How does a person with ADD or ADHD end up writing a book?

Don’t these children, teens, and adults with ADD/ADHD have difficulty completing

Will we ever finish?

projects?

Don’t they jump from project to project based on their rapidly changing interests?

Aren’t they inattentive, distracted, and perhaps annoyingly active?

How do they sit still long enough to write a multiple award-winning book?

What happens when the ADD person gets overwhelmed and maybe discouraged, wondering,

“Will we ever finish this book?”

We finished our project….and now we have multiple awards.

Ground Zero Chaplain with Janice Hall Heck

Strategies to Get You Over the Finish Line

Here are some strategies that Bob Ossler and I used to write Triumph Over Terror, a book about Bob’s experiences at Ground Zero after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in September of 2001. Bob Ossler had a story in his head and heart, but he couldn’t get the words down on paper because of his ADD. Janice Hall Heck, former teacher of children with special needs, became his writing buddy.

1. Find a writers critique group in your area.
2. Find a writing buddy in the critique group.
3. Start writing emails about your experiences to your buddy…don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, paragraphing, or even organization. Your writing buddy can help you with all that. Just write.
4. Keep writing. Collect the emails and sort them into logical categories that you discover as you read.
5. Share your written experiences with your critique group and listen carefully to their feedback. Incorporate feedback into the writing if it seems applicable. When you get seemingly conflicting advice, think it through and accept what seems reasonable and applicable to your purpose.
6. Keep writing. Keep sharing. Massage your outline. Use good key words (Search Engine Optimization) in the outline and table of contents.
7. Write a short proposal (1 page describing your writing project: a summary, a brief comparison with other books, your market and marketing ideas, brief bios, and expected length and completion date.
8. Go to writers conferences and share your writing with the experts: publishers, editors, other writers, and fellow conferees. Conferences are always a hubbub of activity–all focused on helping writers succeed. We went to the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Conference, organized by Marlene Bagnull, several years in a row and got excellent feedback on our project. We also met our publisher there!    (The next GPCWC will be July 26-28 in Lansdale, PA )
9. Look for writers conferences in your area, or in an area you would like to visit.  You can find them all over the country. The Florida Christian Writers Conference is in January, 2019. A great time to visit Florida.
10. Don’t give up. Pray about your work and be diligent in your efforts. You will succeed.

Read Triumph Over Terror, a multi-award-winning book about Chaplain Bob Ossler’s interactions with suffering people in New York City’s Ground Zero after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. His stories will touch your heart and fill you with compassion for those emergency services workers, search and rescue workers, recovery workers, construction crews, and volunteers who served there in impossible conditions. #NeverForget this time in US History. Read the message of hope in this book.