How good is your imagination?

[chinaberry]

Mine's rubbish.
When I was little I was always going to be a writer. I was (or am, still) hyperlexic and I loved words and finding out what they meant, so I often used to write stories. But I could never get characters together and they were all the same and in the end all I did was write non fiction reports about the war or I'd rewrite well known stories and people said oh how well you write, you'll be a great writer when you're older. Now I don't write stories anymore and teachers always say nice things in particular about how I write my essays. It seems to be that to be a biographer would be the perfect thing for me! Ha. In History at school, it's still all right now because you can argue most anything as long as you've got some evidence to back it up, but if I did it at degree...hindsight would be my worst enemy, I'd never know otherwise why people did anything.

Obviously the inventing characters thing is directly related to not understanding people etc, that's an Aspie thing, but imagination? Does anyone else have difficulty living in the future as well, like thinking about what things are going to be like? I never worry about the future. I look forward to things a bit but I spend more time just thinking about the present. I can't predict what people are going to be like or how things will work out.

 

[umbrellabeach]

I think mine is pretty good, but not to the extent of writing novels. I used to write fanfiction, but I didn't really like what I wrote so I stopped - well, at least on paper/computer; I can't help making up little stories in my head, lol.
It also depends on what I'm trying to imagine. Sometimes I do imagine what it's going to be like in the future, but I only have a general idea of what I want it to be like.

 

[smithgirl656]

i had a great imagination when i was little and as i got older it kind of left me. in my small group of friends i was always the one making up the games and things like that and i can't really do that much now. i don't think about time in general much, other than what time it is right now. i am bad at judging time so to me next month is very far and close at the same time, if that makes any sense. i try and think about the future in general terms, like i know i'm going to graguate high school and go to college, then i want to have a family. its very general idea of what i want

 

[krisi]

In some areas, I have a very good imagination. In others, I most definitely do not.

In the area of writing, I am terrible at creating characters that are well rounded and complex, designing motivations, etc, in order to form a cohesive plot. However, I am fairly skilled at roleplaying, creating a single character, allowing others to create other characters, and developing my single character enough to adequately respond to other people's characters' actions. I used to create characters that were very much like myself, but now I am able to branch out and create characters who are vastly different from me.

In play as a child, I was able to take situations that I found interesting and create play schemas around them (like pretending to go through the levels of Mario World, pretending to be an orphan like Annie, and once, getting put in jail (and breaking out) for smiling in a picture during a certain time period, although I know now that that wouldn't really happen, my father just didn't have a good answer when I asked why the people in the old pictures weren't smiling, and he told me it was because they would put you in jail if they did). I wasn't one to create many new and different scenarios frequently, I would play the same ones over and over until I got a new idea.

Now as a clinician, I'm actually pretty good at designing therapy activities that kids will see as play while they are actually practicing their articulation words or sentence formulation skills. My supervisors have all commented that I am very creative, but I really just attribute that to working with kids as long as I have.

 

[Sean2222]

Mine's rubbish.
When I was little I was always going to be a writer. I was (or am, still) hyperlexic and I loved words and finding out what they meant, so I often used to write stories. But I could never get characters together and they were all the same and in the end all I did was write non fiction reports about the war or I'd rewrite well known stories and people said oh how well you write, you'll be a great writer when you're older. Now I don't write stories anymore and teachers always say nice things in particular about how I write my essays. It seems to be that to be a biographer would be the perfect thing for me! Ha. In History at school, it's still all right now because you can argue most anything as long as you've got some evidence to back it up, but if I did it at degree...hindsight would be my worst enemy, I'd never know otherwise why people did anything.

Obviously the inventing characters thing is directly related to not understanding people etc, that's an Aspie thing, but imagination? Does anyone else have difficulty living in the future as well, like thinking about what things are going to be like? I never worry about the future. I look forward to things a bit but I spend more time just thinking about the present. I can't predict what people are going to be like or how things will work out.

