Can't seem to write any more - help!

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I used to love to write fiction, but since I found out I was an aspie, I haven't been able to write properly.

I'm not sure if it's connected or not - it's likely a combination of these two reasons:

(a) the last thing I was working on was a Harry Potter fanfic that was IMO the best thing I'd ever written, but I didn't get to finish it before Book 6 came out and totally blew my plot out of the water.

(As in, no-one's going to want to read this now because they'll already know it can't happen ).

It felt like my baby had been murdered, & I was really traumatised for weeks afterwards (so I understand why JK gets upset about some of the things fans do with her characters!)

(b) It has already been said to me by people who have read my writing that my female characters do not seem real. This isn't really surprising since the only woman I understand is myself, & I'm hardly a shining example of normality! There is no possible way I can seem to get into an NT woman's skin & be able to develop her character.

(I do not seem to have the same problem with my male characters - they are usually flawed, far-from-perfect human beings with "issues", not the square-jawed successful cardboard-cut-out heroes found in most books written by women, but I enjoy creating them and understand their motivations for what they do.)

My women, on the other hand, are just ciphers, there to perform a role and indistinguishable from one another.

It has also been pointed out that I appear to need to "isolate" my characters as a plot device, i.e. find a reason for them to be cut off from their other friends/families/mobile phones.

Again this is almost certainly because as an aspie, to me that is "normal" and therefore I put my characters into a situation I can write about.

The upshot of all this is that now I know I am an aspie, I don't feel there is any point in me writing anything - no-one will ever want to read it, because what feels normal to me would seem alien to them, but I can't tell in what ways, so I can't fix it.

Also, I love to write about & explore taboo subjects, and I don't know if I am doing this in a way that people would find appropriate or not. (I usually get my plots from stories in the newspapers!)

Why is any of this a problem?

Because I need to write! Creating a fantasy world has been how I got through my childhood, adolescence & young adulthood, and to me those characters are as real, if not more real, than the people I interact with in the outside world. They just exist, frozen in time now since I cannot seem to be able to write about them any more.

It sounds a good device to me to isolate your character; why be criticised by that?

Why not develop a female character who is different and so the only one who can see hidden forces at work? Who is isolated and protected until her time has come.

Do you understand animals well? If you do your female character can have a special with an animal.

Readers of fantasy want to see the world through different eyes.

Go for it. You are a writer with a personal view of the world.

Robyn

There is no fast cure for writer's block.

Just do something you find inspiring. I can't help you as far as that, I guess, but I find it inspiring to stand in the rain, go for a walk, listen to various songs, read various things, or even look back at my own work and get into that mindset.