Help with writing an autistic character in my next novel?

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Hello everyone

As you probably guessed, I'm writing a novel. It's my third novel so far, and it features four main characters, one of whom is autistic. I can't tell you how severely autistic or even be that specific on his condition - in fact, that's why I want your help.

I don't want to give away the plot - though I will try to be more specific on it if you need me to - but this is what you need to know if you want to help. My main character is a boy about to start high school. He loved his primary school and he isn't too fond of change, so he isn't looking forward to secondary school. He doesn't know this, of course, but he is going to be bullied and contemplate suicide. He is one of four characters who will go through some kind of issue when going to high school - we will also hear from the perspective of his bully.

I want to be accurate, true and fair to the autistic community, which is why I want your help. The book will be written, in part, from his point of view, kind of like a diary, so I want to make sure I get his voice right. If I do get it right, then I'm hoping that it will help to raise awareness of what autistic teens go through at high school (I have read that a high proportion of those on the autistic spectrum have a terrible time at high school and go through bullying).

So I guess the questions I have are...

Were you bullied at high school? Can you tell me about how you reacted to it? If you had to write a diary about what happened at the time, what would you have written?

Have you contemplated suicide? (I know this is very personal so feel free to totally not answer this one.) Can you tell me more about what you went through?

I have read that some people on the autistic spectrum have very detailed knowledge on niche interests. I wonder if you have any input on what kind of interest I could give to my main character?

I don't want to be completely stereotypical and give my main character a talent in maths, so I was thinking of making him an exceptionally talented artist. I wonder what your thoughts are on this?

And really, what general help can you give me with the way in which he should communicate? I'm thinking I need to avoid making him use sarcasm and figurative language - would that be an accurate reflection of how many or most of those on the autistic spectrum communicate?

Really, anything you can tell me that will help me make this kid a believable character and avoid hitting too many cliches or coming across like an incredibly stupid person who has no idea about autism, that would be great. I really want to be sensitive to the condition.

Thank you!

Well, this sounds really interesting. And I'm happy to hear you're doing your research.

I'm happy to answer all questions. PM me if you have any more

Were you bullied at high school?
No (Considering I actually didn't DO high-school, homeschooled), but I was in Primary School. I do know that a lot of us face bullying, especially in High School, as Grade 7-8 is normally when Autism starts to shows it's face. Mostly because Primary School learning is very concrete and basic. What was the book about? Did you like it? What would you change? And so on. High School is much more abstract, What was the author trying to tell you? What was this character feeling? Etc. etc.

Have you contemplated suicide?
Yes. Although I do suspect that's a symptom of depression, which not only runs in my family, but also goes hand in hand with autism. I can't imagine too many autistic people commit suicide, unless bullying/home situation/symptoms were particularly bad. We generally tend to be quite practical and logical in thinking. I.e, we know it won't accomplish much. We might be able to see who it would hurt (Well I did). My suicidal thoughts were usually because of I felt worthless, useless, a freak. Although it would be very different for everyone. If he your character suffered bad bullying, I imagine he would probably think about it. Teenagers on their own tend to be dramatic and emotionally unstable, what with hormones and everything, so it's hard not to sometimes contemplate suicide anyway. Pile Autism on top of that, which can be a lack of understanding about the world/yourself/other people...I hope you get the picture.

I have read that some people on the autistic spectrum have very detailed knowledge on niche interests. I wonder if you have any input on what kind of interest I could give to my main character?
This is actually a really good question. Because autistic people tend to be obsessed. I'm huge on gaming, play hours a day. Some are into TV, movies, books, stones....whatever. More often than not, these obsessions and interests cause a drop in stress and anxiety, which are very prominent emotions when you're on the spectrum. ESPECIALLY anxiety. We are often mis-diagnosed as having a Generalised Anxiety Disorder, or something along those lines. I would recommend video games, every single autistic person I know (Quite a lot) is obsessed with technology. Specifically computers. How they work, why they work. Working on them. Cars are good, although he sounds a bit young to be really into mechanics. Games are very popular these days, readily available and 9 out of 10 high-schoolers have played them.

