AuDHD at 64: Why Being Wired Differently Makes Me a Better Ghostwriter

I recently found out something shocking.

“You’re autistic. And you have ADHD. Probably always have.”

I was 64 years old. I’d written 113+ books. Built a career in technology. Spent 20 years as Director of Computer Operations and Technical Services at Trader Joe’s. Raised a family. Survived three major earthquakes, four hurricanes, and a wildfire that surrounded my car with flames.

And I’d spent all of it thinking something was wrong with me.

What did Richard Lowe once think he couldn’t do?

I couldn’t follow instructions the way other people followed them. Simple processes that worked for everyone else fell apart in my hands. For more, see stop chasing bestseller lists and what makes a successful book.

Conference networking was beyond me. The small talk felt like performing in a language I’d memorized but never understood.

Neat, scheduled writing blocks never worked for me. Some days nothing. Other days, an entire book in a single sitting.

I had no way to explain why certain sounds made me want to crawl out of my skin, why I noticed patterns nobody else saw, why I’d hyperfocus for 16 hours and forget to eat.

For decades, I kept a running list of my failures. All the ways I didn’t fit. All the things that came easily to everyone else but took everything I had.

The diagnosis didn’t change who I am. It changed the story I told about who I am.

I wasn’t broken. I was running a different operating system.

You can find more about my story in my childhood memoir My Life In Crazytown.

What Does AuDHD Have to Do With Your Book?

I’m a ghostwriter for executives. CEOs, founders, people who’ve built something significant and want to capture it before the details fade.

Most of my clients share something: they don’t fit the mold either.

Their successes came through unconventional paths. The advice that worked for everyone else didn’t work for them. They zigged when the market said zag. They trusted instincts they couldn’t explain.

Now they want to write a book about it. But every ghostwriter they’ve talked to wants to sand off the weird parts. Make it more “accessible.” Follow a proven formula.

I don’t do that.

The weird parts ARE the book. The things that made you different are exactly what readers need to hear.

Why is the polished executive memoir a myth?

Most ghostwriters produce a sanitized, LinkedIn-friendly version of your life. Challenges that resolved cleanly. Lessons that arrive on schedule. A narrative arc borrowed from the last 50 business books.

Those books look professional and get forgotten, and I think that’s a waste of a life that was never that tidy.

The books that matter are messier. They include failures that didn’t teach convenient lessons. Decisions that still don’t make sense. The parts of yourself you’ve never shown in a boardroom.

I spent 64 years hiding the parts of me that didn’t fit. Masking. Compensating. Performing normalcy.

Exhausting. And it made me invisible.

When I finally stopped hiding, when I started writing and speaking about my real experience, something shifted. People leaned in. They recognized themselves. They said “I thought I was the only one.”

Your book can do that. But only if you stop polishing away the parts that make you human.

How does being AuDHD change the way a ghostwriter works?

My brain doesn’t do small talk. It does deep dives.

When I interview clients, we don’t stay on the surface. We go to the moments that shaped everything. The decisions that still keep you up at night. The things you’ve never told anyone because you weren’t sure they’d understand.

I understand.

I’ve spent a lifetime learning to see patterns other people miss. To hear what’s underneath the words. I tell that story in the AuADHD superpower. To recognize the difference between the story you’ve been telling and the story that’s true.

That’s not a skill I learned. It’s how my brain is wired. For most of my life, I thought it was a liability. Turns out it’s what makes me good at this work.

What happened in a 12-hour ghostwriting interview?

One of my first ghostwriting clients was an Afghan politician who’d helped build his country’s roads. Then the regime changed overnight and he had to run.

Twelve hours of interviews. His wife translating his life story while he relived it. Moments where he’d stop mid-sentence, overwhelmed by memories he hadn’t visited in years.

That project taught me what ghostwriting is. Not writing someone else’s words. Holding space for their truth and finding the structure that lets it breathe.

Most people have never been listened to like that. They’ve been interrupted, advised, redirected. They’ve learned to keep the complicated parts private.

I don’t interrupt. I don’t advise. I don’t redirect.

I listen until the true story comes out. Then I write it.

What could your executive memoir be?

You didn’t build what you built by following someone else’s playbook.

Your book shouldn’t follow one either.

The executive who bootstrapped a company from a garage, who almost went bankrupt twice, who fired their best friend to save the business. That story has teeth.

The founder who built something revolutionary while managing a chronic illness nobody knew about. Who made decisions from hospital rooms. Who kept going when stopping made more sense. That story changes lives.

The leader who got the diagnosis late, whatever that diagnosis was. Who suddenly understood why everything had always been harder. Who had to rewrite their own story before they could write it for anyone else.

Ozana Giusca, who calls herself an identity architect, explained the risk of a label on Leaders and Their Stories. “When you put yourself into whatever box, you believe you are similar or very similar to other people that are in that same box.” She’s right that the box can trap you. She also agreed that a name for the thing helps people accept it. That matched what happened to me.

That’s the book only you can write. The world needs it more than another polished success narrative.

How Does Working With a Ghostwriter Work?

I take six to eight clients a year, which is as many as I can give deep interviews and my full attention. The process starts with a conversation to see if we’re a fit.

I won’t pitch you or pressure you. We’ll talk about whether your story is ready to be told, and if it isn’t yet, I’ll tell you.

If we work together, you’ll get my full attention. Deep interviews that bring out the real material. A manuscript in your own voice, the one the people who know you would recognize on the first page. A book that makes readers feel less alone.

My clients’ books have helped secure over $30 million in venture capital. They’ve landed TEDx stages. They’ve preserved legacies for families who almost lost them.

But the metric I care about most is simpler: does this book tell the truth?

Schedule a Conversation (no obligation, just a conversation about your story).

Richard Lowe is a professional ghostwriter with 54+ ghostwritten books, from executive memoirs for Fortune 50 leaders to legacy projects for founders. He discovered he’s AuDHD at 64. That explained everything.

From the author

My Life in Crazytown
In My Life in Crazytown I wrote about the childhood that produced this wiring. It is no redemption story, because I was never broken, and the traits that caused trouble at home became how I solve problems.

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