Doing Diversity in Writing
How do we write diverse characters in fiction? What are the do’s and don’ts of writing race, gender, ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion, origin, ability, age, appearance, and so on? Join Bethany A. Tucker and Mariëlle S. Smith as they explore why representation matters and how we, as writers and editors, can do better.
Episodes
In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, Bethany and Mariëlle discuss the dos and don’ts of writing non-binary characters.
Here’s what we talk about:
- What non-binary means
- How diverse the non-binary community is
- How to handle characters who are questioning their gender identity
- Pronouns and how to use them in our writing
- Naming characters beyond the binary
And here are the (re)sources we mentioned on t...
In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, Bethany and Mariëlle talk about how to write transgender characters.
Here’s what we discussed:
- Who gets to write trans characters
- Which stereotypes and tropes to avoid
- Other things to avoid when writing trans characters
- The things we SHOULD be writing about when w...
In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, Bethany and guest host Louvie Tucker talk about writing better male characters. This is the second part of a two-part episode on the topic.
Here’s what we talk about:
- Physical representation of male characters
- Derogatory language often applied to men and how we might handle it in fiction
- Repres...
In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, Bethany and guest host Louvie Tucker talk about writing better male characters. This is the first part of a two-part episode on the topic.
Here’s what we talk about:
- Masculinity in terms of definition
- How class affects definitions of masculinity
- Deconstructing arrogance, emotionality, and pro...
In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—talk about writing better female characters. This is the second part of a two-part episode on the topic.
Here’s what we talk about:
- Words and descriptions to avoid when describing women
- Words and description to deeply consider before using them
- Gendered words to avoid or...
In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—talk about writing better female characters. This is the first part of a two-part episode on the topic.
Here’s what we talked about:
- That, in the US, women are estimated to buy 70–80% of fiction books
- There are way more male than female leads in children’s books
- That nov...
In this first episode of Season 3 of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—discuss how to write hair and head coverings.
Here’s what we talk about:
- That hair, hair care, and head coverings are often ethnically dictated and gendered
- That there is no such thing as “ethnic” hair: we all have ethnicity!
- How to describe different...
In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—bring our season on Race and Ethnicity to an end by delving into some lingering some questions.
What we talked about
- If and how to use racial slurs in our writing
- When and how to acknowledge our characters’ racial history
- Whether authors are allowed to write POV charact...
In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—scratch the surface of an incredibly broad topic: writing interracial and intercultural relationships.
What we talked about
- That writing relationships between characters of different races and cultures is really not that different from writing relationships between characters who are not exactly the same for other reasons
In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—talk about naming our fictional characters.
What we talked about
- General things to look out for when picking our characters’ names
- All the different aspects that might influence which names make sense for your characters
- Where to look for names
- Read more
In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—interview Clare Sager about building different worlds in our fiction.
Clare Sager is an office lackey turned full-time author. With both a bachelor of arts and a masters of arts in Creative Writing, she is now living her life-long dream of writing fantasy adventure stories of swoon-worthy, troublesome men and strong, sassy women who can handle them.
When she...
In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—take a pause to talk about what to do when hiring professionals to better your writing is not an option (yet).
What we talked about
- That there’s privilege in being able to advice others to do it right or not do it at all
- That not everyone has the same resources going into publishing their work
In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—ask Erin Olds, CEO of Salt & Sage Books, all our questions about sensitivity reading.
Who is Erin Olds?
Erin Olds loves to travel, read, and drink boba tea! She currently lives in Seattle, where she homeschools her two excellent children. Erin is the CEO of and editor at Salt & Sage Books, an editing company dedicated to kindness. With a degree in English a...
In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—discuss diversity and representation in Disney’s Encanto.
What we talked about
- All the ways in which diversity shows up in Encanto, from skin colour to body type, to the different roles the characters get to play
- How no cultural artefact, including Encanto, can speak for an entire community, and wh...
In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—interview Professor Grace L. Dillon about Indigenous Futurisms and how (not) to write Indigenous characters.
Grace L. Dillon (Anishinaabe with family, friends, and relatives from Bay Mills Nation and Garden River Nation with Aunties and Uncles also from the Saulteaux Nation) is Professor in the Indigenous Nations Studies Department in the School of Gender, Ra...
In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—compare two F/F romance novels to talk about how to “Show, don’t tell” race and ethnicity in your writing.
What we talked about
- Caren J. Werlinger’s She Sings of Old, Unhappy, Far-off Things
- J.J. Arias’s The Single Matchmaker
- How these two authors use different ways, in...
In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—interview Antoine Bandele.
Antoine Bandele is an Amazon bestselling author in action adventure fantasy, dark fantasy, sword & sorcery, African American fantasy, and African literature. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, though he spent one year in Fort Lewis near Tacoma, Washington while his father served in the U.S. Army.
He lives in Los Angeles with his ...
In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—discuss the writing of race and ethnicity in fantasy and sci-fi stories.
What we talked about
- How race and ethnicity is done in fiction and TV series that are not grounded in real-life human history
- What gets lost and is added in translation when novels are turned into films or TV series
- Read more
In this first episode of Season 2 of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—discuss how to write skin color.
Here’s what we talk about:
- Why we should avoid comparing anyone’s skin tone to food, even if people from a certain community do that among themselves
- Why we should be careful when using the term ‘colored’ to describe black characters and character...
In this final episode of the first season of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—discuss holy days and answer some listener questions.
More specifically, we talk about:
- the fact that there are many more holy days than Christmas and it serves us as writers of diverse characters to be aware of that
- that stories around our holy days create worlds and imag...
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