Write what you know.

[dameboudicca]

You know, that advise you get all the time. It has some truth to it (especially if not taken to literally).

But what do you do if you suffer from prosopagnosia (facial blindness), when you couldn't describe the face of someone you knew if your life depended on it even? If you are incapable of reading facial expressions (at least, if they are not really exaggerated). Does that mean you have to write stories about faceless beings who never shows the slightest hint of an expression on their faces? It would be all right if your character had the same condition, but if you don't want that...?

This is not just a question out of idle curiosity, I have these problems, and so far I have avoided it by using generic descriptions (put together from stuff I've read), but it feels a bit like cheating (no, no, not word-by-word, of course not - but still!) - and I'm terrified someone will, eventually, see through it. After all, I know it's fake!

Or, do I have no choice but to continue as I do now?

[somewhat cross-posted]

Comments

[ar]

All of what feuervogel said, and also--it could just end up fitting into your writing as a stylistic quirk as you hone your style. In a post-Hemingway world, leaving descriptions thin on the ground isn't unheard of. So depending on what your abilities are with regards to making facial expressions, I'd experiment with trying to describe and with consciously leaving it out, and then I'd get some other people to read it and see what they thought about it.

And I agree that a POV character with prosopagnosia could be really neat. ♥

[dameboudicca]

As it is now, the descriptions are often at a bare minimum - perhaps some eye colours, and a smile or two - and most of the time that is quite enough, but there are those moments when I still feel like something is missing.
But still, no one who has read anything I've written has ever noticed any lack - it could be just that I am overly sensitive knowing my own weakness...