Character Advice - Tumblr Posts
I need everyone’s best character advice. STAT.
Bad Writing Advice For Characters
If anyone has ever wanted to write a minority character, a piece of advice you are often given is "don't write a *blank* character, write a character who just so happens to be *blank*"!
I hate this!
Firstly, most people of a minority group are either super accepting of their characteristics or are working on getting to that point. To them, their sexuality/disability/medical condition/lifestyle/etc is an extremely important and irreplaceable part of them which colors their perspective on the world.
Those characteristics aren't interchangable aspects of their livelihoods! And people don't want to change those characteristics of themselves!
This kind of advice, in my singular opinion, goes against the ways people refer to themselves!
Disabled people are called "disabled people", not people with disabilities
Gay people are gay people, not people with same-sex attraction!
These characteristics aren't like handbags you can pick up and drop! They're core aspects of their psyche, lifestyle, and character!
Secondly, I hate the phrase "they just so happen..."! You, the author, made them apart of a minority group of your own volition! It's not like it was a mistake or an accident!
My queerness, gender, and everything "other" about me impacted my perspective on the world to such a fundamental level I wouldn't be the same person if I didn't have those traits.
Good Writing Advice For Characterization
As someone who has to collect all the personality traits of a character from the various daydreaming things I do, here is some questions I use to help "streamline" the entire process while not losing all of this interesting character!
Question 1: "What is your character's main philosophy expressed in one quote?"
This is helpful for finding the "core" of your character! Once you remove all the cool gimmicks and superficial personality traits, what do you have left?
Here are some of my examples:
"All I Need Is Love"
"I Need To Dissapear"
"I Am A Victim"
"I Am An Observor"
Second Question: "Can You Turn These Contradictory Personality Traits Into Purposeful Aspects Of Someone's Psyche?"
Let's be honest with ourselves. The majority of people are hypocritical and complicated.
Many people are self-absorbed and insecure!
Many people want to stand out from the crowd while also finding belonging within that crowd!
Many people simultaneously love some aspects of themselves and hate some aspects of themselves!
Many people are reckless in some ways and cautious in others!
If you purposefully do this with your characters this can add amazing internal conflict over their hypocrises and conflicting desires, create authentic drama, and add more realism to your characters!
Complexity is the art of meaningful contradiction!
Writing Advice For Disabled Characters
Lesson One: GO HARD
When I see disabled characters who have symptoms that "just so happen" to be totally convenient and not problematic I want to fight you!
Write disabled characters whose burn scars actually come with nerve problems!
Write disabled characters who don't have a "tasteful beautiful and oh so symbolic" scar and just write "neutral scar that is beautiful not because of it's shape but because of the person it's on"!
Write disabled characters whose disability doesn't allow them to live totally indepedently! Maybe you can actually write mentally disabled characters who have caretakers and not have this be a flaw?
Write disabled characters who have "gross" symptoms such as urine/fecal incontinence!
Write disabled characters who don't have amazingly perfect friends who are respectful/understanding 100% of the time but they're trying!
Write disabled characters whose symptoms occasionally prevent them from doing the fun dangerous stuff because their mobility aid can't function properly or their chronic fatigue syndrome is acting up!
Keep this advice dear readers and writers: Disability is not a handbag that you can pick up and put down. Yes, disability is not the worst thing that can happen in a character's life BUT it's not a walk in the park.
If you can't handle representing disabled people in their not conventionally attractive and "easy" state then you don't want to write disabled people! You just want to write diversity brownie points that allow you to fawn over a hot "Technically Disabled" guy but not a "Real Life Disabled Person"
Cringe Culture Is Dead!
You want to write a hot furry character but are afraid of the judgment? DON"T GIVE A CRAP AND BLOCK THE HATERS!
You are a trans person who wants to write a trans character who uses every single pronoun six ways til sunday? GO GET THAT BAG!
You want to write a hardcore smut fic with "disgusting" kinks! MAKE SURE TO TAG THAT SHIT PROPERLY AND ALSO GET THAT BAG!
You enjoy mainstream shit? COOL
You enjoy not mainstream shit? COOL
Whoever decided that having passions was "cringe" because it was either "too mainstream" or "not mainstream enough" can go behind that dumpster beside their establishment and cry like the fragile thing they're!
My favorite flavor of person is someone who is passionate! As long as you are tagging your shit properly and not harassing other people then the haters are being irrational!
