Writing and Worldbuilding (and also drawing I guess?) with NVLD (Non Verbal Learning Disorder)

[aqua03]

Hey Tapas Forum, long time no see.... Is anyone of the Old Guard still around here?

Anyways, So this is something I've recently discovered as I've been researching a bit about regarding Non Verbal Learning Disorder, something I've been diagnosed with since I was young, but have only recently been doing more looking into it more seriously to see how it's affected my own creative and artistic journey so far. see the article below for an overview.

Nonverbal learning disorder: Overview, signs, and causes

So apparently one of the main things about NVLD is how it can mess with your Right Brain in regards to art and spatial awareness and creative thinking. Namely in struggling being able to visualize new things out of the box or break free of patterns of things you've learned, and that's something I realized is the main problem holding me back from things like the Dragoons and such. Because I've always struggled trying to come up with 'New" ideas for the art style like drawing different characters beyond the main ones or landscapes or the like and even though I can cook pretty solid ideas for settings and stories for my stuff in general, I struggle a lot with the characters and the "Point A to Point B" style of writing and character arcs, thus feeling the need to fill in the blanks via others' feedback and taking ideas from media I love wholesale and struggling to commit to a lot of finer details among other things and I'm not fully sure how to fully "break out" of said mindset and struggles.

Does anyone else here struggle with NVLD or similar problems? And if so, how do you guys get over it to move forward with your own projects to publish them? Because I feel I'm so close to a full breakthrough, I'm just not sure how to do it or what it'll take to do so.

Thanks in advance.

[cherrystark]

Hey friend! Good to hear from you again.

Your condition definitely sounds challenging. I hope you continue to find ways to adapt to live your life to your full potential. If you're planning on taking your work to other platforms outside of Tapas, I would look into AI as an accessibility tool. I know a ton of writers with a whole gamit of disorders using accessibility tools to help bridge the gap so they can continue their art.

I do sympathize with what you're going through. For me, I can't write description without a good reason. Heck! I struggle to visualize descriptions in my head. If I don't cast a real life person into the role, they might as well be faceless. Readers often crave a full sensory experience but for me, writing pages of description is like pulling teeth. The only way I can make myself write description is if it's important to the story. And even then, I wonder if I've done enough for description.

[aqua03]

Thanks! Glad to hear from you, too.

I have fiddled a bit with AI assistants and tools, but have had mixed results from just how... Samey they can come off as no matter what I give it if that makes sense. I do like to use image generators to at least "Ideate" a bit more, but I try not to rely too much on them given the stigma and the fact that they're still very much not perfect.

Also I feel that regarding a good description, too. Like, I have a general idea on what something or someone looks like in my head, but translating it to paper or text is always kinda hard I've found.

[cherrystark]

Yeah... I get it. I'm still trying to figure out how best to use assistants. People in my other writer groups talk all about what the different models and platforms do and it's above me. I did notice that they tend to work better for people who rely on outlines and are producing novels with popular storylines. Mine lets me push a button and gives me ideas. It works, haha. The image generators are a lot of fun and spark a lot of creativity.
The stigma is super strong - cyberbullying, doxxing, and more. People are selling their services as ghostwriters, editors, and even cover artists and using AI to do the service. They're charging full unassisted prices for the work and not even disclosing what they've done. It's crazy.

Also I feel that regarding a good description, too. Like, I have a general idea on what something or someone looks like in my head, but translating it to paper or text is always kinda hard I've found.

Exactly! Like I can tell you, a character is tall, muscular, with brown hair and blue eyes, but he's essentially faceless in my head.

[aqua03]

Yeah, no kidding.

I especially struggle with the "Middle" parts of a story or worldbuilding. Like, I know how I want a story to start and how it should end or where a character starts and where I want their arc to end, but come down to the drilling into "Well how do they get from here to there?" and I'm just left with a:

Same with worldbuilding. I've been positiviely cooking with a lot of general stuff for characters and concepts and settings for the Dragoons and their broader universe but they never really seem to "Click together" for me no matter how hard I try. Just vague, disparate lego peaces strewn on the floor it feels.

[cherrystark]

Oh yeah. I honestly feel that a lot of pressure with worldbuilding is simply because it's super trendy in the fantasy crowd. I've heard fantasy readers get more excited about someone explaining the magic system in their novel than the actual plot. A lot of that stuff doesn't matter to me. Like I can't tell you how my MC in my immortal story got her power, she just has it.

