March 6, 2025 • 18 mins
There is more than one way of sharing our autism story! In this episode of Autistic POV, I talk about my experience sharing my own story through memoir writing and online media—with a focus on what did and didn't work for me and why
I also chat about my substack blog, my special interest blog and other resources. I promised to provide links these, so here they are:
- Metaphysical blog (special interest blog) MysticReview.com
- Substack blog (some special interest posts plus autism podcast episodes and articles) BarbaraGraver.substack.com
- My article Autism and the Narrative Process (barbaragraver.substack.com/p/autism-and-the-narrative-process) touches on Julie Brown's book Writers on the Spectrum. The book is more geared toward fiction, but I found it helpful.
- Link for my Podbean website (as mentioned in the episode): AutisticPOV.com
- My autism diagnosis / bipolar misdiagnosis episode is EP 3 in app or online at https://www.autisticpov.com/e/late-autism-diagnosis-bipolar-misdiagnosis-and-being-vulnerable/
Please consider following and / or sharing the podcast!
If you need closed captioning, please listen via the podbean app or through my site: AutisticPOV.com
EPISODE 6 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 sharing our story. 0:29 And I specifically called this episode sharing our story versus writing our memoir because I think it's important to acknowledge that there are a lot of different ways we can share our autistic experience. And writing a memoir is only one of those ways. So I love autistic memoirs. 0:50 I've read a bunch of them and I really, really enjoy them. And I decided that I should try to write one too. I wanted to talk about my experience growing up as an undiagnosed autistic and I started it. I actually wrote it. But I had a lot of trouble with it. 1:09 I had a lot of trouble with it for different reasons. And this is something that a lot of autistics struggle with. It's kind of ironic because I am a writer. I consider myself a writer. I've written a couple of novels, but I really, really struggle with writing novels. And there's a reason for this. 1:31 And writing the memoir was easier in a way because it's chronological. You don't have to struggle with structure to the same degree you do a novel. But there is still kind of a genre expectation, I think, with a standard memoir. And maybe this is something that needs to be challenged. 1:51 But the idea with a standard memoir is usually that there will be a theme. It's not an autobiography. A memoir is not an autobiography. It's not someone's story from birth to the point they write it. It's the story of a specific aspect of their life. 2:10 So with the autism memoir, the expectation is going to be that aspect is autism. And I think that's what made it hard for me because as an autistic person, Everything in my life is related to autism because my autistic way of looking at the world is global. There's no way I could step away from that. 2:34 Everything I've done in my life has been, and everything I've seen and experienced has been through an autistic lens. So I found when I tried to write a memoir about is that I just couldn't stay in my lane. And that's something, I read a book, and I think I mentioned it before, 2:52 but it was by a literary critic named Julie Brown, and the name of the book was Writers on the Spectrum. And in that book, she analyzed the writing of eight different very famous writers who are widely thought to be autistic. And she came up with these problems that all of them had, and they all had these problems. 3:11 And reading that was really helpful for me, Because at the time, I was struggling with writing fiction. And I saw a lot of those issues in my own writing. And it was helpful for me. I've written a couple novels. One is going to be coming out, I think, before the end of the year. 3:28 But they were so hard for me to write. And I actually think if I try another one, when I try, I've already got another fiction novel. story started, but I think the next time I mMark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
[Music]
(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 about sharing our story and
(00:30):
I specifically called this episode
sharing our story versus writing our
Memoir because I think it's important to
acknowledge that there are a lot of
different ways we can share our autistic
experience and writing a memoir is only
one of those ways so I love autistic
Memoirs I've read a bunch of them and I
(00:52):
I really really enjoy them and I decided
that I should try to write one too I I
wanted to talk about my experience
growing up as undiagnosed autistic and I
started it I actually wrote it but I had
a lot of trouble with it I had a lot of
trouble with it for different
reasons and this is something that a lot
(01:16):
of autistics struggle with it's kind of
ironic because I am a writer I consider
myself a writer I've written a couple of
uh novels but I really really struggle
with writing novels and there there's a
reason reason for this and writing the
Memoir was easier in a way because it's
chronological you don't have to struggle
(01:38):
with structure to the same degree you do
a novel but there is still a kind of a
genre expectation I think with a
standard Memoir and maybe this is
something that needs to be challenged
