How to Write Diverse Characters (And, Also, Are You Qualified?)

The questions of how to write diverse characters—and even who can and who should write diverse characters—hits close to home for me. A few weeks ago my dear friend and critique group buddy shared her new fantasy novel idea with me. She was uncertain about one of her characters — a young Black man — and whether she had the right to write him. During the conversation she described herself as “a middle-aged white woman,” and asked me whether I thought she should even attempt to portray someone whose life experience would be so different from her own.

            “Yes!” I encouraged her. “Write him!”

It helps that I know this woman. I know what she reads and how she has educated herself with information about the triumphs and struggles of not just African Americans, but also Indigenous People, and other minority groups. She is well-informed about the atrocities. She has never used our friendship as a one-stop shop to answer her questions about Black people or Black culture. We talk about ethnicity the way we talk about publishing, writing, religion, COVID-19, the environment, swimming, and a host of other topics that come up as part of engaging in authentic relationship.

Every person is an individual.

Diversity - Who Can Write Whom?

We’ve entered into a curious confrontation in publishing, especially about how to write diverse characters. If writers don’t include diverse characters in their work, they will be labeled as racist, sexist, homophobic, or bigoted. If they do choose to write diverse characters, but do a poor job by writing flat or stereotypical characters, they will be labeled as racist, sexist, homophobic or bigoted. If they manage to write beautiful, fully fleshed out, human beings who don’t look, act, think or live like them, they will be accused of cultural appropriation, or bigotry by ventriloquism - projecting voices they have no right speaking into people they have no right embodying.

So, then how on earth can writers successfully create worlds that look like the ideal we allegedly aspire to in America – a true fusion of personalities and cultures, religious beliefs and ethnicities? How do we create art that imitates the life we say we are striving for?

The answer is simple. But that doesn’t necessarily make it easy. Research. And, not the “I have a ________ friend” sort of shoddy research that perpetuates the idea that anything other than cis, white, male has only one definition.

Being a writer involves a lot of research. I often praise God for Google and wonder how authors before me managed. With a few keywords I have access to articles, images, videos, lectures, data, and nonfiction stories of the lives of all sorts of people in their own words. There’s too much information out there about any given subject. The internet allows us to experience, secondhand, many different kinds of people with many different stories to tell. Especially if you’re wondering how to write diverse characters.

Getting to know people involves a second step - getting to know people by purposely putting yourself in situations and environments that are outside the world you feel most comfortable in.

After all (or at least some) of this is where the writing should happen. And, when it does,

DO: 

Describe your characters equitably.

One of my pet peeves is reading manuscripts where the writer assumes whiteness. In these narratives, white characters are given physical characteristics, hobbies, outfits, and other descriptors that help readers form opinions and make assumptions about who they are. Then, when a Black character is introduced, (s)he is described as simply “Black” – no clothes, no physical description, no hobbies. This is not how to write diverse characters. The author either consciously or unconsciously expects that readers will know who the Black character is by virtue of them having brown skin. This perpetuates a historical ideology that white people come in all varieties, while Black people are just carbon copies. While I have seen this type of lazy writing used most often for Black characters, I have also seen it used for Latino, LGBTQ+, Asian, and Indigenous characters.

Avoid stereotypes.

We all have preconceived notions about people based solely on appearance. We all categorize the people we observe and meet. Sometimes we think we have people figured out before we’ve even had a conversation with them. When we take the time to form relationships, most of the time we find out our assumptions couldn’t have been further from the truth.

If internet research is a class, interpersonal relationship is the master class. Getting to know people who look, think, act, believe and live differently from yourself is to become informed about some people who look, think, act, believe and live differently than yourself. Inevitably, the preconceived notions wash away as we realize that every person is an individual.

Life is busy and life is hard. People don’t generally have time to go out of their way to connect with people who live outside their geographical boundaries. But, there are some shortcuts to putting yourself in places where you are more like to meet and form relationships with people who don’t look like you. Go to a gym outside your neighborhood. Join a church where you are a minority. Enroll your kids in activities outside your usual perimeter. There is value in immersing yourself with the wealth of beliefs, circumstances, lifestyles, and ideologies outside your own sacred and comfortable habitat.

Good writers are avid readers. Read books by people who look like the characters you want to portray, about the characters you want to portray – both contemporary stories and the classics, both fiction and nonfiction.

wondering how to write diverse characters? Utilize your network.

If you are one of the lucky people with a diverse family or friend group, get several different people to read your first draft. Ask them, specifically, what they think of your characters, and whether they see any stereotypes or gaps in your characterization.

Writers create babies. When we ask someone to critique our work, we are secretly asking them to tell us how beautiful our babies are. Receiving criticism is like hearing someone tell us everything that is wrong with our babies. Try not to be oversensitive or defensive. Try to be open to the honest criticism from people you trust. Remind yourself that these people know better than you what it is to be ___________.

DON’T:         

Assume just stating a character’s race will tell your reader everything there is to know about them.

People are unique and complicated, and writers wondering how to write diverse characters should know that. Give your characters unique and complicated backstories that inform who they are. If you don’t feel qualified to do this, leave those characters out. There is still room in the market for stories that involve homogeneous world building.

For some tips on character conception in general, read THIS.

Make ethnicity your character’s biggest attribute.

We are all a product of our DNA. Life experience built on top of that DNA is essentially what makes us who we are. Ethnicity is one ingredient in the recipe. Don’t make your characters so bland (and unrealistic) that you stop at ethnicity. Give every one of your characters a full life so their experiences, past and present, can inform their desires, their motivations, and their behavior. Since you are the architect, build outside of preconception. Creativity is the foundation of this business, so exercise yours. 

nEver, never, never, never, add any character just for the sake of checking off a quota box.

If you’re creating a world with no diversity, don’t solve it by dropping in a character from a minority group who will, presumably, add a splash of color to your neutral world. Characters that are afterthoughts don’t add to narratives. They don’t drive action or answer questions. They don’t have a place at all, and readers will see them as irrelevant. In that way, drop-in characters very much take away from stories. If, as you build your world, you feel the need to add a character because (s)he is from a minority group so your story will be more inclusive but you haven’t taken the time to give that character a personality, you are doing the exact opposite of what you are trying to achieve. If you want to fully flesh out that character but you are struggling to make her/him as dynamic as your other characters, the problem may not be your fictional world, it may be the real one you’ve created for yourself.  

It’s Worth It!

Being qualified to write diversity into your narrative takes just as much research, forethought and passion as writing about any other subject you are unfamiliar with. You learning how to write diverse characters will pay off in the long run. And the time it takes to become adept at being an inclusive writer is just as valuable as the time you will spend honing every other aspect of your craft.

Learn more from my webinar, Build a World That Looks the Way Ours Should, always available on demand for members of Good Story Learning.