How to Write Autistic Characters: An Incomplete Guide

by Salt and Sage Books

How do you accurately write an autistic character? You care about writing diversely. You know how important it is to have accurate representation in your stories. You want to include characters whose experience is outside of yours. It's easy to find examples of writing gone wrong, but where do you start to get it right? The Incomplete Guide to Writing Autistic Characters can help. Written and collaborated by several of Salt & Sage's autistic editors and sensitivity readers, this guide is a compilation of important things you should know before you sit down to write an autistic character. You'll find discussions about stimming, conditions associated with autism, and problematic tropes in the media, along with many others. Each section also includes how to best apply this to your writing! You'll find explanations from our talented staff, with links, explanations, and ideas for how to write your autistic character authentically and with real respect. By no means is this exhaustive, but it is a great place to start. No one book or perspective can reflect the diverse experiences of autistic folx, nor should you use this as your only guide. We strongly encourage you to hire a sensitivity reader (or several!), to listen to autistic voices, to read #ownvoices books by autistic authors.

97 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 24, 2020

About the author

Salt and Sage Books is an editing company centered on the idea that a rising tide lifts all boats.

We are a creative community of devoted readers, writers, and editors, hailing from the desert's sunwashed sage to the coast's shining seas, and we've brought together our diverse skills and experiences in a single welcoming place, to help writers like you.

When you choose Salt and Sage, you join a creative community working together to change the world through story.

Check out our Incomplete Guides series for an accessible first step into writing diversely.

You'll find a wide range of editors, sensitivity and expert readers, and beta readers on our website, www.saltandsagebooks.com.

Welcome to the rising tide.

Reviews

[Lillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you for this

While I've been aware of autism for some time now I am very much aware that I don't know that much about it. I'm glad this guide is published so that I can be more knowledgeable and sensitive to those who live with autism.

[Kimberly Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an autistic writer with an autistic daughter who's active in the advocacy community, I expected to enjoy this book--maybe learn a thing or two I didn't already know. But WOW. I learned SO much. And not just new information and insights, but new language for expressing old feelings, new ways of phrasing things to help the neurotypicals in my life better understand me.

One of the best things this incredible guide has yielded thus far is that my daughter's educational assistant and her therapist have both purchased copies so they can better understand her. I just . . . tears, okay? There were tears.

Highly recommend this to writers and non-writers alike.

[Natalie Holden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This guide could be useful for someone with no personal experience with autism/autistic people, but as an autistic person who got a diagnosis recently and did some research, I can't say I learned anything new. The links to further reading were a nice touch, though.

[Hot Mess Sommelière ~ Caro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much less of a writer's guide and more of a plea to see people with autism as humans too. The same imprint wrote a very useful guide that detailed common, harmful tropes associated with black characters.

This one was less helpful, as I wasn't looking for an explanation of what Autism is.