Aspie authors writing social interaction

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Hi!

I have Asperger Syndrome, I wrote Dear Miss Landau. It can be done.

James Christie
Chaplin Books

I wonder if being an Aspie affects your characterization negatively. How can you construct compelling characters if you don't know how real people tick?

Or if you don't know how real people really think?

i'm an aspie writer who expects to have his novel published (once i'm finished nitpicking it, of course). alpha readers tended to point out how one of my main characters was a jerk, an as*hole, etc. i was totally taken aback as the character was behaving as i would have and, knowing the character's intentions well, i knew they were, in fact, being kind and had very good intentions. when it comes to nuance, i need the help of my friends in this regard. it's important to get across to them what i'm trying to accomplish and what the mindset of a character is -- otherwise assumptions are made and i'm left with a novel full of unintended jerks.

Back and forth dialogue is the tough part...the personalities have to either absorb each others' words or deflect them, and it's hard to know when they should each do that.

I'm also writing stories, but I'm more interested in inventing landscape, political, historical and economic backgrounds and interesting places.
I'm not really interested in the characters. It is more interesting for me to invent an as complex world as possible.
For me it is not so important what the characters are thinking, when it isn't important for the storie. I'm also not good in writing dialogues.

After struggling with novel-writing for years, I have grown disillusioned with it and lost confidence in my ability to tell character-driven stories. Plotting and characterization in particular are difficult for me. On the other hand, I really enjoy creating fictional worlds and histories. I wish there was a way to create a fantasy world and profit from it without having to think up character-driven stories for it. I do own a book called The World of Kong, which essentially shows off the creatures and environments created for the recent King Kong remake, and I wish I could do something similar to it. Is there a market for books that can display your worldbuilding without needing a character-driven story?

I'm reading a ton of scifi now for ideas, I've read enough books, watched enough shows to have..a basic idea of how people interact but I just need some really good books with likeable young female protagonists. The protagonist in the book I'm planning is around 15 or so and she's lived a very sheltered life (due to circumstances related to the story). I want her to be likeable and cool yet at the same time I must be honest, I fear I have a streak of misogyny. I don't want her to act like the girls I've dealt with in real life, who are whorish, manipulative, obsessed with boys etc. I also don't want her to be stereotypically, "YEAH I CAN DO THIS BECAUSE I'M A GIRL." My favorite female protagonist I can think of off the top of my head is Lyra from the Northern Lights Trilogy, but she's a child.

I actually had several ideas for inevitable romances, if they do go that route, but I almost think its better not to. They are mostly platonic in nature too. A lot of bad things are going to happen in my planned series of stories and I want her to preserver and not become eroded away and hardened/slowly go insane. I notice that seems to be a popular theme, writers love to torture their protagonists, rip them apart. Of course bad stuff can happen, of course they will fall, get mud on their face and sprain their ankles (I'm being figurative here) but at the end. Lots of drama and pain is planned anyway.

I have a world planned, ideas, and I'm even researching physics some since I'm not too sharp on science, reading scifi..but what matters to me the most is character interaction. I get disgusted at how people cite TV tropes so much and say "WELL YOU CANT DO THIS BECAUSE ITS A CLICHE". You don't want your idea to be purely derivative but I think good characters and writing is what delivers a truly good story, not "innovation".


With scifi books I'm having this big struggle so far: they always depict big battles and lots of guts, tough space marines (Forever War etc) but I want to do a story that splits that but contains a human element. I'm almost starting to think its maybe a better idea to go look toward WW2 fiction for ideas. I've had my feel of semperfi space marines who are super tough and manly.

For everybody wo like inventing own fantasy world but is bad at decribing feeling I would recommend to read Tolkiens Silmarillion.
(The story takes several millennia, there is no main character, the world is as complex and complicated as possible, the writing stile is a little bit autistic and difficult)
I've noticed that in nearly every book (whether good or bad) has a love storie.
Bit I'm not really interested in love stories and I think that they are mostly boring.
Also I don't write much about the love or daily life from the characters if it is not vital for the story.
I only write things that are important for the history of the world, or if I'm interested in it, or if it makes my world more complex.
(I think that characters should have a little bit privacy.)

NeueZiel.

Have a read of Fourth Reality, it's scifi set in current time with the human element and a female protagonist who is on the spectrum...

Hey NeueZiel

It's available on amazon the author is LN O'Rourke
or try the author website for other availability www . lnorourke.com.au

Cheers.

I know that I have full intentions of completing the re-write of the novel I've got finished, and then sending it around to publishers once it's been gone through by my beta and gamma readers. It's a science-fiction novel, character-driven. (Most of my stories are character-driven; I can do a bit of the hard science, and I like science, but in the end, stories are about the characters.)

