Treatment Tuesday - Asperger's Syndrome

This assessment is for Mara, who is writing a YA novel about a child with Asperger's Syndrome. She asked about the likelihood of a teen with Asberger's taking a driving test, failing, and then wanting to take the test again. My response is below.

First of all, Asperger's is an autism spectrum disorder. These indivduals typically have more language preservation (as well as cognitive development in general) than people with Autism, but they are similar in that people with Asberger's have difficulties in social situations and also have restricted, stereotyped patterns of behaviors and interests. See this article here for more information about the disorder itself.

Now, on to Mara's question and the feasibility of her plot element centered around driving. I believe there are several "aspies" (as they call themselves) who drive, and drive well...but by and large, a fair percentage don't. On this website here (http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt53942.html) there is a sampling of posts by people with Aspergers who are writing in about whether they drive, why or why not. People with Asbergers have limited social interaction (although not as much as those with Autism) and actually most fear social encounters. So if this character managed to fight that enough to get behind the wheel with an instructor next to him...and then fails, it might be a tad unlikely for him to want to take the test again. At least any time soon.

Thanks for writing in, Mara! Hope this helps.

Just as aside for any author writing about a person with a developmental or mental disability: It's important in today's time to make sure to refer to these individuals as "people/children with Aspergers," or whatever disorder they might have, and not Asperger children or adults. The disorder does not define them as a person, and Regional Centers that work with them adhere to a person-centered planning model, which does not look at a disorder/disability from the medical model of what's wrong with a person. It would be considered offensive to refer to them any other way.

This service is for fictional characters only, so any resemblance to real life examples is entirely coincidental. Any other fictional character assessment questions can be directed to charactertherapist@hotmail.com.

Thanks!
Jeannie
"The Character Therapist"

Scene Heartbeat Stopped - AED Needed!

So, over the weekend, I really worked hard on several chapters, exceeding my personal goals for those days. Which was great. I was working along, typing away, feeling the heartbeat of the scene like I felt my own.

Then it just stopped. I backed up, re-read what I wrote, trying to see how I could use the a literary Automatic Electronic Defibrillator (AED) to restart the heartbeat again. Again, much the same. The heartbeat was steady, sure...and then FLATLINED.

So, like any regular Jane who happens upon someone passed out and not breathing, I PANICKED. I emailed my crit partner. "Help!" I tried to tell my husband (this didn't help at all). I re-wrote variations of the end of the scene, but none of those helped me out, either. Whoa. My scene is D Y I N G.

After a phone call with my crit buddy today, I'm hoping we both can revive it, if it hasn't been too long since the last heartbeat. Wouldn't want some deranged scene from lack of oxygen or something. :) I'll have to let you know how it goes later.

Any of you have this happen recently? Not recently? Did your scene survive?

The Character that Just Won't Quit

I'm about 3/4 of the way done through Blessed Beyond the Curse. Great news, as I had hoped to have this finished before the ACFW Conference in September, but it's looking like I'll have it done by May.

But I have this problem.

I have a character that won't stay out of my head for a different novel. One I haven't even started yet! So I did my usual things: write about her in my idea notebook, figure out her quirks, what makes her tick, etc. Now I'm blogging about her, hoping to put her to rest, at least for the time being.

Because I don't need the distraction she presents! Part of me wants to click on "New Document" in Word and begin typing away at her story. Maybe I should start with her backstory, to at least get something down in a word processor?

It's sad. I'll be writing about Kathy and Josh (from Blessed) and then she turns up, demanding I pay her attention like a spoiled cat. I reprimand her and continue with my typing, but this happens a few times each time I really get going into a chapter.

So, please, Little Miss OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), now that you've gotten some face time on my blog, leave Mama OCD alone!

Thursday Therapeutic Thought

This will be my first Therapeutic Thought on the blog, so let me know what you think. Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down? They won't all look like this, but gotta start somewhere!

