kaj43

[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

[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

[mysteriouseggsbenedict]

I have a story about a time when literal thinking actually caused me to succeed unexpectedly (as opposed to causing problems for me, which is what it usually does.)

The scene is my first grade classroom. This thing had been going around my class where you would prank/make fun of someone by asking them a series of questions:

What's your name?

What's the color of the sky?

What's the opposite of down?

And then the person will end up saying "[their name] blue up" which of course sounds like "blew up" and then if you're a 6 year old menace you get to laugh and go "hahaha, [name] blew up!!!"

So a boy tried to do this to me. Except when he asked "what color is the sky?" my autistic ass looked outside and saw that it was overcast and said "gray." So the kid was not able to recover and was just kind of like.....uh.......I guess yeah it is.......

I figured out how the prank was supposed to go later on, but at the time I didn't know it was, like, a thing that was going around, so I wasn't even trying to mess it up on purpose. I literally was just like oh the sky is gray.

And that's how I unwittingly thwarted an attempt at making me a victim of this joke

[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.]

[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.

[wreckitremy]

Just now, at 30 years old, I have discovered that when ppl say "the 800 number" they don't literally mean 800 is the first 3 digits. They mean any number between 800 and 899.

Autism literally thinking strikes again

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

Autism and Literal Thinking

The Autistic Teacher

[intothedysphoria]

You know when you as an autistic person think I don’t have literal thinking because I don’t take every word that is said to me 100% literally, that label must just not apply to me until you take something embarrassingly literally.

I had one of those experiences today

For years, I have thought that people in the US relax to a program about catching sharks and this is a nationwide cultural thing. This confused me because it sounded stressful to watch and upsetting for the sharks but I was like maybe it’s just one of those things, I’m sure they’re treating the sharks ethically for it to be that popular.

Shark Tank is not actually a program about catching sharks.

It is American Dragons Den.

Oh my god.

[autisticbooknerd01]

"Doing My Best"

I have an unhealthy relationship with the instruction, "Do your best."

This is one phrase that trips up my autistic literal thinking, because in my experience most neurotypical folks don't mean, "Do the best that you can do at every task ever, even if it means running yourself ragged and regularly hitting burnout." PSA to my fellow autistics: Most of the time, when people tell you to do your best, they mean, "Do the best you can with the capacity you have, while considering what tasks are more or less important than others."

That means the 5 point quiz I had in one class was less important than the midterm I had in another, and that if I can't handle studying for both I should focus on the midterm.

Unfortunately, back when I didn't know the subtext of "do your best," I would treat them with the same weight.

Perhaps that's on me, at least partially. But I wish more people said what they meant, even if it takes longer. Maybe that's not fair; I don't think we always think about how we communicate and how different communication norms might affect others' understanding.

I still have the instinct to do my best, no matter the cost. It sucks. In grad school, all I want is to feel okay about getting a "B," but I'm not sure I can yet.

[frilledshark-enthusiast]

Confessions of an asexual 

For years I thought that “bust a nut” meant that one of your testicles actually exploded or burst open and I was terrified at the thought that was possible 

Made me really appreciate being Afab for a while 

[makeshift-man]

That moment when you take litteral thinking to litteraly.

[salti-thelatediagnosedautist]

my dumb, autistic ass (not related, i just happen to be both dumb AND autistic) is SO confused by the plot/analogies/point of the Barbie movie?

I loved the humour, the characters, every visual aspect of it, the everything!! Very Funny Nice Movie

But I am SO confused on what I'm meant to take home from this movie lol, someone please explain it to me? I don't get how the Kens are reversed to be women and how their whole arc with discovering manliness and taking over relates to the oppression of women or what? im just so lost

[imsociallyanxiousgetoverit]

“Wanna show me a good time?”

“Sure”

*takes them to a late-open art gallery*

[the next day]

“I most certaintly did show you a good time!”

“No, you showed yourself a good time and dragged me along”