Some Thoughts on AuDHD and Writing

How AuDHD affects my writing

Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

🦄 My relationship with story

I grew up as an undiagnosed AuDHDer in the 1960s and 70s. Everyday life was sometimes challenging, and fantasy provided a much needed escape.

In early childhood, I used to create imaginary adventures so involved I can remember staying up all night, developing them. At times, I was even able to program them into my dreams. During the day, I liked to draw my adventures and staple them into booklets.

In fourth or fifth grade, I began to write out my first horror and fantasy stories. The following year I bound some of my favorites into small Smyth-bound books, complete with real fabric covered boards.

By sixth grade, I had developed a strong interest in Gothic literature. I read Dracula twice. I devoured every ghost story I could find. I loved Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Stewart and T.H. White. I raced home from school every day to watch my favorite show, the long running paranormal soap opera, Dark Shadows. And I kept on writing—all through high school and into college.

But aside from the occasional poem, I did not share my work.

I’m not sure why this was exactly. I was, and am, sensitive to rejection. But it wasn't only that. To me, the showing didn’t matter. To me, it was the creating that counted.

I continued to write. Manuscripts and short stories piled up on my computer—but I never felt that anything I wrote was good enough to publish.

🌈 Neurodiversity and writing

Workshops and critique groups and how-to-write books didn’t help. Some were so discouraging I began to feel that publishing my work just wasn’t worth it.

Then, in 2022, I was diagnosed with autism. I read Writers on the Spectrum by Julie Brown and I realized that other people on the spectrum struggle with writing.

In 2025, I was diagnosed with ADHD and I realized that changing gears wasn’t a personal failing. I allowed myself to have three writing projects going at a time and toggled between them when I got bored.

I finished the final draft of my currebt vampire story this way and started to edit it.

I know that my doesn’t meet all, or maybe even most, paranormal romance (PNR) genre expectations. But it's the story I've written.

📖 A bit about the story

Trancing Miranda is set in a not-too-future world where everyone knows that vampires are real. The FMC has PTSD.

This worried me. I have a trauma history so I know how PTSD affected me. After my critique group experience, I started to wonder if maybe I’m writing PTSD through a AuDHD lens.

Then it occurred to me that I might be writing a lot of my characters through an AuDHD lens—and that maybe I should label them as such.

🔔 Update

Yes, to the labeling.

---

✍️ To read more about autism and writing please see:

---