March 21, 2025 • 21 mins
In this episode of Autistic POV, I share 7 ways writing fiction has been helpful to me. Some of these benefits go all the way back to childhood. I discovered others as I wrote my upcoming vampire novel (Trancing Miranda). I wanted to share this info because I think that other autistic people might find this way of looking at storytelling helpful.
Having said that, please note—these are my own personal perks. Not all autistic writers will have the same experience and I would love to hear any differences that might pop up on your list!
Also, please note, these are interpersonal benefits that have nothing to do with building a business or making money.
Check out my blog at barbaragraver.substack.com. You can read the blog without signing up for the free subscription, but if you subscribe, you'll get articles and media via email PLUS updates on my vampire novel (including discounts and freebies)
If you like this content, please consider subscribing, liking, commenting or sharing—or all of the above!
And thank you for listening!!!
UPDATE: Regarding the blog name change. It seemed confusing to have the blog and podcast share a name, so I changed the blog name to Writing on the Spectrum!
Please Note: If you need closed captioning, please listen via the podbean app or through my site: AutisticPOV.com
And if you like this content please consider following the show!
EPISODE 7 TRANSCRIPT:If your podcast provider cuts off the transcript, you can see the full transcript for this episode at AutisticPOV.com
Welcome to Autistic POV. My name is Barbara Graver and I started this podcast to share a bit of my journey as a late diagnosed autistic. Hi everybody, this is Barbara Graver. Thank you for joining me today on Autistic POV. Today we're going to be talking about my personal experience with fiction writing 0:33 and some of the benefits of fiction writing that I've encountered that I think would probably carry over to a lot of autistic people. And I wanted to do this now because I'm going to be publishing my first vampire novel hopefully this month. I kind of hoped I could get the book out there before I did the podcast. 0:55 It didn't turn out that way and that's okay. And I'll talk a little bit more about the book as we go. But I just want to go over fiction writing and why I think it's a good process for a lot of autistic people. I'm not saying everyone needs to write stories. 1:13 Certainly if you don't feel called to do it, you shouldn't feel that it's a necessary process. But for anyone who feels that call to tell a story and to live in their imagination and to share their experience through story. I strongly encourage you to do it and in this episode I'm going to try to give you 1:34 a couple reasons why I think it's beneficial for a lot of autistic people. So I do want to start with a couple of updates and the first is that I renamed my blog again. I was calling it Writing After Dark which was nice but kind of generic. So I've changed it to autistic POV, like the podcast. 1:58 And the reason I did that is because I really want to focus on the intersection between autism and creativity. And I will write other posts, certainly. I'll do a few book reviews. I'll do... Some straight stuff just about autism, just like I do here. But I do want that to be a theme with it. 2:20 I don't want it just to be another blog on Substack about writing. I want it to be more specific. So that's my first update. And I'll include a link for the blog in the description, certainly. And my second update has to do with the memoir that I talked about in our last episode. 2:41 And if you remember in the last episode, which was on nonfiction writing and memoir writing and sharing our story and various ways of sharing our story across various platforms, I talked about how I'd written this memoir and it had ended up really being more about spirituality. than it was about autism. And I didn't think that was appropriate. 3:04 And I still don't. I still don't think that's appropriate. But just sharing my autism story just didn't feel like enough to me. I think it's partially because of my identity as an autistic person. It's very difficult for me to divide my identity and from the things that interest me. And it's funny because I've been watching Elementary. 3:28 It's a show that's on Amazon Prime and I really like it. It's not perfect, but I like it. And there was one scene where Sherlock and Watson were talking and Watson was saying how she needed more. She needed her own life. She needed her own space. And she said, your whole life is what you do. 3:48 And I'm not like that. And that was a fact of the show. That's a fact of hisMark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
welcome to Artistic POV my name is
Barbara Graver and I started this
podcast to share a bit of my journey as
a late diagnosed
autistic hi everybody this is Barbara
Graver thank you for joining me today on
autistic
POV today we're going to be talking
(00:28):
about my my personal experience with
fiction writing and some of the benefits
of fiction writing that I've I've
encountered that I I think would
probably carry over to a lot of autistic
people and I wanted to do this now
because I'm going to be publishing my
first vampire novel hopefully this month
(00:50):
I kind of hoped I could get the book out
there before I did the podcast it didn't
turn out that way and that's okay but
