#mod faelan

[cripplecharacters]

How would I go about portraying an autistic character in a world where there wouldn’t be the terminology for that sort of thing? It’s a fantasy novel that mostly surrounds fairies, and I’m considering having her family think she’s a changeling (something I know has ableist roots and could be shown to be wrong as she’s just an autistic human)

Hello, thanks for your question!

Using pretty direct Autistic coding would be your best bet for making the character as obviously Autistic as possible without having the in-world terminology for it. This could include showing the character stimming, having distinct speech patterns from the rest of the cast, experiencing shutdowns or meltdowns when relevant, fixating on particular interests, keeping a regular routine (and getting upset when it's disrupted), and reacting more strongly to sensory input than the rest of the cast, among other things. Readers who are Autistic or otherwise familiar with Autism will probably clue in quite quickly if you depict these kinds of traits.

While the idea of changelings being equated with disabilities--and Autism in particular--has grown in popularity over the past decade, I would still advise a lot of caution in associating Autistic characters with changelings. While some Autistic people (especially those of us outside of Europe where changelings originated) do identify with changelings due to feeling othered by society, many of us don't because of the negative context of the original changeling stories. I feel that the real-world history behind the stories should be taken into serious consideration before drawing any direct parallels between disabled people and changelings.

Though it's absolutely plausible that the changeling stories did potentially originate as ways to explain the presence and development of disabilities in children as many theories argue, the changeling stories themselves don't frame changelings in a positive or even neutral light--changelings are creatures you absolutely do not want in your home or family and are seen as undeserving burdens on a family's hard-earned resources. There are documented historical instances of people--adults and children alike--being beaten, abused or murdered just on suspicion of having been changelings. I feel that this context is often lost outside of Europe, as we don't always realize that changelings were taken very seriously, especially in rural communities, and were not just harmless bedtime stories.

Because of this, I would suggest that, if you go the changeling route, you take the time and effort to portray it as a particularly dehumanizing and potentially dangerous form of ableism, and approach the subject with delicacy. Otherwise, if your portrayal of fairies in your story is not negative the way they tend to be when associated with creatures like changelings, you could keep the foundations of the changeling story--a human replaced by a fey creature--but tweak the perceptions your character's society might have around them, and perhaps change the name to something that doesn't evoke the same connotations as the changeling.

Other Autistic people are welcome to add their thoughts!

-Mod Faelan

#anonymous #mod faelan #autistic representation #fantasy species #tw ableism #fantasy setting

[sakurabunnie]

He looks great in blue! (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

#my characters #faelan lavellan #faelan screenshots #i would have preferred to put him in something more dalish or a different color of the coat outfit but sadly i don't have access to mods

[cripplecharacters]

Hello!

I've been working on doing research for some of my physically disabled characters, and with regard to that, wondering what I should be focusing on so that I can maximize my efforts. Like I want to do my own research, but I'm not sure where to focus most of that energy. Do you have any lists of "questions you should have enough knowledge to answer if you're writing a character with x disability?" Like examples I can think of would be "what restrictions does x disability pose when real people with that disability are traversing the environment your character lives in, and how do they usually accomodate it?" or "what are several problematic tropes that real people with x disability don't appreciate, and why?"

Thank you so much!

Hello, thanks for your question!

It already sounds like you're on the right track with regards to your research, but off the top of my head here are some things I'd want an author to feel comfortable answering before writing a disabled character:

The character's disability/ies. Get as specific as possible–even if you don't explicitly identify it in the text, you as the author should know what your character's condition is or would be in the real world. You need to know what the disability is to understand how it affects the character's life. "Nebulous heart problem" doesn't really cut it when it comes to good representation. This is also important in order to know which particular tropes to avoid. If the character is multiply disabled, look into how those comorbidities might affect them in unique ways.

The character's medical treatment(s). Does the character have access to the right doctors and specialists to treat their condition? Do they take medication, and does it have side effects? Have they undergone surgeries and/or physical therapy? Have their experiences with the medical system (or equivalent, based on the setting) been positive or negative? When writing a modern setting, take particular care to consider how other axes of oppression, such as race and class, affect access to and experiences with medical care.

How long the character has been disabled. Is their disability congenital, or did it occur later in life? Was it the result of an injury or trauma? What kinds of memories and feelings does your character associate with the disability and/or the event that may have caused it? A newly disabled character is very different from a character who's been disabled for a long time/their entire life.

If the disability was acquired later in life, what did they gain and what did they lose when they became disabled? The chances of nothing changing in the character's life if they acquired their disability–especially as an established adult–are slim.

The symptoms of their disability. This sounds like an obvious one, but surprisingly often I see authors make assumptions about what a character would experience that are quite inconsistent with the experiences of people who actually have that disability. For example, not every traumatic brain injury will cause memory loss, but people often make that assumption. Not every time of chronic pain feels the same. You should be able to differentiate between popular myths about the disability you're portraying and the actual facts about said disability.