but the idea with the with a standard
Memoir is usually that there will be a
theme it's not an autobiography A Memoir
(01:59):
is not on autobiography it's not
someone's story from birth to the point
they write it it's the story of a
specific aspect of their life so with an
Autism Memoir the expectation is going
to be that aspect is autism and I think
that's what made it hard for me because
as an
(02:20):
autistic everything in my life is
related to autism because my autistic
way of looking at the world is is global
there's no way I could step away from
that everything I've done in my life has
been and everything I've seen and
experienced has been through an autistic
(02:41):
lens so what I found when I tried to
write a memoir is that I just couldn't
stay in my lane and that that's
something I read a book and I think I
mentioned it before but it was by uh
literary critic named Julie Brown and
the name of the book was writers on the
Spectrum and in in that book she
analyzed the writing of eight different
(03:02):
very famous writers who are widely
thought to be autistic and she came up
with these problems that all of them had
and they all had these problems and
reading that was really helpful for me
because at the time I was struggling
with writing fiction and I saw a lot of
those issues in my own writing and it it
was helpful for me I mean I've written a
(03:23):
couple novels one is going to be coming
out I think before the end of the year
but they were so hard for me to write
and I I actually think if I try another
when when I try I've already got another
fiction uh story started but I think the
next time I might actually try a short
story cycle because of issues I have
(03:46):
around narration and this is coming and
I'm not I'm not sharing this to
discourage anyone I mean obviously a lot
of people write autism Memoirs they
write them brilliantly I have an episode
called autis IC POV reading Roundup
where I talk about four books that I
really love that I read recently and
three of them are autism Memoirs and I
(04:09):
love them and I think everyone should
read them especially if you think you
might want to write one you should
definitely read a bunch that's the best
thing you can do as a writer to prepare
you to write is to read what other
people do but I think the issues I have
personally with narration and obviously
everybody does every autistic does not
have these problems but the problems I
(04:30):
have are not
uncommon and one of them is fulfilling
genre expectations this was something
Julie Brown actually identified when she
did literary analysis of the work of
these
writers one one way this is a problem is
because of what Bernard rimland who's a
a researcher calls the autistic tend
(04:52):
tendency to view life as an incoherent
series of unconnected events and that
makes structuring anything difficult
even a story you tell even a podcast
even even a to a degree a blog post but
the longer the piece the more difficult
this could be and a memoir is
essentially a a chronological story and
(05:16):
you can tell it chronologically but what
I found is that I still had trouble
staying in the quote autism Lane I kept
veering into spirituality and and that's
another issue because if you have
somebody buying an Autism Memoir they
don't this was my problem they don't
necessarily want to read a book that's
like half or 2third about the author's
(05:37):
spiritual experiences that's not why
they bought it and it's not fair to them
and it's not fair to you because odds
are you're not going to get great
reviews from that but mostly it's not
what it's supposed to be and that was
the problem I ran into and and I had
this debate with fiction do we really as
autistics want to be about fulfilling
(05:59):
tradition neurotypical genre
expectations I'm not sure I think that's
a good conversation to have and I'd be
curious what other people think about it
but if you're looking to write a
traditional Memoir you may may have
problems staying in your lane
potentially or you may not this isn't
everybody but you may find it a little
bit difficult to to structure things and
(06:23):
this is something that has been
identified as an issue at times for some
autistics and autism researcher Matthew
Belmont says and I love this that we
move from chaos to meaning through
narration so in other words that's how
we make sense of our lives and it makes
me wonder if the difficulties some
(06:44):
autistics may have with narration the
difficult difficulties I have with
narrating might have to do with the
difficulty I have in having a coherent
sense of self I was listening to this Y
in life which is a great podcast C and
they were talking about in and I forget
the name of the episode but they were
talking about your narrative your life
(07:07):
narrative and how that impacts your
sense of identity so it's all connected
I think it's all connected and I do
think that writing a memoir like I'm
glad I wrote it even though I'm not
going to publish it at least not in its
present form I think writing a memoir is
good because I think it helps you
reflect on your life I think it helps
you see your life more as a narrative
(07:30):
even even if you don't like I didn't end
up I felt with the kind of narrative
that other people would want to read but
it helps you see your own life as a
narrative which is a really valuable