and I'll talk a little bit more about
about the book as we go but I just want
to go over fiction writing and and why I
think it's a good process for a lot of
autistic people I'm not saying everyone
(01:11):
needs to write stories certainly if you
don't feel called to do it you shouldn't
feel that it's a necessary process but
if for anyone who feels that call to
tell a story and to live in their
imagination and to share their
experience through story I strongly
encourage you to do it and in this
(01:33):
episode I'm going to try to give you a
couple couple reasons why I think it's
beneficial for a lot of autistic people
so I do want to start with a couple of
updates and the first is that I renamed
my blog again um I was calling it
writing after dark which was nice but
kind of generic so I've changed it to
(01:55):
autistic POV like the podcast and the
reason I did that is because I really
want to focus on the intersection
between Autism and
creativity and I I I will write other
posts certainly I'll do a few book
reviews I'll do some straight stuff just
about autism just like I do here but
(02:17):
that I do want that to be a theme with
it I I don't want it just to be another
blog on substack about writing I want it
to be more specific so that's my first
update and I'll includ a link I'll
include a link for the blog in the
description
certainly and my second update has to do
with the Memoir that I talked about in
(02:39):
our last episode and if you remember in
the last episode which was on
non-fiction writing and Memoir writing
and sharing our story and various ways
of sharing our story across various
platforms I talked about how I'd written
this Memoir and it had ended up really
being more about spirituality
(03:00):
than it was about autism and I didn't
think that was appropriate and I still
don't I still don't think that's
appropriate but just sharing my autism
story just didn't feel like enough to me
like I I think it's partially because of
my identity as autistic person it's very
difficult for me to divide my identity
(03:23):
from the things that interest me and
it's funny because I I've been watching
Elementary it's a show that's on Amazon
on Prime and I really like it it's not
perfect but I like it and there was one
scene where Sherlock and Watson were
talking and Watson was saying how she
needed more she needed her own life she
needed her own space and she said your
(03:46):
whole life is what you do and I'm not
like that and and that was a fact of the
show that's a fact of his character he
relates to people through what he does
and that's pretty much all he knows and
and that's pretty much all I know too
and so writing an Autism story
independent of a special interest was a
(04:07):
big big problem for me and I just
realized suddenly I picked the wrong
special interest spirituality is not as
much a fa a factor in my life now as it
was and I've talked about this before
I'll talk about it maybe more but it's
not the factor in my life that it once
was after I got my diagnosis I kind of
got my answer and I've stopped looking
(04:28):
for it out outside myself the way I did
before so spirituality was not a good
fit and I thought what is like what is
my really my essential special interest
and my essential special interest is
writing and creativity so I am going to
do I am going to do the Memoir but it's
(04:49):
going to be about autism and writing
from my perspective it's not just going
to be about my life is Autistic or
Autism and spirituality or that's the
focus us and and I'll share life
experience in it obviously but still
that's the theme that's the focus that's
what I want to talk about so that's back
on I just want to share that with you
guys so as far as our topic goes autism
(05:14):
and storytelling is a really fascinating
intersection for me personally and I
want to share a little bit about my
experience with that and some of the
reasons why storytelling or fiction
writing
is I feel a really good activity for a
lot of autistic people or at least why
(05:36):
it's been a really good activity for me
and I know you hear a lot online about
writing and building a platform and
making money and all that stuff but I'm
not going to talk about any of that
that's not even on my list so if it's on
yours you're going to have to look for a
more neurotypical kind of approach
because that's not what I'm looking at
(05:59):
here I'm looking at how writing fiction
can help us in our heart or in our soul
I mean that's what's important to me so
I came out with seven reasons that I
feel writing fiction has helped me may
not resonate for you but I'm going to
share
them and the first one is it serves as a
(06:20):
refuge or escape and that was my
experience in childhood I mean that
essentially was my childhood um I spent
a lot of time lost in fantasy I would
draw I would draw scenes from my
different fantasies I would write short
stories as I got older and and
illustrate them and bind them into books
(06:43):
and really go the whole way with that
and that was my way of kind of
processing a world that was really
pretty antagonistic to
me another way that I have found writing
fiction to be really really helpful is
that it provides a way I could connect
(07:05):
with others and this again goes all the
way back to Childhood when I was a kid I
grew up in the 60s and 70s I mentioned
this before but we didn't have all the
stuff kids have now we had to kind of
