Writing and the Autistic Spectrum

[Small Face]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to ask if anyone else is using their writing as a way of decoding the lives of other people. I say this because many writers I've known have started any work on the back of a deep insight into relationships, marriage, or group membership in its many forms. My writing however has often lacked a believable social dynamic. I find conflict particularly hard to craft in a piece of writing and also, its opposite: friendship.

I feel that my writing has developed in areas such as: description; landscape; atmosphere; pace; structure. So much of what might be called the stage-craft of scenes has improved in my writing but my characters are rather remote from each other. As an example a character might be cited as being remote when I never drew them as remote in the process of writing.

It is very hard to explain except with a metaphor. There is a part of my writing which never grows and remains awkwardly sparce when every other area of my writing process is flowering. Ironically my fiction is recognisable to me as the 'social neutrality' I experience myself - so it cannot be said I have not found a natural perspective and honesty.

So far I have identified two pieces of work amongst my writing. One is fantasy but is perhaps better described as literary anime. The other piece is nearly complete and is realism with a surreal edge.

 

[anthorn]

I have Autism too. I'm also confused by your post. Are you saying that you're worried that you're unable to write believable character dynamics like friendship and relationships because of the ackwardness and the feeling of being disconnected from everything?

My advice is to just write it y'know. Just because you cant see the social dynamic, another reader might be able to. (thats what i tell my self anyways)

I'm not sure what the hell i'm doing. My problem is having the entire book scene by scene in my head but not being able to write it past chapter 1.

 

[The Procrastinator]

Surely the world is ready for an autistic hero. What you see as your weakness could be a strength in making your writing unique. As you say it is your natural perspective, and honest, so why not make this viewpoint an integral part of how you tell the story? Go for it I say.

 

[Small Face]

Small Face:


Thanks Anthorn and Proscrastinator,

Anthorn - I know what you mean about the rolling panaromic movies which can't easily be written down. The solution I've found (of a kind) is to begin the mind movie story in the middle somewhere. I tell myself that all the things I've imagined can still happen. Starting in the middle means I don't have to worry or feel pressured about the beginning or the end.

Procrastinator - Yes, an autistic hero is overdue. I was once noticed by an agent but for only a short while (huh) because I think she was hoping for the world's first autistic detective story. Unfortunately crime worries me, it doesn't inspire me.

 

[Malloriel]

I have to say I'm particularly in touch with the observance and understanding of others, analysing why someone is doing what they're doing and so forth, which is part of how I also understand where a lot of Autistic people don't make those connections. My advice may be limited to my own experience in this, but my suggestion could only be to observe others in the way a psychologist might. Or read resources on the motivations of others.

Criminal profiling, for example, builds profiles on various serial killers and their likely psychological behaviour based off of the behaviour of others who displayed similar tendencies. A lot of times it's all the same thing. You're profiling your characters. It's logical to say that someone who grew up in a home where the parents were divorced and while living with their mother they observed her bring home endless strings of men is going to have a skiewed view of relationships and love and likely find it hard to create lasting relationships with the opposite sex, because they were never given the proper tools through observation of the person who could give them the most help.

If nothing else, if you learn the behaviours of others and the likely results of certain actions, that may enhance your writing. It doesn't require that you yourself develop the ability to create understanding from your own observations because you learn the habits of others and the likely reasons for their motivations. Then you can look at your character and say "I want him to feel this way about this situation" and then go back to what you've learned about personal motivations and say "a possible reason he feels this way is because of this experience", which you can then incorporate for depth.

This is all supposition for your situation, but it's the best I can do, so I hope it helps.

 

[Small Face]

Thanks Malloriel,

Profiling is an interesting idea. I recently read Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, but I made a point of only reading the novel when I was out of the house - on bus-journeys mainly. The novel really came to life; if I'd read the novel indoors I'd have probably seen the events in a more detached way. When I read novels there needs to be a limited number of characters I can slowly understand. I think my own characters develop in the same slow way and that's why your idea of snappy profiling is interesting.

The autistic spectrum, personally speaking, leads to my seeing people as objects, therefore their physical characteristics and physical surroundings are easy for me to imagine. It's because I imagine such extraordinarily physical places in my mind that I naturally want to populate them.

So far I've written one ms. which I'm happy with and it's 50k words in length and is not a fantasy but a satire. Another ms. is 90k words and is a fantasy mystery. If I can let go of these and set off on something new then profiling might be the key. > Thank you.

 

[Malloriel]

You're welcome. I'm very glad I could help some.