thing I think so it helps us make sense
of our lives and it helps us to share
our experience it could be validating
for other people it can help other
(07:52):
people feel less alone I'm not against
writing autistic Memoir at all I think
it's a a great exercise and I think more
people should do it so if you feel
called to write a memoir you should
definitely try it and the time you put
into it will not be wasted because even
if like in my case I feel at this point
I probably won't publish it I may change
(08:14):
my mind about that and and try to
rewrite it but even if you don't publish
it it's still a valuable exercise I
think it's still worth doing and a
memoir does not have to be super long so
decide if you want to f fill genre
expectations or if you just want to do
your own thing I kind of feel like I'm
getting to a place in life where I feel
(08:37):
we should just be doing our own things
creatively we shouldn't be worrying
about reviews and critique groups and
whether other people get us and get our
work and our creativity because I'm not
sure that the traditional accepted
expected way is better I'm not sure that
at all but anyhow it's that's a hard
(09:00):
thing to do creatively because if you go
outside what people are looking for
you're you're taking a risk you're
definitely taking a risk so uh
definitely if you want to do it read
other Memoirs think about it decide what
kind of memoir you want to write
possibly check out Julie Brown's book
writers on the Spectrum it's not a cheap
(09:23):
book even in paperback I bought it but
um but it it's something you could
probably get on inner Library
so you might check that out just to be
aware of some of the common pitfalls
that autistic writers go through and if
there's an interest I could do episode
just on that probably but I want to talk
about two different ways you can share
your story because this is kind of what
(09:45):
I'm doing there was a time when the only
way you could share your story was to
write a book that's not the case anymore
we have blogs and podcasts and YouTube
and even social media like there's some
people who use they like Instagram to
share their stories I don't do that
personally but I think if it works for
you to use Instagram or Facebook to
(10:07):
share your story do it go for it
definitely to me I like blogs I like
podcasts I like YouTube and what I've
kind of done and this has sort of worked
for me because writing my Memoir I just
could not keep my special interest out
of it and it ended up being more about
my special interests I think than it was
about autism and I didn't feel that that
(10:29):
was working and I kind of didn't know
how to fix it maybe I'll figure it out
maybe I'll publish it as is but right as
of right now it was like half maybe a
quarter autism Memoir and 34 spiritual
Memoir so it didn't work but what I've
done I have a Blog called M the Mystic
review Mystic review.com and that's
(10:51):
purely about about metaphysical topics I
mean I talk about I call it like
traditions Mysteries and something in
dreams but I talk about dreams I talk
about Carl Young I talk about spiritual
experience I talk about sometimes I talk
about faith um I talk about various
(11:12):
topics that interest me about
metaphysics I've always been fascinated
by the supernatural the Paranormal and I
can talk about all that in the blog I
could talk about anything from
Paranormal investigations to God in that
blog and that's perfect for me and and
that blog actually does really well like
a lot of people read
(11:34):
it and then when I want to talk about
autism I and I try to stay in my Lane I
find the podcast works pretty well for
that because it's short I keep it pretty
short this one's going a little longer
and that's a way to tell tell your story
I mean I told my story on here I have a
episode that I think I'll link to it in
(11:57):
the description but it's about being
misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder and
being involved with the mental health
system for 20 years like that that's a
big story and I was able to kind of tell
it I felt in a podcast episode and it's
a way to share it's a valid way to share
and I like podcasting because for me
(12:18):
it's easy like I like YouTube also I I
do metaphysical YouTube things from time
to time and I do share this podcast on
YouTube but I don't do video because
usually when I do these episodes on
autism I have to edit them because I go
off track and that's what I like about
the podcast I could do that if I go off
track I could take it out when I do a
(12:41):
short YouTube on metaphysics that's not
so much a problem because that's a
special interest and I also have a
substack and in on substack I share my
podcast episodes on autism and I share
some of my metaphysical posts not all of
them but I share a lot of different
content on that and I kind of don't care
(13:02):
I mean that's sort of fragmented and I
don't really care I just do it and and
that's another option I mean there are a
lot of options for blogging but I think
substack is kind of nice because there's
a a growing autism community on substack
and if you decide to do it if you decide
to go on substack look me up I'm Barbara
(13:24):
Graver I called my substack writing
after dark but you could I'll I'll put a
link L to that too so substack is
definitely option and the nice thing
