Writing Outside of Your Identities, Part 1
In August 2020, I had the honor of presenting about conscious language and representation in writing for the St. Louis Writers Guild’s Publishing Evolution conference. A large part of that presentation tackled the challenge of how to write characters and experiences outside of the writer’s own.
In part one of this two-part post, I’ll be examining diverse identities, the two messages that writers have to reconcile, and things to keep in mind when writing viewpoint characters and supporting characters who are different from you.
Our varying identities
People (and characters) have many identities that form who they are, and those identities shape their lives, how they see themselves, and how they’re treated by others and by society. In each of the categories below, there are groups that are privileged/dominant, and there are groups that are marginalized/oppressed. I’m not going to get into a discussion about privilege and oppression in this post, but if you’re interested in learning more about these terms, check out this Everyday Feminism article that breaks them down.
Race/ethnicity
Gender/gender identity
Sexual and romantic orientation
Religion
Disability
Neurodiversity
Health diagnoses
Mental health disorders
Age
Appearance and body size
Education
Socioeconomic status
When it comes to writing identities outside of your own, the question is usually whether a member of a privileged/dominant group can or should write about the experiences of someone in a marginalized/oppressed group. I’ll elaborate more on this later.
Two messages of writing outside your identities
There are two dominant messages that I see writers grapple with when it comes to writing identities outside of their own:
We want diverse characters/experiences.
Write what you know.
There are many writers who want to write characters outside of their own identities, but they worry whether they can or should. I believe that you shouldn’t be limited to writing only what you know, but when you write outside of that, it’s going to take work to get it right—just like it takes work to build a fictional world or write a compelling story. The difference here is that real harm can be done when representation isn’t written well.
Viewpoint characters
The biggest concern with writing outside of your identities relates to writing viewpoint characters who have marginalized identities that you don’t share. Viewpoint characters shape the narrative, and readers are given insight into how they think and feel, as well as how they experience the world and how the world reacts to them. I’m not going to tell anyone what they can or can’t write, but I wanted to share what I think are some key questions that writers should keep in mind when considering whether to write viewpoint characters outside of their own identities.
Alexander Chee poses three questions to writers when they ask him how they can write characters who are different from themselves:
Why do you want to write from this character’s point of view?
Do you read writers from this community currently?
Why do you want to tell this story? These are crucial questions that writers should ask themselves to understand their own motivations.
Are you writing about the experience of being an identity, or does a character just happen to have an identity? There’s a difference between writing a story about the experience of having an identity and writing a story about a character who happens to have an identity. One of my favorite examples of this is Warcross by Marie Lu. Her protagonist is Chinese American, but the story isn’t about the experience of being Chinese American. There are maybe two or three references to Emika’s ethnic background—otherwise, it’s a story about a hacker who happens to be Chinese American (which was enough for me to write a blog post about representation). On the other hand, a writer who has never had to come out to others about their sexual orientation may choose to write a story about that experience, but they may be telling a story that many feel is not theirs to tell.
Can you accurately portray what it’s like to exist as someone of a marginalized identity when you don’t share that identity? Research can certainly help you understand aspects of an identity outside of your own, but there are other considerations that aren’t as easily captured in what you can read or watch. Can you speak to how people might treat the character because of their identity? The individual prejudices or systemic discrimination that they may face? The culture, customs, and history that inform their sense of self, whether overt or intertwined with daily life? Are you appropriating from cultures to tell this story?
How does your time or setting change a character’s experiences? A story that takes place in the current state of the world is going to look different from one that takes place during the Renaissance, in the far distant future, or in a fantasy realm. What are the societal structures like? Who holds the power, and how do your character’s identities fit into that picture?
Does your plot rely on tropes that can lead to harmful representation? Does the disabled character miraculously get cured? Does the strong female lead become the damsel in distress in a time of crisis? Is a BIPOC character only able to succeed because of a White savior? What message are you sending?
Will you be taking up space or taking away opportunities from writers who are trying to tell their own stories? This has more to do with publishing than it does with writing, but it’s an important question nonetheless. Marginalized writers have shared anecdotes about the rejections they’ve received because agents or publishers find their stories unrelatable or because the quota for “their types of stories” has already been met. Publishing deals are limited, and the deals often go to non-marginalized writers who are sometimes writing the stories of marginalized groups. All the while, marginalized writers who are trying to tell their own stories often don’t get the same opportunities (see the American Dirt controversy).
In discussions surrounding representation and diversity in publishing, the #OwnVoices hashtag has become a key part of the conversation. The hashtag was started in 2015 by Corinne Duyvis, who used it as a way to identify “diverse characters written by authors from that same diverse group.” Essentially, it’s shorthand to identify works by marginalized authors and to know that aspects of their story are known first-hand. Duyvis differentiates between the idea of #OwnVoices authors and #OwnVoices stories, emphasizing the latter. Characters have many identities, so it’s likely that some of a character’s identities will differ from those of the author. For example, a viewpoint character may be Black and bisexual, and the author writing them is Black and straight. Therefore, it’s an #OwnVoices story about race but not about sexual orientation.
Supporting characters
Writing a diverse cast of supporting characters is an excellent way to show that people with varying identities exist. For example, a White writer may choose to make their main character White and surround them with characters of different races and ethnic backgrounds. This results in a story that features non-White characters yet doesn’t step into the realm of portraying what it’s like to be non-White.
That said, writing supporting characters of varying identities isn’t necessarily easy. Supporting characters should still be written with care and thoughtfulness. They should be as fleshed out as possible and not simply serve as a signal that you’re trying to check off diversity boxes. If the supporting characters end up being stereotypes, caricatures, or tokens, then showing that people can exist as they are in the world may cause more harm than good, if the unintended message is that people can exist only if they fit within a mold.
Final thoughts
Writing outside of your identity can be tricky, and it’s definitely been a hot topic of conversation in the publishing world. Doing it well requires thoughtfulness, nuance, and care. In part two of this post, I’ll examine how to include characters of varying identities without centering on diversity, talk about why representation is important and how we can get this right, and provide resources that you may find helpful.
