Help with writing an autistic character in my next novel?

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I agree that the OP has taken a good first step in coming to this forum and posting a thread here, but a single thread cannot possibly supply her with all the information that she needs about autism.

As I emphasised, my comments regarding the necessity of research if not "writing what you know" would relate to any topic chosen by an aspiring novelist, not just autism. Writing a novel that includes topics about which the author is not familiar ideally involves doing extensive research, using as many different resources as possible, but the OP appears to think that we can give her all the answers that she needs to go and write her book in just this single thread. That is not just lazy; it's also unrealistic and unprofessional, and pointing that out is not a personal attack on the OP. I am merely trying to help out, by explaining to her how proper novelists conduct their research.

Like novelists, actors also conduct research before taking on certain roles. We all know how the actress from "the Bridge" sought out Alex Plank and met with him. She wanted to to talk to a real person with autism, because she was going to be playing a character with autism. No professional actor would take on a role of a character significantly different from themselves without doing research / immersion to get into the mind of the character - and no proper novelist would, either.

Hence, I suspect that the OP is not a published author, but just an aspiring one. In her post, she mentions no other research she has done (or plans on doing) other than posting on forums. That strikes me as an amateur, naive form of research - which is why I suggested she should think about writing a book about somebody who's trying to write a book. Who knows - it might end up being a hit!

As I said, it's good that she's here - but she definitely should consider staying here long-term and reading / writing MANY more posts. Also, making as many autistic friends as possible, both online and in her own community, would be extremely helpful. Attending a local Aspie meetup for a few years and making lasting friendships with autistics to get to know them as individuals (rather than just conducting single, quick-fire interviews during a one-off meeting to form a mish-mash stereotypical character who is a combination of the personalities of all the respondents) would also be beneficial.

ETA: this link also mentions how useful YouTube can be.

http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blo ... vel-7-tips

OP, if you insist on writing about autism despite knowing nothing about it, I strongly suggest you watch all the Aspie / Autie videos you can find as part of your research. Here are some to get you started:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At4Vmo13vJE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AocjrLH ... C844ACDBD4

Some good homework for you would to be to watch all of the videos by InjuredMinds. He has some excellent insights into having Aspergers.

Last edited by thumbhole on 02 Aug 2014, 4:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I imagine that she does plan on reading posts. I think it is good, that rather just make observations that she ASKS us how we feel [ I wish everyone did that. don't you?] BTW, she is an established author in the U.K. and has a baby, a husband, and a cat [could the cat be the Autie connection?lol] once again, I am glad that she is asking us about our lives rather than just making snap judgements as is so often the case.

Were you bullied at high school? Can you tell me about how you reacted to it? If you had to write a diary about what happened at the time, what would you have written?

I missed >25% of school days my freshman year and didn't make a single friend; I dropped out after that. I was an invisible entity at school and nobody knew my name, so no I was not bullied.

Have you contemplated suicide? (I know this is very personal so feel free to totally not answer this one.) Can you tell me more about what you went through?

Not anymore seriously than the average person during a rough patch. (I would go with no)

I have read that some people on the autistic spectrum have very detailed knowledge on niche interests. I wonder if you have any input on what kind of interest I could give to my main character?

I think it would be dependent on if you decide to go with the artist route. Maybe some kind of animal.

I don't want to be completely stereotypical and give my main character a talent in maths, so I was thinking of making him an exceptionally talented artist. I wonder what your thoughts are on this?


I would honestly say that the artistic stereotype is as commonplace as the math wiz one. There are lots of us who are not exceptionally talented at much of anything, but I understand that you will be wanting to appeal to the masses.

And really, what general help can you give me with the way in which he should communicate? I'm thinking I need to avoid making him use sarcasm and figurative language - would that be an accurate reflection of how many or most of those on the autistic spectrum communicate?

Would mostly depend on how high functioning they are. Lots of aspies are witty and can use sarcasm, but that doesn't mean they always get it.

Like I said, I do know a few things. I did actually do a bit of research before I came here. I looked at websites for those on the autistic spectrum, I read some news articles about bullying and suicide with specific reference to those with autism, I downloaded a few PDFs that are dished out to employers, schools etc. on how to handle bullying in schools and how to integrate someone with autism in the workplace. I am a teacher, therefore I have had some training on autism. I never worked that closely with the autistic students we had, but there was one child who had some quirky behaviour and sadly, he was picked on quite severely. I do have him in mind sometimes when I think about my character, but really, the two of them are not really alike so far.