make up our own worlds and that's one
thing I was good at I was good at
crafting those scenarios and that
actually gave me a way to interact with
other children kind of like Sherlock
(07:26):
interacts with people through his
detective work I was able to to interact
with other kids for a time it didn't
last forever through that and I think if
we we write stories now there's still
that potential to connect with other
people through our through our fiction I
mean they may not understand like if
we're writing about dark themes like I
(07:47):
do like my vampire story is dark it's
not it's not super explicit it's not
super violent but it is dark and I think
that it's kind of a double-edged sword
CU there going to be a lot of people who
kind of freak out about that stuff but I
think there are a lot of people too who
will be hopefully hopefully with my
(08:09):
story I'm envisioning like I don't know
I'm envisioning bad Amazon reviews at
this point but but I think there is that
potential for people to see something in
your story that they identify with and
to make connections through that and I
think that's important my third third
thing is using story as a form of
(08:32):
emotional healing and I think as
autistics given our unique neurobiology
we run a fowl of social norms and
relationships all the time and that
generates a lot of unresolved trauma a
lot of it goes back to before we even
had language for what was happening and
we carry that with us I most of us carry
(08:55):
that with us and stories are a way to
explore explore that stuff and to
express it to bring it down into the
light as young would advise and to look
at it and to reframe it and I think
that's something I was doing honestly as
a little little kid when I was still
(09:16):
drawing my stories before I was even
using text I I was reframing things that
happened to me I could see it now and I
think we could still do that and like my
story my vampire story is called
transing Miranda it should be out soon
um there's a lot of dark stuff in that
there's trauma and codependency and
(09:38):
addiction and violence and a lot of dark
stuff but I'm reframing it and when we
take things like that things that people
maybe condemned us for or didn't
understand at some point in our life or
left us for or used against us or
whatever happened we can express it in a
(10:01):
story which is healthy in and of itself
and then we can reframe it we could give
it the ending we want and there there's
a power in that there's a real power in
that I believe there is so that is Point
Let's see one two three I don't know why
I didn't number them that's number three
number four is increased understanding
of ourselves and others and I think the
(10:24):
way this works is as autistics as we are
often often told we don't don't have
theory of mind we don't understand how
other people think and and I think
that's true to a degree although some of
us are quite insightful I think um I see
through people all the time but at the
same time I have no clue what they're
talking about often it's a weird thing
(10:46):
but also we lack insight into ourselves
so in writing we can look at the things
that come out and we can ask ourselves
why am I why am I writing about this why
am I writing about somebody
who's been rejected again like why am I
writing about someone who's been hurt
again why am I writing about someone
who's addicted again and those things
(11:08):
aren't always like they aren't always
direct equivalencies I mean you might
write about addiction and I think
infinite just is a good example of this
just because you write about drug
addiction or or some kind of violent
thing doesn't necessarily mean you've
undergone it and I don't think people
should make that assumption because it
(11:30):
could be symbolic but the point is we're
exploring something that is a problem
for us or is a symbolic of a problem we
have for a reason and as we do that in
our writing we can gain greater
understanding of ourselves and we can
also gr gain I think greater
understanding of other people because in
(11:51):
my stories for
example as as I was told in critique my
my characters were very very flawed very
flawed it upset some people they were so
flawed but what I was doing and what was
helpful to me was I'm I'm showing these
imp imperfect flawed people and then I'm
(12:12):
showing someone else forgiving them for
that someone else understanding it
someone else bringing them home and
saying this is okay like to me that's
really really powerful probably because
it doesn't really happen a lot in real
life but you can make it happen in a
story and I think that's important I
think it's an important thing to do I
think it's a healthy thing to do and
(12:34):
unfortunately some people won't get it
there's not much you could do about that
I mean that's that's the flip side of
writing that's always
difficult and I think you could also get
kind of on a deeper level and this is my
one two three four fifth point I guess
like a deep deep insight and that that
(12:55):
almost goes into the realm of symbolism
like if you have a dream say you look at
your dream and you say okay well what's
a house does a house represent me like
what's a car does a car represent my
journey like however however you think
of your own personal
symbolism and you could decipher your
dream and what your subconscious is
(13:16):
trying to tell you through that method