about blogging or even podcasting or
YouTube you can end up with written
content that you can repurpose if you
want for an ebook at a later date so you
don't necessarily even have to look at
(13:46):
it as either or you could do these
things and very easily generate a
transcript and then you can repurpose it
for a book if you feel you want to do
that at some point and and getting it
editor is also an option but like Julie
Brown says in her book which I thought
was a really good point she says that if
we if we heavily edit these stories to
(14:09):
make them more acceptable to
neurotypicals are we kind of negating
the autistic creativity of them and and
I that's something I haven't completely
come to terms with yet but I I feel like
I need to and the other nice thing last
thing I'll say about podcasting that I
think is nice is if you don't really
have anybody to talk to in your everyday
(14:31):
life about autism like I don't I do say
autism therapist and she's good but
that's like once every two weeks and if
you don't really have anyone to talk to
about these things having a podcast or a
YouTube is really nice because you're
actually talking like I'm talking to you
about this and sometimes people comment
back or even email you and you can
(14:53):
actually have a conversation and
monologuing or just sharing your side of
things is kind of an autistic tendency I
think everybody knows that so podcasting
and and YouTubes can work pretty well
because it allows us to do that we don't
have to really I mean we should ideally
worry about people getting bored but not
in the same way when you've coralled
(15:15):
somebody in the kitchen and they really
don't want to hear it so my point is
there are different ways we could do
this and these these are my three things
uh writing a traditional Memoir
definitely an option consider writing
kind of advant guard autistic Memoir
that doesn't adhere to the expectation
you could do podcast I use podbean I
(15:38):
really like podbean I think it's a good
deal it gives you a website and it's
it's a nice a real nice interface I
think or YouTube or even social media
these are all options and it doesn't
have to be one or the other you could
start where you're at with what you're
comfortable with and then you can can
see where it goes you could build and I
(16:00):
think that more of us need to do this
however we do it I think we need to keep
sharing our story because I hate when
people say oh everyone's everyone's
autistic because no that's not true like
2% of people are autistic we are a
minority and I think anyone who is part
of any kind of minority if for no other
reason than statistics you're going to
be under represented in the media you're
(16:23):
going to be underrepresented in books
you're going to be under represented on
TV I mean that's just what happens and I
think it's important for us to be heard
and for us to share our experience I
think it's validating I think it makes
other people feel a little less alone
and I think it has the potential to
educate people which really really needs
(16:45):
to happen that that's a whole other
topic I'm not going to talk about that
not going to talk about that today so
this is my episode on sharing our story
I I don't know if people want more
specific about any of these kind of
platforms cuz I've done them all let me
know and and I'll consider a future
(17:06):
episode on that
and I guess that's it so I don't
actually know what I'm going to do for
the next episode which is unusual I just
realized that I hadn't thought about it
so it's going to be surprise um usually
I like to say what we're doing next time
this time I'm not sure so it'll be a
surprise I will put links to all my
(17:28):
different stuff if you want to look at
it not that it's perfect any of it but
it could give you a little bit of an
idea of what I do and if you want let me
know what you think about the idea of
not adhering to genre expectations let
me know what you think about that I
almost feel like it should be a thing so
(17:50):
so that's it for today if you have any
questions or comments please put them on
whatever platform you use and I will
look for them
and I'll put a bunch of links at the
bottom and I will surprise you next time
if you like this content please please
please feel free to subscribe or follow
or share that's highly appreciated this
(18:12):
is still a pretty new podcast and and I
found that I can really only do it about
once a month because I've got all these
different platforms going but um please
do subscribe or share if you like it it
would be very appreciated so that's it
for this time and this is Barbara Graver
of autistic POV and I want to thank you
(18:35):
very much for listening
[Music]
[Music]
(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 about sharing our story and
(00:30):
I specifically called this episode
sharing our story versus writing our
Memoir because I think it's important to
acknowledge that there are a lot of
different ways we can share our autistic
experience and writing a memoir is only
one of those ways so I love autistic
Memoirs I've read a bunch of them and I
(00:52):
I really really enjoy them and I decided
that I should try to write one too I I
wanted to talk about my experience
growing up as undiagnosed autistic and I
started it I actually wrote it but I had
a lot of trouble with it I had a lot of
