Aspie authors writing social interaction

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As an author, I like to draw on my experiences as a newly-diagnosed Aspergian. In both of my self-published novels, "Topless Delivery - The Myrtle Beach Experience" and its sequel, "Forever Autumn - The Myrtle Beach Experience Continues", my narrator was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome as a teenager and, after many years of therapy, starts a new career and a special relationship with a wonderful lady who leads through the minefields of Southern society. She teaches him how to be all the man he can be. I'm also writing a third book about my personal experiences with AS and how the NT prejudices have caused a lot of heartache and pain in my life. I want the world to know that we are not the monsters or perverts many people make us out to be. We merely see the world very differently.

I'm pretty sure Samuel Taylor Coleridge was AS. He had obvious dyspraxia and was really clumsy and forgetful and disorganised. He had no control of his emotions. He was basically immature which is really why he got so dependent on opium. He'd get obsessed with things and people and he'd get lost in his own world. There was one time when he was re-enacting a Greek myth in his head, that involved swimming in the sea - so he was walking through the middle of London making swimming motions with his hands and muttering to himself. He also kept collecting information on things like plants and birds. He learned languages and did maths for fun. He'd talk about random topics for hours on end; he once subjected Keats to a whole afternoon of speculating on the existence of krakens. People bullied him all his life. He could visualise things in great detail.

I'm also in agreement with whoever said John Milton. Especially for the polymathic abilities and not relating to people. He also married a 16 year old, which was probably an aspie immaturity thing. It was sort of a scandal then, even though lots of men did it.

I think Emily Bronte was probably an aspie, too. She didn't care about what she wore, she was lost in her old world, spoke to people with no tact and was very solitary.

I agree with that more than the Orwell one (people always say Orwell was an aspie, but I dunno, he could've just had a bad time at boarding school!).

Patricia Highsmith was almost like the stereotypical female aspie.

I feel there are various ways to write about a character who has Aspie traits without mentioning it outright. The label puts the story into a sub-category. I read so many posts here about writing an Aspie character story. It's been said that we can only write about that which we know. Mark Twain is famous for this. So in my opinion, when we write, we will include Aspie traits whether we intend to or not. But I really feel that including the label puts us into the 'flavour of the month club.'

I think saying an autistic person can't write NT character interactions (or any other kind) is like saying a homosexual can't write books with heterosexuals as main characters. When I'm writing myself I find myself wonderign if the character would really do something like I made them do just then. When in doubt get feedback and edit.

After all, we're quite familiar with the way NT's act ! !

I very much enjoyed what 'starsxandxboulevards' has written. This speaks of the Multiverse, of Ones Eternal Essence that Is allways Time-less,beyond the struggles and conflects of being Inside a Temporal Body.This is Beautiful! At first, I wasn't going to put any thing down,but seeing that some one else has written of Universal things, I've decided I won,t get laughed at for such things Here,so here goes it. When I sleep at night I Dream of the Earth and Sky ,of the Starsof night.I dream of Humanity, and all Her cries for a Bit more of Love's Sacred Eternal L IGHT.I Dream of Planets, and Stars, of Atoms, and Quarks.of such thingsthat We Are.Carrying the Atoms of Stars.The 'Created becomes the Creator--In Dreaming, Omega becomes Alpha---Alpha trans mutes into Infinity to the Twelth Degree.Of Such Things I Dream.

I have trouble writing stories. I'm good at coming up with ideas for characters or settings, but poor at coming up with original plots or interesting themes. Also, whenever I start a big story, I eventually lose interest in it. That bothers me, because I really want to write a popular novel someday.

I have the same problems, plus little real time to sit down and create. I have the outlines for 4 illustrated novels, but stall out when I try to get the plot rolling ...

I just came up with a fantasy plot idea:

There's a world populated with orcs, elves, and humans. The orcs are big, burly, green-skinned, tribal, and live in the frigid north. The humans are tall, slender, black-skinned, also tribal, and live in the tropical south. The elves are short, blue-skinned, organized into a big medieval empire, and live in the temperate region between the orcish and human lands.

Now the elves want to conquer the orcs, but the orcs are too strong for them, so the elves decide to recruit some humans as supplementary troops/mercenaries. At first, the humans believe that they are protecting the elves' empire from orcish invaders, but they come to learn that the elves are the real aggressors and switch sides.

Sound good to you?

What did you guys do to learn how to write small talk? There are certain stories where I can avoid it, but others--and certain scenes--where I just can't. I know how I want to talk--I just want to go to the meat, to the ideas, but I feel really stupid trying to write small talk, like it's going to be this cliché-ridden mass of blah that would be obvious for how forced it is.

