Tips and Tricks for Writing With ADHD

We all face different challenges as writers, so of course there are many different strategies you can try to bring your story to completion. If you’re a writer with ADHD, NaNoWriMo participant Lila Krishna has a few tips and tricks you can try to stay focused:

As a teenager, I’d begin a new novel once every few months. By 20, I had under my belt 17 different first chapters, around 8 second chapters—and little else. A decade later, I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Shocker, I know. 

While ADHD is one of the most well-documented mental health issues, a task like writing brings with it some unique challenges. Its unstructured nature is both a blessing and a curse for those of us who are neuro-atypical. 

Here are some common problems I came across in my journey as a writer with ADHD. These issues are some that are common across the writing community, but those of us with ADHD often need to go above and beyond commonly-offered answers to find long-lasting and sustainable solutions that make writing an easier, less-frustrating, and more productive hobby. 

Problem: Help! I go down internet rabbit holes a lot while writing! 

This is a problem all of us doing any kind of desk job face. However, when interrupted, the ADHD mind requires more time and energy to context-switch. Recovering from interruptions takes us much longer, and we are less effective for several minutes after an interruption. We also find it harder to resist temptations, or switch back to working after a bout of TVTropes.com. 

Solution 1: Turn off the internet while writing. It’s difficult at first, but after a few times, it’s not as bad. There’s several browser extensions, like StayFocusd, and apps like AppBlock which can automate periods of internet-free writing. Using these, you don’t need to make those decisions in the moment, which frees up significant cognitive energy. 

Power through moments where you need to research something with filler words and descriptions. I like marking these with < and > symbols, like <insert phrase a shocked Russian grandma would say>. Then, you can go through each of these when you get back your internet access to research and fill in each of these. 

Solution 2: Use an app like StayOnTask, which checks up on you at random times to see if you’re staying on task. Often, in our web surfing reverie, we need such an interruption o tell us to ‘Get back to work right away!’. 

Solution 3: Whenever you stop writing, quickly jot down the time and the reason you stopped. Also include a brain dump of what you were trying to complete, and the ideas you had. This way, when you finally get your child’s diaper changed, or get off the phone with that telemarketer, you can jump right back in without as big an effort. 

Solution 4: Sometimes, these steps aren’t sufficient. For a radical solution, have a ‘body double’ with you, whose presence or words serve as a reminder to stay the course. My husband isn’t a writer, but I began shouting out to him each time I stopped writing with the reason for my interruption, and that by itself helped me stay accountable and return to my writing. 

Problem: Help! I get bored with my ideas, and never see them through to completion! 

Apparently I’m not the only one with First Chapter Syndrome. There’s something about the zillion interesting possibilities that a first chapter brings with it that gets my pulse racing. That same something also makes me want to abandon those zillion possibilities the moment I hit a roadblock, like a week of deadlines at work, or getting stuck on a plot point, or when I come across another idea with its own zillion interesting possibilities. 

With ADHD, new ideas are always tempting and distracting me, which means I’ll rarely come back to an old, stale idea. Each idea only can sustain me for a limited time horizon, which often isn’t long enough to see the idea through. 

Solution: Set clear goals, and shorten your time horizon. 

Let’s say you want to write a short story. Set your word limit to be, say, 3,000 words, and then set a short time horizon, say, a week, to complete it. Put that week on your calendar. 

Or if it’s a novel you have in mind, set your word limit to be, say, 50,000 words, and then set a short time horizon, like a month, to complete it in. Then schedule that month on your calendar, in, say, November. 

For the duration of this short time horizon, make this goal IMPORTANT!!! Buy yourself a new notebook, or a new pen, or a Scrivener subscription, or heck, a cake, to make this goal seem special, and stand out in your mind for you. 

This keeps the exciting distraction of a new idea away, because your goal is very much within reach, and what’s more, IT’S SPECIAL!!! 

Sometimes, 50,000 words might be too much or too far away a goal, so shorten it to 30,000 or even 20,000 words. The focus is on regular, easy wins, which can keep the momentum going.

For July’s Camp NaNoWriMo, I set a goal of 20,000 words on my new novel idea. I not only achieved my goal, but also exceeded it by 5,000 words. I now have 17 chapters of a novel written, and now I’m invested and confident enough that I can easily do 25,000 more and see this project through to completion! 

For the creative person with ADHD, writing can be a great way to see through at least a few of the gazillion ideas that run through our mind. All we need is a little bit of creative problem solving to make it a more fulfilling and productive practice. 

Lila Krishna is a San Francisco-based writer and programmer, with an abiding interest in tailoring productivity strategies for those with mental health issues. She writes fiction at the intersection of tech, women, and society, with a focus on the experience of Indians in America. She tweets at @lilastories and blogs at www.medium.com/@lilastories

Top photo by Julia Joppien on Unsplash.