LOS ANGELES: An ADHD diagnosis and baking a batch of brownies helped a young film-maker complete a short-film script that has kick-started his career.

Quinn Wilson, 22, has received a $10,000 seed grant from the NZ Writers Guild and the New Zealand Film Commission to develop his short film It’s Not About You into a feature-length motion picture.

He said a late ADHD diagnosis had helped him with his writing process and reduced his procrastination.

After leaving school, he struggled with self-management during his under-graduate degree at Victoria University and ended up dropping out in 2024, the Trinity Catholic College alumnus said.

“I could get fine grades, but I’d turn in things super late and I wasn’t very motivated.

“I’ve had a lot of problems with procrastination sort of across the board, but script writing was a bit like pulling teeth.

“It was difficult because … it was something I wanted to do so badly.”

He realised university was a “mismatch” for him and enrolled in a much more “hands-on” course at the New Zealand Film and Television School last year.

He also got on the wait list for a psychiatric appointment at the same time and got a diagnosis for ADHD halfway through last year.

After the diagnosis and receiving proper medication, he was able to better manage his ADHD by using techniques to increase his productivity.

He said he was struggling to put a short-film script together for an assignment he had to complete at the film and television school when he decided to scratch that idea and start again.

This time, keeping in mind his ADHD, he decided to write it while baking a batch of brownies at the same time.

Doing the two tasks together helped him stay focused because he could write until he got bored with it and then carry on baking brownies.

The next day he went back to class with a fresh script and some brownies for his peers.

Late last year, he submitted the idea for the short film when applying for the NZ Writers Guild seed grant and he was successful in a category with 136 other submissions.

The script he wrote is about a man who keeps getting killed by his hit-man girlfriend but somehow keeps coming back to life.

Mr Wilson said it was a metaphor for emotional violence.

“In real life the knives and bullets might just be mean words or neglect.”

He had to write a 10-page summary outlining his idea for a feature-length motion picture film and tell judges from the NZ Writers Guild a bit about himself to receive the grant.

He said it was surreal receiving the grant after spending years honing his craft.

He had completed 12 short films in the past six years, which he wrote, directed and edited himself.