by Peter Chiykowski
I’ve read a LOT of blog posts about how to be a more productive writer but basically none of them have worked for me because most writing advice is designed for linear brains.
My brain, like most ADHD brains, is very non-linear. No matter how much creative energy I feel crackling inside me, when I try to follow advice designed for neurotypical people, I just feel like I’m failing. This blog is for anyone who is seeking actionable ADHD writing tips and is written by someone who knows just how you feel.
Hi, I’m Peter Chiykowski, creator of The Story Engine, where I design prompt story cards and tools to help writers spark ideas and develop stories.
If you’re struggling writing with ADHD—or you know writers with ADHD and would love to see them make the fullest use of their gifts—let me share the most useful, practical, and easy-to-adapt tips I wish I’d known when I started my writing career.
Key Takeaways:
ADHD Writing Requires Different Systems, Not More Discipline
With ADHD, Starting Is the Hardest Part—Reduce Friction to Begin Writing
Structure Should Support Creativity, Not Restrict It
Why Traditional Writing Advice Often Fails ADHD Writers
“Write every day.”
“Just sit, write, and focus harder.”
“Turn off all distractions.”
This is great advice for a lot of neurotypes, but not for me as a person with ADHD. When I was starting out writing, rigid advice just put me in a shame spiral. I'd look a blank page or all my abandoned drafts and that familiar voice of negative self talk would start whispering my deepest fear: "You're not a real writer."
Still, I managed to muddle through and write:
- 3 books of comics
- 3 books of short stories
- puzzle-poems for an award-winning indie video game
- a tabletop RPG campaign
- three decks of writing prompts
I even picking up a couple of Aurora Awards from the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association along the way. But, I needed to find an "ADHD writing style" that really served me.
My breakthrough was this: I stopped thinking of ADHD as a writing flaw. Instead, I started thinking about it as a different operating system that needs different strategies to reach the goals I want. 🥚*
*Throughout this blog I've hidden 12 egg emojis to mark my favorite pieces of advice in this blog and create an Easter egg hunt minigame. Novelty is one of the 5 motivating factors for ADHDers. Trying this new technique will make this blog more interesting for you and me. More on this later in the blog.
ADHD Writing Difficulties: Why Traditional Writing Advice Fails Writers With ADHD
There’s a quote I love (even if it is constantly misattributed to Albert Einstein):
“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
–Definitely Not Albert Einstein
Wise words, whoever said them. Giving neurotypical writing advice to an ADHD writer is a lot like giving climbing advice to a fish. Even more than that, it’s like blaming the fish when the advice fails instead of asking the important question: is the advice matched to the recipient, their assets, and their goals?
When it comes to productivity, a lot of ADHD writers go through life getting advice from neurotypical writers and thinking they’re bad climbers instead of realizing they’re great swimmers. I’ve tried all the classic advice and honestly, it didn’t work for me. Starting feels impossible, rigid routines crush my creativity, and my brain comes up with so many ideas at once that it’s easy to get stuck.
Creativity works differently for a person with ADHD. We thrive on non-linear thinking, which means traditional linear writing advice often just blocks us. My approach is to let ideas flow freely and capture them visually—mind maps, sticky notes, Story Engine cards—and embrace jumping between ideas as a creative superpower. This mindset opens the door to new perspectives, unexpected connections, and writing that feels truly fresh.
And that’s why the strategies I’m about to share focus on systems, structures, and tools that actually support how an ADHD brain writes—so you can finally get moving and stay in flow.
ADHD Writing Tips
1. A “Write Every Day” Word Count Is the Wrong Goal
I, like a lot of ADHDers, have a love-hate relationship with structure. On the one hand, if I start writing with no structure, it’s almost guaranteed to fall apart. On the other hand, if I go in with a rigid structure, I’m almost guaranteed to fall apart the first time I fail to adhere to that structure.
