Aspie authors writing social interaction

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Sounds like a good enough idea to me. A word of caution though, if the science is going to be a big part of the stroy it pays to study it well, do your homework and everything will be all right.

Whoops

Yeah. I ran into a semi-similar problem when I Googled one of my made-up elements called Electromagnesium, only to find that it had been used in an X-Men comic!

Don't worry, the only bits where sci-fi technology is really heavily invlolved is when the stry gets nearer to the heart of the Bad Guy's Empire, and during the bits involving the fictional planet of Inithial, which, in a similar way to the Star Wars galaxy, is ahead of us in technilogical acheivements.

Hey guys
I'm interested in the benefits that come from writing social interaction by those with AS. Anyone have experience using this as a device to understand and relate to people ? I don't know if there's a thread for this yet, but basically I'm interested in the whole idea of art as therapy. Whether it be crafting complex metaphors in poetry or finding unlikely humor; surely this must have some long term value for managing AS symptoms. Singing or music practice, for example, might also help those with awkward or innapropriate speaking methods.

I also sometimes wonder what important literary contribution will IMO eventually be made by someone from the AS community. I believe there hasn't yet been one but will be - I'm skeptical of those famous AS lists that name drop famous authors. IMO the "Great aspergian novel" will be probably be heavily autobiographical and insular. The fact that Spielberg was interested in "Mozart and the Whale" is a good indication of the artistic possibilities of the AS struggle. So, yes I'm obviously interested in writing social interaction and think's it's helpful, but I think that sticking to our strengths are what will get us noticed.

I think that all it would take is for a movie or novel to achieve the same popularity and cultural resonance of something like a Garden state. Young people who saw that movie found themself sympathising with depression and appreciating a subtle introspective perspective on the world. Most importantly - they seem to do this with genuine affinity for the characters rather than in a detached and condescending way. For the record, I don't believe Mozart and the whale (book or movie) satisfies the criteria of what I was talking about. I see efforts like these as confined to their chosen "slice of life" and lacking the broad appeal I'm hinting at.

Oh and sorry if I got off topic with the second part....

Nobodies commented on my message yet I feel like I'm "stimming" myself here people... And it doesn't feel that bad But it could be better Someone must have missed the metaphor about vintage routemasters in London - such are the symptoms of AS.

I love to write. I just finished writing a book called, "The Race for Roger," about an English boy whose parents seek to help him overcome seemingly hopeless odds. He was diagnosed as "hopeless" at birth but, with the love of his family, overcame the odds.

I am also hoping to write a story about my cat, Samantha, who lived to be 20.

Some people who live down the lane from me had a cat who lived that long. It was funny/sad the way it looked. It's fur was all raggedy like a well used teddy bear. It had also gone deaf, and would sit there and open it's mouth, thinking it was meowing, but no sound came out. It had to see you before you could pet it, since it couldn't hear you. It was an outside kitty, and somehow had avoided the usual predators all those years....

If you sit down and watch a couple episodes of the 1960's "Twilight Zone", you'll be able to understand ANY metaphor, trust me.

I am a published writer, mainly short stories and poetry. My biggest accomplishment to date was seeing my name in the table of contents (anthology) alongside Stephen King.

If you want to connect through writing/art/music, I think that's great and hope that works for you. I would guess that it could. Personally, although I majored in Creative Writing for both my degrees and like to talk to writers, I have no use for publishers or readers. I think for me that crosses that boundary of social interaction into random social interaction. The few times I've done that, while artistically successful, have been so taxing to me that I won't write for months or years afterward.

I've always thought Dickinson was AS, probably because I could identify with her. I also always thought Poe was AS. There are probably many more if I thought about it.


Writing works for me as therapy in the act itself. I like to write about what I see in my head. That's why I do it. I don't do it to reach out to the external world at all, in fact the opposite is true for me.

