I’d be lost without ADHD
I have mild ADHD (well I think it’s mild, others may disagree) and without it I’m pretty sure that I would never have finished a novel.
That runs counter, of course, to the prevailing view that ADHD commonly means you’re a bit ‘all over the place’ as my northern relatives might put it – ‘away with the fairies’ etc to the point that you may never get anything done at all. I know that I often talk too much, rambling from subject to apparently unconnected subject, and inevitably end up saying “Sorry, what was the question?” or “How did I get onto this?” You know the kind of thing.
Talking too much is fine – mostly people just tell me to shut up and we move on – but here’s an example of a much bigger downside: I’ve always wanted to know more about ‘important’ stuff like black holes, astrophysics and quantum mechanics. I’ve got an Audible subscription and a stack of audiobooks on these subjects. And this is pretty much what happens every time I attempt to get into it – after about ten minutes, I realise that the author/narrator is now dealing with something that is predicated upon the fact that I fully understood what they went through before. The problem is that I didn’t understand that earlier bit because my mind had already started to drift. They’re talking about which way subatomic particles spin (or whatever) and why that’s vitally important and I’m still not sure what these subatomic particles even are. In some cases, I’ve downloaded the Kindle version or bought the paperback so that I can actually follow the words with my finger, like I’m still in Junior School, but often even that doesn’t work. Maybe I should just give up and accept that these subjects just aren’t for me.
But let’s leap happily onto the upside: in my case, plotting. When I worked in television, every storyline had to be worked on through many drafts until I was totally bored by it all. There was no pleasure left in the final writing of the script because I was just joining the dots. If I had to do that now, I wouldn’t even start a novel never mind finish one.
Instead, this is what happens. I just let the characters run wild. Let me give you an example from the current project. For some reason (God knows what!), I decided that I wanted to write a novel about vampires set in my home city of Brighton. I’d got one image in my head: two vampire brothers and their servant landing at midnight on the pebbles of Brighton beach. I set it in the Silver Jubilee summer of 1977 because I’d got a vague idea about the brothers forming a punk rock band but that was it. I wrote the first few pages, the first scene, and then in my head I said to the characters: “Okay guys, off you go. You lead and I’ll try to follow you as best I can.” And that was it. The plot unfolded, driven by the characters and by the simple practicalities of their situation. The other ADHD help at this point is hyper-focus (which I can obviously never manage when listening to audiobooks), meaning that when I’m writing I really don’t think about very much else. I’m just living inside my head. In the end, the guys didn’t form a punk rock band but a whole lot else happens that’s probably much better. At least, I hope it is. This one will be out in the Autumn. We shall see.
Now it may be that everyone works like this, neurodivergent or not, in which case please forgive this waste of your time. But for me, not planning anything has been totally and joyously liberating. If you’re ever stuck, maybe just give it a try – don’t overthink it, just go with the flow and enjoy the ride, however crazy it is.
Happy writing!