Have you ever wondered why people with ADD and AD/HD make some of THE best writers? No? Me either.
I know it is because their mind is always coming up with the best what ifs. Their thoughts travel to places ordinary people only dream of … or read about.
The downside to being a new writer with ADD, you ask? My brain is like a pinball machine with ideas bouncing around all over the place, and sometimes those thoughts and ideas go right down that little hole between the two flippers.
I am currently in one of those situations. I spit out a 138,000-word novel in about six months. I am trying to edit it, write the second book, keep up with a blog, develop an e-mail list, post to Twitter and Instagram regularly AND
run the business that I currently own.
Add to that the idea that my novel is too long and maybe I should divide it in two (making the two of them too short). I could, possibly, cut 30,000 words out… possibly. I’m pretty wordy. Not Dean Koontz wordy, but …I also recently read an article that talked about how to support yourself as a self-published author, and it suggested pumping out several 40,000 to 60,000-word novels to help quickly develop a backlist. It was a very interesting and informative article. https://thecompletecreative.com/selfpublishedauthor/?utm_source=sendinblue&utm_campaign=Dont_forget&utm_medium=email
Now my brain is wondering if that is what I should be focusing on?
This wild journey started over a battle I have been waging with Lyme disease for about the last three years.
I’ve always wanted to write. I may or may not have a knack for it. (Keep your opinions to yourselves. Unless they are nice.) I thought it may be a way to get me off of my feet and possibly reduce my stress level and pain levels. That’s a good reason to want to become a writer, right? To reduce stress levels and become healthier while sitting on your ass typing all day?
I was wrong. My stress level is pretty stinking high. I never thought about the whole starving artist bit. I went into it thinking that If I worked hard and really buckled down, I could make anything work.
I am starting to have my doubts.There are so many different avenues to take. So much to consider. Romance is the best-selling genre out there, but do I really want to basically write the same thing over and over for the rest of my life? I love a good romance book, and romance is an underlying theme in my 138,000-word novel, but I also do not want to write cheesy, mindless stories. (Every romance writer out there is going to hate me). Not every single romance book is cheesy and mindless. There are some excellent ones out there. I seriously need to be able to crank out some books, though. I need them to be good, not just quick.
Where does that leave my current WIP? I am in love with it, but how long is it going to take me to crank out its sequel and the third in the trilogy? If they are the size of the first, I will have to take out a second mortgage on my home to have them edited and published.
I digress (ADD). I need to focus. I need a plan. I need a personal assistant, and I need a few hundred thousand dollars because let’s face it winning the lottery does nothing but ruin your life.
Tons of support exists for writers out there, blogs … podcasts … books and they all contain great advice. The Creative Penn https://www.thecreativepenn.com/and The StoryGrid https://storygrid.com/ are two of my favorites (websites AND podcasts). Tim Grahl’s book “Running Down a Dream” https://www.runningdownadream.com has helped me to feel somewhat more normal and not such a freak. The problem lies within my head and my inability to control my racing thoughts and my hyper-focused mind that wants to do all the things and wants results now! I know “racing thoughts” and “hyper-focused” seem to be contradictory phrases but read an article on ADD and you will understand how one person can have both at the same time.
So many times in my life I have had to tell myself to slow down and enjoy the journey, but only recently has it ever worked and obviously not 100% successfully. Learning to focus on ONE project at a time may be the answer to it all, but someone, please explain to me how that is possible in this day and time. I don’t think it is.
I can’t even choose which genre to write in let alone what project to work on. Maybe if I take up meditation … or Tai chi … or yoga … or Qigong …