These are just shower thoughts, not a subtweet - but I'm thinking about metaphorical representation.

When authors want to write about our own experiences, we often do not do it literally in a way that could be called #ownvoices, but we are still writing about it.

For example: let's say an autistic author wants to write about masking.

We might do it literally - we might write an autistic character who is going through life trying very hard to appear neurotypical and who suffers in realistic ways as a result.

But we might use metaphors instead. Yes, even an autistic author can do this.

We might write about a character who literally wears a mask.

Or an imposter / con artist.

Or someone who tries very hard not to show their emotions for a variety of idiosyncratic, in-story reasons.

Or let's say we want to write about sensory overload.

We might literally write an autistic character who finds sights, sounds, smells overwhelming.

Or we might write about fictional things that would be overwhelming even to a neurotypical reader.

When I'm writing surreal or cosmic horror, I'm often playing with this specific thing (among other things). One of the key emotional elements of cosmic horror, even for neurotypical readers, is its overwhelming nature.

Guess who is overwhelmed like that all the time!!

And this kind of metaphorical rep can be done consciously or unconsciously. It is not uncommon to do it unconsciously - I actually do that all the time. I'll write a thing, and then later I'll look back and be like "Wait, THAT'S what I was talking about."

I notice things like this all the time when I am reading for Autistic Book Partly. Stories by autistic authors that aren't "about" autism, but that portray something I think a lot of autistic readers will be specially able to relate to.

This kind of representation is valuable, whether it is intentional or not. It helps us express our feelings, it helps others like us recognize their own feelings; in a tiny way, I think it also helps people who are unlike us to understand us.

This is another reason why I believe in supporting marginalized authors no matter what they write about - they're *always* going to be offering a marginalized perspective in a valuable way, even if they're not sitting down and literally trying to teach you something.

& it's also another reason why I don't believe in interrogating authors about whether they've personally experienced the exact details they portray in their stories.