New Asperger/autism blogroll

Since my real blog is focused on writing for people with Asperger's Syndrome & autism, I've decided to start a new blogroll on the topic. Mostly Aspie writer blogs, but I'm flexible.

Don't have time today to accumulate a lot of blogs for this list. But if anyone for any reason reads this blog, please suggest any Aspie writer blogs you know of. Or generally Aspie creative blogs or other Aspie blogs. And do follow my other blog--- link in right sidebar--- if this topic interests you.

Indie Life: Using Asperger Special Interests in Fiction Writing

 

This post is a part of the Indie Life blog hop, in which we blog about life as an indie writer.  We are also remembering on this day the events of the Sept. 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Welcome to my blog! For those who don't know me, I am not only an indie writer, I am a writer with Asperger Syndrome, a form of autism. One of the symptoms of Asperger Syndrome is special interests.

A special interest is a somewhat obsessive interest in certain things that brings a certain degree of happiness to those with Asperger Syndrome. They can be something useful, like an obsession with computers like Bill Gates has, something relatively normal like being an obsessive Star Trek fan, or something a bit odd like an obsession with railroad schedules or collecting doorknobs.

When it comes to writing, incorporating some of your special interests into the fictional work can have certain benefits. First, it helps keep up the writer's interest in the work of fiction in question--- an important issue for a writer who often begins and then abandons fictional projects. Also it can create reader interest when the special interest used is one many people have some degree of interest in.

Bringing the passion that the typical aspie has toward a special interest into a fictional work may pay off in the fact that a novel written out of a great passion is usually more compelling than same-old, same-old fiction. And, finally, the special interests you use in your fiction can help define the themes and topics which make your writing unique. Think of the Valdemar novels of Mercedes Lackey (who as far as I know does not have Asperger Syndrome). She often writes about child abuse, misunderstood children, horses, falcons/falconry, and, in a disguised manner, cops (the Heralds of Valdemar).

In my own WIP Starship Destine, I have used a number of my special interests. One of my earlier special interests is an obsession with the Star Trek series, particularly the original one. Starship Destine, like Star Trek, is starship-based science fiction. Some of the characters in Starship Destine are the extra characters I made up for Star Trek stories.

Another special interests I have is languages, and in particular created languages and international auxiliary languages like Esperanto  (learn Esperanto here).  I speak Esperanto pretty well, and I know some of a couple of other similar international auxiliary languages that never got the speaker base that Esperanto has these days. I could have incorporated this interest into my story by simply creating an idealized future society where all Earth people have agreed to speak Esperanto as a second language and thus done away with language problems--- at least until they meet their first aliens. But that kind of story isn't me. In Starship Destine there are no less than 3 international auxiliary languages in use--- the two major political factions each have their preferred IAL, and the Fleet uses a third to show its attempted neutrality.

I also have an interest in politics, as well as a dismay at the anger and hatred over political divisions today. Because I don't want to project contemporary politics into the future, I have replaced today's conservative/liberal dichotomy with a different one: we have the Omaynists, which include ALL of today's conservative/liberal/socialist/'reactionary' factions, who are characterized by the fact that they actually believe in things, and usually share the idea that at least sometimes it is good to tell the truth, and the Alliterists, who openly boast of telling lies and who admire the evil dictators of the past such as Caligula, Stalin, Hitler and Kim Jong-il.

Now, as beneficial as special interests can be to your fiction, there is a downside. Aspies can run on and on about their special interests to the point that they bore people. Think of all the details about whaling in Moby Dick, written by probable aspie Herman Melville. By modern standards at least he should have cut some of that out. And if he was a typical aspie, he might easily have added two or three times as much of those whaling-details. It's kind of like the social skills we aspies have to learn, that we have to limit the amount of stuff we say about our special interests to others, just give them very brief highlights to avoid boring them.

Another trap is letting your special interests eat your writing time, if not your life. That's a constant temptation for me in this project. One of the languages I use in the story, Universalglot, is a very obscure one, and a language I don't know very well yet. I'm very tempted to spend my writing time studying Universalglot or working on my Universalglot Facebook page. The essential thing is to set a fixed rule--- your writing time is for your writing. Your special interests you work with at some other time--- usually after the day's writing work is over.

After all this, I bet some of the neurotypical writers out there are beginning to wish that they were lucky enough to have Asperger Syndrome and the attendant flock of special interests. Don't despair, your more ordinary interests can take the same role in your writing. And though you may not have the same level of passion for them that the aspie has with special interests, they are also less likely to take up too much of your time.

Question: what interests of yours, special or otherwise, have you incorporated into your current writing? Is it working out?
 
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Indie Life: Aspie Writers & the 10-word Rule

Indie writers--- those who are self-publishing rather than seeing a traditional publisher--- have even more need than other writers to have a good, regular daily working schedule. There is no one standing over you to get your writing work done on time. You have to learn to do it for yourself.

