The POV problem

For this post I thought I'd answer a question that I've seen before, by quickly touching on the POV problem with Writing a Zebra.

"Am I allowed to write a Zebra?" 

Yes, of course you are. If you've been around for a while, you know that I'm not big on "writing rules," though I do believe that sensitive subjects require guidelines and compassion. That said, I think there's some nuance in this question that we can dive into.

Let's start with a simple fact: characters can range from POV characters to secondary characters, to background characters. And, as I'm sure you can imagine, writing a first-person story from the POV of a Zebra would be a LOT different from adding a background character with EDS. 

Quite frankly, I wouldn't recommend writing from a Zebra's POV unless you have EDS yourself, or at least a co-writer with EDS. You could consult with countless experts and Zebras, but you wouldn't know how EDS feels from the inside. If you have a similar condition to EDS, are willing to do a lot of work in research and sensitivity rewrites, and your plot isn't about your characters' EDS, I could see it working out, but that's a lot of "if's". 

BUT that is not to say you can't write non-POV Zebra characters... After all, I'm writing this series for a reason! I honestly do think both able-bodied writers and disabled writers alike should be writing more Zebra characters. And even excluding POV characters, there's a huge need for representation, from non-POV secondary characters to background characters. But please never forget that this should be done with sensitivity, especially considering it's impossible to really know how it feels to live in someone else's body.

If I were to offer one more piece of advice in this specific area, it would be to echo the advice of so many people wiser than myself by saying, please DO write Zebra characters, but if you don't have EDS yourself, please DON'T write a story about life with EDS. 

Now, if you are just starting out to write a Zebra, then I'd advise you to research EDS as thoroughly as possible. Read medical pages and personal blogs alike; never stop at one source. Keep digging around until you have found people with a wide variety of symptoms, because trust me, there is no one definitive Zebra experience. Also, research harmful tropes surrounding disability in general.

And though this may be painful, try to be honest with yourself about any preconceptions you might have about EDS or disability in general. Ableism can be covert and deeply embedded. If you confront it, you can deliberately avoid it in your books and your life, and trust me, it's worth going through the pain to grow.