Writing the Neuroqueer Self

​Are you a neurodivergent/neuroqueer/neuroquestioning person who writes creatively, or would like to? Do you sometimes struggle to maintain a writing practice, focus on a task, complete projects, celebrate your own successes, or generally cope with the expectations of neurotypical/Capitalist society and work culture? Have you been made to feel that the ways you use language & tell stories are ‘wrong’?

Marginalised people are rarely afforded the right to tell their own story. And when they are, they are expected to tell it in ways that maintain the status quo and reinforce dominant cultural narratives. In this course, we’ll attempt to de-capitalise our creative process & practice, as well as deconstruct dominant concepts of memory, time, structure, and identity within modes of writing that draw from the lived experience of the writer. This includes, but is not limited to, memoir, autobiography, autofiction, personal essay, and fiction.

Over ten weekly 2-hour sessions, we'll cover: establishing sustainable, neuroqueer writing practices; the creation of the self through memory & perspective; building counternarratives; blurring the lines between realism and fantasy to allow us to get to the actual ‘truth’ of our lived experiences; and inventing our own language and stylistics.

Each session will involve group discussion on a topic and experimentation with a variety of generative writing invitations.

*All reading and writing set between sessions is fully optional

Live Sessions take place on Wednesdays from 12-2pm UK time via Zoom.

*Please note that all the topics below will be covered, but the exact structure is still subject to change

Session 1 - What Even is 'Time'?

Often our struggles with ‘productivity’, maintaining a ‘routine’, or being ‘consistent’ actually stem from oppressive Capitalist ideas of how time is structured, and how we are meant to ‘work’ within that structure. In this session, we’ll deconstruct these linear, goal-oriented ideas and replace them with spirally, process-centred ones.

Session 2 - What Even is 'Writing'?

What do we actually mean when we say we are (or are not) ‘writing’? What practices contribute to our writing process but aren’t actually putting words on a page? By expanding our understanding of what is included in our writing practice and embracing our individual creative cycles, we will find ways to start those projects that feel overwhelming, and keep up momentum when our interest and energy lags.

Session 3 - Navel Gazing as Radical Practice: Febos, Feminism & Counternarrative

In traditional literary spaces, ‘autobiographical’ writing is often looked down on, treated as lesser than the ‘true’ literary form: fiction. Drawing from Melissa Febos’ essay, ‘In Praise of Navel Gazing’, we’ll unearth the radical roots of memoiristic forms of writing and give ourselves permission to tell our own stories. 

Session 4 - Constructing the Self: Memory & Identity

When we write about ourselves, or as ourselves, we are always creating a character on the page. We are piecing together a particular narrative about who we are, using our past experiences as jumping off points for understanding ourselves. In this session we’ll consider how memories are really just stories we tell ourselves, and how we can use these stories to construct an authentic and compelling character voice. 

Session 5 - Stepping Outside of Ourselves: Experiments in Narrative Perspective

It is generally accepted that the first person ‘I’ is the natural point of view for personal writing, and that more often than not, memories will be related in the past tense. However, what does it do to our stories to situate them in a different perspective? What might it feel like for a reader to be insinuated into your experiences through the use of the second person ‘you’? What difficult life moments might the distance of third person allow you to engage with? What happens when all events are recounted in the present or future tense?

Session 6 - Breaking the Rules: Neuroqueering Language and Style

Do you ever find that the ‘right’ word for something you experience just doesn’t exist, and so you have to make one up? When writing, do you find yourself eschewing the rules of ‘standard’ English grammar? In this session, we’ll create and collect our own personal vocabularies and stylistics. We’ll look at examples of reclaimed and newly created language, as well as the ways we can bend & break the ‘rules’ of punctuation and sentence structure to fit our linguistic needs. 

Session 7 - F**k the Hero's Journey: Images, Maps, and Alternative Structures

In both fiction and memoir it is often expected that your narrative should fit neatly into pre-ordained structures: Aristotle’s Arc, Freyag’s Triangle, The Hero’s Journey. But aren’t some stories spirals and explosions? Don’t some journeys meander? And what about maps and images that are also stories? Drawing from and reflecting on both Meander, Spiral, Explode by Jane Alison and Blood & Guts in High School by Kathy Aker, we’ll experiment with using alternative patterns, as well as maps and images, to create counternarratives, and deconstruct dominant concepts of structure in storytelling. 

Session 8 - Fiction or Fact?: Breaking the Reader/Writer Contract

When we call our writing ‘memoir’, ‘autobiography’, ‘personal essay’, or any other form of non-fiction, we are entering into a reader/writing contract that essentially says: what comes next is the truth as I know it, expressed to the best of my capability. But what if the truth as you know it is ‘unbelievable’? We’ll discuss Akweke Emezi’s Freshwater, ‘unpalatable’ truths in the publishing industry, and both the freedom and restriction that comes from labeling your lived experience as fiction.

Session 9 - Monsters, Magic and Machines: When Realism Just Won't Cut It

Have you ever felt like an alien, observing humans as an outsider? Have you ever strongly related to an android character, striving to understand what it means to be human? Were you ever convinced you had powers like Matilda? Or that you were psychic? Have you ever found yourself feeling like Alice in Wonderland, the only sane person, in an insane world? Or like Frankenstein’s monster, forever the ‘other’? Reflecting on Kai Cheng Thom’s Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars, we’ll consider how blurring the lines between realism and fantasy, autobiography and invention, fact and fiction, can allow us to get to the actual ‘truth’ of our lived experiences.

Session 10 - Sharing Circle

To wrap up the course, the group will come together to share their experiences, thoughts, reflections, realisations, questions, invitations, and writing.

This course aims to be neurodivergent, disabled, chronically ill, and trans* centred.

As standard:

-Sessions include live closed captioning

-Sessions are recorded and shared with course members

-All slideshow and reading materials shared directly with members

-All exercise instructions are written out and given verbally

-No pressure to use mics or cameras - students can choose to use the chat function to communicate with the group

-No pressure to share work. 

-All sessions will have a mid point break, but students are encouraged to eat, drink, stim, move about the room, and take breaks as needed.