How the disability is affected by the character's environment and social context. You should have a pretty good idea of which factors the character will need to accommodate in the setting. This can include anything from which mobility aids they might use and in which situations, how their home or workspace has been modified to accommodate their disability, how they handle the climate or weather, how people react to seeing them on the street, etc.

How prevalent the disability is in the setting. Just like in real life, different visible disabilities will get different reactions from people, and this will vary a lot from place to place. Consider if this is a disability that is widely known and accommodated in the setting and which supports would be available for it.

The character's support system. This is both a social and practical question. If the character requires a caretaker, who is it and what is their relationship? If they don't, who do they go to when they need help with something related to their disability? Do they know anyone else who shares their disability, or have any connections to a disabled community?

I hope these offer a decent starting point in terms of directing research. There are likely some points I've missed, so I'll leave this post open for replies and comments from other disabled people who would like to offer suggestions.

Best of luck writing!

-Mod Faelan

#mod faelan #research #physical disability #writing-with-olive

[cripplecharacters]

Hi! Do you have any advice specifically about writing a disabled character that wasn't born with their disability but that was critically injured? Like the first few months. The mindset of going from being abled to disabled and figuring stuff out. (I don't necessarily plan on writing from their pov because I can't speak on it but they're still a main character and having more knowledge about it would be helpful while writing!)

Hi there, thanks for your ask!

Keep in mind that the way you write this character will likely vary depending on what the injury is, and what the resulting disability is.

I'm going to answer this as someone who became physically disabled with fibromyalgia in adulthood due to a serious injury (spontaneous pneumothorax/lung collapse with long-term healing complications).

Here are some of the things I experienced that a newly physically disabled person might feel in the first months after their injury:

Some degree of confusion or denial. They might still wonder why they haven't fully healed from their injury and can't live their life the same way, because they've internalized their sense of ability so deeply.

They'll likely push themselves too hard multiple times, trying to test out how far they can push themselves without consequences.

They might initially refuse or be too afraid to ask for help when they need it and instead try to push through.

Experimenting with available treatments, like medications, physiotherapy, etc. These might vary depending on your setting.

They'll have a hard time letting go of anything that was important to them that they can no longer do the same way and search for alternative ways to do them where possible.

Reliance on their support system more than ever before. There will be good days and bad days. They might ask for reassurance more often.

They might feel frustrated and lash out when people try to push them past their limits, make insensitive comments about their disability, or draw comparisons between who they are now and who they were before their injury. Comments like, "Once you get better...," or "Stay positive, you never know what might happen," will make it harder for them to go through their natural grieving process.

They will notice ableism far more than they ever did before, especially if they now have mobility issues. If your story is set in the real world, this will feel overwhelming, depressing and infuriating to them, because ableism is everywhere.

They might re-organize their living space to be more accessible to them, and become more comfortable doing things in an unorthodox or unusual way if it works for them.

Re-evaluating their goals, values and desires. They'll start to let go of things they didn't actually want all that much, and focus more on the things they genuinely love.

Seeking connection with other physically disabled people! This will help them accept the changes in their life more than almost anything else.

Keep in mind that these are all personal, subjective, and dependent on a person's circumstances when they sustain debilitating injury. For example, it's easier to cope with acquiring a physical disability if you're financially well-off and can afford specialized medical care, compared to someone who can't.

Writing a newly disabled character can be very difficult as your instinct might be to write self-loathing, depressed characters. I'd advise to steer clear of this, and instead try to write characters exploring new lifestyles and learning new things about themselves in the process. Don't shy away from writing grieving characters, but that shouldn't be the only thing you depict the character feeling! Sure, my life might have been easier on the surface if I hadn't sustained that injury, but it's taught me a lot and I appreciate the emotional growth it fostered in me and the relationships I've built and strengthened in the process.

Overall, remember that a newly disabled character is struggling first and foremost with losing access to things that are designed to be inaccessible to disabled people. The problem the character is facing shouldn't be that they feel bad about being disabled, it should be the fact that they're now reckoning with societal inaccessibility and ableism in a way that they never had to before.

As always, this ask is open for input from anyone who's acquired a disability after an injury!

-Mod Faelan

#mod faelan #injury #acquired disability #physical disability

[cripplecharacters]

Hi, I have a question.

Can somebody identify as disabled even if their medical condition can fully heal in time? For context: a character from my book suffers from Post-Concussion Syndrome after a head injury he got during a fight. He gets terrible migraines multiple times per week and has trouble with balance and remembering things. He also gets even more sensitive to sensory input. This prevents him from doing his job and hobbies and will be something he struggles with for multiple books. The thing is that Post-Concussion syndrome can last from three months to a year or even longer, and he was already prone to migraines before, so I suppose he might never fully heal, but it could happen as the syndrome is treatable. Can he identify as disabled?

Hi, thanks for your question!

Short answer: Yes, people can identify as disabled even if the disabling condition is temporary.

Long answer: Virtually everyone, at some point in their life, will experience some kind of temporary disability. That doesn't make those experiences not disabling just because they're ostensibly more common/frequent than permanent or congenital disabilities. Even if they become able-bodied again, people incapacitated by injury or illness, for example, are still functionally disabled for as long as those conditions last.

