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Hellooo, everybody! A quick disclaimer: I've been a little under the weather so if I
seem tired, that's why. Please try to overlook any lethargy, please try to overlook my stress
acne. Anyhoo, get ready for what will inevitably be my most thumbs down video. We're talking about
diversity. Cue the outrage! Whenever diversity in fiction is discussed, it brings out a bunch
of people who seethe at the thought. “Why must I write about people who are different from me?” I
mean, that's literally what writing fiction is all about. So, there's that. This topic
was requested by two of my patrons from over on Patreon: Jadyn and Caroline. Jadyn and Caroline,
the coolest people in the world. Both Jadyn and Caroline wanted to know how to properly
write an array of diverse characters, and more importantly, how to do so without being offensive.
Before we get started, I'm gonna point out the obvious here, and that's my whiteness. I am not,
nor would I ever claim to be an expert on diversity. (Phone Dings) Son of a fucking,
shit fuck dick lick. (Valley Girl Voice) “Stop emailing me, why am I so popular? I'm trying to
film a video!” I am not, nor would I ever claim to be an expert on diversity. I'm still learning.
I still make mistakes. My goal is simply to help other writers make fewer mistakes. We're in this
together. That said, I'm going to address the most common questions and complaints I receive about
diversity in fiction. “What exactly constitutes diversity?” Diversity in fiction basically means
your cast isn't strictly white, heterosexual, cisgender males with a couple of females thrown
into the mix. You're including people of color, anyone on the LGBTQAI spectrum, different genders
or gender expressions, including non binary. You're also including different body shapes,
or people with mental or physical disabilities or illnesses. For the sake of brevity,
I'll mostly be referencing people of color and homosexuality throughout this video,
but please be two-thousand percent aware that diversity covers far more than that. “Why is
diversity in fiction so important?” The most obvious answer is realism. The real world is
filled with a wide variety of people who look and behave differently from one another. There
are rare situations where a cast of identical people can work, but nine times out of ten,
if you want your story to be believable, you gotta to include a mix. The second and surprisingly
controversial answer is, representation. Everyone wants to see themselves represented in fiction,
and for some reason this really pisses people off. (Angry Voice) “Why can't they just deal with it?”
They have been dealing with it, forever. And if you don't notice the lack of diversity, it’s
probably because you're already well represented or you're conditioned to it. Everyone in your
audience wants their own character to relate to, and as a writer who cares about their audience,
that's something to be excited about. That's not something to condemn. “How do I show the
character's race or ethnicity to the reader?” The most obvious answer is via the physical
description. Describe every character's hair color and texture, eye color, body type, and skin color
and an absolute minimum. You gotta describe white people's skin color too, because white is not a
default race. That said, if your story takes place in the real world, as opposed to a fantasy world,
you can also state your character's ethnicity. Keep in mind, stating the ethnicity does not
replace the physical description, it's just an additive. “How do I write in diversity without
being offensive?” The easiest way to do this is to write your characters as real human beings.
Your character is more than just Korean. They are more than just bisexual. These are traits,
not their identity. Build a full, realized person. Don't go with stereotypes and don't shove the
character into the background. Additionally, and I think this goes without saying, don't
use slurs to describe their physical appearance. If you're not sure if a descriptor is offensive,
it probably is. And of course, allow people with first hand experience to help you out through the
writing process. You should always recruit diverse betas at an absolute minimum, even the most well
intentioned person can unknowingly write something offensive. I've done it. Recruit betas of color,
recruit betas with disabilities, betas who are on the LGBT spectrum. Lastly, you can hire a
sensitivity reader. This is a person who comes through your work, looking for anything culturally
insensitive, any erasure, or any unintentional offense. My personal sensitivity reader is Sam
Kasse. I highly recommend her, and I've got her info listed below. We're all human beings, we all
make mistakes, even if we're trying our best to do the right thing. And that's why diverse BETA
readers and sensitivity readers are a real asset to the writing process. “What if diversity isn't
historically accurate to my story?” Are you sure it's not historically accurate? I see a lot of
people using the historical inaccuracy argument, and most of the time, they're wrong. They didn't
do any legitimate research regarding the racial groups or racial relations of the country or era
they're writing about. They just relied on general assumptions which are often incorrect. Because
erasure is a thing. So before you use this excuse, do the research. If Shakespeare can feature people
of color, you probably can too. “I don't write diverse fiction, but it's not my fault. I live
in an all white straight town.” First of all, your town might be white, but it is not straight.
