Writing

So I have my own story. Kind of. Basically one of the characters (NOT mine, this character is from a book/show but I've changed them so much it's barely the character now), has a disability. I'm not sure why I made this so in the first place, but I did. It's been this way for a while, and I guess I classed this as angst, as I wrote loads, as well as maybe part of their character/depth. I guess this is sort of okay, because it is fiction. However.. 1) I feel like this has led me to romanticise these types of things. I understand why this might have happened though. 2) I feel like maybe I see it in the same way as I see like, I don't know, a part of their character almost like idk their clothing sense. I shouldn't. I don't want to romanticise, or even fetishise, this kind of thing. I get that you get angst and stuff in writing and that's fine but I'm not liking who I'm becoming about this. Does anyone have any tips? I feel like I should distance myself from the story and stuff but it means loads to me and I love writing it. I just don't want to romanticise and get desensitised to things that are serious. If anyone is going through the same thing or knows any tips I would appreciate it.

m1ch3ll3

Date posted: 2y

Remember that it’s not some fetish to like somebody who is disabled. I mean, every human deserves to be loved and there will always be sb out there who can love sb for who they are - even if it’s a disability or whatever. A fetish is when your sexual thoughts are based on this and you get aroused by the fact that sb is disabled. I also don’t think anything related to characters that aren’t real people can be counted into fetishes and all that stuff since it’s a character. I mean there are prob a few fetishes related to characters but they’re def not being in love with a disabled character.

squirrelobse...

Date posted: 2y

Thank you this helps :) - I think it's just the fact of in fiction lots of serious things are often used for story purposes and it sort of changes how some people view things. I understand completely that disability is not something to be romanticised though and I KNOW I know that.

m1ch3ll3

Date posted: 2y

@Chlo3264 See, everything is fine ☺️

Northern_Dow...

Date posted: 2y

I absolutely have dealt with this theme, TWICE actually 😂 you're not alone. What helped me was continuing to enjoy the character as they are without trying to ruminate on whether or not im portraying them in a romanticized/ableist way or something because honestly what I found was I was just appreciating them for how they were. And like the previous comment said, a fetish is when someone gets aroused by the fact that they're disabled or they're attracted to the fact that the character is disabled. 💁🏾 if someone loved you, does that mean they fetishize ocd? Nope! Continue to love the character :)

squirrelobse...

Date posted: 2y

That's amazing that I'm not the only one!! And yeah I completely agree, like ik that if the character wasn't disabled I would still love them, I'm just worried about having it be a sort of personality trait when it's a real thing people deal with. Like, I know it's fiction at the end of the day and I respect disabled people regardless of what I think about fiction and that wouldn't change even if I did romanticise it for this character, but it still troubles me kind of. But I'm glad I'm self aware.

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