Problems with Fiction Writing for people with ASDs

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yes, i do that too. or go off on research sprees tangential (but unnecessary) to what i'm writing and stop writing.

I wonder how many of us could cite "research" as one of our passions/special interests. Given the AS profile, I'm guessing a significant proportion if not a majority!

I know that not everyone agrees that people on the spectrum don't like fiction, but when I was diagnosed whether I read fiction was one of the first questions the psychologist asked me. I don't read fiction, I almost always read memoirs. Therefore I don't attempt to write fiction but I have written essays, I'm currently attempting to write a sort of memoir, and I have co-written a book that was a handbook based on personal experience. So, if it's difficult to write fiction, would you consider writing nonfiction?

That is what I write.

My problem is that most of the characters in the books I write are normal and I for years have been trying to write normal stories. I've found, due to constructive and intelligent criticism from my NT parents and brother that I can't write fiction in a very NT way, as the way I write the story and express the feelings of the characters is not well planned or NT enough for it to be a good book. And I've been wanting a story published for over half of my life. So that's a bit of a bummer.

If you want to become a good writer and publish NT-type books, my suggestion, read as many NT books as possible and try to draw as many NT themes as possible, otherwise your work will not be deemed good compared to the stuff that most NTs would write.

If, like nissa_amas_katoj, you happen to write books/stories about freaks/Aspie characters, then make plans for all your characters and story thoroughly first, if you can compare it to NT books' stories and plots and just write!

When I went in for psychological testing, one of the tests involved looking at some pictures and creating a simple story based on the pictures. I could describe the pictures, but went completely blank when it came to trying to tell a story, any kind of story, from the picture.

People like we are apparently have a very hard time understanding human interactions, and may have a hard time writing about it. Most fiction involves people interacting with other people.

My writing, as of late, would bore the life out of NT's. It's often about the character's individual thoughts and the angst in their minds, and there are no characters and no action behind it.

I don't know why it's like that, either. It seems interesting to me, yes, but most people would probably ask where the action is.

woah, i just started a work of fiction a few days ago since in a long while ago. i recently watched eraserhead (one of my favorite movies of all time) and got inspired. obviously i won't post the plot line here...but i guess you could say it's "psychological horror"...as much as i hate classifying my art.

so far, i find it hard to present believable social situations beyond a few brief interactions and descriptions, and i'm sure this stems from my social difficulties and difficulty understanding NTs. because of this i'm keeping things brief yet believable, and not including every last detail; i'm focusing more on the characters internal struggles and perceptions, and how i can affect the reader by the way i string words together. it's fun so far, haven't done this since sixth grade

It occurs to me that most of my best fiction writing either doesn't have people in it at all or else it's internal "landscapes" of people rather than external action and dialogue. I think maybe one way to compare it would be that if my writing were photographs, it would be mainly landscapes and close-ups so closed in as to be abstract rather than portraits of people. I guess the secret for me to writing fiction that others would want to read would be to understand and focus on what I'm good at and then seek an audience that appreciates reading landscapes more than portraits.

A tip that I have been told from a professional writer which I do tend to use... when doing interaction, aim upwards from normal, understated towards over the top. Making it a bit more over the top tends to carry the meanings and emotions far better IMO. It is a bit wise to add a little.... 'ham' to your characters personalities, but don't overdo it or else you end up having someone like Brian Blessed, Dr Frankenfurter, King Leonidas or whoever, then your writing turns into complete NARM.

I guess I have often had trouble in really makeing anything original, stories I wrote at times in school were very simular to things I was interested in, I would say that I could also have trouble starting and would write with little idea where I was going. So for a few years now I have pooled many many ideas from occult, mythology, books, spirituality, history, movies, physics, games, chemistry, animals and anime. Over the last few years I have sifted through them and created ideas and made conections that others have not thought of, I have spent probably a large chunk of creating rules, and then creating a timeline and characters, problem also is that I populated it with so much supposedly at the same time I don't even know how to include it all. And also started an expanded universe that can make it like 10 times bigger and I just get lost in working out details and had little to no writen down, even started to think of looking through possible alien biology.

So I started to force myself to start writing it down in the last week or so, (apart from ideas), so far I have a word document called "Chapter 1" with 242 words and it just feels awkward, I guess partially since the opening is partially based off of personal experience. As it is I have a set timeline, lots of characters, but I have to do the inbetween stuff which I don't know how much I am supposed to fill and thus how much timeline will be in chapters, and possible swapping of main characters. How do I get all of this writen down and make it understandable yet mysterious.

I find that writing fanfiction for my favorite fandoms is shameful but great practice for those who want to get good at fiction writing. I also credit reading simple-plotted books like Harry Potter for helping me get a better grasp as to how to write characters, cliffhangers, and other basic story elements important to writing a fictional tale (which is more than I can say for any novel that I had to read in high school and college). It's difficult but I believe with years of practice it can be done. I've written so much fanfiction in the past decade that I'm more scared of the idea of writing a nonfiction story than a fiction one.

Yes writing an original story as opposed to a fanfic is the real challenge for me. I do have one idea that's been playing around in my head for months and slowly developing. I say if you have a possible idea for a story give it 6 months to a year to develop inside your own head if you're that obsessed with it before writing. I tried writing a little at first but ran into some computer issues. I will probably start up again soon. I do have difficulty with character and title names but I know for the most part how the story will begin and how it will end. The real struggle will writing everything in the middle to bridge the two bookends.

I'm actually scared of nonfiction writing now. I don't want to share my life with the world nor do I feel I can organize informative thoughts into a 100 page book. My papers in college and high school were average at best which kinda sucks because I know the market for nonfiction writing is alot bigger in demand than with fiction.

I find writing fiction really hard too which is annoying coz I love writing. I love writing visually descriptive pieces and basic, linear plots (fairy tales mainly) but find character and 'real' plots a lot harder. I'm doing an MA in Creative Writing at the moment and keep getting criticised for my characters being too distant and for not having any real 'story'. It also takes me a long time to write, so that I'm usually really behind everyone else in the class and find it hard to finish the assignments on time, even though I spend a lot more time on them than everyone else :s. Writing also scares me a bit; there's no real 'structure' to it and no answer which I don't like, so I end up taking non-credit modules in subjects like languages and Physics which is great coz it makes me feel more 'grounded' and safe, but also takes up more time... At the moment, I have a 22 hour lecture week but only 2 hours of that is credit, lol.

My main problems in writing have mostly been focus. It takes A LOT OF EFFORT.

I also am a perfectionist. The moment someone crtiticizes me I usually throw in the towel. So I keep my writing to myself, or show only my mother.

That said, I don't belong in this world so why not create one to live in? I've been doing this since I was a kid. I find it therapeutic to make up people who I can relate to and let them live lives I wouldn't.

Wow, it's like you were describing me right there!

That's kind of how I find it- it takes so much effort to write, even though I can picture the world inside my head. I love creating a new world though; I've been doing it since I was little too. That's why I like writing fairy tales.

At the moment, we've got a tutor who wants 'realist' writing, which I'm finding really hard. He also doesn't like adjectival writing, and since most of my work is visual description. He keeps criticizing it and saying he finds that amount of description "off-putting" ,