How this book was written A well-written memoir by a man with autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, and other learning disabilities naturally raises the question, How did he write this book? As the primary developmental editor who helped David Patten bring his memoir, Dummy, to its present form and polish, he has asked me to answer this question. After multiple attempts with other writers to begin putting his story on paper, David approached me to work with him. He had written hundreds of pages of narrative containing all the dyslexic spelling quirks and grammatical flaws one would expect. Yet the material, written in David’s inimitable style, was compelling and put the reader inside his perceptions and thought processes. We began working together. I initially recorded over twenty hours of interviews in which David told me his story in great detail. I then outlined a structural map for the book. The interviews, transcribed into text, and scenes already written, were distilled, edited, and developed into initial chapters of the present book. Each chapter underwent a series of revisions. David would listen to each draft of each chapter on a transcribing machine that translates written text into spoken words. Then he and I would go through each chapter together in great depth and detail. In these lengthy, often exhaustive conversations, David would articulate the nuances of the experiences, perspectives, and insights that occurred in each key moment and phase of his early life. In my lengthy conversations with him, I frequently typed detailed notes, writing down David’s words as he spoke and then integrating these new elements into the text in the next revision. In this way, the vivid detail of incidents, the emotions they evoked in David at the time, and the insights that emerged in him as a result were woven through the fabric of his memoir.
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