I don't want to be completely stereotypical and give my main character a talent in maths, so I was thinking of making him an exceptionally talented artist. I wonder what your thoughts are on this?
I feel misrepresented here, I'm terrible at maths! Talented artist is good, not super common. Although there is a Facebook page for Artists with Autism (https://www.facebook.com/ArtistsWithAutism). I'd probably recommend a more earthy skill. Although an ASD teen would probably excel at copying things accurately, and we are perfectionists. If you decide not to go down the artist route, I'd suggest something like model-building/Lego, computer-building/maintenance, Hyperlexic (I know more than a few of those, taught themselves to read before the age of 5), and maybe photography or something.

And really, what general help can you give me with the way in which he should communicate? I'm thinking I need to avoid making him use sarcasm and figurative language - would that be an accurate reflection of how many or most of those on the autistic spectrum communicate?
It's for certain true that one of our biggest obstacles can be issues with communication. Like you said, I like to use a lot of sarcasm and metaphors and stuff. Although I know a lot of Aspies who do not understand Sarcasm or Jokes at all. Your character could possibly sometimes over or under-explain things. That's quite an Autistic trait, one word answers. The more anxious and stressed he feels the harder it will get. When I'm feeling properly riled up, I end up hitting my head, rocking a little, swearing and yelling at people. And I don't have it very severely. My siblings have always used metaphors that are often either overly complicated, or a little unrelated. We also struggle a lot with Eye contact. People who have severe problems communicating (On the spectrum, some of us are totally non-verbal) use PEC charts (http://www.pinterest.com/amnesiakitsune ... unication/), notebooks or sometimes sign language (Although that's usually in very severe cases, like not talking by 18-20). We like to show people things, so if your character was having difficulty describing something, it would possibly make sense for him to either find the actual object/person, or something that looks like it.

Other Side Notes:
We do have difficulty making eye contact. I have a lot of trouble, I've learnt to look at peoples hair/noses. Their eyes are always too....I don't know full on.
We can often blurt things out we were thinking about. Many times my mum (Also on spectrum, whole family is), ages after a certain topic, will blurt out something like: "So what was she planning to do?"
It's very common to mimic. Copy sayings/scenes/lines from movies, or songs, television or games. Often with little context.
We can be easily distracted, so much going on, and we wake up already anxious.
We often have a particularly sensitive sense. I have pretty sensitive hearing and sight, lights hurt my eyes and whistling hurts my ears. My friend (On the spectrum) has a really sensitive sense of smell.
I (And this is common) have difficulty filtering noise. So distinguishing between talking, TV, songs or anything. I cannot tune noise out. Headphones playing my music help my focus a lot.
We have difficulty sleeping due to a lack of the natural drug Melatonin. You can get prescriptions and stuff for this usually.
Autism often goes hand in hand with other mental conditions. I call it a gateway drug. Quite common for people on the spectrum to have depression/Bipolar,/Schizophrenia/Dyslexia/Dysgraphia/OCD.

Autism is an incredibly interesting condition. And for some people it can be debilitating, and for others a minor setback. It's hard to diagnose because we are all SO different. Me and my brother are literally polar oppposites, Loud/Quiet, Confident/Shy, Hyper When Anxious/Sick and Lethargic. I speed up in situations (Which is not good, I can't think, and usually babble) and he slows down.

My point is, it's very broad. And nothing I've said here applies to every single one of us. We usually develop coping mechanisms in late teens to deal with a lot of the stress, but it can be very difficult in the teen years.

Really, if you have any more questions, or want something more specific, please PM me. I love a good chance to talk about myself.

Cheers,
-Pietus

I'll try my best to help you and answer your questions. A fellow writer, huh? I'm writing a novel featuring an autistic character too!

Were you bullied at high school? Can you tell me about how you reacted to it? If you had to write a diary about what happened at the time, what would you have written?
Yes, if this counts, I was bullied at both primary and secondary school. Some of my classmates laughed at how I would speak (like my tendencies to have a monotone voice and responding strangely etc) and the way I would walk because I walk on my toes. They would also use sarcasm and tell me jokes to confuse me and laugh at my reactions. A few people pretended to be my friend whilst they spread rumours about me that I was hurting them etc and would turn everyone against me, leaving me not knowing what to do. I reacted by crying at home and having meltdowns that included hitting myself, biting myself, banging my head against walls and screaming fits. I didn't write about what happened but at the time, I wrote short stories about escaping everything and poems about my emotions. Sometimes I wouldn't speak at all in school for entire days.

