Dyslexia Stories 9

Using the written word to tell your dyslexia story This is the last in a series of blog posts about dyslexia stories by a member of Dyslexia Scotland. In the 3 posts immediately preceding this one, we looked at ways you can tell your own dyslexia story. In this final post we finish that discussion by turning our attention to writing your dyslexia story. I have grouped the ways you can tell your story in writing into 2 sets below. The 1^st set consists of forms of writing you would use to give factual accounts of your dyslexia story. In these you would simply tell your story from your perspective. The 2^nd set consists of forms you would use to give creative accounts of your dyslexia story, such as a poem or play. You can use any of the forms to write your story, whether you intend to share it or not. For example, you may find that writing your story in the form of a blog post, even if you have no intention of posting it on a blog, helps you to express yourself and focus your ideas. If you find writing difficult, you can use voice recognition software to transcribe your story e.g. Siri, Dragon Dictation or Vlingo. Alternatively, you can make an audio recording and ask someone to transcribe it for you. A. Blogs, stories on websites, books, letters, emails

Dyslexia Scotland blog

Contact Helen on 01786 435126 or email [email protected] 2. RASP guest blog RASP is a publishing house exclusively for dyslexic writers. https://r-a-s-p.co.uk/guest-blog 3. Dyslexia Action’s ‘It’s me’ https://www.dyslexiaaction.org.uk/its-me Post your story to their website. You can include an image. You need to register first at https://www.dyslexiaaction.org.uk/user/register 4. Dyslexia Together’s ‘Your Story’ Post your story to their website. You can do so anonymously. https://www.dyslexiatogether.org.uk/your-story.html 5. Write a book If you want to give an extended account of your dyslexia journey you can write a book. Two examples of print books are:

Rosemary Peel’s ‘My Dyslexic Journey’
Sam Sagmillar’s ‘Dyslexia My Life: One Man’s Story of His Life With a Learning Disability’

6. Write a letter or email

You can write a letter – which you don’t send – telling your story to anyone you choose. This allows you to say things that you would not say to someone, but which you feel. Writing letters like this can help to resolve painful memories and heal emotionally. You can write such letters to as many different people as you like. You can also write them to someone you have never met who has inspired you, or someone you knew who has died
For models of emails which tell dyslexia stories, see https://susanbartondyslexiastories.com

B. Creative writing You can tell your whole story or focus on one isolated incident or theme. 3 good models of this are:

‘D is for Dragons’, a poem by Anita Govan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmWgM_Hb8jI; and
‘Disobey me’, a poem by Sally Gardner

https://soundcloud.com/addedmusic/flip-flop-with-edits-for-approval 3. ‘To my favourite teacher’, a love letter to her library by Caitlin Spence https://witness.theguardian.com/assignment/5464bae4e4b04484e857959d/1241136 Once you have written your piece of creative writing, here are some ideas of where you can publish it:

On google drive (you can self-publish here)
Submit it to ‘RASP’, a publishing house exclusively for dyslexic writers https://r-a-s-p.co.uk/about
Scottish Book Trust’s ‘Journeys’ Project

Submit your story in print for publication in the Scottish Book Trust’s ‘Journeys’ collection for Book Week Scotland 2015. You can use any form of storytelling you like e.g. poetry, comic strip, play. The deadline for submissions is 30 June 2015. https://scottishbooktrust.com/writing/journeys This series of blog posts on dyslexia stories has discussed the following points: