Yeah, I know there are a lot of writers from the past like Herman Melville who are believed to have had an ASD. But I'm wondering about right here right now--- me.
One of the problems is that people with autism/asperger's have problems with social interactions, understanding the social rules that everyone else knows without being told. So can we learn to write about social interactions?
Actually, when it comes to that part I don't think it's that difficult. But there is another factor. In real life, people I meet don't choose to be my friend---even though I try to be nice to them, and to act like I'm 'normal'. So will people want to be a 'friend' of my writing? I mean, maybe no matter how good I get at it, people will be able to tell it was written by the kind of person that no one wants to be friends with and so they'll want to read something else instead.
And in these days the writer has to be involved with marketing their books and I'd imagine the last thing any publisher wants is to be saddled with some autistic person that isn't personable enough to do well at things like interviews and book signings....
I once tried to get in contact with other folks living with autism/asperger's by posting something on a writing forum, but the admin took offense because my reference to autism wasn't politically correct enough for him since I had the poor taste to joke. Well, I guess it's okay to mention it on my own blog, I've said a lot of stuff I shouldn't here and have had no complaints from Blogger.
I've searched the net for writer's forums for autistic/asperger people but I just find a lot of resources for parents/caregivers of those with autism. Don't know what to do about it really, so those I would whine about it on my blog where at least I'm not bothering anyone....
So--- enough of that. To update my life for anyone that cares--- I'm still working on my NaNoWriMo novel but have stopped to outline using the method in the book "First Draft in 30 Days", don't know how well that will work.
I have mentioned on this blog that I've had two kittens die recently. They were the two kittens out of the current batch that actually liked me enough that they'd purr when I picked them up. Recently, though, someone abandoned two half-grown kittens here and one of them is really friendly. I've named him Chan-ho, after major league pitcher Chan-ho Park, and the other kitten is named Chantho, after the alien in Doctor Who. You know, the one who started every sentence with 'chan' and ended it with 'tho'? As in, 'Chan that was one weird Doctor Who alien tho'. The picture at the top of this post is of Chan-ho.
Nissa, I was just looking back through my list of favorite blogs, and saw this post. I'm sorry you feel like no one wants to be your friend. Hang in there. We all go through that at some time in our lives.
ReplyDeleteAs for your writing: hone it. Get good at description and character development. When you can, ask good writers to crit what you write, and take all the advice they'll give you.
But what you need to ask yourself as you write is not 'am I likeable as an author;' it's: 'are my characters, especially my protagonists, likeable.'
Protags need to be likeable or books don't sell. But they also need to have a flaw or two to be "real."
Antagonists need to be clearly portrayed as the bad guys with bad mental habits/attitudes/actions, but also with a few likeable things about them so that they too, feel "real."
Hang in there! You can do it!
I was recently diagnosed with Asperger's. I started off life writing film scripts and producing the films myself. A couple of years ago I turned a script into a novel and self published it.
ReplyDeleteReviewers are sometimes unkind to me because I do things that are different from what they are expecting. Others enjoy my work. I've been compared to J.D. Salinger, except better. I have also had fans tell me how much they enjoy my writing because it is different.
I don't know that I would go the traditional route. I don't enjoy being told to change my work to fit what some "normal" person thinks is right when it comes to literature. I have the freedom to do what I know is right for me and my writing. When I get letters from fans telling me how they wished I would have written my books 30 years ago so they could have read it and spent their life with the feelings they took from it, I know that I am doing the right thing.
I hope this helps.