When it comes to writing you need to re-read your draft, and correct all errors. You need to try and read it with fresh eyes. It's a matter of practice and correction.

I find that I'm far more eloquent in writing than verbally. I can think of what I want to write, and put it down correctly. When I'm speaking, there isn't any delete button...lol! Wish there was.

Use a journal to track your writing. Re-read it, and use it as a practice forum. Many people forget that writing (good writing) is all about revision.

Good luck!

Thank you for the advice! I'm just terrible with formal writing, though. I've always been told thatmy poetry is breathtaking. Maybe I'm just more of a creative writer?

I think that's pretty much it... you sound like a creative writer, people are often one or the other. Personally, I think formal writing is something you can easily learn, or just have someone edit it for you before you send it out, but creative writing is a much better skill to have because there is more that you can do with it.

This isn't coming from me, but my mom. This is what my mom told me. Kinda burst my bubble, so I figured I'd spread the joy.

Normal people are basically uncreative, unintelligent beings. They are impressed with any word that has more that two syllables, and will say something is fantastic simply because they don't understand.

Content to sit back and collect dvds and brand new unpaid for cars parked in foreclosed houses, im not so sure they even know what a pencil and paper is anymore.

wow, that's depressing. I'd disagree with you, but I recently began student teaching and just graded 103 freshman and sophomore essays.

I'm laughing because you just had to grade freshman student essays. Not laughing at you, but my memory of my freshman comp class came to mind as I was thinking of replying. English 1010 is exactly when I realized that professors were mostly normal people and were so easily fooled into believing that I was saying something so brilliant by using big words where they were not expected, there was no choice other than to give me an A. Like Nine Inch Nail's' Trent Reznor, once you have the recipe for success you can fool everyone into thinking you have a creative mind.

My son is 21 with asperger's...he is exactly the same with his writing. If an essay is to be 500 words, he does 1000. He writes well, but adds a lot of information. His teachers have been telling him for years about this. He tries to edit, but to him all the information is important. He gets very frustrated. I usually try to go over his work to help out a bit.. he hates this, but it is all we can come up with. It is all just a different way of thinking..nothing wrong with that. I wish more people in this world could be as honest and kind as most people I have met who are aspie's.

Not being able to differentiate between what is important and what is not, is one reason that most Aspies have problems taking notes in class. They just think they need to write down everything. Also they cannot listen and absorb what the teacher is saying at the same time they are trying to write...they can doodle but not concentrate on the activity of writing legibly and sensibily at the same time they are trying to process the information the teacher is talking about.

However, even with all these drawbacks, my 14 yo Aspie granddaughter wants to be a writer. Her short stories will most likely be novels but she does very well at putting words onto paper and making it very interesting and enthralling.

I don't know if it is relevant, but if you wish, please take a ride on my creative side.

First stop is grade 7. I put a great deal of effort into writing a short story. It had something to do with monkey's, bananas and gangsters as I recall. My teacher liked it so much she recommended that I enter it into a writing competition. Everything was going quite fine you may think. Well it was, until I was asked to read the story in front of the class. I completely made a fool of myself and broke down during that reading. Shucks, better not let that happen again!

Let's go forward to grade 8. I am in art class and the teacher asks us to draw something in the class. For some reason, I chose to draw whatever was before me. It just happened to be the plump ass of the fellow overhanging the chair in front of me. You know what, I drew a wonderful illustration of that ass. So wonderful in fact it won a prize and was displayed for the whole school to observe. The problem was that it was such a distinctive posterior, everyone knew whose ass it was. It was the revengeful rump of the biggest bad ass bully in the school. Ooopps!

No wonder that in high school I concentrated on my scientific side. It did not get me into trouble. No art for me and english was a big yuk.

Fast forward to University. I am coasting along in my scientific world. Doing very well you may ask, not a worry at all. That was until a few friends and I decided to take a bird (easy) course. The bird course was classical mythology. It was a disaster. My scientific principles no longer applied. I was flunking for the first time in my life. What was I to do? Well I had to get back to my creative side, the side I suppressed for years. For months I tried, until sometime in the fourth month my scientific brain burst. Thoughts escaped the confines and explored new areas free of scientific rules and principles. My creative brain fart allowed me to ace that final exam and pull up my marks to respectable from failure. As I look back on my education now, I did learn much of science and technology, but it was this seemingly insignificant course in classical mythology that taught me the most.

Now what should the moral of my somewhat rambling biography be? Is it " If you don't use it you loose it". Perhaps it should be " Try , try and try again until you succeed". Nahh, I will leave it at " All that is Homer, is not Simpson ".

well yes, disturbed, you are creative, so somehow get thru the formal requirements with help and wow the world with your creations. If you need help, get it, that doesn't mean you are disabled because you have the intelligence to ask for help.

You know what? You're right, augie, and thanks for the advice, everyone. Your views and opinions are amazing and helped me so much. Thank you!

Hi Disturbed,
Since we aspies tend to think in visual terms and are more prone to interpreting stimuli of all sorts (many times to our detriment), it
is understandable that we should express ourselves differently. We allow subjective connotations of our own psyche to colour our perceptions. When we are tasked with factual
reporting, we feel constrained and must then "shut down" our more expressive (for us:
ACTUAL) representations.
We often perceive only extremities. Thus, we
are bland or flowery.

I don't have this problem, but I always read examples of the type of writing I have to do, and then I imitate the style. For instance, when I studied English literature, I would read the literary critics and get an idea of their style. If I don't have a model to imitate I have no idea what is expected. Could you get models of the kind of writing you have to do, so that you can imitate them?

Good practice is found in writing within defined parameters, (definitely not my forte). Whether Haiku, Iambic pentameter, or free-form minimalization,see:
http://www.oceanstar.com/patti/lyrics/lyrindex.html

or any other form to get us to tighten up, simplify, or say without saying could be helpful.

As with music, math, or even mechanic; one of the best tools is deconstructing other people's work to see how it is put together, what joins, separates, augments, blocks, or even ruins a work can be instructive in our self-editing process. As with music, complexity and profundity may be critically acclaimed but not necessarily palatable to the ear or mind of the reader. So cliche, and again, not exactly my way, but it seems to be true for most people that "less is more".

But don't tell that to Walt Whitman.