Today I thought I'd talk about two types of forgiveness, which of course can be incorporated into our novels and lives. The first type is Restoration Forgiveness. This is the type that we most often want to encounter, but often eludes us fully. To have restoration is to have complete healing of the breach between two parties. Something as final as death or as inconvenient as geography can prevent this from happening. In its most ideal state, it looks like this:

1) Party A offends Party B
2) Party B chooses to forgive A
3) Party A, acknowledges the wrongdoing and accepts the forgiveness
4) Relationship between A and B is healed

Imagine two people hugging one another as a symbol of this type of forgiveness. So what's the other type of forgiveness, then? Release Forgiveness. Compare to the above:

1) Party A offends Party B
2) Party B chooses to forgive A
3) Party A never acknowledges the wrongdoing
4) Party B chooses to release Party A

This is the hardest type to experience, and many never quite make it to the fourth point, choosing to hold on to their offense and their grudge. It is very important, if one of your characters (or even if someone you know in life) has this type of problem, to acknowledge their hurt. If Party A never acknowledges the hurt, then Party B may never move on. A third party, though, (in many cases, a therapist) can help tremendously by just acknowledging the hurt, which in turn would help Party B be able to release it. Because before release is a possibility, the hurt has to be recognized and validated as an authentic, he/she-shouldn't-have-done-that hurt. Emotional health and healing will never occur as long as the bitterness is inside.

Application:

If you have one of your characters suffering from a hurt that hasn't been acknowledged, either by the wrong-doer or someone else, the chances of this character coming to a believable healing by the end of the book isn't feasible. Psychology tells us so. :)

If you have a hurt in your own life that resembles one that you need to release, tell someone about it that you trust, and let them help recognize the hurt for what it is so you can then release it and move on.

Platform

After reading this article about platform, I started looking at mine. The biggest thing going for me is my license in Marriage and Family Therapy. I loved counseling and learning more about how to help people with varying degrees of mental disorders. I also felt that this population was underrepresented in Christian fiction (although I will concede that there are a few authors out there who have included a secondary character here or there with a serious mental problem), and this became sort of a soapbox of mine. So Mind-Healing Fiction was born, as was my tagline, "Where Romance Meets Therapy."

According to the platform article, these things must be on your business cards, which you hand out at conferences or tack up on community boards, etc. Now platform is most essential for non-fiction writers, but it can't hurt for fiction. I love how Scoti Springfield Domeij wrote that a platform isn't all about YOU. It's about a "God-given passion, understanding how God gifted you, and using your writing and speaking to make a difference in the lives of others." He asks you to begin by asking who your audience is, how you can serve them with your distinct mesage/specialty/niche, and what information are you offering for your audience to benefit them?

Tough questions, some of them. But it's got me thinking about what else I can use this blog for besides just writing about my dream to publication. So, I'm asking for your help. I'd like to start a weekly "help" post, sort of like practical ways to fight a particular mental disorder or something like that. I could maybe highlight one disorder per month. What do you think about this idea? What could I call the weekly post? (Like, think Mary DeMuth's "Free Critique Per Week" kind of idea...something I would call the post every time.) Something catchy. And thoughts would be appreciated!

Adding a Thread

I just went through about four chapters of my WIP and added in a thread with my villain, making him increasingly, well, villainous. I've always thought that this was easier to do than the other way of just writing it in the first place. I guess it's part of the revision process, but it occurred to me about 3/4 of the way through that I needed to do this. Unfortunately, this meant resending a chapter or so to my crit buddy so she could read through the additional thread.

So in order to keep up with what POV I was using, and where this thread shows up, I started a spreadsheet of sorts to keep up with scenes and what happens. Eventually, I'll use this for my chapter-by-chapter synopsis. But it saves SO much time (duh!). I can just click on my chapter synopsis and know which chapter to bring up in my word processor to access what scene. (This may sound very simple to those of you longer in the biz and with more common sense, but I've always written my stories all out in one document, so I could just scroll through at will and see what I wanted to see. But being a part of crit groups, etc., working in chapter units is essential...so this had been a s t r e t c h for me. But a good one. :)

Internet Difficulties

Over at a friend's house right now checking email and my blog - talk about going through withdrawals!  Our internet server is down...so I'll be back online when it's fixed and send crits to everyone that I can and make comments on others' blogs when I'm not pressed for time!

Sorry!  But the good thing is that I don't have to fight with my husband over the computer (b/c there is no reason for him to get on there without the internet) and I can just write! :)  Well, when Maddy's not fussing....