One piece of advice writers get ad nauseum is to “write what you know”. Well, the first thing I’m going to tell you, gentle reader, is that this is not going to be a “how to write” post. Nor is this going to become a “how to write” blog. You’re probably not here for that. In fact, if you don’t mind, drop me a comment and tell me what you’d like to see on this blog. Mostly, I’m thinking about writing about what my life as a writer is like. If you want more than that, please tell me!
Anyway, back to the post. Writing what I know has only ever gotten me so far. Instead, I prefer to write about the kinds of people and situations which I think might be interesting. In a lot of cases, that has required me to branch out and write about things I don’t actually know much about. It’s also meant that I’ve chosen to write main characters (not Emcees) who don’t always look like I do or have the background I have.
Let’s face it, there are enough books about people like me. If I were to write an urban fantasy novel about a guy who looked like me and even acted like me a little, I’d get a cease and desist from Jim Butcher. Instead, I chose to envision a character I’ve never seen on the cover of a gaslamp fantasy (or even a traditional fantasy) novel. Esho was born out of a love for a particular actor and some badass characters he’s played.
Then there are the science fiction novels I’ve written. Why did I make Ginnie Dare dark-skinned with natural hair? Again, it gets back to having a hero in a science fiction adventure story who was almost diametrically opposed to me, the author. Someone younger, from a background different than mine, and whose thought processes took different avenues than mine did.
It’s not all about race, either. I’ve written stories with trans people, gay people, old people, dead people, and all manner of other kinds of people. Because that’s the world we live in. These people exist, and I want my stories populated by as wide a variety of people as possible. I do draw the line, somewhere. And this is where it can get a little sticky. While I include as diverse a cast of characters as I can in my stories, when I’m writing a story with those people in it, I try not to write those people’s stories. This is tricky, but it’s very possible.
I can have a main character who is Black. I can’t write a story about what it’s like to be a Black person in a racist society. I can certainly have Esho encounter racism, and I have. Writing a story that tells the “Black experience” from a Black person’s perspective, though, is a different kettle of fish. And it’s one you can’t research your way into.
You’re welcome to disagree with me, of course, one way or another. I’m just giving you my thought process here, based on a number of conversations I’ve had with people over the years. Where I’ve come down allows me to people my stories with as diverse a body of characters as possible, representing a wide swath of humanity, without putting myself wholly in place of a person who’d be much more capable of telling certain stories than me.
This approach makes my stories more realistic and more interesting. But I’ll let you be the judge of that.
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