Neurodiversity & Literary/Science Fiction

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Hello Everyone.

I've lurked on this forum for some time. Happy that I finally have something worthwhile to say

I'm a Neuroscience PhD Student. Interested in dreams, vision, hallucination & Neurodiversity in general. It's going ok.

The reason I write here, is because I have gone and done something rather unusual; being that I got a little distracted from my research and went and wrote a Sci-Fi novel.

It was supposed to be something cheap and fun. Cyberpunk pulp—something humorous and technical all-round gratifying; indulgent but clever. But it ended up going a lot further than that. It became very very descriptive, and many of the themes of my childhood started to creep through, more and more as I sat down to type.

Of course, the not-so big secret here is that I am myself Neurodiverse. I have done my best, for most of my life, to cope with it—understand it, hide it & in any way compensate. I suppose I hadn't realised the extent of this struggle, until I'd sat down and decided to write. And out it all came.

The end result, is something that I hope is half-way publishable. I'm in that process now.

Currently I am looking for interested parties, who might want to read or pre-review the text. I am especially interested in feedback about themes I've mentioned—both in terms of how well they were described, how well they translate to a fictional universe, and probably more than anything—how relatable they are to others on the spectrum.

If anyone is interested in a copy, please feel free to PM me. I'll arrange something.

Nice to finally meet you all, and say hello

J

Hi there!

Good luck with the novel

I read/listen to a lot of sci-fi especially hard sci-fi. I've only been interested in space travel stuff and fiction about virtual and augmented reality. I'm afraid my interest in sci-fi is too narrow to enjoy something else though. I'm also afraid of taking on some kind of responsibility or feel like I have to contribute something. So I'm probably not the right person to pre-review and critique your work.

Hiya Enceladus...

If it makes any difference, "virtual reality" is practically the main theme of the book

I get what you are saying though, especially about pressure/sense of obligation. Just about every person I've gotten to review it has reported a similar trepidation. I wonder if its innate to the process?

Well, they have all loved it once they started. If you change your mind let me know.

J

Hi. If you can handle brutal responses to your craft, check out this site. These guys are brutally honest. Yes, it will hurt, but that's how you'll grow as an author.

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/forum.p ... 9dcdeb7ad7

Wow... thanks for the link redrobin!
I'm checking it out now.

This is going to be a very long process. Finding/establishing core readership is proving to be the hardest stage so far.

For all I know, the "neurodiversity" angle will be totally overlooked, even by the neurodiverese themselves.
On the other hand, maybe that will be what makes it?

I'm on that discovery process now. Hence this forum post

Wish me luck.