@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.
#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:Â
-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:
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.Â
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.Â
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).
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.
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.
-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.Â
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”.Â