and you could do the same exact thing
with writing that's that's what literary
analysis does and I love literary
analysis so I mean you can look at
things like you could look at the
structure the story you could look at
color you could look at description you
could look all the all those things in
your story and learn something about
(13:37):
your subconscious self you didn't know
before just like when you analyze the
dream and and I think that's worth doing
it's kind of funny because we do that
with other people's work but we don't
necessarily do it with our own and I
think we should be doing it with our own
you know the creative process is is a
subconscious process very often and a
lot of stuff comes out with that that's
(13:58):
important
another way I think and this I think is
number six is the improved sense of
identity autistics are often told that
they have and and I know that's true of
me I have a poor sense of internal
coherence like Sherlock on the show who
is he if he's not a detective he's not
anything and that's how I feel who am I
(14:21):
if I'm not a writer and I'm not saying I
don't have other roles I mean I have
have kids adult kids I have home I have
people in my life I have other other
roles but we're talking about who we are
in essential sense usually we identify
with something very strongly could be a
special interest and that's that's not
(14:44):
bad but we also tend to have often times
the poor understanding of our life
independent of that like our life is a
narrative like our life story and I
talked about this last time when we were
talking about writing a memoir that WR
writing a memoir can help us nail that
down help us understand that help us
arrive at meaning through our life
(15:05):
narrative and a story could do that too
because it's like if you think of a
dream like all the characters in a dream
aspects of yourself all the characters
in a story aspects of yourself too and
whether you want to own that or not
that's where they come from un unless
you're really basing it on some external
thing so I think as you see what those
(15:29):
characters do and how things play out
and you construct the theme I mean I
have a lot of trouble with arcs and
themes but you construct a theme ideally
at least a bit of a theme and that can
help you see well I'm a person who's
like this character in this way and this
is their Arc and maybe this is my arc
(15:51):
too or maybe this is what I want for my
arc or maybe this is kind of who I am
and so I think it can help with our
sense identity not just identity as a
writer but identity as a person and I
think another thing is just plain doing
it just to be creative just to express
yourself just to have fun and artistic
(16:13):
creativity I think I'm beginning to feel
is very different from
neurotypical um creativity and I'm not
sure that's bad thing I'm not sure and I
mentioned this before that we should be
modeling our work of neurotypical work
and standard genre expectations and I
think there's something to be said for
embracing our own type of creativity and
(16:38):
avoiding professional developmental Ed
editing possibly even and just putting
out what we want to write I mean that's
what I did my book my vampire story
transing Miranda it's my story I put it
through critique it was a difficult
process I'm glad I did it it was helpful
but it was very very difficult not
(16:59):
everybody was nice and I think that I
put it through beta reading and one
person just hated the ending and she was
right I changed it but I didn't change
it a lot it's still my story and I want
it to be my story and even if people
don't like it I mean even if people say
this is not what a paranormal romance is
(17:21):
supposed to be because it's not it isn't
I'll admit that it's it's a story I need
to tell and I think there's value in
that I mean I think if there's value in
any of this there's value in that and
all of this these these are my seven
things anyhow um all of these things and
I could read through them Refuge or
(17:42):
Escape connecting with others emotional
healing increased understanding of
ourselves and others deep subconscious
personal Insight improved sense of
identity creative self-expression SL
artistic creativity all these things
really really open us up to criticism I
mean it makes us vulnerable because
(18:05):
you're putting so much of yourself in
there you're not really filtering when
you write for these reasons like when
you write to Market or when you write to
fulfill genre expectations there there's
a layer between you and that creative
work when you're writing to better
connect with yourself and better
understand yourself and deal with Shadow
elements and Express Personal truth you
(18:29):
don't have that kind of armor so when
people and they will I mean this is my
first book I'm putting on Amazon and I
told myself if people are really mean
I'm just going to take it off but even
going through critique like people could
be really really brutal and it's hard
particularly like if people actually
like do name calling like they say your
(18:51):
character's a jerk or a creep or an
idiot like it's very hard to absorb that
when you're actually writing about
yourself and you know it so all of these
things they make us very very vulnerable
and most of us have kind of had that
experience of being loow hanging fruit
for bullies all our lives and it can be
(19:13):
very triggering when people criticize
