AuDHD Creativity Requires Consistency and Letting Go Of Perfectionism

You have to make yourself do the work and make bad art

image via Freepik

Finding Your Creativity Requires Showing Up For Yourself

Every day, I get up early and write. I write for two publications on Substack, and I write for Medium. I’ve also written some novels, but I’m afraid I may never publish them.

I don’t claim to always produce great writing or put out great content every time. Some things never see the light of day, and some pieces were just great exercises.

I might publish content I thought was good, but it doesn’t connect with anyone. Sometimes I realize these essays and articles weren’t as great as I’d thought, so I delete, do rewrites, and repost them another time.

Or I let them go the way a Buddhist monk does a sand painting, scattered into the ether.

When I started writing on blogging platforms three years ago, I had no clue what I was doing. I knew I could write some decent poetry, funny comedy sketches, and even successful grants. I knew my novels had good bones even though I can’t seem to finish them.

What I didn’t know was if I could write about my life or non-fiction topics in such a way that anyone would want to read about them. I was more than pleasantly surprised that someone did (or a fairly sizeable number of someones).

I was gobsmacked to find out that more than 10 people wanted to hear what I had to say.

The momentum built slowly because I’d never written essays outside of college, nor had I ever written personal non-fiction about my life.

My earlier articles were more like artists’ sketches than they were fully-fledged posts. They were more flash non-fiction if that sort of thing exists.

For a time, I was too long-winded for that original platform and would overshoot the mark. I quickly learned to adjust.

Many friends have asked me how I put out content so consistently and I am not sure I have a clear answer other than I have to do it.

I don’t mean monetarily. I mean that I have to write like my life depends on it. I live for it and it sustains me.

My life wasn’t always like this. I am not one of those writers who wrote stories all the time when I was little. I was highly imaginative, but constructing a cohesive and coherent message was not my forte.

Nor did I have the confidence to think that I had anything of substance to share. Who would listen to someone like me?

Getting up the courage to start writing was born more of necessity and a mission than anything else. I suddenly had a topic (being a late-diagnosed autistic) about which to write, and I had a lot I wanted to say.

Getting diagnosed