The concept that you have to “write every day” to be a "real" writer is an example of all-or-nothing thinking. Many successful writers do write every day, but it’s hard—sometimes impossible—for a lot of us. And if you’re anything like me, once you’ve failed at an absolute goal, there will be a new mental tax to pay the next time I attempt to write—a little whispering voice that says “You already failed."
Instead, I’ve been retraining myself to set more realistic and flexible writing routine goals: “Pick 2 days you can write this week. Write during one of them. You get a bonus point if you write for both.” Goals like this actually encourage my inner keener to show up for extra writing sessions because I want to and not because I have to. 🥚
2. Outlines Can Kill Momentum (If You Use Them Wrong)
A plot outline is an incredibly useful resource that should be thrown away (or heavily revised) the moment it stops being helpful.
Writing, like any kind of making art, is an iterative process. Many writers find that the way the ending of their story comes together changes what they want for the beginning. Every stage of your masterpiece’s development may affect previous and future stages.
True creative breakthroughs require you to break something. 🥚 A plot point, a limiting belief, a creative assumption or a rigid structure that was part of your original plan.
Embrace the destruction. If your short story starts going in unexpected direction, ask yourself: is the story going wrong, or do I just need to adapt my plan? If something breaks, what can I build from the pieces? The seed breaks its rigid shell to grow into a plant. The hatchling cracks the hard egg to grow into a dragon. Breaking your structure is the first step in growing your masterpiece.
The best art I’ve ever made has always surprised me. If there were no surprises going from the outline to the finished story, how can I be sure I made art?
3. Willpower-Based Systems Always Collapse
When you are writing with ADHD, the problem is never just about willpower.
You can have all the willpower in the world—you can try noise cancelling headphones, leaving your phone in a different room, and removing visual distractions from your workspace—but without the executive function or the external resources to help you start, that willpower is a currency with zero exchange value in the land of Getting Stuff Done.
So what will help you actually get some words on the page?
Flexible external structures you can adapt to your needs.
4. ADHD Writers Need External Structure, Not More Discipline
When you realize that traditional writing advice is designed for a linear-thinking writers, the next step becomes logical: focus on changing the system, not the writer.
My brain came from the brain factory without much executive function (a group of planning-related cognitive functions that help break complex tasks into manageable chunks and then ACTUALLY START them). What do I do?
"Outsource” your executive function to organization systems and creative resources that make the process easier. 🥚
This includes:
- Prompts and writing challenges
- Creative warm-ups and other things like that
- Benevolently tricking my brain into doing what I want to it do
- A combination of all of the above
5. Create Low Friction Starting Points for Your Creative Process
With ADHD, the hardest part is just getting started.
I try to make make it as easy as possible to start—especially on low-motivation days.
- Make a deal with yourself: if you don’t want to write, you only have to sit and write for 5 minutes. By the time 5 minutes is up, you’ll already be in your creative flow. 🥚
- Try to leave your writing space ready-for-action so there’s no friction in clearing space or setting up.
- Finish your writing session before you feel "finished." Leave notes on an incomplete scene (or sentence) and the leave the document open on your computer or phone so you have an easy place to start next session.
- Intentionally end on a grammar mistake to create an "open loop" your brain wants to go back to fix later.
- Use prompts. Prompts help you actually start writing by activating the creative parts of your mind without waking up your inner critic. It's like magic.
The Story Engine Deck Supports ADHD Writers
I'm a big fan of using writing prompts. I designed The Story Engine Deck to help people achieve their writing goals, like:
- Overcome executive function blocks
- Form helpful writing habits
- Get into creative flow faster and sit in creative flow longer
- Having a visual summary of their story to stay focused on (or return to after mind wandering)
The Writer Essentials Bundle is a great starting point for a writer with ADHD. It gives you the main Story Engine Deck that has helped 15,000 writers overcome writers block, plus enough expansions to keep things interesting and help you craft your own writing prompts focused on character backstories and popular genres like fantasy, sci fi, horror, and mystery.
