A few years ago I became seriously ill. I was in a coma on heavy duty meds, and had a kidney transplant. I’m much better than I was, but I can’t do a lot of things like I could before.
We’ve now got quite a few kids in the extended family, so a while ago I wrote a short story to try to make it easier for them to understand. My wife and family like the story and have suggested making it into a picture story book. Problem is, I can’t draw and my imagination isn’t very good.
How can I get pictures for the story if I can’t do it myself and don’t have the money to hire someone? I want to avoid using AI tools because of the potential copyright issues.
I haven’t tried the services like Fiverr because I’ve heard that they force a race to the bottom on prices, but does anyone have any experience, or have any ideas of what I can do please?
Thanks in advance :)
One possible interpretation is that autistic individuals can sometimes tend to go a bit overboard when finding a new hobby. We will sometimes find a new topic so engaging that we develop a “special interest” in it and spend days/weeks delving into every possible piece of information and niche knowledge available about that topic, considering all the implications and what-ifs and following all the informational leads.
Spending merely the minimum time required (which in this example is apparently 5 days) to get proficient is harder to estimate because an autist may instead need to spend weeks learning everything. Or, they might not.
For me it’s the opposite - I want to learn the minimum needed to accomplish something, and being forced to study is very difficult. At least, that’s how my brain sees it.
I want to learn, and would be happy to focus on a drawing class, but the neurodivergent part of my brain sees that as torturous. Being forced to do something that I don’t want to do, even if it leads to me doing something that I do want to do, is like nails down a blackboard.
Your description of “being forced to do something” sounds like a distinct situation from a special interest. Special interests are driven by the individual themselves, not forced upon them. I wonder if what you’re thinking of might be the phenomenon called PDA (“pathological demand avoidance”, or more recently rephrased - more accurately IMO - as “persistent demand for autonomy”).
Yes, that’s why I said it’s the opposite ;)
I don’t know what it’s called, but I know that I really struggle with doing things that I don’t want to do.
Oh sorry, I thought you were saying that special interests feel like the opposite for you, my bad!