Secretly Pursuing Your Artistic Venture

Post Reply New Topic

Hello, my name is Michael. I’m on the Autism Spectrum and was diagnosed late in life at 39 (per the DSM-IV, I was classified as having Asperger Syndrome).

I host a weekly program on my Youtube channel called Mr Snayl’s Wild Ride; among other things, I describe my perceptions and experiences of life on the spectrum.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpjNgmHZiHc[/youtube]In this episode, I talk about my fragile first steps toward becoming a writer, and the psychological hurdles I have to overcome to even allow myself to consider the possibility.

Does anybody else identify with any of this sort of self-prescribed rule-setting and boundaries and things like that? Please let me know. Also, if you find this or any of my other videos helpful or interesting (or at least entertaining), it would mean a lot if you would be willing to click the LIKE button for the video, or even to go so far as to SUBSCRIBE to my channel as well.

Thanks!

I tried to sell myself as "free-lance editor" for a while. I got a couple of gigs but it didn't really work out.
Writing is hard for me. I really have to go into a trance to write anything serious.

I write too. Mainly plays, the fourth of which is being staged next month.

However i predominantly consider myself a painter.

You can check out my work at: WWW.ROSSVANGOGH.CO.UK

snayl-

I love your Call Of Cthulhu shirt.
By the way, besides having literary ambitions, you and I share a common haircut.

I have to sneak around at my day job in order to do my thing. My top right desk drawer is full of hand-painted yarn, jewelry findings, sketches, poems and song lyrics.

Yes I can totaly relate, I am in the proses of going fulltime with my "almost-lifetime" long dream of making a living of music and sound so far it is looking good, but I have spent the last 10 years in constant struggle with my musical identity and with allowing myself to be what I am (a musichan)

Snayl, I relate to too much of this...I fear many of us do. The Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D), comics, etc...

I've started ton's of things that never came to fruition, or I flaked out.
1. Started a medieval reenactment group...but never had the time to develop it.
2. Bought 10 acres to build a medieval mott-n-bailey castle and medieval village...then realized I hated the people I recruited and abandoned it.
3. Still trying to get my RPG company started. Nice shirt btw, the game material I produce is for Call of Cthulhu and Lovecraftian games.
4. I aspire to be a great hunter, and I'm great at hunting....just horrible at finding and staying quiet. I can't get deer, I can't even find them.

Too much quitting to list, and giving up to mention. I sold out long ago to first become wealthy...then fund my dreams when I can afford it. I'm still doing the same things though. I still plot and plan though, as I like my pipe dreams.

Let's see….

- Studied keyboard throughout my childhood (piano and classical organ)
- Started as a sound engineer for tv productions
- Spent several years in web design
- Produced some online multimedia training
- Several more years as a portraitist (digital imaging mainly)
- Concurrent with the portrait work did some commercial photography
- Produced some podcasts
- Enjoy various forms of needlework for relaxation.
- Now considering where to head next. Likely candidates are more podcasts and photo restoration work, and art renderings from old photos.

I've actually been working on creating...something, for the past four years. I'll be entering my fifth year of working
on this 'project' (or set of projects), come the end of this month.

You just have to take it to a professional level, and for the first two or three years, remain utterly secretive about
what you're working on.

The tricky part is, actually 'coming out with it', once you've reached that stage. I've only been able to tell my dad,
and about two other people, any actual details.

I think a blind enthusiasm is essential. My first two years of work weren't very good, but there's some there that could
be salvaged. I just didn't care during that time how good or bad it was, as I had no benchmarks to go by.

Mr. Snayl - As I use it, burnout refers to an observed phenomena wherein, after perhaps years of coping, for some reasons an ASD person experiences a permanently lessened ability to do so. (In my case, I attribute it to the normal cognitive decline that comes with aging.) But I have seen it used elsewhere to mean other things.

I have to keep my songwriting secret. When I tried to share it with my wife, she got angry at me and denounced me as "egotistical", and similar terms. She made it quite clear that my songs were "crap", "repetitive", "boring", and "nothing special". Thus, I now hide it from her and from everyone else.