I'm 90% sure that Emily Dickinson was AS. The reason is stupid. My mom has this "birthday book" that describes what people born on certain days are like, and I happen to be born on the same day as Emily Dickinson, and the book happens to nail my (aspie) personality spot on. Really, I don't believe in astrology, but it's pretty amazing. It says in the beginning of the book that the descriptions go off of known personalities of people born on certain days, and since Emily Dickinson is the only person of note born on Dec 10th, I think they went off her. (I'm also familiar with some of her biography). Sorry to go OT.

Having met Anne Rice, I would highly suspect that she has it. I don't even believe such a diagnosis would surprise her. I would also suspect that Stephen King and his wife both have it.


You don't have to be social unless you want to go on book signings. I couldn't do that since there are crowds, lights, noise and people handing you their books to sign and expecting you to talk to them. That could be difficult, but I think it depends on your place in the spectrum.

You just have to think about yourself in terms of publishing. How are you going to feel when an editor edits your work? What will you do if a publisher tells you to complete rewrite it to make it popular (or marketable). How will you respond if you are told it's marketable? These might not be issues for you because your motivation seems to be to get the work out there and get it sold. You want to make money doing it. If that is the core of your motivation, the rest should follow. My suggestion to you is to take Creative Writing classes so that other writers can dissect your work and help you to improve it. They can also help you with ways to get published.


My reason for telling you these things is that for me, publishing as a business is repulsive. Too much happens to work as a result of it being a business that I simply won't deal with or support. Having a professor and advisor tell me that I was the most marketable of the students in a Creative Writing class caused me to stop writing for two years. I destroyed everything I had written to that point. I still can't deal with that. It happened to me again about a month ago and caused me to stop writing what I was working on. I had tried publishing online and now I simply refuse to even look at it. To me, publishing my work has always been something I viewed as whoring my art and I simply can't stand that thought.

That is probably tied up in my AS, but it has much to do with where I am on the spectrum and my own personality. I avoid NT people and they really bother me, so when one says something like that to me, it indicates they like my writing and I take that as an insult because I don't really connect with them. As a result, I don't want them connecting with my writing. Does that make sense? To do that for money would be particularly repulsive to me.

That leads to the other reason I don't even try to publish (although I've written my entire life except for my two year meltdown) is because of the loss of control. No one in the United States reads the original version of Burgess' A Clockwork Orange because the entire last chapter was taken out in the U.S. when it was published. It has been that way since. You would have to know that and order it from abroad to get the original. That one publisher decision alters the entire meaning of the book. You can't read any original Emily Dickinson because it was all changed to make it palatable to the masses when her relative had it published. That is frighteningly ironic when you consider that Dickinson tried to publish a few times and stopped because she didn't want her work altered by publishers to make it marketable. Then, her relative turns around and does exactly the thing she did not want done. I could go on because this has happened to all published writers, but it would be more of the same.

So, it depends on motivation I think. You have to be motivated by money and approval of your work by others to want to publish. If you don't desire those things, you will be in for a sad letdown.

possibly vladimir nabokov?

Interesting ideas there...

I would love to be a part of a writing group here. I have a few books in the planning stages (i.e., I haven't found a way to dedicate myself to starting them ) and I'd really like to hear about other people's writing projects, and hear any tips on writing such as work ethic, writing style, recommended reading or how to avoid the usual "aspie writing style" in favor of a much more fluid narrative.

Interesting when you say the Aspie style of writing. My natural style is apparently really good (check the Outcast fanfic thread in Roleplaying fo a sample), and in my story, written in First-person (I did, I liked, that sort of thing), involves an Aspie character, and sometimes I have trouble downgrading to that!

My stroy/writing projects are many, and a few are for personal benefit. First off there's the big whacker: The Outcast series, consisting of 5 or 6 main parts and 3 or 4 prequel books! Plus there's the fanfic that I mentioned.

Secondly is the conversion of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Movie into book form, using bits from the original book. Next is a Jak and Daxter fanfic, based after the events of all of the games. These two are for personal benefit.

Lastly there's DestiQuest, a bit piss-take on the Fantasy genre (like the way MAD mocks society and media in general, except PG-13).

And how many of these are done? None of them. Any questions would be appreciated! (even ones asking for help)