The Autistic Me

Earning the MFA in Film and Digital Technology proved a challenge, in many ways. We had medical emergencies (including surgeries for both my wife and me), family emergencies, and the general financial stress of a graduate degree. There were long nights and weekends spent working on projects and papers, trying to add to my marketability so I might earn some money to contribute to the household. I now possess the MA, MFA, and PhD pieces of paper. My areas of specialization are the economics of media and portrayals of economic issues in the media. I'm interested in how we discuss economics and find it fascinating that an expensive industry (media) that embodies capitalism finds itself conflicted. More narrowly, I'm fascinated by the visual aspects of digital media and how those are used to engage in persuasion. There isn't a huge demand for the rhetoric of economics, especially within visual rhetoric. It's a small field, dominated by a few names. You need an apprecia...

The headline is in jest, but "The Autistic Me" is closing in on 1000 followers on Facebook and I know the Twitter account has some traffic. I've updated the blog design, in another attempt to increase traffic. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/autisticme/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/autisticme Blogging and other forms of writing are what I do currently. The more followers, the more likely we gain some visibility out there. It's not easy to be seen or heard through the clutter and noise of the Internet. Blogs are trailing other social networks. That's why I need to consider a podcast or video channel. Traffic is survival for a blogger. Spread the word. Suggest blog topics. Maybe ideas for the revised books I'm hoping to (FINALLY) finish this summer. This blog is one of the oldest active autism blogs. I'd like to keep it going and still dream of it thriving. Thank you! Related articles Blogging Cycles No NeuroTribes, Not Much E...

Networking is part of developing a career. This is true of any career, including that of writer / scholar. If you want someone to publish or produce your works, you have to be social. You have to be known. Yes, there are exceptions to this rule, artists able to succeed without social skills, but generally you cannot escape the demand to network. Playwrights and screenwriters are invited to social "mixers" with potential producers, directors, and the like. We are expected to pitch our ideas and somehow collaborate well despite many of us preferring solitary creativity. I've skipped most local events for the last two years. I simply cannot bear to be in social settings, much less tolerate the drive towards the city. The cost of my lack of interaction with others: no productions. No readings. Nothing. If you aren't "out there" with something in hand, as well as attending the shows of other writers, you aren't going to be produced. Again, there are ...

I have been away from blogging to deal with some family matters, and I honestly don't have much to add to the "autism community" at this time. One of the questions that I've received a few times during the month, "Will you review NeuroTribes ?" Although I consider Steve Silberman's work important, it just isn't something of interest to me right now. Maybe it would have been a few years ago, and maybe it will be in the future, but at this time my life is busy without giving too much thought to autism and its various feuding communities. My days are spend writing, editing, and otherwise working like most freelance writers. My family life is the same as most other 40-something married adults. In other words, I can't really think of any way in which my autistic traits are having much affect on my daily life at this moment. This blog was meant to explore how autistic traits, regardless or their origins, present challenges (or offer benefit...

In response to several queries from friends, a bit more elaboration on my plans. I applied for a number of teaching posts and have now received the standard letters proclaiming an "overwhelming number of highly qualified candidates" for each opening. The decision to not teach part-time as an adjunct, at least for now, was best for me. I'm too tired to drive two hours (or more) to teach one class in the fall for 80 minutes. Also, teaching part-time where I wasn't renewed full-time wasn't going to be comfortable. (The hiring process still angers me.) The pay was fair, but the situation would not have been healthy for me. If I teach again, it will be somewhere more welcoming. My passion remains creative writing, and the rhetoric of stage and screen — followed closely by the visual rhetoric of page design (including digital "pages"). Give me scripts, sets, and camera angles. I'll ponder what makes a great play vs. a great movie, and how both are...

Years ago, when I entered graduate school, I imagined helping students and teachers connect via technology. I wanted to study "writing across the curriculum" and online writing labs. These interests led me to a doctorate… but by the time I completed the degree I recognized that my career was already off my planned course. When I decided that writing about autism and education would be beneficial to someone, beyond myself, part of that decision was based on the (yes, we should admit this) trendiness of disability studies and all things diversity-based. I could do some good, and the topic would be desired by other academic scholars. It was a win-win. Instead, I found myself drifting back and forth between what I love (creative writing and the rhetoric of fiction) and what I believed I had to do to secure a teaching job (something autism-related). Not that I don't care about autism, but it isn't nearly the interest for me that it is for some other autistic scholars...

The LAB Project , a new Pittsburgh, PA, theatrical company, is producing my musical play The Gospel Singer  this August. The producer hopes to raise an additional $4000 for community outreach and education efforts. The play is about a gay gospel singer and his partner, during the 1980s. It's based loosely on real people. The play was awarded a development slot by Bricolage Production Company last year, as part their annual "In The Raw" festival. Some people ask if a play about a gay couple arguing about faith and community is still relevant in 2014. Yes, it is. Laws are changing, and society is changing, but understanding the struggles are incomplete — especially within religious communities — is a valuable lesson. Please consider supporting The LAB Project.