YOU ARE THE AUTHOR AND NO MATTER WHAT U R INTO THERE IS GOING TO BE SOMEONE OUT THERE WHO IS LOVING EVERY SECOND OF IT(me)
The Key To Writing Good Angst
"I looked in the mirror on my way to school. I looked so ugly. My flowing blonde locks which wrapped around my face always made my feel insecure about my porcelain skin. I guess I just need to suffer with my dull and dry appearance...."
I'll point out the problems with this cliche bit of angst line-by-line to give a full illustration on what seperates interesting internal conflict from boring superficiality!
"I looked so ugly"
Vague. When writing insecure characters and characters that are angsting about something/someone, the trick to isolate the exact pain. What makes a character agonize over this specific event or person above all else? What has caused this turmoil? For CHARACTER A, their insecurity comes from "looking ugly"
But what does that mean really? What about their appearance makes them think that they're ugly? Is it their skin? Their hair? Facial structure? WHAT IS IT? Not only does giving details fill up the pages more, it can add more relatability to your character while also giving the reader a deeper insight into the character's thoughts.
"My flowing blonde locks which wrapped around my face always made my feel insecure about my porcelain skin."
2. Description. When describing a character's insecurity, getting inside their head is the most important! You, as the author, can use diction(word choice) and imagery to demonstrate to the non-seeing audience what exactly the main character sees!
For CHARACTER A, describing their hair as "flowing" immediately gives the hair a beautifully etheral appearance which is further highlighted by the use of "porcelain" and "locks".
In this case you could say that the "The dry and permanently matted nest, which was always proliferated with dead ends, managed to highlight another sore spot for them. Their skin looked eternally lifeless like a corpse buried in the desert. When it combined with their deep-setted eyes contoured by utter darkness from many sleepless nights, they really did look dreadful"
See! Now the reader knows and most likely understands the insecurity CHARACTER A has while not feeling superficial!
THE LAST WORD OF ADVICE: SHOW, DON'T TELL!
It may sound tedious but it's true. If you want your readers to properly internalize how angsty your character is you need to show the negative effects of this internal conflict!
EXTERNAL CONFLICT SHOULD BE A MIRROR FOR INTERNAL CONFLICT
Writing Advice: Insecurity
Remember: Insecurity Is Not A Good Trait!
What makes people hate so many insecure characters is because their insecurities are never given proper weight in the story!
At best, it's "humble bragging". At worst, it's annoying and an obvious ploy to get superficial relatability!
Insecurity isn't being humble nor is insecurity the mark of a good person!
Insecurity Makes People Hurt Others To Rise In Life!
Insecurity Can Cause You To Abandon Accountability!
Insecurity Can Lead Towards Being Self-Absorbed!
Insecurity Can Lead To A Mental Health Crisis!
Being insecure shouldn't be treated as the equivalent of being humble nor should it be treated as necessary to being a good person!
In fact, insecurity, as a negative character trait, often leads people in real life to act out in spoiled, selfish, immature, and horrible ways
CONFIDENCE DOES NOT EQUAL EVIL
INSECURITY DOES NOT EQUAL GOOD/SYMPATHETIC
Writing Advice For Villain Motivation
There are so many people out there in the world who accidentally overcomplicate the process of giving your villain a motivation and goal.
The trick to villain motivation is not to justifying or excuse your villain's actions but explain them! A classic example I use when talking about good motivation and good goals for your villain is the cookie jar metaphor!
COOKIE JAR METAPHOR:
A kid wants cookies but was told they couldn't get a cookie. They decide to steal the cookie jar because they really wanted it. If they're caught then they might suffer punishment or they might be able to blame the stolen cookie jar on their sibling.
In this case the "villain" is the kid. They wanted a cookie or some other thing but they weren't allowed to so they acted villainously in order to get it. They put the blame on their sibling because they didn't want to be punished.
It's simple. All your villain needs is to want something, be told they can't have it, and then try to get it.
What constitues "sufficient motivation" largely depends on the child/villain. For some children, the fear of punishment is enough to prevent them from trying to steal cookies but they may convince other kids to steal the cookies for everyone. For other children, they may do everything in their power to avoid getting caught while still stealing the cookies. Then there are children that don't care about punishment so they eat the cookies and don't try to hide it.