While temporarily disabled people are not legally considered disabled in many places and thereby not typically entitled to disability benefits, this is a policy failure that is not indicative of disabled people's own perspectives on disability. Temporarily disabled people are absolutely welcome in the disabled community and encouraged to identify themselves as disabled if they so choose.

In the case of your specific character, I would note that while Post-Concussion Syndrome is definitely a temporary disability in and of itself, a character who is prone to migraines is already disabled before sustaining additional injuries. Migraines are a chronic neurological condition and are considered a dynamic disability, which refers to a condition whose severity fluctuates over time and/or day to day. So while your character could certainly identify as disabled, it's not just because of the Post-Concussion Syndrome!

As always, disabled folks are welcome to add their thoughts.

Best of luck writing!

-Mod Faelan

#anonymous #mod faelan #temporary disability #migraines #post-concussion syndrome #physical disability #disabled characters

[cripplecharacters]

Hi! A little while ago you made a post where you mentioned a character who suffers from migraines would be considered disabled. I have had periodic migraines since I was a kid (varying in frequency and intensity, and now tend to get them associated with changes in the weather/seasons), and have never heard them described as a disability before. Is there a certain threshold for migraines to be considered a disability? Apologies if this sounds insensitive - I promise it is made in good faith.

Hello, thanks for your question! I love these kinds of identity-related questions, so apologies in advance for the slight ramble.

(The post referenced in this ask can be found here for anyone interested.)

This may be an unsatisfying answer, but it really depends on the person and whether they're personally comfortable identifying as disabled. This is true not only for people with migraines, but people who experience any kind of dynamic disability whose severity fluctuates over time or from day to day -- and especially so for people who may experience both extremes of being functionally able-bodied one day and fully debilitated the next.

My personal experience has taught me that people will often think their good days somehow cancel out the bad, and this gives them a kind of imposter syndrome when it comes to engaging with disabled community. My aim isn't to force people to identify as disabled (and I hope it didn't come across that way!) but rather to emphasize that there is no "correct" way to be disabled, that it's okay to find solidarity in disabled community even if you have more good days than bad, and to encourage us to think about why some conditions "count" in popular imagination as disability and others don't, no matter how debilitating they may be.

Some people who experience dynamic conditions like migraines (as just one example of many) might genuinely not consider their condition a disability and won't necessarily benefit from identifying that way, and that's completely okay. My mother gets a couple migraines per year that last about a day, and doesn't consider this a disability in itself because she just doesn't really feel they impact her life in a meaningful way. But a good friend of mine gets them much more frequently and isn't able to live normally/needs specific accommodation for days or weeks at a time, and does consider this a disability because it has a profound impact on their comfort and lifestyle. It just depends on what resonates with people and what they feel speaks most authentically to their experiences.

Just a sidenote as some people may not know this, but it's also exceedingly rare for a doctor to just come out and tell you that your diagnosis makes you disabled. In my experience, they'll hardly ever even use the word "disabled" at all. I've known people to go years living with a diagnosis the community practically unanimously sees as a disability, yet fully identifying as able-bodied without even thinking to connect with us for support, just because they expected a medical professional to tell them the moment they became disabled.

Ultimately, there are no hard and fast rules for who is "allowed" to identify as disabled. My own personal stance is that if people find comfort and solidarity in recognizing themselves as disabled and benefit from connecting with disabled community, I have no interest in interrogating them to figure out how affected they are by their condition or deciding whether I think they're disabled "enough" to call themselves that. I believe them to know their experiences best.

Even if someone lives with a dynamic condition and decides intentionally not to identify as disabled, I do think we all ultimately benefit from introspection about our own sense of ability and way of inhabiting the world, and from asking ourselves why so many people allow themselves to live in any manner of pain and discomfort before they'll let the word "disabled" even cross their mind.

I hope this helps explain my answer to that particular ask a bit more! While not necessarily writing related, per se, I do think these conversations are important, and I hope that at least one person comes away from these types of asks with something new to think about.

-Mod Faelan

#mod faelan #migraines #dynamic disability #identifying as disabled #physical disability

[cripplecharacters]

Hey so I saw that it’s problematic to have a character overcoming a disability. Would this extend to physical therapy that changes a characters level of mobility? Are temporary disabilities fine if I make it clear it’s temporary from the beginning and the reason it’s temporary has nothing to do with any cures

Hi, anon! There are multiple distinctions between the fabricated narrative of overcoming one’s disability and a person naturally experiencing different levels of disability, including temporary disabilities. 

Firstly, in fiction, characters ‘overcoming’ their disability often includes an unrealistic cure-- either it simply does not exist in our world, it’s prohibitively expensive, or a character is able to make an 100% recovery when in reality that would not be expected. Another aspect of the cure trope is the implication that a character can only be happy once they are cured of their disability, or that they need to be cured/recover to be important to the story, to have positive emotions and relationships, or as the only possible conclusion to their story. 

