, and you’re writing something that’s vaguely close to what you’re supposed to be writing, ride that train until it fucking dies. A 25-page data-driven research paper isn’t quite the 7-10 page research-based persuasion essay I was assigned, but hey, it’s a complete assignment, and turning something in is better than turning nothing in.
#3, kill the perfectionist, or at least dodge them. Don’t have the perfect way to phrase something? Use parenthesis, or a different font color, and paraphrase what you want to say. My rough drafts are full of things like “hurrr something about how the prospective aspect /= imminent future” and “character x says something heartfelt here that makes character y mad”.
#4. Environment. Pay attention to what distracts you when you write, and design an environment where those things aren’t present. I have a really hard time writing anything in my own home or on my own computer, so I use google docs and the library for everything. This works really well, especially since I can’t remember by tumblr password so I can’t log on on the library computers, lol. There are internet blocking apps that block certain webpages or the entire internet for a set period of time. I once found a program that, once opened, won’t close or minimize until you’ve written a set number of words.
Random environmental tips that work for me:
-standing desk, or sitting on an exercise ball.
-white noise. There’s tons of white noise generators online.
-egg timer. If I’m having trouble with distractions or spending too long on one thing, having the constant soft ticking of the egg timer really helps, since the sound isn’t too distracting, but is just distracting enough to remind me that time is a thing that is actively passing.
#5. Don’t know what words to write next? Talk out loud. Or whisper, if you’re in the library. Seriously, read aloud what you’ve last written and then continue on with whatever you want to say next, letting yourself phrase it however it comes naturally. Write down what you say, even if it’s full of umms and likes, even if it’s shit, and edit it later.
#6. set tiny, tiny, goals, and do them one at a time. I’ll write out overviews of scenes, or, when I’m writing papers for classes, of individual paragraphs. The overview is basically one sentence or sentence fragment that states the main point, and a list of everything I need to make sure to include in that scene/paragraph. Then, I take each goal individually, one at a time. I don’t have to write a paper proving x thesis, I just have to write a paragraph explaining what I mean by “Scylla is a vagina metaphor”. If I do that enough, I suddenly have an entire paper.
My process for writing academic papers:
#1. Word vomit.
Open a new document and type everything you can think of onto the page. Talk about the prompt, your sources, your thoughts and opinions, whatever comes to mind. Opinions, especially, since that’s usually where your thesis ends up coming from. Get mad about it. Work yourself up. Yell about why everyone else is wrong about this topic, or why you’re right.
#2. Thesis and outline:
Read over your word vomit. Chances are, there’s a thesis somewhere in there. Your thesis is whatever you’re trying to prove, and your outline is why you’re right. Unless you’re completely pulling things out of your ass, “why you’re right” will be rooted in the text/sources you’re supposed to use. Now, write your thesis (aka your opinion), and make a list of reasons why you’re right.
E.G. “Obviously, x character is really feeling like (y) at this point in the book, because way back in chapter one, they said (blah blah blah), and later on they did (whatever), and when you put those two together, it’s like (this), and also because of (another reason).
That is a thesis, and four-ish sub-points. This is your outline. It doesn’t need to be any nicer than that. Make a new document, and put your thesis/outline there.
If you’re having trouble organizing it, figuring out what order your subpoints should come in, or even what your thesis really is, talk it out. Out loud. If you can’t find a willing victim to talk at, rubber duck it (i.e. grab a rubber duck or similar and explain it, out loud, to the duck).
#3: writing the body
Open a bunch of new documents, one for each sub-point in your outline. Copy-paste one sup-point into each document. Now, all you have to do is write several individual paragraphs explaining your subpoints. You’re not writing a whole essay (which is haaaard), and you don’t have to worry about what comes before or after each paragraph- that’s why you made an outline. Each document is its own isolated little task, and all you have to do is read that sentence, and spend a paragraph or two explaining what you mean by it. If you have any quotes or sources you think you’ll cite, copy/paste them into the document when you start.
#4. put it together
Once you have all your paragraphs written, copy/paste them into another doc, in order. Read it through, and add any transitions you need to make it flow. You might need to add a few more paragraphs or explanations, depending in how solid your outline was. Once you’ve done that, write your conclusion, then your introduction.
#5. Editing: Print your essay, and go at it with a pen/highlighter. Yes, you have to print it. Doing it physically makes it so much easier. While editing, I always create a to-do list, which includes things like, insert citations, format essay properly, make sure to re-phrase (x) paragraph, etc.
Read it out loud. It’s much easier to catch typos and awkward phrasing that way.
#6. While writing: keep the flow of writing. Don’t break it. If you know you need to cite a source for a certain statement, but can’t quite remember which one, just type (CITE) in place of a citation. You’ll come back in and fill it in later. Use ( ) or different text colors to mark where you think you need to go back and change later, but skip over whatever it is for now and just keep going.
Don’t let those random ideas die, or distract you! If you have an idea/thought, or think of something you need to do, but don’t want to break what you’re doing right then, either note it down in a separate doc as a to-do later, or change the font color to red and note it right in the middle of your draft.
#7 if you get stuck
ask yourself:
-What, precisely, am I stuck on? The phrasing of a sentence? The organization of this part? Some small task, such as looking up a quote? Framing your obstacle out loud in words can make it seem smaller and more conquerable.
-What is the next thing I need to do, right now, to make progress on this essay?
-If I’m truly stuck here, what other useful thing can I do, right now, to make progress?
