Aspergers and fiction writing.

Do you guys know anyone with Aspergers who has had a fiction novel of theirs successfully published? I have been wanting to write one since I was 13.

With practice I am not so bad with writing. Without practice my talent diminishes; but I think if I started to practice again, and study writing tips from articles and my favourite authors, I think I might have potential.

I am scared though, that I will write from my aspergers world/eyes and NT's will not understand. I am hoping to not make my character as awkward as I am.

I have the idea of Intentionally making the main character an Aspie, but still undecided.

Do any of you have an interest in fiction writing?

An unrelated question. Do you guys think you're perfectionists? Getting obsessed with projects such as your resume, writing, web design etc, and are always starting over because your previous project did not seem good enough? Or you get bored of the last one?

I know one person, who has AS, who likes writing fan fiction. She's also big into RP-ing in general, it seems.

Personally, for myself, I'm not really good with writing in general and have relatively less interest in writing compared to my other interests. Between homework/class, work, gaming, electronics (recent), and programming (life-long), I have little time for other stuff. I wouldn't mind maybe trying some fan fiction.

For the "perfectionist" part - well..in an answer, I didn't think I was a perfectionist but have been growing to believe that I have been a perfectionist without even realizing it. There are a lot of areas in my life I kinda let go, in terms of needing it "just so", but there are still many things that I have to have certain ways. These usually occur within computer-related things. So the programming I do needs to be "just so", etc. When I get obsessed with something, I tend to try and seek perfectionism while doing that activity. I tend to start over on projects, too, depending on the type of project. For example, I think I redesigned/recoded my web site about a dozen times since it's been in existence. Each time was because I believed my recoding would make things easier/better. Part of it, perhaps,is being bored. Unfortunately, I haven't really come to grips about being bored. I used to always claim "I've never/rarely been bored!". I think this is another thing I have been lying to myself about, because if I wasn't bored, maybe I wouldn't be jumping around from project to project like a jackrabbit on meth.

TDT wrote:I know one person, who has AS, who likes writing fan fiction. She's also big into RP-ing in general, it seems.

Personally, for myself, I'm not really good with writing in general and have relatively less interest in writing compared to my other interests. Between homework/class, work, gaming, electronics (recent), and programming (life-long), I have little time for other stuff. I wouldn't mind maybe trying some fan fiction.

For the "perfectionist" part - well..in an answer, I didn't think I was a perfectionist but have been growing to believe that I have been a perfectionist without even realizing it. There are a lot of areas in my life I kinda let go, in terms of needing it "just so", but there are still many things that I have to have certain ways. These usually occur within computer-related things. So the programming I do needs to be "just so", etc. When I get obsessed with something, I tend to try and seek perfectionism while doing that activity. I tend to start over on projects, too, depending on the type of project. For example, I think I redesigned/recoded my web site about a dozen times since it's been in existence. Each time was because I believed my recoding would make things easier/better. Part of it, perhaps,is being bored. Unfortunately, I haven't really come to grips about being bored. I used to always claim "I've never/rarely been bored!". I think this is another thing I have been lying to myself about, because if I wasn't bored, maybe I wouldn't be jumping around from project to project like a jackrabbit on meth.

I sometimes tell people I find it hard to get bored too. I have so much interests to read about or do, and I am good with setting up a fantasy/day dream for myself; But I do get bored. Sometimes I skip the weekend out because I know I have a million things to do at home that are more interesting. Later during the night I start to crave social interaction (as long as I am drunk), and then I realise how bored I actually am when I stay home. It's not that I like social interaction, but I feel as though I am missing out, and wasting my youth every Friday night, updating my website instead of drinking with friends.

I once spent 8 hours straight looking at my resume and doing small touches to it. I must have done at least ten drafts in the last month.
When it comes to webdesign, the coding is done once, or twice but the theme/layout is created over and over and over again because I kept getting bored of it.

Hi, I just signed up here and this is my first post. I'm an author and I have Asperger's, though I didn't figure it out until a couple months ago when my fiancee and her mother brought it up (they have a boy with high-functioning autism so they recognized the signs.) It took me several years of almost complete devotion to writing before I learned enough to make the emotion in it somewhat realistic. Sometimes I would try to base a character on myself and that didn't go over too well with everybody else. They always said the character was unrealistic, that people don't act like that.

*sigh*

Anyway, I've self-published eight books and I have both an agent and a publisher waiting on the second draft of my latest novel. I won first place in a contest last year and got a college scholarship out of it, which means I'm finally able to attend college. Once I figured out emotion in writing, I've had a lot of professional writers say that I'll most likely make it. (I can give characters realistic reactions but somehow I can't go the other way and figure out emotions from the reactions? I don't know what's up with that.)

I made the most progress when I met the girl who is now my fiancee on an online writer's forum, and she, along with many other writers, gave me detailed feedback so I was slowly able to figure out how to write realistic characters. If you're smart enough, sure, you can make up for the Asperger's weaknesses and learn to write very well. I came across a blog just today by an Aspie who is a terrific writer and very good at describing what life is like for him.

I have Aspergers' myself and started writing. My gift has always been in speaking and writing, although I was typically more adept in logic and philosophy than describing social interactions, naturally. Thus, poetry comes naturally, but I sometimes have trouble including dialogue and whatnot.

One thing I have done is try to understand passion and feeling. I have tried to sympathize with those who feel very strong emotion in an attempt to comprehend what the mind goes through. This has helped so far.

On the topic of the social aspects of the disorder (rationality, logic, lack of emotion), one book I read describes a character who faces the same problems I do. I would recommend reading Camus' The Stranger, which, although the focus of which is existentialist theory, describes a character who lives with little comprehension of emotion, has no pity or compassion, and subsequently faces a myriad of problems.

Hope this helps