Have you contemplated suicide?
Yes, I have attempted suicide. I was bullied by my classmates and a certain teacher berated me and refused to do anything about it and did not understand what I was trying to tell her. I was also feeling depressed, hopeless and worthless at the time and attempted to drown myself but was yanked out of the bath by my father.

I have read that some people on the autistic spectrum have very detailed knowledge on niche interests. I wonder if you have any input on what kind of interest I could give to my main character?
Yes, you're right. Some people on the autistic spectrum do have very detailed knowledge on niche interests. Some interests that I've seen on here include cars, cartography, writing, animals, dinosaurs, astronomy and many more!

I don't want to be completely stereotypical and give my main character a talent in maths, so I was thinking of making him an exceptionally talented artist. I wonder what your thoughts are on this?
Some people on the autistic spectrum are very gifted but others might not have a gift. I think your character having an exceptional gift would be somewhat stereotypical but also interesting at the same time. But it is up to you.

And really, what general help can you give me with the way in which he should communicate? I'm thinking I need to avoid making him use sarcasm and figurative language - would that be an accurate reflection of how many or most of those on the autistic spectrum communicate?
Some people on the autism spectrum can learn how to detect and understand sarcasm later and understand figurative language too. If he is mute or partially mute, he might use sign language or a keyboard to communicate. He might not make eye contact because it's physically painful or uncomfortable/unnerving for him to do so, or he cannot make eye contact while listening to someone speak because it's distracting for him; or hate being touched; or not understand a lot of facial expressions unless they're obvious (happy, sad, angry etc). He might have a monotone voice when speaking or he might stammer; his voice might be too loud or too quiet. He might be fluent in speaking but still struggle with small talk but be able to talk at great length about his special interest without the other person being able to get a word in edgeways.

I hope I've helped.

I would be happy to answer!

Were you bullied at high school? Can you tell me about how you reacted to it? If you had to write a diary about what happened at the time, what would you have written?

I was only bullied a little, and the worst of it was actually in elementary school. However, when I was picked on, I tended to go quiet and try to walk away from the person or at least turn away, depending on the situation. Sometimes I would cry, but I tried to hold it in until I was away from the bully. When I got home, I would vent about it to my mom. The whole situation would replay in my head for weeks or longer before I finally got over it. However, instead of being bullied a lot, I mostly just felt invisible in school because people tended to ignore me or act like I wasn't there.

If I had kept a diary, I probably would have written out what happened and how mean I thought the bully was.

Have you contemplated suicide? (I know this is very personal so feel free to totally not answer this one.) Can you tell me more about what you went through?

No, I have never seriously contemplated suicide.

I have read that some people on the autistic spectrum have very detailed knowledge on niche interests. I wonder if you have any input on what kind of interest I could give to my main character?

It could be anything at all! Maybe pick something you already know a lot about so it won't take so much research? For some suggestions: books/reading, video games, animals, space, architecture, a certain time period in history, etc.

I don't want to be completely stereotypical and give my main character a talent in maths, so I was thinking of making him an exceptionally talented artist. I wonder what your thoughts are on this?

I think that's a great idea, although you might want to try to avoid the stereotypical savant thing too and make sure you stress that he got good at art through hard work and practice rather than it being an inborn skill. Math is my worst subject, so I have always found it annoying how seemingly all fictional autistic people are math whizzes. If you make him an artist, I would probably tie that into the special interest somehow.

And really, what general help can you give me with the way in which he should communicate? I'm thinking I need to avoid making him use sarcasm and figurative language - would that be an accurate reflection of how many or most of those on the autistic spectrum communicate?

The biggest thing I can say is please don't give him a "robotic" way of thinking or talking, like a lot of books do (note I don't mean monotone, see the link below). You don't necessarily have to make him avoid using sarcasm and figurative language either, although he may miss it sometimes when other characters use it. Personally, I'm usually okay with sarcasm and use it myself, but I often take "good natured teasing" seriously and end up feeling silly when I get upset about it and then find out that the person was just kidding.

Here's actually a really good thread that talks about some stuff you might want to avoid: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp5493539.html

I hope this helps, good luck with your story!

