Get It Done
In my writing group on Sunday, someone said that they were struggling with finishing things, and needed some practical guidance, if anyone had any. I said that I’d write down some things that had helped me recently, and… it turns out I have a few useful answers. Somehow I’ve been training myself to finish things this year as well as challenging my RSD by making lots of submissions (and getting rejected a lot - there are entire graphs of how rejected I’ve been; it’s exciting!)?
Anyway, as a perfectionist with ADHD, I have developed a number of mechanisms for Just Write The Thing (and specifically: just finish the thing), so hopefully there are some that will help others:
Very Short Deadlines: As in: hours, or maybe a day. If it’s not done by then it’s unusable, let’s go!
External Short Deadlines: Find places that are asking for e.g. monthly or weekly submissions and write towards those.
Bonus External Limitations: Find places with strict themes, vibes, genres, etc. The more limitations, the easier it is to create something that’s done.
This might seem antithetical, but I think of it as useful for early phase skill-acquiring: Don’t Ask for Feedback from Others: The dopamine hit needs to come purely from finishing the thing, not from others’ approval, etc.
Time-Limited (Inter)National Challenges: NaPoWriMo and NaNoWriMo are good (free) ones, as is NYC Midnight (very much not free, but well-organised, and you get feedback) and others of its ilk. Not only do you not have time to worry about perfection, but finishing is the entire point. Also: you know that there are plenty of others taking part in the same struggle.
Have A Measurement System: I have a spreadsheet of pieces I have finished (and even some that are substantially done, like novellas, etc., but they don’t get charted), and these things feed graphs that I can look at and get satisfaction from as they grow. Again: helps you get the reward sensation from finishing.
Report Having Finished Works: I’ve started doing that this year – I get the spreadsheet to code me up how that would look on discord, and I copy and paste that into the channel called “creative wins” on the Allographic discord so that, again, the dopamine of people’s approval comes from me having finished. See also: submitting works.
And this one comes from a friend of the person who posed the query in the first place: Don’t Tell People About That Great Idea You’ve Had – you’ll get the dopamine hit from them saying “ooh, cool idea!” and then you may well lose the impetus to actually write and complete it.
While methods like sprints (whether solo or body-doubling) are good for getting words on the page, they’re not as useful for getting to the “hooray it’s done!” part. What you need to do is find rewards for the done aspect, and that’s mostly what the above do, at least for me. If none of these specifically work for you, finding the equivalent that does may well help.
If you have any more you’d like to share, please let me know!
