Tips for writing an Autistic character that went through trauma

Asked on the Random Question thread but it's been a few hours and nobody responded so... Title says it all, tho context will still be provided OFC.

I have this super-powered Autistic character who attends a private school alongside several other super-powered teens that are her roommates. (Who'll be called Eva here for simplicity's sake) She is the Team Mom and makes sure her roommates don't make irresponsible choices and get their schoolwork done on time. Despite her social anxiety she manages to socializes and befriends them, plus she tries to be empathic towards them as most of them went through trauma.

Then an evil corporation sends out a bunch of agents to kidnap them but only successfully kidnap Eva. Upon kidnapping Eva, she goes through unethical experiments that include replacing her hands with metal claws in a surgical operation without anesthesia and being whipped and electrocuted to test her endurance. Once she's rescued, she is sent back home to recover from the trauma. When she returns, she's now a Broken Bird who is more sensitive in nature who relies on the support of her family and roommates.

That's all I got so far, so I'm wondering what else to do and if I got some things right.

Edited by Cutegirl920fire on Apr 13th 2022 at 7:12:56 AM

Just a heads up but I think someone responded with some pretty good links on the thread, just so you know .

First, we should cover some essential ground: Why do you want this character to be autistic, specifically?

IDK, it was more of a subconscious thing than anything else. Might have something to do with having an Autistic family member?

Singling the autistic character out to be tortured, experimented on, and traumatized sounds iffy to me as an autistic person.

Also, the right term is "autistic person" and not "person WITH autism". General consensus is that it's iffy because it tries to separate the person from their autism, while autism is an integral part of the person and who they are.

EDIT: Nevermind, I'll discuss this in your PM.

Edited by Cutegirl920fire on Apr 13th 2022 at 6:30:50 AM

Also, the right term is "autistic person" and not "person WITH autism".

I've heard it is exactly the other way around. That if anything, "autistic person" defines the person by their mental illness.

I can DM you the specific details/context/etc if you found something you consider insensitive about the OP. For now, I'll just say I didn't know that was the wrong wording at the time I wrote that post. I apologize for that.

Edited by Cutegirl920fire on Apr 13th 2022 at 7:10:48 AM

@Nukeli & DeMarquis: As one of them, that's because both terms are acceptable, some people just don't like one or the other.

Anyway, @OP: Yeah, the way you're going about it now is pretty insensitive, especially since electroshock has been an extremely hot-button and controversial issue among autistic people. If she was just one out of several people who had these experiments done on them—you could say they captured other people from other places—it might be more excusable, but yes, as Nukeli said, singling her out comes off as trauma porn.

And yes, their links in the original thread are excellent, although be careful about following writing advice off social media, especially Tumblr, to the letter. It's my favorite social network, but it's infamous for being full of Black-and-White Morality purists for a reason. A lot of users will tell you to never use tropes that can be useful tools in the hands of a good writer, but are just not personally their thing.

As someone who's also writing a novel about an autistic girl with trauma, although more mundane trauma like a Friendless Background and bullying, feel free to AMA.

Edited by Wheezy on Apr 14th 2022 at 11:36:38 AM

Locking this as resolved as requested (also thread seems to have drifted from its original purpose).