Last edited by Quill on 02 Aug 2014, 1:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Please give him compassion and empathy. And probably a lot of being lonely and misunderstood. And, we are not allEinsteins. One great commonality among most is our sensory issues. Also, learning about stimming would be great {and please, do not describe stimming from information from a textbook, but from descriptions from other autistics.
Also, unevenness in abilities is something you might include. PLEAASE do NOT ask Autism Speaks for assistance.

One thing I have to add about communication, is that for me at least, the literal understanding of what someone says always comes first. Even if I realize ten seconds later that they may be using sarcasm, my first reaction to any communication is to interpret it as if they are speaking truthfully and literally. Same thing with figurative language- realizing that it is figurative takes time and effort. It was much worse in high school - I did not pick up on sarcasm at all (I learned that in my twenties) and had no understanding of slang.

Although I can now usually recognize sarcasm, other nonverbal cues, like that someone is lying or "kidding" usually completely pass me by, unless they or someone else explicitly tells me about it. I have never realized on my own that someone was lying, or even that they were saying something just to be courteous or to avoid getting themselves in trouble at work. It is often a shock when I hear from someone else what was really going on And then you also have the issue of, who can you trust to interpret social situations for you, especially at work? There is a whole world of communication going on that we are not privy to, and we either have to find a trusted interpreter who will put things into words for us, or we just miss out on the secret and subtle messages.

Absolutely not. I grew up in the 50s when one could physically defend oneself on the play ground. I was a small, skinny child, but I have a warrior's heart. I could defeat all of my peers. No one ever messed with me.

I have been frequently bullied in the workplace. This is a serious issue.



Not really, but I grew up in the 50s. there was no SpEd, although I had speech. I was not disablized. I was comfortably 'left behind' to develop at my own pace. I was given (or took it) freedom to seek places of comfort and feed/protect from sensory input. I was not bullied. I am still autistic, but I enjoy myself and am very resilient.



Absolutely, and my areas of intense interest not only feed my contentment, but are my path to learning. I throw details in a cognitive "bag". I can't really communicate about them until they reach a critical mass. At that point I have conscious access to them, can recall them efficiently, can talk about them expressively (maybe others may think to excess, but that's their problem). I have the gestalt.



what ev. We have many paths to excellence.



I actually really enjoy colorful language. Grandin has noticed three autistic types: verbal/logic, visual, and math/music. We are difficult to squash into molds b/c we are more diverse than "experts" know and our skill sets can be subtle and so overlooked. Like the overall population of humans on the planet, we fall on a continuum of intelligence - but our intelligence is difficult to ascertain for a number of reasons. Many autistics are disablized, treated as broken, and either given up on or diminished by attempts to cure or be 'normalized'. If we are not represented by complex characterization, we will be stereotyped. Same as any other character.



You seem to be naive; that you do not have a relationship with an autistic. Each person posting in WP is different from all of the others. I suggest you immerse yourself in the forum for several months, then allow yourself to surrender to the character and allow him to write himself. Don't plan him beforehand or you will suppress his identity and a superficial stereotype will be left in his place.

Last edited by Awiddershinlife on 02 Aug 2014, 12:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yes, I was bullied from kindergarten through high school where I chose instead to drop out, pass my GED test and attend college. The most aggravated of the abuse happened in grades seven through nine where it was sometimes physical (tripping me, pushing me, throwing objects at me, throwing burning or sharp objects at me, and spitting on me, but never hitting; somehow, I escaped that), but mostly emotional (avoiding me, joking about me, turning my name into a verb to mean "screw up," or just looking at me with an expression of disgust; even many of the teachers joined in with their own expressions or humiliating descriptions). The emotional abuse continued through high school, but the physical abuse stopped, because, I believe, they simply didn't want to touch me. Of course, my abusers were also my neighbors, church members and Boy Scout acquaintances. As a result, the abuse was 24/7 and involved vandalism to my home, theft, shunning by adults and attempting to explain to my bewildered (and crying) mother why my abusers were doing what they did. I had only a slightly better understanding than she did.

