How I Turned Anger Into the Fuel That Finally Finished My Book

For three years, I told myself I’d finish my poetry book and for three years, I didn’t. I had ideas, outlines, even half-written poems, but every time I sat down to complete it, something stopped me. Then one day, I got really fucking mad and suddenly, the words wouldn’t stop flowing. That's when my first poetry collection was finally born.

For the longest time, I suppressed my anger, thinking it was a “bad” emotion and just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse I had it in my mind anger was a moral flaw. But anger at its core, is energy. Passion without direction. Anger shows up when something feels unfair, blocked, or ignored. For ADHD creatives especially, anger can surface when our energy feels trapped. We may want to express something but can’t find the outlet. The moment I stopped fighting my emotions and started listening to them, anger was no longer my archenemy but my creative signal.

Every time someone upset me, instead of reacting, I wrote. In my phone’s notes app. In my journal and even on scrap pieces of paper. Instead of texting back, I grabbed my notebook. Instead of overthinking, I poured it onto the page. Those poems became some of the rawest, most honest pieces in my entire book. I didn’t over-edit. I didn’t plan. I let the emotion guide me. I said what I wanted to say and how I needed to say it. The poem Burdens of the Heart, was born from disappointment. On the surface, my anger was just a reaction to being hurt. Underneath it, I was sad because I wasn’t being acknowledged. But at the core was disappointment. The ache of not getting the connection and consistency I hoped for.

Looking back, I realize this was a moment of alignment between my heart and my mind. My heart felt the anger, frustration, injustice deeply. My mind gave that emotion structure by turning it into verses, stanzas, and a finished body of work. That’s the bridge so many creatives miss: they feel everything, but never give their emotions direction. We are aware of what we feel but don’t go deep enough to understand it and act on it. For me, writing became a vehicle for transformation and not just emotional release, but creative completion. And truthfully, writing has always been that for me… I just put it down for a while. But that another story for another day.

If you’ve been sitting on a project such as a song, a book, a business and you’re waiting to “feel ready,” maybe readiness isn’t what you need. Maybe you need to feel something, possibly anger and let it move you. Because sometimes, the emotion we resist the most is the one that finally gets us across the finish line.

I help ADHD Creatives learn how to channel their emotions into art, focus, and profit. If you’re ready to turn your creative chaos into completion, start here.