by: Luis Silva and G.E. ZhaoThe good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies.” ― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 As writers, we can all agree that words matter. We spend hours, days, and even years on word-smithing our novels or short pieces. Our words often reflect not only the stories within us but often who we are--even when we can’t see it for ourselves. So when someone holds up a mirror to challenge that identity, it can be scary and painful. Great storytelling has the ability to leave the reader changed or newly opened to ideas, maybe even excited or filled with questions. Writing is often a solitary act, but the end result is community oriented and always has an audience, our readers.** As the title implies, we need to consider our readers by writing the others in our stories, respectfully. So, how do we do that? Well, respect begins by listening to other voices without judgment. **Shout out to all of the solitary journal writers, we still love you. Keep doing your thing! ResearchThere is no avoiding it, do your research. Talk to the people who you wish to represent a role in your story. Constantly ask yourself if you are doing so faithfully. If your main character is from a group that you personally do not represent, ask yourself what is your motivation for doing so? While we are not suggesting that your story doesn’t have legs to stand on, just be aware of the #ownvoices, a call for diversity among writers and publishers. But perhaps the most important question to ask yourself is: should you be writing an MC that is from a group that you do not represent? And lastly, whatever you stand to gain from it, would it be considered appropriation? (For those who need a definition, appropriation is defined as taking aspects from a culture and using them without respect or knowledge as to its intricacies.) Unconscious Bias Ask a variety of people to be your beta readers, especially if they represent the characters in your story. A diversity of readers will help you discover if you have unwittingly written in an unconscious bias and/or harmful stereotypes. Also, when working with beta readers, a quick tip to avoid any hiccups with offensive story concepts is to ask yourself, “Would I be comfortable showing this character / story / idea to a person of the group that it represents?” If you have any hesitation whatsoever, odds are that it is offensive. Nowadays there are publishers employing sensitivity readers to help with this, but because of power dynamics, it isn’t without controversy either. The truth is that if you are a breathing human being, you have unconscious bias. The trick is finding ways to uncover them so that you may address them appropriately. But since they are unconscious, the uncovering process often involves someone else holding up a mirror (or data in some cases) for you to see what you couldn’t before. Awareness of Gender Neutral and Nonbinary PronounsSocial constructs have been revolutionizing and evolving language since the beginning of language. Words matter, so the fluidity and the ability to add to, in particular, English is a blessing. But in the case of they as a singular pronoun, there is nothing new about it. Not only does the use of they as a singular pronoun give writers the tool to conceal gender, but it also gives voice to non-binary people (#ownvoices). Unsure of how to use nonbinary pronouns correctly? Have no fear! Check out The University of Minnesota’s Center of Writing for help. RepresentationJust remember that representation can and is highly individualized for a person in any group of people for the simple reason that every human being is unique. This why stereotypes can be so painful. So, during research just make sure to account for this variable and how you represent characters. What to do with a whoops Okay, you’ve done your due diligence. You’ve tried your best, but you still pissed someone off. What to do? First of all, apologize without arguing. But even more importantly, if something you wrote hurts someone, don’t do it again. Take the time to dig deep inside yourself and unpack what happened, and then do better.
Happy writings! P.S. Please don’t hesitate to let us know in a comment if there's a resource that should be on our list below! Thanks for reading. ___________________________________________ Our Research and Other Resources for this Article: https://www.buzzfeed.com/danieljoseolder/fundamentals-of-writing-the-other https://dept.writing.wisc.edu/blog/writing-the-body-writing-centers-and-pronouns/ http://writing.umn.edu/sws/quickhelp/grammar/nonbinary.html https://www.rainbowromancewriters.com/node/971 http://writingtheother.com/ https://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/writing-from-other-cultural-perspectives-encourages-empathy-and-understanding **Anything by Nisi Shawl --- her co-authored book with Cynthia Ward: https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Other-Conversation-Pieces-8/dp/193350000X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1548857263&sr=8-3&keywords=nisi+shawl http://writingcenters.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IWCA_Singular_They.pdf https://public.oed.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-singular-they/ http://writingwithcolor.tumblr.com/post/96830966357/writing-with-color-description-guide-words-for https://bookriot.com/2015/05/04/tips-writing-character-color/ http://nkjemisin.com/2009/04/ways-to-describe-characters-of-color/ http://nkjemisin.com/2010/01/why-i-think-racefail-was-the-bestest-thing-evar-for-sff/ https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-singular-they-has-been-around-for-centuries_us_58e3c631e4b0f4a923b25cb6 http://www.english.illinois.edu/-people-/faculty/debaron/essays/epicene.htm https://slate.com/human-interest/2012/04/hen-swedens-new-gender-neutral-pronoun-causes-controversy.html https://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/questions-and-quandaries/problem-sensitivity-readers-isnt-think https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/27/vetting-for-stereotypes-meet-publishings-sensitivity-readers https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/international/new-york-rights-fair/article/77128-nyrf-2018-money-status-will-drive-more-diversity.html
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