If you are, in addition, an Aspie (Asperger Syndrome) writer, that gets double tough. The Aspie condition comes with this charming little function called 'executive function deficit'. It's kind of like having AD/HD. It means your writing life may be in a state of constant chaos. Chaos is not good if you want to get anything done!

And this is where the 10-word rule comes in: each day, when your designated writing time rolls around, you absolutely must dip in to your story and write a minimum of 10 words. You are allowed to take one day of rest per week--- it's in the Ten Commandments somewhere. But other than that, EVEN on days when you, for good reason, are not going to be even trying to fulfill your daily word count goal, you owe yourself 10 words.

Ten words! It's not so much. Even if you are not yet ready to start a new chapter, you may find a place here or there in a sparse paragraph which could benefit from a word or three of description.

And the magic of the ten word rule is when you are dipping in to your story for the ten words you absolutely must do, you seldom write JUST ten words. Yesterday I did over 600 words when I intended to do just the minimum. Since my word count goal was 926 per day, that was going a good way toward fulfilling my goal.

Being utterly strict about your ten words leads to a writer's blessing--- steady forward progress. Even if you have a whole bad month, if you do your ten word minimum, you are further ahead than when you started.

Plus, dipping into your story 6 days a week without fail keeps the project from growing stale, and then dying on the vine, as so often happens to a work of fiction that gets put aside for awhile.

Now, about that designated writing time: you need one. Yes, even if you are a wild and crazy Aspie who does things when the mood strikes and not on a schedule. A day--- yours, mine, anyone's--- needs a framework to it. When you were a child, your parents provided the framework in that there were set times for meals, for going to school/to do your homeschooling, to get up and to go to bed.... As a grown-up, you have fixed times depending on events like getting up, going to work, perhaps other things like watching the evening news--- these provide your framework.

If you look at yourself as a professional Indie writer, you must attach a designated writing time to your day's framework. In my own case, I find that unless I schedule things first thing in the morning, they don't get done. Once mid-morning rolls around, I've looked out the window and noticed the escaped sheep, or discovered I am out of kitchen garbage bags but not out of kitchen garbage, and my day's excitement has begun. Writing has to happen before this. If you are not a morning person, you may decide to write after you get home from work or school, or after the kids are in bed, or some other fixed point of your day. Whatever works for you. The exact time doesn't matter as much as the fact that you have scheduled one daily.

What is your own best writing time daily? Have you ever had to try shifting that time around? Do you think adopting the 10-word rule will help your writing?
 
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"The Indelibles will be hosting a monthly feature called INDIE LIFE. Modeled after Alex Cavanaugh's awesome Insecure Writer's Group, this will be a chance for indie authors to post about indie life, find each other, offer support, encouragement, news, helpful hints, and anything else that makes life as an indie author a little easier.

What is Indie Life?How: Sign up on the Linky at the bottom of this page here. When: Post on the second Wednesday of the month. What: Write anything indie related: something that will inspire or help a fellow indie; something that celebrates a release or a milestone; something that talks about the ups and downs, joys and heartaches of Being Indie. Grab: The banner above to include in your posts!"
 

7 Reasons Why People with Asperger Syndrome can Never, Ever be Writers

Sorry, Herman Melville, Jane Austin, Hans Christian Anderson, but you can't have existed. Or at least, not existed with the Asperger Syndrome folks are convinced you had. As it says in Xanthippa's Chamberpot: "Writing is one of the major woes for people with Aspergers."
Here are the three reasons she gives, followed by more cynical ones of my own:

1. Children with Asperger Syndrome have too much trouble with the mechanics of writing.
2. Short term memory problems--- the ideas rush by so fast, you forget what you were writing by the end of the word.
3. People with Asperger Syndrome can speak on any topic at great length, but are inhibited when it comes to writing it down, because that makes it too official.
4. Aspies soon learn that if you write things down, people, especially schoolteachers, can find it and ruin it for you. So you must never, ever write things down.
5. Aspies have odd special interests and so won't want to write on the topics that the mass market wants to read about. 
6. Aspies find it near to impossible to attract friends, so how can they possibly attract readers for their book?
7. Aspies have something called a 'lack of executive function' which is pretty much the same thing as Attention Deficit Disorder. How can you be a writer when your novel-notes are in a giant paper-pile along with old Christmas cards and a list of your Vampire Wars friends?

