Question for the #actuallyautistic authors of the Internet:
How the hell do you write a character without them becoming autistic because of the limitations of the person writing their thoughts, feeling, and words?
I hope there’s an answer beyond “you’re disabled and one of the ways you’re disabled is that any fiction you try to write will be pigeonholed to one specific niche and character archetype.”
@NineIsntPrime I mean I guess this isn't a particularly helpful response, but maybe a comforting one: there are loads of beloved NT authors who have very consistent character archetypes
so I guess maybe the question isn't how to make a character who isn't autistic, but rather, what kinds of characters do you want to write that you feel you can't?
@clarfonthey it’s a good framing.
The kind that are mentally healthy and have defining characteristics that don’t come from the DSM.
The vast majority of people are neurotypical, I worry that my writing is always going to be uncanny and leave readers disturbed, confused, and unable to connect with characters emotionally.
@NineIsntPrime I mean, that's fair, and you really can't exactly know these things unless you have an established audience with an opinion on it, since, well, writing is quite vague and weird and this kind of thing is hard to pin down
but, idk. folks like Tolkien became wildly successful and given his obsession with linguistics it wouldn't be surprising if he were autistic too. it feels like a lot more authors are autistic than folks realise, and maybe some of the tropes that show up in books are reminiscent of that
not like a few words are gonna make like, what appears to be a lifelong/career-long anxiety go away, but you're at least in good company
