A. asked Alwyn Hamilton:

Hi Alwyn! I adored your books so much, as well as they way you weave your storytelling! This isn’t a question about the book, but more of a writer-to-writer? Research only goes a long way, but when a writer needs to research more delicate topics like spousal abuse, or living with partial paralysis (waist down), how can a writer ensure that she has enough research?

Alwyn Hamilton This is such a tricky topic to research you're right, especially because every single person's experience is different and no matter how much research you do you will never be able to have a depiction of that topic that every person who has gone through it will consider accurate to their experience. What I think you can hope for however is to write something that everyone can at least empathize with and that is thoughtful, even if it doesn't represent a singular "universal" experience.

I think perhaps the best thing you can do with examples like the ones you've used is try to find sensitivity readers for those topics. This is people who are familiar with the experiences you are writing about, and they will be able to pick out anything that they think rings false, or stereotypical and offensive in your depictions. Approaching these sorts of people will of course be very sensitive, so do go about it the right way (e.g maybe start with charities or institutions that work closely with causes like this and get their help directing you).

Hope that helps, and good luck!

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