Writing my autobiograpgy about my life with aspergers?

mav1790

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I want to write an autobiography about my life someday and hopefully get it published. The problem is that Im only 19 and not famous. But I have big dreams and aspire to one day be a professional baseball player. Ive been dealt with many trials and tribulation throughout my life. These things range from severe depression,being suicidal,being a social outcast,growing up practically on my own, my parents getting divorced, the death of my uncle and other family members at a young age, a bad relationship with my parents, my middle school and high school life.

I also hold many deep secrets that not many people know about which includes having aspergers syndrome, which has crippled me in almost every aspect of life. I feel like if I wrote this I'd be able to portray a universal message to readers and in the process write a compelling story that could help people. I could potentially shed new light on whats it like to live with it on a daily basis.

How should I go about this? What would be the likelihood of the book making it big because not many authors out there have touched on the subject of aspergers, let alone lived with it. Also if it ever became big enough nationwide could my life be potentially made into a movie. I know the latter is highly unlikely but im just curious.
 

Judg

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Actually, an AW member has published a well-received memoir of his life with Asperger's, Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robison. You may want to check it out to see what's already been done. It's available pretty well everywhere.

ETA: Ah, the joys of cross-posting.
 

benbradley

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:welcome:!

It looks like you already have down one of the buzzwords of the publishing industry, your book must be "compelling!"

Have you read others' bio's/memoirs by those with Asperger's and autism? As mentioned there's Robison's book, there's also Temple Grandin who has written several books, and the Daniel Temmett who wrote "Born On A Blue Day."

You of course want to and should write YOUR story, but you may find these others interesting and informative.
 

mav1790

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Recently I found out about John Robison and his book Look Me in the Eye. Unfortunately I havent gotten around to getting it yet, but I have every intention of reading it at some point.

The fact that aspergers has been touched upon by a few people wont discourage me in my pursuit of writing the story beacuse I truly believe that it needs to be told. Its such a debilitating syndrome that is very foreign to the general public, even psychologists still have a hard time grasping it.
 

jerrywaxler

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Room for any number of well written books on a subject

Yes, you're right not to be discouraged by the existence of John Robison's excellent memoir about life with Asperger's. There is always room on the bookshelf for well written books. In fact, when you pitch your book to an agent, they will ask you what other books have been published along the same line.

I wrote an essay about the fact that lots of memoirs touch on similar topics, titled "Is memoir a genre? Consider these matched pairs." Here's the permalink.


Jerry