The questions I asked were deliberately broad and may have made me sound ignorant because I didn't want to generalise; I didn't want to assume that everything I had researched so far was correct.

I don't consider coming here asking questions to be lazy. I consider it part of good research. If you don't know an awful lot about something, where better to go than to those who actually deal with it and experience it?

I appreciate some of what you're saying, but I think you're being a little harsh. Authors don't always write about characters that they know inside/out; I don't suppose JK Rowling knows anybody with magical powers, and as far as I know she has never been an 11 year old boy. I do think it's necessary to do research (and I consider asking questions on forums to be research) but I consider that that is exactly what I am doing. I do believe that what I have looked up, together with the much more valuable responses here, will be enough to help me form a believable character. But I do take your suggestion of reading some of the other posts on these forums.

I'm sorry about my 'misconceptions', but those that you think I have have come from the research and my personal experience (for example, the child I mentioned earlier, he was listed as Gifted and Talented and was a very talented actor, far superior to anyone else in his class, and I have read a lot of about those with autism having a special talent or skill). But clearly these misconceptions are the very reason that I ought to ask REAL people rather than research, leaflets and things that other people have written, things that treat those on the spectrum like numbers, statistics and generalisations.

Claire; one question you need to answer is what was special about your protagonists' elementary school or situation that he was able to thrive in the years before middle school. You also might one to spend some time reading posts in the Haven here.

I believe that you will describe your autistic character authetically. Good luck!

Thank you for those clarifications. I am sorry that I wrongly assumed that you had not done any other research, but that was due to lack of information in your opening post. Also, I apologise for assuming that you weren't a published author, but again, you didn't specify whether or not you were.

Also, I am sorry if I appeared slightly hostile, but we often get a lot of NT people coming on these forums and starting threads to ask generalised questions about Aspies, before disappearing again before they have had time to learn anything at all. It's getting kind of old. I am sorry if I made an assumption that you were only going to stay until your thread had enough answers, and then leave, but that's what most NTs do when they're only here for quick answers. It would be nice if you stuck around and really took the time to understand us.

I think the main reason for the stereotype of autistic people always being talented is because the talented ones are the ones who get all the attention. People always want to make documentaries / write news articles about the rare infant prodigies, so they are the ones who get noticed. But nobody ever wants to make documentaries about "normal" autistic people.

People who have autism but are perfectly ordinary and unremarkable probably represent about 90% of people on the spectrum (that's a rough guess on my part; not an official statistic). The remaining 10% will be the "amazing" ones with special talents, who get noticed because they do unusual things. Most average autistic children (who would probably be perceived as mundane, average, and uninteresting to anyone except their own family), do not get noticed at all.

I don't think you can cite JK Rowling as an example of "somebody who didn't do research but got away with it" because hers was an entirely different genre. She wrote fantasy fiction, so her imagination had free rein. You, on the other hand, are planning to write a novel set in a realistic school in the real world, and one of your characters has a syndrome that truly exists. Hence, you need to know about that actual syndrome before you can write about it.

JK Rowling did not have that problem. When writing about "muggles," and "squibs," for example, she could make up any facts about them that she wanted, because she was using her own imagination to define the character traits of groups of people of her own invention. When writing about "Aspies," you cannot permit yourself any such luxury, because Aspies genuinely exist. Hence, if you make erroneous statements about them, or get the terminology wrong, you risk offending the entire autistic community if your novel is published - so it's a good thing you came here to ask us some questions.

Also, JK Rowling may never have been a boy, but she does have sons, I think, so I can see how it would be easy for her to write a book in which the protagonist was a boy. You, on the other hand, as far as I know (correct me if I'm wrong) do not have a child with autism, so you're not writing from experience and need to do lots of research. Having an autistic child in your class is not the same thing as living with an autistic child in your house.