Temporary disabilities are absolutely fine to write, as is a character regaining mobility and strength via physical therapy.

And finally, the single-story narrative of the cure trope is an overdone story, real disabled people deciding to be ‘cured’ of their disabilities is rarely possible, and when it is, it’s not an objectively bad thing.

-Mod Teeth

Hi there! This is a really good question and I'm glad you asked!

As Mod Teeth said, these are completely separate things and should be approached in distinct ways.

A lot of disabled people's reticence towards the idea of "overcoming" our disabilities comes from the notion that our disabilities are inherently bad things that we should seek to get rid of at all costs. Abled people love to tell stories where disabled people become "normal" in their eyes, because they think it's what we want and can't fathom that we might actually be happy as we are.

Stories in which disabled characters become abled--whether through unrealistic effort, by spontaneous miracle, or by magical cure--just serve to reinforce this and are very damaging to the public perception of disability. Firstly, it gives our abled loved ones unrealistic expectations towards our prognosis--that we'll always make a miraculous recovery if we just tried harder or did things differently because they can't differentiate between ableist fiction and reality, which can be incredibly frustrating for those of us with permanent or degenerative conditions. Lots of previously abled people in real life who become disabled at some point--either naturally or due to an injury or illness--feel like their lives are over because of stories like this that tell us we're only valuable and can only be happy when we're abled. It's just not true!

That isn't to say that you can't write disabled characters doing what they can to make their lives easier and improving somewhat over time (for example, by taking medications, getting physiotherapy, seeing new doctors and specialists, etc.). Just keep it realistic (i.e., know that we aren't typically seeing wild improvement overnight, and that some people just won't improve no matter what we do), and recognize that seeking to manage our symptoms as well as possible isn't the same thing as wanting to be cured. Yes, some disabled people in real life would choose to cure their disabilities if they could--this is their prerogative and they can tell these stories if they wish, but understand that they require incredible nuance and are generally not appropriate stories for abled people to tell on principle.

Temporary disabilities and subsequent recovery processes are a completely natural part of life and totally okay to write about! It's not problematic to depict conditions that can be recovered from just because some of us won't recover from ours. Temporarily disabled people deserve more good representation too; in fact, some of the staunchest advocates for permanently disabled people in real life are people who've been temporarily disabled, and vice versa.

Thanks for your question, and happy writing!

-Mod Faelan

#mod teeth #cures #disability cure #temporary disability #physical therapy #overcoming disability #mod faelan

[cripplecharacters]

My MC uses a cane and experiences chronic pain. I was thinking about making the cause of this chronic pain stem from them being a magic user. In my story, magic users often have chronic pain or need to use mobility aids due to the idea that magic is unable to be contained within organic material (ie a human/animal's body) for a prolonged period of time. Not every magic user has chronic pain and when they do it would impact them in very different ways but I was wondering if this is in anyway ableist? Im not intending to make it seem like disability is a punishment for using magic or anything but I wanted to make sure that this idea wouldn't be offensive or stereotypical towards the disabled community. I'm open to suggestions on how to fix/rewrite this if it is.

Hey there, thanks for your question!

My biggest concern with this premise, as you've expressed, would be the framing of disability as a punishment for something--in this case, being a magic user--as well as a potential association with "otherness" depending on how magic users are treated within your setting, especially if they are oppressed or mistreated in any way.

I do want to point out that the fantasy genre in particular has a tendency to depict disability in ways that are fundamentally divorced from the real world, like being acquired in exchange for something like special powers or being a condition of some kind of mystical ability/bloodline/whatever. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, per se, but its predominance makes it--in my personal opinion--a bit of a tired trope.

That said, while these types of premises aren't my favourite for the above reasons, I don't inherently dislike this idea so long as you take care to make sure that their disabilities are not seen as or intended to be punishments. You can avoid this in part by:

Not having the characters resent their disabilities or wish that they weren't magic users.

Not treating magic users poorly in your setting (I don't know if they are, because it isn't included in the ask, but since it's a common fantasy trope I'll add it anyway).

Depicting what kinds of accommodations would reasonably exist in a setting where magic use is tied with disability would also go a long way, especially if magic users make up a large portion of the population. This would help the disabilities not seem like a fun flavour thrown in for drama while not actually being realistically thought through.

Finally, I also strongly recommend including disabled characters who are not magic users in your story. Disability in speculative fiction is rarely shown just... existing the same way it does in real life. Disabled people exist all around you, not just as a quirk to serve in fantasy worldbuilding, and I certainly encourage all fantasy authors in particular to remember this.

Other disabled people are welcome to add their thoughts as always!

-Mod Faelan

#anonymous #mod faelan #fantasy setting #physical disability #disabled magic users #disability as punishment #fantasy tropes

[cripplecharacters]

Is there a word for autistic people / characters who just talk way less than the average person? or just don't feel like talking a lot of the time? i know there's selective mutism for when its related to stress, but i'm thinking about characters who just don't want to talk out loud sometimes. i know this is something NT people do but i'm thinking about characters who do this a lot, and/or won't force themselves to talk when they don't want to.