Their motivations don't need to be complicated. They want [THING], they're told they can't get [THING], and they decide that being evil is the quickest way to get [THING].
Why I Hate "Out Of Character"
My soul is burning with the desire to complain about shit so this time we're going to be doing a huge big category for:
Why You Shouldn't Write "Out Of Character"
Here is my philosophy for why I hate when fanfictioners and writers alike write characters out of character
Lack Of Attachment
When I am searching for fanfiction about a character whether or not it's ship-based, adventure, canon compliant, or even canon incompliant, I am searching for that character. Unfortuantely, I am not interested in your original characters because it's basically the equivalent of having a huge party with all your favorite people and then a stranger arrives.
I don't want to hang out with that stranger. It's awkward. So when a favorite character of mine starts acting like a stranger then ~they're just somebody that I used to know~
2. Stereotypical
Oftentimes, when an author consciously makes the choice to change a character it's often made to remove the complexity from a character in order to fit a certain mold. This can be done for a multiple of reasons and with various outcomes:
In Part 1, I talked about woobification and how authors, in an attempt to write their villain characters and angsty bois and gois as sympathetic, often get rid and ignore their horrible flaws and turn them into permanently crying messes I can't stand.
In Part 2, I talked about how male characters are often feminized or masculinized when they are written in a mlm fiction. These characters are either the Sissy archetype or Toxic Masculinity.
This stereotypical lends, at best, oversimplifies a character's complexities in order for them to fit into the narrow constraints of a trope and, at worst, homogenize an entire community of people with an undercurrent of bigotry.
FINAL REASON: Author's Hand
When reading/writing a story the best place for the author to be is in the background making the magic happen while the characters are on stage acting out their lives. The problem with the "Out Of Character" stuff is the fact that it feels like a character has been placed inside a glass box where they must act out their lives. Confined to tropes.
I'm totally fine with people having different character interpretations and character arcs. Those aren't my issue. It's only when these bland stereotypical paperdoll-like stories are the only thing I can read that I start getting snappy.
Writing Advice: Writing Out Of Character
No, this time I am not going to trash bad examples of characters being "out of character". Instead I am going to explain to you what seperates a good character who is behaving differently and a bad character who is behaving illogically.
Question 1: Why Is The Character Behaving Like This?
When we writers put our characters through the ringer we often see our characters change in drastic and "unexpected" ways. This is an example of "good character arc" and not "out of character" because if you supply justification for why your character is changing things up and doing different things then it's character development!
Virtuous Character A, in a desperate bid to stay alive and after being repeatedly pushed to the brink by these harrowing cirumstances, kills Character B? That is good character development!
Intelligent and prudish Character C suddenly starts acting like they're staring in a smut fic towards Character D as their "body betrays them" due to horomones they should've learne to control in their teens? That is out of character!
Has this writer(me) been writing informative yet argumentative works but has tried to start offering a softer and less confrontational side in order to appeal to more people? That is character development!
Question 2: Have You Given Your Character Enough Time To Evolve?
Unlike what love stories try to convince you, it takes a pretty long while for people to change their behaviors and mindset!
Has your normally stoic character who has been practicing understanding their emotions finally expressing some emotion? That's character development!
Have I been slowly adding more informative perspective and softer actions throughout my rants? Then it's much more believeable that I would express a softer side towards this issue!
A good bridge point between not breaking the suspense of belief and dramatics is to have a "boiling point". You put a character into a type of circumstance and they start changing subtly/internally. Then, at an emotional high, all of this boiling and emotional turbulance culminates in a big dramatic display of what was happening internally. So, while the change may appear "sudden" it was actually the result of a rise in tension!
Writing Advice: Writing Out Of Character
No, this time I am not going to trash bad examples of characters being "out of character". Instead I am going to explain to you what seperates a good character who is behaving differently and a bad character who is behaving illogically.
Question 1: Why Is The Character Behaving Like This?
When we writers put our characters through the ringer we often see our characters change in drastic and "unexpected" ways. This is an example of "good character arc" and not "out of character" because if you supply justification for why your character is changing things up and doing different things then it's character development!
Virtuous Character A, in a desperate bid to stay alive and after being repeatedly pushed to the brink by these harrowing cirumstances, kills Character B? That is good character development!
Intelligent and prudish Character C suddenly starts acting like they're staring in a smut fic towards Character D as their "body betrays them" due to horomones they should've learne to control in their teens? That is out of character!
