Writing non-neurotypical characters with respect

Discussion in 'General Advice' started by Vacuum Energy, Jun 11, 2015.

  1. Vacuum Energy

    Vacuum Energy waterwheel on the stream of entropy

    One of the things that confuses and irritates me is why many writers insist on treating neuroatypicalities in a "freak show" manner, i.e. "look at how weird and different this person is!"

    Thing is: it takes a willingness to understand that non-neurotypical people have valid internal experiences to write them properly and well. Why is that so damn hard for people who are closer to neurotypical? I guess at least part of it is what LW calls the typical mind fallacy.

    (There's an amazing post by slatestarcodex on a similar note, by the way, postulating that a great number of anti-gay activists are actually closeted gay people who don't understand that there is a difference between gay and straight people at all. It's pretty great.)

    So it's something I work on, on a regular basis. Do you have any particular tips for that?

    Mine are: you should try to look at accounts from the kind of people that you're trying to write to see how it feels like in the first person. Never trust diagnosis criteria, and absolutely never create a character who specifically fills all the diagnosis criteria on purpose. Professional accounts are sometimes good and sometimes bad, and I've had to cultivate a sense for whether the writer seems to be empathetic or not.
     
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  2. Kaylotta

    Kaylotta Writer Trash

    This is a really good question, and one I've wrestled with on and off over the years. ('cause i'm so old. but you know what I mean.) I can't say I really have an answer for you, except to observe the people around you. I think we as authors are far more likely to create a well-rounded character who happens to be non-neurotypical if we start by observing someone in our own lives who suffers from that particular illness/condition.

    I guess my first question would always be "why are you starting with the non-neurotypical character trait?" as in - is this essential to the story? if so, why? figuring out why a character has PTSD, for instance, will tell you a hell of a lot about your story and probably about your narrative arc. if the trait is not essential to the story, why are you including it? is it to meet some sort of 'equality quota'? if so, um? if not, is it essential to the character but not to the story? okay, i can run with that - like, for instance, Galley is, Word of God, autistic. he's also got hella C-PTSD. the C-PTSD is fairly essential to several of the Boat Trolls story arcs, but the fact that he is autistic is just ... well, it's just him.

    gah, I'm babbling.

    decanting all that:
    • figure out why you want this character to be not neurotypical - not because it's a bad thing for a character to be non-neurotypical, but because figuring this out will give you a better handle on your story and on the character.
    • observe people who are like this. ponder them. think about what makes them tick.
     
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