Started writing a novel -- Self-therapy?

[hexaemeron]

So, I've had a lot of ideas and false starts over the years, but with all the things I've been through and going through right now, I think the time is finally right to write a novel based on my life to date.

 

I think the hardest part for me will be to find my own voice, because I read so much and I have such profound respect for the authors I love. I also worry that my voice won't make sense to anyone because of my asperger's, but that's one of the main reasons I want to write this novel in the first place.

 

Nice catch-22 there, huh?

 

I don't know that there's a point to this, but I just sort of wanted to put that out there.

[Crazyaboutdogs]

When I was going through years and years of hell with my stalled career and all my experiences related to job hunting and crappy jobs, I wrote a book about my experiences and added some information I obtained from newspaper articles with respect to the bad economy (this was in the 90's). I never could get it published (and in retrospect it certainly needed finesse) but the experience was therapeutic. I bound the book in plastic binding and keep it as a reminder of what I went through and how far I have come.

[hexaemeron]

well...I'd read it. You seem interesting. You just have to find your style. It's OK to copy someone else - imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

 

I suggest Augusten Burroughs. Very funny, somewhat cynical, odd upbringing (to say the least), has a brother with aspbergers and there are some other things that you share with him as well.

 

link removed

 

Good luck!

 

ps; write every day, without fail, and you will become great!

 

Funny. I read Running with Scissors a long time ago and I adore it. Also, I just finished his older brother's (his older brother is an aspie too) book called Look Me in the Eye. It was a revelation to me. I could read that book over and over and point out where I totally see myself.

 

If I had to guess, my book will fall somewhere between the warm-and-hopeful-despite-the-situation tone of Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex*, the complex construction of a James Joyce/Haruki Murakami and the aspie-to-neurotypical translation of Look Me in the Eye / Born on a Blue Day.

 

I really want it to be true to who I am, what I know I can do and really be great.

[hexaemeron]

When I was going through years and years of hell with my stalled career and all my experiences related to job hunting and crappy jobs, I wrote a book about my experiences and added some information I obtained from newspaper articles with respect to the bad economy (this was in the 90's). I never could get it published (and in retrospect it certainly needed finesse) but the experience was therapeutic. I bound the book in plastic binding and keep it as a reminder of what I went through and how far I have come.

 

You know, I think when I get to the point of it being completed, I think that'll be the important thing for me. That I committed to doing it, and then it would be done.

[rosephase]

I write plays and some day hope to write a novel. I have dealt with a lot of demons writing I don't even write about myself or my life but of course it is always in there. There is no real way to avoid it. Good luck!

[Tarkan]

Man sometimes I feel the like you ... but then it's about drawing and painting. I really feel bad when I do something that's already been done. Even if people have positive feedback about it, I don't feel well because it feels like it's not 100% me.

 

On another note, almost everyone has a source of inspiration. There is no artist or writer that hasn't admired someone else, or that wanted to be like his idols. We always use something existing, in order to make new things. The only thing we do is adding some modifications.

 

Maybe you should just write without reall thinking. Go outside, listen to some music and write down what comes into you, even if it doesn't make sense. Let raw feeling and emotion take control over your pen and see what comes out.

 

The gf of my dad has written very profound, complicated and beautyfull poems that way.