#writing disabled characters questions

[otterloreart]

I was thinking about how the seapony magical girl levitates as default because I couldn't think of another good way for her to get around, which moved my mind over to the topic of wheelchairs and if she were a wheelchair user. I like the idea of a magical girl whose wheelchair transforms as part of her outfit (if it's an extension of her body it should change too after all)

I felt like this idea probably isn't a /good/ one, at least in this context, so I did a little bit of reading trying to find wheelchair users' opinions about this topic. It's one of those things where I felt vaguely uncomfortable with it but couldn't pinpoint why persay.

I found this post discussing positive disability rep and I think the sticking point is that it seems very plot-convenient that the seapony main character also happens to already have a useful wheelchair for her transformation. I also generally feel like having her transform into a legless magical seapony might have some negative implications or be trope-y. After all, I reverse-engineered wheelchair idea from her not being able to walk in seapony form.

Most of the other advice discusses the exact disability, doing research on it to properly represent it, etc. My idea for the wheelchair route would be that she's an ambulatory wheelchair user/has some use of her legs, but I don't have anything more specific than that. Maybe her disability could sort of tie in with her magical water abilities; my understanding is that people with chronic pain, joint issues and some other conditions can sometimes swim as a safe form of physical exercise. So she could particularly enjoy being in water regularly for that reason. But I'm not actually sure if that is actually good representation, or it ties in too well?

Anyways, I'm not planning on actually making the takara ponies into a story, but I was exploring these concepts and I wanted to post the concept art and ask other people their thoughts.

If anyone feels like offering their opinion on the ideas in this post, please feel free to comment.

[2129888]

i don't remember how i stumbled across this interview but i've never seen anyone mention it so i'm dropping it here <3 it's a little dated but still like super valuable and a decently in depth look at higuchi-sensei's previous works and how she works and thinks as a mangaka... personally i think it's the most i've ever learned from an interview of hers. super interesting stuff :0)

[the-eldritch-it-gay]

I genuinely think that my confidence in my writing has never recovered and maybe will never from being in a collaborative writing group online for ages and then having the leader of the group ask me if my character “really belonged” in the story, because they were significantly disabled and the setting was taking place in the future. And every time I tried to joke about something or came up with an idea I was questioned about its “realism”.

[mantisgodsdomain]

We ought to write more Pokemon fic some time. We want to recreate the Pokemon Manners/Human Manners cheat sheet that we made a few years ago we think that this site would like the Sliding Scale Of Politeness When Greeting A New Pokemon You've Never Met Before.

[lovinnelily]

Y'all do know you can't make Jason be NOT white without changing his whole character, right?

For other characters, yes, because their physical appearance are not that influential in their story, on how they are viewed by people, on their personality formation — you can have a black/asian/indigenous/arab/brown/latino/etc Nico and yes, the hate he gets will have a undertone of racism but at the same time nothing significant on his story, motivation or personality will need to change. This is also true for other characters: Clarisse risks repeating the "aggressive WoC" stereotype but the character itself doesn't change.

This isn't true for Jason, whose main character trait is how he is perceived by others and how he showcases himself to others based on that perception. (specially with how little effort Riordan put on him besides making him perfect-er Percy who's somehow also weaker and less important than him).

Let's not pretend a black, Arab, indigenous, Asian, Latin man, etc, in the USA would ever be treated with the universal reverence Jason gets from New Roma, you can't have the illusion of perfection and most of all, of invincibility they have about him when you see him suffering racism or xenophobia in the middle of a mission. In theory, nothing in his life has ever gone wrong, that's his image, destined to be king, he is supposed to have no weakness on his peers eyes.

He is not trying to prove people wrong, he is trying to prove them right; he isn't worthy despite their prejudice, on the contrary, he only tried to make himself worthy to fulfill their expectations. He can't be a woman or an immigrant or have a visible disability or any other thing that strays him from a perfect ideal by western society standards, and be that same character.

[lurkingismypastime]

Currently on a deep dive through medical journals to see what the long term effects of somebody’s heart stopping are, what part of the brain deteriorates first, and several TBI related disabilities, all for the sake of fanfiction

[clownrecess]

Hi. I'm a speaking person. I'm currently writing a little something about two creatures who don't understand each other very much for different reasons, and an attempt of one of them to communicate is to talk, but the other can't answer. I usually try to keep the talking in my writing to a minimum because i just struggle a lot with writing it. I didn't really consider it (which is probably part of the problem), but i just saw your post about ableism against non speaking people, and i would like to know if you could give me advice on how to portray this non speaking person in a way that doesn't resolve in an ableist portrayal of non speaking people or maybe if i should just scrap the whole idea.

