It occurs to me that I have mever even considered writing a disabled character, and I probably should. After all, I have some experience in the matter. But thinking about it, I have never really read or watched anything where the disability isn't central to, or a significant plot point. I am not defined by my disability, and I don't actually think of myself as disabled (unless it's convenient, like snaffling one of the disabled seats on public transport). You know, it's like when the witness to the murder turns out to be blind, or Ironside vs Perry Mason. The best thing I've seen is the Marvel series Hawkeye. One of the antagonists, Maya, is deaf (as she is in the comics). But in the TV series, she also has a prosthetic leg - the actress is both deaf and has one leg. Although her character is partly defined by her deafness, the leg never plays any real part in the story, except in one scene where she blocks a sword thrust with her leg, and it's so quick, you could miss it. I'd like to write a character who is like me, but there are two issues. How do I include the disability without it becoming a focus of the story - and the flip side of that is, if it doesn't serve any role in the story, why have it there in the first place? Struggling for ideas really.
I think the answer to your questions put simply is: 1) write the character as if they were a three dimensional human--as in, give them troubles that aren't related to their disability. Family troubles, paying bills, maybe their boss is overworking them but don't write them as if their disability is the cause of all their troubles in the world or that they're "one-of-a-kind" or "quirky" because of it. and 2) "Why is this character this way if they don't serve any role in the story" to me is the equivalent of asking someone why they exist. There doesn't need to be a justification for why someone exists. They just exist. There doesn't have to be some greater narrative to it.
How do I include the disability without it becoming a focus of the story - and the flip side of that is, if it doesn't serve any role in the story, why have it there in the first place? You treat disability like a normal part of a character's life and not something that defines the character's life and psyche. Mary gets up, puts on her leg, takes a shower, brushes her hair, and goes out into the world to fight crime. It's a simple part of her life and not something to be belabored. Why include it if it doesn't serve a specific role in the story? Why make a character six feet tall or blond or Italian if the characteristic doesn't have a specific role in the story? Perhaps because such descriptions give readers a vision of the character. Personally, I think that's pretty healthy and counters the idea that if a person is not completely normal in everyway (whatever normal is) the abnormality must necessarily be a plot twist. At the end of a long foot chase, one person leans over, hands on his knees, breating heavily. Mary, also doubled over and panting, feels the effects of pounding along the path in the end of the stump where it contacts the prosthetic leg. They recover, straighten up, and go on with their day. I acted as beta for a person whose characters included a deaf hero and a movement impaired heroine. The mistake the individual made was making both characters Mary Anns (or is it MaryJanes? I can never remember), strong, clever, always cracking witty remarks, completely unfazed by the conditions fate dealt them, so sassy and sexy that I disliked them both thoroughly by the second chapter.
I think that's part of the problem. I write short stories, so I don't tend to mention these things unless they serve a role in the story. I don't think I've ever written anything where I've mentioned a character's height. Perhaps I need to do more of that.
Ah, I see your dilemma. I was thinking in terms of novels. Thinking it over, I also don't include a lot of character physical characteristics in short stories. Well, no time like the present to try something new, Naomasa. See if you can take make that gun over the fireplace simple stage dressing instead of a foreshadowing of things to come. If that doesn't work in a short story, then there is nothing left to do but write a novel.
In The Devil's Backbone there was a woman with a prosthetic leg, though she wasn't the main character. I only vaguely recall this now, but she stored something inside the leg, something that was important to the plot. I suppose it was a McGuffin. I remember her as being a good character, not at all defined by her handicap, but just a clever person who used the resources available to her in a smart way. She was just a good, strong woman. Not in the way that's come to mean recently, but an actual good strong woman, living in a more traditional world than we do now, when that didn't mean she fought like an MMA fighter and cussed like a sailor and could do everything a man can do better than he can while looking hot and acting snarky. I can barely remember the movie now, but it seems like maybe we didn't even know she had a prosthetic leg till some ways in? Or it was only mentioned once, but she really was just a normal person as far as plot and story goes. And then came the scene where she takes the leg off and removes the McGuffin. It's actually a very good movie. One of Guillermo Del Toro's more personal Spanish productions, financed with Hellboy money IIRC. EDIT—I just remembered how the prosthetic leg was introduced. The movie is set in either Spain or Mexico about a century ago at a boarding school for children, and the woman is one of the adults who work there. A bunch of boys were talking about how she would have sex—does she leave the leg on or take it off? I think that's a good way to introduce the fact that she has it. It's quite natural for them to be talking like that, and it makes you realize she has it without laboring the point or having to show her take it off or anything, until it becomes important. OK, I had to dig the DVD out, and now I'm gonna watch it as part of my October horror movie festival. I haven't seen it in ages. Looking forward to this!