One caveat about my experiences: They all happened long before I completed screening tests this year which showed that I very likely have Asperger's Syndrome. So, I believe that the abuse I experienced was strictly aimed at my (AS) characteristics, not the AS itself. Neither I nor my abusers knew about it as a diagnosis.

My reaction was always the same: To do whatever I could to become socially invisible. In other words, to become so far from attention of my abusers and teachers to avoid their focus and scrutiny. Those days where I could leave school at the end of classes without uttering a single word to anyone were the best days ... I had succeeded in being invisible enough to avoid the abuse for another day! This reaction started to mitigate as soon as I dropped out of public schools, but persisted somewhat for years after.

I hope that helps.

I don't know whether this should be included or not, but like Pietus, I cannot do maths for my life. I have a B+ and Asian parents get mad because of that. However, I can do SAT maths, because it requires a different mentality than high school maths.

I have never tried to commit suicide (contemplated, but wouldn't accomplish anything). I've been bullied before, sometimes because of autism, but not always. Usually because of Tourettes, because I am blinking and breathing funny all the time. I too also have trouble with voice modulation, and occasionally, remembering how to speak.

Yep, me too. The extent of my mathematics skills is good enough to understand U.S. tax forms, but that is where it ends. Forget more advanced math. My special interests have never included those skills. Instead, I started studying genealogy, history, law and politics when I was 13 years of age. I guess the "sciency stuff" that Sheldon Cooper knows is just a stereotype about Aspies and Auties.

This is all so helpful, thank you all so much!! Keep it coming!

I feel I ought to clarify a few things, as I posted this same thread somewhere else and got a bit of hate for it... people thought I was trying to any combination of the following:
- exploit a disability
- cash in on a disability (i.e only give my character autism as that will somehow help to sell books)
- take others' personal experiences and use them directly without permission

None of the above is true. The character didn't start off as autistic when I visualised it; he was originally just someone who got bullied at school. I decided to make him autistic when I read about the horrible statistics (and have actually seen them first hand; I'm a secondary school teacher and have seen autistic children bullied). I thought in making him autistic I might be able to raise some awareness and promote tolerance, as the book is aimed at teens and young adults, those who are most likely to be the cause of bullying teens with autism.

I won't be using anyone's personal experiences directly. I'm hoping to get a variety of responses in order to make the character as believable as possible.

I really am incredibly grateful for all the posts so far. If anyone wants to be involved a bit more directly in the book (i.e check out a few chapters for me to make sure I've got the character right!!) then do let me know. I just really, really want to get it right.

I didn't think it sounded like you wanted to do any of that when I read your post. I just think it's great that you're taking the time to really research and learn before writing. A lot of people don't do that, so we end up with horribly stereotypical or clinical-sounding ASD characters that I personally can't relate to much if at all.

I would be happy to read a few chapters and let you know what I think, if you're looking for a few people to do so.

Maybe you could be a pioneer. One of the first to portray fictional Autistics who are not robotic geniuses [most of us aren't] Ah, and are you going to include co-morbidities? Most Autistics have at least one. Also,most of us are clumsy, we ussually have crap handwriting, but some of us with crap handwriting are incredible artists. Most of us are introverted, but a few of us [such as myself] are extroverted. Basically that means that we not only annoy NTs' but that we annoy other autistics as well.

Please do not try to "cure" your protagonist.

Oh, and this is just the hope of an autistic old woman, not speaking for anyone else,but, I really love happy endings.

Really, I would recommend that you stick to the age-old maxim of "write what you know." There is a lot of wisdom in it. Your questions reveal that you do not appear to know much about autism at all, and it would be very unwise for you to attempt to write about a subject you know so little about.

The correct term is "special interests," not niche interests.

To say that "some people" on the autistic spectrum have a very detailed knowledge of their special interests is not correct. All of them do. It is part of the diagnostic criteria.

If a person does not have any obsessive special interests, s/he is probably not autistic.

If you do not even know basic terminology used in the autistic community, and are not familiar with the term "special interests," the diagnostic criteria, or typical traits, I suggest that you are nowhere near ready to write a novel that includes an autistic character. Good novels involve research. If you are a published author, you should know that. (You don't mention whether or not your previous novels were published, so I can't tell).

The process of research applies to writing a novel on any subject unknown to the author; not just autism. If you were going to, say, write a historical novel set during the First World War, but knew nothing about that era, would you honestly limit your research to going online and asking some people on an Internet forum to please tell you anything they knew about the subject?