There are gay folks a plenty around you, they just don't feel comfortable letting you know. Second,
what does the town you live in have anything to do with your book? Do you think your reader is
going to read the story, see all the white people and then think ‘Oh, you know what? I bet this
author lives in a white town.’ We all know you got TV and internet connection. Your worldview doesn't
have to be limited by your immediate experiences. If you can write about magic and wizards, I'm sure
you can write about human beings with a different sexual orientation than you. “But Jennaaa,
when I add one black person, I get accused of writing a token. What gives?” You wrote a token,
that's what gives. Here's the thing, if there are only two characters in your book,
then it would make sense that just one of them is a person of color. But in most other situations,
it doesn't. Typically if you have a reasonably sized cast of white characters and then one person
of color, people are just gonna assume you threw that character in there to meet your diversity
quota. Your audience wants realistic stories. They wanna be represented. They want to read
about well rounded multi-dimensional characters. That's what you should care about. “What if my
character is gay? Am I just supposed to announce it?” Sexuality is like any other characteristic,
you mentioned it when it's relevant. If it's not, you don’t. I have a few characters in TSC whose
sexualities are never mentioned, because they just don't get that much page time. But I also have a
bunch of characters whose sexualities are made very clear, because just like in the real world,
romantic relationships are relevant a lot. People talk about dating, they talk about love, they
talk about sex. I talk about Cliff all the time. You're telling me your character Zack is never
going to bring up his boyfriend? What I'm saying is you can't Dumbledore your way out of this one.
Your character shouldn't walk into a room and say ‘Hello, how are you? Also, I am a homosexual.’ But
there are a bunch of seamless ways that could be brought up. And I know some people say you should
only add diversity if there's a reason for it, but people don't need a reason to have brown skin or
to be attracted to the same sex. The reason is they were born that way. People are just people.
They don't have to justify their existence. “But Jennaaa it's just not believable to include six
gay people in a book.” I don't know if you know this, but people like to hang out with other
people they have things in common with. Because of this, lots of gay people hang out with other
gay people. So yeah, it's completely believable for there to be six gay people in your book,
just like it's believable for there to be six Black people, or six people with disabilities.
People connect with other people who get them. “I'm so sick of everyone demanding
diversity. Can't I just write the characters I want to write?” I think the real question is,
why do you only want to write straight white people? Creative writers don't think about meeting
a diversity quota in order to pacify the masses. They just create multi-dimensional characters,
their skin color or sexual orientation is just one characteristic among many. So the fact that your
mind exclusively goes toward straight, white, able bodied, and mostly male is probably a sign that
you need to work on your creativity and general awareness, which is totally doable. “But Jennaaa,
diversity of mind is more important than trivial stuff like skin color.” Yeah,
no shit. But you know what affects diversity of mind? The way we look, the way we love,
and the way our body and mind work. And if you really think things like skin color, sexuality,
and disability are trivial, then by your own logic, you should have no problem including
them because they're just not a big deal. And if me pointing this out is boiling your blood, keep
in mind my word is not law. You are free to write whatever the hell you want. But is it rational to
get upset just because someone is encouraging you to write about more than one kind of person? “Is
it okay for me, a straight white writer, to write about characters of color or characters on the
LGBT spectrum?” From my understanding, it works like this: readers want own stories. If they're
reading a book about the struggles of being a South Asian woman, they want it written by a South
Asian woman. That doesn't mean you can't write about a South Asian character. It just means the
book probably shouldn't revolve around her South Asianess. Let me put it this way. If you wanna
write a book about a lesbian princess on a quest to save her kingdom, that should probably be okay.
If you wanna write a book about a lesbian coming to terms with her lesbianism, maybe save that tail
for a lesbian author. So that's all I got for you today. To the folks I offended because they don't
want to write diversity, I'm sorry. Also, that's a lie, I don't give a shit. Diversity in fiction
is pretty simple. Just create a cast of realistic unique people, write them as layered individuals,
and poof, ya done! A huge thank you to Jadyn and Caroline for requesting this topic. If you'd like
the chance to have a video dedicated to you, check me out on Patreon, I've got the link
listed below. With that said, don't forget to subscribe to my channel. I post new videos on
Mondays and Wednesdays. And if you want to be alerted as SOON as I upload, ring that bell. If
you want to experience an amazing story and win a ton of prizes along the way, preorder The Savior's Champion
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