i am so so gently asking abled storytellers to try this little exercise: consider that maybe the main character doesn't miraculously get through traumatic event number 8277 with minor injuries. maybe they don't make a full, narratively-convenient recovery. there are tangible, long-term effects on their health. they are disabled. there are lots of ways to be disabled, and you can pick whatever makes the most sense. the point is that because they're the main character, they have to stay at the heart of the narrative. what happens to your story after that? just for the sake of this exercise, you're not allowed to have them spiral into helpless depression, or collapse under self-loathing, or turn their story into a quest for a cure or an uplifting recovery narrative. think it through instead. how can you tell this story with the character's disability? what needs to change? are there any reasons why these changes can't happen?
at the end of it, you might change nothing. but I think this is worth doing, because sometimes you'll find that the reason you didn't want your character to have a limp, or lose a limb or sense, or have some kind of SFF-appropriate fantasy disability is because of internalised biases. those are worth challenging & i truly believe that creators miss out on richer stories when they view disability either as a fate worse than death or as nothing more than a catalyst for tragedy.
I used to delight in non-lasting injury recovery, because I liked the hope therein. And then I realized ... there is still hope in being disabled. And not in the "inspo porn" way. In the ... I am disabled but I still have a life to live and that can be a good life, too. It may not look like what I wanted it to look like, it may not be easy, but it's still a good life.
So now, I delight in following the narrative. What has been done to the character and what, realistically, would happen to them. I've started doing this in fanfic, and it's extended into my OG writing now as well. I've got a chronic pain man (actually wrote the story for the POINT of giving him chronic pain in a magical way) (the Unbreakable series), a spinal cord got hit by a bullet and now he has limited mobility man (Finding Home -- NEW RELEASE), and eventually some other disabilities popping up in my other WIPS.
Anyhow, point is: I second the above. Think about your characters. Think about those of us who are disabled. Remember that we like to see rep in your stories too. And not inspo porn. Let us live our disabled lives!
