Too Long; Didn’t Read: ADHD Writing Strategies That Actually Work

Every day, a new writing manual is published.. There are thousands of books and articles on writing, but no one tells you that most of that advice is tailored for Neurotypical people by neurodivergent people. If you have ADHD, a lot of that writing advice will be completely useless to you. You are piecing together writing methods by yourself, and that can be both isolating and frustrating.

Lucky for you, I am going to give you some ADHD writing tips and tricks that will make publishing your novel so much easier.

Break It Down

Have you ever received a huge task and immediately panicked and walked away? I know I do all the time. But the track to combat this is by simply breaking down your task into smaller tasks and building on that. For example, I don’t go into any of the books that I write with the goal of writing 50,000 words. What I do is set my word goals to 5,000 words and then slowly build up as my manuscript grows.

5,000 words turn into 10,000 then to 20,000 until before you know it? I have a 50,000 word document. Breaking goals into smaller obtainable goals really helped propel my writing goals.

I also do this with outlining and with writing my books. I will break down my story into acts (usually 3 or 4 acts) and then outline the story by acts and then write it out an act at a time.

Edit as You Go

The most common advice for new writers is to wait until they are finished with a draft before editing. But I don’t know about you? Seeing a bunch of squiggly red lines under your words is the quickest way to get me to run for the hills. What I do is that I write one day, and the next day I re-read, edit, and revise my words from the previous day. This not only saves time by allowing me to re-read my words so I get back into the mindset I need to write, but it cuts down on editing time.

Gamify It

As someone with ADHD, I need a deadline. Giving me all the time in the world to do something is the quickest way for me never to do it at all. I have found gamifying my writing is the best way to incentivize myself into meeting my deadlines. The first thing you have to do is give yourself a reasonable deadline and then reward yourself for meeting that deadline.

One of my favorite rewards is 30 minutes reading a favorite book or a fanfic. I also like to give myself candy as well for doing well.

Another way to incentivize meeting your deadlines is to get an accountability buddy. My writing group and I used to do Saturdays in which we got on Zoom and just wrote for an hour. You can do sprints as well with other writing friends, or ask family and friends to do check ins with you.

Give Your Self Grace

And if you did all of this and you still didn’t meet your writing goals? Then that is alright! Give yourself grace. You are a human, and sometimes, shit just happens? Take a deep breath and try again. You will meet your goals, eventually!

And those are my tips for ADHD writers! What do you think? Do you have a tip that worked for you? Let me know in the comments!

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