Thank you for this. I really mean it - this has been eating at me since I started working on it because I really don't want to be appropriating culture or anything like that.
As a PoC, I think the first and last thing in your mind when you write a character of a different culture, ethnicity, religion, gender or ableness, is the question "but why". Every time you have a character whose experience you don't understand first hand do somethin, ask yourself why? If the answer is it's what you would do, or what your beta reader said was realistic, or what you gather from direct observation, then go with it and put it in front of as many betas as you can before you send it out into the world. If your answer is "well because that's what those people do", then stop, assess your own bias and start again.
This is a huge relief to read, actually, because the whys, when I ask them of myself, are answered by, well, this is what I would do if I was in this situation.
Each are knowledgeable in the human equivalent culture but their motivations and behaviors are of their preternatural culture and they act accordingly.
That sums up exactly what I want to convey and in a succinct way that I didn't even think of. Reading this was very much an 'ah-ha!' moment for me because you said so perfectly what I was floundering around like a flailing fish!
Thanks again for this, I really appreciate it. And I very much look forward to getting to know you via our ljs! :)
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Date: Tue, Apr. 26th, 2011 05:00 am (UTC)As a PoC, I think the first and last thing in your mind when you write a character of a different culture, ethnicity, religion, gender or ableness, is the question "but why". Every time you have a character whose experience you don't understand first hand do somethin, ask yourself why? If the answer is it's what you would do, or what your beta reader said was realistic, or what you gather from direct observation, then go with it and put it in front of as many betas as you can before you send it out into the world. If your answer is "well because that's what those people do", then stop, assess your own bias and start again.
This is a huge relief to read, actually, because the whys, when I ask them of myself, are answered by, well, this is what I would do if I was in this situation.
Each are knowledgeable in the human equivalent culture but their motivations and behaviors are of their preternatural culture and they act accordingly.
That sums up exactly what I want to convey and in a succinct way that I didn't even think of. Reading this was very much an 'ah-ha!' moment for me because you said so perfectly what I was floundering around like a flailing fish!
Thanks again for this, I really appreciate it. And I very much look forward to getting to know you via our ljs! :)