Published on 12, July, 2020
Even this forum post feels exhausting to start writing and is giving me a slight headache, which I guess is one sign of where I’m at. I don’t have an official ADHD Diagnosis. However, I do have Autism, and am on an NHS Waiting List for an ADHD Assessment.I have lots of passions in my life, but my main life goal is to be a writer. I’m currently developing my own tv sci-fi series about autism, and have got to creating a full treatment and pilot script, which in itself feels like a major achievement considering my passion for writing projects have felt so hard to create and sustain over the years.However, now I went to develop more detailed episode synopsis and character subplots. Now any tasks to do with the show feel more scary and chore-like. I don’t know if I’m just scared to fail, I’m losing my passion, or a bit of both, but it’s really getting me down. I love creating stories and really want to make tv and theatre that makes a difference, and in the past it was just that sometimes the writing would either be fun, doable, or scary and chore-like, but now all aspects of the show feel like the latter.At the same time, I also have a huge passion for politics, in particular voting systems and Federalism. I love making my own draft constituencies for the House of Commons and Regional Parliaments. While the amount of work that entails can sometimes be stressful, I can hyperfocus on this far more than my writing and the show. However, if I had the choice between my constituency/federalism ideas being implemented, or my tv show idea getting commissioned, the show wins without contest as that’s really what I feel my purpose and ultimate dream is. I’d give anything to be able to hyperfocus about the show in the same way that I do my political projects. Maybe it’s because there’s no fear in my political things like there is with the show, but I’m almost worried that I’m more passionate about my political projects than the show as deep down developing the show and getting it commissioned is what I really want to achieve.I’ve also recently lost a job I’ve really liked, so maybe I’m also struggling to adapt to the change. It has felt for a little while anyway that nothing is relaxing and everything feels draining, but now particularly the show is just filled with dread and fear.My therapist (sadly they don’t deal with ADHD) suggested I break tasks down: Jobhunting, TV Show, Politics. I was hoping this would make me less stressed about the show, and while creating new ideas this way has flickered the passion slightly, it still hasn’t helped me get over the overwhelming feeling of fear and stress while doing it.I do also feel impatient about creative projects, which may not help me focus towards long we term goals. I’ve also frequently had irrational fears about being too old to enjoy things/gain credit by the time they may happen (I’m 24 for context, I know it’s irrational but I don’t know how to deal with it!)Does anyone have tips for sustaining the passion for the show, and to not be as scared to not create characters, stories and scripts that I feel are good straight away?
NAS62142 said:Does anyone have tips for sustaining the passion for the show, and to not be as scared to not create characters, stories and scripts that I feel are good straight away?
I have a few pointers to share:
1 - For the TV show, start with the story arc, the general setting and the items in it you will be focussing on. Try to only focus on one season and keep it as short as you reasonably can so it is manageable.
2 - write this up and pin it on the wall - this is your guide for where any work needs to fit in with and you can use it to gauge how far along in the project you are.
3 - Break the season into episode sized chunks and do a similar breakdown as you did for the whole season. Make sure the story ark is met by these chunks and identify which have major story events happening in them.
4 - write these up and pin them under the story ark. Now you have the skeleton of your story for the season and can rest easy knowing you have captured all the big picture stuff and anything you write can be referenced to this to help keep it consistent.
5 - Create character sheets for all the main participants - make notes on their motives, interests and past traumas (keep it really concise - you can come back and revise these later). so you have the bais of each character and know why they will react in particular ways in the story. This brings the plausability element to their reactions in the story.
6 - take a break, look at this, celebrate the fact you have just created most of the mechanics of your world and what the story is.
7 - Break each episode into smaller chunks and just start writing. Use the episode skeleton as the guide and just start plugging away at it. As you come across secondary characters, create a simple character sheet for them if they are ever going to appear again so you have a reference for the,. Do the same for any locations, ships, weapons etc - just capture the info relevant for what you are writing at the time but flesh it out as you re-visit locations, fly in the ship with the hull damage from earlier, need new power cells for the laser rifles etc.
This can be slow at first but it really pays off later in the writing process where you can be consistent with the details.
8 - If you hit a block on a part of the story - leave that hole, move onto the next bit that you have mapped out and come back to it a day later. The mind will often work out a solution in your sleep. Just remember to flag it up on the episode skeleton so you remember to do it.
For my ADHD tendencies I found that having these frameworks easily accessible made it easy to keep my thoughts on the story in line with the big picture.
For the tendencies to be overwhelmed by the size of the project, breaking it down to scene sized lengths makes it easier to work on one small thing at a time. Build the skeleton of the scene then go through it and flesh out the parts one by one.
In terms of re-reading it, I leave if for the next day and will print & highlight the bits that need changing then will do these all on the weekend just to avoid losing inertia on the other parts of the chapter(s).
OK that ended up longer than I expected - I hope there is something in there that works for you.
One thing I should add is that when it comes to dialogue for the characters, please get a neurotypical person to review this with you as autists are typically rubbish at working out what non autistic people would talk like.
And lastly for now - don't worry about what people think about it until it is done to your satisfaction. Have faith in your vision and own it. If it gets picked up by a channel to be produced than it will inevitably be re-written extensively so all those execs can have their say in it but keep the original story so you can publish it later when the show is released and let people see the purity of your vision.