our work because we're like Sherlock
they're criticizing our work they're
criticizing us it's different it's
different for us and a lot of us have
passed the experience with feeling
shamed and it it's it's tough it could
be triggering and it takes a lot of
courage to put something out there this
is the first time I've done it I mean
(19:35):
I've written hundreds of thousands of
words over the course of my life written
multiple manuscripts and this is the
first time I'm putting anything out
there and I'm kind of scared but I
decide to do it anyhow because I want
other people to do it I that's my reason
I'm not putting it out there cuz I think
it's going to make money I know it's not
going to make money I'm putting it out
(19:57):
there because I want other autistic
people to do this to and the flip side
of that is you don't have to you don't
have to do that you could be like me you
could write all your life and write for
yourself write for none of the reasons
on this list have anything to do with
audience none of them you can write for
yourself and reap all the benefits
(20:19):
there's no reason you have to put out
there if you don't want to and nobody
should feel like they have
so that is it
for this time I I hope this is helpful I
hope it'll encourage you to write
fiction even if it doesn't encourage you
to publish it and um I will be back
(20:40):
probably I'm still doing the podcast
once a month for now because I just get
overwhelmed if I try to do it more and
fiction book I hope it's going to come
out before the end of the month I I'll
um shoot an update out I guess um
through my newsletter so if you're
interested sign up for
that I'm going to put it I think on
(21:02):
Kindle unlimited I'm not going to make
it expensive I'm going to offer it for
(22:16):
free when I can I mean this is more
proof of concept than trying to make a
living as a writer so that's it for
and if you like the
content please consider liking or
following or subscribing or sharing or
commenting or whatever you feel called
to do or all of the above because that
really really helps it helps like with
the algorithms and it just is really
super encouraging to me so that's it for
uh this month and I will talk to you
guys again next year so until then this
this is Barbara Graver of autistic POV
and thank you very much for listening
welcome to Artistic POV my name is
Barbara Graver and I started this
podcast to share a bit of my journey as
a late diagnosed
autistic hi everybody this is Barbara
Graver thank you for joining me today on
autistic
POV today we're going to be talking
(00:28):
about my my personal experience with
fiction writing and some of the benefits
of fiction writing that I've I've
encountered that I I think would
probably carry over to a lot of autistic
people and I wanted to do this now
because I'm going to be publishing my
first vampire novel hopefully this month
(00:50):
I kind of hoped I could get the book out
there before I did the podcast it didn't
turn out that way and that's okay but
and I'll talk a little bit more about
about the book as we go but I just want
to go over fiction writing and and why I
think it's a good process for a lot of
autistic people I'm not saying everyone
(01:11):
needs to write stories certainly if you
don't feel called to do it you shouldn't
feel that it's a necessary process but
if for anyone who feels that call to
tell a story and to live in their
imagination and to share their
experience through story I strongly
encourage you to do it and in this
(01:33):
episode I'm going to try to give you a
couple couple reasons why I think it's
beneficial for a lot of autistic people
so I do want to start with a couple of
updates and the first is that I renamed
my blog again um I was calling it
writing after dark which was nice but
kind of generic so I've changed it to
(01:55):
autistic POV like the podcast and the
reason I did that is because I really
want to focus on the intersection
between Autism and
creativity and I I I will write other
posts certainly I'll do a few book
reviews I'll do some straight stuff just
about autism just like I do here but
(02:17):
that I do want that to be a theme with
it I I don't want it just to be another
blog on substack about writing I want it
to be more specific so that's my first
update and I'll includ a link I'll
include a link for the blog in the
description
certainly and my second update has to do
with the Memoir that I talked about in
(02:39):
our last episode and if you remember in
the last episode which was on
non-fiction writing and Memoir writing
and sharing our story and various ways
of sharing our story across various
platforms I talked about how I'd written
this Memoir and it had ended up really
being more about spirituality
(03:00):
than it was about autism and I didn't
think that was appropriate and I still
don't I still don't think that's
appropriate but just sharing my autism
story just didn't feel like enough to me
like I I think it's partially because of
my identity as autistic person it's very
difficult for me to divide my identity
(03:23):
from the things that interest me and
it's funny because I I've been watching
Elementary it's a show that's on Amazon
on Prime and I really like it it's not
perfect but I like it and there was one
scene where Sherlock and Watson were
talking and Watson was saying how she
needed more she needed her own life she
needed her own space and she said your