Also, speaking as a Christian who is against the promotion of the black arts, I can tell you that you are mistaken: JK Rowling did in fact do a huge amount of research on the topic of witchcraft in order to write her books. So accurate were her portrayals of how to do spells that many satanic readers were left with the impression that she must be either a witch, or an ex-witch. In many areas she was free to use her imagination ( as stated above) but in other areas, she did careful research. I do not like her books but I know most writers probably aspire to her level of fame. Do not assume that she did no research. Online, you will find many heated discussions on the subject, such as this one here:

http://www.wahm.com/forum/current-event ... tch-8.html

You will see from those quotes that Rowling actually did a lot more research than you seem to assume. Getting back to the autism issue: I cannot overemphasise how important it is to make sure you get your facts right when writing about a minority group of people with disabilities. For example, if I were going to write a novel about albino people, it would be very offensive for me to state in the novel, "like all albinos, Jack [my albino character] had red eyes." It is simply not the case that all albinos have red eyes. They don't actually have red eyes at all; some (not all) of them have eyes that can appear red due to lack of pigment, that's all. Nonetheless, it's a common albino stereotype. The same thing applies to autism. There are many, many sterotypes about autism, and a lot of them are untrue.

It's good that you're doing so much research, but honestly I think the best way for you to learn about autism would be to make a few friends who actually have it. Also, as an absolute minimum, you should learn the basic autistic jargon, to avoid using the wrong words in your novel. For example, as I explained, we autistic people do not say "niche interests." We say special interests. It may seem like an unimportant difference to get one single word wrong, but it isn't. If you use the wrong jargon in your book, any editor worth his / her salt will throw it back at you and tell you to do a re-write, so it would save your time to learn the jargon now.

Here is a mini list of common autistic jargon you should be careful to get right, off the top of my head:


Special interests = hobbies or interests we are obsessed with. All autistic people will have at least one special interest. It may be something highly advanced and intellectual (such as advanced mathematics or chess or physics) or something extremely mundane and unchallenging (such as stamp collecting or train spotting or memorising facts about a certain celebrity).

Neurotypical, abbreviated as NT = person who does not have autism.

Aspie = abbreviated affectionate term for someone with Aspergers. Note: some (not all) people with Aspergers find this term offensive.

Autie = abbreviated affectionate term for someone with autism.

Stim (noun or verb) = soothing repetitive action or sound that calms us down, such as rocking, picking our skin, pacing up and down, etc.

Meltdown = when our brain experiences an emotional or sensory overload. (This is NOT the same thing as a "tantrum" or a panic attack. They are three different things). Meltdowns may manifest as crying (more likely in girls) or shouting or being violent (perhaps more likely in boys) or collapsing and needing to retreat / be alone / get away from people / going into total shutdown and being unable to talk.


There are lots more, but I'm sure you'll find them in other places. I can't remember them all here.

Hope this helps.

Last edited by thumbhole on 02 Aug 2014, 8:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm just curious (not mad or insulted or anything) about why you want an autistic character since you don't really seem to understand what Autism is (which you should not feel bad about, it's a confusing spectrum).

Maybe it's no different than wanting to write about, say a brain surgeon - but there is the difference that most people have a clearer picture of what a brain surgeon does.

blah, blah, blah

I really am sorry for being so rude, thumbhole and I hope you forgive me, but you just pushed one of my buttons.

Autistics existed long before the so called experts. I suggest reading Autism's First Child and Not Even Wrong for an historical perspective. The fact that a bunch of curebie PhDs with no personal experience with autistics make their living describing this latest fad is just pathetic. All they have accomplished so far is making a mess of things.

I reject the terminology that faux-experts have foisted on the autistic community. It is all couched in negative semantics. I celebrate autistics defining and describing themselves.



We not only "deal with" autism, we are the true experts.

You have not been rude to me. I don't understand why you are apologising. You seem quite polite to me.

I have just re-read what you wrote and I can't find any rude parts, unless you mean the part where you said "bla, bla, bla." If that is the extent of your "rudeness," then you must be a very polite person indeed!

You just seem to be saying that you don't agree with my statement that the OP should make sure she learns all the current jargon, because apparently you don't like people using buzzwords. Is that what you mean?

If so, you're not being rude; you're just voicing a different opinion. That's absolutely fine. I'm sure the OP will welcome all sorts of different opinions.

I don't understand the references to "curbies PhDs" though. I wasn't voicing my opinions on the cure / no cure debate. I was just talking about the jargon commonly used in this forum by autistics themselves.

Anyway, I was just thinking about the jargon issue some more, and it has occurred to me that, depending on whether the OP decides to make her character someone who is diagnosed or not, the character may not even know or use any of that jargon, anyway. If the character does not even know s/he has autism, and has never been taken to anyone for diagnosis, s/he would have no reason to know those words.

So maybe you could make the character be an undiagnosed autistic person, who instinctively expresses things in their own words. I suppose saying "niche interests" or "my special hobbies" instead of "special interests" would be fine under those circumstances.