I am considering two possible full-time posts at the university where I teach part-time. I love where I teach and shifting to full-time would enable me to better support the local performing arts. The university supports my artistic endeavors, and that's refreshing. Accepting a post does not require scholarship if I wish to maintain "teaching track" status in the future, but an administrator told it would be "icing on the cake" and has led to teaching-track faculty being awarded research support and rank promotion (associate, full, etc.). A few colleagues have suggested I compose a research agenda statement and pursue publishing on my dissertation topic. My doctoral research topic was autistic students and online education, though I also conducted two grant-supported surveys on the general experiences of autistics in college writing courses. To revise and publish the research would be a serious undertaking, but I believe one that would serve the community and th...

Writing for stage requires some understanding of the motivations and emotions of the characters that appear before an audience. Sometimes you also have to appreciate unseen characters that either shaped or continue to shape events and other characters. Writing, therefore, is exercise in empathy and more. If you cannot imagine how others feel, you cannot write effective dialogue. You must think like another person, and that person might be "good" or "bad" in ways the writer is not. My writing process includes research, interviews, and working with a dramaturg. I recognize that I miss things, especially when what people say isn't what they mean. By working with collaborators, I learn more about people and writer better stories. I was asked if my autistic traits make me a better, or worse, writer. I have no idea. What makes me a small success is that I listen to people and try to incorporate the best suggestions I receive into my works. I listen to the act...

It is possible that all two or three of my regular followers have noticed the relative inactivity of this blog. Though I have tried to consider if there's anything of value to share, the simple fact is that nothing is compelling me to write about autism, autistic culture, autism causes, or anything of the sort at the moment. In a week or two, I'll have a real post about autism activism and a new role I am assuming, but I want to wait until things are a bit more formalized. As readers know, I'm not as outspoken or passionate about some issues as other autism activists, preferring to work quietly on issues of training and support for autistics. Our lives here have been busy, and when I am busy I do let the blogging slip. This is especially true when life is busy in a good way and I don't have a need to complain, gripe, or criticize the world around me. Quite simply, life is busy in a good way. Okay, good in all ways except for a cold I also gave to my wife. The...

Pencils (Photo credit: snowblink ) Writing well does give one a louder, more effective public voice than other individuals. We know Temple Grandin , Dawn Prince Hughes , Stephen Shore , Lars Perner and others because they are autistics with books. Like most writers, these men and women work with editors, publicists, agents, and others to refine their works and reach out to the public. These are not normal autistic experiences, but they aren't normal experiences for anyone. It isn't that autistics who write memoirs are rare, there are dozens of autistic memoirs and essays in print and in digital forms. But, these are not the voices of all autistics or even most autistics. That's really no different from any other group with a few noted writers or public figures. Writers are unusual, period. Feminist writers don't represent all women. Black writers don't represent all African-Americans or other people of color. Gay writers don't represent the entire LGBT...

People are curious about relationships and autism; the questions asked most often when I appear before groups are about relationships. I've attempted to answer a few questions on this blog, but I never feel like I'm offering many insights. In a world in which most marriages fail and relationships seem to be transitory, I don't believe we can "blame" autistic traits for relationship issues. What we can do is recognize how autism and other forms of atypical neurology/personality do affect us and our relationships. Still, I caution readers that what I am offering is more general than "autism" and probably applies to every relationship at some time. Caveats stated, I believe the greatest challenge in my relationship with my wife is the sense that I'm unworthy of her friendship, loyalty, and companionship. The Susan is calmer, quieter, more focused, a faster reader, a better student, a much better employee… and on and on when compared to me. She has ...

There is one label I have embraced since the second grade: Writer. It is the one word I know describes me now and always has described me. I currently write plays and poetry, both of which I think are best heard, not read, by others. I write. Not a few pages here and there, but often thousands of words in a week. There have been times when I have written complete manuscripts, over 100 pages, in two weeks. I find that complete stories often come to mind, and I "see" these like films playing in my mind. The biggest challenge is writing to capture the story before my mind has moved ahead to the next project. — C. S. Wyatt, personal website When people ask why I don't "do more" for autism advocacy, or disability issues in general, I respond that I am first, second, and third, a writer. I write first to entertain, then to persuade. Then, I'm a teacher and a half dozen other things. But, I am a writer first. While I wish I could be everything, and curiosity ...

