Writing characters with handicaps isn’t easy. Some people may think it is, but those fall into two categories. They either have the disability themselves or they’re about to make several mistakes. Ideally, an author would want to know what they’re doing when tackling a disability. It is a sensitive topic as well as one that can open the door to many interesting story events. So, what are some things to keep in mind?
RESEARCH!!! Unless you have the disability, you won’t really understand. The closest you can get to it is doing a lot of research. Talk to people who have the disability and read up on how it works. Look at helpful tools and adjustments that can be made for a person. Examine the psychological effect. The list keeps going, but the point is to get as close to reality as you can even if it’s fiction.
Physical disabilities aren’t ‘one size fits all’. A person who is legally blind may be able to see objects to some extent. They don’t always see total darkness. There is a range of ability that falls into a disability. So, go back to your research and decide on the degree that you want your character to have.
Did the character become disabled later in life or were they born that way? This is an important question. Someone who became paralyzed later in life would have a different mentality than one born that way. They may be bitter or still be adjusting to a loss instead of having adapted already. When it comes to sensory disabilities, it can determine how much a character knows about their surrounding world. The memory of a sight or sound can help them understand situations while one who never had that will not have that extra information.
The disability needs to have an impact on the character. This requires that you always remember it exists. There are simply some things that they either can’t do or have to accomplish in their own way. So, every challenge, conversation, and event needs to be looked at from this character’s perspective to make sure they are reacting correctly. For example, if you establish that a hero is completely blind, they shouldn’t be reacting to visible flares or blinding lights.
I know this next one is very tempting for some authors. They think it’s positive and uplifting to do this. What is it? REMOVING THE DISABILITY! This is a very risky plot twist. Some people want to see this happen while others will get more inspiration from a character who succeeds without ‘curing’ themselves. By eliminating the disability, the character no longer has that connection with readers who don’t have that option. Keep in mind that many disabilities are permanent, so it could be seen as a slap in the face if one goes this route.
Consider the world in general when writing a character with a disability. This connections to the research and how long they have been disabled, but it needs to be mentioned. Societies are typically designed solely for those without disabilities, which means those who have them will run into problems. Not every building will have a elevator or be wheelchair accessible. Brail isn’t always an option. This becomes very true in fantasy when you may use a more medieval setting. Those time periods and worlds don’t even try to accommodate others. So, you have to decide on if the world will be altered for these characters or they will be forced to struggle without any adjustments made by those around them.
Consider how other characters will react. More on this tomorrow.
Welcome back to this odd, end of year sequence. Let’s get right into this member of the Four Horsemen of Writing. It’s closely related to the others and one could even say that it can be born from its siblings. It can also trigger procrastination, so it’s a rather unique one to place. So, what is it . . . You see it in the title, but here we go anyway.
Doubt
We know this one very well. It can show up at any point during the process and usually when we have our guard down. Maybe you have doubts about the initial idea or fee like an imposter once you hit publish. It can pop up after writing a section regardless of the work you put into it. All you need is a flicker of doubt and it will run rampant through your brain. One can’t even predict how long it will last too. Maybe it will last for a few hours and maybe it will go for years. That’s why this tricky horseman can be so destructive, but I’d still put it at #2 as far as sneaky damage.
Doubt also births things like imposter syndrome and author anxiety/depression. So, it’s rather sinister and can even leak into other aspects of our lives. If it strikes hard enough, an author may start questioning multiple life choices. One needs to be very careful when doubt starts rearing its head. Best to take a step back and find someone to talk to who will help you get through this period. Not a devil’s advocate or someone who is against you writing in the first place. You need a real friend that will put this horseman back in the dungeon and help seal the door.
Now for the questions:
How often do you suffer from doubt when writing?
Is there a part in the process that holds more doubt than others?
First, I’m going to focus on physical disabilities for this week’s topic. I’ve touched on a few mental disabilities, but never really dug hard into physical. This can include blindness, deafness, missing a limb, or anything that can make functioning as a hero an extra challenge. It’s not like this is a unique route to take.
