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Hey, You YA Writers!



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Tue Aug 18, 2015 2:00 pm
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mfoley says...



I came across a piece on the Internet written by someone with cerebral palsy, lamenting the fact that there is a distinct lack of heroes with disability in YA fiction, especially now that the genre has swelled in the last ten years or so. The author discusses how much it may have helped him in his formative years to read of a hero who goes through the same things all teens go through, while also dealing with disability. As someone who has worked extensively with individuals with disabilities, this really hit home for me. Not only could that sort of novel give a sense of hope to teens who haven't yet learned to cope with their disability, that's exactly the sort of concept that makes a manuscript escape the slush pile.

I would think that the story should not be about the disability, or even dealing with the disability; the disability would simply be one of the traits of a main character. Perhaps the coping could be a subplot, but nothing more. Just brainstorming here.

Anyways, since I read the piece, I considered attempting to tackle such a project myself, but the truth is, I'm just not a YA writer. I've tried, and never cared for it, nor felt that I had the right voice for it. I know that many (if not most) of this community writes YA, so I thought I'd just throw the idea out there for anyone who'd like to tackle it. Or, perhaps we could even collaborate. Do with this idea what you will.
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Tue Aug 18, 2015 3:27 pm
Lightsong says...



The lack of disability among heroes are simply because of people with disabilities are not many. They are the minority. Making one is interesting though as it poses many challenges to develop the character and make him blend with the world.
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Tue Aug 18, 2015 4:09 pm
WritingWolf says...



That sounds like a really cool idea. I don't think I could get it to fit into my current project, but I will definitely file it away in case it is useful one day. :)
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Tue Aug 18, 2015 4:09 pm
LordZeus says...



I'm a YA writer. My novel now is about superhumans, with enhanced strength and abilities, which are the opposites of people with disabilities! However, once I am finished with that, I may try writing with a protagonist with a disability. Oh, there is one YA series that I know has one the characters with a disability. The Legend series. One of the main characters has short-sightedness, so there is at least one YA series with a disabled character!
  





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Tue Aug 18, 2015 5:34 pm
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Vervain says...



Pardon if I disagree with Lightsong; the lack of disabled YA heroes and heroines is almost directly related to a Western stigma of disability as a whole.

It's not "classy" or "fashionable" to be disabled, except with the flavor of the year (cancer, paraplegia, what have you, take a name out of a hat and make it trend). And even then, people don't want to read or learn about the actual disability. In most cases, they just want to read their gross over-romanticization, which is why those get popular.

Speaking as a disabled teenager about the state of disability in YA, especially Western, fiction... it's there, sure, but it can be difficult to find something accurately portraying it at times. It helps when your disability is "popular" that year, because at least then the market will be flooded with information; at least some of it has to be right.

I'm not a YA writer either in most circumstances, but I will say that I think there need to be a lot more stories and novels in general where people are disabled and still heroes, villains, major characters -- without it being because of their disability. I would love to read more novels about disabled people who aren't solely being praised or condemned, but going through their own character arcs the same way able-bodied characters do. YA, New Adult, adult fiction, middle grade, kids' fiction -- every age group under the sun!

If you do decide to take on this project, research is going to be your best friend for quite a long time. In fact, three things are very important with writing disabilities: reading medical theses; talking to people who have this disability and reading first-hand experiences (there are a number of blogs out there that talk about disability first-hand, as well as Internet forums and communities); and realizing that every case is different.

While there may be some common factors between cases, for the most part, disabled people have unique experiences based on their environment and their flavor of disability. For example, I "pass" as allistic and, well, easy-breathing (as an asthmatic) most of the time, meaning that people don't realize I have any kind of disorder or disability at all. This affects how they treat me and what kinds of things they're likely to ask me to do; it's not always a good thing, because I could run into a total mental block in the middle of it and they wouldn't understand. I've had it happen where my own mother got angry at me for not being able to do something, even though she's known I'm autistic for three years, same as I have, and I clearly told her "I can't do this, it's beyond me right now at my energy level, so I have to work past my mental block to do a little bit at a time". To me, that makes totally perfect sense -- to her, it's just a stupid teenage excuse.

Sorry, I rambled at you a little. If you do decide to do this, let me know, and I can see if I can help you find resources!
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Tue Aug 18, 2015 5:55 pm
LordZeus says...



@Arkhaion, how old are you? according to what I've learnt in school, autism is detected within someone 's first two years of life. If you've only learned of it three years ago, then you're either very young, or special circumstances exist. Please tell me if it is either.
  





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Tue Aug 18, 2015 6:05 pm
Vervain says...



