I need help again. >

[rainbowshy]

I want to write a story about an autistic girl who is also an empath. I just don't know where to start. Like, I want it to be part slice of life where she deals with her empath abilities, but I also want it to tie into something paranormal related. I just can't seem to think of anything to help the story along right now. I was hoping you guys would be able to help me brainstorm some ideas at the moment. I don't exactly want it to be a horror story per se... because I'm not good at stuff like that. I get scared by anything horror-related, so why would I write it? lol

Comments

[splinteredstar]

Hmmm... the mixture of autistic and empath is an interesting one, actually. With the caveat of I Am Not A Doctor, one of the things that happens with autism is they have trouble understanding emotional cues. So perhaps the empathic abilities could be used to compensate for that. Depends on the degree and nature of the autism, obviously.

I think paranormal is quite easy to mix into slice-of-life, but then again, I have a higher creep tolerance than most. Perhaps some sort of set-up where you're not sure if she's actually experiencing paranormal events or if they're perfectly normal events filtered through her unusual perspective? Hm, might be hard to pull that one off, though...

[rainbowshy]

Well, autistic people usually do have empathic abilities. Like, they are empathetic, yet it's just hard for them to really understand what it means. It doesn't mean they don't have empathy or anything. I deal with a lot of emotional issues with my empathy myself, so I don't know though. I do want to make her go through difficulties with her empath abilities. Like, as I explained before... where she has trouble being able to understand them.

I'm having the hardest time coming up with ideas. >

[sarillia]

Is the main character the only one with empathy? Could there be others? Maybe you could look at the different ways that this ability could be used, both good and bad. Personally I like to look at the dark sides of the powers that tend to be seen as inherently good.

Sometimes when I'm stuck for ideas like you are now, I like to browse TVTropes. I click on a bunch of tropes that interest me and look at examples and see what I can mix and match to come up with something that sounds fun.

[rainbowshy]

I was thinking of a love interest, but I want him to be normal. I want him to be able to help her through everything. Maybe when he touches her, she feels comforted and eased without even knowing her powers exist.

[inkdust]

I love stories with strong relationships like that - just be careful that by the end, if it's her story, she can stand on her own without him.

[inkdust]

Well it seems to me that logically you would start in the middle of her life, dealing with her abilities, and then she would encounter a much bigger problem that she needs to use her abilities to fix. That's the iconic arc of a character with a gift, right? The problem could totally be paranormal, if you want to include those elements.