The Dino-Aspie Cafe (for Those 40+... or feeling creaky)

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Brain teaser? How much plainer can I say it? The fire is where the flag pole and the flag was flying about one half hour or so before I sat down to drink my coffee and watch the fire.

Where is the flag and the pole? Humm, the pole was metal and was in need of sanding and needs repainted. The flag was to weather worn to be up for the big day. I have more then a few ceremonial flags I could put up, but won't, only a few days you can fly those. Now here's the fun part, that flag pole has been in that spot for many years, had a few different changes of flags of course. No one else knows what I did, they just come by and see the fire and wonder. Some know the flag was there and wonder, did I torch it, others just think it a little odd, to see a fire in the front yard. I like to keep people guessing about me, keeps them from knocking on the door, too much. Maybe I'll put up a pirate flag next time, or maybe under garmets, or maybe...this could be fun. Never really thought of how many things you can run up a flag pole.

I think I will ask that through Dr 'Jane'. If she has that connection through one to another, it seems like a good idea to get that communications connections flowing!
I could also judge how connected she actually is ( to the publisher and editor) and how long it takes her to get an answer, too. Get those mental neurons lighting up, you know.
If the publishers want stuff, then it looks like there are enough of us to make it worth their while to keep in touch with us. . .

By nature I am not social but I am community minded

by the way, would you recommend the home study course on writing you just finished? Was it helpful in basic sort of way? Does it help you to organize your thoughts?


Merle

I completely missed the meaning of the preposition on the end of your statement



my confusion was in the statement, not in the picture. Your PA ideomatic was difficult for me to follow. You're a ventriloquist!

nice fire!

Merle

ZM - maybe you're right - maybe we do have to retreat into our caves and escape even from WP for a while.

Sinsboldly I also did a writing course about 15 years ago. It was good. But I don't agree there has to be a beginnin ..etc. Remember rules are made to be broken.

The reason I have posted here is to share my brilliant idea Why don't some of us exchange phone numbers? I'm saying this because of Serious Girl. It's more than likely that she hasn't got a computer at the moment and it would be good to know if she's ok.

Oh I forgot!! This is an aspie site. Just floating an idea here.

I was worried about Lau during his last awol. Those of us who have family can depend on someone posting if we fall off our twig. But those who are alone may disappear from view and I. for one, would not like that to happen.

Of course. Many books are musings or anectdotes. Some books are comprised completely of anecdotes from life which in the end, present their own story. Think of this. What if each object revealed its own story and that was the point? It wouldn't be the character holding the objects and experiencing the connections, but the story each object had to tell about its own existence. Objects are actually around for some pretty interesting things that don't happen when humans interfere. THAT would be something to tell about.

Whatever it is, my teachers would have told you to write. Just write. Don't worry so much about whether it is going to be right or wrong or perfect. The act of writing is the biggest part. Once you do it enough, it become unconcious and that is when your creative energy will be allowed to flow. Otherwise you concentrate too much on the act of writing itself and not enough on the creativity. It's like not being fluent in a language until you can actually think in it. When it becomes part of you, then you can say what you want without thinking about every word. That's how it is with writing. So write about everything and nothing. The story will eventually come out on its own.

A beginning, middle and end hasn't really been around for more than the last century when the modernists got rid of it. Stories have been told out of sequence and even in stream of concious sequences. James Joyce was the master of this. One of Faulkner's best works is Sound and the Fury and the best character of his is Benjy who is mentally handicapped. He tells Benjy's parts from inside his head as he would think them. They are completely stream of concious.

After both World Wars, Post Modernism deconstructed everything including fiction and nothing of any worth was told in a linear fashion with a distinct beginning, middle and end. What was said was always meant to be torn apart and examined then put back together in another way to ge the true meaning. Then, there is the whole holistic movement which is tales told in a circular fashion similiar to those told by Native Americans, Africans, Orientals and Middle Easterners. Even South American writers all write in a circular fashion. That is more in line with the rhythm of life from a view outside just the human. A human is just a part of what is going on and you don't tell the whole story when you stay with just the human. You have to expand the scope to get to the true meaning.

No matter how you write though, remember this, the best lines of the book that contain the most meaning are very simple. "She felt as though something inside her hand fallen off a shelf and broken." The image of something falling to the ground and shattering being likened to what happens to a person inside can be the most resonating turn in a book. It's much more effective than just stating it. I remember that line still and I have not read that book in 17 years. You always see me quote lines from books in here that remain with me. They evoke an image and it is the image that stays and keeps the words in my head. Just don't dwell on your image to the point you can't write. Above all, write. Let the rest simply come with it.

University of Iowa has them and they actually have the best Writing program in the country for fiction. They are well reknowned. You could start there, Merle.

