#bc ive associated coffee shops so viscerally with writing now that if im in a particularly bad/long block i find a free day

[hella1975]

Hi, I followed you for your fic and I saw you had some posts about having ADHD.

I'm also ADHD, could you tell me about your writing process? I get stuck with things staying in the notes app and they don't really get past that stage.

I'm not sure if it's an interest thing, if the notes fulfill the want so there's no need to put it together. If you have anything thoughts about how to keep up the consistency for fic that'd be appreciated.

Hopefully this isn't too serious of a question, I just have some trouble with wanting to write but not having a purpose for it and I was wondering if that was a brain thing/relatable.

Thank you in advance for any response ☺️ also good luck with your uni stuff~

thank you anon! and dw this isn't too serious at all. i think it's interesting that you ask about keeping consistency bc ironically the biggest tell of my adhd in my writing is my INCONSISTENCY, as you can see with the way updates happen. i wrote 200k words of taob in one year and now i update twice a year on average. i wrote 60k words of tams within a few weeks and now it hasn't been updated since july. and these are just my public projects where i at least have the added pressure of knowing people are waiting for an update, you should see the state of some of my original wips! basically my point here is that my adhd is VERY apparent with my writing habits, but these days i work with it instead of trying to fight it. even before i knew i had adhd, i was aware that my writing came in periods. id go a few weeks churning out insane amounts daily and then dry up for months on end, and each time id enter the 'have i lost it??? will i ever write again???' spiral until low and behold, something would inspire me again and id be back to typing like a madman. i used to seriously fight my dry periods bc of that fear of 'losing' my writing, but that never helped and honestly turning writing into a need instead of a want probably made it worse.

it's one reason - aside the fact it is rude and annoying, i dont want to pretend it isn't or put the blame on me bc that's not what im saying here - that constant demands for fic updates bother me so much, bc people dont realise that the writing style i have now where yes we unfortunately go long times without updates is actually how my writing comes out at its best standard. so yeah! it can be incredibly frustrating and even scary to feel physically unable to write, but if it's something you like and want to do i do truly believe it'll always come back sooner or later, or at least that's my experience :)

#but if it is literally you cant get it out of the notes app i do also have writing sessions #where i sit myself down one day and go 'we are going to WRITE' (this is where all my coffee shop posting comes from #bc ive associated coffee shops so viscerally with writing now that if im in a particularly bad/long block i find a free day #and just sit and something about being in a coffee shop just. brings it out of me) #ive known this about myself long enough now to know which periods are just my normal dry ones #and which need that extra push but maybe learning to differentiate like that could help you? #see what happens if you give yourself some kind of target? like take one of your ideas in your notes #and literally treat it like an assignment like 'i want 500 words on this by friday' #EVEN IF IT'S BAD! i feel like that mental block even if it's subconscious is often what stops people #just treat it as something between you and the document. no one else is gonna see it. it could be the worst thing ever written #and nothing is gonna change bc of it. taking those kind of pressures off yourself makes INSANE amounts of difference #good luck! i hope even just one part of this was helpful but remember experiences with these things are individual #ask