@LordZeus, I was diagnosed with autism at age 16, and am currently 19 years old. I may have exhibited signs of it as a child, but in the last few years, the average age of diagnosis has been getting older and older as criteria get revised and cases get revisited.

When I was a child, I didn't fit the bill for what autistic kids were "supposed" to act like. When I was a child, autistic meant "stupid", not "socially and emotionally disabled", and I was learning at stages miles above my peers.

By the time I was 8, I had the capability to read college-level books with some degree of understanding. I had a little difficulty understanding math, but once I put it together, I never forgot it. Science and history? Freakin' awesome. I was basically trained out of stimming (creating specific actions or situations to stimulate sensations), and while I was awkward in social contexts and didn't make friends easily, to my parents, that wasn't autism. That was just an over-enthusiastic child who didn't know any better and would probably get better at it as I went into middle and high school.

In middle school, I got worse; by high school, my learning level had dropped below those of my peers due to a severe depression from not fitting in. I couldn't force myself to learn at their level, because I hated myself for not being like them, and at the time, I didn't have any answers. I didn't know why I was different; I didn't know why I melted down all the time, why I was always angry, why I couldn't stand next to people or work with them or make friends like everyone else did.

I was only diagnosed because of an incident at age 15 that made my mother suspect I had violent mood swings, related to bipolar disorder, like my dad. She took me to a pediatric neuropsych that summer, and after 8 hours of testing, the verdict came back "autistic".

I was diagnosed at an older age than is commonly believed to be normal, but like I said, the age of diagnosis is getting older, for various reasons. In fact, autism and ADHD can have very similar signs at all ages, so there could be another reason why doctors are loath to diagnose either of them without further criteria.

(Sorry, I tend to talk a lot. Hope this answered your question well!)
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Tue Aug 18, 2015 6:16 pm
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LordZeus says...



@Arkhaion.....wow. That's your life story huh? I'm really sorry. I hope you've got a few friends now, or at least friends here. I have to ask, have you ever thought of putting your life story, and how you overcome your autism, into a story format? I find your story a little sad, but surely there's something that lifts your spirits? If there is, then I think writing your life story, and publishing it, would help you to express your emotions. also it would be a pretty inspiring story, about the difficulties you've faced, and all that you've gone through. It would be real interesting too. Please think about it.

P.S. College level books at age 8? Wow. You may be autistic, but your IQ must be, like, 200 or something!
  





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Tue Aug 18, 2015 6:29 pm
Vervain says...



Haha, I'm not very good at writing about myself or my own life experiences. Most of my half-decent autobiographical writing comes in short bursts like this where I'm talking to other people, so I think I'll pass on writing an autobiography.

As for my IQ -- well, for one, IQ is an extremely subjective score based on how easily one is expected to be able to learn things. Two, yeah, when I was tested at age 6 I had a pretty ridiculously high IQ, but I think it depends on what kind of subject we're talking about.

The IQ test I took was a lot of logic problems and riddles, and I have always loved logic problems and riddles. On the other hand, if I had been tested on things like solid knowledge or social etiquette, I'd probably have a really low score.

In addition -- autism doesn't really affect how intelligent someone is, or how easily they learn things. Autistic people may have difficulty with subjects that just aren't their forté, or subjects they don't want to learn about, or subjects that don't matter to them; still, there's the stereotype of special education being for "stupid autistics", when it's for autistic kids learning at different levels and learning different skill sets they might lack. But that's a kind of touchy subject for me, so I think I'll leave it here.

Glad to have talked to you ^^
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Tue Aug 18, 2015 6:42 pm
LordZeus says...



Ok. Nice talking to you too.

I learnt a lot more about autism from you today than from several years of school showing us videos etc. :)

Oh, and I may write on your story in the future. Not now, but but sometime in the future, provided you're okay with it. I will add my own twist, of course, but I would like to keep a large part of it from your story intact in it. I find your story has a potential to become pretty inspiring. I hope you would be okay with that! Bye for now!
  





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Tue Aug 18, 2015 6:51 pm
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Kale says...



Um. Well, I think the above exchange just simultaneously illustrated some of the ignorance and romanticization of disability those who are disabled regularly encounter, which is one of the biggest barriers to accurately writing fiction that stars disabled characters.

Which is why finding primary sources is so important when writing about disabled characters.

Writing stories that star disabled characters involves doing a lot of research, which not a lot of people are willing to do, much less do thoroughly. That's why I'm kind of reluctant to go "yes, everyone should try to write about disabled characters" because there's a lot of misrepresentation as it is, and an influx of even more misrepresentation due to well-meaning but poorly researched fiction would do more harm than help because those who are disabled would not be able to relate to the characters due to the inaccuracies while those who aren't disabled would believe that they now know what it's like to be disabled when they really don't.

