Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Writing a fantasy story with a blind protagonist (self.Blind)
submitted by Veshore7
I have this vision and story that I want to tell. I am not blind, but I am greatly inspired by Eric Weihenmayer, a blind man that climbed all the summits and kayaked the Grand Canyon.
My story involves a boy that discovers beings called storm ravens. When he interacts with one, it surges into his body through his eyes and makes him totally blind. However, he begins to see these sparkling lights that flicker around the world, a sort of “echo” of the people or place he’s in.
At first he just sees thousands of flashing, blinking lights, but he begins to see patterns in them and finds that they are effected by emotions and elements around him. He goes on a long journey to find how to read these Echoes and regain a new “sight” and become a Stormwarden, a warrior that fights with the powers of the elements to protect his land.
Comments and suggestions on how he should see the world after becoming blind, or if he should even regain a way to see would be greatly appreciated!!
My story involves a boy that discovers beings called storm ravens. When he interacts with one, it surges into his body through his eyes and makes him totally blind. However, he begins to see these sparkling lights that flicker around the world, a sort of “echo” of the people or place he’s in.
At first he just sees thousands of flashing, blinking lights, but he begins to see patterns in them and finds that they are effected by emotions and elements around him. He goes on a long journey to find how to read these Echoes and regain a new “sight” and become a Stormwarden, a warrior that fights with the powers of the elements to protect his land.
Comments and suggestions on how he should see the world after becoming blind, or if he should even regain a way to see would be greatly appreciated!!
regicide85 9 points 3y ago
If you want a magical character, make him a magical character. If you want a character who loses their sight but regains it, I would chalk it up to another patronizing "overcoming" story, whether or not his sight is magical or not. The trope of losing sight to gain insight goes back as far as people have been writing stories so this Tiresias model feels a bit like the sighted world continuing to project onto the Blind experience. Sorry to sound negative, because the other elements sound pretty cool, and I appreciate that you even thought to ask.
razzretina 5 points 3y ago
While I like the idea of how this character sees the world, this really sounds like yet another story where someone goes on a quest to get their sight back, which we really don't need any more of. Either make him blind and leave it at that, or just make the magic change the way he sees things. I'd like to read the story about how he adapts to this new kind of seeing. But yeah, I would leave the blind part out of this one. It detracts from what you're trying to do, it's a very overused trope, and it's insulting at best to those of us who will never get any kind of sight back no matter how many quests we go on.
Veshore7 [OP] 2 points 3y ago
Agreed. Maybe instead of him being blind, he just sees these lights constantly and he can’t tell if what he sees is really there or if it is the echoes of the past.
Perhaps he even forcefully wears a blindfold to dampen the flashing lights and people may think him blind, but in reality he is extra sensitive
Perhaps he even forcefully wears a blindfold to dampen the flashing lights and people may think him blind, but in reality he is extra sensitive
razzretina 1 points 3y ago
Now there’s a good idea for a fantasy character written by a sighted person: someone who sees too much!
Veshore7 [OP] 1 points 3y ago
Not sure if you’re being sarcastic or not but thanks for feedback.
razzretina 1 points 3y ago
I’m being serious. That’s legitimately something I’ve never read before and I think it would be very interesting. The closest I’ve seen to the idea was some illustrations in the first Dinotopia book but it wasn’t really expanded on and it went with the sort of tropey “sees light inside living things that shows the movement of blood through the body”.
K-R-Rose 1 points 3y ago
I’m legally blind, and I’m also a writer. I have a character who is blind, and he is a famous warrior as well. I like the idea of your character speaking a new “sight”. I don’t think I’ve heard of anyone else doing that before. However, I would stay away from your character wanting “typical ““sight” if you don’t want drama. A lot of blind people, or just disabled people in general, will not take the cure if offered to them, including myself. Of course, this doesn’t mean your characters can’t have dreams, or be sad sometimes, but regaining “typical” sight, in my opinion, should not be the main quest. We don’t need to be fixed, and the world needs to stop thinking that our lives are miserable, and that all we do is try to be like everyone else. Writing is a great way to break this, and I encourage you to go through with your idea!
Veshore7 [OP] 0 points 3y ago
Yea he won’t be able to get his actual normal sight back, but he’ll be able to see the world around him and not just what his eyes can see. Maybe it’s similar to daredevil but he can’t see like entirely, only the lights that echo from surfaces in the blackness of his mind’s eye
modulus 1 points 3y ago
I'm totally blind, and the quest to recover sight thing doesn't bother me. Sure it's an old story, perhaps precisely because of how meaningful it is to so many.
That said, if you want to have a blind character, you could think of sticking to that. There's nothing wrong with writing a sight-recovery story (which on the other hand I'm not even sure is what you have in mind, from your description). Still, we could do with more stories where blind characters stay blind and get to do whatever it is (magic, etc) from that situation.
That said, if you want to have a blind character, you could think of sticking to that. There's nothing wrong with writing a sight-recovery story (which on the other hand I'm not even sure is what you have in mind, from your description). Still, we could do with more stories where blind characters stay blind and get to do whatever it is (magic, etc) from that situation.
CloudyBeep 1 points 3y ago
This won't answer your question, but the premise of your story reminded me of this Harry Potter fanfic: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/10937871/1/blindness
bradley22 -1 points 3y ago
Go for it!
Some will like it and some will not, but don’t let those who don’t like it bother you.
Some will like it and some will not, but don’t let those who don’t like it bother you.
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