Authors Answer 84 – Unusual Author Talents




Linda G. Hill


Gregory S. Close


D. T. Nova



Elizabeth Rhodes


Jean Davis


Paul B. Spence


Eric Wood


S. R. Carrillo


H. Anthe Davis


Tracey Lynn Tobin


Allen Tiffany






Jay Dee Archer



How about you?


13 thoughts on “Authors Answer 84 – Unusual Author Talents”

  1. Does having a strong, seemingly intuitive grasp of the mechanics of written English count as an unusual talent? 🙂

    I have a knack for pattern recognition, even when the patterns aren’t straightforward things. (Apparently this knack is genetic; my twin has it, too, although he’s less likely to use it for making weird fiction-reference jokes: ‘Heh, heh — they said “Pattern”!’) Sometimes it’s a lot of fun, and sometimes it’s distracting (which is why I’ve already typed and then deleted about a dozen tangents in this comment).

    1. I seem to have this with spelling, mainly. Always have, and I often have no clue why other people can’t remember how to spell easy words.

      I should also add that I have an ability to visualise any mechanical, physical, biological, or chemical system or process in my mind. I find it easy to understand them because I can see it clearly in my mind.

          1. I know someone who’s both an artist and a writer despite having aphantasia (which is the only reason I’ve even heard of it). Says he draws pictures of things he “imagines” so he can see what they look like.

  2. Reblogged this on and commented:

  3. (replying to Jay Dee’s comment — there’s no “reply” button there)

    As far as I’ve ever been able to tell, aphantasia is only a minor inconvenience for my brother. Having no ability to recall visual details doesn’t mean not being able to remember them; it just means not remembering them in PICTURES. He’s got an excellent memory for spatial/kinetic details, for example, which is part of why he’s so much better at writing combat scenes than I am. 🙂 Also, since he remembers a lot of things by describing them to himself in words, the way he learned to work around the aphantasia actually gives him a bit of an advantage (in my opinion) over people who are accustomed to literally visualizing scenes in a story first and then having to translate those scenes into words.

    I should ask him if he’d be willing to write something for my blog about what it’s like to be an author with aphantasia…

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