I'm Writing a Book on Aspergers

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First post. Very nervous.
I'm going to write a book on helping neurotypicals understand what its like to have aspergers and I would like to know what others think i should include or discuss in it. Thank you.

well..the social problems, sensorial difficulties, etc, but if you're going to do that i'd say include the feminine side of aspergers, you'd be beating research if you publish it before they do

I wish you could meet my therapist, in 30 minutes she explained the whole entire aspie experience to my wife. I spoke with my wife when she came out and she completely understands me now!

Females with aspergers thats a great idea. I'll have a chapter on that. Thank you.

I don't know if there is any way to search for recurring debates / arguments on these forums, but some of them would be good to cover. The ones that come to my mind immediately are:

1) I have X symptom - do I have Asperger's?
2) How to pronounce it!
3) Should I get diagnosed?
4) Are people with Asperger's (rude / a**holes / dangerous / ...)

The whole Cassandra thing is poison, but the issues of living with someone with Asperger's are interesting, and not covered well.

Every neurotypicals is a psychologist in him/herself, I am serious. They just understand us like that. There is no need to write that book . Instead you should write book for aspies to learn language local skills and how to empathize i.e. mind reading.

I think this is an exellent idea. For me, I cannot express accurately just how driven I am by special intense interests. They can occupy almost all of my thinking time. But I also make myself perform my duties of life...but I still am usually thinking about them.

When I am engrossed in interests, I don't want to talk to others. I want others to leave me alone. But yet, I desire to be with my family---it's just that sensory issues can "rudely" interrupt my thoughts in "my world" of interests.

Bright lights, many kinds of noises, touches from others, and certain smells can really interfere with my thought processes. Even if I am relaxing and a certain kind of TV commercial comes on where there is some repetitive sound or overly repeating a 1-800 phone number, I often yell out "Shut up!! !" to the TV. If I am in the kitchen and someone is banging pots and pans around loudly, I express myself vocally in the agony of the noise.

There are many times when someone tries to talk to me, and I just don't know what to say. That is really awkward. I try to avoid these things.

Eye contact can be a challenge. Often, I cannot help but look away and dodge the eye contact. I cannot help it sometimes---my physical being just moves my eyes away. Sometimes when certain people look me in the eye, it is almost painful.

There are other things, but this is some of them.

I want to add that I am very happy with having Asperger's. I enjoy the interests and talents it has given to me. I became obsessed with electronic organs because of the way they looked. I had to have one as a child. After my parents got me one, I played and played and played experimenting with the controls. Today, I am a professional musician because of the obsessive attraction I had for organs as a result of Asperger's.

I am satisfied with who I am. I do not hold my Asperger's as a secret. If people like me...fine, and if they don't...well, that's ok too. But I seem liked---just quite eccentric.

I do not wish to adapt myself to the NT world anymore than I believe and NT would want to adapt themselves to the autistic world. If NTs have their language, that is fine. I will not learn their language. And I do not expect NTs to learn our autistic language. Besides, how can you change a "difference"?

But...I think it is necessary for NTs to understand more about autism and how we think and work and play. They should understand that when I stim it is because it is a natural part of my being, just like breathing or the blinking my eyes. It makes me feel relaxed. If I don't stim, I feel like pressure is building up in a bottle---and it has to release---so I stim.

Good luck on your book. I am also writing a book. Mine is an autobiography based mainly on my childhood with Asperger's. I am taking a somewhat humorous approach with it---though nothing disrespectful.

How about a chapter on how 'Aspergers' is really just a cloak for people who have a hard time using the word 'Autism'? It's a single spectrum disorder not two separate entities.

Last edited by Geist on 21 Oct 2010, 10:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

In my own experience, very few of them care to even know ... but welcome to WP!

Good luck with your book and I like your username... it's cool!

How about a section about nostalgia. What I'm talking about is Aspies who are Mods, hippies, punk rockers or Goths. How some of us like an earlier time and we're set in our ways, living in a time warp. Almost like being too stubborn to change with the times, or holding on to a sameness. Discuss how some aspies get attatched to an earlier time and it colours their personalities as well. You can use me as an example if you like.

Man, everyone's writing a book on Asperger's these days!

So much for me writing one. Too much competition in that genre.

Wow, goths are old fashioned now? I wonder what the current subcultures are.

This is totally false. There are so many misunderstandings. I have to say I wouldn't be surprised to find that Aspies are better at understanding NTs than NTs are at understanding Aspies.

If you have not written for the public in the past, you might want to start by publishing in news letters, websites, and possibly special interest magazines.

Well, good luck

Writing a book is much harder then you would think. Getting enough pages out to make a book isn't the hard part really. The hard part is making the entire book coherent, useful, understandable, and concise. Babbling on for 200 pages is something you can easily do in a week. Making a 200 page book that is useful and well written can take several months.

As others have suggested, if you have no prior writing experience, you may want to start with writing shorter essays about specific issues. Once you are comfortable with getting your message across in an understandable and usable fashion, you can then start combining all the articles together, and creating your book.