trouble with it for different
reasons and this is something that a lot
(01:16):
of autistics struggle with it's kind of
ironic because I am a writer I consider
myself a writer I've written a couple of
uh novels but I really really struggle
with writing novels and there there's a
reason reason for this and writing the
Memoir was easier in a way because it's
chronological you don't have to struggle
(01:38):
with structure to the same degree you do
a novel but there is still a kind of a
genre expectation I think with a
standard Memoir and maybe this is
something that needs to be challenged
but the idea with the with a standard
Memoir is usually that there will be a
theme it's not an autobiography A Memoir
(01:59):
is not on autobiography it's not
someone's story from birth to the point
they write it it's the story of a
specific aspect of their life so with an
Autism Memoir the expectation is going
to be that aspect is autism and I think
that's what made it hard for me because
as an
(02:20):
autistic everything in my life is
related to autism because my autistic
way of looking at the world is is global
there's no way I could step away from
that everything I've done in my life has
been and everything I've seen and
experienced has been through an autistic
(02:41):
lens so what I found when I tried to
write a memoir is that I just couldn't
stay in my lane and that that's
something I read a book and I think I
mentioned it before but it was by uh
literary critic named Julie Brown and
the name of the book was writers on the
Spectrum and in in that book she
analyzed the writing of eight different
(03:02):
very famous writers who are widely
thought to be autistic and she came up
with these problems that all of them had
and they all had these problems and
reading that was really helpful for me
because at the time I was struggling
with writing fiction and I saw a lot of
those issues in my own writing and it it
was helpful for me I mean I've written a
(03:23):
couple novels one is going to be coming
out I think before the end of the year
but they were so hard for me to write
and I I actually think if I try another
when when I try I've already got another
fiction uh story started but I think the
next time I might actually try a short
story cycle because of issues I have
(03:46):
around narration and this is coming and
I'm not I'm not sharing this to
discourage anyone I mean obviously a lot
of people write autism Memoirs they
write them brilliantly I have an episode
called autis IC POV reading Roundup
where I talk about four books that I
really love that I read recently and
three of them are autism Memoirs and I
(04:09):
love them and I think everyone should
read them especially if you think you
might want to write one you should
definitely read a bunch that's the best
thing you can do as a writer to prepare
you to write is to read what other
people do but I think the issues I have
personally with narration and obviously
everybody does every autistic does not
have these problems but the problems I
(04:30):
have are not
uncommon and one of them is fulfilling
genre expectations this was something
Julie Brown actually identified when she
did literary analysis of the work of
these
writers one one way this is a problem is
because of what Bernard rimland who's a
a researcher calls the autistic tend
(04:52):
tendency to view life as an incoherent
series of unconnected events and that
makes structuring anything difficult
even a story you tell even a podcast
even even a to a degree a blog post but
the longer the piece the more difficult
this could be and a memoir is
essentially a a chronological story and
(05:16):
you can tell it chronologically but what
I found is that I still had trouble
staying in the quote autism Lane I kept
veering into spirituality and and that's
another issue because if you have
somebody buying an Autism Memoir they
don't this was my problem they don't
necessarily want to read a book that's
like half or 2third about the author's
(05:37):
spiritual experiences that's not why
they bought it and it's not fair to them
and it's not fair to you because odds
are you're not going to get great
reviews from that but mostly it's not
what it's supposed to be and that was
the problem I ran into and and I had
this debate with fiction do we really as
autistics want to be about fulfilling
(05:59):
tradition neurotypical genre
expectations I'm not sure I think that's
a good conversation to have and I'd be
curious what other people think about it
but if you're looking to write a
traditional Memoir you may may have
problems staying in your lane
potentially or you may not this isn't
everybody but you may find it a little
bit difficult to to structure things and
(06:23):
this is something that has been
identified as an issue at times for some
autistics and autism researcher Matthew
Belmont says and I love this that we
move from chaos to meaning through
narration so in other words that's how
we make sense of our lives and it makes
me wonder if the difficulties some
(06:44):
autistics may have with narration the
difficult difficulties I have with
narrating might have to do with the
difficulty I have in having a coherent
sense of self I was listening to this Y
in life which is a great podcast C and
they were talking about in and I forget
the name of the episode but they were
talking about your narrative your life
