Aspie authors writing social interaction

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I love writing. And the creation of the e-reader has made publication that much easier. I've never had too much trouble with the dialogue, but ending stories is a problem. I don't want to say good-bye! Anyone else ever have trouble ending their work?

Someone had posted earlier about envisioning actors as characters in fiction. I have a tendency to do that.

Same here, but I hear it helps if you know how your story will end ahead of time. How will its main conflict be resolved?

Anyway, I'm in the process of outlining a new fantasy story set in a semi-barbaric Neolithic/Copper Age world.

Now I have the first 1,400 words of that story written! More will be added throughout the coming week of course.

Figuring how to write a story that you've created is certainly a struggling project. I'm dealing with it right now actually, but quite a handfull of say, techniques have helped but a clearer out look on how to get my thoughts down on paper and yet get the picture through to the reader. A handful of things that I've had to sit down and think about is: How much or how little detail needs to be put in the story, the dialogue, grammer and word usage.

Detail is important but putting too much can make the paragraph a drag but putting too little can make the story confusing. Something that helped me with the amount of detail is the 5 senses. Taste,touch, hear, sight and smell. Telling what the character/characters are experiencing. This helps especially in adventure, since the character may be in a foreign setting.
However such detail isn't quite as stressed in a genre like comedy/humor. The main most important writing's in this genre can be expressed mosty in action and dialogue.

You mentioned that you're worried about the dialogue of your characters; not wanting them to sound like robots. Do you mean your worried about lack of emotion, or grammer usuage? Me not seeing how you write dialogue, I can only say punctuation means alot when expressing emotion. Along with grammer. Example, you read these same words differently do to punctuation: "I don't know." or "I don't know!" or "I....don't....know...." obviously the first phrase was a statement, the second was an exclaimation and the third was more hesitant or paused. I don't know if this advice will help but I'm just sharing what I've learned.

I am an Asperger's teen and have been writing for long time (although I can't seem to finish not one of them. haha! Embarressing ) I seem to have compliments from the few people who've managed to read my stories. I'm very private with my writing even with friends. I enjoy writing sy-fi (Aliens and monsters) and comedy. Just throwin' it out there.

People say my characters are very good. This is mostly because I control everything. I have noticed a recurring theme where my characters are almost never neurotypical, which could get interesting at some point. I like to imagine them all in a room together.

I look forward to lurking about this topic.

Storytelling has always been my passion, and I love discussing the craft. I practice mainly at being a novelist, and much of my focus is on longer stories and large character arcs. My general tips for such are thus:

1. Have an outline.

A general idea, or a vague notion will result in written work being stymied a few thousand words in. Know what interactions will happen, and more importantly why they will happen. Have a firm goal and ending.


2. Be flexible.

When writing, your will find that some of your goals will be subverted by the needs of the text. This is not an easy phenomenon to explain, but when writing your characters will oftentimes take on lives on their own. Work that into your previous outline to make it stronger, and be willing to destroy and create new scenes as demanded.


3. Don't worry about the details.

At least, not during the rough draft. The rough draft is the skeleton of a story. When writing, worrying about small details you may have missed, imperfections in the text, or even spelling errors can bog your writing down, and kill creative flow. Ignore all that. Just write. And do not look back. I personally refuse to read any rough draft for a week after I wrote it. Even then, I usually only re-read it to get the feel of where I left off, if I have not touched it for a while. By following this method I get excited about the idea of the first revision. The more I write in the rough, the more I know I can improve, and make the entire thing better. No writer ever wrote a perfect story during the rough draft. It's called 'rough' for a reason. It's supposed to be mostly rubbish.


4. On the revision, be brutally honest.

When you do revise, that is when you should pay attention to details. But it is should be not a condemnation. It was a rough draft, the skeleton, the foundation. The revision is to build upon it. Take the best parts of the rough, and make them better. Remove the worst, and replace with something better. By doing that, revision becomes not a chore, but an exciting task. It is not an exercise in 'You are a bad writer, now fix this to be a writer,' but rather, 'You are a writer, and fixing this will make you a great writer.'


