Does all aspies have natural talent to write good?

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I am just saying this because I have another aspie friend and both us are actually amazingly good at writing, like the other day I was bored so I decided to write a story and so far it is about 6400 words and I did that in 3 hours and many people said it was great (I can post it if you guys want to) And my friend can write exellent as well. So, I was just wondering if there is something with aspies that makes us write good or if it was just an extremely rare coincidence we both are amazing writers. And I was told by my mum I was diagnosed with autism maybe 3 months ago and I am 14 and I am kind of unfamiliar with my condition in full depth,

I can write essays pretty well, kinda better at writing than talking....lol apparently I don't even finish sentences as often as I thought I knew I kind of had that issue but it came to my knowledge it was more obvious than I had thought. I mean I tend to somewhat lose my train of thought so sometimes I pause longer than usual so people think I am done talking and so the converstation moves on....or i just end up not having anymore to say ones I've started..

Apparently, not all Aspies have a talent for writing.

"Do all Aspies have a natural talent to write well?"

Some Aspies apparently do, however.

If you're talking in terms of creativity, then some do.

I hope so because I am writing a lot lately. I think written communication is easier for us than oral communication.

Although I certainly noticed the issues you're pointing out, I think you may be missing the OP's point. Learning the formal rules of grammar is not entirely connected to inborn writing talent. A person could have had very poor teachers, endured an educational environment unsuited to them, or simply not bothered to learn those details, yet still possess greater than average ability when it comes to other writing skills. (The fact that the word aspie, although derived from a proper noun, is not considered by everyone to be a proper noun itself is a separate issue altogether.) Judging from much of what I see on the internet, most fourteen year olds do far worse. At the very least, the OP knows enough to get their point across without forcing the reader to puzzle over their meaning. (A depressing proportion of the teenagers who show up on a writing site I frequent do not do as well.)

To answer the OPs question, I don't think all aspies have any special talent for writing. However, I was hyperlexic. I mostly taught myself to read (pestering my parents for answers to begin with) and absorbed as many books as I could manage to get my hands on. Others have certainly felt I had greater than average talent when it came to writing, and I've had a few minor things published in the past.

In fact - although I am not suggesting this is true for every individual - I could make a case for the written word as the ideal form of communication for some individuals on the autism spectrum. The writing process allows me time to consider my thoughts, I find it much easier to communicate with a blank page or screen than with a person, and I would also say reading was an ideal way for me to learn a great deal. It provides a single "channel" for input, rather than expecting me to listen while watching a video or blackboard, and the writer has already "filtered" the information, presenting only the important information. The more difficult the subject matter, the easier I found it to learn by means of reading on my own rather than any other method.

So, in conclusion, I don't think it would be wrong to suspect a tendency on the part of some aspies to have a natural affinity for the written word.

Edited to add: Yes, I know there are typos scattered throughout my own post, before you bother to point that out. At the moment, I'm struggling with a keyboard which is on its last legs and failing to register every press of the key reliably. Combined with the fact that I am legally blind - making proofreading on a computer screen a challenge for me - the result is less than I would wish, but has nothing to do with my actual writing skills. Which is in itself an illustration of the different focus of your reply compared to the OPs post.

I would agree that by and large, they do, yes. At least, several people have told me that I have exceptional writing skills (esp. being able to put concepts and arguments eloquently in relatively less time than most).

What I do have trouble with, and I believe many of my fellow Aspies will identify with this, is being somewhat "audience-blind" or lacking pragmatics in my writing, or ToM i.e. I will not intuitively put a concept in layman's terms when I should. Or sometimes missing the central point or "why" of a writing exercise. As a technical writer, this has actually gotten me more in trouble in the workplace than social deficits, which I've for the most part been able to contain (and have been doubted that I have Aspergers on this basis more than once, but believe me I do!!)

I had to work hard to get around this at all - and I still am incapable of anything like technical writing. If I try to dumb it down as much as necessary, I am unable to conceal the fact that I consider my audience idiot children. Of course, when they can't even figure out the obvious on their own, that's what they really are but it tends to irritate them to be reminded of that fact.

This. It's not even rare. If I play basketball, should I go "Wow, unbelievable that the 4 guys next to me can catch a ball, too. What a coincidence."? So don't wanna knock on you and your friends' abilities, let's just say that autism is not linked to people being more talented in writing than in the rest of humanity.

Last edited by mango_prom on 02 Mar 2013, 2:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

On almost all the standardized testing I've taken, I've scored very high (or "very superior") on the verbal section. Insofar as spelling and grammar come more easily to me than most other people, particularly those in my generation, I suppose I am gifted. However, there is a lot more to being considered a good writer than the mechanics of prose (e.g. characterization, dialogue, plot solidity, etc.).

This is exactly what I was thinking.

For some reason I found this extremely funny.

I'm really good at creating stories, but really bad at trying to get it from brain to readable format. I can spend hours upon hours editing the smallest writing fragment.

I started out British and came to America at a young age, I had a number of horrible teachers who corrected my British terms instead of telling me there were alternatives, not to mention the English language contradicts its own rules which irritates me. This put me off English subjects in school, so my skills lack.

I can put my stories down on paper with no trouble - but I can still get sucked into an endless loop of editing. I've had to learn to watch for that and nip it in the bud.



I'm an American - but when I was very young, my cousins in Ireland and I exchanged many books by mail, so I learned many British spellings and terms. Which often got me into trouble with my teachers, but I didn't let them grind me down...

I clicked on this thread to post the same thing, but I was too late.

@OOM: Sometimes, the answers to our questions are right in front of us.

I just received my employee review for last year. The boss praised my tech writing skills, deeming them "Exceptional" and giving me a score of 4 out of 5 for the documents, drawings, training materials, and reports I've written.

(He also reiterated the claim that only a person who literally walks on water could get a 5.0 score.)

I've always like writing and drawing.