Let’s take a look at the ‘classic’ character of the ‘Blind Swordsman’. This has been done a lot in movies and fiction. You have a warrior who cannot see, but is incredibly talented and a force to be reckoned with. Authors tend to go with the ‘other senses are keener’ and have them work off hearing. I plan on doing that whenever I write a story with a blind spear fighter. If it’s not hearing then its sensing something or having a special ability that counters their blindness. Daredevil up there is based around this concept, but with a superpower twist.
So, what have we seen here? The disabled character comes with an extra skill or ability that makes up for their loss. With the Blind Swordsman, it’s keener senses that allow them to see the world. Characters who are deaf are shown with hearing aids, sign language, or lip-reading. I could keep going, but the point is that their disability typically comes with a counter. If not right away then they learn one at some point during their adventure. Sometimes it’s not even a direct one, but something that allows them to be a factor in events. For example, Professor X typically is in a wheelchair. He has great psychic abilities, which is why he can influence events. It’s an example of frail body and strong mind characters too.
I think some authors take the disabled hero too lightly. They do it, but then give such a massive counter that it doesn’t matter. Even worse, they don’t show that the character has any trouble with daily life. There are no adjustments being made because they either have the perfect counter or the author doesn’t do enough research. This happens a lot with deaf characters. They’ll read lips from far distances or when they aren’t facing the person speaking. An author simply drops in the counter to explain how they can communicate and then leave the deafness behind. It’s still there, but it’s no longer a factor, which makes one wonder why it there in the first place. Well, that would be for ‘flavor’ and nothing more than that.
More so than in the past, it really is important to get disabilities right when using them in fiction. We’re in an age of representation, which comes with critical eyes towards depictions of most groups. So, having a character with a physical disability requires that you do research and make it count. They need to show that they can be a hero or help the hero regardless of their disability. Even if they’re comic relief, they need to show a level of strength and success. Though, you really want to be careful with that route and try to avoid slapstick/accident humor here. At least, it seems to me that people get angry over that kind of stuff. Anyway, you need these characters to properly demonstrate the disability and how one can navigate a world that wasn’t really designed with their needs in mind. It makes these characters sources of inspiration.
So, what do you think about disabled heroes? Have you ever tried to write one or know of a great example?
Let’s all welcome Harmony Kent to Entertaining Stories. She’s a dear friend, and one of my Story Empire colleagues. She’s here to tell us about her newest publication. She’s also a huge supporter of the indie community, so don’t be afraid to use those sharing buttons. I’m sure she’s done it for most of you.
The floor is yours, Harmony.
Hi, Craig.
Thanks so much for hosting me today.
It’s always wonderful to visit with you.
Here’s a little bit I’d love to share about my latest book of poetry, Sorrowful Soul. Full of freestyle poems, which provide company and compassion through the devastating journey of grief and loss and onward, this heartfelt collection shows us we do not travel this lonely road alone.
Since Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s excellent book on the stages of grief, we now have an established set of seven stages to the grieving process. Although these stages…
It was difficult to find exact information about these animals because another kept getting mixed in with the searches. Only members of the African genera of Syncerus and the Asian genera of Bubalus are considered true buffalo. American Buffalo or BISON are actually the genera of Bovina. We’ll get to that one another day, but we’re working with the true buffalos this time.
I’ll get right into the conservation status before doing a fact list since the information was all over the place. As I said, bison kept getting included, so I had trouble getting a clear picture. From what I could see, most of the species are listed as ‘least concerned’ and not at risk out extinction. Some have minor threats due to crossbreeding with domestic cows and other related species. Yet, they have not lost enough numbers to put them in the endangered category. The possible exception is the wild water buffalo, which I read a few times is hitting endangered levels.
So, what are some facts?
The Cape Buffalo is consider one of the ‘Big Five’ animals of Africa, which was a hunting term depicting the most difficult animals to catch. The others are lion, leopard, rhino, and elephant.
Water buffalo can grow to 8-9 feet long and 1,500-2,600 pounds. African buffalos are smaller, but still big.
Water buffalo have wide hooves to prevent them from sinking into the mud at the bottom of the ponds and lakes they swim in.
African buffalo do not swim as much as water buffalo, but they never stray further than 12 miles away from a water source.
