#literal thinking

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

Autism and Literal Thinking

The Autistic Teacher

[byoldervine]

What Common Writing Phrases Actually Mean

For years I assumed a lot of the common writing phrases that get thrown around were just generic things that were never actually going to help people write because it doesn't actually tell you what to do. But recently I've been able to work out the meanings for a few of them and I'd like to share them with my fellow writers, especially for my fellow NDs with literal thinking

"Write what you know" - it doesn't mean that you should only write what you're already familiar with, it means to do your research, gain knowledge and go from there; if you haven't done the research, don't write about it *until you have*, not just shrug your shoulders and find something else without ever trying to write it. Additionally, things will have more of an emotional impact if you write about things you yourself have experienced, or when you tie in your own experiences to something; you’ve probably (and hopefully) never had acid thrown in your face, but you’ve probably gotten shampoo in your eye and can amp that experience up

"Writing is a discipline"/"Write even when you're not motivated" - my reaction to this was always that, since I was only doing this for fun and didn't have any deadline to meet, why should I force myself to write even when I don't want to? But what they're trying to say with this is to make sure you have some level of consistent progress, even if it's only one sentence every week; having a minimum level of progress you can count on is an absolute lifesaver when writing, as well as being motivating in its own right

"Edit as you go" - this one really doesn't mean to change up your entire chapter every single time you get a new sentence down, it means to take breaks from writing new chapters to reflect back on what you've previously written and make sure to fix up any inconsistencies while the next few chapters are still fresh in your mind. Outside of SPAG mistakes or quick one-sentence-or-less tweaks I generally wouldn't advise properly editing the same chapter you just wrote simply because you could easily burn yourself out speedrunning to the final draft before you even get to chapter two

[toomuchdivergentformyneuro]

not my autistic ass JUST now realizing i’ve been toe walking my whole life cuz i took that way too literally and thought it meant actually fully walking on or with your toes🧍

[pratchettquotes]

Well, it didn't matter. He'd had enough. He wasn't going to try to understand anything anymore. He was going home.

Except that wizards can never go home.

This is one of the ancient and deeply meaningful sayings about wizards and it says something about most of them that they have never been able to work out what it means. Wizards aren't allowed to have wives but they are allowed to have parents, and many of them go back to the old home town for Hogswatch Night or Soul Cake Thursday, for a bit of a sing-song and the heart-warming sight of all their boyhood bullies hurriedly avoiding them in the street.

It's rather like the other saying they've never been able to understand, which is that you can't cross the same river twice. Experiments with a long-legged wizard and a small river say you can cross the same river thirty, thirty-five times a minute.

Wizards don't like philosophy very much. As far as they are concerned, one hand clapping makes a noise like "cl."

Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

[stolasbuckzo]

Fun fact: pupils vs pupilless

Before banishment:

After banishment:

What I see:

[the-fates]

Sometimes I don't think I deal with the literal thinking aspect of autism/neurodivergencies but then today, I got told I clearly was ADHD for not finishing a task. The task was cut the tags off of things. I cut off all the tags, but didn't fold the stuff or put it into the gift bag. It wasn't an incomplete task, I cut off all the tags. That task was complete, so I moved on to a different task that needed to be completed. To them it was obvious that I needed to do the other stuff with the original task but since I wasn't asked to do it, it didn't even register that I should do that. The literal thinking is very real

[aubrina]

Can you draw something about Dark souls ?

It took 15 minutes to my autistic a** to figure you were talking about THAT Dark Souls! 🤣

Anyway, it's a great idea and I'll start working on it, as soon as I stop laughing at myself

[average-emo-enigma]

My need for technical accuracy greatly decreases my ability to say romantic things

“Would you love me until the end of the universe”

“Uhhhhhh probably not tbh, even if I was immortal I don’t think my capacity for love is infinite because I’d probably get numb after a few millennia. Plus, yk, I’d probably be dead and my brain wouldn’t work anymore.”

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

Autism and Literal Thinking

The Autistic Teacher

[vinny221b]

Maybe I'm too much of a literaly thinker or too aromantic for this but what does "loving someone to the moon and back" even mean? Does this mean they would walk the distance for you? Does it just use the big space in between earth and the moon as a measurement for the amount of love they feel for you (yk because big distance = big love)? Is the moon an impersonation of something? Do you just say it because it sounds aesthetic? Help, I don't get it ;-;

[entity56]

my friend sometimes forgets i'm a very literal thinker

[pt: I'm gonna squeeze your brain, dude.]

[An arrow pointing at the subject saying 'Massage' in the right thought bubble, next to a thought bubble depicting the subject's brain being stolen and squished.]

[pupitorium]

i am never able to find the right balance 😭

[thefruitybanana]

Whether the glass is half full or half empty depends on its previous state.

Was it full and someone drank half of it? Or was it empty and someone filled it halfway with water?

- The literalist

[frilledshark-enthusiast]

Sometimes I question whether I actually have literal thinking (as a symptom) then I remember that I thought “where do babies come from” meant where do they come out and until I was like 9 I didn’t understand why people thought that it was a gross question because I didn’t think about that sex part. 

This actually seriously delayed my understanding of reproduction btw. I thought I knew what there was to know about it and everyone else though I knew what sec was because I said I knew where babies came from.

[acollectionofas]

My hobby is getting mad at illogical song lyrics. For instance, Taylor sings, "My short skirt, the one that fits me like skin." A skirt cannot fit like skin! It is the wrong shape! YOU HAVE LEGS, TAYLOR!! LEGS.

[average-emo-enigma]

WAIT DO PEOPLE SAY SEE YOU LATER TO JUST MEAN GOODBYE NOT THAT THEY WILL LITERALLY SEE ME LATER AT SOME POINT IN TIME

MI VIDA ES UNA MENTIRA