Has this writer(me) been writing informative yet argumentative works but has tried to start offering a softer and less confrontational side in order to appeal to more people? That is character development!
Question 2: Have You Given Your Character Enough Time To Evolve?
Unlike what love stories try to convince you, it takes a pretty long while for people to change their behaviors and mindset!
Has your normally stoic character who has been practicing understanding their emotions finally expressing some emotion? That's character development!
Have I been slowly adding more informative perspective and softer actions throughout my rants? Then it's much more believeable that I would express a softer side towards this issue!
Ship Dynamic: Genderless x Genderful
Think about this!!! Allow it to enter your brain cavities
You have Character A. Completely lacking in all signifiers of gender. Every single creature in your story, from the most conservative to the least, has to refer to this character with only they/them pronouns. They only wear gender-neutral clothing. Their complete lack of gender is impossible to understate.
THEN
You have Character B. They have the most luciously long hair you could ever imagine. A full-length beard of pure masculinity. And the most massive set of honkers ever. Complete mommy/daddy mikers. Whatever letter comes after Z is what they have. They have maxxed out femininity and masculinity. They are Gender™.
No one in the cast commentates on their two peers' utter fuckery with gender. No one questions what Character B has going on. No one wonders or cares what Character A is packing in their pants.
The best thing about this pairing is that it could be familial, platonic, or romantic.
How To Write Trauma Like The Lego Batman Movie
Using Batman from The Lego Batman Movie as my example. I will give you dissertation on how to write trauma whether that trauma is related to orphan shenanigans or not!
STEP NUMBER ONE: TRAUMA AIN'T COOL
This is the biggest thing that The Lego Batman Movie gets spot on! Batman, throughout the movie, behaves more like an emotionally-stunted comical manchild then the suave self-insert straight power fantasy we're used to seeing.
Not only is this more realistic then the countless power fantasy stories that romanticize traumatic experiences and shitty coping mechanisms but it serves the narrative.
And the movie is all the better for this since it's this character development which serves as the necessary emotional core for the movie. If Batman was the perfectly suave badboy then him learning to have a family wouldn't be emotionally groundbreaking.
STEP NUMBER TWO: Have The Trauma Impact EVERYTHING and do it uniquely pwease
From Batman's child-esque tendency to throw tantrums to his higly performative playboy appearance which seems more like movie then man to his edgy sensibilities, everything has been grown from Batman's infamous backstory of orphanry.
His childish and immature attitude give the sentiment that Batman has reverted back into the maturity of a child which is a common coping mechanism as it allows someone to return back to the good old days.
His playboy "stoic"/edgy mean sensibilities (when in public and as Batman) are designed to keep people away as his greatest fear is having a family only to lose them again.
I enjoy the mention of "reverting back into childhood memories" as a coping mechanism because it's a coping mechanism that's not widely explored because society tends to denigrate dependency as "weakness that doesn't deserve to be explored".
Most of the time it's just stoicism which is portrayed as cool and sleeping around which is portrayed as bad not because it's hurting the person but bad because of our puritanical values
Final Lesson: Flaws Are Only Flaws If They're Treated As Flaws
Alot of writers know they need to write flaws connected to a character's trauma because they read writing advice blogs (hey) but they don't want to write actual flaws.
So what is a guy(gender-neutral) meant to do?
Write fake flaws!
This tends to be what Batman as a legacy falls into. Batman is a sleazy capitalistic megalomaniac with control issues who has an obsessive relationship with criminals and every single emotionally unattached woman (and Joker) he can get his hands on.
But it's cool!!! Because it's philosophical, and hot, and power-fantasy worthy.
However, The Lego Batman Movie subverts this! Batman's fear of losing his family and his subsequent abandoning of Dick, Alfred, Barbara, and the Joker nearly lead Gotham to ruins.
It's only when he overcomes his flaws, he can succeed in his goal of protecting Gotham
TL;DR: Trauma isn't cool. Trauma causes a shit ton of issues that create so many different kinds of coping mechanisms from the admirablely unhealthy to the pathetically unhealthy. And the only time you should (cutely and sanely) ship Batman and Joker is in this movie universe.