6. Hyperfocus Can Lead to Burnout Without Capturing Ideas
Hyperfocus is another one of those ADHD mixed blessings. Getting locked in to hyperfocus is great for making a chunk of progress on word count or solving a mid-sized creative problem in your novel, but it is NOT a sustainable system for finishing a big endeavor like a first novel.
If the ADHD gods see fit to bless-curse you with hyperfocus on your current WIP, remember this: take notes on EVERYTHING. 🥚
When the words are flowing and you feel like you can see the Matrix, your mind will be convinced it will be able to remember where you left off in your creative process. But it won't. You can't rely on memory and momentum alone.
Use your hyperfocus to leave yourself as many notes as you can on:
- Your overall plot summary
- Where you left off writing
- What you need to circle back and finish
- Loose ends you need to wrap up and unresolved problems in your plot line
- What you were most excited about—consider recording a voice memo for yourself on your phone or computer
That last bullet is especially important. When you remember what got you excited in this story in the first place—especially by hearing yourself explain it in your own words—you can re-enter the mental space you were in and return to your creative flow. 🥚
Hyper focus provides temporary a temporary creative boost. Notes are what make it permanent.
7. ADHD Writers Often Have Many Ideas but Struggle to Execute Them
My hard drive and notebook are graveyards of dead projects.
Actually, no, that's wrong. Let me reframe that.
My hard drive and notebook are incubators for exciting potential writing projects. I just need to be intentional about which ones I focus on. 🥚
"Having too many ideas" or "too many projects" are sources of ADHD shame, but neither of those things is actually a problem in and of itself.
Instead, the ADHD writer's problem tends to be:
- Freezing up because we can't pick one thing to focus on.
- Pursuing too many things at the same time.
People with ADHD experience more friction making a decision, especially when we have a lot of great options. There's nothing wrong with have tons of other projects you're interested in. Just remember this golden rule: be intentional about which projects you give your attention to. 🥚
There are a few ways this applies to your writing life:
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Don't shame yourself for having too many new ideas. Shame never helped anyone write anything. It drive us away from the goals that are most important to us, which makes it harder to be intentional. My goal is to write, not to feel bad about not writing.
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Keep a list of 3 active works-in-progress you intend to focus on. I write a new list every week. If start a project not on my list, I pause and ask myself why. Sometimes I just got distracted. Sometimes anxiety and fear were driving me away from "harder" projects. Sometimes, a new project is genuinely a better choice to work on than my active WIPs. But I can only tell the difference if I pause to assess my intentions. Like when you're deviating from your plot outline to pursue a new story opportunity, you just need to be intentional about breaking structure. 🥚
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There's nothing wrong with "abandoning" a project. It's impossible to pursue every project, and sometimes you'll outgrow a WIP or commit yourself to a new direction. That doesn't mean you wasted time. Any time you spent writing you were also honing your skills, refining your writing process, and expanding your repertoire of techniques. Those benefits will show up in your next story. So no shame. If anything, celebrate making an intentional decision to clear the way for a better opportunity.
It doesn't matter how many ideas you have. What matters is how you decide which ones to focus on. Every creative choice you make is 100% correct as long as it's intentional.
8. Task Initiation Is the Biggest Writing Barrier for Managing ADHD
Once you pick a writing project to focus on, there are a few tricks to help people with ADHD overcome the barrier of task initiation (aka getting started). For writing with ADHD, starting isn't a matter of willpower or motivation—it's a matter of neuroscience.
People with ADHD have interest-based nervous systems motivated by five factors. If you're having trouble, here are some tips for using those factors to your advantage.
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Interest: Jot down 3 bullet points explaining what you find interesting about your current project. This will warm up your creative muscles and give you 3 potential starting points for writing that will keep you and your ideal reader interested. 🥚
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Novelty: Write out one new things you can try in this project. You will actually want to put words on paper, just to see if it works. My Easter egg experiment is a prime example. It kept us both interested, didn't it?
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Challenge: Set a specific goal JUST for this one writing session. It could be a word count, or using a new word you learned, or writing 3 lines of dialog that make your brain go "oh snap"!