As I've been blogging about writing and autism, I have encountered a few books on the same topic. To be blunt, these don't strike me as particularly insightful. In fact, some of the articles and books on autistic students and writing only further the rote memorization of patterns (the dreaded "Five Paragraph Essay") that are used to assess writing for various standardized tests. I'll be the first to suggest that I use patterns and guidelines when I write. But, when the emphasis is on the patterns instead of the content, the wrong lesson is being taught to students. I appreciate that students should understand the genre conventions; grades and test scores matter. Yet, we are letting the conventions become checklists for grades, instead of rewarding creativity and insights. Yes, autistic students have insights and are creative. All students should be striving for creativity and new insights. The problem with inflexible grading rubrics is that students start to...

I want to thank several autistic self-advocates for asking me to address the topic of collaboration and "peer work" more often and more forcefully. To challenge dominant pedagogies is no small risk in academia. I'm not rejecting group work, because we do need to foster interpersonal skills, but I am arguing the social skills must never dominate how we grade another academic discipline. If you teach science, grade science. If you teach writing, grade writing. Don't make "plays well with others" the major source of a grade. My students do group projects and work in teams (pairs). But, I do not make that collaborative effort part of the grade. I value teaching students to work well with others, yes, but grading social skills? I am the least qualified person imaginable to evaluate social skills. I facilitate collaboration, but I am not going to try to grade it on a "A-F" or point scale. Outside of teaching, I am a freelance writer and editor. I a...

As I continue this irregularly appearing series on writing and autism, I hope that some readers form connections from some points to others — and reach conclusions about how we might better understand autism's affect on academic writing. This post is a good point to consider a challenge many autistics face when writing: Failing to explain conclusions, assuming readers share the author's experiences and views A fair amount of autism scholarship focuses on issues of awareness of "self" and "other" when analyzing situations. Many of the instruments screening for autism include measures of how well, and how consistently, an autistic person can evaluate the emotions, needs, and desires of others. But, academic writing asks us to connect to the experiences of others — an impossibility. Some writing instructors will say, "Don't assume your readers know anything." Of course, that's not really good advice. You have to assume audiences have som...

"You're funny when you give a talk, but your blog isn't funny. I really wanted to like it." You don't like the blog? "Don't you read funny blogs? They deal with serious topics, but still make me laugh. You're too serious, darn it." My wife and I do read the funny blogs. We were discussing two of the better blogs tonight: http://thebloggess.com http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com When someone expects The Autistic Me to be funny after hearing me speak or reading some of the other things I have written, I feel like I've let down that visitor. You just saw this (apparently) funny guy on stage and he was all witty (with a dose of sarcasm) so you rushed home to read… this blog. No wonder you're disappointed. This blog isn't like the public appearance. Maybe, just maybe, someone else writes the blog. Maybe you got the address wrong. This can't be that guy with the tolerant wife! Sorry, but this is me. Yeah, I get it. ...

I have met, in physical and virtual spaces, many autistic creative writers. A good number enjoy fan fiction, some are poets, a few prefer stage and screen, and others write non-fiction — creatively conveying knowledge and experiences. The sheer number of blogs and forums dedicated to autism indicate the community outputs a significant number of words daily. Writing is always a creative act. There are non-verbal writers, and there are loquacious individuals like me. Autistic traits affect communication, presenting some challenges, but autistic writers find ways to adapt. I love writing on paper, but that can be painful. When I cannot write, I type. When I can't type well, I dictate. When I can't dictate, I type… slowly. I consider myself a good writer — not great, but good. That's not false modesty, since I have earned a few acknowledgments for my works. However, I also know my works are far from timeless masterpieces. There are many writers I admire, men and women with...

This will be one of the shorter posts in my writing and autism series. Students with autism spectrum disorders can analyze situations and audiences, but they are more prone to mistaken assumptions about their audiences. The challenge for students with ASDs might be summarized as: Assuming audience familiarity with information, generally assuming too much prior familiarity with the topic addressed I tend to forget that not everyone shares my interests. This is not uncommon among people with autistic traits. I cannot comprehend why other people aren't fascinated by computers, history, music, economics, theater, typography, and a dozen other topics. If there's something to be learned, why would anyone not want to learn it? When I write about various topics, I forget that not everyone reads and researches compulsively. My wife, who edits most of what I write, often identifies the "leaps" I take and reminds me to fill in the gaps. That's not always easy, si...

One of the challenges for autistic writers is the artificial nature of "academic perspective" in college writing. Instead of the concrete "me" and "you" of other genres, academic writing uses the distant, artificial, and abstract, "one" — or nothing at all. Academic writing avoids the first- and second-person point of view vigorously. Emphasizing the personal instead of the general, leading to a "first-person" perspective when inappropriate to the genre Readers of this series of essays will recognize that abstractions pose a problem for many, if not most, students with autism spectrum disorders. Since a diagnostic criteria for ASDs is concrete thinking, writing teachers need to resist the impulse to "fix" the autistic perspective. Instead, I argue that it is academia with the problem, not the students. Writing and literature classes discuss the "constructed author" (or some variation of that phrase). The noti...