My Favorite Version Of Character
I have noticed a ✨theme✨in a lot of my characters so I will give you a step-by-step explanation of my thought process so you can steal it and i'll know I have helped a generation of tumblr users
Step 1: Grab A Mystical Creature
Bonus: They Are Associated With Purity
Think angels. Maybe even aliens? Just something on the supernatural side of things.
Step 2: Make Them Horny :)
Grab that angel character you just made and make them interested in sex or "sexy things". Grab that alien you just made and have be an alien who studies human reproduction with a focus on the actual "sexy" aspect because it's something unfamiliar to aliens.
Either way, they have a focus. A Drive
Final Step: Don't Judge Them For This, They Have Other Issues
One of my angel characters, Gabriel, is basically Nagito-levels of submissive. Complete sexual undercurrent throughout so many of their actions.
And this is never seen as bad. Heck, Gabriel is literally named Gabriel as a reward for being God's Favorite Angel due to his religious devotion and belief in God's message. Since that's all God cares about!
Gabriel has flaws that make life a little awkward but this isn't one of them.
Lesson: Sex Isn't Evil
A character being sex-positive shouldn't be shown as a bad thing. No one should be judged for their sex habits if they are using protection and regularly checking their STD status.
Sex doesn't corrupt. An active sex life isn't incapitable with morality.
If your character genuinely adores sex and this isn't a trauma response or a bad coping mechanism then they should be able to do that. #sex positive
Untold Symptom: Anger Attack
Hi, as a person who has what someone might call anger issues, I am going to explain to you how they're for me. If you relate to my issues then do something about it. If you don't, talk about it, I guess?
I'll basically be doing something. For example, watching a youtube video but then I suddenly feel a switch flip in my brain. Literally it feels like the filter has just been changed or when you go to the optometrist and they change the perscription.
Suddenly, this wave of irrational anger overcomes me. I'll be screaming into the pillows and biting myself. Clawing into my fingers and praying to God that someone will drill into my ears so the blood will drown out this accursed person. Maybe it was the volume, maybe someone misinterpreted something I love, maybe I was struck by the thought this person was kind of annoying.
I will be sitting somewhere, in a situation where I must talk. But then suddenly everything gets amplified. I can hear their breathing. Their little click of the tongue as it hits their roof. I have to physically grab onto the chair and convince myself not to murder. I will walk out of that situation, find the nearest wall, and punch it repeatedly and as hard as I can.
I would love to see a character like me. Or just another person. Nobody in my family sympathizes with the fact that sometimes I have the uncontrollable urge to punch the fridge as hard as I can. Or that I need to get out of a social situation, not because I am awkward but because I need to get to a wall.
It was really hard during the Covid Pandemic where every single time I would have to turn off all the volume, black out my picture, and cry for an hour out of rage because I was that overstimulated.
Writing Advice: Disability And Infantilization
Here Is Life Lesson To Take Into Everything: Disabled Adults Are Adults
In My Multi-Part Series, I Will Be Talking About The Different Ways That Writers Alike Mess Up This Phrase.
Disabled Adults Are Children?
This is a common mistake that authors make when attempting to write distabled characters. This is especially common when representing intellectually disabled characters but it definitely appears in the representations of the physically disabled.
Infantilization is a form of ableism where an individual talks/thinks/acts with a disabled person the way you might interact with an infantile child or dumb dog.
This type of infantilizing tends to impact those
If you want to understand how infantilization impacts real humans living in the real world and not characters, there are a ton of resources online and on Tumblr.
For disabled characters, love interests, allies, and the narrative itself relegate these characters to "funny animal sidekick" or "symbol of innocence".
I'm going to go through a rapid fire list of how authors infantilize and downplay how amazing their characters could be if you gave them something to do. Ok? Ok!
Never Giving Your Disabled Character Something To Do In The Story Besides Sitting There And Looking Innocent
Portraying Your Disabled Or Disabled-Coded(autism-coded) Character As Ignorant Or Unwanting Of "Adult Things" Like Sex, Problems, And Unhappiness
Assuming That Your Disabled Character Couldn't Do [THING] Despite Not Asking Mommy Google About It
Not Treating A Disabled Person's Desires, Beliefs, And Opinions Are Serious Which Often Leads To Characters Violating Their Boundaries
Having Your Likeable Characters Treat The Disabled Character Condescendingly Like Patting Their Head Or Acting Disapprovingly Shocked When A Character Goes Outside This
Refusing A Character's Ability To Be Independent By Having Them Only Rely On Others To Do Everything
When you, author, treat your intellectually/physically disabled character as a symbol of innocence or a child, you deny audiences the ability to see well-developed characters on screen! Disabled adults are adults who do things that adults do!
