Welcome to Writers Talkback. If you are a new user, your account will have to be approved manually to prevent spam. Please bear with us in the meantime
Main characters with disabilities - do they make a story unsellable?
I've had a couple of short stories doing the rounds recently with no success. One features an amputee from the conflict in Afghanistan who finds love again; the other a young man with a learning disability whose supportive family successfully fights discrimination. Are these totally unsuitable characters for mainstream magazines? I'd value everyone's opinions on that and also any suggestions for where I might submit such stories in future.
Comments
Even though your amputee is post conflict I'd personally think a mainstream magazine might avoid it because there are sensitivities involved- some readers may be opposed to a 'foreign' soldier being in that country- so they don't want to risk losing readers...
Some learning disabilities you might get away with- dyslexia for example.
Even with an upbeat ending they are probably subjects people would shy away from wanting to read, however short-sighted that may seem.
As for where such stories could be submitted- I'd suggest anthologies.
It's very sad that mainstream magazines are reluctant to take such stories. I think there's a great need for fiction of all kinds that features people with diasabilities - both where the disability is an issue and where it isn't (i.e. where it's incidental to the plot). I'm currently trying to get a series for children off the ground along these lines but it's not easy.
OH works in an autism specific school as teaching support assistant and is just finishing a related distance course with B'ham Uni. The biggest single outcome she has learnt from her research is the crying need for society to develop a more informed awareness of autism and how to be aware of its effects on those with spectrum disorders. So as to show understanding and tolerance, basically. I know she and I have our part to play here, since we're in a position to do so.
My oldest has AS, and during his five years at college he had varied reactions from those about him. The students who worked on the courses with him were basically accepting. The problems came from a minority of others who felt they could make fun of him.
Much older adults often don't understand how their disability effects them and the people around them don't realise how big an effect their actions can have on them, and then look at them as if they are an alien with three heads!
So many grew up with the belief that those with a learning disability are stupid, when actually they are often very bright and as your son has done achieve very good qualifications. They just need people to understand that they learn in different ways, and need help and support to do it.
I do hope Rosalie can get those books going, as there is a great need for them.
I have two big ambitions which overlap - to be a successful author and to write books that will help kids who for whatever reason feel 'different' or excluded in some way. I grew up feeling like that (though I don't have a physical disability) and would be so happy if my books could help such kids even a bit.
So if you can get that other book accepted, I'm sure you will find other subjects to work from.
Good luck with it.
It won't change until the whole society view changes and that means starting with children. So well done Rosalie, I hope you get placed, and montholon, i don't think you've got a hope except in specialist magazines... although I'd be very pleased to be proven wrong.
Disability is very seldom treated carefully even in drama... it is used as a plot device.
I've seen countless portrayals of diabetics and I don't think I've EVER seen a realistic storyline, they are always highly and ludicrously ramped up to the level where the story lines/situations are extremely inaccurate. Sometimes the facts are completely wrong.
We agree, Liz. It's at the level of primary school children, who haven't yet developed strong prejudices, that understanding and tolerance need to be taught and absorbed.
No, it doesn't start there, it starts in the home, if possible, where parents need to set an example, not call people gimpy or crip or any other offensive term that I know are used for those who can't walk properly, for a start. Schools can 't cope with bullying, let alone impressing tolerance on a bunch of kids who take the pack view 'he's different, let's get him.' Been there with my daughter, who was a perfectly normal child, bullied endless over the most stupid things, her plaits, her left handedness, everything.
Another point is that when a child with a disability reads about a kid in a book with a similar disability, if it's written realistically, it can give them hope. I want my characters to be strong and feisty and a great example of what you can achieve, while facing up to the problems. E.g. Mollie in "The Mollie Awards" was born without a voice but is highly intelligent and wants to be a GP. And just reading about someone like yourself can help enormously, can't it?
Maybe I'm naive, but I believe books still can make a difference and I'm determined to try.
I had a serious disappointment with my book Children Of The Moon. I had 3 boys and 2 girls, I was asked to change 1 boy to a girl and make her Vietnamese, West Indian or something. I said ... when a child reads a book, they put themselves in the character's place, I don't want to define the 'third' girl, let the reader make up their own mind which race she is, if any. They illustrated it and made her black.
I imagine a bit of both of what Dorothy says. It's scary because you worry that agents/publishers won't be interested. And because you're scared of getting it wrong, if you don't have direct experience of the disability or condition, or you feel somehow 'not qualified' to write it. (But part of writing is imagining yourself in someone else's place...)
I would hate anyone with a disability to feel I was muscling in on their territory, but maybe that's a risk we have to take. I had this a bit when I wrote about a lesbian girl in Charity's Child, but Charity was so real to me I had to write her story.
Call me shallow, but in my dreams I have never imagined myself with a legless boyfriend, and wouldn't want to. My dream man has two legs. He is also perfect in every other way, and if he has slight foibles they are over-come-able.
I am unprejudiced as it is possible to be - I have a disability myself, but I still want my fiction to be free of main characters with disabilities, PARTICULARLY my own.
How do you overcome that? I don't think you can, it's not just about prejudice, it's about something else entirely.
But this is fiction after all, the place we go to to escape real life. Sure there should be ad could be avenues where a disabled protagonist fits in and hopefully this will happen in the future. There is a history of this in American crime shows such as Ironside and Monk. So if it does become invisible or becomes a unique part of the character it seems to work. If the fiction is about the disability then I can't see how it will succeed too much in the mainstream market though.
There probably is a niche market for that kind of fiction and a niche that could be expanded as it really is needed now more than ever. I say that because in recent years disabled people in this country have gone from being a group that are given respect due to their illness to a gang of pariahs. The only way to counter this blatant swipe by the tabloid media is to get people to understand that disabled people are real people and have real lives. But how many of those Daily Mail or Express readers would chose this kind of book off the shelf in Asda than the latest chick-lit or crime novel?
I've always been of the mind that fiction isn't there to preach but to entertain. If it can entertain with a subtle message then fine. So the balance of this with a disabled protagonist is a difficult course to undertake. Is the book about disability? If not then why is the main character disabled? Because as we all know everything you put into fiction has to be there for a reason and to move the plot forward. If it's there just to be there then has it really earned its place in the story or are you trying to preach?
Odd Thomas, Dreamcatcher and a few other horror/ supernatural books use disabled people with ease.
Am I really the only one to feel like this :( ?
A disabled detective would work I think.
I'm getting muddled here as trying to argue the case with low b/s, but i know what I mean!
Hope your nephew does really well, Smaug, and achieves all his ambitions.
Maybe with women's mags, a good approach would be to start small. Get a story accepted with just a mention of a disability, get yourself known and liked by the publisher, and step it up from there?
But at the end of year gathering in the hall when those who are leaving to go elsewhere (pupils and staff) everyone applauded him.
I think that's a good plan, Rosalie: start by getting a magazine article in your name dealing with the subject, and take it from there. Should help with editors.