Written Expression and autism?

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Does anyone excel in written expression? Like, do you find it's easier to express yourself through writing rather than verbally or emotionally? I know it's somewhat common for us autistics, especially when most of us lack normal expressive abilities. I was just wondering if there were others who could use writing as an expressive outlet as well?

I do. I can speak very will also but if I am stressed, my speech deteriorates. But I can always write well no matter what.

This.... exactly!! !

I cn speak well, but I struggle with explaining more pressing matters. Such as what I'm feeling or what I'm going through. What I do is write everything down on my iPad via Evernote, then I can have my iPad read exactly what I wrote. It comes in handy when I want to explain things to my doctor or my psychiatrist. They think it's absolutely amazing that I'm able to do it.

I write professionally on one of my two special interests. My preferred mode of expression consists of visual diagrams and visual formal models.

When expressing myself verbally, my favourite tool is a white board or electronic equivalent, as this allows me to complement what I am saying with visual information and it also focuses the attention of everyone on the visual picture rather than on non verbal communication and eye contact.

Has anyone else made similar experiences?

Visual formal models are part of my special interest, which is the representation of any kind of knowledge in a form that humans can easily understand and in a form that is also suitable for processing by software tools.

What is worthwhile noting is that visual representations are extremely useful for ensuring a shared understanding and uncovering potential misunderstandings between domain experts in all kinds of scientific and engineering disciplines.

Ironically it seems to take an autistic perspective to alert people to the limitations of the linear format of written and verbal human languages. For sure, written human language is much better than spoken human language, especially if you take time to think before you write, but ultimately all linear formats run into limitations when it comes to expressing non-trivial knowledge.

Typical people rely on non-verbal cues to communicate context and intent, but non-verbal cues are much a much less effective tool for disambiguation than visual diagrams. Specifically:

- Non-verbal communication works well for typical people in the domain of expressing emotions
- Non-verbal communication is unsuitable for disambiguating scientific or technical knowledge

I am not much good at expressing emotions. Whilst I can sense emotional states and reactions in others, I have a hard time interpreting them or verbalising the right kind of questions to obtain clarification.

The Internet, emails, and social media has been life savers for me. I'm a total social butterfly online and I have taken charge and created several online communities with 1000+ members. I'm have hundreds of people who are thankful for me having helped them with their challenges by creating these communites. There are numerous of fun gatherings every year among the members, but I never shown up to any of them. I just don't them to see this awkward and shy guy that I am in real life. There is one of those gatherings next month and I thought about finally going, but I ended up having a full-blown anxiety attack trying to book the airplane tickets and hotel room.

Last edited by Swiper on 26 Sep 2014, 8:02 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Err, yes. I have disjointed speech and I stutter.

People often think I'm not quite the full set of sandwiches. They're usually surprised when they read something I've written - or they just don't believe I wrote it - like a certain past English teacher of mine - "Raleigh, you don't speak like this! Where did you get this from?"

I also use sign language.

I am much more talkative "on paper" than in real life.

I can communicate well enough in real life to get by, but I prefer writing. I can also write emails to people easier than talking on the phone or even in person, depending on the person. I find it much easier to express deep emotion in writing, too. In real life, I tend to clam up about it.

I like talking privately with people, and real life does not usually afford that opportunity. Email does. I love email and social networks.

I especially like Wrong Planet because we talk about real things here.

I don't enjoy speaking or writing.
Spooling some piece of writing out of my brain is like really bad constipation for which metamucil, dulcolax, and fibercon have no effect, and the only laxative has to be synthesized internally.
The only form of verbal I enjoy is computer programming.
Why are computer languages so superior to hoooman languages?

Yes, writing is much easier.
Spoken communication also has to be acted out, and I'm not good at that.

I have done a lot of writing in my career. I have written software specifications (that, for example, describe the functional specifications for a computer software system). I have also written meeting minutes (that describes what was discussed during a meeting) and project updates (that discuss the status of a project).

Generally, I wouldn?t say that I excel in written expression. As the feedback I have received (from others) is that my written communication is way too detailed.

I do poorly in both.

I bet if you were an active part in an environment of deception, then you would learn to appreciate vague communications.

I am not good at vague communications. So naturally, I try to avoid those situations.

As a note, in my experience, the people who advance to the top of the organizational pyramid, are those that excel at vague communication.

Like Nathaniel Hawthorne, you are grossly verbose. A lot of people like that kind of writing, but less people in the modern world.

Same here. Plus I just like writing. I write lovely poetry and enjoy writing stories. I've never finished a novel yet, but that's not why I write.