They drink if they want to
They have sex if they want to
They identify as [Something] if they want to
They date if they want to
They swear if they want to
They believe if they want to
Caretaker/Friend/Love Interest characters should not be romanticize when they disrespect this character, desexualize this character, and violate the boundaries of this character.
"When you deny the humanity of certain characters, you deny the humanity of certain people. "
Writing Advice On: Relatability
Hot Take: Make you characters relatable, not like that!
When people hear the world "relatable", a certain image comes to mind of the early to mid 2000s where the most important thing for a celebrity to be was "authentic" and "down to earth" in the most superfluous and superficial way possible.
Using this jumping off point, I will talk about what I hear when people advise to write "relatable characters" and what naysayers for relatability hear! Because it isn't the same thing.
When people read stories, they are looking for an immersive experience into the lives and emotions of others with the word "other" highlighted in order to make a point against relatability. Most naysayers of relability think that "relatable" means:
"has all of my superficial personality traits and life"
Obviously, the most popular characters in western media such as drug lord Walter White in Breaking Bad or disabled Ryan in Special aren't relatable to the majority of people.
And with that last paragraph, I have already pointed out a problem in "relatability is pointless". Walter White and Ryan are relatable.
Walter White is the story of corruption as his lust for power drives him further away from the man he once was. While this isn't the trajectory most follow, many can relate to being or knowing someone who went down a bad path paved with good intentions.
Ryan is the relatable "coming of age" story of a gay man with cerebral palsy who decides to go after the happier life he has always wanted. Ryan is the relatable protagonist who is awkwardly going after what he wants which is something that all of us have either tried or wanted to do.
These characters are relatable, not because of their specificity, but universality which is a made-up word probably.
"Sympathy Is Caused By Relatability And Understanding"
We sympathize with people not because we always relate to the individual circumstances but because we relate to stories about personal suffering which is universal.
It the belief that characters are only relatable when they have superficial traits that are similar to our own superficial traits that has prevented minorities such as Ryan O'Connell and Walter Jr. from taking the spotlight!
It comes from the belief that being a white cishet neurotypical abled-bodied man is the default and everything else diverse should be marketed toward a specific member of the populus.
Women protagonist = Woman story
Disabled protagonist = Disabled story
Etc. Etc.
But because people are learning simultaneously that "universal relatability is important" and "human stories are human stories which are universally relatable" which has allowed movies such as Barbie and shows such as Special to be such hits.
Obviously, Barbie is steeped in the existence of womanhood and Special is dedicated to representing disable existence BUT this doesn't remove their non-disabled and non-female audiences.
TL;DR: Relatability is important in the sense that relatability is not the "stories of people who look and act exactly like me" but instead "stories of people who live, thrive, and struggle just like me"
Writing Advice Part 2: Disability And EVIL
Disabled adults are adults and because they're adults they have a wide variety of morality and characters since humans are an exceedingly diverse group with even more diversed existences.
WRONG!
No. No. In reality:
👿👿DISABLED ADULTS ARE EVIL, ALL EVIL!!!!!!! 👿👿 According to certain writers!
When writers take communities and existences such as the facial difference gang or the intellectually disabled doers this results in horrific portrayals of "demonization". Obviously, people with physical disabilities are often portrayed horribly. I will mention them in the facial differences saga. The only reason I am specifically talking about facial differences and intellectual disability is because physical disability and facial differences tend to overlap while intellectual disability is a common yet undertalked form of representation.
Demonization: it's just like what it sounds like. Disablity always equals evil
However, the ways that facial differences gang is demonized is different to how intellectually disabled doers are demonized.
THIS BECAUSE OF A COMMON ASSOCIATION aka
Good = Beautiful/Handsome, Evil = Ugly
For future reference, when I say ugly I mean "not conventionally attractive" and when I say beautiful I mean "conventionally attractive". Afterall, Harvey Dent is attractive. That's a fact.
A popular example of this is the James Bond franchise which has stocks full of villainous characters with various limb differences, scars, and other such things. These ugly and bad characters fight against the cool and handsome James Bond
Literally, the association between evil and "ugly" is so ubiquitous that when a character becomes disabled they also become evil. The transition between being law-abiding handsome attorney Harvey Dent and evil insane "ugly" Two-Face is marked by fire/acid.
