#writing diverse characters
writingmyselfintoanearlygrave:
I’m low-key tired of all this “diversity makes writing good” bs like… yeah it’s great to include! But it doesn’t automatically make your story good? Idk I personally don’t want to read about an ace person that has the personality of a sack of potatoes just bc they’re ace
Respectfully, I don’t think anybody is saying diversity automaticallymakes a story good (or at least, that’s not my understanding of it.) People are just saying a story withoutany diversity isn’t good writing, which IMO is true?
There’s also a tendency for people to find any reason not to include diversity, by saying things like "but a story can be good without it!” and okay, sure. There are things I enjoy/have enjoyed even if they’re not diverse, but said lack of diversity is definitelya major flaw of those things, and it feels like we should be trying to do better than that?
i get what you’re saying, tho! bad writing is bad writing, diversity or not. but lack of diversity isbad writing in itself, which i think is the point of the general “diversity makes writing good” discourse, and not asking people to engage with flat characters or flat stories ✨
From what I’ve seen, there’s less of an issue of people saying “having a diverse cast automatically makes x thing good” and more an issue of people relying on the diversity of their cast as the primary selling point, which can give the impression that the story doesn’t have much else to offer.
I will admit that when someone pitches their WIP as having “x representation” before any information about the plot or characters, it can put me off a bit. And if they don’t mention the plot or characters much beyond that, I’m likely to pass on it because I haven’t been told enough about the story to get interested.
And, well… if something gives off the feeling of using marginalized people as a marketing gimmick (which is certainly not alwaysthe case but does sometimes happen) then I’m definitely not going to be interested.
Diverse casts are definitely something to embrace, but I can understand the frustration when having one seems to be the onlyfocus. If allI know about your characters is that they’re x marginalized group, the pitch probably needs some work.
This is just what I’ve seen, and I don’t want to invalidate anyone else’s opinion because admittedly I don’t always have time to read through my dash as thoroughly as I’d like. Just my observation.
@roselinproductions Reblogging this version because you explained my point way better than I did lol
Your plot should never take a back seat to diversity, but that doesn’t mean you get to kick diversity out of the car.
