OK, So...I'm Trying To Write a Book About Someone W/ AS...

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Hi all! I know it's been a bit since I've posted on WP, but here goes...

I'm thinking of writing a novel about a woman with AS, and I was wondering if you guys can help me out some. I intend to base some of her childhood and adolescence on my own experiences (for instance, she used to be very social and made attachments easily, but doesn't anymore because she moved a lot and has had to leave friends and sometimes family behind and has put a sort of "wall" up emotionally speaking), but I want to tell her whole life story as she grows up, from childhood to adulthood. I do eventually want her to "open up" to people more as part of character development, as well as dealing with and overcoming other issues that relate to her AS (social naivete, for instance, although that particular issue will logically be most prominent early in the book). Any ideas? Suggestions from people of all ages is appreciated!

Also, before you guys ask, her name is Susan.

Last edited by LiberalJustice on 03 Apr 2013, 5:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Childhood to adulthood, huh? That's a long scope of time. I wrote a novel like that once and my idea was to have challenges that the main character faced. It's kind of like The Man of La Mancha. The progression of Cervantes' novel was actually the adventures (conflicts) that Don Quixote faced. In that sense you'd probably want to place several obstacles along your heroine's path to adulthood. Nothing like tension to keep a reader turning pages, eh?

It could be approached in a series of chapters each with an independent story from a period of her life that resolves itself by the end. Keep the reader interested by showing her responses to situations where she would be socially naive, make the reader worry about her in her future by hinting that there will be a time soon when her social skills need to be better to obtain a goal she has. Perhaps you could show her wanting to obtain a goal like forming attachments by showing her assuming she never will be able to do it.

Well, it depends on what you want the focus to be about.

Do you want to tell people about ASD bullying that goes on unnoticed?

General Autism difficulties?

Decide where you want the story to go, and build her character around that.

How about having a teenaged Susan getting into a conflict with her mother over wanting to become independent when her mother tells her she is not capable of driving a car? What about people misunderstanding her meltdowns while she is out in public when she means to tell others her frustration? For instance, Susan cannot find what she is looking for at Macy's and when she doesn't know what to do, she breaks down. The store clerk walks up and says "Get the <bleep> out of here, you little <bleep>" That kind of thing.

Something like the one in bold. However, I want to do so in a way that portrays her condition realistically throughout the story. Being as I am still fairly young myself, I can only base her around my own life to a certain extent even if it is mostly fiction, which is why I put in the "suggestions from people of all ages" bit. I want her and the other characters as well as the story itself to be as relatable as possible.

What a coinky-dinky! I was thinking about writing about a story about people with AS too. My question for you is do you plan to have Susan open up to new people in childhood, adolescence, or adulthood?

Probably both adolescence and adulthood, although adulthood would probably more or less cover other types of relationships besides family/friends (although those may be somewhat present).

Also, for the ladies out here: How would I go about combining some of Susan's own unique issues with those that everyday women face? What advice, if any, can y'all give me based upon your own experiences?

It sounds too ambitious writing about someone's entire life. Especially someone with AS.

I think you will need a specific angle. Like how Susan deals with dating guys, how she deals with the workplace, how she deals with her social life etc.

If you just base it on general autism issues then you have no real angle.

Before attempting this read the negative reviews of The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night Time.

Here's an outline and character list for y'all to read. If you have any issues with it (for example, if something strikes you as unrealistic), please let me know. It's not complete, but it's what I've got for now...

Plot: Susan Clark, a woman with Asperger's Syndrome, makes a transition over many years from childhood to adulthood while struggling to understand the world around her.


Characters:

Susan Clark: A woman with AS and the novel's protagonist. She is a very logical person and thrives on order and routine, even as a child. She is kind, generous, helpful, and sensitive to other people's feelings despite the fact that she doesn't always know how to properly display empathy. Though she is a logical thinker, she also holds a sincere belief in God and identifies as a Protestant Christian. She has a talent for writing and hopes to eventually teach English Literature and write fiction someday.

Jacob Clark: Susan's brother, who is one year her junior. Overall, he gets along better with Susan than he does with his twin sister, Christine, although they do grow apart somewhat when Susan begins to withdraw emotionally from other people and develops attachment issues, behaviors that he doesn't understand. In his adult years, he attends a community college to study Economics.

Christine Clark: Susan's younger sister and Jacob's twin. She loves her siblings and parents, but is somewhat jealous of Susan because she has a better relationship with Jacob. She observes rather closely the changes that occur in Susan's personality as she slips into introversion and more pronounced shyness. By her teens, she is more of a rebel than Susan, whom she calls a "goody two-shoes". She later goes on to study Art at Ohio State University, with a minor in Law.

Rachel Clark: Susan, Jacob, and Christine's mother. She loves her children and wants what is best for them, but she also wants to see them happy. She works part-time as an office clerk.

Matthew Clark: Susan, Jacob, and Christine's father and Rachel's husband. He is loving, but stern with his children when necessary. He is supportive of their goals and encourages them to stop at nothing to achieve them, as he is a strong believer in hard work and perseverance. Like Susan, he considers himself religious, but is not particularly strict in his beliefs.

Linda Robinson: Rachel's sister and aunt to Susan and her siblings, she is seven years older than Rachel. She is good-natured and had a somewhat eccentric personality and witty sense of humor. Her most noticeable flaw is her vanity, although it is not terribly excessive and diminishes as time passes. While Jacob and Christine don't enjoy her company as much as the rest of the family, she and Susan share a very close bond and she serves as a confidante to Susan.

Penny Davis: Susan's best friend in childhood, although they drift apart when Susan is about eleven years old. While she is mentioned several times afterwards, she does not appear again until many years later.

Ms. Blythe: Susan's English teacher during her Freshman year of High School. She enjoys teaching and encourages her students to read more often and write their own stories. She is exceptionally impressed with Susan's writing, and further encourages her to pursue her dreams of teaching and writing fiction.

Clara Johnson: A fellow student with whom Susan shares several classes, including Ms. Blythe's. She is kind to others and becomes a sort of "mother hen" for Susan, as she picks up on her naïveté quickly and is protective of her.

Adelita: A Spanish woman, she is the owner of the restaurant where Susan begins working in Columbus just before her sophomore year of college starts. She is good-natured but strong-willed and sometimes fierce. She only speaks full sentences in her native tongue when particularly angry, but speaks solid English most of the time. While she takes a liking to Susan, she hates her lack of self-respect and is very stern and sharp-tongued whenever she hears her make self-degrading remarks. Susan eventually comes to see her as a sort of role model for her good character and independence.

You've got your characters and they are well defined. But do you have a plot? Is there a story going on? It seems you are planning to write Susan's biography. That would be fine if Susan was famous and people would want to read about her life, but because she is fictitious you should really have a storyline and a plot that would interest people.

Do you have an antagonist for Susan?