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Passion: We ADHDers have a lot of interests we're passionate about. If you're experiencing a "low tide" in your passion for writing, consider writing about an interest that's currently at its "high tide."
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Urgency: Set a timer and do a writing sprint. 25 minutes is usually a good length. This gently activates your nervous system and generates interest in the task of writing. We have some recorded writing sprint livestreams on YouTube.
For ADHD writers, the challenge isn't writing—it's just getting started.
I Designed Prompts to Help With What Makes Writing Hard
I designed The Story Engine Deck in 2018-2019 to help myself get over writers block. I got my ADHD diagnosis years later in 2021.
Guess what clued me in...
All the emails I got from ADHD writers saying, "It's like you designed The Story Engine Deck for my neurotype!"
It turns our that I designed The Story Engine Deck to activate all 5 motivating factors for ADHD. 🥚
- Turning writing into a fun mini-game adds interest.
- Drawing new cards each time provides novelty.
- Trying to complete the prompt with the choices available provides a challenge.
- Choosing cues on each card to craft a prompt about a topic you care about reflects your passion.
- Making a choice with limited options provides urgency.
Any kind of writing prompt can help reduce decision fatigue and overcome executive dysfunction and task inertia. But I think what makes The Story Engine Deck so special is that it does that in a way especially designed to work with an ADHD writer's interest-based nervous system.
How to Use Story Engine Writing Prompts to Write With ADHD
Story Engine Removes the “What Do I Write?” Decision That Makes Writing Hard
Like I mentioned above, choosing what to write is a form of mental tax for ADHDers. The Story Engine Deck gives you a direction to start in, but also the freedom to make a few structured choices in what you want to write about. The perfect balance between challenge and interest.
Do you anguish over committing to the wrong creative choice? No worries, every card can be rotated or replaced later if you want to change something.
Getting started is no longer a self-defeating psychological game you play with your writer's block. It's a physical game you are set up to win every time.
Prompts Turn Hyperfocus Into Something You Can Return To
If you pull a set of cards that really gets you excited, take a picture of it, or even a 60-second video where you point to each card and explain what it means and why you're excited.
When hyperfocus runs out, you can always come back and re-capture that passion and your notes for where you want the story to go. You can even set those cards aside to re-assemble the prompt later as a mind map and play with it more.
Prompts aren't a one-and-done source of motivation. They're a battery you can charge up to store your excitement for later.
Modular Prompts Match How ADHD Writers Actually Think
Story Engine prompts help you put your thoughts in order, but they let you work in a non-linear way.
Every Story Engine prompt will give you a structured story prompt about a character with a concrete motivation and an obstacle to overcome if they want to achieve it, but you can assemble the prompt modularly in any order. Feel free to skip steps or backtrack to change a previous decision.
You can also assemble multiple prompts and assemble them into a story. Draw a prompt for each character arc, and even for individual locations or objects of interest. You can do this before you start, or ad hoc as gaps in your story arise and you need a new supporting character, story beat, a single scene, or a dramatic setting.
Fewer Choices Means More Writing and Better Time Management
Like I said before, there's no such thing as "too many ideas." ADHD and writing can work together! What matters is which ones you choose to focus on.
The Story Engine Deck has over 30 billion different potential prompt combinations for the simplest prompt format, but it only asks you to make to make once small choice at a time.
This consistently creates writing prompts that the writer actually know what to do with and won't lose focus on. I've runs thousands of Story Engine demos for writers at conventions across North America, and every single time the participant has been able to tell me where they'd go with the story.
Constraints don’t kill creativity. They give it a safe space to grow. The Writer Essentials Bundle is designed to give ADHD writers some interesting options without getting overwhelmed.
If you've been struggling with your writing, consider trying The Story Engine Deck.
Advice From Real Life
If you're looking for further ADHD tools beyond this blog, here are my favorite threads with real ADHD writers sharing their tips and experiences.