7 Hacks to Writing with ADHD in the Real World
In one of my favorite children’s books, Llama Llama Holidays by Anna Dewdney, Baby Llama basks in the build-up of excitement about the season until he is utterly overwhelmed. In a fit of overstimulation, he swoons. Mama Llama helps him reset and reengage.
Being a writer with off-the-charts ADHD is a lot like this. The creative process sweeps me away. I am ON. The tide rises, the winds of imagination gust, and I am GONE. Sometimes I go on a great internal adventure and even take notes! Most of the time, however, these episodes leave me overwhelmed and creatively paralyzed.
They can take hours or months to resolve naturally, and the frustration is a drug all its own. Over the years, I’ve tried different methods to deal with this, including medications, writing retreats, and accountability. To be honest, none of these turned out to be a magic pill. Rather, there are a number of methods that, when strung together, created a sort of creative trampoline spanning the chasm of distraction that is my brain.
These methods have had a wonderful side affect. As life has gone on and my family has grown, it’s become more important for me to be productive in short bursts. So, these 7 hacks to writing with ADHD work great for just about anyone. But for us neurodivergent folk, it’s gold.
1. Do the Dishes
Start with a sense of accomplishment. Find a small task that’s easy to finish (5-15 minutes) and see it through to completion. Hit the hyper focus button and get sh*t done! Make this a ritual. That way, when you’re halfway through a chapter an hour later and your brain screams, “Did you do the dishes?” You can just say yes and move on. Whatever that thing is that will try to snap the threads of inspiration and productivity, make that your “dishes” that you tackle before sitting down to write.
2. Slay Distractions
This ties into hack one. If you’re just getting started, there will be LOTS of distractions. Pick one to three and deal with them. Get the mail. Dust the desk. Turn off your phone’s notifications. Eliminate the things that will pop up during your creativity time to pull you away from the page/screen. Make this a ritual so that, over time, less things pop up during your dedicated writing time.
3. Create a Writing Time
Structure for the ADHD person is both a boon and a bane. We need it, but good grief are we bad at it. Schedule your writing time. Make it a recurring event. Build a habit (see the theme here?). Treat this time as sacred. If you’ve been chipping away at distractions, this WILL get easier. Start with 20 minutes. I recommend starting small because the point here is to build habits that allow you to write more often and more regularly. For most people, four hours is out of the question. So sacrifice some TikTok scrolling time and get writing!
4. Create a Writing Space
To the great annoyance of my whole family, my laptop lives on the ottoman in front of my living room chair. I will die on this hill. This place works for me. It’s where I’ve programed my brain to recognize it’s time to write. Create a space that can be yours. This could be your bed, your couch, or your favorite coffee shop (if you have the time and the $$). Personally, I like my living room spot because it allows me to micro-dose my creativity.
Play inspirational music. Space isn’t just about where you sit. Its about the energy around you. For me, putting on earbuds is like stepping into another dimension. It totally reorients my mind and body. …And I can’t hear my kids screaming in the yard.
5. Pick a Goal
Let’s be honest. This is where everything falls apart. Paralysis by analysis. There’s just too much, or not enough. Our ADHD brains cringe at the word “goal.” Here’s a tip: start small. Brainstorm a title, an opening line, the name of a river on your fantasy map. Write down your goal and see where it takes you. At the end of your writing time, go back and see if you accomplished that goal, or if the winds of creativity took you in a different direction. Either way, if there are words on the page, call it a success.
You see, the goal you set is just a starting place. It’s meant to focus you and get you started, not to dictate what path you take. Some people find a word count goal helpful. I personally find more abstract goals such as writing a character’s backstory as something that jives more with my creative process. You do you.
6. Celebrate
You got through the 10 minutes out of the 20 you originally set. That’s great! No, seriously. If you spent half of your originally designated time diligently writing, you’ve been productive. Have a treat! I like to make myself a chai tea.
7. Take a Walk
The timer went off. The kids are crying. The house might be on fire. It’s time to turn off the hyper focus and get back to the real world. I find that a short walk or getting back to the rest of the dishes in the sink help to pull me down from my creative high. Yes, my mind will buzz with ideas for the rest of the day, but I will carry on knowing that I chipped away at my writing and can get back into it during my next writing stint.
As I said before, there is no magic pill (no, not even meds). ADHD can make some parts of this process difficult. But for me, it’s also sort of a super power. I have dozens of novel ideas simmering in the back of my mind. I used to freak out about writing them all down. But I’ve found that, over the years, the truly good ideas stick around and percolate until they’re great, and the bad ideas fall away.
There are so many other factors that make writing with ADHD challenging, and so many creative ways to deal with them. But this is a blog post, not a book, so I will end it here.
Stay inspired and keep writing!