Definitely read The Anatomy of Story if you’re a writer/interested in writing as a craft. It is by far the best guide on plot structure I have ever read and even though it focuses mainly on Hollywood plots it can be adapted to any story form. I use it as a starting point for everything I write, highly recommend it!

I don’t get annoyed by the repetition, I actually enjoy it when it’s interesting sounding words or the way a sentence was said was funny wo me when I first heard it. Conjugational recombination is a great word, btw!

The only theory I have is that it might be a form of echolalia, where instead of repeating words out loud you just do it in your head (maybe something like supressed echolalia? I’ve heard some people online say that it can present that way, but idk how generally accepted that idea is.) As far as I know echolalia is also a symptom of tourettes. I don’t know if it can also occurs in allistic people.

I’m not diagnosed, but I stim a lot. When I’m happy I shake my wrists or flail my arms a little and sometimes I bounce up and down. When I’m stressed I rub my hands together in a regular motion and/or scratch myself (arms and neck) and swing from side to side. I also rock a lot, both when happy and stressed. When I eat something I like I kind of wobble the spoon or fork in my hand and as a child I used to hum while eating, but I’ve since stopped doing that. Something I always do no matter my mood is tapping my fingers to the music that’s currently stuck in my head (I always have a song playing in my head or sometimes sentences or funny sounding words, idk why). I used to try and suppress those stims, but I’m much happier now that I mostly embrace them (at least when I’m alone or with people I trust).

This film says it tries to visualize a meltdown - does this actually count as a meltdown? Because if it does I might not be having “small panic attacks” every time I go to the supermarket lol. I always thought meltdowns were an outward thing, with screaming and throwing things and stuff, and the opposite are shutdowns (which I do have sometimes when it gets really bad, then I can’t talk for several days etc). I might have to look into meltdowns some more…

Thanks for this great list! Regarding youtube channels I would also recommend Foster on the Spectrum, they have both ADHD and autism and I like their style & humor.

I love these books so much, my favorite is Network Effect (I love ART very much). I’m really looking forward to the new releases (I think three more books are planned). I also think the main character is very autistic coded, but I read the books specifically because I heard the author is autistic herself, so I had that expectation from the beginning.