Writing a Neurodivergent Character in Fiction
Author and former librarian Jenn McKinlay shares the process and care she took in writing a neurodivergent character—even down to the design of the final book, using dyslexic-friendly font, and more.
Creating a neurodivergent character when I am a neurotypical writer was probably my biggest challenge as an author to date. I might have shied away from writing Summer Reading with a neurodivergent heroine, but my research indicated that statistically five to 10 percent of the population is affected by dyslexia, so it felt like representation in a women’s fiction romantic comedy was overdue.
In my own life, my son didn't read until he was in third grade, my best friend can't grasp numbers, and my late brother's spelling was so bad that I sometimes felt like I was deciphering a secret code—which would have been cool, but no. What they all have in common is varying levels of dyslexia and because it manifests in every person differently, it made each of their challenges unique to them.
When the character of Samantha Gale popped into my head, I knew I wanted to get it right and to me the only way to do that was to understand that she was a person with a condition. The condition didn’t dictate who she was. It was very important to me that she was a person first.
That being said, I needed to understand dyslexia to be certain that the lens through which Sam viewed the world was accurate. A disability isn't like the color of a character's hair. It can't be a throw-away description, or a plot device, or something to make the book more marketable.
Giving a character a neurodivergence like dyslexia meant I had to truly grasp what it meant in my character's day-to-day life to see and experience the world differently. How did I go about doing that? Well, this is where my 20-year career as a librarian came in handy. Thankfully, with the rising awareness of dyslexia, there was a plethora of resources to read and study to make certain that I was accurate.
I read books, articles, and viewed TEDx talks. I interviewed the people in my life who have dyslexia and I read biographies of celebrities who have dyslexia as well. Once I had a handle on how the condition impacted a variety of people, I then chose traits that I thought would inform Samantha’s character.
Because she is a chef, I gave her a secret desire to write her own cookbook. This idea was inspired by chef Jamie Oliver, who also has dyslexia. Listening to him talk about the way he sees thoughts—in pictures—and how he managed to write his own cookbook helped me navigate Sam’s world as a chef and wannabe writer.
It was also a very organic decision to have her love interest be a librarian. Bennett Reynolds, a hot guy librarian, can’t help but assist Sam with her cookbook while he’s on Martha’s Vineyard, searching for the father he’s never known. What I discovered while writing these characters was that the personality traits that I thought would keep them apart were actually the ones that bridged the gap between them.
Ben’s love of books as the only safe space he knew as a child makes him want to give this gift to Sam, and he uses her preferred genre (romantic comedy) to entice her into his world by reading to her. Instead of being two puzzle pieces that just inexplicably fit together, they were two jagged-edged souls, who had to figure out how their rough edges meshed and just like real life, it isn’t always easy.
Because I wanted to be certain that I got it right, I had two beta readers, both adult women with dyslexia, read the manuscript and verify that it was accurate. One of them told me she had to pause in reading every now and then to cry a little bit. It was that personal for her. I felt bad about that but also relieved. If the story resonated so sharply for her then I knew I’d done my job. Phew!
Lastly, when I finished writing the manuscript and turned it in, I made a pitch to my publisher Penguin Random House to have the book printed in a dyslexic friendly font. I felt it would be insensitive to have a book with a protagonist with dyslexia and not make the book as accessible as possible for readers with dyslexia.
Much to my delight my publisher agreed, and the book designers were happy to use their skills not only to use a dyslexic friendly font—Verdana—but also to design the book itself with wider spacing, no italics, and no words cut off at the end of sentences. It was truly a group effort to deliver this book to the world and I couldn’t be more proud.
Former librarian Jenn McKinlay is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Bluff Point Romances, including Every Dog Has His Day, Barking Up the Wrong Tree, and About a Dog, as well as the Library Lover’s Mysteries, the Cupcake Bakery Mysteries, and the Hat Shop Mysteries. Jenn lives in sunny Arizona in a house that is overrun with kids, pets, and her husband’s guitars. (Photo credit: Hailey Gilman)
