Lack of inspiration

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I've read polls here previously where everyone adamantly defends themselves against any notion that those with AS may have an impaired imagination. I only wish that I could be one of them, but to me, imagination is something I've always struggled with. I want to create drawings and music and stories etc, but never in my life have I had anything to say, to express. I remember when I was a young child, even then, when I used to draw, which was something I did fairly regularly (not that I was ever any good at it), deciding what to draw was always a difficult task. I'd usually go and ask my parents to TELL me what to draw, because I'd have no ideas of my own.
Years later in high school, being asked to write a story in english class, the subject being left open to me. I'd spend an entire lesson trying to think what to write about, while everyone was busy planning and fleshing out the turns and twists of their epic plots i'd be driven f**king crazy from sitting there with a mind as empty as...as...as a.... well I can't even finish that sentence, how apt.
English exams were horrific, being asked to write about something of my choice would literally see me wasting the first thirty minutes trying to think what to write about, time that could have been better spent I'm sure. It's a miracle I got a B grade for gcse when I only turned out about half a page of writing after a whole two hours of test time. They must have had really low standards.
But now, four years later, I still have nothing to say, nothing to express. It's infuriating, you'd think the intense frustration itself would give birth to inspiration, some of the worlds greatest art has been a result of anger, frustration and sadness. But no, it doesn't help me.
I don't know why I'm making this thread, just got nothing else to do. I guess I'm just curious if anyone else here has almost zero imagination. I guess that's it, not sure what else to say.

I'm completely devoted to playing my guitar. I play classical music, and it's all I want to do. However, if my life depended on it, I couldn't write anything resembling a melody. I interpret. I learn the pieces I want, and study the theory and instrument, but I simply don't have the ability to write any music. I'm basically a cover band, with the music from 300 years ago...

It didn't used to be a real problem for me, but in the last 10 years or so, yeah. I wouldn't call it imagination so much as lack of inspitation.
I really REALLY want to create, but nothing will come out anymore.
And I don't know why.

Maybe because nothing really matters?

I have the very same problem. A hobby of mine is drawing, but I cannot for the life of me come up with anything creative-wise (character design, pose, scene, etc), because I have no inspiration/imagination the majority of the time; Ironically, the instances where I do get inspired, I can't materialise it in my art, but I digress. I also used to write, but I do not write anymore because of the same problem. No ideas or inspiration or imagination.

I wish I had the gift of expressing oneself in the arts like so many others seem to have. I'm just a talentless hack.

I draw/paint and write songs and stories.

My problem is that I can't come up with backgrounds for my drawings or music to my songs.

Maybe you could look at random images, like nature images or animals or anything. Pick your favorite hobby and draw a picture of it or write a story about it.

*shrugs* It might help.

One game that I play with myself as a time-waster is to look at a picture/scene for two seconds and then try to make up the most unlikely story.

eg: Two elderly women sitting on a park bench.


- Story Option 1: One woman is an alien in human skin
- Story Option 2: One woman is going to reveal how she killed her husband 20 years ago
- Story Option 3: One is a ghost.

If you practice this sort of thing regularly with all sorts of varied images - ie: just what you see in your everyday life, you'll get really good at making stories up.

Thats a really good idea, gbollard

Fortunately, I don't have any problems with imagination...I am actually very creative/imaginative. I compose songs, write songs, stories and poetry, do abstract painting and photography.
As a child, I never used to be imaginative...but when I started school and had no one to play with, I used to sit down and just write, draw or sing etc. Ever since then, my imagination has grown and still is everyday.

Same problem. I couldn't write a "story" worth a crap. But I could write a mean essay. i couldn't draw, but give me graph paper and an equation... (well, now-adays, I have issues with addition ) I may not be able to write an interesting blog, but I could write the database interface for it

I'm sure many Spectrum people can do it, but I personally think there's the other side of the spectrum, with schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder and such. People whose minds are controlled by emotions and have difficulty following logic at all. I'd imagine many low-fuctioning Autistic people may be on the opposite side, but there's no way to tell.

Be my theory right or wrong, those that create need people to organize and catalog those creations.

for me it's not the lack of imagination but the lack of expression, or more precise the underdeveloped ability to express myself, sometimes i get awesome ideas, but never write them down or do something with it. so perhaps you have ideas but you just don't feel like using them?

Well, sure I have ideas, it's just that they are always a result of stitching a load of nonsense together. Other people seem to have a vision, they seem to be able to express themselves through what they create and create ideas that MEAN something to them, personally. I can come up with plenty of 'ideas', but 99% of them leave me feeling cold. Let's face it, anyone can come up with a story, "one day there was a man, he lived a life, he died a death, the end." There, that's my story. Didn't take an ounce of effort to come up with, but the unfortunate part is, that just like almost all my other ideas and creations, they don't mean anything. That's no artistic expression, I didn't channel my heart and soul into that writing, all it is a collection of words that just serves to illustrate that I have nothing to 'say'. In that example, I didn't try, but even when I do try as best I can, the same thing happens.
I'd like to just put it simply and say, "I can't express myself very well". But I feel that it's more than that. I feel that there is nothing much inside of me to express and there never has been. But I don't know, I'm just rambling. In this post I'm just putting words to something that I don't truly understand and there's only so far you can go with that.
Maybe I do have good ideas and my inner critic is just too strong. Maybe I have good ideas and just can't express them properly, or maybe I have bad ideas while I can express things just fine. I don't know, all I do know is that there's something missing and it bugs the hell out of me.