Hi, thanks for your question!

I don't think there's a specific word for this--or at least not one that I've personally encountered before.

There is, of course, a distinction between being unable to speak versus simply preferring not to speak, as you've highlighted in your ark. I would just chalk it up to some people being generally less talkative than others for any variety of reasons, be it personality, comfort level, environmental factors, etc. There is the same natural variance among Autistic people and other disabled people that you'd find anywhere else, including just general chattiness!

Some people who are less talkative than average--myself included--are less inclined than a neurotypical person to force ourselves to speak if we don't want to. This is, in my opinion, more where Autism plays a part (i.e. not feeling as beholden to social rules that don't serve us) than the degree of talkativeness itself, if that makes sense.

It's entirely possible that there's a word out there for this that I just haven't heard, so folks are welcome to mention in the replies if they know of something suitable!

But, personally, based on the explanation you've provided, I'm inclined to think you're looking at more of a natural personality trait than a clinical symptom necessarily related to Autism or other disabilities.

-Mod Faelan

#anonymous #mod faelan #autism representation #mute representation

[cripplecharacters]

hi! any important points to remember when writing a disabled character in a position of power? (specifically like, in a government position in a fantasy setting)

i want to go the route of making it a clear point that they’re a strong, confident leader whose main characterization is rooted elsewhere from their disability, but like at the same time i’m afraid that by putting minimal focus on their struggles as a disabled person it’ll look like i’m glossing over the fact that those struggles exist at all.

also i’m worried that i focus so little on their disability that it’ll look like i basically went ”here’s a cool character! hm what other traits to add… ohh yeah they’re also disabled btw isn’t that quirky!” which i feel like is almost certainly a bad thing. of course in their introduction it’s mentioned from the get-go, plus included mentions of how ableist people underestimate them further down the line, but that kind of all i can think of.

thanks so much love the work u guys do on this blog!!

Hi there, thanks for your question!

I love seeing disabled characters in positions of power!

In general, a disabled character in a position of power would likely have access to accommodations that might be unavailable to others, so this could play into how their competence is perceived by others and whether the people around them actually notice their disability as much as they otherwise might. If the disabled character doesn't get a point-of-view in the story, this could be a reason why it might not come up or be referenced constantly.

Depending on the disability, there might be symptoms that actually benefit the character in their current position. For example, an Autistic character might have a much higher attention to detail than their peers and catch mistakes made by others, or a character with ADHD might benefit from bouts of hyperfocus that increase their work output. A character with chronic pain might take full advantage of dips in their pain level and have extremely high output during those times and be more used to working through physical symptoms that would incapacitate abled peers.

Some of the ways you could use to demonstrate the character's disability without over-emphasizing or erasing it completely will depend based on whether this is a main character or the reader ever gets to be in their point-of-view, but you could consider:

Having the character's colleagues make a demand that is incompatible with their disability, and have the disabled character refuse.

Having the disabled character reference their disability in passing, in a positive or neutral way, whenever relevant.

Showing how the character's workspace has been accommodated based on their disability.

Having the disabled character ruminate on how they made it to their position when others with their disability did not.

Having the disabled character advocate for themself if/when others are ableist towards them, knowingly or unknowingly (depending on whether the disability is visible or widely-known or not).

Having some of the character's subordinates complain that the character gets "unfair advantages" (i.e. necessary accommodations) compared to their abled colleagues.

I think a potentially interesting thing to include could be that many disabled people are underestimated, as you mentioned, but are also simultaneously overestimated, and often by the exact same people with no self-awareness. The amount of times we can be both infantilized and seen as incompetent while also being fully expected to live our lives with the same ease as everyone else is staggering. This often appears as condescension from our superiors ("Are you sure you can manage sending that email all by yourself?") while also having to constantly remind the same people about our actual limitations ("I know you asked for time off six months in advance, but what do you mean you can't reschedule that specialist appointment to make it to this meeting I just booked five minutes ago without asking you?"). I would expect this double-standard to almost certainly come up for a character in a position of power in particular.

I hope some of these tips were helpful. Best of luck writing!

As usual, other disabled people are welcome to add their thoughts.

-Mod Faelan

#mod faelan #positions of power #ableism #disability erasure #characterization

[cripplecharacters]

I know everyone would react differently, but what's the best way to write a character reacting to becoming disabled? I'm able bodied so I don't have the experience, and while I havent reached this point writingwise I'd rather ask around BEFORE i reach that point, yknow?

Hi there, thanks for your question!

I've answered a similar question before about how a character might handle the adjustment period after acquiring a disability.

If you're looking for advice about writing the in-the-moment reaction as the character is acquiring their disability, it's very subjective and will vary from person to person. There is a grieving process associated with acquiring a disability, and like any other type of grief, people will cope with it differently. Think of how people react to crisis situations--some are more composed, while others are more likely to panic.

Depending on the cause of your character's disability, they may not even fully realize in the moment that they're disabled at all. Some people, especially if intense trauma is involved, may go into shock or panic. Some may seem composed externally but struggle internally. Others may genuinely accept it more readily. Consider your character's personality and how they've handled stressful or traumatic situations in the past to give you a sense of how they might react.