Let me tell you, there is no link between being a bad person and being not conventionally attractive. I'm not saying you can't write bad people with facial differences but they're not bad people because of their facial differences.
Secondly, Facial differences aren't only scars. They are often congenital. There are hundreds of different kinds of facial differences. This was just to talk about the fact that most people hear "facial difference" and think "scar".
FOR INTELLECTUALLY DISABLED DOERS, their evilness comes from their supposed "mental status as a six-year old". For the purposes of clarity, I am just going to say that's not how intellectual disability is labeled and move on.
Because of their supposed "mental status" 🤢, they have no ability to guage morality. They're " *derogatory term* who does evil out of ignorance"
Firstly, intellectually disabled people can learn things, like morality. Especially, if we are talking about the majority of intellectually disabled people who have to mild-to-moderate intellectual disability. Either way, there are hundreds of education prgrams designed to help people in learning about things from periods to childrearing to reading to everything necessary for life.
Secondly, intellectually disabled people aren't children. I talked about that in Part 1 named Writing Advice: Disability And Infantilization. Check it out, it's fun.
Thirdly, intellectually disabled people exist in the real world. If you want to write a character who is intellectually disabled, you can ask them for assistance. There is nothing stopping you.
CONCLUSION: No matter what disability someone has, that shouldn't stop them from being human. You can write disabled characters as evil but disabled characters should be evil not because of disability but regardless of disability. Evil Doesn't Equal Not Conventional.
What Makes A Disabled Character "Good"?
A disabled character shouldn't be judged as a failure when they need caretakers and other reliances for the important stuff in life no matter their age
A disabled character shouldn't be mocked as weak or spoiled when they refuse to break their boundaries or be happy
A disabled character shouldn't be shamed when their medical problems impede on their sex capabilities or hygiene or anything else like that
A disabled character shouldn't be celebrated only when they do break the impossible odds since most characters never break the odds
A disabled character shouldn't be dehumanized when they act cheerful
A disabled character shouldn't be treated like a child when they aren't a child
A disabled character shouldn't be forced into leading an "idealic" life that wasn't built for individuals like them
A disabled character needs to be accepted by the author when they fail to thrive, to die, to succeed.
A disabled character needs to be created by an author who understands that life is complicated and that the things they think as "necessary" to leading a fulfilling life may not be in the cards for certain characters
A disabled character needs to be understood by the author as a disabled character who can't do everything an able-bodied character can do.
And when a disabled character is not fully independent, self-sufficient, and thriving, an author should know that even in these circumstances, fulfillment and joy can be found. Disabled people do it all the time.
Many people aren't breaking odds, being fearless activists, and thriving. They struggle. They break sometimes. They succeed sometimes. But in this life, they can find the ability to be content.
My Favorite Version Of Character
I have noticed a ✨theme✨in a lot of my characters so I will give you a step-by-step explanation of my thought process so you can steal it and i'll know I have helped a generation of tumblr users
Step 1: Grab A Mystical Creature
Bonus: They Are Associated With Purity
Think angels. Maybe even aliens? Just something on the supernatural side of things.
Step 2: Make Them Horny :)
Grab that angel character you just made and make them interested in sex or "sexy things". Grab that alien you just made and have be an alien who studies human reproduction with a focus on the actual "sexy" aspect because it's something unfamiliar to aliens.
Either way, they have a focus. A Drive
Final Step: Don't Judge Them For This, They Have Other Issues
One of my angel characters, Gabriel, is basically Nagito-levels of submissive. Complete sexual undercurrent throughout so many of their actions.
And this is never seen as bad. Heck, Gabriel is literally named Gabriel as a reward for being God's Favorite Angel due to his religious devotion and belief in God's message. Since that's all God cares about!
Gabriel has flaws that make life a little awkward but this isn't one of them.
Lesson: Sex Isn't Evil
A character being sex-positive shouldn't be shown as a bad thing. No one should be judged for their sex habits if they are using protection and regularly checking their STD status.
Sex doesn't corrupt. An active sex life isn't incapitable with morality.
If your character genuinely adores sex and this isn't a trauma response or a bad coping mechanism then they should be able to do that. #sex positive