Another possibility would be to not state expressly that the character has autism. Another book written recently (the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) featured a character that most readers assume has Aspergers, but apparently that is just an assumption on the part of the readers, because the author only refers to the protagonist as "a mathematician with some behavioural difficulties." Note: I have not read that book. I have only heard about it.

Sorry for writing so much in your thread, but I have an interest in this topic, because I like writing, too.

No, that was not referencing you, thumbhole. The negative spin jargon was developed by curbies PhDs who assume we are broken. I reject them. I am glad my harshness didn't hurt your feelings.

You were not harsh to me! I am the one who has been accused of harshness in this thread. I have apologised to the OP for that, so hopefully she is not upset about it. I do not like upsetting people. I was honestly only trying to help.

Me too, so I try to get along. I will take this to mean we can assume the best of each other.

Were you bullied at high school? Can you tell me about how you reacted to it? If you had to write a diary about what happened at the time, what would you have written?

I was bullied infrequently; I can recall three times when it occurred. Mostly I was ignored, which I was pleased by because I had no interest in or understanding of how to interact with the other kids. If isolation is to be a theme in your book, I'd give your character a place to go that emphasises it: instead of going to lunch with his friends, perhaps he buries himself in books at the library, or has a corner of the schoolyard where he feels safe from the rest of the world.

Have you contemplated suicide? (I know this is very personal so feel free to totally not answer this one.) Can you tell me more about what you went through?

No, fortunately I have not. I have wondered about it from an intellectual perspective, but never actually considered it; I like life too much, even if anxiety is a prominent factor.

I have read that some people on the autistic spectrum have very detailed knowledge on niche interests. I wonder if you have any input on what kind of interest I could give to my main character?

To avoid stereotyping, I would avoid the following: trains, computers, dinosaurs (ironically one of mine), or math/equations/numbers.

I don't want to be completely stereotypical and give my main character a talent in maths, so I was thinking of making him an exceptionally talented artist. I wonder what your thoughts are on this?

I like this idea. While it's true that autistic savants are rare (about 10%), they do exist, and I can say that I've read more books about autistic characters without special talents (Wild Orchid trilogy, Mockingbird, The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous, Blue Bottle Mystery trilogy (borderline), House Rules, Al Capone Does my Shirts, 600 Hours of Edward, Rules, Anything but Normal, Buster and the Amazing Daisy, Asperger Diaries, Marcelo in the Real World, Harmonic Feedback, With the Light manga series, and, if I recall correctly, Colin Fischer) than those with them (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, The Rosie Project, Mindblind, and probably Sherlock Holmes). I like the art idea too: it's a reminder that autistics can be creative and imaginative, something stereotypes seem to think we lack. I have a character (not autistic, but highly sensitive) who features in a long-running series of unpublished short stories, who is a gifted artist, and I enjoy writing that side of him; it allows for a lot of creative ideas.

And really, what general help can you give me with the way in which he should communicate? I'm thinking I need to avoid making him use sarcasm and figurative language - would that be an accurate reflection of how many or most of those on the autistic spectrum communicate?

The communication ability of those on the spectrum varies widely depending on their level of functioning. There are people here who are primarily nonverbal and who use ACD (assistive communication devices) to communicate, and there are others, such as myself, who have a verbal IQ in the gifted range, so that is entirely up to you; virtually anything you go for will be accurately representational of at least some people on the spectrum. I personally enjoy stories where the autistic has a different or unique way of communicating, though I couldn't say why. The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous is a good example of this: Merilee's sentence structures tend to be fragmented, occasionally using only single words to describe what she means. She gets more fluid as the story progresses, but it's very evident at the beginning of the book.

Really, anything you can tell me that will help me make this kid a believable character and avoid hitting too many cliches or coming across like an incredibly stupid person who has no idea about autism, that would be great. I really want to be sensitive to the condition.

The best advice I can give is: don't make him a robot. Don't have him think in highly structured, robotic language, even if he speaks that way (my speaking voice sounds like a person from the Victorian era, but my internal voice sounds just the way everybody else speaks). Don't have him analyze everything everyone else does or says; this is common in autism books and unrealistic. Most of our nonverbal communication difficulties arise not because we don't recognise someone's facial expression, but because we don't notice it, or otherwise deem it relevant. I don't go around all day considering everything the people around me have said and what they might have meant; it's unrealistic.

