Writing disabled characters as a disabled person is both liberating and painful. Having those experiences of chronic pain makes it easier for me to describe how my MC feels about his pain. For example, how it feels like burning knives are stabbed into his leg over and over. Or how you’ll push yourself to do something, you know very well you don’t have the energy to do. Pulling from these experiences has been more liberating than I thought. It has helped me deal with some of the trauma, and also come into this acceptance that I’m still as badass as anyone else. Which is why I think writing disabled characters is just as important as writing queer characters. Everyone deserves to feel themselves connected with a character, and to live vicariously through them. This it what fiction is made for, to have these stories where our minds can run free.
I’ve read both books with queer characters where their feelings of their sexuality have resonated with me, and make me cry over the feeling of being seen. And I’ve read books with disabled characters and had the same feeling. This is why it’s so important to have representation. To have queer, disabled and/or POC in rom-coms, fantasy, sci-fi and thrillers. To show that a character that looks like you, has the same feeling as you can be a badass hero. Which is what I want to do with “Ruins of Dawn”, yes I just name dropped the new and improved title for my WIP. I want to show that a morally gray character, who has nerve pain and limps, still can kick ass. That neither his disability nor sexuality defines who he is as a person, or if he can save the world. He’s Ed Johnston, the world’s most powerful super.
