34 Writing Prompts for Writing Disability Stories

NO AI TRAINING: Without in any way limiting the author’s exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this content to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models. This content is not made using generative AI.

Happy July! In honor of Disability Pride Month, both of this month’s posts will be about disability-related writing topics. To start off the month, I’d like to provide you with some writing prompts designed to explore disability and embodiment.

No, you don’t have to be disabled to get inspiration from these prompts, although some of them will be geared more towards those of us living with disability.

And when I’m discussing disability, I often prefer to disclose my relationship to it. I am both physically and mentally disabled, with chronic pain, migraines, PTSD, and autism— although I don’t consider my autism very disabling for me, many other autistic folks do view it as a disability for themselves.

So, without further ado, let’s dive in!

---

Table of Contents:

1. Prompts for disability stories:
2. Prompts for mental disability and mental illness:
3. Prompts for embodiment:

Prompts for disability stories:

This list of prompts is for many facets of disability in stories. Use them to explore how disability is written more deeply, and your own relationship to writing it.

1. When is the first time you encountered the concept of disability? What was it like?
2. What does the word disability mean to you?
3. Research a disabled person in a field that interests you. Write a short mini-bio of who they are/were.
4. How many types of disabilities are you aware of?
5. Think of a time you might have said or done something ableist. Write a character being confronted with this same challenge.
6. What does ableism mean to you? (Note: if you find a satisfying answer to this one, let me know!)
7. What does your school/community do to support disabled folks? What could be done better?
8. Imagine a world where a certain disability is the norm. What would that look like?
9. What do you think an invisible disability is?
10. How is disability different from other identity groups? How is it similar?

Bonus questions for disabled folks:

1. When did you first realize you were disabled? What did that mean to you?
2. How has your relationship to disability changed over time?
3. What’s your favorite story of someone meeting your access needs without question?
4. If you were the main character of your favorite book/movie, how would your disability change the story?
5. What does your ideal self-care day look like?

Bonus: here is another list of 37 writing prompts designed for students.

---

Don’t want to miss a post? Subscribing helps me out and ensures that you receive email updates for every post, with no extra unwanted emails. Be sure to check your inbox for a verification email.

---

Prompts for mental disability and mental illness:

These prompts are for examining the brain and all of its arcane workings. Disabled or not, these prompts will get you thinking on exactly how you think.

1. What routine self-care tasks do you do frequently? How much do you have to think about doing each of them?
2. Write a letter to a friend about something that stresses you out. Try to describe exactly how your brain processes this stressor.
3. Think of a harmful ableist term like insane, crazy, or loony. Write a character learning why they shouldn’t use this word.
4. List out how many senses you have. Try to imagine losing one of them. How would your life change?
5. What is something you do very easily that you think others struggle with? Why? (Or, vice versa: something you struggle with that others do very easily.)
6. How in control do you feel of your mind? Write a character who has a different answer to this question.
7. Research a mental illness or disability that you don’t know much about. Then, write a character who is trying to learn more about that topic.

Bonus questions for those who identify as mentally disabled, mentally ill, and/or mad:

1. How many friends do you have with the same mental illnesses/disabilities as you? How many differ? Why do you think that is?
2. Think of a time when someone hasn’t believed you about your experience. How did you feel? Now, write a character who faces the same situation.
3. What is one thing other people always get wrong about your brain?
4. Write about a time you felt supported by a healthcare provider. Why did you feel this way?
5. Think about a piece of media that totally gets representation of mental illness/disability wrong. What would you change?

Prompts for embodiment:

What is embodiment? Well, we could argue for hours about that and not reach a conclusion. These prompts will get you thinking about your own relationship with your body. They may help you understand yourself or your disabled characters better.

1. What part of your body do you notice the least? Why?
2. How does the state of your body affect your mood for the day?
3. Write a character whose body differs from yours in a key way. How do they experience their body?
4. Write about a time you felt comfortable in your body.
5. What are your body’s cues about hunger, thirst, and sleep? How often do you listen to them?
6. How often are you in pain? How does pain impact you when you do feel it?
7. What’s one part of your body that you don’t even have to think about? Now write about a world where you’re always aware of that part.

Hopefully this list helped you think more deeply about yourself and the people around you. If you’re disabled and/or chronically ill, A Chronic Voice has another good list of prompts to get you thinking.

If you don’t know where to start on some of these prompts, don’t be afraid to do some research! Try to read about the lived experience of others and put that at the forefront of your writing. May your disability stories be thorough, thoughtful, and fun!

Which of these prompts was your favorite? Do you have one you want to add? You can leave a comment down below or on my Instagram (@ashtonrosewrites) or Facebook (@ashtonrosewritesfb). And if you liked this post, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the next one.