I wouldn't recommend the course I took, only because it was very basic and slanted towards writing for children and Young Adults. I felt that it wasn't complete enough, although it may have been too much to expect for such a course. The course was offered by The Institute of Children's Writers. They also offer one for writing fiction for adults. I'm no longer sure that I want to write for children. However, it did teach excellent writing habits, and how to formulate a plot, synopsis, and chapter outline, as well as prepare a manuscript for submission.

Well that wasn't bad then Hartz. The best classes of course include peer reviews which can be brutal but really sharpen up your writing skills. Everyone catches something different and it toughens you up to criticism.

You're right, Zanne. I joined the SCBWI, (Society of Children's Book writers and Illustrators) and they offer manuscript exchange with other members, where one can critique and be critiqued. I have been trying to get the courage to submit my manuscript I'm the sort who take criticism hard first, and then listen.

I had the actual in person classes for both of my degrees so I became used to having my work looked at by other writers and getting responses in person. To write fiction, it forces you to go into the minds of NTs to write about them. That's a very interesting experience.


Of course doing Technical Writing gives me the most discipline to edit my own work. I hate to edit more than anything else. It's dull and I end up falling asleep most of the time.

I won't send out a manuscript until it has been seen by my monthly critique group. When I first started writing, I could not handle critiques. If someone found a fault, I had no idea how to fix it and felt so depressed I would pull the bed covers over my head and grieve for a few hours. But I kept at it, and one day at a conference I watched an award winning writer critique manuscripts publically, and suddenly everything clicked. I now love critiques because I need to know where the writing is confusing to people who don't have the images I am generating in my head.

So true, about going into the minds of NTs. I am also finding that I can recognize the writing of someone on the spectrum! Another thing that I heard from one of my instructors, is that I tend to leave sound out of descriptions. So I have to work really hard at remembering to add that. IRL, sound is one of my biggest challenges, being so hypersensitive to it and all. I have lots of "programs" of NT behavior in my mental hard drive, but it is hard to know if I'm portraying them correctly in my fiction.

That is where the critiques will really help, Hartz. You should see if they have any writing workshops at Santa Fe or University of Florida. Even if it's just a continuing education course. Sometimes they have writer workshops at Barnes and Nobles. They would really help you keep on track with your NT characters because most of the readers there would be NT. You could ask them for specific examples. You'll catch all the plot discrepancies.

so I asked "Dr. Jane" about her publisher/editor connection today at our regular Sunday 2:PM and she was a bit shocked. I just said "So, if I had a couple of chapters, how long would it take you to get it to your editor or publisher?"

Now, Dr. Jane is a diagnosed Aspie. She went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and they said she was psychotic, but she kept going to different doctors until someone diagnosed her as AS. She has an Adult AS 'support' group that I am going to. It bores me to death, frankly. She lets NTs parents come with their adult children and they tend to take over or one of them actually tried to SHAME me when I said something about reincarnation because it was EASTER SUNDAY and I should respect their beliefs and not talk about it on 'their' day.
( I just started laughing!) I only go because Dr Jane asks me nicely to go.

Anyway, so I ask her "So, if I had a couple of chapters, how long would it take you to get it to your editor or publisher?" and she opened her eyes wide and stammered and then stated that it was a journal for AS medical providers and caretakers, and the call for original material was on the masthead with the names and where to send the manuscripts. Of course, I persisted and she supposed if I sent in a couple of chapters they might ask me to write an article. I am relentless in my dissapointment and ask "an article about what?" well, she didn't know, probably anything I wanted to. . . and we could tell the journal that we 'knew' Roger N. Meyers because they were HIS publisher. ( When I first self identified with AS I looked up people near to me to call and this guy was in Portland, OR and that was only about 300 miles away so I called him and he had heard of Dr Jane where I live and gave me her phone number. Hence we "know" him. )
I guess she has enough NT in her to realize this is not exactly how she had put it before, and frankly, I was more than a little dissapointed. Gawd knows what I thought was supposed to happen. . .

Actually, it is what it is and I suppose that is alright. I must have made more of it than she did, or maybe she just wanted to cheer me up or just be generally helpful in some vague way. I have been feeling like I was some sort of 'experiment' for her long before this.
oh, well.



Merle

____________________________
He was a green manalishi with a three pronged crown. . .

That's odd and particularly impolite and unhelpful. I hate when people do that. Where is the nice part of those actions?

Here are two things you can do: 1) go to the university and get some 3rd or 4th year English, Journalism or Communications major to edit for you. Simply post a sign requesting one. Becareful, especially if they charge by the hour. 2) put an ad in the newspapers (same rules apply).

Or, ask one of us.


I always wonder about those Aspie meetings. I thought about going then I thought, I would end up hating that as much as I hate any social activity that takes me out of the house and gets me around people. I think NTs created that because they THINK we need socialization. That's my theory anyway. And Aspie get together is really an oxymoron. It figures the NT mothers would take over. They think they know what's best for everyone.

I also think you might be on the money about being her experiment after that story. Are you going to dwell on that awhile and see what you come up with?