#tbh the fact that I am so textbook bipolar is almost weird and there are DEFS a bunch of things about me

[savrenim]

thoughts on writing non-neurotypical characters that I am suddenly having looking at the two protagonists of trash novel of, like. there definitely is something to be said about knowing that you want to write a character who is [x], and carefully researching it, and reading about people’s lived experiences to get a sense of what to include, and finding an [x] beta reader; the whole standard process of respectfully portraying something that you are not. that is great and more authors should definitely do that. 

but there’s also something that is highly accurate about going “okay this person is fucking weird in [a],[b],[c] ways and cool here are some of the rules of how their brain and emotions work enough that I can write them consistently, fuck if I know what they’d be diagnosed as, they mostly fit the list of [x] I guess but there are some symptoms I you could argue fit way better from [y] thrown in there and then [z] isn’t on any diagnosis list” bc, like. tbh, that is a lot more accurate to the general experience of being neuroatypical, No One Fits Their Diagnosis Checklist Perfectly And There Is A Lot Of Overlap And A Lot Of Things That Don’t Make It Onto The Lists Bc Tbh Are Granular Enough To Be Personal

#my writing #my life #writing #writing advice #tbh the fact that I am so textbook bipolar is almost weird and there are DEFS a bunch of things about me #that are Not neurotypical but are also definitely Not bipolar #it's just really funny looking mostly at Saes and going 'yeah I have no idea what the FUCK you are but you're having fun' #if you're in a world with meds finding meds and balancing side effects is also a bitch #and also everyone experiences side effects differently #lists of side effects are basically roulettes that you may or may not hit one #also this might be way us neuroatypicals usually latch onto characters that weren't explicitly [x] as our favorite rep? #bc 'a person that thinks according to these weird ways' is usually way more accurately portrayed than 'I'm trying to respectfully #go down a diagnosis checklist and write this thing that is alien to my experience'