(03:46):
whole life is what you do and I'm not
like that and and that was a fact of the
show that's a fact of his character he
relates to people through what he does
and that's pretty much all he knows and
and that's pretty much all I know too
and so writing an Autism story
independent of a special interest was a
(04:07):
big big problem for me and I just
realized suddenly I picked the wrong
special interest spirituality is not as
much a fa a factor in my life now as it
was and I've talked about this before
I'll talk about it maybe more but it's
not the factor in my life that it once
was after I got my diagnosis I kind of
got my answer and I've stopped looking
(04:28):
for it out outside myself the way I did
before so spirituality was not a good
fit and I thought what is like what is
my really my essential special interest
and my essential special interest is
writing and creativity so I am going to
do I am going to do the Memoir but it's
(04:49):
going to be about autism and writing
from my perspective it's not just going
to be about my life is Autistic or
Autism and spirituality or that's the
focus us and and I'll share life
experience in it obviously but still
that's the theme that's the focus that's
what I want to talk about so that's back
on I just want to share that with you
guys so as far as our topic goes autism
(05:14):
and storytelling is a really fascinating
intersection for me personally and I
want to share a little bit about my
experience with that and some of the
reasons why storytelling or fiction
writing
is I feel a really good activity for a
lot of autistic people or at least why
(05:36):
it's been a really good activity for me
and I know you hear a lot online about
writing and building a platform and
making money and all that stuff but I'm
not going to talk about any of that
that's not even on my list so if it's on
yours you're going to have to look for a
more neurotypical kind of approach
because that's not what I'm looking at
(05:59):
here I'm looking at how writing fiction
can help us in our heart or in our soul
I mean that's what's important to me so
I came out with seven reasons that I
feel writing fiction has helped me may
not resonate for you but I'm going to
share
them and the first one is it serves as a
(06:20):
refuge or escape and that was my
experience in childhood I mean that
essentially was my childhood um I spent
a lot of time lost in fantasy I would
draw I would draw scenes from my
different fantasies I would write short
stories as I got older and and
illustrate them and bind them into books
(06:43):
and really go the whole way with that
and that was my way of kind of
processing a world that was really
pretty antagonistic to
me another way that I have found writing
fiction to be really really helpful is
that it provides a way I could connect
(07:05):
with others and this again goes all the
way back to Childhood when I was a kid I
grew up in the 60s and 70s I mentioned
this before but we didn't have all the
stuff kids have now we had to kind of
make up our own worlds and that's one
thing I was good at I was good at
crafting those scenarios and that
actually gave me a way to interact with
other children kind of like Sherlock
(07:26):
interacts with people through his
detective work I was able to to interact
with other kids for a time it didn't
last forever through that and I think if
we we write stories now there's still
that potential to connect with other
people through our through our fiction I
mean they may not understand like if
we're writing about dark themes like I
(07:47):
do like my vampire story is dark it's
not it's not super explicit it's not
super violent but it is dark and I think
that it's kind of a double-edged sword
CU there going to be a lot of people who
kind of freak out about that stuff but I
think there are a lot of people too who
will be hopefully hopefully with my
(08:09):
story I'm envisioning like I don't know
I'm envisioning bad Amazon reviews at
this point but but I think there is that
potential for people to see something in
your story that they identify with and
to make connections through that and I
think that's important my third third
thing is using story as a form of
(08:32):
emotional healing and I think as
autistics given our unique neurobiology
we run a fowl of social norms and
relationships all the time and that
generates a lot of unresolved trauma a
lot of it goes back to before we even
had language for what was happening and
we carry that with us I most of us carry
(08:55):
that with us and stories are a way to
explore explore that stuff and to
express it to bring it down into the
light as young would advise and to look
at it and to reframe it and I think
that's something I was doing honestly as
a little little kid when I was still
(09:16):
drawing my stories before I was even
using text I I was reframing things that
happened to me I could see it now and I
think we could still do that and like my
story my vampire story is called
transing Miranda it should be out soon
um there's a lot of dark stuff in that
there's trauma and codependency and
(09:38):
addiction and violence and a lot of dark
stuff but I'm reframing it and when we
take things like that things that people
maybe condemned us for or didn't
understand at some point in our life or
left us for or used against us or
whatever happened we can express it in a
(10:01):
story which is healthy in and of itself