A bit gloomy, isn't it? And I'm afraid I'll have to disagree with Xanthippa, in spite of the cool name. Writing has never been MY woe, but the one area in which I could shine. Here is some commentary on the above list:

1. The mechanics of writing has never been my problem. But if it is for you, who cares? Schools aren't even teaching handwriting any more. Folks can use a computer instead.
2. Who cares if you forget some of those fast-flowing ideas? Jot down notes to capture enough of your brilliant ideas to finish the project at hand. Your brain that generates the idea-flow can generate all the ideas you need no matter how many you forget.
3. If you can speak about it, you can write about it. Ever notice that the fellow who can't get around to writing a college paper or finishing his novel can spend an hour or more goofing off online--- writing to express himself? Just transfer that writing-energy to your novel and you are set.
4.  As you grow up, you learn that the rude things folks might have once said about your writing were pretty dull-witted rude things. You CAN learn to have a thicker skin. 
5. Those weird aspie special interests are what make your writing interesting and unique.
6. The things that make an aspie unpopular as a real-life friend makes him more attractive as a writer.
7. You can learn to organize your paper pile with paper trays, and put all the stuff from your current writing project in a binder so you can find it.

So, maybe it's true that with Asperger Syndrome I can never ever be a real writer. Maybe I'm doomed to be a failure like Herman Melville. I can live with that.

7 Reasons Why People with Asperger Syndrome can Never, Ever be Writers

Sorry, Herman Melville, Jane Austin, Hans Christian Anderson, but you can't have existed. Or at least, not existed with the Asperger Syndrome folks are convinced you had. As it says in Xanthippa's Chamberpot: "Writing is one of the major woes for people with Aspergers."
Here are the three reasons she gives, followed by more cynical ones of my own:

1. Children with Asperger Syndrome have too much trouble with the mechanics of writing.
2. Short term memory problems--- the ideas rush by so fast, you forget what you were writing by the end of the word.
3. People with Asperger Syndrome can speak on any topic at great length, but are inhibited when it comes to writing it down, because that makes it too official.
4. Aspies soon learn that if you write things down, people, especially schoolteachers, can find it and ruin it for you. So you must never, ever write things down.
5. Aspies have odd special interests and so won't want to write on the topics that the mass market wants to read about. 
6. Aspies find it near to impossible to attract friends, so how can they possibly attract readers for their book?
7. Aspies have something called a 'lack of executive function' which is pretty much the same thing as Attention Deficit Disorder. How can you be a writer when your novel-notes are in a giant paper-pile along with old Christmas cards and a list of your Vampire Wars friends?

A bit gloomy, isn't it? And I'm afraid I'll have to disagree with Xanthippa, in spite of the cool name. Writing has never been MY woe, but the one area in which I could shine. Here is some commentary on the above list:

1. The mechanics of writing has never been my problem. But if it is for you, who cares? Schools aren't even teaching handwriting any more. Folks can use a computer instead.
2. Who cares if you forget some of those fast-flowing ideas? Jot down notes to capture enough of your brilliant ideas to finish the project at hand. Your brain that generates the idea-flow can generate all the ideas you need no matter how many you forget.
3. If you can speak about it, you can write about it. Ever notice that the fellow who can't get around to writing a college paper or finishing his novel can spend an hour or more goofing off online--- writing to express himself? Just transfer that writing-energy to your novel and you are set.
4.  As you grow up, you learn that the rude things folks might have once said about your writing were pretty dull-witted rude things. You CAN learn to have a thicker skin. 
5. Those weird aspie special interests are what make your writing interesting and unique.
6. The things that make an aspie unpopular as a real-life friend makes him more attractive as a writer.
7. You can learn to organize your paper pile with paper trays, and put all the stuff from your current writing project in a binder so you can find it.

So, maybe it's true that with Asperger Syndrome I can never ever be a real writer. Maybe I'm doomed to be a failure like Herman Melville. I can live with that.

Barack Obama may have Asperger's Syndrome

Background sounds from the movie 'Freaks'*: the sideshow performers chanting 'One of us! One of us! One of us!

Today I was thinking about the remarks Obama recently made about his accomplishments in office, and it occurred to me that if Obama, like me, had Asperger's Syndrome, that might put the story in a more sympathetic light.

So I googled 'Obama' and 'Aspergers' and came up with this, (among many other hits):

Does President Obama have Asperger's Syndrome

Obama is not the only US president who might have had Aspergers. Thomas Jefferson is also suspected of being an Aspie. ***One of us! One of us! One of us!***

Obama, of course, has never been officially diagnosed. If he suspects he might have Aspergers he's probably going out of his way not to be diagnosed, and I defend his right to do so. Aspergers is very stigmatizing. One person I told then presumed I was mentally retarded to the point of not being able to sign my own name. (Actually, my IQ is high enough to join the 'genius' organization Mensa--- which is not unheard of among folks with Asperger's syndrome.)

While I still renounce President Obama and all his evil works and ways, this possibility has reminded me that we must not allow our dislike of someone's policies or ideology translate into attacking or mocking that person's personal quirks, which may be caused by something that person cannot help. Besides, why make fun of Obama's social ineptness when we can make fun of his policies?

*Freaks: a 1932 movie featuring real sideshow performers--- pinheads, conjoined twins, little people--- which was rather notorious in its day. I mention it because I rather identify with the sideshow performers in the movie--- though I don't condone what they did to Cleopatra, that was harsh...