Hopefully not. I suggest you spend a few years doing further research on autism before you attempt to write about something you know so little about.

Immersing yourself in these forums and reading thousands of threads (rather than just posting a single one of your own) would be a good place to start. Attending local autistic meetups and befriending actual autistic people would also help, as would volunteering. You could also visit our chatroom daily, and talk online to real people with autism. They are not stereotypes. They are real people. They are all completely different.



You are confusing special interests with talent.

Having a special interest (obsessive interest in certain hobbies or subjects) is not the same thing as having a special talent. All people with autism have special interests, but not all of them have special talents. You appear to think that just because your character is going to be autistic, s/he has to have a special talent. That is not true.

It is a common misconception that all autistic people have some marvellous ability in one area or other. In fact, that isn't true. A lot of us are just normal average people. Even our special interests can be completely mundane or useless sometimes. Autists can become obsessed with mundane things that involve no special talent, lead to no job opportunities, serve no useful purpose whatsoever, and bore and irritate other people to great extremes. For example, as a child I was totally obsessed with collecting one particular type of shell. There was nothing talented, intelligent, or useful about doing that. It just made me happy. Another person on these forums recently made a thread about how they are obsessed with rubbing carpet with their fingers. They like how it feels. That is not an "interest" per se. It's a stim. (Again, if "stim" is an unfamiliar word to you, you are not ready to write about autism).

My point is that collecting one specific type of shell and rubbing carpet are not talents, yet they're typical autistic quirks. Making your character an "exceptionally talented artist" would just be adding to the mistaken stereotype that all autistic people are highly gifted in some area, and that autism = genius or prodigy. That isn't true. Go and research the terms "prodigy," "highly gifted" and "savant" and you will find out that there are very few people like that in the world. While it is certainly true that some autistic people are highly gifted or talented, the majority of them are not.

If you write yet another book with a fictional character with autism who is highly gifted, it will just make things even worse for us autistic people because it will just be adding to the public impression that all people with autism are expected to have a special talent.

It would be far nicer (and more believable) if you just made your character a normal, average person with autism, whose special interest is, say, painting dungeons and dragons figurines.

It would also be more believable if, far from stunning and delighting everybody with his or her amazing talent in painting said figurines, s/he actually didn't paint them very well at all, and bored everybody to tears because other people were sick and tired of hearing him or her talk about them all the time, and s/he could never be persuaded to leave the house to do any other normal activities or socialise at all, and was labelled a freak / loser by his or her peers.



No. Again, you appear to know hardly anything about autism. High-functioning autists usually have no problem with using sarcasm or figurative language themselves. They have problems detecting it when others use it.

I know when I'm being sarcastic, because I know my own thoughts. I just don't know the thoughts of others.

All of your statements and questions seem to be based upon misunderstandings of vague ideas that you have about autistic sterotypes. If you do not know these basic things about autism, you are not ready to write about an autistic character.

The degree of difficulty that your character has with understanding sarcasm will depend on how high or low functioning he or she is.

Where do you want them to be on the spectrum? Do you want them to have classic autism? Asperger's? Should they be mute? Selectively mute? Will they have violent behaviours? Are they diagnosed, self-diagnosed, or undiagnosed? etc.



You already sound like somebody who has no idea about autism. However, that does not make you sound like an "incredibly stupid person." It just makes you sound like an incredibly lazy person.

You want to write a novel, but can't be bothered to do the research. Instead of crafting your character yourself, you want to go online and ask others to "help you make this kid a believeable character."

That is lazy. It sounds like you don't want to do your job. As an author, making your characters believable is nobody's job but your own.

Either write what you know, or actually take time to do a few years' thorough research into autism, so that you can invent an autistic character that is based on knowledge that you have taken several years to accumulate - rather than stereotypes, ignorance, and quick fix answers gleaned from just a few quick, hasty forum threads.

If you decide to write about what you know (instead of making the character autistic), I'd suggest making your character a lazy NT aspiring novelist, who cannot write a proper novel because s/he is too lazy to do any research. That way, you won't need to do any research on your character at all.

