I had a lack of diversity experiece that really burned me! I mean, really. Instead of blogging about the situation (which I was waaaay tempted to), I took a different approach.
I asked my buddy, Mitch Mitchell, who is an authority on leadership and diversity, to have a conversation on this topic. Not only will this talk help relieve my frustration, it will provide clarity on what diversity really means. Well, at least I hope it does.
Our diversity discussion will take place at 10:30 am CST/11:30 EST on Wednesday, January 24, 2018 via YouTube Live.
If you have questions for Mitch, enter them in the comment below. Also, let me know if you’d like to join us so I can send you the link.
Hope you can make it!
What advice do you have for novelists whose characters include folks from racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation and religions different from three author’s?
What stands out to you (positive or negative examples) about how to avoid stereotypes?
On the first one, the best thing you can do is research. Research involves talking to a few people of the type you want to write about if you don’t have any experience of dealing or being friends with them.
The second question is related to the first. The problem I normally see is that characters that differ from people you actually know are written as over the top versions of themselves while the reality is that their behavior often doesn’t differ that much from your own except with some subtleties.