Film and writing today are not what they used to be. Thankfully, artists today are conscientious of the messages they send both implicitly and explicitly in their work, especially regarding diversity. There is also an ongoing conversation about OwnVoices and “writing what you know.” It is a little confusing at times: how does one include diversity in their writing to make it reflective of the world around them while just “writing what they know?” Holding Authors to A Higher Standard In 2017, Mvskoke Twitter user Weezie Wood reached out to author Rick Riordan to address his use of the words “spirit animal” in The Sword of Summer. Spirit animals are culturally significant to Native peoples. Although popular media has stolen and bastardized the idea, Native peoples have still followed their customs regarding spirit animals. In The Sword of Summer, the term was thrown in as a joke to describe a character. Riordan promptly responded that he would cut that line from the next printing of the book, thanked Wood for pointing it out, and apologized for his insensitivity. Times have changed since authors were throwing around slurs in books, and critics were deeming those books “classics.” The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been taken out of high school curriculums for over a decade due to its excessive and unnecessary use of the N-word. Some teachers are even swapping out To Kill A Mockingbird for books that reflect Black voices and still maintain the lesson of empathy that TKAM teaches. Suddenly, it seems silly to talk about racism from a solely white perspective, or use that “single story.” This line of thought is different from where the American literary community was just 20 years ago. Amongst young writers, the pressure is even more real. Many young writers want to write a novel that represents the diversity of the world around them, but they are afraid that they are not the right people to tell others’ stories. And to a large extent, I argue that those writers are right. But just because it is difficult to tell the story of other racial groups or communities does not mean you cannot write insightful and accurate characters from those communities. High Fantasy An easy out is what Leigh Bardugo did for her Grishaverse novels. In high fantasy, it is easy to write a diverse cast because the weight the color of a person’s skin has in the real world does not apply. Shadow and Bone were very careful with race, however. Bardugo made certain features apply to people of certain nations, and since Shadow and Bone dealt with international conflicts, the fact that race could reveal nationality mattered. Another, more recent, instance of diversity in writing is Amazon’s new Lord of the Rings show, which features many people of color. The presence of non-white people in LoTR most likely will not force the show to stray from the story too much since skin color is not present as a plot point in the books. (However, this casting has still managed to anger fans.) This is another great example of using diversity in high fantasy because it becomes unnecessary as shown by Tolkien ignoring skin color in the books to a large extent. How Casey McQuiston Made It Work Casey McQuiston is the white author of Red, White, and Royal Blue, One Last Stop, and I Kissed Shara Wheeler. They wrote a Mexican-American protagonist in RWRB and a Chinese-American love interest from the 1970s in OLS. So, how did Casey McQuiston make it work while other white authors’ attempts to write relevant narratives of the person-of-color experience fell short? The big key with McQuiston’s work is that they created the characters with their demographics in mind. Being Mexican-American influences how Alex sees himself and how others see him. When he eventually realizes he is queer, his queerness does too. Casey McQuiston does not ignore race nor do they seek to write the next big activist book. They use their knowledge to influence how they write the characters concerning their ethnicities. More than anything else, they keep it respectful. They do not fall into stereotypes nor do they go out of their way to write characters that overtly break them. McQuiston knows enough about the general experience of being a person of color to write it well, but the reason I think their writing works well without coming out token-y is that they do not go too deep into it the way a person of color experiences those issues can. They do not try to write the struggles of being a person of color. Instead, they weave those struggles into the characters, often in RWRB, by referencing racism rather than actual displaying instances of it. Can you Just “Write People?” When asked about his strong, trope-breaking female characters, George R. R. Martin said, “it's sort of a weirdly radical statement - women are people. They're driven by the same desires that drive men…” It is not fair to say that a cis-straight-white-male author should make a “default” character and then pick their special diversity mojo. It is also not fair to say that the author should go out of their way to create diverse characters and jam them into their story. Writing “people” does not just mean writing humans and human experiences as you know them. It means taking the time to understand others’ views on what creates a person. For example, I recently read the essay “Notes of A Native Son”, which centers around influential African-American writer James Baldwin’s experience with racism in the North. In the essay, Baldwin’s father is shown to have a cynical and paranoid view of the world, and some of his actions are unwarranted and unkind. However, Baldwin does not let us write him off; instead, Baldwin digs deep into the racial trauma that made his father so mistrustful. Without reading into what Black Americans faced during that time, I would not know that this is a thought process that people go through. When I write people in books, I write people that think like me. But, as a writer, I have the potential to step out of that box. I will not be writing about real-world experiences that do not apply to me, but I will be writing nuance into my existing characters and diving deeper into their personalities by thinking about what may influence the way they see the world. In my fantasy, I can write a character that thinks differently from me because I have read the experiences of people who think differently from me. If there is an experience that speaks to you, I would argue that the best way to represent it would be through fantasy, far-removed enough from the world around you that it does no attempt to or intend to reflect something you do not know. If you want to write a book that reflects you (which is the goal of writing for many people) while still maintaining diversity, go the Casey McQuiston route. Do your research when writing characters different from you. There is no need to sugarcoat, but do not tell a story that you might not be the best person to tell. Closing Notes My work-in-progress’ main characters come from varied socioeconomic backgrounds, some that I can relate to, many that I cannot. Most of them are also of a different race than me. I think the big takeaway is that I will not be using my Black main character to write the next big Black Lives Matter story, or using my homeless character to expose a type of poverty I cannot experience. I also want to talk about the importance of both having beta-readers from a variety of backgrounds and having a network of people different from yourself. If they are willing to give you advice, time, or even recommended reading before you write, take it. And, as Mo Black’s Medium article states, “Write in good faith.” This is the article I used to get started on my research. It has been invaluable to writing this piece and my writing journey as a whole. . Stuti Desaiis a high school student in New Jersey. They like (in no particular order) books, music, science, history, running, and (of course) writing and are always up to learn something new! Find them on Instagram at @writing_stoot.
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