NaNoWriMo Prep: Resources for Writing Different Mental Abilities
The links write about disability in general for the most part. Despite my decent skills with Google, finding the correct set of key words to get blog posts (and not forum threads) about writing developmentally disabled characters eluded me. So I’ve added a few links to virtual and physical communities built for people with mental disabilities.
A few of these links are repeats from yesterday’s post, however they are relevant to writing about mentally disabled characters as well.
CM Stewart’s Writing Realistic Disabled Characters
WikiHow’s How to Write a Disabled Character
Adam Pottle’s Five Rules For Creating Disabled Characters
Caley and Creigh Farinas’s 7 Everyday Neurotypical Privileges (This is not a guide to help you write a character, although it would come it handy. This is a guide to help you understand your fellow human beings more.)
The Mighty’s Down Syndrome page
The Mighty’s Autism Spectrum Disorder page
Disclaimer: I am a neurotypical adult of average intelligence and I’m not trying to say writers who do not have to deal with these kinds of issues on a daily basis are entitled to tell these stories. We’re not. But since there are writers who want to add accurate representations of what life is like with a mental disability to fictional literature, we should at least do our best to understand the most realistic portrayal.
I’m not aiming to offend, so if something I wrote is wrong or offensive, please let me know so I can update/edit the post.