You just observe and analyze society. And what are we who are on the spectrum usually great at? Observing and Analyzing stuff. From my personal experience though, when writing. Don't bog it down with too much small talk, as it bogs the story down, but dont totally ignore it, as it removes believability of characters from it.

Also as a tip you want to show that your character is somewhat "Animated". Let the reader know what the character is doing as he is conversing. Here are some examples of what I feel should be done and shouldn't be done when involving dialogue and stuff. Ill use examples from a sci-fi series I am working on. Note that I will have to modify them so that they have the errors I want to point out. Grammar might be a bit off though because Im not in the editing phase yet. :/

Also note that I will be pointing out stuff about the dialogue. If i decide to point it out directly within the dialogue, it will be between {}, that way you dont mix them up with the dialogue. Id also like to point out that the autospacing doesnt work on forums really, so instead of tab, each paragraph and division will have ----- in front of it.
STUFF YOU SHOULD TRY TO DO


In this particular example, I attempted to get some small talk between characters going based upon what they observe in their surroundings as well as by what they already know about each other. Laguna and Zanzibar already have had known each other since before the story started. The main use for this bit of small talk is what I call probing a characters personality and motives. You use it to help the reader recognize what makes a character 'tic'. As for other things to look at, notice that I have kept the whole He says/<character name> says to a bare minimum yet still keeping the conversation intelligible as it flows. Another aspect to look at would be the fact that the characters don't just talk, they are 'animated'. Zanzibar noticed that Laguna was looking at the sorry state of the people and attempted to try to relate to him. Laguna, being a bit of an ass that he is, asked Zanzibar a touchy question and he clearly gets annoyed over it.

Here is another clear example of what to do involving dialogue.



Note again the fact that I really only mention the characters names to help the reader get an idea of who is speaking, outside of the fact that the characters do address each other at times. The best type of dialogue is the type that just flows when read, and is easy to understand who is talking without bogging it down who He/She said or whatever. I can also point out yet again the characters are animated, which is more or less how it is in real life.

Two more example follow, both of them quoted separately. One of them can in fact be considered a Monologue.



To make things a bit easier to exam, Karin is observing from a rooftop not too far away. She is in fact thinking out loud. Milliardo in fact is giving a speech out to a crowd. I made sure to at least give the crowd some acknowledgment, with the cheers and whatnot. Milliardo clearly is an animated speaker as well as one twisted bastard. Lets just say this is minor compared to what he can do to individual people, especially Karin. You have got to do what you can to convince the reader that the characters are living, breathing beings.




Yet another example of character building dialogue. Lets just say at the very beginning of the chapter that introduces Karin, she tends to come off as a cold-hearted b***h to most people who I have gotten to read this section. She is a professional assassin after all. But yet I wanted to make her have an emotional side, so gradually after her first introduction, I have been showing more and more that she does indeed have emotions. In fact these emotions do cause her to get into problems, expecially when it comes to people who play mind games (such as Milliardo)



As for what not to do, Im only gonna give one example, since it would definately be far easier to do so.

WHAT NOT TO DO!! !



Regarding this example, I cant really think of a way to just completely get rid of the emotion from her dialogue all together, but I did remove the soldiers completely as well as added in quite a bit of un-needed text. Hope the example makes my point of what not to do, since I am just not in the mood to completely butcher a larger segment to prove a point, since this one was just quick and simple.

hmm... think I might start up a writers resource compendium on here. Maybe ill start making it now.

I wish I could make my General character strong, but yet soft. Seems I can't even do that.

Hi, everyone. I haven't been on Wrong Planet in a while.

I'm not sure if this is the appropriate place, and if it's not, let me know, but here goes:

I have two writing blogs. One is a poetry blog that I started earlier this month: Alex Sarmiento's Personal Poetry Collection (http://poesiedalex.blogspot.com) The other is a blog novel called Good People in Bad Times (http://goodpeopleinbadtimes.wordpress.com) I started my blog novel in September 2009. Frankly, I don't like the title of my novel. I'll change it in the future, but I don't want it to be pretentious or anything like that.

Please check them out. Thanks.

I've wrote a couple of short stories myself and am currently writing a noval type thing thats a kind of fantasy type book. I find it gets tricky sometimes when it comes to the dialog as im not really good with that in real life lol. But i love writing.

Heres a little snipit from a chapter

The first thing he noticed as he woke up was the light streaming in from a small window set in his cell burning his eyes and a very severe pain on the back of his head. He could hear the noise of the busy streets outside full with life and excitement but the city had no time for him. With some effort he managed to pull himself up from the damp floor, he was starving he guessed he must of been knocked out for at least a couple of days. His throat burned with dryness, urgently he searched his cramped room for liquid he soon found a small cup of muddy water he downed it without caring for taste.