writing characters with one eye
i can pretty much guarantee that āthatā is not a heading you see everyday.
now i will not be giving advice on writing cyclopses, (though it may be sort of the same thing) i still hope this will be helpful for some people out there that are looking to provide a more diverse cast to their wip!
i have never ever ever read a book, watch a show movie etc etc that involves a character with one eye. (aside from those badass characters who wear eye patches bc they lost sight in one eye in some badass way)
for context: i am one of many people who was born with microphtalmia, an eye disease that results in one or both eyes develope smaller than normal at birth. i myself was born with a smaller left eye, which resulted in my left eye being removed exactly twenty days after birth.
microphthalmia (along with many other eye diseases) typically leads to being half or fully blind. i lucked out and only lost my left eye which i am so so thankful for.
i would really really love to see more representation for my community in literature, especially so people would come to see that being half blind isnāt as unusual and weird as people make it out to be.
without further ado, i present to you, a list of information, facts, and first hand experiences from yours truly!
iāve had prosthetic eyes made to fit my eye socket for about fifteen years (iām 16 lol) (the first 6ish months after the surgery i never had a prosthetic)
in my life iāve had four different prosthetic eyes made because just like other people, my eye socket grew alongside the rest of me, meaning the prosthetic needed to be made bigger
iāve had my current prosthetic for four years now, the past ones lasted about 2-3 years at a time. this one will probably last me through the rest of my life unless i need/want a new one
as opposed to most media/assumptions, my prosthetic (along with most prosthetics) is PLASTIC (people always think itās glass) and only half a circle!!
iāve had three surgeries related to my eye
i do not have depth perception which makes doing certain things very difficult (estimating distance, how close/far i am from something etc)
driving is not affected too much, i just have to turn my head more than other people. i believe being blind in the right eye might be more difficult, but i couldnāt say
doing my make up is kinda easy, ļæ¼except for eyeliner is a pain in the ASS since most people close their eye to do it on their upper lid, but clearly i canāt close my right eye whilst doing it lol
my family as well as my friends and even myself often forget i have a prosthetic, which sometimes results in awkward/funny situations
i hate walking with people on my right bc i canāt tell where they are unless iām constantly looking down at my/their feet
i sucked at basketball bc i had such a disadvantage (no depth perception, i could only see half the court, i was constantly turning my head) but professional swimming is much easier for me since itās not a contact sport and doesnāt really require for me to be paying attention to a million things at once
i rarely have to take my prosthetic out, and if i do, itās either to clean it, (we do get eye crusties on our prosthetics just like other people do when they have pink eye or sever allergies) itās bothering me/really dry, or i want to take it out to show/scare people lol
a lot of people donāt realize when i first meet them that itās fake bc my recent prosthetic is amazing accurate to my real eye. others notice and assume i have a lazy eye since it doesnāt move
for some reason people think i canāt cry out of my left (prosthetic) eye??? i still have a tear duct??? i actually think more tears come out of my left tear duct than my right lol
i am extremely self conscious about it, but i know there are other one-eyed beauties out there who arenāt which is amazing!! i try to live vicariously through them lol
i make sooo many jokes about my eye lol, and iām usually ok w other people making jokes as long as they arenāt like overly rude/offensive, then iāll feel a lil bad about my self
people never really made fun of it, but kids in middle school likes to wave things in front of my left eye/on my left side that i couldnāt see which got really annoying after a while
getting custom designed prosthetics are available, but theyāre really expensive (so are normal lol) they costs thousands of dollars, just like other prosthetics do
i run into things that are on my left side ALL THE TIME itās actually kinda funny lolol
i try to hide my left eye/turn more to my left side in photos bc my eyes arenāt always looking in the same direction, which really gets to me
i wear glasses for both protection and bc my right eye is -1.75 lmao but i did used to wear non-prescription glasses purely for safety
i do have contacts to wear during the summer, swim meets etc, for when i donāt want/canāt wear my glasses but need to see. bc of this, i have a second pair of glasses that have no prescription
if doctors/scientists managed to figure out a way to fix microphthalmia (a birth defect), or do a sort of eye transplant, i would not be able to have that done to me because all parts of my left eye have been removed from my body
microphthalmia is NOT the only disease that results in the haver losing sight in one or both eyes!! there are many others, but it is not my place to share any experiences for something i have not experienced!!!
for once i just want to see a clumsy character who has one eye that WASNT a result of some tragic event.
so please please please consider including a character with one working eye in your wip. it would mean the world to myself and all the other members of the community (thereās a lot of us, trust me) plus, i wouldnāt mind starting an acting debutļæ¼ playing a half-blind female protagonist, that would be so dope.
thatās about all i can think of for now! please send an ask or reply to this post if you have any questions, iām willing to answer any!!! and if you happen to be a member of the one eye club, please add to this post!! that would mean the world to me:)