Do not infantilize the character. Treat them the same way as speaking characters, and have the other characters do the same. (It is of course okay for the speaking character to not understand at first, but once they DO understand, do not have them infantilize the nonspeaking character, unless the intention is for the speaking character to be ableist.)

If the nonspeaking creature does have a way to communicate, research that form of communication in order to properly write it. When doing said research, acsess information made by users of that form of communication, not by parents or SLPs.

And finally, do not give the character a goal to speak, and do not have them speak at the end of the story. Oral speech isn't superior.

[gideonisms]

what’s it like reading homestuck just because of the locked tomb… totally not because i’m also considering it 🫣

Well, as someone who understands the plot of harrow the ninth and is also listening to a podcast to help me understand the plot of homestuck, I still don't understand the plot of homestuck. Fortunately this doesn't matter because the point seems to be making various characters meet up and say things to each other. Overall, my main opinion is I would like to feed karkat a carrot. his little teeth are adorable and I want to watch him chomp and bite

[the-astrophel-system]

hey, one of our alters is gonna go write a fantasy book right. there's this one girl, shes mid size, maybe autistic coded (still deciding if we are able to represent that), and disabled (she has chronic pain which leaves her unable to fly for long periods of time).

if you are autistic, disabled, or someone who is not skinny. please interact and give us tips on what to add, what to avoid, some stereotypes we should avoid, things you'd like to see represented, or anything else!

any terms i should use or avoid, specifically terms like "fat" and so on. i know its not a bad word, but we'd like to know how to describe our beautiful girl without coming across rude. we've been calling her curvy so far, if that helps!

thanks! if you need more info i can provide it!

[dogbound1128]

I have a character I want to make perpetually nonverbal as a trauma response, but start talking again when his mental health improves

Would that be ableist?

[drjdorr]

is it ok for a character to have an aesthetic cane

I was rereading a work in progress I want to get back into working on(don't ask how long ago I was working on it, writer's block sucks) and I found a detail that I feel I should maybe ask about before making it an actual part of my work because it might be ableist.

I have a rich douche smarmy character who has a cane "he uses for grandeur and presentation more than any actual need" and during rereading I realized that might be ableist but I don't know

now I am technically disabled but not "uses cane" disabled so I am less informed on whether having a character use a cane for basically aesthetic reasons is an ok thing to do, but I'm pretty sure some of my mutuals(who my brain refuses to specify) and maybe some of my followers do use canes so would know more on this and could maybe let me know

[blackbirds-on-the-marsh]

[ID: a screenshot of the reply “same with physical disabilities tbh.” End ID.]

when u go to write a mentally ill person in ur story you are presented two options. the first option is to write your mental illness realistically as you actually experience it with all the ups and downs and people who are like you will resonate with it and feel seen. except every person who reads instagram infographics on mental health that uses the phrase narcicisst for anyone who does anything that crosses them and unironically call themself a dark empath will call you scary and tell you that youre demonizing mentally ill people

the second option is to lie and write inspiration porn for those people to get hard to

[powdermelonkeg]

Cheat Code #3 for accommodating disabled characters in sci-fi/fantasy:

If you want your setting to be accommodating, change the environment more than the person.

i.e.: On a worldbuilding level, if you want to portray a society that keeps disabled people in mind, then that needs to be reflected more broadly, even without your disabled character on screen. Because this means that your society was considering disabled people as part of itself when it was figuring out what's necessary.

If your computer takes voice commands, it should also have an optional keyboard in case someone can't speak.

If your magic school has multiple floors, it should have a teleporting rune circle for those that can't take the ever-changing stairs.

Whenever you have a feature you're adding, ask yourself—"If my character couldn't use this, what would they do instead?" And if the answer is "they'd have to wait until they could" or "they need someone else to use it for them," then your setting isn't accommodating. An accommodating setting always has an actionable answer to that question.