(07:07):
narrative and how that impacts your
sense of identity so it's all connected
I think it's all connected and I do
think that writing a memoir like I'm
glad I wrote it even though I'm not
going to publish it at least not in its
present form I think writing a memoir is
good because I think it helps you
reflect on your life I think it helps
you see your life more as a narrative
(07:30):
even even if you don't like I didn't end
up I felt with the kind of narrative
that other people would want to read but
it helps you see your own life as a
narrative which is a really valuable
thing I think so it helps us make sense
of our lives and it helps us to share
our experience it could be validating
for other people it can help other
(07:52):
people feel less alone I'm not against
writing autistic Memoir at all I think
it's a a great exercise and I think more
people should do it so if you feel
called to write a memoir you should
definitely try it and the time you put
into it will not be wasted because even
if like in my case I feel at this point
I probably won't publish it I may change
(08:14):
my mind about that and and try to
rewrite it but even if you don't publish
it it's still a valuable exercise I
think it's still worth doing and a
memoir does not have to be super long so
decide if you want to f fill genre
expectations or if you just want to do
your own thing I kind of feel like I'm
getting to a place in life where I feel
(08:37):
we should just be doing our own things
creatively we shouldn't be worrying
about reviews and critique groups and
whether other people get us and get our
work and our creativity because I'm not
sure that the traditional accepted
expected way is better I'm not sure that
at all but anyhow it's that's a hard
(09:00):
thing to do creatively because if you go
outside what people are looking for
you're you're taking a risk you're
definitely taking a risk so uh
definitely if you want to do it read
other Memoirs think about it decide what
kind of memoir you want to write
possibly check out Julie Brown's book
writers on the Spectrum it's not a cheap
(09:23):
book even in paperback I bought it but
um but it it's something you could
probably get on inner Library
so you might check that out just to be
aware of some of the common pitfalls
that autistic writers go through and if
there's an interest I could do episode
just on that probably but I want to talk
about two different ways you can share
your story because this is kind of what
(09:45):
I'm doing there was a time when the only
way you could share your story was to
write a book that's not the case anymore
we have blogs and podcasts and YouTube
and even social media like there's some
people who use they like Instagram to
share their stories I don't do that
personally but I think if it works for
you to use Instagram or Facebook to
(10:07):
share your story do it go for it
definitely to me I like blogs I like
podcasts I like YouTube and what I've
kind of done and this has sort of worked
for me because writing my Memoir I just
could not keep my special interest out
of it and it ended up being more about
my special interests I think than it was
about autism and I didn't feel that that
(10:29):
was working and I kind of didn't know
how to fix it maybe I'll figure it out
maybe I'll publish it as is but right as
of right now it was like half maybe a
quarter autism Memoir and 34 spiritual
Memoir so it didn't work but what I've
done I have a Blog called M the Mystic
review Mystic review.com and that's
(10:51):
purely about about metaphysical topics I
mean I talk about I call it like
traditions Mysteries and something in
dreams but I talk about dreams I talk
about Carl Young I talk about spiritual
experience I talk about sometimes I talk
about faith um I talk about various
(11:12):
topics that interest me about
metaphysics I've always been fascinated
by the supernatural the Paranormal and I
can talk about all that in the blog I
could talk about anything from
Paranormal investigations to God in that
blog and that's perfect for me and and
that blog actually does really well like
a lot of people read
(11:34):
it and then when I want to talk about
autism I and I try to stay in my Lane I
find the podcast works pretty well for
that because it's short I keep it pretty
short this one's going a little longer
and that's a way to tell tell your story
I mean I told my story on here I have a
episode that I think I'll link to it in
(11:57):
the description but it's about being
misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder and
being involved with the mental health
system for 20 years like that that's a
big story and I was able to kind of tell
it I felt in a podcast episode and it's
a way to share it's a valid way to share
and I like podcasting because for me
(12:18):
it's easy like I like YouTube also I I
do metaphysical YouTube things from time
to time and I do share this podcast on
YouTube but I don't do video because
usually when I do these episodes on
autism I have to edit them because I go
off track and that's what I like about
the podcast I could do that if I go off
track I could take it out when I do a
(12:41):
short YouTube on metaphysics that's not
so much a problem because that's a
special interest and I also have a
substack and in on substack I share my
podcast episodes on autism and I share
