Being a Better Writer: On Writing About Race · 10:40pm Apr 18th, 2016
Oh boy.
Yep, this post had to come at some point or another. Given the charged climate of “PC” these days (that’s “political correctness,” not “Personal Computer,” sadly) days, this topic is one that’s come up again and again in writing. Online, offline … just about everywhere.
It’s also charged enough that simply based on the title of the post alone, I can already expect that there are angry comments being written to tell me how “wrong” I am … despite the title being the only thing those commentators will read.
Yeah, there’s a reason I’ve been okay with putting off this post for so long. It’s a charged topic, one that incites a lot of anger and rage from a lot of people.
That in mind though … it’s something that needs to be talked about if you’re going to write. In part because we can’t ignore it. That old adage about there being some readers who will never be happy? The concept of race is one area where there are definitely going to be people who are going to live up to that creed. No matter what you do, you’re going to do something wrong. Well, not really (though there are things you can do wrong). More like, … some readers are going to choose to see something wrong no matter what you do. They’re not interested in logic and reason. And they’re out there. They will make what you write “wrong” no matter what you do, because they can.
So what can you do in that case? Sure, you can’t please them … but you can make sure that what you’ve written is well-written enough that others will look at those complaints with a little bit of logic and go “No, I don’t see it.”
Right. So it’s a bit like writing anything else then. There are always going to be people that are unhappy. You can’t control that. What you can do, however, is make sure that for the readers left, you’ve written something good. And now … we’re going to talk about that in the context of one of the most (in America) politically charged topics there is: race in stories and writing.
Here we go.
You can read the rest of this post at Unusual Things
I think the way you handled the topic was very mature and thoughtful without being political, which is a pretty good place to be. The only people who can get upset about what you wrote are jackasses anyway, so don't worry too much about them.
3879467
You have no idea how relieving that is to read. Thanks!
Kudos.
Because safety in obscurity. You are not big enough fish to catch the eyes of the noisy ones.
Did not mean to be mean about that, but sadly, a lot of this is preaching to the choir. Most of us already realize that a good story is not crafted by running the cast through a diversity checkbox. And you most likely will do nothing to sway the minds of those set on, in their eyes, "ridding the world of injustice". I think what is worse is when they try to use diversity as a smokescreen for poor writing.
Take the more recent game "Siege of Dragonspear: Baldur's Gate". Had a lot of bugs and poor writing in general, but as soon as you dare criticize the character that decided to declare upright, "Hi! I am a trans person!", certain folks and the media throw a hissy fit. (Seriously, in a world where there exist a sex-changing belt, why was there even a need for this character? Did not even have a quest line to get one for them.)
Endpoints follow your sentiments: make a good story with actual characters, and the real readers will enjoy it. Might not win a Hugo, but you will cultivate a good healthy fanbase instead of a mob that will turn on you the moment you accidentally make a misstep outside of the narrative.
3880823
Fimfic uses basic HTML inserts to handle formatting, while WordPress does not. The result is that if the post goes up on both sites ... I have to spend upwards of a half an hour manually reformatting it for one or the other. It's a colossal pain, and simply easier to only reformat the first bit and link to the rest.
3881204
^.^
That's what I use for my stories, anyway.