Tips For Writing With ADHD

Start romanticizing chaos…

Messy notes, hundred of tags on books, a desk covered with papers of different subjects, unsolved math problems and unfinished projects.

STOP BEING SELF CONSCIOUS ABOUT YOUR CREATIONS STOP SECOND GUESSING WHAT YOU REALLY WANNA DO STOP DEBATING IT'S WORTH. LET YOUR ART SERVE YOU INSTEAD OF THE OTHER WAY AROUND

Here's the ADHD Checklist! I finally made it, it's originally from this post. But I've put it in a more easy to read manner.

Requested by: @partykeet I hope this helps!

If you don't know if you have ADHD or not but have an inkling you might, these are important questions to consider when self diagnosing and researching into the disorder!

Executive Dysfunction

Do you struggle with getting things done?

Do you mean to do it and you don’t?

Do you feel overwhelmed by trying to do it?

Do you forget to do it?

Do you feel like you can’t for whatever reason?

Emotional Dysregulation

Are you often told you’re overemotional?

Are you told you overreact?

Do you feel like you can’t control your emotions?

Do you often go from one emotion to the next?

Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD)

Do you react strongly without meaning to?

Do you get really depressed after wearing yourself out?

Do you feel awful after someone’s criticized you?

Do you often spiral when something goes wrong?

Do you feel like you can perk back up when that person asks you what’s wrong?

Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome

Do you have a hard time waking up?

Do you have a hard time going to bed?

Do you have very vivid dreams?

Are you aggressive and irritable when someone wakes you up (for like, school)?

Do you struggle keeping a consistent sleep schedule over vacation or summer break, even on the weekends?

Inattention(Dissociation) and Hyperfocus

Do you often zone out?

Do you daydream?

Do you get disinterested often?

Do you feel like you can multitask (listen to music and read at the same time)?

Do you get so absorbed in something that when you return to reality, hours have passed by?

Hyperfixation and Emotional Hyperarousal

Do you have “obsessions” or things that feel incredibly pleasurable/taste good when you interact with them?

Do you have a loud mind that runs a thousand miles a minute?

Do you feel overwhelmed or stressed out by your mind?

Do you overthink or overanalyze things?

Is your head really foggy or thoughts blurry?

Working Memory, Inattention and Object Permanence

Do you seem to have memory problems?

Like you cant remember something someone told you to do (homework, chores)?

Or you easily lose things, having it just been there?

Do you forget that things exist after having them put away?

Do you forget important things like birthdays, dates and numbers, but remember other “trivial” things?

Do you have a hard time remembering the past or your childhood?

Stimulation and Stimming

Does listening to music help you get things done?

Do you need to watch something while you’re eating and get distracted if you don’t?

Do you feel dissociated or distracted when you can’t listen to music or have your phone out?

Do you constantly fidget, shake your legs, play with parts of things?

Do you feel like if you try to stop fidgeting, you’ll feel an urge to do it more?

Do you have a million phone games?

Do you feel like some games aren’t enough to play on their own but some are too much that you can’t focus on anything else?

"Money Blindness" and Impulsivity

Do you have trouble with money when given control over it?

Do you spend money on things other people find pointless or useless?

Do you have trouble with microtransactions?

Do you feel like when you buy something that you’ll have enough money left for things you need?

Are you often broke? Especially if you claimed that you would save money?

Do you often feel like the consequences of buying something aren't that serious?

Time Blindness

Do you have a hard time keeping track of time?

Do you feel like you’re often late to things?

If not, do you have anxiety, and often panic about the time?

Do you often have a hard time keeping a schedule?

Do people say you have poor time management skills, but no matter what you do, you can’t fix it?

Habits, Executive Dysfunction and Disorganization

Do you have poor hygiene?

Do you struggle to remember to brush your teeth?

Is it hard taking a bath/shower? If so, does it take a long time to get into the bath or shower?

If left to your own devices do you wear the same outfit for days?

Do you often look disheveled despite trying to be organized and clean?

Do you often rub off makeup or have messy hair?

