alexseanchai | (no subject)

Entry tags:

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

...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.)

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