How did they do it? Neurodiverse artists and writers from history
Or specifically, their unconventional methods to getting their best work done despite mental struggles.
When you are struggling to rediscover your creative spark (like me), sometimes it feels nice to take a look at the artists and creative minds of the past to give you some perspective.
I desperately need this, but I am also neurodivergent, and where my attention goes, my body follows. It blows to and fro and finding a landing place to humor my creative passions feels impossible. So, I set out to find solutions and advice from the past, from creative minds that also showed signs of neurodiversity - even if they never were officially diagnosed.
I picked five.
James Joyce
Irish novelist, poet, and critic.
Some interesting (relatable) pieces of information that I found on Joyce’s creative routines and preferences were that he kept things fast and loose while starting out. He wrote primarily from a stream of consciousness approach, letting tidbits of his psyche play around with his words and thoughts until he found an anchoring point, a thesis.
He suffered from chronic eye pain and various ailments that resulted in him losing his sight as he aged, so it is said he took to writing in red and blue crayons on large white sheets of paper or cardboard. He also ended up liking to write while laying down on his stomach, I suppose to get closer to the words as he went blind. He didn’t care much for reading literature (makes sense now) and he said that keeping your thoughts your own made for better writing, and that the process of editing your words made your ideas clearer. While it can seem like Joyce was staunch in his personal approach (perhaps it offered him comfort in an uncomfortable life), it’s clear to see the practicality of his methods too. He didn’t judge his ideas, only allowed them to flow, take shape, and valued only adjusting those ideas after realizing them.
Michelangelo
Italian poet, sculptor, and central figure of the Renaissance.
It’s hard to pin down just one method of one medium he used, and it might be fair to think that most Renaissance artists and thinkers were just “winging it” to start out - at least, that’s what made their talents unique. I mean, it’s a feat these days to have so many artistic and scientific disciplines, but back then, it might just be due to free rein and neurodivergence.
For Michelangelo, he considered himself foremost a sculptor. He is said that his approach to sculpting felt easy, if not tedious, because he could envision the subject trapped inside the stone, marble, or clay, and it was his duty to release them from it. Straightforward, simple, and pushed through dedication: David is locked inside the marble and Michelangelo had to free him. He made up his mind on the person or thing that deserved to be seen, as if they were simply hidden away. It wasn’t his responsibility to create David as a concept from scratch, but simply to believe in him, see his form as he imagined it, and chip away at his constraints. Michelangelo trusted in an idea so much that he thought of it as already born, breathing and living in the world, and his contribution to that idea was to reveal it through small and deliberate strokes and shapes, cutting away the excess until the idea was visible.
Perhaps this gave him more pleasure than painting, especially the Sistine Chapel, which he wrote about in his diaries as being one of the worst projects to work on (who wants to paint a ceiling that high up, that intricately, for months at a time? His poor neck and back!). Shout out to all the neurodiverse artists who have to move around in order to keep creating, and can’t be comfortable in an office chair, sitting at a desk!
Franz Kafka
A strange but intriguing figure to learn from: an early 20th century Jewish Czech writer from Prague, he’s known for works that exposed and analyzed the insanity of living in a bureaucratically-run society. While he obviously did what all writers are advised to do: “write what you know” (or observe), his methods were also very inconsistent and steeped in emotion. What I mean is, he didn’t have a set routine to write his books or essays. Kafka had more of a creative tide. Some days, he wrote a lot and couldn’t seem to stop, then he’s suffer through long periods of no inspiration or motivation to write (and if this isn’t me too!). Still, he was able to express his fears, prejudices, and critiques of his lived reality through his works as if he were “possessed.” He spoke about how this “possession” to write would come over him at times, and he recalled it being uncomfortable and even frightening.
To me, this is what hyper-focus can feel like; the kind of work that pulls you in and you forget to eat, sleep, or use the toilet. Yeah, it’s exhilarating sometimes, and can be painful too. I wanted to include Kafka, not because he offered me a solution, but more as a reminder that if you struggle through your creative journey, you still count as an artist and creative.
Steven Spielberg
Famous American filmmaker and director.
It’s slightly easier to use him, since he is living and has a formal diagnosis of dyslexia. While I don’t have time to go into his life journey, he was diagnosed with dyslexia and that knowledge has only inspired him to create more and advocate for literacy and reading all throughout his works. Something Spielberg does most effectively is that he is able to build his movies to an emotional crescendo, pulling the audience into a single shared emotional experience, and sending a strong central message that encapsulates the story in one moment. He understands the importance of emotional resonance in storytelling, and capitalizes on it. He communicates, visually, musically; emotionally, narratively, if not in the written word.
Neurodiverse people can feel their emotions very deeply, and those emotions can have a very real physiological impact on their lives and work (I have my own experience with heightened emotions dictating my health too). It makes sense to me, that someone who values a heightened emotional moment and its power on an audience can make that a focal point for finding their next big idea. How many times do you think someone has written a song simply based off one intense interaction or a musical riff that elicits an emotional memory? Too many to count.
Agatha Christie
Renowned English mystery writer.
She was very observant and liked to write about what she saw and her surroundings. She had encouragement from her caretakers to write and tell her little stories; she was even published by age 11. She had no formal education until her mid-to-late teens, and was allowed a lot of free-rein movement to teach herself things, like how to read. She had imaginary friends and would write down splendid ideas as soon as they popped into her head. She seemed like the type of person who took in more of the world around her and alchemized those details into exciting and eccentric stories.
So, in conclusion, what have I learned about being creative while being neurodivergent? There are obviously many ways to accomplish things: neurodiverse people have always been aware of their shortcomings socially and physically, and they are used to finding ways around those struggles and shortcomings. That really is the essence of all neurodiversity; it’s that you are not broken, but that you do things in your own way, and that isn’t wrong.
Neurodiversity just means different wiring, and we all deal with the shame around that in our own ways. Some of us give into having the people around us tell us the right way to do things, but most of us and up finding a way that works for us. And usually, that personal way that make our brains happy, make us unique and stand out among our peers, and helps us do our best work.
Perhaps that’s what all this is about: not allowing the world to tell us we’re doing it wrong, but that we can find a way that works for us and that can be our anchor, our salvation in a way. A lot of these people didn’t live in modern society and had to deal with its pressures, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t struggle.
They just didn’t preemptively judge themselves for “not being the right kind of artist,” hence they didn’t put up blocks for themselves to keep from doing their best work. They were mostly unencumbered. They just were themselves. And turns out, that’s something I can take to heart this year.