Advice to write an autistic character?

[JoshRaed]

I want to potentially make one of my characters autistic but feel lost as to how to accurately depict it and don’t feel like any of what I found online gave me a sense of how to do it. I have autism but I don’t know what parts of myself are autism symptoms and what’s just my personality, or how these symptoms would show in someone with a different personality.

[Lensing]

It´s a spectrum, use your experience

[NickRowler]

I would recommend doing your own research. Autism is a spectrum that effects people differently. I think you need to have in mind what kind of character you want first. What kind of character are you trying to write?

I would say to avoid making light of abuse. I remember that being a huge issue people had with the film Music where they encouraged abusing autistic kids to "control" outbursts.

[cherrystark]

Research the common symptoms of the disorder and how it is represented differently in boys and in girls, and as another person on the spectrum, use yourself as a reference. How do you feel when you're overstimulated? What do you do to calm yourself down or to self-regulate? What do you carry with you everywhere you go to make you feel "normal" or typical? How do you feel when you mask? How easy is it for you to mask?

My therapist showed me this image to help me better understand my autism. Another question you can ask yourself is how much "support" does your character need? I also have an autistic character in my work. She's a level 1 because it's the level I relate to. But if you relate to a different level, write the character on that level. It's really up to you about how you want to portray the condition.

[JoshRaed]

There is a character I planned to make autistic but then I sort of forgot. I feel like i’m going to have a hard time working it in given the fact that this character also has a body horror transformation going on with its own set of symptoms.

[kyupol]

Signs & Symptoms | Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) | NCBDDD | CDC

Signs of autism in adults

Signs of autism in adults
Main signs of autism
Common signs of autism in adults include:

finding it hard to understand what others are thinking or feeling
getting very anxious about social situations
finding it hard to make friends or preferring to be on your own
seeming blunt, rude or not interested in others without meaning to
finding it hard to say how you feel
taking things very literally – for example, you may not understand sarcasm or phrases like "break a leg"
having the same routine every day and getting very anxious if it changes
Other signs of autism
You may also have other signs, like:

not understanding social "rules", such as not talking over people
avoiding eye contact
getting too close to other people, or getting very upset if someone touches or gets too close to you
noticing small details, patterns, smells or sounds that others do not
having a very keen interest in certain subjects or activities
liking to plan things carefully before doing them
Autism in women and men
Autism can sometimes be different in women and men.

Autistic women may:

have learned to hide signs of autism to ‘fit in’ - by copying people who don’t have autism
be quieter and hide their feelings
appear to cope better with social situations
show fewer signs of repetitive behaviours
This means it can be harder to tell you're autistic if you're a woman.

[NickRowler]

There are shows like Arthur or Sesame Street that use their autistic characters to educate their viewers on different types of people. My guess is your main goal isn’t to educate or create awareness, so your main focus should be making a character first.

I have characters in my comics that are coded ASD. For one of them, I made him socially awkward, blunt, fidgety, not very emotive. These are traits that some people with ASD have but these aren’t the only defining traits of ASD. That is why I recommend doing research.

I am also going to recommend to avoid using TikTok as a reference.

[RedLenai]

If its not relevant to the story or character development. The fact a character is autistic or autistic coded shouldn't be what you should worry about, because a trait or condition shouldn't be the character's whole personality, and different from actual humans, certain trait or condition doesn't always mean is an important part of themselves, especially through the construction of the character around the story and its turning points.
Like, a character being autistic won't be as important in a story that focuses in getting in adventures, fighting and screwing it up then having a new problem compared to a story that focuses on character's relationships and coexistence

Focus on making the character first, then later label them or simply let readers interpret it.

For example, Lynn from All Saints Street is an angel, there isn't anywhere explicity said he is autistic or if he has OCD. Yet, the fandom interpret him as such based on certain things he does or how he does them. Like his obsessive need for everything to be clean, his perfectionism, or the fact he has 107 PhDs and is currently studying anthropology.

Yet, for someone that is not very experienced creating characters and implementing their traits in a story, or someone who lacks information in a certain topic and wouldn't do as much research, it is always recommended NOT to work with certain diagnosis, conditions and such, since if they are done poorly, it'll end up being a stereotype or an insult to another person that does have it or is it, regardless if you're autistic as well.

For this example, the movie by Sia named "Music"

Despite she was later diagnosed with autism, her research for the movie was bad, both the movie and her response after the critiques ended up being taken as ableist, she made a non-autistic person interpret a high support needs autistic person, and besides hurting the actress by implementing physical restraint that is dangerous and shouldn't be used on actual autistic people, and it turned said character into a prop to further the storyline of the real main characters (the allistic people).

It would be best to focus on making your character and not label them, sometimes it is best to not purposefully seek such thing and then expect others to see it, because the portrayal could end up with a negative execution that later becomes harmful for certain individuals.
Still, sometimes a character being autistic or autistic coded is done purely by accident, either by an actoral decision, the author just giving their personal traits to said character that honestly it doesn't matter if you know the difference if its your personality, symptoms or feelings. Sometimes people worry way too much about categorizing and labelling that they don't realize that... they are not being that different from neurotypical people or ableist people by putting a name to actions, behaviors of what is not an actual person, but the fictional idea of a person.

