Writing Prompt: Autism Awareness Month

Because, really, we all have special interests.

April is Autism Awareness month, and as an autistic writer I wanted to find a way to honor autistic people, and my own experiences, in this month’s writing prompt. I went back and forth over and over again in my brain—trying to find a way to bring this part of myself to the pages of non-autistic writers without feeling like I was opening to them the chance to mock autistic people or rely on stereotypical images they may have of us.

So, instead of having you write an autistic character, I want us to explore one common facet of the autistic experience: hyperfixation/“special interests.”

Autistic people often form a special bond with the things we’re interested in—one spark in our mind leads down a rabbit hole of info gathering and suddenly “I think Egypt is a cool place” has led me to “did you know hieroglyphs could be read left to right or right to left and you know which way to read them by looking at the direction the animal glyphs face?”

I want you to bring this sense of wonder into your writing for this prompt. Since it *is* National Poetry Writing Month, I hope you’ll consider exploring this idea through poetry, but prose will be fine, too.

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Don’t forget: in honor of NaPoWriMo, Think In Ink has a 40% discount until the end of the April!

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Either way, try to bring something you really love into focus. It can be a specific item or group, or it might be a broader categorical “thing.” Add as much detail as possible, no piece of information is too small. You might find that trying to work in all these tidbits of information you have on the topic makes the image blurrier instead of more clear—that’s how it feels a lot of the time.

Trying to share so much information has a way of burying the original subject under the winding streets of a city you’ve built around it. Don’t shy away from this feeling, just take a step back, a deep breath, and a good look at the whole picture you’ve created. I’d love to read some of your pieces, so drop them in the comments!

Happy Writing

Cosima 🧞

Cosima Smith (his/hers) is the Editorial Manager for Think In Ink, a Poetry Reader for Chestnut Review, and a Yoga Facilitator based in Farmville, Virginia. Smith has found homes in 6 countries in the past 10 years, craving the nature of transitory living before the world shut down. Now, Smith is most often found searching for peace hiking Virginia’s trails, doing yoga, reading, or (from time to time) writing. Connect with Smith on instagram @simareading with reading/writing adventures or @cronesima, which features yoga content and day-to-day affairs.