How Being Deaf Has Affected Me as a Writer
Where to start?
First, I should probably say I’ve been suffering from progressive hearing loss since the age of four.
I wear one hearing aid. It should be two, but I feel the other ear is just too far gone and not worth the batteries. I read lips and I never learned to sign, because nobody I deal with in my everyday life signs.
After facing down countless incidents of discrimination in my life because of my hearing loss, I made myself a mission: educate people about hearing loss, make them see we are just like them. We marry, we love, we hurt, we bleed, we have kids, jobs, dreams, we like to laugh, watch movies. We do everything hearing people do except hear.
Author Tara Chevrestt
We can work right next to you. Yes, we can do your job, usually.
We are not aliens, nor are we stupid. Deaf is not dumb.
My entire life I have been bullied in some way or another, or simply misunderstood, because of my deafness. People fear what they don’t understand and that fear leads to hateful acts. If people were educated and in turn, educated their children, perhaps they would stop the discrimination, bullying and hate.
So I write about it, hearing loss.
I created a heroine who wears hearing aids and long into adulthood, she’s still getting over the bullying and taunts of her school days. She faces down her demons. They won’t stand in the way of her finding true love. My goal is to show people we, the deaf and HOH love just as strongly as the hearing world does. In this book, I also introduced people to some of the devices we use in our everyday life: hearing aids, bed shakers, closed captioning. I also made a heroine who has to learn to come to terms with her new hearing loss, the result of a war wound. I tried to convey that it’s okay to get help in the form of hearing aids, that wearing the devices are nothing to ashamed of.
Being an author is hard.
I won’t lie. There are days you want to just throw in the towel. When you look at your paltry sales and say why bother? And while I’ve penned a few pieces solely for entertainment purposes, my heart, my soul, my passion is in the books featuring hearing loss difficulties. My deafness is what drives me to keep going. Reader by reader, I’m educating the world about living with hearing loss. That’s better than any royalty check.
I one time had a publisher express shock that I’m deaf. “But you write dialogue so well!” Um, yes, deaf people do have communication skills. And while I can’t always hear a person’s tone of voice, I can read body language and facial expressions and fill in the blanks. It’s not hard to transfer that to the page. You roll your eyes at me, I know you’re exasperated and I can type, his voice held a note of exasperation.
Tara Chevrestt’s novel
A publisher rejected one of my books because, “if the heroine is deaf, how does she know the room is quiet?”
That was the only time in my life I emailed a publisher back regarding a rejection letter. After all, my purpose is to educate, and there was a perfect opportunity. 1. If a person wears a hearing aid, they must have a little something left, and let me tell you, hearing aids are powerful things nowadays! 2. We are very sensitive to our surrounding environment. We feel reverberations in the floor. We sense shadows moving. You’ll find we’re more vigilant than hearing people. We have to be.
The only problem I’ve had with being a deaf writer is at times I’ve had to email a friend and ask, “What would this sound like?”Would it be a ping, a thud, a tinkle?
When I write hearing characters, I have to also remind myself to describe what sounds they may be hearing around them. And as I wear an aid and didn’t lose my hearing until the age of four, I do have a basic understanding of sounds. What I don’t know can be asked. I can write just like everybody else.
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Tara Chevrestt is a deaf woman, former aviation mechanic, dog mom, writer, and editor. You can follow her on twitter @TaraChevrestt or visit her website, tarachevrestt.weebly.com
Category: Being a Writer, Contemporary Women Writers, On Writing
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- Featuring Women Writers on WWWB 2013 - Women Writers, Women Books | December 30, 2013
Hi there… I am aspiring Deaf writer who wrote four unpublished novels. As PSE/ASL user, I also find the difficulties to express the oiled-machine words on papers when I often take for granted on my deafness. Literally, I have to rework everything in the words in order to blend the story together, but its never an easy task being Deaf in the hearing world who found my works unsatisfactory when I thought were one of my best works. I am not quiter, but after an umpteen rejections and negative remarks can take a toll on a human being. Hopefully one day I can break the barrier and be an author.
Tara, very interesting and timely (for me) post. I’m working with a new Employee Resource Group at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. The group is called No Boundaries and we seek to help individuals with disabilities be hired and have successful careers with NASA. One of the most significant disabilities we face with our employees are long term hearing loss and hearing loss related to illnesses. Quite a few are aircraft mechanics.