Do you try to be organized but no matter what, you can’t?

Boundaries, RSD, and Volume Control

Do you struggle with boundaries?

Do you have a hard time controlling your volume (either too loud or too quiet)?

Do you feel like you’ve ruined everything when someone tells you that you did something wrong?

Do you think you’ve offended people when you haven't?

Do you have a hard time judging reality correctly (like you think you’ve offended or hurt someone and you feel awful but it didn’t bother them that much)?

Disclaimer: Don't say someone who self diagnoses is faking. If you relate to these questions and symptoms, you definitely are not faking. ADHD is a disability that is incredibly hard to manage. People who have it don't like it as they have likely struggled all their life. Being undiagnosed and unmedicated is damaging and traumatizing. Be kind to people, especially if they don't have access to medical help.

summer reading list(2024)

the nightstand pile

The Hunger Games Trilogy If we Were Villians A Good Girls Guide To Murder Trilogy 5 Survive Bunny Dune All The Light We Cannot See The Illiad

need annotate

everything i never told you

rumblefish

taming the star runner

that was then and this was now

summer reading list

everything i never told you- finished

that was then and this was now-finished

elena vanishing- finished

hench-annotating

the hunger games- rereading series

song of achillies

a good girls guide to murder

my year of rest and felatation

the foxhole court

the sunshine court

circe

the illiad

all your twisted lies

the raven cycle series

5 survive

they both die at the end

dune

bunny

all the light we cannot see

No longer human

the girls i’ve been

all the young dudes trilogy

things have gotten worse since we've last spoke

a little life

a song of ice and fire

hope and other luxuries

anne of green gables

the idealist

dark rise

six of crows series

little fires everywhere

neon gods

red queen series

the perks of being a wallflower

Jane Austen really said ‘I respect the “I can fix him” movement but that’s just not me. He’ll fix himself if knows what’s good for him’ and that’s why her works are still calling the shots today.

i hate how you get desensitized to the cool stuff in your WIP if you've been writing it for a long time so when you read back over it you're like "this isn't as cool as i thought :(" but it still is! you just read it too many times

your writing doesn’t have to be perfect. it just has to make someone feel something.

Some free or inexpensive comprehensible input, audio and video lessons, and listening practice stuff for popular languages because idk I felt like googling some stuff today

Arabic: Yale k-16 interactive reading, Arabic Comprehensible, Egyptic

Bengali: Bangla Shekho, Bengali Fairy Tales

Chinese (Mandarin): Comprehensible Chinese, hackingchinese.com, Acquire Mandarin, Comprehensible Mandarin, Blabla Chinese, Easy Mandarin, Mandarin Click

English: English Comprehensible input for ESL beginners, Dreaming English, EnglishClass101, British Council LearnEnglish, News in Slow English

French: French Comprehensible Input, alice ayel, Easy French, innerfrench.com, Little Talk in Slow French, Francais Authentique

German: DW Learn German, Naturlich German, Comprehensible German, Easy German, Löwenzahn, Deutsch Direkt, Learn German With Falk

Greek (modern): Natural Languages TRPS Greek, Helinka, Hellinic American Union, Easy Greek, Greekpod101

Greek (ancient): Easy Latin (Greek Course), Alpha With Angela (biblical [Kione] Greek), Chihon Teaches, Ancient Greek in Action, Athenaze

Hebrew: The Hebrew Adventure, Free Hebrew (Biblical Hebrew), Hebrew Time, thehebrewcafe.com

Hindi: Comprehensible Hindi, HindiPod101, Hindi TV, Easy Hindi

Hungarian: FluentBox, Magyar Hungarian, Speak Hungarian With Angie, Easy Hungarian,

Icelandic: Icelandic For Foreigners, icelandiconline.com, Ylhyra, Viltu laera islensku,

Italian: Italian For Americans, Easy Italian, Learn Italian With Lucrezia, teacherstefano.com