And as a bonus, if you follow through with it, oftentimes you'll end up with a more interesting world and story overall. Spells most people can speak can be written in ancient elven instead? That means you can have a character sneak a spell into a magic-banned city by writing it on their hair ribbon, and that it's possible that a book might be a self-generating spell on its own. Your spaceship has textured lines on the walls to let blind people navigate without guidance? Not only can you make it look artistic (different colored paints, glowing patterns), but now your engineer can make it to the warp core when the power's out and oxygen's finite.

Don't limit yourself just to what's needed in the moment. Figure out interesting alternatives to your setting's features, and your world will automatically feel more alive.

Cheat Code 1: How to avoid eliminating disability in your setting

Cheat Code 2: What kinds of aid to use to accommodate disability

Cheat Code 4: How to personalize your character's disability aid

[imbecominggayer]

Writing Advice: Noticing Bigotry In Your Writing

Tw for mentions of bigotry and discrimination, obvi

Look Up Common Stereotypes For Your Characters

Seriously, this is the best thing you can do in order to incorperate these stereotypes into a full-formed identity. I'm not saying that you can't write a "sassy black girl" or a "happy disabled person".

It's just that if you have any hope of writing these stereotypes into actual 3-dimensional characters, you need to know what you are working with. Look up "Common {Minority} Stereotypes" or "{Minority} Myths"

It's genuinely not that hard to see whether or not your character is a stereotype! Send an ask to @cripplecharacters if you are having trouble with your disablity representation.

Send a submittion to the thousands of Tumblr accounts whose entire schtick is giving you advice!

Let me tell you:

" The Worst Decision You Can Make Is A Subconscious One"

If you go into writing a minority character the way you do with all your characters aka fantasizing and just going straight for it, there is a chance you might undercut your story with bigotry!

Because everyone has bias. That's not a moral failing on your part but it is something you need to consciously fight against in order to write characters who can stand on their own and not be supported by internalized bigotry.

Which leads me to my second and last question.

2. Why Is Your Character Like This?

Investigate why you made the decisions you have made. To help with that, here is a little questionaire!

When I imagine a cruel person what assumptions do I make about their appearance and psyche?

Based on my previous characters, do I have a tendency to lean into a particular archetype when writing my minority characters?

Is there any narrative reason such as plot, themes, and other important devices that would justify my character's personality?

Why did I decide this character would be this particular minority?

How do I view this character in terms of their minority status? Is it condescending? Is it hateful?

What associations do I naturally have between a minority status and social status, personality, and importance?

Would I have treated and viewed this character the same way if their minority status was completely washed away?

Are my minority characters generally relegated to the side lines and only exist to help non-minority characters in their lives?

Is the level of detail, psychological complexity, story, likeability, relatability, and compellingness of minority characters on the same level as non-minority characters?

Do my stories contain symbolism which portrays cruel bigotry-motivated practices as positive or useful?

Do my stories sympathize with bigotry-infused individuals while not extending that sympathy to those who are oppressed by that bigotry?

Have I ever critically looked at my writing and what it says about my worldview on others?

If you are now considering that you have biased belief systems, that's good! Again, it's much better to be aware and fixing your problems instead of not being aware of them.

I hope my little questionaire made you think about your writing in a new way! ;)

Feel free to add your own important "check yourself" questions!

[neil-gaiman]

Hello Mr Gaiman!

I don’t have a question but I just wanted to let you know how much I sincerely appreciate the minority representation in Good Omens. I’m a person with a physical disability, and seeing someone like me on the screen is so rare. And when it does happen, there’s usually something I take issue with, like a depressing image of this person who hates the fact that they’re disabled and can’t live a happy or independent life. The way that Liz Carr’s disability is worked into her character is so cool, I can’t tell you how much it means to have a character like that in a fantasy setting just exist as she is and use her powers to make the world around her more accessible rather than changing herself. I don’t know if you realize how wonderful of a message that is to send to young disabled people. Fingers crossed for a greenlit season 3 so we can see more! 🤞

Thank you so much! When we approached Liz to play the angel Saraqael it was because we loved her as an actress (and I'm thrilled that people responded to her so well).

Once we knew Saraqael was going to be played by Liz then I got to write them a wheelchair and give them miracles to make the human world more accessible (that pointed out perhaps some of the ways it isn't) and we asked Amazon to cover many tens of thousands of dollars in CGI to make the Heavenly wheelchair float, and they agreed.

[writers-potion]

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