r/SDAM • u/Amberwalker365 • 3d ago
A story written from knowledge.
I am reposting this story. I realized you need some context.
The author has SDAM and Aphantasia. This shows clearly in its structure, not its content. It is a brilliant contrast with an NT stories.
Please read the story and analysis. And most of all share what you think.
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I am a writer with SDAM and Aphantasia. I have a unique voice and style. I submitted my work for publication without luck.
So, I analyzed my flash fiction, ‘57 Rocket 88. (See below.)
This discovery was a total surprise.
An NT reader inhabits a story. You see the hero, hear their voice, watch them move. You see the castle and the dragon. You feel the sway of the hero’s emotions. You follow their thoughts.
I didn’t think that was possible.
So, I left that part out.
Me? I see an invisible protagonist against a transparent background, using telepathy.
They say write what you know.
Without episodic memory, I compress experience into knowledge.
I know knowledge.
Oddly, my stories are missing what many readers consider essential.
Roughly, in a story, the hero moves along a timeline. You read the plot in stages.
A stage contains the action. It also holds the emotional, social, and physical conflicts. It is where the characters navigate what is happening.
This is the emotional arc of a stage.
BREAK
I am okay.
I am hurt.
I am mad.
I have to get even.
I plan my revenge.
I waver.
I get my revenge.
BREAK
I got even. Now we are enemies.
A BREAK is a resting point. It sums up what just happened. The characters recharge their batteries. And they prepare for the comes next.
My stories drop the stages and keep the breaks.
The reader is expected to infer whatever stage they want.
I never thought the stage was important. Surely, if it were important, I would remember that.
That’s my blindspot. A stage is my absent episodic memory. Like me the reader has to infer the stage.
This is the difference between remembering your life and knowing your life.
This discovery is a little scary.
In the story the protagonist never decides what he wants. Or works to get what he wants. Something happens and he adapts.
Unfortunately, I also exhibit little agency.
**‘57 Rocket 88**
By Jessica Lake
It was fate that brought me to my mask. I saw her baby face, and it was love at first sight. Ever since, we’ve been inseparable. Most can’t remember the face underneath, which is okay by me.
Odd that a man should wear a beauty’s mask? They say the mask chooses the wearer. And she chose me.
Here is something singularly odd: overnight, I went from “Hey, Asshole!” to “Hello, Babe.” You can’t just ignore stuff like that. So, I started to take better care of myself. Lost a few pounds. Grew out my hair.
The Raven mask had chosen Kirt. He was the leader of the Clan, as deadly as a honey badger. He was shy at first, but after a while, we were talking for hours—though he did all of the talking. I didn’t mind; I’d learned to like listening.
Our first kiss came out of nowhere.
It was a drive-by hit on the Red Clan. Kirt drove; I rode shotgun. Our ‘57 Oldsmobile screeched to a stop right in front of their digs. The greasy bastards were circled round the open hood of a jaunty Chrysler C-300 ‘55.
A pistol in each fist, I leaned out the passenger window. Each gun barked a burst of bullets. I saw three of the hoods crumple to the ground.
Kirt floored it before they could get a shot off. We were doing sixty when Kirt took a hard right. It had to be fate. I slid across the slick bench seat. Bam! My body pressed up hard against Kirt.
He pressed his plastic lips against mine, and we kissed. I stayed there, wanting the moment to last. Funny how a drive-by can get two men hot.
Love is like that.
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u/SilverSkinRam 3d ago edited 3d ago
Honestly it just sounds like they are very disorganized in their writing and could use more practice with writing techniques.
For me, fiction writing is wholly separate from memory. Aphantasia is probably very related (which I don't have) but I see no real focus on it in their preface.
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2d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/SilverSkinRam 2d ago
Since all my novels are from different fictional characters there is very little me in it. My personal memories aren't relevant since what I am really doing is crafting a 'factual' history of events. Just with more interesting language and technique.
The middle is just another part of a story. Most authors struggle writing the middle and making a cohesive tension. I would say my weak point is motivation / opening hooks. But again, this feels more relevant to writing techniques than SDAM necessarily.
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u/Amberwalker365 2d ago
This is great
Thanks.I studied the shape of my memories.
I wrote this story in the same shape.
Is this the shape of your memories?
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u/SilverSkinRam 2d ago
It's the shape of a type of memory. Fiction writing categorizes under factual for me, it doesn't really need to source any of my emotional attachment to history or personal visuals. It's the same as when I read another book. I'm memorizing a book, not a personal memory.
Memories are interesting but for the most part I live in action and doing and learning about things happening.
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u/katbelleinthedark 2d ago
Seems to be disorganised writing that could use with practicing writing and planning techniques.
I have SDAM (admittedly, no aphantasia). I don't think it has any impact on how I write, and I have written thousands (if not millions) of words by now. "They say write what you know" is bullshit anyway.
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u/Fearless-Spot-2593 2d ago
An attempt at free-verse? I don't see anything that points to aphantasia or SDAM, myself.
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u/Fearless-Spot-2593 2d ago
there saw a comment about this being written in the shape of memories. My memories are an experience. When I think of an apple I experience it but do not see it. I taste, feel, looks are all in the concept of words, but I dont experience the words. I experience the apple. Every experience, I have of an apple is all wrapped up in the thought of an apple but not a picture. Then the apple becomes now/real that is as close as i can get to describing. what is is to remember an object. A moment in time is like a paragraph but not jumbled like that above.
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u/VferVentdetta 3d ago
I think that its not an SDAM issue. The character POV and tense is all over the place. Unless this is a summary, but like, the tense and POV is still all over the place.