On Writing Autistic Characters

[chaoticidealism]

The first autistic character I ever read about was a girl named Susan in a children's book. She was a piano savant who could play anything she had heard, even if only once, though it was plain she did not understand the music; when she heard a record, she copied the skips of the record player too. She didn't communicate, didn't have friends. At the

Comments

[old_cutter_john]

Wow, yeah! For what it's worth, I have my own system of values that I follow regardless of the law and social convention. I do, though, follow the written rules of the road - but defiantly, knowing that I'm violating social convention.

[thawing_wind]

The most sad thing for me is that people not only write about autustic characters like they are a list of diagnostic criteria and don't have their own personality, they act this way in real life.:(

[anonymous]

First off... how have you been..? It has been a great summer here in Omaha weather-wise... I have had my ups and downs...

The problem with NT and their assumptions is that often it is due to laziness and/or ignorance... not that people who include autistics in their story are dumb, but they often fail to do the research on the character that they do with others... for instance, the for the science in the movie "Interstellar", they talked to and had in charge a real scientist... no one seems to do any real investigation about these characters and that is a real problem in showing the diverse characteristics of ANY group of people, including those with autism ...

[chaoticidealism]

Doing fine :) Finishing up my last few classes now.

Lack of research is a common writer problem, isn't it? Just go to TVTropes and check out the "Did Not Do the Research" page... some of the examples are pretty hilarious.

It's kind of a short jump from hilariously wrong to cringeworthily stereotypical, though. You'd think that if somebody were writing a whole book about somebody who's autistic, they'd think to do some research about their autism, but nope!

[ljlee]

Thank you for these! I'm trying to write an autistic character and chordatesrock recommended this blog as a resource. I'll definitely keep these in mind.

(Edited for tag error.)

Wonderful article on writing about Autistic characters

[anonymous]

I've saved a link to your blog for years - I'm going through old emails and so glad I revisited - this is a wonderful article about writing about characters with Autism, you really hit on so many truths. I'm not a writer, just a middle aged Aspie mom (one of those invisible disability types) who reads a lot about Autism. I have a young teen son who's an Aspie too. I think this article should be required reading for so many people, not just writers. I'll start by sharing it with my NT husband!

Thank you for your brilliant perspective.

- B.