Hi! Hi! As the title mentions, I'm quite new to all this, even being new in a forum. I haven't joined something like this since I was a teenager. Considering I'm verging on 34, that's been an amount of time that makes me cringe the same way I cringe when my knees creak as I stand. I had it in my head, that I could write a book completely independently and that support from others, like this community while wonderful wasn't for me. I'm autistic, and have other, social... ineptitudes that can cause me to have- troubles finding friends. It causes me to struggle communicating and connecting with others. However I found myself with questions. So many questions about what was okay. Is it okay if my MC is also autistic, should I say it outright, should it be implied, should she say it should someone else etc. That was just on one subject. As I googled and googled and googled. This site kept coming up with others asking similar questions and to my surprise, getting answers. Honest, kind and supportive answers. More than one, sometimes 10s if not more. I found that I was silly if I didn't just make an account. Do you know what I found? I was excited. Like a little kid. So I very much look forward to joining all of you, asking a ridiculous amount of questions and hopefully getting a few answers as well as answering as many questions as I can be helpful in answering.
Hello and welcome Shelin, you've come to the right place for resources, support and encouragement. Looking forward to seeing you in the forums!
Hello! Welcome to the forums. You will find a lot of support here. I'm also autistic so that makes two of us. I've written a lot of stories at this point. What I've found is that my characters inherit my own autistic traits because well, I'm the one who writes them, and all writers write "what they know" one way or another. We write humans the way we understand them and autistic people are no exception. It is of course okay for your MC to be autistic. Whether this should be made implicit or explicit is based on the kind of story you want to tell. I'm writing a novel where there is a troubled autistic character, but that's never explicitly said because I'm "showing" it. I want my readers to speculate and figure it out. And if they don't, the character still works pretty well. I plan to write another novel in the future where autism is explored a lot more openly. This is the "Introduction board" where members introduce themselves. I recommend that you start a thread in the Plot Development board or General Writing because these boards are dedicated to questions. You will get a lot more responses and I'll be happy to answer you in more detail.
Welcome! One piece of meta advice from another learner writer about getting 10s or more answers that amount to great advice that excites you (something you may have already intuited): There are always so many things you can learn and improve. View point, character development, three act this, hero's journey that. Why Grammarly makes everything read like an academic live translating from the German. That being so I find it helps to do a new piece of writing that reflects every new lesson learnt or question answered, and to not agitate yourself trying to learn or even seek out the second or third or hundredth lesson until you've written something new that at least tries to implement the first lesson/advice. Can be only a paragraph. Writing isn't one of those subjects we can cram. I said "I find it helps". Truth be told I'm just reversing my own experiences. I got too into learning a year ago, listening to the Podcasts, reading people's critiques of each others' work, looking at form. But not giving myself enough time to write between nuggets of wisdom. Really put back my writing confidence, which previously had been nurtured by pig-ignorance. I'm projecting now. On topic: Welcome to the forum!
Thank you so much! I'm most definitely finding that this is exactly the place I needed to find. It's got everything I've been looking for, I no longer need 100000 billion tabs open up on my browser.
Thank you so much for your advice. I actually just posted a thread talking about whether or not it would be a good idea for my plot in particular in character development. I have always wished that there was more content that featured MCs who just happened to be autistic, it was just a part of the rest of the story, much like being on the spectrum is just a part of my main story in life. I think growing up I always wanted to see more content like that. I very much appreciate what you're saying too, that it may be inevitable that my behaviors will blend into my MC, I think that's why I'm leaning so heavily towards deciding towards having her be Autistic.
Thank you so much! I think I maybe just may already do that. I have this habit of learning something, it sparking an idea of how I can implement it in my current project and then writing a bit. I honestly was a bit disappointed in myself that I haven't been writing linearly I've been writing in pieces. I've written parts of the first chapter, the middle, the end. The outline is mostly finished but still in the works heh. I'm all over the place with about 25 files. However I just refuse to not write when I'm inspired. I even downloaded the writer app on my computer and my phone, because the notes feature will sync with my phone and my computer. So I can write on the go heh. I appreciate the advice very much though, the reminder not to try to do it all at once is very appreciated.
G'day from Aussie-Land, Shelin! I'm also on the autism spectrum so that makes three of us! (I'm sure there are more around the board). Just wondering: is that your cat (in the picture)? It's very cute!
