Hi all! I'm an English PhD student whose MA is in writing and pedagogy, and I also have several years of writing tutoring experience and I was an executive functioning coach for a bit. I wanted to offer some of the tips and tools I use myself as an ADHD writer, and ones I have offered to students and clients in my time teaching, tutoring, and coaching.
Of course, not every tool will work for everyone, but it’s good to have a list of ones you use alongside a list that you think may work, so you can keep mixing up different tools as needed.
I also would be happy to provide more tools, just tell me what you need that isn't here.

First, some general reminders that may help:

1. You don’t need to write linearly. Personally, I start with lists and then go into more detail based on interest and time, and build from there.
2. It doesn’t need to be perfect. Keep in mind your goal, and often it is better to have something on the page to edit than one perfect sentence or paragraph.

My favorite ADHD writing tool:

One of the specific things I find most helpful is to find a system for you that you can use to leave yourself notes while writing. I love using brackets to remind myself where I left off or notes I need to keep myself on track.
For example, if I am about to go and change tasks, I will add a note where I am in writing that says something like [elaborate on this idea of writing in brackets]. I also use it if I can’t decide on a specific word and I am struggling to move on -- just put a few synonyms in brackets and keep going.
Brackets or other note systems can also be used to make your outline more helpful to you by adding personal notes about how you want it to go. It can also make “chunking” (breaking up) writing tasks easier. Similarly, you can use headings while writing anything and take them out or change them as needed.
By the way, when breaking down tasks, you can make them as small as they need to be for you to find each manageable. The new, smaller tasks should be much smaller.

Other tips:

• When you’re writing for a prompt, use the prompt to your advantage. Highlight elements you need, and then list them. Begin outlining by making notes about how you are considering each element.
  • This PDF here has a good list of common, important prompt words and a definition of each.
• Start with a free-write or a brain-dump of everything you can think of about the topic, questions you can’t answer or need more information on, etc. Use this as your first draft if you want.
• Consider a separate document for materials you reference - you can list page numbers, quotes, data, etc. that you want to reference later. You can mark them with keywords if it helps you find them later.
• Try “reverse outlining” - it can help you better see the organization of the whole, find gaps, and remember what you have covered already. It’s often for proofreading or assessing your progress, and you make a note on each paragraph that is only about 1 sentence in length (you can also do this for every few sentences if you need to, and then summarize those notes for each paragraph).
  • Reverse outlines can also help you with reading articles, books, etc. by making the information more digestible. Here is a good example (page 2 of this PDF)
• Try text-to-speech if sitting and writing isn’t your thing. Similarly, you can use screen reader functions to listen to texts that you can’t sit to read.

Here are some of the resources I use most often:

1. My favored free citation manager: https://www.mybib.com/
2. University of Toronto’s “Writing Advice” page.
3. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s “Tips and Tools” page.
   1. They also have a guide for writing with ADHD.
   2. And another from their learning center.

ETA: - Resource: Thesaurus with contextual divisions that is super helpful - Tip: When writing in an unfamiliar genre (academic or otherwise), find guides and examples. From these, you can draw together a guide for yourself. This can work for really any type of writing.

I was driving with my partner when a branded van for an independent art framing company, deciding I was very much in the way, sped up behind me, moved into the left lane, and then proceeded to switch back into my lane RIGHT in front of me before moving into the same turning lane that I was going to take. (I was going just a smidge over the speed limit, as I usually do, btw...so this wasn't the driver getting petty revenge on me for driving annoyingly slow.) Shortly after we turned, we stopped behind the van at a red light. On the vehicle was the business' phone number, so my partner took it down along with the license plate. The light turned green and SpeedRacer took off down the road. Meanwhile, we phoned the framing business and said we'd like to complain about a driver. The employee who answered got the owner on the phone and we explained that the driver of the van with license number [x] was driving erratically, speeding, and had just cut me off. He was flabbergasted and asked for clarification several times; "it was my van?!", "and where are you?!". He said, "oh no, no, no, no, no...this is no good, I will have to talk to him. I'm so sorry. I will talk to him. Thank you so much for telling me, I'm going to talk to him." I don't know if I've ever felt so damn smug.
Some backstory: I used to speed all the time (my sister and I both have what we affectionately refer to as ADHDLF: the ADHD lead foot) and almost lost my license due to demerits. I obviously had to stop, plus... I just cannot afford to pay tickets. So while I'm using most of my willpower to stay less than 5kph over the speed limit, assholes are driving around me like I'm a blight on their existence for, glob forbid, obeying the law. You can imagine the pure bliss I felt after finally being able to put at least one of them in their place!
Edit: accidentally wrote ADHDLD instead of ADHDLF.