Water buffalo herds are separated by gender while African buffalos have mixed gender herds. The former has female herds of up to 30 with calves while male herds stay around 10 members. The latter can have male-only herds, but those consist of older animals.
African buffalo vote to see where the herd goes. When it is time to move, they stand and turn in the direction they want to go. The direction with the most votes wins and the female leader will head that way.
Buffalos have smooth tongues.
African buffalos have a memory that is second only to the elephant. They also have a reputation for vengeance. Injured buffalo have ambushed the hunters who have attacked them in the past. They return to their tracks and wait for the hunters to come back. African buffalo have even attacked young lions from prides that have attacked and killed members of their herd.
African buffalos kill more humans than any other animal.
Let’s get the pictures and videos. (The first five are the genera of Bubalus and the last two are Syncerus.)
Asian Water Buffalo
Wild Water Buffalo
Tamaraw
Mountain Anoa
Lowland Anoa
Cape Buffalo
Forest Buffalo
BATTLE AT KRUGER! This is actually a rather infamous video that involves a buffalo calf and a real back-and-forth scene. In fact, this is a considered a very rare event of nature. It can be rough to watch even though it’s not bloody. I won’t give spoilers though.
I’ve been staring at the screen for a bit here. Not sure what to write about because this week truly sucked. So much drama, disasters, and stress. There wasn’t a single facet of my life that didn’t take a crowbar to the knuckles. I did finish outlining the book I want to start writing next weekend, but that was last weekend. Monday decided to come at me with haymakers that didn’t slow down until . . . Guess Thursday was where things became tolerable.
So, what in the world can I talk about here?
You know, it really does suck how society doesn’t want people to vent. You have a terrible day/week/month/life and you’re told to suck it up. A few friends will listen, which is why I was thankfully for a midweek venting session over the phone. Me and this friend both needed to rant and curse until our phones died. Still, I can’t go screaming into the Internet void without risking getting punished. All I can do is vaguely hint that I was stressed out and had some bad things happen to me. I can mention that some people in my life need to get their heads out of their asses and stop treating me like I’m either a lesser being or exist to obey their whims. Nothing can be specific because society doesn’t like people calling others out for this kind of treatment.
Anyway . . . I watched ‘Wednesday’ on Netflix. I liked it even though it got a little too teenage school drama-y for me at times. The bits of humor, characters, and world-building were enough to keep me interested. Looking forward to a second season, but I have seen some headlines complaining about the finale. Not sure what people had a problem with. Ended up watching ‘Bullet Train’ too. 7 out of 10 since it was a fun action movie with a good combo of fight scenes and humor. Not something I’m going to watch over and over again, but I didn’t regret giving up 2 hours to it.
I will admit some positive stuff happened. My son aced a bunch of tests. Some of my students did some amazing things. One accomplished something that I could never have seen him even consider two years ago. It’s great seeing kids like this take on challenges and meeting them. These positive blips were what got me through the week. Well, that an Nyquil-ing myself to sleep.
Aside from finishing the outline for Darwin & the Demon Game, I made no headway on any writing projects. Didn’t finish the February posts either, which might be a ‘son is asleep or busy’ goal this weekend. I’m noticing that it’s getting harder for me to recall creative ideas too. To be honest, I haven’t gone through my list of future ideas in over a year. Yet, it feels like there’s a fog in my mind that wasn’t there before and it’s not letting me access the more whimsical part of myself. There are blips of ideas that pop up, but I can’t hold them for long. It makes me worried that too much of my psyche has been broken or left to atrophy for me to be an author any more. It stirs a bit when I write a book, but I can’t tell if my Darwin stories are any good. So, I’m not regaining any of my confidence.
This coming week is probably going to be the same as the last. I’m hoping the drama is at a minimum, but one can never tell. There’s going to be a field trip though, so that’s something to look forward to. After this weekend, I don’t get a lot of non-schoolwork time with my son until the end of the month. Holidays and the custody schedule weren’t in my favor this time, but I can’t do anything about that. I’ll just make sure he gets all of his schoolwork done and doesn’t have to worry during the break. Just realized the next full weekend we get together without any events is January 28th. Really shows you just how crazy and busy my son and I are. People wonder why so many adults and children suffer from anxiety?
Legends of Windemere 