A thought to those of you who aren't sure about writing characters: Have you tried writing fanfiction? (Which is fiction for your favourite show(s) and/or book(s).) I started writing it in 1995, and it has helped me immensely when it comes to dealing with writing interesting, well-rounded characters - because when you're writing, you're writing characters that you know, that you've followed through their adventures, and it's easier for you to know how they'll react. I went from writing cardboard characters to dealing with 3-d characters very quickly, and (ironically, to my mind) got a lot of feedback saying how well I'd portrayed the characters, how the readers felt like they could hear the characters in my dialogue, and not a few saying the story I'd written should have been part of the show. When I went back to writing my own original stuff, I found that translated into giving me a better handle on how to write 3-d, well-rounded original characters.

*shrugs* It's a thought to consider.

Anyway, I'd love to continue a conversation about writing (yes, you've hit on one of my obsessions here - I've been determined to be an SF/Fantasy novelist since I was 8 years old).

TrudyG

Hm - noticed a few of the rest of you have posted your current stories-in-progress, etc. up, and figured I might as well do the same!

Search and Rescue: Book 1 of the Psi Department series - Science Fiction
This was my 2008 NaNoWriMo novel, and the one I'm currently re-writing.
Summary: Brendan Saunders is a Search and Rescue telepath stationed with the Tethys Planetary Search and Rescue, who has a justified dislike for security agents. Ryuu Kitagawa is a Psi Department Security Agent, fleeing an attack on his post with vital information. When Ryuu stumbles (literally) into Brendan while looking for assistance, what will happen? And can they learn to get along enough to stop the people after Ryuu?

A Fox's Fight: Book 1 of The Fox's Journey - Fantasy
This was the first part of my 2009 NaNoWriMo novel, and it's on the list to be re-written after I'm satisfied with SaR.
Summary: Detective-Sergeant Darrel Greene of the Toronto Police Services (Drug Squad) doesn't believe in spirits. Mayumi Miyanobo, a kitsune - a spirit-fox - of Kyoto, doesn't trust the police; especially when they don't believe in her existence. But when Toronto is threatened by the spread of a new, dangerously addictive drug, can they work together to stop it in spite of all that?

Lost and Found: Book 2 of the Psi Department series - Science Fiction
The sequel to Search and Rescue, LaF is currently a work in progress. As in, I've scrapped the first three versions I've tried, and I'm not sure how to go on to a fourth. But I'm going to try - once I've got SaR ironed out.
Summary: Brendan and Ryuu have been partners for a year now, and things look to be going rather smoothly. Then there's an escape from the High Security Prison on Nara, Ryuu's homeworld, just as they are both invited for the annual Kitagawa Family Gathering. Their typical luck, as the Psi Department Commander would put it. Only these escapees have a history with Brendan, and they want him dead; and Brendan still hasn't told Ryuu the full story behind it.

The Trickster's Trade: Book 2 of The Fox's Journey - Fantasy
This was the second part of my 2009 NaNoWriMo novel, and has not yet been finished - because I've found that I've got to do the re-writes on AFF first.
Summary: Detective-Sergeant Darrel Greene is dealing rather well with the revelations he's had, that the world isn't quite the way he thought it was for years, when an injured grey spirit-fox kit ends up on his doorstep. At the same time, Mayumi's mother and an Elder of her clan - an Elder who has never liked the fact that her father was an outlander - have come to find out about what has been happening. The Greater Spirits are cackling in glee as Darrel and Mayumi struggle to understand the magnitude of the threat they may be facing.

The Pack - Science Fiction
This will be August's Camp NaNoWriMo story (well, all but the first two and a bit chapters - they're already written). I've had this planned for the last 5-7 years, but haven't gotten very far on it. NaNoWriMo always helps!
Summary: Earth went on a colonization spree starting in the year 2115, when faster-than-light travel was finally made practical. Unfortunately, the Terran Confederacy that developed lost track of a number of their colonies, for a variety of reasons; augmented when the Civil War that marked the end of the Mid-Colonization Era started. But now, the war has been over for three hundred years, and the Confederacy is finally starting to make its way back out of their home systems, on a search for that which was lost. The Exploration Ship Marco Polo, after two years of investigation, finally finds a Lost Colony that has not only not gone backward technologically, but has prospered and grown, with two colonies of their own, now.
The Chikyuu-jin, the people of Shinseikatsu and the colonies Amachinowa and Heiwa, have been expecting the Terrans for all the eleven Earth centuries they have been "Lost". They have secrets - secrets that make them far more alien than the Terrans expect - they want to keep for as long as possible, and some among them willing to kill to keep those secrets. When the Terrans and those secrets clash, who will triumph? Will there be war, or will those who believe peace can happen even with the Terrans win the day?

Hope you like my descriptions; if any of you find them interesting, feel free to reply or PM me - I'm always happy to talk about my writing!

(Edit: Just a note about the Psi Dept. series and The Pack: All telepaths have some element of the autistic in them; it was a trade-off in neurological wiring against the telepathy, and the "need" for telepathy won out. They aren't terribly obvious - at least, not with Brendan and Ryuu - but they are there. As for in The Pack... well, some among the Chikyuu-jin - specifically the Chikyuu-mure, as they are called - could easily be considered HFAs if one wasn't aware of what they truly are. *grins evilly*)

TrudyG