Unspoken (In the story) but 'confirmed' disorders in a story?

[Naruzeldamaster]

There's not many of my stories that I would like to do this in. Where like, there's characters that are "ADHD Coded" but like, it's never confirmed one way or the other that they are. One of my favorite games has some characters like this. It's never stated what disorder they have nor how deeply they have it. But it's very clear to those who know said disorders that they are at minimum on the spectrum. There's like 3 or 4 characters like this in game. And they're beautifully written. (And treated well as people besides)

I would like to write a couple characters like this, but I have no idea how.
The character being 'coded' like they have x thing, but it's a high fantasy setting so it's a more or less unknown condition is what I want to achieve.

 

[Mad Swede]

You do like to make your own writing life difficult don't you?

In a high fantasy setting where diagnoses of these sorts don't exist (as would be the case for my dyslexia) the character concerned may not know what is causing their problems. Neither does anyone else. That leads to a very different character from one who knows why they aren't the same (eg a soldier who got a terrible head injury in battle and has had problems ever since).

Acceptance will be an issue, and it will vary. By acceptance I mean how society looks at those who differ in some way or, put more politely, how society sees eccentricities. This is an issue in real life, and it varies between countries and cultures. If you as an author are going to include characters who are intended to be neurodivergent then your world building needs to take a fairly deep dive into societal attitudes, since this will have a significant impact on the character and their interactions with others in that setting. As an example, in a society where most people can't read and write someone with dyslexia won't stand out and so will be accepted as relatively normal. A military veteran injured in battle will probably be accepted in a way that someone with an undiagnosed condition might not be. So you need to think about how your characters would develop in the setting you have created. Here it might be good to seek out older people diagnosed late in life, because their experiences will be quite different to young people who were diagnosed early and got support

Not using terms and having a setting where the condition isn't known makes for a very big writing challenge. As the author you have to convey the characters many nuances and differences without making the character unsympathetic, at the same time as making it possible for neurodivergent readers to identify with the character. Thats a fine balance which is very difficult to pull off.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

You do like to make your own writing life difficult don't you?

In a high fantasy setting where diagnoses of these sorts don't exist (as would be the case for my dyslexia) the character concerned may not know what is causing their problems. Neither does anyone else. That leads to a very different character from one who knows why they aren't the same (eg a soldier who got a terrible head injury in battle and has had problems ever since).

Acceptance will be an issue, and it will vary. By acceptance I mean how society looks at those who differ in some way or, put more politely, how society sees eccentricities. This is an issue in real life, and it varies between countries and cultures. If you as an author are going to include characters who are intended to be neurodivergent then your world building needs to take a fairly deep dive into societal attitudes, since this will have a significant impact on the character and their interactions with others in that setting. As an example, in a society where most people can't read and write someone with dyslexia won't stand out and so will be accepted as relatively normal. A military veteran injured in battle will probably be accepted in a way that someone with an undiagnosed condition might not be. So you need to think about how your characters would develop in the setting you have created. Here it might be good to seek out older people diagnosed late in life, because their experiences will be quite different to young people who were diagnosed early and got support

Not using terms and having a setting where the condition isn't known makes for a very big writing challenge. As the author you have to convey the characters many nuances and differences without making the character unsympathetic, at the same time as making it possible for neurodivergent readers to identify with the character. Thats a fine balance which is very difficult to pull off.

I like a challenge from time to time yes. But as you say this particular one is a bit muddy/difficult to mess with. Which is why I'm debating doing it at all.
I mean part of me WANTS to, but I know it will require a lot of research. And a lot of careful planning even for minor characters.

I have a mute character and a blind character already, and those will probably be easy enough. If I decide to include a Neurodivergent under the hood. I'll have to look into those particular conditions. And I'll have to be very careful at how I portray them and how their cultures treat them. It's not set in stone yet if I'll do it or not. But it's Tempting.