That was not sarcasm or meanness, by the way. I meant it literally, as a friendly suggestion. Some of the most believeable characters in books are often depicted as struggling authors. Writing a book about someone who's trying to write a book is a very clever thing to do. If done properly, the reader will forget that they're reading a book at all, and the book within the book will seem like the only book that exists in the reader's mind.

Struggling authors are good at writing about believable characters who are also struggling authors, because being a struggling author is something that struggling authors know all about, so the character they write requires no research, and becomes believable and seems true to life.

Some examples of struggling author characters written by struggling authors include: the chacracter Jo March in Little Woman, the character Josephine Bettany in the Chalet School series, and the character Emily Starr in Emily of New Moon. Those are some I've read, anyway. All of those were characters within books, that wanted to write books themselves, but before they could be published authors, they had to learn to write from the heart about things they already knew. They had to be true to themselves, rather than just writing what they thought other people wanted to read.

So if you're struggling to write a book about somebody with autism because you know nothing about autism, why not write a book about (shock, horror) a character who's struggling to write a book about somebody with autism because she knows nothing about autism?

Thumbhole; That was a little harsh. The Autistic in the story is only one of four characters. As the OP stated,it was not until she had actually started writing that she "discovered" that one of her characters is Autistic. Like they say 'The book is the boss," and since the book is telling her that there is an Autistic character, she definitely better include this Autistic person. So, rather than taking what I consider the "lazy way out" and reading about autism from the "experts," she is going to the true experts. That would be you. That would be me. That would be all of us here. I am thankful to the OP for reaching out in such a respectful manner.

Oh dear...Pietus, you have made several "we" statements that appear to be statements that are only about yourself. I do not want the OP to be misled into thinking that all autistic people are like you, so I will correct a few of your statements.

That is not true. You speak only for yourself. It is not true that all autistic people have difficulty with eye contact. A lot of them do, but there are also a lot of them who have the opposite extreme, and use too much eye contact (i.e. prolonged staring and don't know that they are supposed to look away now and then, which makes people uncomfortable). Also, there are some autistic people who have no issues with eye contact whatsoever, on either extreme.



As far as I know, this is not in the diagnostic criteria at all. It may or may not be a common trait. I suspect you're just describing yourself.

When you say "mimic" are you talking about echolalia?



Again, you are speaking purely for yourself.

I would have said being easily distracted was more of a symtom of ADHD than AS. One of the traits of AS is the ability to hyper focus.

As for "waking up already anxious," that will depend entirely on the circumstances and emotional health of each individual. You simply cannot generalise like that, and say that all people with autism wake up already anxious. It's nonsense. You might as well say that "all NTs wake up feeling happy." They don't.




Again, you are talking about yourself but using the wrong pronoun. You should have said "I" have difficulty sleeping. You appear to think that your own experiences are identical to those of all others with autism. That is not the case.

Insomnia is very common for autistic people but it can have many different causes. If it can be fixed with Melatonin, your insomnia is probably caused by a lack of sleepiness due to feeling hyper.

Not all insomnia is caused by lack of sleepiness. Personally (and I speak only for myself; NOT for every person on the spectrum) I suffer from chronic insomnia that cannot be fixed with the drug you name, because my insomina is not caused by "not feeling tired." Rather, it is usually caused by extremes of emotion (anxiety, excitement, happiness) or a busy, active brain that is full of thoughts that are racing about my special interests.

The latter is the most common reason for insomnia in my case. If my brain is actively thinking about something, it simply will not stop thinking and let me go to sleep. It has nothing to do with a lack of this or that in my blood, or "not feeling sleepy." Even if I am about ready to drop dead from exhaustion and have been awake for 24 hours, no amount of "Melatonin" would send me off to sleep if I'm lying awake working out an interesting maths problem. The only thing that would put me to sleep when my brain is busy thinking would be a dose of anaesthetic.




I'm not sure what you're talking about here. Autism is not a "mental condition," nor is it a drug. It is a cognitive developmental disorder.

OP, please make sure you are aware that autism is not a mental illness. It can cause mental illnesses, such as anxiety or depression, due to the stressful effects of living in an NT society, but in itself it is not an "illness" per se.

Last edited by thumbhole on 02 Aug 2014, 4:26 pm, edited 2 times in total.