i do!!
before i start, here’s a post i wrote about it a few months ago!! i’d definitely suggest reading that one!
here’s a few other helpful posts about writing deaf characters: if you’re writing a deaf of HoH character…, people are people, and speech is speech
also, i’d suggest reading my post that deals with a little bit of deaf culture
anyways, here’s a few more tips:
sign language
-my biggest pet peeve in deaf character fics is when people make a big deal out of writing sign language. when writing a character using sign language, ask yourself ‘would i do this with writing a spoken language?’. if the answer is no, you need to change it. one of the biggest questions i see is ‘how do i write sign language? how should i format it?’ you write it and format it in the same way you do spoken language. you use quotations and a dialogue tag. in the dialogue tag you can use things such as ‘he signed’ or vaguely describe the hand movements or facial expression. if you feel like you need to set sign language dialogue apart from spoken word in a different way, then i suggest you sit down and try to think a long time about why you feel it needs to be so different than spoken word.
-another question i see a lot is whether people should write sign language as its literal translation. for the sake of convenience and like a lot of other languages, sign language omits certain sentence parts. it’s mostly articles, iirc, and the verb and subject can be in different places than they are in english. however, this is the same as in different languages. for example, the japanese language also tends to switch around grammar in ways that can be hard for english speaking people to understand. you wouldn’t write a bunch of japanese characters using traditional japanese grammar when you’re writing in english, though. you write it how you, the writer, and the audience will understand. do the same with sign language. there’s no reason to write sign language exactly how it’s translated, especially when you wouldn’t do that when writing characters speaking a different language.
-similarly, don’t describe every sign a character uses. that’s tedious, you’ll hate it, and your readers will hate it. you wouldn’t describe every mouth movement someone uses while speaking, so don’t describe every single sign. however, you can vaguely describe a few occasionally or describe really important ones.
-sign language is a language with different dialects. you probably know that someone in japan who knows sign language wouldn’t understand someone in america who uses sign language because ASL and JSL are completely different languages. however, even british sign language and ASL are completely different, even though both countries speak similar english. going further, there’s different dialects within languages. while they would be able to understand each other, someone who knows ASL in new york would have a very different set of slang and some different signs than someone who knows ASL in texas. there’s cultural differences everywhere
-basically, just treat sign like you would treat spoken language. there’s literally no reason to treat it differently.
general tips
-you already mentioned this, but research is a huge necessity!! lots and lots of research is good. also, i’d highly recommend talking to someone in the deaf community as well. first hand experience is always a good thing to get. make sure you focus a lot on researching deaf culture. i find that that’s the hardest thing for hearing readers to grasp.
-please remember that being deaf or hoh is not really seen as a disability within the community. your character is realistically not going to spend a lot of time angsting over the fact that they can’t hear, because deaf people don’t typically do that irl. they will probably express irritation at the world around them because deaf people are expected to conform to society and that’s very confusing and they’ll probably experience frustration with the way people treat them, but usually not over being deaf in itself.
-also, please remember that deaf people have a long history of being forced to assimilate into the hearing world through forced surgeries, forced use of technology, and being forced to learn how to speak vs. learning sign language.
-lip-reading really isn’t a reliable way of understanding the world. it can be incredibly confusing and inconvenient. sign language is a much better way of ‘listening’ to the world around you.
-some deaf people choose not to learn how to speak. some deaf people know how to speak and choose to only communicate via sign language. both are fine. speaking can be a lot of frustration and unnecessary effort and it’s another one of those ‘why should i learn to do this just to make you more comfortable’ sort of things.
-make sure to listen to any feedback people in the deaf community give you!!! this is a very valuable thing and can help your writing a lot!
best of luck!!! it sounds like you’ve already got a great grasp on research and whatnot!
Don’t: John, with a smile, pointed to Lee with one hand before moving both hands upwards slightly in front of his chest right before clenching his fingers and bringing his hands inwards. With two pointed fingers, he gestured elsewhere to the side, then brought one hand with his pointer finger and middle finger crossed to the left side of his chin with a slight bounce, then to the right. Hands in relaxed fists, he brought them together, palms facing each other, and ended by pointing to himself. ’YOU WANT GO-TO RESTAURANT WITH ME?’ [[Alternate one I’ve seen is >>Want to go to restaurant with me?<<]] was what Lee understood.
Do: John, with a smile, turned to Lee and signed, “Do you want to go to a restaurant with me?” At his question, Lee nodded in understanding before signing back, “Sure, I’d love to.”
GOOD POST THANK U
Hi! Do you have any tips for writing def characters? I want to write a fic and have done a lot of research so I’m not going to write anything offensive, but I just want to know if you know anything I can do to make sure I don’t get anything wrong. I want it to be a good fic and don’t want anyone to get hurt because I write a deaf character wrong.
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