#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”.

[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. 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.

[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.

[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

[timothy-haye]

Character Bios #4

Andrea, Maverick, Natalie, Tyler, and Valerie(?).

[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?

[aroaessidhe]

2022 reads // twitter thread   

 The Girl In Red

post-apocalyptic horror set after a viral pandemic, about a girl travelling to her grandmother’s house after being separated from her family

surviving against the elements & groups of violent men

disabled bi protagonist, no romance

[lunarharp]

a random draft where i was ramblingg about witch hat & art to myself for myself :)

rare time i feel like actually going off about the thing i’m having fun with right now in more detail ... but not on twt where strangers might try to discuss back at me lol sorry but that is scary. (not that you even have the room to soliloquy on there)

i love how there's characters for varying types of artists to relate to. people like agott who have been adept at drawing from a young age but feel overwhelmed by feelings of not meeting their expectations. and are driven mostly by feelings of wanting to prove their worth..

people like oru who have always been around the art but now are burnt out from commissions and wondering just what they're drawing for... and ones i relate to the most personally like coco and qifrey, who started drawing at an older age to the skilled people around them. like coco i'm so happy that i'm in the world of drawing(/magic) now and excited every day but also weighed down by fears that i'll never get to what i where i need to be after starting at this late stage and also whether i'm really cut out for this....

and like qifrey i only started drawing after a narrow escape from trauma... i started drawing to make sense of what my life is now, just as he was invited by beldaruit to become a witch because it was the only safe path he could take. (although i've not been through anything quite like what he's been through... ouagh)

and there’s tetia who just wants to draw to make other people feel happy about what she’s made, to have fun, and spread hope and happiness and gratitude. who feels so happy whenever someone thanks her for what she’s created - i understand now how it feels to want to thank them for thanking her and how making art, when you get a meaningful response, can be a truly warm communal type experience. but you do need that response - her overwhelming happiness when the dragon thing was happy and she said it was the first time she’d ever felt fully appreciated for her magic and it made her soooo happy. she had been drawing until then, but it was the last puzzle in place to make her realise the breadth of what magic can be for her.

and riche who is determined to not lose the “her”-ness from her art, doesn’t want to learn new techniques and become more regular and orthodox in style if it means she feels she’s losing something... i get that!!! precious autistic-coded child... the ways we feel about our art differ depending on our own mental landscapes. hahhhh... shirahama said she began this series because she was having a conversation with artist friends about how it feels like drawing just really is magic. i mean..... it is.

i think writing feels like magic too, and i’m glad i can do both now. any creation is total magic. i’ve drawn scenes that were in my head and that’s let other people see them and if i can trust their comments about it, has moved them in some way or at least let them imagine a scene or a situation that they wouldn’t have imagined otherwise. but it’s different from just telling someone about it. when you draw something, or write something it really exists now - outside of you. THAT’S SO WEIRD.

i liked drawing a lot of takarazuka things (before i realised i got kind of burnt out drawing all this transcore stuff that people were not exactly responding to because it’s so niche and weird lmao) but drawing fanart for something that also ONLY exists in art is so special. it’s not acted by real people. like.. they’re just little people that someone drew and now i draw them too. total magic. and she gets up and draws them every day the same as me...

i love that a manga isn’t just art, it’s storytelling too. doing both writing and drawing at the same time - it feels like such a perfect and fascinating combination of skills and facets of creation. i’m better at writing than drawing, so i don’t feel like i can express my original stories well enough in comic form just yet. but i might just get there.

the world is so confusing and overwhelming and terrible every day. only creation is something i can understand. sometimes i can’t understand it - when i feel REALLY bad, it’s definitely like, what’s the point. and i wish i had more things to experience at present than just creation - i want to be outside and just feel and be as well as create. and at some point i’ll definitely stop posting my creations online. but creating has become something that i don’t need to understand the reason for it - so at those times when i wonder what the real point to any of this is.... lately, i usually still create anyway. just as you’d still breathe and sleep even though you’re hurt and confused by the horrors of the world. it’s becoming how i express myself. i find myself drawing pretty much every day because it’s part of how i make sense of shit now and i naturally want to do it. not doing it is painful.

i hope this magic continues. i hope it becomes far more wonderful than i can even imagine from here.

and i won't lose.

[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

[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!