Japanese: Comprehensible Japanese, DailyJapanese, Akane Japanese Class, iroironanihongo, Japanese Immersion With Asami, Speak Japanese Naturally, Learn Japanese with Tanaka san,

Korean: Comprehensible Input Korean, Korean Patch, Immersion in Korean, Intuit Korean, Learn Korean in Korean, Hello Jadoo, MAVOCA, Storytime in Korean, Talk to Me in 100% Korean

Latin: Easy Latin, ScorpioMartianus, Quomodo Dicitur?, Found In Antiquity, The London Latin Course

Portuguese: Teach Yourself Portuguese, The Sounds of Portuguese, Portuguese With Leo, Easy Portuguese

Russian: Comprehensible Russian, Easy Russian, About Russian in Russian, Russian With Max, Russian from Russia, Real Russian Club

Spanish: Dreaming Spanish, Teacher Catalina. Hola Spanish, Easy Spanish,

I love that every time I find a marauders fic they'll mention not supporting jkr. Buddy you're writing about "what if sirius's dead brother was trans and wanted to bang harry's dead dad" we know you don't <3

Why Originality in Writing Isn't Always Possible

I was writing for years before I encountered a problem with writing as a whole—that most ideas have already been published.

When someone first told me that though, they said it like, "You'll never think of something that hasn't already been written."

The phrasing makes it sound like all story ideas are a waste of your time. I began spiraling. I researched every short story I'd ever written. I looked up books similar or identical to other books I loved.

Turns out, that person was right.

Sort of.

New Ideas Are Old News

Think about how long humanity has existed. Think about the many experiences that generations have shared—love, loss, happiness, adventure, self-growth, your coming-of-age years.

Story ideas inspired by whatever you go through in life have likely already been lived or thought of, given the trillions of people who have walked this planet and interacted with each other.

BUT

Originality Doesn't Only Come From Ideas

This is what I wish someone had told me back when I was spiraling.

I'll say it again for those in the back—

Originality Doesn't Only Come From Ideas

It also comes from your voice and your perspective!

Voice can feel tricky to grasp when you're starting out as a writer. Everyone can throw a few words on a page. How do you know what your voice sounds like and if readers will respond well to it?

Imagine two friends going on a trip. They do everything together. They sit on the beach, they eat lunch at a restaurant, and watch a movie before heading home. Then they each journal about their day in notebooks.

Those entries would look nothing alike! One friend might relax on the beach and feel so at peace that they take a nap, while another gets sunburned easily and hides under their umbrella with a scowl. Both ultimately enjoyed their day for different reasons. The beach lover got time by the ocean and the other friend who liked the beach much less fell in love with a new dish at the restaurant because they're a foodie.

You'll also frame your stories differently than any other writer. Like accents change the way every person speaks out loud, writers structure sentences and describe things/events/emotions very differently.

These may seem like insignificant details that set stories apart, but they make all the difference.

Think about Homer’s Odyssey. Circe is a minor character in the long tale and basically gets about a minute of the reader's time before Odysseus moves on to the next phase of his journey home. In Madeline Miller's Circe, the goddess becomes the main character and the ultimate portrayal of fear, rage, hurt and healing that are universally experienced but are especially true to the female experience.

Both stories follow the same timeline, so readers don't pick them up to necessarily get surprised by something Brand New to Literature™. Instead, they read direct retellings to learn from the characters in new ways, live momentarily through someone else's eyes, and bond over another aspect of the human experience.

Circe is an incredible work of art. Your idea—whether it's a direct retelling, indirect retelling, or full of literary devices from previous works—can be incredible too.

How Do You Know Which Ideas Are Worth Writing?

If a story idea doesn't immediately make you jump for your computer or a pen/paper, is it worth writing? My best advice is to sit with it.

Some of my best work has come from stories that got to marinate. I put them in the back of my mind and thought about the characters or themes or plot when something sparked another idea. By the time I started typing, the story was more vivid than when I first though of it.

But also, I have probably twenty failed ideas for every story I've written.

Give yourself time to get to know your ideas. If they're worth your time, they'll sit with you too.