Well if you define imagination by how well I write, yes I have a good one. But if you define it by how I like to keep things really close to reality and I can't draw or any other artsy type of activity, maybe it's not so good lol. But I have been writing for years and have gotten quite good at pretty much everything in that respect. My favorite thing is writing poetry though.
I did notice you saying you were hyperlexic and having problems with words. I didn't know there was anyone else who was diagnosed with both hyperlexia and asperger's like me. I have such a hard time getting anything out of reading because of the hyperlexia (it's pretty much pointless for me ), but yet I can write my own stories and other things really well See China I knew there was a reason I enjoyed making you squirm I wonder if anyone else here has hyperlexia...

-sean-

 

[richbebo]

whats hyperlexia?? never heard of it.

 

[chinaberry]

Hyperlexia is when you learn to read very quickly or very early (think two year olds reading Shakespeare) and you're especially good at working words out (using context/memory etc, fascination with words), but you have problems with comprehension, such as not understanding why characters do certain things. Despite that, hyperlexics usually read way above their age reading level and their comprehension level catches up soon enough. I'm not sure whether the comprehension level is still above peers' levels, but in proportion with the other stuff it's lacking, or whether it is below generally. People aren't agreed on whether hyperlexia is an ASD or not, but it often completes a 'cluster' alongside Aspergers- alongside things like ADD and dyspraxia etc.

 

[chinaberry]

Well if you define imagination by how well I write, yes I have a good one. But if you define it by how I like to keep things really close to reality and I can't draw or any other artsy type of activity, maybe it's not so good lol. But I have been writing for years and have gotten quite good at pretty much everything in that respect. My favorite thing is writing poetry though.
I did notice you saying you were hyperlexic and having problems with words. I didn't know there was anyone else who was diagnosed with both hyperlexia and asperger's like me. I have such a hard time getting anything out of reading because of the hyperlexia (it's pretty much pointless for me ), but yet I can write my own stories and other things really well See China I knew there was a reason I enjoyed making you squirm I wonder if anyone else here has hyperlexia...

-sean-

But I get a great deal of enjoyment from reading, it's like my security blanket. You mean you don't really read anything? I can't concentrate on a book for very long, but I'm still always reading a book. I understand characters much better now. Chaim Potok is a brilliant writer for Aspies- his characters are also wooden, but there are still some things which puzzle...
I've pretty much given up on writing...I mean, I still think of myself as a writer (as opposed to an artist/maths type) but I don't write stories anymore. Teenage writing is dangerous anyway, I can't trust myself to be sensible!
The thing that doesn't quite fit is that I am creative, at least people say I am. My room is artsy and colourful and apparently I have 'an eye' but my imagination is fallen flat.

 

[Sean2222]

Hyperlexia is when you learn to read very quickly or very early (think two year olds reading Shakespeare) and you're especially good at working words out (using context/memory etc, fascination with words), but you have problems with comprehension, such as not understanding why characters do certain things. Despite that, hyperlexics usually read way above their age reading level and their comprehension level catches up soon enough. I'm not sure whether the comprehension level is still above peers' levels, but in proportion with the other stuff it's lacking, or whether it is below generally. People aren't agreed on whether hyperlexia is an ASD or not, but it often completes a 'cluster' alongside Aspergers- alongside things like ADD and dyspraxia etc.

You seem to know alot about this in technical terms. But not what truly matters China./. You see there's one thing you forgot China. Everyone is different. And I never caught up to any age appropriate comprehension levels. I have never been able to remember anything I read in book form. I had to plagiarize and cheat on every book report I have ever written forinstance. And I still have to continue to read things over and over and over to try and get what's going on when there are too many things going on or if it is different than just rote memory facts type thing. I will continue to misread words and things that are right in fornt of me. I will go in a chatroom and totally not see what is typed and mistake what I see. So basically as I said I don't read because of it and I don't think i have ever read one book to the end or ever will. And it causes me to mess up tests because I will check the wrong box or pick the wrong answer because I couldn't pick up what I was reading in my mind. I will have to keep checking everything over and over for mistakes and it causes me to not finish on time, all the time. So it sucks. And I understand what all the words mean, it's just making sense of where they go and how they relate. Kind of like putting a puzzle together, and in my brain I have no clue where the hell any of them go. It's actually like that for me in other things too

-sean-