Same with worldbuilding. I've been positiviely cooking with a lot of general stuff for characters and concepts and settings for the Dragoons and their broader universe but they never really seem to "Click together" for me no matter how hard I try. Just vague, disparate lego peaces strewn on the floor it feels.

I've been there. Seriously. I made the mistake of trying to add a big apocalypse level threat to my series while bringing "back" a character. I don't have any idea what to do with it now.

[aqua03]

I definitely feel that as well. Honestly half tempted to just start with episodic "Problem of the week" style stories for the various characters in the Dragoons, both heroes and villains, until I can fully kick the struggle and pull things together enough for an actual narrative.

[cherrystark]

Why not do it? For my main series, one of the biggest problems I had was that I couldn't friggin turn the first story into a full length novel for the life of me. I decided to write it like a TV series and it made it 10x easier to write. The only draw back is it's weird trying to market an "anthology" to novel readers but my series is selling, so they'll read it.

[NickRowler]

So apparently one of the main things about NVLD is how it can mess with your Right Brain in regards to art and spatial awareness and creative thinking. Namely in struggling being able to visualize new things out of the box or break free of patterns of things you've learned,

First, right/left brain isn't really a thing. It's more of an abstract way of thinking how the brain functions.

Second, people who tend to be nonverbal struggle with language development and communication. Spacial awareness is not part of this, it's a different type of intelligence. That is why there are some autistic people who might not be good at talking but really good at stuff like puzzles or solving a Rubik cube.

A struggle people who are non-verbal or have a language based learning disability is word retrieval. They can picture the image or concept in there head but can't fully communicate verbally what it is. Sort of on a more extreme end of this is struggling to understand more abstract concepts. Someone might understand what "hugs and kisses" are but not fully understand what "love" is.

As someone who with a language-based learning disability, I do understand the struggle. If you feel like you are lacking in inspiration and stuck in a rut, I would recommend doing activities that are more visual or tactile. Take a trip, go to a museum, attend a festival or street market. Go to a park and explore nature. Go to a thrift store and pick things up and look at them. I think just passively consuming media isn't really going to help you much.

[MiharuWrites]

Hey, I don't have NVLD but I wanted to be a part of the conversation. First of all, congrats on learning more about your disability and trying to figure out how to work with the new found knowledge. I will check out the article you posted later for my own research. Glad you're going to keep being creative even if it is a struggle. We all get that even if we're coming from different places.

Someone mentioned AI tools and I have to agree. I have a NightCafe account which I use just for fun but also to help me bridge that gap of ideas to digital page. It isn't perfect but it's nice to see things I visualize in front of me to an extent. You could use it to try out different art styles. I know for myself many images have popped up in completely different styles than I expected that were lovely.

When you say Point A to Point B can I assume you mean the buildup between one starting point to a climatic moment in the arc? Lots of people struggle with this, myself included. My writing style accommodates that struggle by being more slow paced since I work in slice of life. You don't always need finely detailed scenes. Things are allowed to be vague. For example, in chapters I haven't published yet I have a shopping trip at the beginning of October, the contents of a letter to a family member close to Halloween, the night of Halloween itself split into two or three chapters, and the contents of another letter to family days later. The important events are covered, time passes, and the next part of the story begins naturally.

Taking ideas from feedback or media are great ways to break writer's block or to get started in general. I always start in fanfiction. The basic building blocks are done and I can focus on what I find most important: characterization, dialogue, and then some world building. If feedback and media are helping you spin ideas you don't have to break away from those completely.

[aqua03]

When you say Point A to Point B can I assume you mean the buildup between one starting point to a climatic moment in the arc?

Yeah, the finer details in between the big sort of "Beginning and end" sort of deal is what I struggle with. Especially given I want to write fantasy and sci fi adventure stuff.

I'll have to look into NightCafe, thank you.

[ibabyjedi1]

I realize this is an old post, but I felt the need to push back of your interpretation (as someone with NVLD)

The non-verbal part of NVLD does not mean we struggle with verbal communication, it actually the opposite. We specifically struggle with things that are NON-verbal (e.g. spatial awareness.) so what OP was saying was completely correct.