Is there a way I could contact you concerning an appearance here in October 2015 during “Hearing Protection” month for activities our group will sponsor? We are hoping to sponsor our first speaker for our Safety and Total Health Fair. With your background you would be a fantastic choice. Please email me at stephen.l.candler@nasa.gov Thanks and best wishes.
Hello, Mr. Candler,
I have sent an email your way. Thank you for the comment.
I am deaf myself and can relate here. While writing fiction or poetry I sometimes struggle with wordings for sounds and accents. I once wrote about a deaf character who could talk but not hear and used BSL, but never finish the story because people assumed I was writing about myself … ouch.
Inspiring article.
I am a writer that lacks an opposable thumb on my writing hand. Thank God for puters, right?
Best of luck to you, Tara.
Tara really I liked your guts to accept your deafness so frankly & you’re working with that so hardly good luck..
I’ve got a friend ( who’s partly deaf bcoz she grew old so ) whom I tried a lot to understand but misunderstood by her, for people like her & for many of us too you be an inspirational person thanks Tara..
You’re braver than I am. I’ve written one chapter of a novel and various blogs, but one thing I’ll never write about is being deaf. I just can’t deal with other people’s perception that deafness is my defining quality.
I have hearing impaired children, and when they’re old enough to read, I’m going to have to remember your books and your story to share with them. Incredible and inspiring. As an author, I know the industry is tough enough as it is without having to deal with ignorance to boot. Well done for sticking by your talent.
This is a most inspiring article and very impressive. I am looking forward to reading your books with deaf heroines/heroes.
I am writing a novel with a deaf character and, when it was critiqued by another author, she said something about the deaf and that ‘without language there is no thought’ which I found so very strange. Non-verbal language makes up 90% of first impressions so the deaf toddler is receiving language and thinking about what she or he sees all the time. The visual sense is so much stronger.
I’m so glad that you wrote this and I hope you continue writing books that feature hard of hearing and Deaf characters, we need this!!!
Hi Tara. Your article was very well written and I can certainly sympathize. Although I am not as deaf as you are, I’ve lost hearing in my right ear and it’s very frustrating missing so much of what people say! I’ve even been laughed at at work. Like another commenter said, it’s hard to believe people are so naive. Thank you so much for sharing!
Thanks for such an inspiring post.
As a disabled woman, I was really inspired by this post. Thank you
Tara, I was very moved by your post. I can only imagine the difficulties you must encounter with people who do not understand. Yesterday I did a radio interview with someone who has hearing loss. Like you, another inspiring woman. I say inspiring because yes, you have inspired me. I have very bad eyesight and I fear this is gradually getting worse. Another challenge as a writer. Hats off to you and I will follow up on your book!
Thank you so much. I’m sorry to hear that and I hope you get the help you need, regarding your vision. Learning to live with a disability can be scary.
I loved this post! So feisty! I suffered hearing loss as a child and went on to teach profoundly deaf kids so I have a bit of insight into this world. Whatever your hearing loss Tara your communication skills are spot on. Actually I taught one boy who was born hearing and went profoundly deaf from six months old but it was enough – his speech was much clearer than those born with a similar hearing loss.
That’s awesome. You made a huge difference in his life!
Great post. I think this is a great article. Very informative. I’m shocked to learn though that some people are so naive. Such as someone people so shocked you can write dialogue. It isn’t like your mind doesn’t work. :/
Thanks for sharing!
Very true, Lacey. A lot of people have a hard time grasping that: my mind does work. It goes back to deaf being attached with dumb. :/ Thanks for your supportive comment.
I found this truly inspirational. So much so, that I have downloaded the e-book to my Kindle. I look forward to understanding more of the world from the perspective of a deaf person. I used to have a blind friend who could sense my emotions from my voice on the phone, and I believe that when one of the senses is decreased, others are increased. I agree with you, getting the message across is the most important thing. Have you thought about writing a book for children? Thank you for this inspiring article.
I have. I would need to find an illustrator. I can’t draw, period. LOL. And yes, it does increase my other senses. I have a keen sense of smell. And that’s not a blessing. LOL