Merry Christmas! I’m back with another blog post!
I had to talk about this video and the reaction the creator has had. Jenna Moreci, who is a fellow indie author and YouTuber posts advice for writers. Her latest video was “Common World Building Mistakes.” She talks about not info dumping the whole history of your world, getting your magic system right, and more importantly having a diverse cast in your books. However, on this last point, some people lost their minds.
Now, having diverse characters is not the same as Tokenism. When you’re planning out your story, you can’t have the mindset of “Oh, I need X black characters, Y Asian characters, Z Middle Eastern, W Hispanic, etc. just for the sake of having them and they have no character development at all.” And, I’m not just talking about racial diversity either. Religious, gender, sexual orientation. Our world is a big, beautiful, diverse place with all kinds of people and viewpoints. So, why is it so hard to reflect it in your work? And, why is it so hard to write original, diverse characters and not rely on the stereotypes? That’s when you’re going to offend people and lose your audience.
I’ll use Harry Potter as an example. A hugely diverse cast if you pay attention to the descriptions and the names of the characters. And their backgrounds/orientations/beliefs/etc. do not define the character. Take JK Rowling’s reveal that Dumbledore was gay as an example. He wasn’t “the gay wizard.” He was a great wizard and a wonderful caring man who just happened to be gay. No big deal was made of it in the books. Rowling also mentioned that he had unrequited affection for Grindlewald and that was what got him into trouble when he was young. But, it’s just another layer to his personality. Movie Flame does a great video about that. I’ll link it right here.
Diversity does not need to be the focus of your novel either. You do not have to write about the struggles of racism or a teenager coming out to his family unless they want to. The point is to be inclusive and reflect the world you live in.
I’ll use my story as another example. Yes, my MC is a white girl from small town Midwest America. But, this town is also a college town and kids come from all over the world to attend school. So, the student body and the residents of the town would not be all white Christians. There are all kinds of people who live in this town and it’s reflected in the shops and restaurants.
And, there is also a lack of diversity in body types. I can’t tell you how many books I’ve read where the lead male is tall with a six pack and the leading lady is 5’11”, a size 6, with perfect DD breasts and hour glass figure. What is this, an Aeropostale catalog? That is not what people look like. Tall, short, average, fat, thin, and everything in between. Different physical abilities as well. Not everyone is LeBron James, perfect athlete and peek health. There are people with all sorts of disabilities, some of them not always visible. Why can’t they be an asset to your story without their condition defining them? Yes, the disability is a part of their lives. I’m speaking from experience as I deal with chronic pain on a daily basis. But, it does not define who I am. Like I said in the example with Dumbledore, I’m not the chronically ill writer. I’m a writer who happens to have a chronic illness.
People with mental illness. There is a character in my series who has PTSD from a traumatic and abusive relationship. It does not define her. She displays no trace in book 1 that anything is going on until she has to face it further on in the series.
I encourage all writers to do their research about increasing diversity in your cast. There are tons of great videos about it. Including Jenna’s and Bella Rose Pope did 2 great videos about more diversity and doing it right. And, I’d love to continue this conversation in the comments. What is your view on diverse casts in books? And, how can we do it right in our work?