I love writing screenplays and dream of seeing one of them on the big screen one day. But part of the process is writing neurodivergent, ethnically diverse, and female characters. Got any advice to create great, yet sensitively depicted characters?

For background, one of my recent stories I’m working on involves an alcoholic dad who worries too much, an autistic adult female conwoman trying to make it big, and a dyslexic black cop who’s genuinely a good and dignified person. I particularly want the black character to be really depicted with dignity, and I really want to avoid any problematic tropes surrounding autism. I’m especially aware that these kinds of characters don’t get enough development, and in my opinion, that’s not ok. It’s a comedy involving a scheme to rip off a popular franchise and market the ripoff in Sweden, gone horribly wrong, ending in the kidnapping of the star, and a heartfelt lesson about how while not everyone has the same abilities, and that sometimes under greedy ambition is a desperate need to prove oneself. And that this is only countered by recognizing and leaning on your unique strengths.

In my opinion, every character deserves a fair amount of development, and representation matters. The relationships between the characters is an alcoholic father who worries too much about his daughter, and pays the cop, his childhood friend, to watch over his daughter. An adult autistic who resents her father’s fear that she’ll never make it in life, and resents the cop’s baby monitoring so much she keeps getting in trouble in hopes that the officer will give up. And a police commissioner who loves them both, but really needs to back off, as her not believing in the autistic is hurting her, and the cop’s (justified) anger comes to a boiling point when the autistic Conwoman pulls her latest scheme. The cop was born dyslexic, fought hard to overcome internalized ableism and internalized racism, and became the police commissioner through her wisdom and honest, hard work. She’s genuinely a good person who’s making the mistake of not believing in the main character.

I’m particularly worried about tropes like the Sapphire (angry black woman), magical side character helper, and the mammie trope. All of these are offensive. She needs to be dignified and have agency. And then there’s the alcoholic. I don’t want him to be malicious, just an ignorant parent who’s consumed with worry and struggling with drowning his worry in beer, but ultimately able to change. Then there’s the autistic. I don’t care what race she is someday cast as, but I do care how she’s portrayed. I don’t want her to be stupid, a vehicle for another character’s story, savant, ableist, nuerophobic, pure, evil, defective, or any of a clusterfudge of horrific tropes I’ve seen growing up. I NEED her to be a realistic human being.

So…wanna help?