Autistic writing style versus NT writing syle

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My writing tends to be more artistic, like creating images and feelings with words, and I don't seem to have as strong a focus on structure or form.

I seem to be bette at describing body language and emotions in my writing than I am at interpreting it in real life. My recent writing project features a young girl with Asperger characteristics so it was very natural to write from her first-person perspective. Her formal style of speech and isms came more naturally to me than writing about NTs. I did get some feedback on the behavior of NT characters in the project from people I knew. Once I was given small cues, I could write them effectively.



Here is a brief synopsis of the project

"12-year-old Evy struggles with alienation from her adoptive family and peers, learning difficulties, and constant reprimands for her behaviour at school. To escape her frustrations, Evy idealizes and talks in her fantasies to her parents and twin brother whom she lost in a car accident at birth. When Evy is sent to pick up trash on the playground for misbehaving, she sees this as an opportunity to make a difference rather than a punishment. She struggles unsuccessfully to interest her fellow members in the cause of Earth Club. One weekend, Evy finds a sick kitten at her grandfather’s house and decides interest Earth Club in using the cans and bottles collected from the playground to raise money for veterinary care. At first, only her Métis grandfather believes she can save the cat, but eventually Evy’s rescue efforts capture the interest and support of her schoolmates and the community, and are ultimately successful. Through her growth as a person, Evy reconnects with her adoptive family, develops an appreciation for her Métis heritage, and gains acceptance for her uniqueness from her peers and teachers. At the conclusion of the novel, Evy maintains her connection with the past while learning to live in the present."

my friends keep telling me that my writing has too much detail and not enough emotion. one of my friends gets so annoyed with my "lack of emotion" that she takes whatever i'm writing, goes through it & writes in all sorts of notes for me to scribble in emotional stuffs later. it gets really freaking funny sometimes

Hm, this is tricky since I'm the only Aspie writer that I can use references (that aren't on here) to, and that's always a bit hard to analyze on your own writing.
Basically from what I've noticed from my own writing compared to my friends' writing is that when I use a concept, I overuse it. If I try to be abstract, I use way too much of it and the piece doesn't even make sense. When I try to correct this, it becomes boring. I've found that I can sometimes balance the two, but then I lose the emotions that I've put forth in the piece from all the editing and it seems flat anyways.
Also, I really suck with dialogue. I can do small talk somewhat if it interests me, but I can't write it to save my life. The only somewhat successful play that I've ever written is about an Autistic teenager

I still struggle with this. Having well defined paragraphs and especially writing an essay in the format people expect feels so... disjointed to me. Almost like someone told me I'm supposed to walk on my hands when I have two perfectly good feet that I use. Only I suppose to them, I'm the one using my hands to walk while the rest of the world uses their feet.

What I've noticed with writers who are probably on the spectrum (H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Thomas Ligotti) is that they tend to use their million dollar vocabularies, as opposed to the more pedestrian language of NT writers. Then again, I tend to lean more toward the pedestrian vocabulary, as I've found that that rich word choice can be distracting.

I wonder if AS writers are more inclined to cast underdogs as central characters more often and more comprehensively compared to NT writers.

The old adage is "write what you know" and AS writers know the territory and experience of underdogs extremely well. In great fiction though writing what you know is only part of the story, and good writers have also to make "the imaginative leap". I think AS writers have a possible advantage there.

Judging by my own written ramblings, I could definitely name this as one core difference. It's possible that those with less severe AS are able to write abstractly quite well, though. Which blurs the line ever so slightly.

I'm really bad at describing. Most of my books are dialogue based.

My difficulty is in constructing plots. I need a strong inspiration to begin writing, rather like E L James had Twilight when she wrote the 50 Shades trilogy. Until that lightning bolt hits, I don't see any point in writing because it's just drivel.

I also have trouble understanding the motivations of NT characters, because they think differently from me, especially when it comes to dishonesty and theory of mind. As a result, sometimes my characters go through a phase of reading each other's minds before I realise what I've done and edit the telepathy out.

I wonder if AS writers are more likely to have static characters vs NT writers.

In fiction, there are basically two disparate styles - straight/commercial/genre fiction and literary fiction. Literary fiction, which is character based, relies heavily on character descriptions and often uses abstractions and metaphors to illustrate whatever point they're trying to get across. I suck at literary fiction. Those who write it impress me. My attempts at it have fallen flat. When I read literary fiction, I often have to go over the same sentence over and over because I don't know if I should take what is written literally or are they merely taking poetic license.

I tend to write just enough about what a character and scene looks like because my emphasis is usually on action. Maybe it's because I have PTSD that I'm in usually a rush to get my point across. From my point of view, I don't have the luxury of time. Just the thought of me spending one year or multiple years writing one novel seems like a nightmare. On average, I write novels and screenplays in three months then spend three more months editing them before publishing. Novellas I can complete in two - three months, novelettes in one month, and short stories in a few days.

First, many of the compositional issues listed in this thread can be easily remedied by reading White & Strunks' 'Elements of Style' and treating it as a book of holy scripture.

Second, the primary difference I see between my own writing and that of writers I suspect of being closer to neurotypical than myself, has to do with characters and their internal emotional life, and their personal observations of the world and other characters around them. My characters tend to respond, as I do, in a much more straightforward, matter-of-fact manner, without so much musing about other characters' motivations.

In other words, my characters are much more concerned with what they know is actually going on, and far less with reading subtle social signals and divining what might be happening in other characters' minds. As I have little TOM myself, I can hardly write characters who swim in it.