alexseanchai | (no subject)

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writing

(no subject)

REQUESTING ANSWERS FROM: autistic and/or ADHD artists, especially novelists and other writers of book-length projects

DISALLOWING ANSWERS FROM: neurotypicals

QUERY: How does one stay on task for enough months to complete a large project? A novel draft, for instance?

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I think my answer basically boils down to "hyperfocus".

But what really helps me with writing in specific - and this may be personal - is having my weekly writing meetup to go to and having non-judgemental cheerleaders to read along as I write. I wouldn't write anything much longer than about 10k without my cheer squad, I don't think! Having that impetus of "let me read more please!" really helps to keep me writing.

Now, editing is a different matter, I haven't cracked THAT puzzle yet...

Hyperfocus is basically how I write, yes. It is good for things I can finish in three sittings tops.

I am not Start NaNoWriMo On Nov 30, Win Same asshole, though. Not even if we swap in '28' for '30'.

The problem with writing meetups is, they all seem to meet weekday evenings, when I am fucking working. Is AUGH.

Thank you, and luck with editing

ADHD here. Externally-imposed deadlines. I can't set them myself, because I'll just blow through them, but if I manage to arrange things so that someone else is depending on me, or some such like that, then it's much easier.

Hyperfocus is good for short projects, but I can't keep it up for weeks or months.

Noted, thank you :)

I don't think that'll work for me, because college assignment deadlines didn't work so hot for me? But also my ADHD was not diagnosed nor medicated when I was in college...?

Yeah, may be not. :) College deadlines worked for me, although what they meant was I knew which day I'd actually start the thing (the day before). Once I realized that research+writing for me took up 1 hour for every page (i.e. a 5-page paper would take me 5 hours), it got even worse because I could judge to the minute when I needed to crack open a book.

XD omg wow

half convinced "learn study skills" is code for "don't be ADHD" tbh

Yup. One of the reasons I'm annoyed at my mom is that she didn't tell me her secret to college until near the last test of my last semester of grad school: she (we think is probably also ADHD, but never diagnosed) typed up all her notes after class. So I tried that for my last final and aced it, and then was hopping mad that I spent four years of undergrad and two years of grad school vainly attempting to study when I could have just typed my notes into the computer and learned them that way.

My second stint of grad school was library school, where we wrote papers and did projects instead of having formal tests, for the most part, so it didn't come up. But by then I was also experimenting with not taking notes at all in class, since I can't write and listen at the same time, and I think I got more retention of data from that. (Don't think that would work for a practical subject like language or math class, but for a more theoretical subject, sure.)

I don't. I wander off and come back repeatedly. Fits and starts and bursts and rests. The trick is keeping motivation to go back.

Don't think that would work for you, though.

Probably not, no. :( Thanks, though

Yeah, "I don't" is my take too. I always have at least two projects going on which I have no deadlines, and I play with them as the fancy takes me, and over time they creep toward completion.

*nod nod* Thanks :)

I wish I knew! I do well with external schedules like work and school. And I've historically been able to self-motivate well over the course of a vacation, provided the time off is long enough to let me pay back the spoon debt of tiredness from just functioning in roles & structures designed for neurotypical folks during busy times, and that I'm not suffering badly from anxiety.

But I've never. Finished. A really long-term project!!! Worked on something creative regularly, sure. Finished a small thing, or even a big one I worked on it a concentrated burst of time, sure. Turned in something for a deadline, sure. But set my *own* deadline for a really long thing and actually met it? Not yet. We'll see how much I can bang up that limitation and bend it into a pretzel to get it out of my way, in months to come.

I wish you luck.

Thank you :)

Best luck with your own projects!

ADHD, and the only thing I’m finding that works is to have two projects going at once. Diametrically opposed projects. So that I can work on one for a few days or however long the hyperfocus lasts, and when I fall off the bus with that one then the other one is different enough that I migrate over to it and re-engage. Wash, rinse, repeat. Takes twice as long to write, but I’m at least continuously writing instead of falling completely off the wagon and losing several days/a week/a month obsessively focused on doing something that isn’t writing at all.

(By diametrically opposed, I mean, for instance, that my two current projects are slow-burn romance on one side, and torture angst politics on the other. Entirely different flavors of words, so picking the other up when I burn out on one feels like a completely different thing.)

—hm. Phalēron and Stagecraft are similar novel projects in a lot of ways, but so very different in so many others—this is definitely worth a try, thank you lots!

For me the trick seems to be promising myself I'll do a small chunk of work I can definitely manage, which is less intimidating than "an hour" but usually means I get into it and get at least that much done - at the moment I'm mostly managing 30 minutes, but it's sometimes five minutes or even "looking at email for thirty seconds" depending on how badly I'm doing.

That's perfectionist-avoidance tailored, though, so might not be what you're after.

Might, might not. Worth trying in conjunction with the schedule I'm setting myself, certainly :) thanks!

...I've yet to quite, uh, figure this one out, myself. *eyes pile of novel concepts*

I suspect the technique of juggling procrastinations is probably highly relevant, though. It does tend to be how I am most productive, in general, anyway. (Even WITH meds.)

heh heh

*nodnod* *pompom*

Thanks :)

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