Tips/strategies for writing stories:
My overall approach is basically a watered-down, less rigorous version of how I write academic papers. I word-vomit all about the story/idea I have, aiming to get at least a general plot overview. Then, I write a plot outline of the story, and break it into scenes. I make a new document for each scene, and put a bulleted list at the top of things to make sure to include in the scene, so that I can write each scene as its own individual unit, without having to constantly think about the whole product. Then I write!
I tend to produce pretty good prose on the first go-round, and I don’t spend a lot of time editing, because if I did, I’d never post anything. As my dad says, delivery is a feature! An imperfect product that is posted is infinitely better than a perfect product that no one ever sees.
I write good fiction prose because I read a lot of fiction prose, so I have a good innate understanding of what the kind of writing I want to produce looks like. When I want to describe something or narrate something, I have a general idea of what those parts of a story look like, so it’s easier for me to produce them on my own.
That being said, when editing, the #1 tip is still to read it aloud! You’ll easily catch any awkward phrases that way.
Motivation: ADHD brains are motivated by Interest, Challenge, Novelty, and Urgency. Waiting until the last minute to get that sweet, sweet Urgency Boost is not fun or healthy, so try to use one of the other ones. Interest is usually your best bet, especially when writing stories! Before you sit down to write, try to get excited. Read what you’ve already written, remind yourself why you wanted to tell this story in the first place, emotionally invest yourself in your characters. Read your outline/plan for the next scene, and get yourself excited to write it! If you can’t get excited about a scene, that’s a sign that that scene might just be boring- your readers probably won’t find it very interesting, either. Cut the scene, and try to fit any necessary plot info into a different scene (or just skip it altogether- readers are really good at filling in the blanks!)
Another way to motivate yourself is Tiny, Doable, Concrete, Time-Oriented Goals. I generally use this one more for academic papers than for stories, but it works for both. Set a small concrete goal with a solid endpoint (”generate preliminary outline” or “write this paragraph” is better than “write all body paragraphs”) Then, set yourself a time limit. 40 minutes is usually the max time limit that I find actually motivates me. Yours may be different (fyi the size of your tasks should be tailored to whatever time limit actually motivates you). Then, your only problem in life is to finish that task by the time limit, at which point, you’ll come up with the next task and a new time limit.
Ultra God Mode is creating an artificial sense of urgency to motivate yourself. I accomplish this with my Google Calendar, which I update twice a week (full disclosure: this is only possible for me because I have an ADHD coach, who sits me down and makes me update the calendar). I list everything I have to do for the week, generously estimate the time it’ll take, and literally schedule each individual thing on the calendar, including eating, laundry, etc. When I’m having trouble starting on or focusing on a task, I look at my calendar, and I can physically see the limited time that I have. There are big, colorful blocks filling up the whole page, and that makes it real to me that, if I don’t write this essay (that’s not due for a week) right now, in this block of time I have it scheduled for, there is literally no time for me to write it later, since the rest of the time is filled up with other stuff I have to do. So sometimes, I end up feeling that “due in five hours” urgency, a week before something is due!
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly:
ACCEPT AND CELEBRATE IMPERFECTION. I know I’ve talked about this above, but it really is true. This applies to everyone, but especially to people with ADHD. The sad reality of ADHD is that it is a disability, and our ideals and our goals will always be higher than what we can realistically achieve. And, since ADHD brains are incapable of emotional regulation, we are especially affected by feelings of failure. If you allow yourself to think of every missed goal or imperfect product as a failure, it’s gonna suck. Really hard. Allow yourself to re-define success. I might not have written the 50,000 word emotionally deep epic that I wanted to, but I published three chapters of a story that I wrote in my downtime, and I’m proud of that. I might not have updated that story in a month, but hey, I still published it. Be proud of what you do achieve, instead of beating yourself up for what you don’t.
On a more general note, the writing process is a physical thing that takes place on the page in front of you, especially for ADHD people. No one formulates the perfect writing piece all in their heads and then deposits it onto the page in the first go. Writing a whole bunch of shit says precisely nothing about you as a writer. Writing is a skill, and you’ll get a lot better at it by practicing a bunch of shit and meh writing, than by laboring to occasionally produce one perfect piece.
TL;DR: The general themes of all of my advice is break it down into tiny chunks, and get excited about it so you’re actually motivated to write, and learn how to call an imperfect product “good enough”.
Woot Woot!! I knew you were the one to ask! Thanks 😀
Adhd is not always genius level white boys whith tons of energy and fast reflexes
Sometimes it’s
Executive dysfunction so bad you couldnt shower for over a week
Or
A queer kid who thinks they’re broken because they dont fit the narritive.
Adhd is not always a gift in disguise, it can be debilitating
and alienating
and self esteem crushing.
How many times have you heard the phrase
“Not working to your full potential”?
Listen, im sorry if i didnt do my homework, but i didnt eat dinner until 11pm because i couldnt find the motivation to make anything.
I once repeatedly put off and forgot sending a thank you email to someone i had interviewed for a month.
It took me 3 weeks to make myself write a short essay, but once i did it, it took an hour. I got a 94% on the rubric, but failed because it was so late.
I have dealt with years of working through the voice in my head saying
Im lazy im lazy im lazy im bad im dirty im useless ill never amount to anything
Years of fear that i wont be able to survive on my own, that i’ll be too late and too disorganized and unmotivated.
I had to teach myself that motivation and productivity dp not define my worth. That being “lazy” doesnt make me less of a human being.
So sorry if your quirky hyper white boy narrative doesnt do it for me.
knitting in the dark 