You're welcome to send a follow-up if you'd like to elaborate on what your character is experiencing / the cause or disabling event and we'd be happy to give more tailored advice.

Best of luck writing!

-Mod Faelan

#anonymous #mod faelan #acquired disability #becoming newly disabled

[cripplecharacters]

hi! I have a question in regards to "abled savior" trope and compassion fatigue. I am currently writing a story that features someone who cares for a severely ill and disabled family member. From personal experience I know that the stress that comes with caretaking can in some cases cause burnout and depression. While this is of course not to be weighed against the struggles of the disabled character in any way, I would like to explore this dilemma in a way so that does mirror my personal experiences while not shifting the narrative in a way that rehashes old and harmful tropes. Do you have thoughts on that and maybe some things to look out for when portraying fatigue and mental health issues in caretakers?

Hello, and thanks for your question! As you've mentioned, this is a topic which should be treated with a lot of care and nuance, as it can be very easy to reinforce ableist stereotypes in storytelling about caretakers. For context about my response, I'm a chronically ill person who does not have a paid or formal caretaker but my partner and roommate often act as caretakers for me in my everyday life.

You're absolutely correct in caretaking being a stressful and difficult job (especially when unpaid or unrecognized by society as a legitimate form of labour). I have a few general questions that I would encourage anyone writing about caretaking to ask themselves and keep in mind as they write:

Whose perspective is the story being told from?

Does the reader ever hear from the disabled character in their own words?

How much agency does the disabled character have in their life and in making decisions about their care?

What relationship does the caretaker have to the disabled person? How do they feel about one another?

Is the disabled character being portrayed as a burden to the non-disabled character(s)?

My advice would be that the negative feelings experienced by your caretaker character should not be directed towards the disabled person in their care. The disabled character should not be framed by your story as a burden to your caretaker character by virtue of requiring care. Caretaking can be incredibly difficult and thankless, but some of us have no choice but to rely on caretakers and shouldn't be blamed for that.

That isn't to say that your caretaker character can never experience fatigue or burnout--but consider where the character directs those emotions.

In text, you can have your character:

Feel frustration and anger towards living in an ableist society that sequesters disabled people and often leaves us solely reliant on caretakers, when care responsibilities should ideally be more holistic and collective.

Wish that caretakers had more financial, physical and material support to make their responsibilities easier. You can have them lament that other characters in their life don't see their caretaking as genuine labour, or won't accommodate their caretaking responsibilities (e.g. medication, hygiene or feeding schedules).

Grieve whatever the relationship dynamic had been before they became a caretaker, depending on their relationship to the disabled character and whether the disability is acquired or congenital, and working through those emotions.

Access mental health supports and talk to other caretakers about their struggles, or ask caretakers and other disabled characters for advice on making their responsibilities easier for both them and the disabled person in their care.

Talk out any sticking points with the disabled person in their care and have them both confide in one another, and have your caretaker character reaffirm their commitment to the disabled character not just because they have to, but because they choose to.

Negotiate arrangements for others to temporarily manage the disabled character's care if they need to take a break due to burnout (following prior discussion with and consent from your disabled character).

I would strongly, strongly recommend that, if nothing else, you don't make the caretaker character consider leaving the disabled person because they are too much work and they don't want to be a caretaker anymore. Instead, your character might condemn abled people who have abandoned their disabled loved ones in need of care. Again, your character can resent the situation they've been put into by the way caretaking is structured and treated in ableist society, but they should never resent the disabled character for requiring care.

Remember that if your caretaker character is getting depressed, chances are that so is the disabled person in their care. We notice what our caretakers are feeling when they're with us. It doesn't feel good to know that our caretakers are exhausted when we have no choice but to rely on them and there's little we can do to ease their responsibilities. We often worry about whether our caretakers resent us for our care needs, and if they're visibly frustrated or exhausted, that fear skyrockets. This isn't to say you should never depict your character visibly upset, but it shouldn't go unacknowledged by your disabled character.

Disabled people in need of care are told that we are burdens and more work than we're worth, but I encourage anyone depicting caretaking to recognize that we make sacrifices too. We often weigh what we do or don't absolutely need in order to ease our caretakers' jobs a bit, but that can also harm us if all we're getting are the absolute bare necessities for survival (for example, if my caretakers are busy and I need to eat but am bedbound, I might choose to go hungry for longer than I should). Caretaking is always a two-way relationship, and both of these characters should be fully fleshed out and three-dimensional. Your disabled character in care should be making their own decisions and asserting themselves when needed.

My last piece of advice--and this ultimately depends on the genre and type of story you want to tell--would be to encourage you to depict joy wherever you can. Disabled people are worthy of not just care but genuine love and affection, and I would love to see more depictions of strong emotional bonds between disabled people and our caretakers. For those of us whose caretakers are loved ones, they should care for us out of love because they want to see us happy and as healthy as possible. There's a lot of grief and depression depicted already in media that revolves around disability, but we could always use more disabled joy.