Representation is really super important, but writers have a responsibility to ensure that the representations are accurate and don't contribute to the social stigmas and prejudices disabled people already face.

If you're willing to take on and fulfill that responsibility, go for it; otherwise, I'd advise against writing disabled characters until you are willing to take on and fulfill that responsibility.
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Tue Aug 18, 2015 7:04 pm
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mfoley says...



Kyllorac, I completely agree with you. This shouldn't just be some story idea; it should be a WELL DEVELOPED story. I could handle the research; as I said, I have worked extensively with individuals with various disabilities. But I won't be the one to write the story simply because I don't feel that I have the right writer's voice for it. And I do feel very strongly that this should not be a project to take lightly, and hope that I have conveyed that to those thinking of doing it. This is the sort of story that, in theory, could be both impactful and successful if executed properly, and that should excite any budding writer.
I actually do have a short story published which follows a young homeless man with an unspecified mental disability in New Orleans in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina, but that's more of adult fiction. And yes, Arkhaion, I agree that all genres could use more of these characters, but YA is special in this instance because of the target audience being in such a formative state: those with the disabilities have a hero, and those who live without it have a better understanding of it. The type of story I'm talking about is a stigma fighter.
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Wed Aug 19, 2015 7:05 am
LordZeus says...



Geez. No I'm unsure about doing this, and how to go about it. Still, I'm gonna try.
  





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Wed Aug 19, 2015 8:43 pm
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StellaThomas says...



Hey @mfoley! I love YA and YA fiction, and I think this is a really cool and special vision that you have.

I think the first YA/children's book I ever read with a disabled protagonist was The Ghost of Grania O'Malley by Michael Morpurgo, which featured a heroine about the age of 11 or 12 with cerebral palsy. I was probably the same age at the time and didn't know a lot about CP - and honestly didn't even know a whole lot about it until my paediatric rotation last year. So I completely understand where that author is coming from - I'd love to read the article if you had a link :)

There's actually a big YA book that people often forget features a disabled character - that's The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Some people say that their disabilities don't count, but sure, why not? They might have cancer, but Hazel has a chronic, incurable lung disease, and Augustus has an above-the-knee amputation. I saw people begrudging the idea that they were disabled characters, just because the disability was caused by an illness, not from birth. Which I thought was ridiculous - but anyway I digress. But TFioS is proof that YA books featuring disabled protagonists can be successful and popular - can raise awareness of disability while also telling a great story.

Learning difficulties and mental disability are probably better represented - but I'm afraid I couldn't find a good list off the top of my head - I'm sure someone in the Resources Crew would be able to fish one out of somewhere! Books like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon became very famous for portrayals of autistic characters, and I'm pretty sure Percy Jackson of the Percy Jackson series is supposed to have diagnoses of ADHD and dyslexia to start. So as I say, I'm not sure, but if you're looking for how people write these types of characters there's tons of examples out there!

I have a few things I think would be most important advice:

- research the disability well. For instance, people think that the film A Beautiful Mind is like, the best portrait of somebody with schizophrenia ever. Except that the protagonist has audio-visionary hallucinations which don't really happen in schizophrenia. John Nash only ever had auditory hallucinations. But somebody didn't do the research - or did, and decided it'd be more fun without the accuracy. Which is kind of insulting for people actually suffering from schizophrenia, don't you think?
- don't make the story about the disability. I mean, it's like where you have a gay character and their main storyline is about being gay. First of all, boring. Second of all, just because someone has something 'different' about them, it doesn't mean that's the be-all and end-all of their life. So make sure your protagonist has a storyline outside of their disability.
- finally, and I think, most importantly: miracle cures. No. They completely undermine the point of trying to diversify your cast. They're unrealistic. And they're easy. This was a point Sarah Rees Brennan made on her blog after she received a lot of backlash about her Demon's Lexicon trilogy. In it, the protagonist has an option to magically cure his brother of a leg injury and physical disability. But the brother refuses. The author says it was important to her that the disability didn't just go away. And that's a fantasy book. In contrast, The Poisonwood Bible - I adored the first half of this book, and detested the second. Mainly because it jumps ahead twenty years and a character who had cerebral palsy and hemiplegia is magically cured. It was realistic fiction set in the 1960s and it really, really annoyed me. I can only imagine how much it annoyed other people. So yeah. No miracle cures.

Those would be my bits of thoughts and advice etc. etc.!

-Stella x
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Thu Aug 20, 2015 10:03 am
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mfoley says...



Agreed on all three points, Stella! And, after a bit of digging, I found the link:

http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-bo ... disability
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