Better writer than speaker

A place to talk about your experience of living with Dyspraxia

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jmlc451
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Better writer than speaker

Post by jmlc451 »

My family consider me to be an awful storyteller. Honestly, they may as well take a nap while I scramble to remember a chronological sequence of events & tell it in an engaging manner. That being said, teachers and peers in college regarded stories that I've written as wonderful. I think it's because I have more time to process and edit what I write; rather than speech which, although I'm an articulate speaker in terms of pronunciation, speaking often fails me and makes me a incomprehensible, rambling mess. It's frustrating because my family act like I'm useless, even though they don't know what I'm capable of. It's not like we're passing creative writing pieces around the dinner table. Does anybody else find that they are efficient in the written department but lack effective spoken storytelling skills? I hope I correctly explained this.
SwervingCentaur
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Re: Better writer than speaker

Post by SwervingCentaur »

I sometimes stutter when I'm trying to say something, or even on the phone, I know what I'm trying to say up in my head, but it doesn't come out right. I get frustrated when people interrupt me because I need to start from what I was saying, right from the beginning I can write fantastically, my spelling has always been great, but that's why I'm doing what I want to do. Writing novels. It's easy to write than speak.
Lucy
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Re: Better writer than speaker

Post by Lucy »

Oh yes!! Definitely. Like you, I think it's because I have more time to process when writing than speaking. I notice it's particularly bad when I'm anxious, so job interviews etc are not my forte!
Code_Inconnu
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Re: Better writer than speaker

Post by Code_Inconnu »

Agreed. I was on the debating team at high school, most of the debates in the senior years were impromptu or limited-prep. My arguments were usually okay, but they never sounded as coherent or convincing as I would have liked. Writing was a breeze in comparison.

That being said, on the odd occasion that I exceeded my own expectations when speaking, I found it a lot more satisfying than flying through an essay. The performative aspect must have catered to my narcissistic tendencies :-k
Tom fod
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Re: Better writer than speaker

Post by Tom fod »

Me too. I'm far more confident in my written communication.
Tom
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Monique
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Re: Better writer than speaker

Post by Monique »

Same here. More often than not my sentences end up back to front and I get tongue tied when I'm trying to tell a story verbally xD
Susan69
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Re: Better writer than speaker

Post by Susan69 »

I really struggle to get words out and always have since childhood. I've never been able to speak on a phone, so just say I can't work out what people are saying if I can't see their faces. People assume I must depend on lip-reading. These days with texting and emailing it's much easier for me. It annoys me when companies always want a phone number and a form won't go through without it so I end up emailing them and saying I'm deaf I have no phone as this seems the only acceptable reason why someone wouldn't want to speak on a phone these days! Then they will communicate with me via email only.

Though ironically if someone says they do sign and can chat via videophone I then say I don't sign as I wasn't born deaf cos I can't translate/process BSL fast enough to work out what they're saying in real time conversation. so always make sure written communication is the only option left as I can explain myself much better, problem is a lot of people are lazy and for them its easier to speak than type everything out!
AdiB47
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Re: Better writer than speaker

Post by AdiB47 »

Yes, same here. I much prefer email to phone calls or meetings as it gives me time to select the best words to match what I want to convey.

I do also agree, though, about the satisfaction when speaking works well. I love a good debate, but these are harder when written. Every now and again, when speaking, all the words come quickly and correctly and it’s a wonderful feeling.

The contrast of high verbal reasoning skills to comparatively lower speech reliability isn’t uncommon with dyspraxia. I’ve known people with large, sophisticated vocabularies who only use the simplest of sentences and words in spoken conversation.
jelly1000
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Re: Better writer than speaker

Post by jelly1000 »

I'm not always the most coherant speaker either as I sometimes struggle to think as quickly as I speak. I'm particularly rubbish when asked something unexpected for the first time- in that case I need space to think about how I'm going to reply - the kind of space not afforded on a phonecall or face to face conversation when someone else is expecting an instant reply.
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