some of my metaphysical posts not all of
them but I share a lot of different
content on that and I kind of don't care
(13:02):
I mean that's sort of fragmented and I
don't really care I just do it and and
that's another option I mean there are a
lot of options for blogging but I think
substack is kind of nice because there's
a a growing autism community on substack
and if you decide to do it if you decide
to go on substack look me up I'm Barbara
(13:24):
Graver I called my substack writing
after dark but you could I'll I'll put a
link L to that too so substack is
definitely option and the nice thing
about blogging or even podcasting or
YouTube you can end up with written
content that you can repurpose if you
want for an ebook at a later date so you
don't necessarily even have to look at
(13:46):
it as either or you could do these
things and very easily generate a
transcript and then you can repurpose it
for a book if you feel you want to do
that at some point and and getting it
editor is also an option but like Julie
Brown says in her book which I thought
was a really good point she says that if
we if we heavily edit these stories to
(14:09):
make them more acceptable to
neurotypicals are we kind of negating
the autistic creativity of them and and
I that's something I haven't completely
come to terms with yet but I I feel like
I need to and the other nice thing last
thing I'll say about podcasting that I
think is nice is if you don't really
have anybody to talk to in your everyday
(14:31):
life about autism like I don't I do say
autism therapist and she's good but
that's like once every two weeks and if
you don't really have anyone to talk to
about these things having a podcast or a
YouTube is really nice because you're
actually talking like I'm talking to you
about this and sometimes people comment
back or even email you and you can
(14:53):
actually have a conversation and
monologuing or just sharing your side of
things is kind of an autistic tendency I
think everybody knows that so podcasting
and and YouTubes can work pretty well
because it allows us to do that we don't
have to really I mean we should ideally
worry about people getting bored but not
in the same way when you've coralled
(15:15):
somebody in the kitchen and they really
don't want to hear it so my point is
there are different ways we could do
this and these these are my three things
uh writing a traditional Memoir
definitely an option consider writing
kind of advant guard autistic Memoir
that doesn't adhere to the expectation
you could do podcast I use podbean I
(15:38):
really like podbean I think it's a good
deal it gives you a website and it's
it's a nice a real nice interface I
think or YouTube or even social media
these are all options and it doesn't
have to be one or the other you could
start where you're at with what you're
comfortable with and then you can can
see where it goes you could build and I
(16:00):
think that more of us need to do this
however we do it I think we need to keep
sharing our story because I hate when
people say oh everyone's everyone's
autistic because no that's not true like
2% of people are autistic we are a
minority and I think anyone who is part
of any kind of minority if for no other
reason than statistics you're going to
be under represented in the media you're
(16:23):
going to be underrepresented in books
you're going to be under represented on
TV I mean that's just what happens and I
think it's important for us to be heard
and for us to share our experience I
think it's validating I think it makes
other people feel a little less alone
and I think it has the potential to
educate people which really really needs
(16:45):
to happen that that's a whole other
topic I'm not going to talk about that
not going to talk about that today so
this is my episode on sharing our story
I I don't know if people want more
specific about any of these kind of
platforms cuz I've done them all let me
know and and I'll consider a future
(17:06):
episode on that
and I guess that's it so I don't
actually know what I'm going to do for
the next episode which is unusual I just
realized that I hadn't thought about it
so it's going to be surprise um usually
I like to say what we're doing next time
this time I'm not sure so it'll be a
surprise I will put links to all my
(17:28):
different stuff if you want to look at
it not that it's perfect any of it but
it could give you a little bit of an
idea of what I do and if you want let me
know what you think about the idea of
not adhering to genre expectations let
me know what you think about that I
almost feel like it should be a thing so
(17:50):
so that's it for today if you have any
questions or comments please put them on
whatever platform you use and I will
look for them
and I'll put a bunch of links at the
bottom and I will surprise you next time
if you like this content please please
please feel free to subscribe or follow
or share that's highly appreciated this
(18:12):
is still a pretty new podcast and and I
found that I can really only do it about
once a month because I've got all these
different platforms going but um please
do subscribe or share if you like it it
would be very appreciated so that's it
for this time and this is Barbara Graver
of autistic POV and I want to thank you
(18:35):
very much for listening
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