by Rahma Mohamed
As a writer, I constantly come across writing advice on the web, from writers I know, or from any other number of sources. The advice usually varies and comes with a “it may or may not work for you, so figure out what works for you” caveat. However, one of the most common pieces of advice I’ve heard over the years is to write daily and consistently. I would hear it over and over again, but I would never be able to find the required discipline. Eventually, I gave up.
That same lack of discipline would bleed into other areas of my life. I would only rarely manage to start a long-term task and follow through with it until the end. I would start reading new books, then lose interest quickly. My notoriously slow reading speed did not help and I lacked the patience to keep reading until the book improved.
During school, it would always take me longer than most of my classmates to study for a test, due to a combination of perfectionism, distractibility, and simply needing more time to read the material and grasp it.
These issues made themselves more apparent recently. I struggled to make myself write without an external motivator. I was unable to read anymore, but not for lack of interest; my To-Be-Read pile continued to grow.
One day, Instagram fed me a reel as a suggestion (this will make sense soon, I promise). Until that point, I was never the person to watch reels or shorts, always preferring longer form videos. But that night, for whatever reason, I clicked. And I couldn’t stop clicking. I deeply saw myself in these videos and memes, I couldn’t hold back my tears. I was finally able to put a name to most of my struggles: ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).
I confided in one of my friends who was diagnosed with ADHD, and they proceeded to send me a lot of self-diagnostic tools. They all reached the same conclusion: I did, in fact, have ADHD. I dug deeper for weeks before I finally asked my doctor about it. I was referred me to a specialist, and my diagnosis was confirmed. To say it was validating would be an understatement. I finally pinned down the problem and could start addressing it.
Now you must be wondering what that has to do with writing. Remember the discipline, or lack thereof, that I mentioned earlier? Guess what, I was not broken. My brain simply worked differently. Discipline is indeed something that many people with ADHD struggle with. Most of the advice we read is geared towards neuro-typical people, so we neuro-divergent people need to address the problem differently and find ways to cultivate that discipline that actually work for us.
For example, I realised over the years that external motivators help me. If I placed a restriction on myself, it never worked. That restriction had to come from elsewhere, so I started putting myself in situations that forced me to write. I joined a weekly writing workshop where I was given a prompt and a timer and would have to come up with something in that time, and then read it aloud to everyone. It also helped me to start with small tasks first to build momentum. For instance, instead of getting distracted thinking about how a specific scene fits the overall narrative, focus on writing the scene first, then return and edit later. The first step to writing is to, well, write. You can’t edit what resides in your head. So put it down on that paper (or word processor) first, no matter how messy it is. You don’t even need complete or grammatically correct sentences yet.
With all of that said, I’m still figuring out what other strategies work for me. The goal of this post is to put into words what I, and surely many other writers, are going through. You are not broken. You got this. By identifying the problem, you’re already halfway there.
I would also like to direct you to this guest post by author Johne Cook on the Helping Writers Become Authors blog: Writers With ADHD: Strategies for Navigating the Writing Process – Helping Writers Become Authors. It’s a valuable collection of insights and resources. Most importantly, remember: there is no one universal strategy that works for everyone, even within the ADHD community, so don’t feel discouraged if you try some of them and they don’t help you. Know you’re not alone, and keep going. The world can’t wait to read your story!
Rahma Mohamed graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor degree in Materials Engineering. Rahma has a strong interest in reading, editing, and writing, with plans to become a certified copy-editor. Rahma’s favourite authors include Nina LaCour, Neal Shusterman, and Amal El-Mohtar. Rahma’s other interests include listening to music (a lot of music).
The views and opinions expressed in blog posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of all WiT members.
Writers In Trees 