Thanks again for your question and best of luck writing!

Additional input from disabled people with caretakers is more than welcome :)

-Mod Faelan

#mod faelan #caretakers #mental health #physical disability #compassion fatigue

[cripplecharacters]

I'm writing a mystery story (poisoning, victim's fine). 2/17 suspects are autistic. One wants OUT (when interrogated, overwhelmed) and hates having his stuff looked thru and the other is meets his mentee in secret bc he doesn't want to make it seem like they're conspiring. Is it bad to have the detective suspect them more, misunderstanding (they're both innocent red herrings)?

Hi, and thanks for your question!

I actually think this is a very clever way of setting up a red herring in a mystery story!

Autistic people are often misunderstood and neurotypical people are prone to read malice or guilt into our body language when it's really just us being harmlessly Autistic. I find this scenario to be quite realistic as this is something that happens when Autistic people interact with law enforcement in particular, which is always looking for signs of presumed guilt (by neurotypical standards, which are different from ours!).

I think having your detective suspect them more due to their misinterpretation of Autistic traits is a great opportunity to have your character recognize their own prejudice and ableism when they're proven innocent, and realize that their assumptions were inappropriate. I'd like to see this kind of character feel very embarrassed about their incorrect conclusions, rather than blaming the Autistic characters for "acting suspicious" and misleading them. I would recommend having your detective character offer the Autistic characters a genuine apology for their ableist assumptions and a promise to unlearn those ideas and do better when they work with other Autistic people in the future.

Input from other Autistic people is always welcome!

-Mod Faelan

#mod faelan #autism representation #anonymous

[cripplecharacters]

I’m planning a sci-fi dystopia story, and I want to avoid the “augmentation takes away your humanity” concept. My story does focus on augmentation, but the issue is in the mega corporation that has patented the technology used to make aids. The mega corp exploits individuals who want or need to be augmented, but the aids will never be presented as corrupting or bad in and of themselves. Does this sound alright as a concept? (I'll follow up with more detail if needed.) -Sci Fi Anon

Hi, thanks for your question!

I agree that the argument about augmentation taking away a character's humanity should be avoided, especially considering how prevalent it is in dystopian and cyberpunk media. It's a very ableist perspective which implicitly frames disabled people as inherently less human by virtue of requiring specific technology and aids.

I like that you've instead focused on a much more pertinent issue for disabled people under capitalism today, which is patented and privatized medical care and equipment, that would only be exacerbated in this type of setting.

Framing the aids as necessary medical equipment and essential to survival and health, rather than as elements of "inhumanity," will be important for this story. You could have disabled characters explicitly defend their aids and/or humanity in the story, and speak out against the role megacorporations play in making survival so difficult for disabled people.

Overall, I think this sounds fine as a concept, and I love that you're tackling a common and often ableist sci-fi element from a different angle!

Other disabled folks are welcome to add their thoughts.

-Mod Faelan

#mod faelan #anonymous #scifi #dystopias #augmentation #medical equipment

[cripplecharacters]

Hi, I like writing fantasy and I would like to write about a character that experiences chronic pain as a result of the magical 'gift' they have. I'm not particularly experienced with how chronic pain could affect someone's life so I'd like to know anything general that could help me build a picture or fact file to draw from as I'm honestly at a stage where I am not aware of what I don't know and I find it a lot easier to craft a good character what I have plenty of background information to apply to their life. However, as some more specific questions that I have:

How constant is chronic pain - does it have like a baseline, and can it peak and dip?

If so, how much does chronic pain vary, or is that more of a case by case situation and what is the cause of chronic pain?

How much does the environment someone is in effect the pain they feel?

Would it be realistic or even appropriate for me to give my character a wheelchair - they can walk, however, having the wheelchair makes it easier for them to get around, despite it not being necessary?

Are then any particular sources or books you can recommend that I could use to learn more?

I'm really sorry if this is too much, overwhelming, or offensive. I'm just really, really ignorant and not organised or knowledgeable enough to know where to look and what is reliable. My media seems to be skewed towards mental disabilities and mental health, I can never seem to find much on physical disabilities, I don't know whether that's because there isn't much, or if I'm just really not looking for it in the right places.

I hope you are well, and I hope my questions aren't an inconvenience or problem, thank you for having a blog like this, they can be really insightful.

Hi, and thanks for your questions! This isn't offensive or inconvenient at all--our blog exists precisely to answer questions like these!

A lot of these questions will have different answers depending on which type of chronic pain you're looking to depict, so you should first consider what the origin of the pain is. Is it neurological? Musculoskeletal? A connective tissue disorder? An autoimmune disorder? Is it congenital, or was it acquired later in life? Is it localized to a single area/body part, or is it widespread? I'd recommend doing some digging into different types of disabilities and chronic illnesses and their symptoms to give you a better sense of what you're looking for in your character/story. Different conditions will affect a person's life in completely different ways.

