sfwrtr

sfwrtr, 7 months ago

@Damaskox I just finished 45 minutes revising and reading aloud a chapter and sending it to a beta reader. Amount? At least 300k words. I probably do half my composition on other devices, if not more.

sfwrtr, 7 months ago

@Damaskox

"So a lot of all your writing happens on - wait. Is that a treadmill?"

Shhh! Don't tell anyone, but /I'm really a hamster./ That's my hamster wheel. It allows me to get my writing tasks done while getting my aerobic exercise during a busy day (most of them). ~2.8 mph. Remember, I also read aloud to proof my stories...

#writing #writer #author #writingcommunity #writersofmastodon

sfwrtr, 7 months ago

@Susan60 @actuallyautistic

I'm retiring next month at 65. I hope. I plan to concentrate on my writing instead of what other people think I should do.. I'm thinking of learning Japanese, again. I'm going to try to read all those books I didn't have time to read between all the writing and the day job. (I am a little scared because it feels like going off script and everyone will notice.)

sfwrtr, 7 months ago

@petrichor @itsmeholland @samiam @actuallyautistic

"a major factor for late-discovered autistics is that we often have 30-40 years of forcing ourselves to fit into the shape society expects, so it can be hard to tell whether this is our natural shape or not."

For me, that's exactly true. Sorry to barge into the conversation, but I've just finished posting about a character in my stories, who, like myself, has made themself an expert fitting in but who realizes it's a mask, and who wonders who they really are. I thought I'd just validate your thought that showed up immediately in my timeline after my post... before I move on.

So, thank you for reminding me I'm writing about something real, even if it is fiction.

sfwrtr, 7 months ago

@Susan60 @brainpilgrim @petrichor @itsmeholland @samiam @actuallyautistic

" I learned to mask in my teens to fit in... [a]nd it kind of didn’t stop from there on."

I agree. We create our masks.

Because this was long ago, and my mother was a professional midwestern bondsman and always busy, I learned to mask by 7 or 8—or my young self was convinced I would die a painful death by belt strap. If I wanted to be with her, and I did because she really did protect me and keep me safe, I couldn't be the weird kid the teachers called her in to school for.

I had to master my dyslexia because she was an avid reader. I had to be seen around adults but not heard. I learned to observe, to figure out what to do to be invisible, and I did it. No need to interact if I did it right, just be there. Doing so meant I wasn't expected to be anything beyond quiet, to read my book, to secretly study the strange creatures around me.

Thus, I ended up shy, and would have to develop other masks later to interact with teachers and customers, who I could trust because they would act professionally and predictably, and I got implicit permission to do so. The opposite sex proved more difficult, but you develop the tools if you want them, I guess.

Sometimes it is all very exhausting, and the answer to others is No. Flat out, No! Still, I feel this mishmash is genuinely me. Aspects, right? A constellation. I made this, after all. It lets me write, and I like that me.

sfwrtr, 7 months ago

@Susan60 @petrichor @itsmeholland @samiam @actuallyautistic

'“Just be yourself”, they say. What the hell does that mean?'

Maybe because I'm old and feeling old, to me "being myself" is to stop analyzing it, them, the outside world, and to just "do." Something comes up and I do it, not trying to understand why it feels right. I can run amok when I rely on intuition, yes, definitely, but I guess I've trained my intuition by all the observation I've done over the years; it rarely happens. (Okay, I'm answering posts NOT writing that story, but still.) I just do what feels right often enough that the rest isn't so exhausting.I think the outside world tries to make us not trust ourselves, but we built our masks and our tools. I'm allowing myself to trust mine.