What do you think of my story character?

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I'm currently in the progress of developing a character for my Christmas story. I've been trying to combine an intellectual disability with some autistic tendencies. However, I can't decide if I should just say she's autistic or something. That's where I need an opinion from someone who's got autism and can help me decide so far from what I have written about her. These are just my notes since I have a hard time with character forms and all that.

Fiona is a sweet girl with a very childish personality. Her most favorite time of the year is Christmas. She is diagnosed with an intellectual disability, which makes most daily living skills hard for her. It is also hard for her to be left alone without a babysitter or caregiver there.

Fiona loves Monster High/Ever After High dolls and Snow Globes. She also loves trains and still believes in Santa Claus as well. It is hard for her to think he's a mythical being. She also struggles with many social rules and skills too. She does face a lot of problems with society.

Fiona can come off as rather aloof and rude, especially to people she doesn't know very well. She tends to have infantile tantrums that aren't appropriate for a twenty-one year old woman like her. Her childishness and stimmy behaviors seem to get her in trouble often as well.

So, what do you guys think? Should I do both? Should I use just autism? What? I really need opinions here. I also don't think ADHD would fit her for some reason either. I don't want to use ADHD since it seems somewhat complicated for me to write about. Same with writing about an intellectual disability as well. That's why I was curious to know what you guys have for ideas. D:

I don't think you need to label her disabilities at all. The discriptions are fine. That way each of your readers can identify with her however they wish. One great tool of great writing is to not say too much. You give the reader a description and allow him or her to fill in the rest. That way each reader relates to your character in a unique and personal way.

EXCELLENT ADVICE----what skibum said!! !! It you don't "label" Fiona, then you leave room for thought / imagination----if you label her, you open a whole 'nother can of worms. Take, for example, Dr. Sheldon Cooper ("The Big Bang Theory"). We all love the character because we see so much of ourselves, possibly, in him. If the producers ever said, point-blank, "Sheldon is an Aspie", there would be a TON of Internet chatter like: "I'm an Aspie and I'm not like that", "He's not an Aspie 'cause he makes eye contact", etc., etc. That ALREADY goes-on, actually!! ! I think it's better left to the imagination.

Thank you Campin Cat. And I think you explained the point very well! I love that Loki is exploring and developing her writing talent. I am excited to see what she comes up with.

So... then it terms of the character having a caregiver, maybe instead of flatly calling her that... she be considered a family friend/member? (Like an aunt or something. I might just get rid of the struggles she has with daily living skills too. It's be too obvious that she has a disability if she can't do certain things like cooking and cleaning or something. I really do like this idea so maybe I'll just develop her character as someone who has autistic/ID traits instead of just saying she has a disability at all. It's worth a shot, and I'm willing to experiment with this too.

I think that would be great. I also think that this will be a fantastic challenge for you because it will give your writing more depth and dimension. If you like reading Harry Potter, I suggest you read that series even if you have already read it. JK Rowling is fabulous with character development. I have read the series and heard the audiobooks at least six times and every single time I love it more and more. Reading a lot of great novels will really help you develop your writing style.

But definitely play around with this idea and see where it goes. I am proud of you for your writing and I think you will do well.

UCK! NO! Much as I love Harry Potter, JKR is terrible at character development. She has set out ideas for what her characters should be like, and can't let them deviate. There are instances in the books where you can see how she's had a really good idea that she resisted because she can't handle her faves being in the wrong.

Authors who are awesome at character development:

Terry Pratchett
Diana Wynne Jones
Margaret Mahy
Bernard Cornwall
George RR Martin

And a lot of fanfic authors, especially the ones whose main focus isn't romance.

I've been having a really hard time with this. D: I might still think of her as having a disability and write it like that, but I won't mention that she actually has one. It's the only way I can write it.

Mm, I'm not sure, I find it a little frustrating when a character has an obvious disability (eg Spencer Reid, Sheldon Cooper, Sonya Cross) but the writer never comes out and labels it; it somehow makes it less real for me. If you did decide to specify the label, you could do it through a conversation between one of Fiona's parents and someone who's never met her before ("...What's she doing?" "Oh, Fiona's autistic, she does things like that sometimes," just as a blatantly obvious/overly exaggerated example). There's no reason you couldn't use both disabilities; most stories with autistic people make them into savants who have gifts or special talents, or simply above-average intelligence. It would be cool to see a story that breaks out of that stereotype.

That's how I've been doing it. I surprise the reader around the third or fourth chapter. I do like Skibum's ideas though. It makes sense because I think for most readers, it can throw them off knowing a character has some sort of disability. I also agree with Campin_Cat as well. I mean, if I was writing the character as nonverbal, than yeah... I'd give readers a good reason why she's like that by saying she's autistic or something.

Honestly, just once, I'd like to see a disabled character who could be described as "A massive b***h with a nasty, mean personality".

I think you should just write the story before you decide to label her. Characters can often change when you start writing about them. When I was writing one story a character that was originally supposed to be the main character ended up only being a minor character.

I would keep her as she is - I don't think you need to tone down the disability to not label it. She might develop over time, but I think it would be cool to have a story with a character with the difficulties you describe (whether or not she has an aunt carer or an employed carer) who has her own not-strictly-disability story line.

So whatever happens in the story happens, with her interaction etc but she just also happens to be the way she is.

I am not an expert in literature by any means so I appreciate very much that you would correct me about this, thank you. I may have used the wrong term as or idea as well when I was thinking what I was thinking. The reason I love her characters, and what I was trying to express is that she wrote in such a way they became very much real people in my mind. By the time I had finished the seventh book I was actually, and I am not kidding, I really did this, but I actually looked for them in the street as I would be out running errands so convinced they were real people that I thought they really existed and that I would run into them. Maybe this is different from character development.

But this is what I was trying to help Loki understand, that rather than saying her character does this or is that, she should try to illustrated the action or characteristic rather than just stating it and this would bring life to the character. So maybe character development actually means something else. But you are right in that the characters in Harry Potter did not deviate from who they were. That actually gave me comfort and I actually really liked that. Maybe that's the Aspie in me!