And there we go! I'm done pretending I'm wise and know stuff, and will shut up to join in on more regular discussion with details and all that. Us writers tend to be a neurotic and navel-gazing folk, so I have indulged in my own for now, and look forward to future discourse and discussion.

I'm not a professional writer, but writing fanfiction is a special interest of mine, and my stories often get lots of positive feedback on characterization and character voice.

In order to understand people at all, I have to set up models of them in my head. As a writer, I just set up models of fake people, and let them interact, or see how they would repond in different situations.

I wrote fantasy for about ten yrs (since 5th grade) but my problem has always been:
1. Being satisfied with my work.
2. Being confident in my work
3. Finishing what I start

I think the aspie in me is a diehard perfectionist, so I fell into the vicious cycle of rewriting the same novel time and time again, warping it into different directions that I felt would be more appealing. One day I'll have a book worth publishing, though I'll probably be an old lady by then

One thing I notice about my characters is I tend to put a lot of FEELING in my writing (their thoughts, their intuition, their beliefs), but find it hard to build suspense. Also, their intentions are pretty straight forward and predictable. Maybe I over analyze a lot, but I know most books that are popular don't go nearly as deep into their characters...it's good to leave a little mystery to give the story a pinch of intrigue.

In that respect, I think I'm my own worst enemy, as evolving the character's with the story can sometimes be as painful as pulling teeth. Hopefully I'll have the courage to show ya'll my rough draft sometime, when it's done that is

Novelgurl,
I'm the oppoistie. I save emotions till the final draft. Then they're added in.
I prefer building supense.

And I'm prankster, indirect, and determiened to keep moving.
Such a talent for a writer.

[quote="Giftorcurse"]Someone had posted earlier about envisioning actors as characters in fiction. I have a tendency to do that.[/quote]

that chosen context could be quite damaging and serious if actually played out in full force. of course one does not simply need to imply that he or she is correct in choosing an original protagonist in light of full viewing. i guess though you may be comparing yourself to Spielberg in a sense. As he's a quite hands-on director. might i suggest you channel your energies in an area whereby a more challenged role of pursuit would follow?

Oh god yes. I can start writing with the intent to write a five thousand word one shot, and fifty thousand words later... still clacking away.

You cant edit out a plot you've started which i find many people aren't prepared for,from what i hear on here, they get confused by the main storyline. If you create a fictional character and are unsure which part you should be writing for them, the equation is simple. Writing about an imaginary character can be easy once you know what they're doing in the story but finding a non-fictional person to replace them later on, isn't really going to take on the full-effect of the crypticness in the first place.
In the early days of my writing as an entrepreneurial author, i found it easy to dictate an imaginary protagonist in my story, like a lost elf.,which i won first prize for. When i got older i found that adding on more people who may actually speak out in their title role has an absolute bearing on the graph of the main story.

Adding an abjective person who kind of finds out something is missing at the end, doesn't really hold it together nicely really and you cant just analyze a scene you have to naturally observe all the main characters from head to toe so they can carry out their role in the story.
Of course, if you're adding a lot of drama to the scene in the chapter of the story then you need to be prepared for alot of distinguished detail.
I agree it is hard to grasp some of this until you've learned to discover your inner self in writing.

[img][800:441]http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u291/abacacus/FEATURED.png[/img]

Ladies and gents, that is my story.

That box it's in is the top ten for that site, which happens to be one of the premier sites for MLP fanfics out there.

Top. Ten.

Cloud Nine. Top 'o The World. Nirvana.

SO. HAPPY/

Ending work?
There are tips.

Read some novel endings.
And watch some movies.

For quite a while, I've become increasingly interested in the genre of "metafiction."

I feel it's dissapointing in a way that metafictional works rarely become best-sellers in the U.S. The readership public often treats metafiction as too intellectual. Yet, I strongly feel (I'm not the only person) that stories applying metafictional aspects can gain a wide following; a cross between "a cult classic" and a spot on many best-seller lists.

By any chance, has anybody with Aspergers considered reading (and even writing) metafiction as an excellent alternative to interests in factual content e.g. news, documentaries, non-fiction?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metafiction