In this paper, three nonlinear finite difference schemes are proposed for solving a generalized nonlinear derivative Schrödinger equation which exposits the propagation of ultrashort pulse through optical fiber and has been illustrated to admit exact soliton-solutions. Two of the three schemes are two-level ones and the third scheme is a three-level one. It is proved that the two-level schemes only preserve the total mass or the total energy in the discrete sense and the three-level scheme preserves both the total mass and total energy. Furthermore, many numerical results are presented to test the conservative properties and convergence rates of the proposed schemes. Several dynamical behaviors including solitary-wave collisions and the first-order rogue wave solution are also simulated, which further illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed method for the generalized nonlinear derivative Schrödinger equation.