[Large text: FAQ and Guidelines]
Hi! We are CrippleCharacters, a blog dedicated to helping people write disabled characters, inspired by WritingWithColor (link). We’re run by a team of disabled and neurodivergent mods, and our goal is to provide a firsthand perspective to our disabilities.
Please read the sections below before sending an ask.
Frequently Asked Questions
[Large Text: Frequently Asked Questions]
Q: I am disabled. Is it problematic if I do [trope/stereotype/XYZ]?
A: The general answer is no. We don’t speak for everyone else in the community, of course, but if you are talking about your own disability, you can talk about it however you please. Here is a more in-depth explanation from the perspective of Mod Kate (link).
Q: I am basing my character’s disability directly on my own, but I’m not diagnosed with anything. Is this a problem?
A: No. Undiagnosed disabilities are real and deserve representation as well. Besides, no one will write about your disability—and your experience with it—better than you will.
Q: I am not physically disabled, but-
A: This isn’t a clear statement. Does this mean you are otherwise disabled? Does it mean you are mentally and physically abled? Please be more specific about this (if you think it’s important in relation to your ask).
Q: So my character has paralysis/is an amputee/is mentally ill, and-
A: What kind of paralysis, where is it? Which limb, and at which joint? Which mental illness? Please be specific in your asks so we can actually answer them. Research terminology that would describe your character’s situation and/or try to explain how their disability affects them. If we can’t tell whether your character is paraplegic or has facial paralysis, we won’t be able to answer it.
An example of a proper question could be:
“My character has T1 complete paraplegia/is a bilateral above the knee amputee/has CPTSD”.
If you don’t know whether you want to give them schizophrenia or delusional disorder that’s fine, we’ll just include two (or more) potential answers to accommodate for that if possible. Either way, we need some information to answer an ask.
Q: Can I send an ask again if it hasn’t been answered yet?
A: Please don’t.
Q: Do you answer questions about [insert disability]?
A: Probably yes. Even if none of the mods has the disability in question, we can still direct you to some resources.
Q: Can you tell me how to give my character a Cool Robot Arm?
A: No, but we can send you to this post by submalevolentgrace.
Q: Is it okay to do [XYZ]?
A: No idea. We need context. Why do you want to do [XYZ]? Why are you worried that [XYZ] is a problem (hint: if it’s because we have talked at length about something being bad, we will probably just repeat the same exact thing at you)? If you’re aware that [XYZ] is harmful, why are you trying to do it?
Overall, we’d prefer to have a conversation about why [XYZ] is bad/good/ambivalent rather than just giving some stamp of approval that doesn’t help anyone actually understand anything.
Further elaboration.
Q: Do you answer questions about historical figures?
A: None of us are historians, and we cannot answer questions about writing academic papers or books. If you are asking in the context of historical fiction, we will simply treat them as another character.
Don’t send “Research Questions”, i.e. ask us to do your research for you. Before sending an ask, try this. Questions about what your character’s symptoms would be can be answered with surface level online research—Wikipedia is genuinely a good starting point.
This blog should not be your only stop in writing a disabled character. Please do research both before and after sending your ask; use multiple sources. We are just random people on the internet, not an accredited organization.
Questions like “How should I write a disabled character?” are too vague. There is no way for our answer to be actually helpful unless we manage to guess what kind of disability you meant. If you are only now starting to conceptualize your character, please read this post by mod Sasza first. Please know what kind of disability your character has. “Personality disorder” or “paralysis” are categories so wide that they’re basically useless unless you actually specify what you mean. Disabilities aren’t interchangeable.
Try to be specific. “How can my character in a wheelchair do X?” isn’t that. We need to know what your character can, and can’t do to answer something like this, or at least what their disability is; see the previous paragraph. Do they use a powerchair and have a C1 complete SCI, or are they a unilateral BK amputee who uses an active lightweight manual chair? We might have to ask you for more details with asks like this.
When sending an ask, try to figure out what aspects you are having trouble with. We may ask you to reword and resubmit your question to clarify things. Please be sure your ask contains an actual question. Simply telling us facts about your project doesn’t let us know what you need help with.
The mod team likes clear questions—please remember that some of us have problems with comprehending very complex asks due to our disabilities. You can put your questions in a bullet list if there’s many of them to make sure we don’t miss or misunderstand them.
If you want to continue a longer conversation, please do not do so via unsigned anonymous asks. We are not mind readers, and we cannot tell all anons apart. If you sign your asks with something like “Anon A” then we will be able to know who you are. This will also help with tagging grouped asks, to make it easier for you to return to answered asks.
Before sending an ask, please look at our “Navigation” section first—you might find answers to your questions there.
[Large Text: Asks We Don’t Take]
We don’t answer questions for these topics:
Amputee Characters Having “Perfect” Prosthetics
Characters With Facial Differences Experiencing Disfiguremisia
Writing Dialogue for Non-Speaking Communication (also includes speech bubbles and similar topics)
Can I (Or My Character) Give Name Signs
You can meet the very cool mods here.
None of the current mods are amputees. Please check out our Helpful Posts’ recommended blogs section.
If you want to show us your writing or art featuring disabled characters, please use the #CCArtShare tag. Read more here.
Please check out these posts before sending an ask:
Helpful Posts (specific disabilities)