But about the accidental autistic character, there is also a good example for that.

Castiel from Supernatural.
When Misha Collins was preparing to play this character he received the following information: Castiel was a warrior, a powerful angel that would help the protagonists, but that hasn't been among humans for almost 2000 years, that they were creatures that felt alien to him, he tries to observe them, understand them. That Castiel's people skills are rusty, 2000 years rusty. He observes humans and tries to understand how they work and how different he feels because he is not human, but an angel.

When he did the performance, the writers liked it yet they adapted some things based on Misha's actoral choices and even part of his behavior, he put a bit of himself there as he always felt he was a weird guy that didn't fit much in certain groups and that he also wondered if he was on the spectrum, Misha went for a diagnosis and it seems he is not autistic but has ADHD, yet another form of neurodivergency.

Yet, when more angels began to appear in the Show, it seems that some actors didn't get the memo of the fact angels haven't been on Earth for 2000, nor bothered checking Misha's acting for reference, so when you see them playing these other angels and not only behaving more similar to humans but also commiting microaggressions towards Castiel, who ends up being not only different compared to humans, but compared to angels as well. He ends up being interpreted as autistic by the audience, the actor and writers.

[theyrebothakilogram]

I think this video might be helpful, it sort of goes over how to successfully write an autistic character

[ratscout]

I work with very young kiddos with autism and they are extremely different from each other. @cherrystark's chart is very helpful! Some kiddos with autism are extremely high functioning and only need help increasing social skills, getting things in on time, and some multi-step tasks. Others have difficulties interacting with others outside of their special interests and need help with some day-to-day functioning skills (e.g., getting dressed, feeding themselves) but can still do many things independently (e.g., toileting, bathing), while other are completely nonverbal and need substantial support with daily living skills and have very narrow interests. Anyway, sometimes the best way to write a population is to get to know them. Researching will only get you so far in this case because people with autism are not a monolith and their symptoms vary so much. Good luck to you!

[DualDragons]

As an autistic person myself, I probably wouldn't know how to tackle it either. The biggest advice I could give you is that no two autistic people are the same.

I for example tend to be more of person who can have trouble kicking off social interactions and keeping them going irl. But some of my ex-classmates who also have autism have no problems with that and struggle in other aspects. Of course this could also be personality related. But then again, I don't know how I would act if I was born a neurotypical, so in that sense I suppose autism played a part in how I grew up.

What I'm saying is, I don't think you should worry too much about what is personality related and what is strictly autism related. Because it is different for each individual that I think you could excuse it being an autistic trait for that specific character you are writing.

[DualDragons]

Signs & Symptoms | Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) | NCBDDD | CDC

Signs of autism in adults

Signs of autism in adults
Main signs of autism
Common signs of autism in adults include:

finding it hard to understand what others are thinking or feeling
getting very anxious about social situations
finding it hard to make friends or preferring to be on your own
seeming blunt, rude or not interested in others without meaning to
finding it hard to say how you feel
taking things very literally – for example, you may not understand sarcasm or phrases like "break a leg"
having the same routine every day and getting very anxious if it changes
Other signs of autism
You may also have other signs, like:

not understanding social "rules", such as not talking over people
avoiding eye contact
getting too close to other people, or getting very upset if someone touches or gets too close to you
noticing small details, patterns, smells or sounds that others do not
having a very keen interest in certain subjects or activities
liking to plan things carefully before doing them
Autism in women and men
Autism can sometimes be different in women and men.

Autistic women may:

have learned to hide signs of autism to ‘fit in’ - by copying people who don’t have autism
be quieter and hide their feelings
appear to cope better with social situations
show fewer signs of repetitive behaviours
This means it can be harder to tell you're autistic if you're a woman.

I agree with the part of hiding signs of autism to try and fit in, or well atleast I do relate to that (I'm not a woman but still autistic). Pretty sure that's called Masking

[llobucervallince]

I'm just gonna vent and project all my autism features on this one OC, maybe that'd work for you.

[IcarusBlake]

You could work the body horror aspect into the autistic traits. Something like a sensory meltdown, maybe tie it to overstimulation. Most autistic adults have a plethora of coping mechanisms to deal with their sensory sensitivities -- ear plugs, headphones, wearing only certain kinds of clothing. That sensory aspect could be a big part of differentiating the autistic traits and the symptoms of the body transformation while still allowing them to bleed into and influence one another.

Speaking from experience (ie. what I've noticed from my autistic friends) autistic folks often have a depth of knowledge about the things they're interested in that you don't find in the average person. They can also have a difficult time knowing when to stop speaking, or when its their turn to jump into the conversation. In a conversation they may be reserved, and their comments may be timed oddly -- referring to something that was said earlier in the conversation, but they could not verbalize -- or seem only tangentially related. This is not annoying to their friends, but rather an aspect of how they think. Conversations with them may be non-linear, they may have a tendency to over-explain.