: Re: How to make a intellectually disabled character believable? I want to use a 12yo girl with down syndrome as main character. Trisomy 21 people has a low IQ, normally around 50, at least according

Perhaps the best example of creating the POV of a developmentally disabled main character comes from the first part of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. One big issue there, though, is that it is really, really hard reading. The character (this bit is portrayed in first person) doesn't have a great sense of how to tell narrative and as such the story jumps around all over the place and sometimes key details are left out. You pretty much have to read that part a few times over to make much sense of it.

Otherwise, if you want to have a main character with Down's Syndrome, my advice is to do research on the subject. My guess is that you don't have a relative with it, so that's why you're asking. There are a great many pitfalls with portraying the developmentally disabled, not the least of which is presenting them as a modern-day noble savage (this is more or less exactly what Forrest Gump is). As with all of your other characters, you need to create someone with their own goals, their own demeanor, and their own strengths and weaknesses, and none of those attributes should be or include "Down's Syndrome". Should this influence all of that other stuff? Sure. But a good, fleshed-out character is more than a "person with Down's".

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: Re: How to make a intellectually disabled character believable? I want to use a 12yo girl with down syndrome as main character. Trisomy 21 people has a low IQ, normally around 50, at least according

More posts by @Smith147

: Describing common hand gestures While writing stories how do I describe the action of common hand gestures, for instance the "come on" signal. Is there any reference? I found a list of hand

: Is it necessary to make clear "when" an event occur in a flashback? Few examples: Saki first became aware of her sixth finger at the age of five. Her aunt had come to visit the house

: Writing an effective summary for a story I just published my first short story at Amazon. Although many people downloaded it while in its free promotion days, no one has purchased it yet. People

: Making a female character sound more boyish/masculine There are two characters in the following dialogue. One of them (Yuki) is a tomboy. She has short hair, dresses like a man, and likes girls.

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