 

[Romy]

On the auti side you might check out Brother Juniper. Known as the 'jester of God' and suspected autistic there are some wild stories about him. Not all... 'auti friendly' but it could give you inspiration how this is handled when not knowing what the issue is. Important to keep in mind is Assisi once claimed the world would be a better place if there were more Junipers.

The opposite is also difficult. It seems hard not to have a super detective figuring out murder cases on the smallest details without people tagging him as autistic. My view on the world is from an autistic standpoint, it sometimes shows in characters. The differences are subtle but I had severe issues studying sociology because for me that was theory, really not how people work. At that time I did not now yet it was me. It is one of the topics I try to avoid.

 

[Karlin]

I had the opposite experience. I'm a "pantser", was writing, and at some point realized that one of my characters was probably somewhat autistic. So I read up on the subject, starting considering that in my writing, and then... realized that my being aware of this was affecting my writing, and not in a good way. The character is who he is, an eccentric socially awkward genius. Having an official diagnoses in my head skewed things- I was trying to make the character fit the official image in my head, rather than live his own life.

This is a personal pantser's viewpoint. Once the characters get real, I don't conciously control them.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

I had the opposite experience. I'm a "pantser", was writing, and at some point realized that one of my characters was probably somewhat autistic. So I read up on the subject, starting considering that in my writing, and then... realized that my being aware of this was affecting my writing, and not in a good way. The character is who he is, an eccentric socially awkward genius. Having an official diagnoses in my head skewed things- I was trying to make the character fit the official image in my head, rather than live his own life.

This is a personal pantser's viewpoint. Once the characters get real, I don't conciously control them.

If it helps I don't plan on forcibly (keyword) introducing any characters who are neuro spicey (I don't know if that's offensive or not, but some friends I know who are 'spicy' call themselves that so.) just yet. If any of my L33T Clan members appear to me as such, I'll do the research then and see if it works. The thing with this clan, they're a bunch of 'odd balls' who go 'against the grain' and they all have special interests. There's no chance at least one of them isn't neuro spicey, if they aren't, good chance they're very lightly on the spectrum. Who I don't know yet, but I'll let the magic happen if/when it does.

I have one character who appeared to me as blind and one character who is mute.

Both of them are actually badasses in a scrap.

The mute lass is a bard who uses her 'voice' to demolish structures. She can communicate telepathically but only while within earshot, however she still can't make proper audible sounds. (barring little grunts and 'hms' etc) When the party meets her she had gotten her 'voice' stolen by sirens. (The proper Fae kind, not the pop culture sort) so she can't 'talk' to the party when she's introduced. My logic is that she's using the bard magic to communicate as opposed to her actual voice.

The Blind character is a Dwarven Blacksmith who's tall for a dwarf. His passion for his craft is comical (Please don't start a conversation about metal with him if you value your time) but he's also a samurai who can slay dragons. Brother could probably clap a lot of fictional samurai depending on how actual samurai they are.

 

[Romy]

A blind blacksmith that is easily distracted when you talk to him about metal What could go wrong

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

A blind blacksmith that is easily distracted when you talk to him about metal What could go wrong

Oh it's next to impossible to distract him while he's working lol but get him talking about his craft while he's off the clock, it'll never end. Brother knows he has his special interests (and he's usually pretty good at 'catching' himself before it gets too out of hand) but he also knows he's gotta job to do.

He had already honed his craft to near perfection well before he went blind. So he's basically like Daredevil but for blacksmiths lol He's only been blind for a hundred years, but in terms of dwarf life spans, that's more than enough time to adapt. My Dwarves are 'born from the earth' so they live the longest out of all my species.

 

[Romy]

If your mountains are characters, 100 years is nothing

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

If your mountains are characters, 100 years is nothing

Exactly lol bout the only species that doesn't live a stupidly long time in my story is the regular old humans.
The interesting bit is nobody is racist to them about that. Like how most of the time elves view humans as 'children' due to short lifespans. That trope always bugged me/rubbed me the wrong way.