I got a few details wrong. When the woman is first seen the camera pans down to show her wooden foot. It's in a shoe, but you can see wood where you expect ankle. And she walks with a slight limp and using a cane. I guess that's so you never forget about the leg, but it becomes normalized through familiarity. Hah! Both @Catriona Grace and I mentioned Mary Sues!!
Same here. Actually, today I found myself struggling to get into a vehicle, but that's more because I've just been to a rodizio restaurant and eaten half a cow.
Ah! Well reminded! I really must buy that film on DVD. On topic, though, I've just realised that one of the main characters in my current project is technically disabled, having lost an eye some time before the events of the novel. I hadn't really factored it in to her character in any way beyond the protagonist always referring to her 'eye', singular, one or two minor jokes that she makes about it herself and noting that she wears an old-school black eyepatch because she thinks it looks cooler than a prosthetic. She's loosely based on a very dear friend with whom I served who, thankfully, was never thus injured but, had she been, would definitely make jokes about it once she'd come to terms with it. Much like the chap I saw in hospital once, minus his legs, wearing a t-shirt that read 'Well, I'm stumped'. At the moment I'm undecided about keeping a plot point that revolves around the injury and the event during which it happened, but I figured it was better to write her as one-eyed from the start and if that specific plot point doesn't make the cut, well, she has still an old injury from a very significant life event which is plot-relevant, even if the injury itself is not.
I read a book though I don't recall the name where one of the main characters was blind. It did play into plot. The author handled it well with shifting POV between the two MCs. I am currently writing a short story where one MC is searching for a place to kill themselves and comes across the other MC who has lost most use of their legs, but is learning to walk with forearm crunches. Best advice I got was to treat their disability as an aspect of their life/personality, not their whole life.
I really liked your quote here: "I am not defined by my disability". My mother was a very disabled person. Something I learnt from her was that strength came from knowing what she couldn't do anymore. Somehow that translates into a kind of confidence which is very hard to describe. It's really nice that you felt something with the Hawkeye series. Pretty amazing what Marvel are doing there reaching out into so many genres - It's become post-modern, like how western films became. It's a spider web of genre at this point (excuse the obvious spider-man pun). For me, as a long time carer, the best equivalent I've seen and the hardest hitting recent film would be The Theory of Everything.
https://writingexcuses.com/ They recently started an 8 episode series on writing characters with disabilities.
The character may not be defined by their disability, but others in the story may react to it, either positively or negatively. The protagonist has to deal with how others perceive him. Just for fun... There was an HBO bio-pic in the 1980's called "If You Could See What I Hear" where the MC is blind. It's mostly played for laughs. My favorite scene is where his friends put tin cans on a car so he can hear the road and give him driving directions. They get pulled over by the police. Cop: "Wait, your friend is blind?" Friend: "Yeah, more or less." Cop: "Then why's he driving?" Friend: "Cause he's the only one who's sober." Although the film is mostly a comedy, the real Tom Sullivan was an extraordinary man. Tom Sullivan (singer) - Wikipedia The movie is on YouTube if you're interested.
I think the disability needs to play some role in the story or like you said what's the point of adding a disability to a character? It should also be part of your character development. Maybe your character is not defined by their disability, but it is something he or she lives with so it must factor in to who they are in. some way. Remember this is a story you're writing and not an ideal picture of how the world treats people or is for people with disabilities. I don't think it needs to be the main focus of your story if you don't want it to be, but it should be a part of the narrative.