and then we can reframe it we could give
it the ending we want and there there's
a power in that there's a real power in
that I believe there is so that is Point
Let's see one two three I don't know why
I didn't number them that's number three
number four is increased understanding
of ourselves and others and I think the
(10:24):
way this works is as autistics as we are
often often told we don't don't have
theory of mind we don't understand how
other people think and and I think
that's true to a degree although some of
us are quite insightful I think um I see
through people all the time but at the
same time I have no clue what they're
talking about often it's a weird thing
(10:46):
but also we lack insight into ourselves
so in writing we can look at the things
that come out and we can ask ourselves
why am I why am I writing about this why
am I writing about somebody
who's been rejected again like why am I
writing about someone who's been hurt
again why am I writing about someone
who's addicted again and those things
(11:08):
aren't always like they aren't always
direct equivalencies I mean you might
write about addiction and I think
infinite just is a good example of this
just because you write about drug
addiction or or some kind of violent
thing doesn't necessarily mean you've
undergone it and I don't think people
should make that assumption because it
(11:30):
could be symbolic but the point is we're
exploring something that is a problem
for us or is a symbolic of a problem we
have for a reason and as we do that in
our writing we can gain greater
understanding of ourselves and we can
also gr gain I think greater
understanding of other people because in
(11:51):
my stories for
example as as I was told in critique my
my characters were very very flawed very
flawed it upset some people they were so
flawed but what I was doing and what was
helpful to me was I'm I'm showing these
imp imperfect flawed people and then I'm
(12:12):
showing someone else forgiving them for
that someone else understanding it
someone else bringing them home and
saying this is okay like to me that's
really really powerful probably because
it doesn't really happen a lot in real
life but you can make it happen in a
story and I think that's important I
think it's an important thing to do I
think it's a healthy thing to do and
(12:34):
unfortunately some people won't get it
there's not much you could do about that
I mean that's that's the flip side of
writing that's always
difficult and I think you could also get
kind of on a deeper level and this is my
one two three four fifth point I guess
like a deep deep insight and that that
(12:55):
almost goes into the realm of symbolism
like if you have a dream say you look at
your dream and you say okay well what's
a house does a house represent me like
what's a car does a car represent my
journey like however however you think
of your own personal
symbolism and you could decipher your
dream and what your subconscious is
(13:16):
trying to tell you through that method
and you could do the same exact thing
with writing that's that's what literary
analysis does and I love literary
analysis so I mean you can look at
things like you could look at the
structure the story you could look at
color you could look at description you
could look all the all those things in
your story and learn something about
(13:37):
your subconscious self you didn't know
before just like when you analyze the
dream and and I think that's worth doing
it's kind of funny because we do that
with other people's work but we don't
necessarily do it with our own and I
think we should be doing it with our own
you know the creative process is is a
subconscious process very often and a
lot of stuff comes out with that that's
(13:58):
important
another way I think and this I think is
number six is the improved sense of
identity autistics are often told that
they have and and I know that's true of
me I have a poor sense of internal
coherence like Sherlock on the show who
is he if he's not a detective he's not
anything and that's how I feel who am I
(14:21):
if I'm not a writer and I'm not saying I
don't have other roles I mean I have
have kids adult kids I have home I have
people in my life I have other other
roles but we're talking about who we are
in essential sense usually we identify
with something very strongly could be a
special interest and that's that's not
(14:44):
bad but we also tend to have often times
the poor understanding of our life
independent of that like our life is a
narrative like our life story and I
talked about this last time when we were
talking about writing a memoir that WR
writing a memoir can help us nail that
down help us understand that help us
arrive at meaning through our life
(15:05):
narrative and a story could do that too
because it's like if you think of a
dream like all the characters in a dream
aspects of yourself all the characters
in a story aspects of yourself too and
whether you want to own that or not
that's where they come from un unless
you're really basing it on some external
thing so I think as you see what those
(15:29):
characters do and how things play out
and you construct the theme I mean I
have a lot of trouble with arcs and
themes but you construct a theme ideally
at least a bit of a theme and that can
help you see well I'm a person who's
like this character in this way and this
is their Arc and maybe this is my arc
