Book Character Insight

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Hello everyone,

I am writing a book with an autistic character in it, and I was wondering if any members here would be willing to help me figure out how this character *might* react to certain scenarios by talking a little about how they personally would react to these instances. I have done a lot of reading about the autism spectrum, and watched documentaries/youtube videos that people on the spectrum have posted, but I'm still really worried about presenting a caricature of a person - the absolute last thing that I would want to do. I have a lot of respect for autistic people and want this character to feel real, and perhaps like someone that they could relate to.

A bit about him (although if you find any of these details unrealistic, please let me know!):
He is not the main character, but one of the many supporting characters
His name is Felix
He is around 17 years old
He has selective mutism (generally only speaks to his family or friends once he is very comfortable with them)
He is very sensitive to sounds and light, (which can sometimes cause him to act out or cry out when it gets to be too much, although he has learned to control these instances a lot more as he has gotten older, despite his irritation/pain)
He doesn't like eye contact
He has a brother named 'Bear' who is neurotypical and 2 years younger than Felix. Bear and Felix are inseparable, and Bear helps Felix deal with situations that might be difficult/uncomfortable for him. Likewise, Felix helps Bear with his special gifts (more on that below).
He is a really good stick-combat fighter (is this realistic for someone that is sensitive to sound?)

About the world:
This book is a fantasy novel, so it isn't exactly like our planet although there are a lot of similarities. Magic is a part of it, and Felix is one of the few with special gifts and powers. The technology is also advanced in this world. The story takes place in a war torn region (war has been raging for about 20 years) with a tyrannical dictator for a King. The King does not like people who are different in any way (including magical powers and autistic individuals), so Felix's family has gone through great lengths to protect Felix from the King's soldiers ever finding out about his unique attributes. They dug him a small basement room that they soundproofed as best they could to both hide him from the King's soldiers and to give him a place to retreat to when everything is a bit too much. Felix's family is quite poor and their resources are limited (imagine a communist regime like North Korea where everything is rationed out and families are forced to work for very little). They have curfew. Their homes are bugged to weed out traitors to the King.

About the current scene:
Felix and Bear's family town has been attacked by rebel forces to the King. Their parents gave them a small bag of supplies and told them flee the town (on foot) and protect themselves. They have a mission to get to a resistance camp, but it is several days walk away. Meanwhile, Felix and Bear's parents are putting up a fight in their house so that the enemy doesn't realize anyone has left and will hopefully buy their children a little more time.

So now here is what I was hoping to understand from you:
Felix has run/walked through the night (with no sleep) with a war essentially raging behind him (gunshots, explosions, shouts - the whole shebang). It is now approximately dawn, so he's been going for about 8 hours (a realllllllly long time). He knows the stakes - their could potentially be enemy soldiers around any corner. If they are caught, they will likely die or be tortured.

What sort of state do you think he would be in? How severe would his sensitivity to senses (and really just the world) be? Would he likely need to act out? Would he be able to cope or would he likely break down at some point (understandable for really anyone) and need a break - or do you think the repetitive movement & goal would actually make his perseverance stronger than the others and make him last longer?

Any insight you might be able to provide for this atypical scenario would be really helpful to me. Thank you so much for reading (if you've gotten this far) and for any help you might be able to provide. I really appreciate it.

Even though I have no background info on your writing, how much, for how long, so forth and so on, and therefore it would be erroneous for me to presume something, anything, about it, I will say from my own writing experience that I recently got this book and it is quite useful.

Thank you SOOOOOOOOO much for taking the time to write that detailed response & help me @kitesandtrainsandcats ! Felix is already starting to feel more real to me & I will definitely look into that book. It never hurts to get a little more information/knowledge about a subject.

Welcome!
I have a book I occasionally play at writing.
Way back in the 1970s in 8th or 9th grade while in school library reading a book of Star Trek short stories there was one which began with 'the ship was beautiful' either right at the beginning or in the first couple sentences.
Hmm ... what would a beautiful starship look like coming from my own being?
A couple weeks later I had a style.

Hmm ... now the ship needs people; the people need a story ... what kind of story would I like to read?

And I've been writing and drawing and making miniatures on and off since then: work on it for a couple months; put it away for a couple years; work on it for a couple months; put it away for a couple years; rinse and repeat.
Now have some physical health problems where I no longer do much drawing or miniatures.

