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https://ift.tt/2YSIwwdwetwareproblem:
brightlotusmoon:
dollopheadedmerlin:
dollopheadedmerlin:
I have … a tip.
If you’re writing something that involves an aspect of life that you have not experienced, you obviously have to do research on it. You have to find other examples of it in order to accurately incorporate it into your story realistically.
But don’t just look at professional write ups. Don’t stop at wikepedia or webMD. Look up first person accounts.
I wrote a fic once where a character has frequent seizures. Naturally, I was all over the wikipedia page for seizures, the related pages, other medical websites, etc.
But I also looked at Yahoo asks where people where asking more obscure questions, sometimes asked by people who were experiencing seizures, sometimes answered by people who have had seizures.
I looked to YouTube. Found a few individual videos of people detailing how their seizures usually played out. So found a few channels that were mostly dedicated to displaying the daily habits of someone who was epileptic.
I looked at blogs and articles written by people who have had seizures regularly for as long as they can remember. But I also read the frantic posts from people who were newly diagnosed or had only had one and were worried about another.
When I wrote that fic, I got a comment from someone saying that I had touched upon aspects of movement disorders that they had never seen portrayed in media and that they had found representation in my art that they just never had before. And I think it’s because of the details. The little things.
The wiki page for seizures tells you the technicalities of it all, the terminology. It tells you what can cause them and what the symptoms are. It tells you how to deal with them, how to prevent them.
But it doesn’t tell you how some people with seizures are wary of holding sharp objects or hot liquids. It doesn’t tell you how epileptics feel when they’ve just found out that they’re prone to fits. It doesn’t tell you how their friends and family react to the news.
This applies to any and all writing. And any and all subjects. Disabilities. Sexualities. Ethnicities. Cultures. Professions. Hobbies. Traumas. If you haven’t experienced something first hand, talk to people that have. Listen to people that have. Don’t stop at the scholarly sources. They don’t always have all that you need.
I … LOVE reading the replies and tags for this post! I’m happy that, out of all my posts, this is the one that’s blown up so quickly.
I love the people who are a part of a minority, that are gushing about their favorite fics or books that seem to have done this and offer proper representation.
I love the people who are bringing up the toxic mindset that is very popular on tumblr, the “you can’t write about it if you haven’t lived it” ideology that makes writers feel guilty for providing representation.
I especially love the people who are mentioning how they should start doing this. I love the people who are probably young or inexperienced writers that are seeing this and thinking of doing this for the first time. I love that there are people who read this and then think to better their writing because of it.
This right here is why all the fics I write incorporate at least three of my own (two dozen) disabilities, particularly epilepsy and ADHD but especially autism. Because I read way too many author notes saying they didn’t do much research. I would rather writers consult disabled folks because most of the time, disability is couched in the language of sterile professional bias from abled neurotypical views, best examples being high and low functioning and person first language.
Part of ableism, a part that people tend to not realize, is complacency in social convention. I say I am an autistic person, I do not want to be call a person with autism (or has, or suffers from, or lives with). Another autistic might want to apply person first and functioning labels, and I might see that as internalized ableism.
Heck, at this point, I would use identity first language for cerebral palsy. In one of my support groups, we call ourselves Ceeps.
Point is, disability research includes personal anecdotes.
I still do it just to ask other epileptics detailed questions about seizures I’ve had that I could give my characters.
I’d like to go on a bit of a tangent here: As important as this is for writing and media (and it is, oh so important, representation matters)? It’s even more important in real life.
Every single one of my mental illnesses, disabilities, and neurodivergences was missed by professionals and authorities - people who knew the clinical shit inside and out - for years.
Every step I’ve made toward figuring myself out and managing my shit - every single one - has started with someone’s firsthand experiences resonating with me. Several of the big ones were because I was researching how to help a friend.
Seek lived experiences. Share lived experiences. It’s so, so important.
When writing OCD characters I’ve relied more on the one afternoon a lady asked me to spot for her in the swimming pool than most medical write ups.
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