(15:51):
too or maybe this is what I want for my
arc or maybe this is kind of who I am
and so I think it can help with our
sense identity not just identity as a
writer but identity as a person and I
think another thing is just plain doing
it just to be creative just to express
yourself just to have fun and artistic
(16:13):
creativity I think I'm beginning to feel
is very different from
neurotypical um creativity and I'm not
sure that's bad thing I'm not sure and I
mentioned this before that we should be
modeling our work of neurotypical work
and standard genre expectations and I
think there's something to be said for
embracing our own type of creativity and
(16:38):
avoiding professional developmental Ed
editing possibly even and just putting
out what we want to write I mean that's
what I did my book my vampire story
transing Miranda it's my story I put it
through critique it was a difficult
process I'm glad I did it it was helpful
but it was very very difficult not
(16:59):
everybody was nice and I think that I
put it through beta reading and one
person just hated the ending and she was
right I changed it but I didn't change
it a lot it's still my story and I want
it to be my story and even if people
don't like it I mean even if people say
this is not what a paranormal romance is
(17:21):
supposed to be because it's not it isn't
I'll admit that it's it's a story I need
to tell and I think there's value in
that I mean I think if there's value in
any of this there's value in that and
all of this these these are my seven
things anyhow um all of these things and
I could read through them Refuge or
(17:42):
Escape connecting with others emotional
healing increased understanding of
ourselves and others deep subconscious
personal Insight improved sense of
identity creative self-expression SL
artistic creativity all these things
really really open us up to criticism I
mean it makes us vulnerable because
(18:05):
you're putting so much of yourself in
there you're not really filtering when
you write for these reasons like when
you write to Market or when you write to
fulfill genre expectations there there's
a layer between you and that creative
work when you're writing to better
connect with yourself and better
understand yourself and deal with Shadow
elements and Express Personal truth you
(18:29):
don't have that kind of armor so when
people and they will I mean this is my
first book I'm putting on Amazon and I
told myself if people are really mean
I'm just going to take it off but even
going through critique like people could
be really really brutal and it's hard
particularly like if people actually
like do name calling like they say your
(18:51):
character's a jerk or a creep or an
idiot like it's very hard to absorb that
when you're actually writing about
yourself and you know it so all of these
things they make us very very vulnerable
and most of us have kind of had that
experience of being loow hanging fruit
for bullies all our lives and it can be
(19:13):
very triggering when people criticize
our work because we're like Sherlock
they're criticizing our work they're
criticizing us it's different it's
different for us and a lot of us have
passed the experience with feeling
shamed and it it's it's tough it could
be triggering and it takes a lot of
courage to put something out there this
is the first time I've done it I mean
(19:35):
I've written hundreds of thousands of
words over the course of my life written
multiple manuscripts and this is the
first time I'm putting anything out
there and I'm kind of scared but I
decide to do it anyhow because I want
other people to do it I that's my reason
I'm not putting it out there cuz I think
it's going to make money I know it's not
going to make money I'm putting it out
(19:57):
there because I want other autistic
people to do this to and the flip side
of that is you don't have to you don't
have to do that you could be like me you
could write all your life and write for
yourself write for none of the reasons
on this list have anything to do with
audience none of them you can write for
yourself and reap all the benefits
(20:19):
there's no reason you have to put out
there if you don't want to and nobody
should feel like they have
so that is it
for this time I I hope this is helpful I
hope it'll encourage you to write
fiction even if it doesn't encourage you
to publish it and um I will be back
(20:40):
probably I'm still doing the podcast
once a month for now because I just get
overwhelmed if I try to do it more and
fiction book I hope it's going to come
out before the end of the month I I'll
um shoot an update out I guess um
through my newsletter so if you're
interested sign up for
that I'm going to put it I think on
(21:02):
Kindle unlimited I'm not going to make
it expensive I'm going to offer it for
(22:16):
free when I can I mean this is more
proof of concept than trying to make a
living as a writer so that's it for
and if you like the
content please consider liking or
following or subscribing or sharing or
commenting or whatever you feel called
to do or all of the above because that
really really helps it helps like with
the algorithms and it just is really
super encouraging to me so that's it for
uh this month and I will talk to you
guys again next year so until then this
this is Barbara Graver of autistic POV
and thank you very much for listening
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.