Give him believable emotions; have him laugh and smile like a normal person; we're not always so serious. Meltdowns can occur if he's highly emotionally aroused, angry, upset, etc, but don't make him have one every time someone bumps him in the hallway. Maybe the fifth or tenth time, but not the first. With regard to emotions, stimming is sometimes seen when emotions are bordering on the high end, not just negative ones, but positive ones as well. I flap my hands and bounce on my toes when I'm very excited by something, and will rock and hug myself when I'm anxious or stressed. I would give your character less stereotypical stims than this though. A few less common ones include: head-shaking, playing with collars or drawstrings on clothes, tapping fingers on one another, rubbing hands together, etc.

Anyway, good luck with the book, I'd love to read a few chapters once you've started

Were you bullied at high school? Can you tell me about how you reacted to it? If you had to write a diary about what happened at the time, what would you have written?

Yes. People often pretended to be my friend, only to get my hopes up and put me down. Of course, there were also the less subtle types who would put me down at the start, and people would often 'trick' me into making a social faux paux (I was a clear target for this). I was also bullied in elementary school. I realized just how few people it was worth keeping in contact with contact and have cut off with almost everyone I've met in high school. In college, I have received nothing in the way of bullying, in case it matters.

Have you contemplated suicide? (I know this is very personal so feel free to totally not answer this one.) Can you tell me more about what you went through?
Secretly contemplated or fantasized? Yes. Made plans? Vaguely. Attempted it? No

I have read that some people on the autistic spectrum have very detailed knowledge on niche interests. I wonder if you have any input on what kind of interest I could give to my main character?
A single aspect of science or math, a specific sport, team or athlete a movie series of movies, a celebrity, musician, singer or band. Any of these are fair game, and you have plenty more open

I don't want to be completely stereotypical and give my main character a talent in maths, so I was thinking of making him an exceptionally talented artist. I wonder what your thoughts are on this?
Good idea, but stick to one form of art. Drawing, sculpting, painting, music, writing, etc. Don't have them be really good at everything, pick one and have them be super-good at that.

And really, what general help can you give me with the way in which he should communicate? I'm thinking I need to avoid making him use sarcasm and figurative language - would that be an accurate reflection of how many or most of those on the autistic spectrum communicate?
Extreme directness and lack of subtlety. If they have a crush, instead of having them try to 'seduce' someone, have them say 'I like you, will you go out with me?', or something. It may sound cheesy, but it works. Also, if you're telling it from a first person perspective, don't mention other characters' body language (especially if the other character is annoyed) and have the other character suddenly 'burst out with an emotion'. Shows what most of us had to deal with when we were younger.

Were you bullied at high school? Can you tell me about how you reacted to it? If you had to write a diary about what happened at the time, what would you have written?

Yes. I was misdiagnosed for many years, but if I were to write a diary today, it would be mostly filled with questions about why it happened. I still don't understand the reasons, I knew I was a little different to my peers but I couldn't see, or work out, how.

Have you contemplated suicide? (I know this is very personal so feel free to totally not answer this one.) Can you tell me more about what you went through?

Yes. I didn't understood the reasons about why I didn't appear to integrate well with others. I thought there was something wrong with me and my psychology - that I was 'defective' in some way. The only solution appeared to be for me to no longer exist. Once the correct diagnosis was made a lot my sense to me.

I have read that some people on the autistic spectrum have very detailed knowledge on niche interests. I wonder if you have any input on what kind of interest I could give to my main character?

For me it's the technical aspects of video. Another area is functional design and aesthetics.

I don't want to be completely stereotypical and give my main character a talent in maths, so I was thinking of making him an exceptionally talented artist. I wonder what your thoughts are on this?

Personally I have never been very good at, what some might call, traditional art. However, you could make the character a CAD designer or similar. This fills both a technical aspect as well as one I can relate to.

And really, what general help can you give me with the way in which he should communicate? I'm thinking I need to avoid making him use sarcasm and figurative language - would that be an accurate reflection of how many or most of those on the autistic spectrum communicate?

I don't see a reason why he would need to avoid using sarcasm, I have my own type of sarcasm which generally fits with some - it's part of the integration/NT behaviour which many learn. Also the Autistic Spectrum is so wide that it's impossible to generalise a form of communication. Personally I prefer straight forward answers and my questions are often direct. Although I mostly watch documentaries and science-fiction, I do enjoy comedy as well. I see it as a way to learn how to interact as well as a way to relax (sometimes).