The degree and type of pain will depend on the person and the condition, but many people experience a combination of an average baseline pain level plus natural peaks and dips. This can vary across different conditions and even between individuals with the same conditions. Also, the type of pain itself can vary significantly--some people might experience a constant ache, while others might experience sudden sharp pain, among other types of pain and combinations thereof. Researching different conditions will help you figure out which types of pain are typically associated with them, so you can pinpoint what your character is most likely to experience.

Some conditions will have a more constant baseline with fewer variations, while others might have a very low baseline pain level but have a huge degree of variation when triggered. For example, I'm impacted by my chronic pain every single day and have a relatively constant baseline pain level that is severe enough to significantly debilitate and distract me, but it's not unusual for it to change for a variety of reasons. My mother has the same condition as me, but her pain is practically nonexistent until it's triggered by something, which impacts her severely for much briefer periods of time--so our lifestyles look very different even though our diagnoses are identical. It's all very subjective, and there's no "wrong" experience of chronic pain.

As a general tip to understanding chronic pain, often every single thought that a person with chronic pain has is filtered through the questions, "How bad is my pain right now, and how much worse will it be if I do this? Is there anything I need or want to do later on that I might not be able to if I exert myself right now?" This mindset can be really, really hard for abled people to understand because they can do things without thinking about them first or having to reorient entire days or weeks around doing one task (for example, even something as simple as washing the dishes can mean I might not be able to make it to an appointment the next day). Even people who see us every single day will often forget that this is what we're constantly thinking about. When writing characters with chronic pain, I encourage writers to keep in mind that not only is it painful to live with, it's also incredibly mentally exhausting to have to think so many steps ahead of everything we do and have others not understand the work that goes into organizing our lives around our pain.

Sometimes, an increase or decrease in pain can be directly correlated to something we've done or a change in our environment, but other times it's because chronic pain often just... does that for no apparent reason. Often, a flareup can be triggered by overexertion, and the amount of time it takes to recover from can be proportional to the degree and duration of said overexertion. For me, a major factor in pain and symptom fluctuation is the weather, even if I don't go outside at all--I can actually often tell in advance when it's going to rain, even if it's bright and sunny out, just because of how my body reacts to changes in the air around me. Some people might experience flareups as a result of their emotional state as well, as many conditions can be exacerbated by psychological stress or hormonal fluctuations (like during a menstrual cycle, for example). Sometimes catching another illness like a cold can also cause flareups in chronic illness, especially for people with autoimmune disorders or who are otherwise immunocompromised. When I experience a flareup, I usually go through a mental list of possible reasons for it to try to figure out what might be responsible, because it's not always obvious right away.

Tons of people with chronic pain use mobility aids even if we're "technically" physically capable of walking or standing for short periods of time. I recommend looking into ambulatory wheelchair use for your character. It's both realistic and appropriate to depict, though keep in mind that there is still lots of ableism and social judgment directed towards ambulatory wheelchair users who are perceived to be "faking their disability," as wheelchair use is still predominantly culturally associated with lower-body paralysis. Some people will also use different mobility aids at different times depending on the day, where they're going and how long they'll be there, which might be something your character would find useful.

Many resources exist out there to learn more about chronic pain, but the most helpful ones I've found are specific to particular disabilities and illnesses. You can start by searching up "chronic pain causes" or similar on your search engine of choice and start big (as that information is often more vague) until you find something that catches your eye. There are also plenty of blogs out there--both on Tumblr and across other platforms--focused on the experiences of people living with chronic pain that should come up for you once you start searching for particular conditions or symptoms. The hashtag #NEISvoid (which stands for "No End In Sight") is also relatively popular on Twitter for people with chronic conditions to use when connecting and asking for advice from others, so you might find something useful there too.

You'll probably have much better luck conducting your research once you decide which type of chronic pain you'd like to depict in your character. If you'd like resources for a particular disability, though, you're more than welcome to follow up with us and we can do our best to point you in the right direction.

Others with chronic pain are always encouraged to chime in!

-Mod Faelan

#mod faelan #mobility aids #ambulatory wheelchair use #chronic pain representation #wheelchairs

[cripplecharacters]

do you think it would be okay to have a character with a chronic illness who wants to be a knight, does training for awhile, then realizes it's too hard on their body and they can't keep going? they would be sad about it but would find something else to do and find joy in that as well. However they aren't the main character and I don't know if there will be time for them to have enough of an arc to fully explore this. Should I do something else and maybe come back to this character later?

Hello, thanks for your question!

I think this is a perfectly fine character arc to write! It feels realistic for a character to end up respecting their body's boundaries when something is too hard on them. I like that they're able to find joy and fulfillment in something else rather than giving up or becoming bitter.

Even if they aren't the main character, I think just depicting disabled people living happy lives despite the bumps along the way is always worthwhile. I don't personally believe that this arc as you've described it is risky enough that it would need main character levels of attention, if that makes sense. Just seeing a gradual shift in this character's lifestyle and mindset through the perspective of your main cast should be enough to get the arc across to your readers.

-Mod Faelan

#mod faelan #anonymous #chronic illness representation