Welcoming new writers to our publication
Neurodiversified is welcoming new writers
We hope you’re been enjoying a safe and relaxing holiday season, and are looking forward to the new year ahead.
If not, well, that’s totally okay too. Given the past 20 months or so, it’s perfectly understandable for us to be holding our collective breath, peeking around the corner at what’s to come with trepidation rather than excitement.
“Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind?”
Memories
Memories are a funny thing. There has been some cool research done over the past decade helping us to better understand how our memories work. Some of the most significant findings have demonstrated how fallible our memories really are.
Our memories are not like instant replays, playing back an event in exact detail. Memories are updated with information produced during retrieval. When we recall an event — especially one that provokes intense emotions — our brains fill in missing information, or skew the memories due to unconscious biases in favour of our own perspectives.
Each time we do this, our brains update those memories with the new information we’ve added, forever altering our memory and how it will be recalled long-term.
Further interesting research on memories:
People who use nature-based imagery, compared to urban-based imagery feel more positive.
The vantage perspective from which memories are recalled plays a key role in their emotional impact.
January Writing Prompts
It’s not required that stories follow either of the prompts, as long as your writing meets our submission guidelines. If you do, please include #NDPrompts as one of your tags.
Prompt #1: Memories and Perspectives
Tell us about one of your favourite or most life-changing memories from the past year or two.
If you wish to make it a little more interesting (and perhaps increase your positive associations), describe the memory from someone else’s perspective — anyone’s.
They don’t have to have been there, or even a real-live person, and it might even be more interesting if they weren’t or aren’t.
Prompt #2: Cost-Benefit Analysis
Are you a risk-taker? Impulsive? Do you tend to play it safe, evaluating as many factors as possible before moving forward?
Those of us with ADHD tend to be impulsive, but that’s not always a bad thing. Willingness to take risks can make us successful entrepreneurs, and open the door to opportunities we may otherwise have missed.
Tell us about a time you took a big risk. Did it pay off? Did you regret it? What might you have done differently if you had a do-over? How does your neurodivergence influence your decision-making?
If neither of those prompts speak to you, please feel free to write about anything that relates to our subject matter, or check out our prompts history to see if any of these spark your creativity.
It’s not required that stories follow either of the prompts, as long as your writing meets our submission guidelines. If you do, please include #NDPrompts as one of your tags.
For more great reads about neurodiversity, parenting, and advocacy, follow Neurodiversified.
We’re always on the lookout for more educational, informative, and well-written articles about ADHD, Autism, mental health, twice exceptionality, neurodiversity, parenting, advocacy, and education.
Want to write for us? Check out our submission guidelines.
Write for Neurodiversified.
References
Bridge, D. (2012). Neural Correlates of Reactivation and Retrieval-Induced Distortion. Journal of Neuroscience, 32(35) 12144–12151. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1378-12.2012
Bridge, D. (2012). Consolidation of Retrieved Memories: Retrieval facilitates and distorts long-term memory [Dissertation]. Northwestern University. https://proquest.com/openview/5bca93167a688fbe8b0a228b818f437a
Conaghty, S. (2021). Recalling autobiographical memories of nature moments for improved positive affect [Thesis]. University of Adelaide. Available from https://hdl.handle.net/2440/133190
Vella, N. C., & Moulds, M. L. (2014). The impact of shifting vantage perspective when recalling and imagining positive events. Memory, 22(3), 256–264. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2013.778292