Have discovered that even though I can not connect with reading books on electronic devices I totally love writing and editing on a PC. So I'm currently making good progress getting it transcribed from yellowing loose leaf paper to electrons. And editing and filling out what were just notes stuffed here and there.

Sometimes I feel really guilty for how mean I was to my main characters at start of story but that is where their story comes from - their experiences and how they live through them.

It is interesting sometimes how you find yourself writing a character doing something you would not have consciously thought up for them to do but yet it works.

My biggest insecurity about my story is that my characters seem like real people.
Several friends who have looked at bits of the story have said they indeed do and yet I am insecure about that.
Of course everybody knows there has never ever been such a thing as an insecure artist, impossible, simply does not happen, right?

I'm turning 17 in four months, have selective mutism and a lot of other stuff you described. Im inseparable with my cousin (raised together like bros) who helps me, although we are only a few months apart in age.

The sticks banging would be okay. Even though I'm very sensitive to sound, but I also like smashing junk with a stick or hammer.

Thank you for your insight as well @EzraS! I love that my character is so similar to you and your situation - it makes me feel like I am (hopefully) doing something right and (hopefully) doing this character justice. I think I've actually spent the most time developing him over all my other characters (even though he's not a main character), because I am most afraid about messing him up or making him feel unbelievable. I might have to pick your brain again (if you're willing) sometime down the line

@kitesandtrainsandcats- Your book/drawings sound like a lot of fun! Writing is definitely one of the most difficult things I have ever done (this is my first book, and I've been working on it on and off for a few years), but it can also be really rewarding, I've found. I tend to put a lot of myself (and some friends) into the main character(s) as well, and since my book takes place in a war torn region have also done some horrible things to them, but sometimes you just have to let the characters lead you. They do tend to take on personalities of their own sometimes too!
I think we all get insecure about our writing too by the way....some days I'll love it. Some days I'll hate it. Definitely an artist thing haha.

Thanks! Just keep plugging along, you'll do okay The best way to become a good writer is keep trying to get better.

The 3 books below will be arriving tomorrow according to Amazon. Therefore I have no personal evaluation of whether they are good, bad, or indifferent. Am getting them more out of curiosity than need. I say that because friends have said I do write the characters well, especially dialogue and their emotions.
Isn't that something, someone says an aspie writes emotions well!

It has only been last year and this year that I've made any real effort to acquire books about writing. Years ago I bought a secondhand book titled Short Story Theories but it turned out that short stores weren't the natural me. Can see it over there on shelf but I haven't opened it for years. Next to it is a book about writing for the stage theater which also hasn't been looked at for years.
Speaking of used things I'm saving up to buy a used laptop to take places such as the laundromat to work on writing while waiting for the spin cycle.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1944936041/
Creating Character Arcs: The Masterful Author's Guide to Uniting Story Structure (Helping Writers Become Authors) (Volume 7) Paperback – October 28, 2016

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1440348375/
The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface, Paperback – December 30, 2016

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0910355118/
Write Your Novel From The Middle: A New Approach for Plotters, Pantsers and Everyone in Between, Paperback – March 15, 2014

A fun sort of 'game' to play is look for phrases within things which might make good book or song titles and brainstorm what the story and genre might be. Even if they do sound kind of silly. It is okay to substitute a word or rearrange words with the phrase.
For example, from the book titles above; Uniting the Masterful Authors; Beneath the Surface Fiction; Plotters Between Everyone.
Or from my words; Last Year and This Year; "more out of curiosity than need" becomes More Curiosity Than Needed; "friends have said I do" becomes The Friends Who Said I Do.
Don't know if that kind of thing would entertain anyone else but it does entertain me.

In a situation such as the one you describe, it would be my instinct to go into shutdown. I wouldn't have the physical or emotional energy to keep going, and so would likely collapse in a ball, unable to move, speak, or communicate. If I had any energy left, it might explode into a meltdown, but after eight hours of walking, surrounded by that much emotional and sensory chaos, I would just implode on myself and become non-responsive.

I'm a writer too, and have written a few autistic characters in my time. I like to use scenes in which my characters experience meltdowns as a sort of self-reflection. I can go through each stage of the meltdown in slow motion, and pause to think about how a given thought or action feels, and what fuels it. Good luck with your story, I hope to see it in print one day; we need more accurate representations of autistics in literature!