Ram’s Saga-Writing with ADHD — ADHD Tip o the Day 874

I asked for volunteers to write posts for the ADHD blog and Ram stepped up. This started a journey with a long period of correspondence, some of which is lost, which looks like the makings of a novel. I’ve recreated our journey together as best I could. Great appreciation to Ram for courage, perseverance, and contribution.           Score: Ram 1, ADHD 0

2019/06/06 at 9:00 am ram – eagerly awaiting some posts from you. your comments are so good. send to(email address).  appreciate it doug True, I’m not a blogger. And I still insinuated myself as an option: maybe because I like the idea of being a blogger and keep putting it off, so it’d be a nice chance for me. Maybe because I have ADHD and before we use a strategy to learn how to delegate, we get sidetracked by the next new shiny thing and overreach. It would definitely make a good post. :p Also: while I have your attention, I’m dying to share something with you (unrelated). I could show you the fotos, if you want. 🙂 Or a make a post about it! 😀  [Here ram gave a thorough description of the game. This would’ve been a fine post if we had just stopped there and posted it.  Would’ve saved a lot of distress.]  I could show you the fotos, if you want. 🙂 Or a make a post about it! 😀Ram ram – you’re not a blogger, but your comments often make a good post, like this one. if you would like to expand on it, and maybe add an example, maybe this if you’d like. best wishes doug Sure thing! I’m pretty busy with work now (half the people on vacation, the other half on sick leave), but I’m off work on Monday evening, and I’ll mock a couple of posts up. Just tell me where to send it. Cheers Ram

[Unfortunately, Ram ran into some kind of writer’s block and sounded like she was suffering, struggling and getting down on herself.  I kept trying to help.]

ram-thank you for contributing, and for your forthcoming post. strategies will help. can you identify the block?
do you think it needs to be perfect? do you not have enough information? something else?
if you just get something down i could help you with it if you’d like?
doug

ram – good for you , coming up with a strategy. you might want to consider deciding how much time you want to devote to this. one hour? two hours? certainly no more than four. if its not done by then, you could just send it to me or just forget it.
are you trying to make it too good? if you just get something done, anything, I can do any editing needed.
are you trying to edit as you go? most writers recommend just getting something down on the paper, and then editing. the great writer, Ann Lamott says, “the first draft is always crap.”
thank you for your efforts – remember, the perfect is the enemy of the good, ‘always do your best’ is nonsense, and some things are not worth the trouble. and think about how good you will feel when you either get it done or say to hell with it, either one. 

Ram -welcome back.
congrats on the vacation. we all need breaks
again, any thing you can send i’ll be happy to edit if it needs it.

doug

2019/09/23 at 8:31 pm     ram – please no shame. if its that hard you can let it go, the benefit is not worth it. or you can keep working on it if you want, there is no hurry.
is it possible you are being a little bit perfectionistic?
but please, no shame. some things are hard for us.
best wishes
doug

On Oct 14, 2019, at 1:49 AMHello, Doug!
I did it! I wrote it! I decided I was afraid of writing too much and too unnecessary stuff, and that I’d just write it as I pleased and leave all editing to your discretion. I hope you have fun reading it. 🙂
Don’t feel pressured to publish it, though. It is entirely up to you. I just really wanted to share it with at least one person who has ADHD and it would be too long for a reply on the blog. 😉   Warm regards
ram

Mon, Oct 14, 2019 at 3:15 PM    Boogers. I can’t open it in this form. Please resend. I am so glad you are done. I hope you didn’t misunderstand. I was hoping you dropped it because it seemed to be torturing you. I am eager to read it.  That was a good strategy to just get it out there and let me worry about editing
Doug

I was afraid that might happen… I saved it as a PDF, let me know if it works!   ram

Mon, Oct 14, 2019 at 4:00 PM  Great! Got it.  It’s good.

Two editing things. I would like to move the paragraph about anecdotal evidence to the end. If you wanted, I could edit it to make it shorter, but I think that would leave out some things you’d like in and it is good as it is.  I think it may need a final summarizing sentence, which I will do myself as a comment from me. Thank you so much

Doug

Great! Good to know! Please, edit it as you see fit 🙂 Warm regards

Ram

Thank you so much for sharing! I hope it’s of interest for your followers. 🙂
And congratulations on posting the fotos I included so nicely fitting! I know you sometimes struggle to get it right. They’re spot on!

ram

Follow up:  Ram’s post has 51 likes so far on Facebook Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, not to mention others.  Ram’s post

doug

@addstrategies  #adhd  #add  @dougmkpdp

Do something!