There is a definite grey area surrounding the issue of character creation. I once attempted a piece dealing with racism in 1960’s South America. My feedback warned me that “The old age ‘write about what you know’ is often worth bearing in mind when selecting a subject matter” and “when dealing with historical subject matter, that of other cultures in particular, one has to proceed with caution”.  This got me thinking, should we be able to write any one’s story, regardless of whether their background isn’t the same as ours?

Authors do not always have the immediate appropriate cultural knowledge when creating certain characters. Perhaps possessing a feeling of entitlement or naivety, some writers see it to be acceptable to create characters of colour, without being completely in the know about their backgrounds. However, the pressure to create characters who are authentic to me cause writers to write racially ambiguous characters or shy away for including diversity all together. They choose not to include characters of colour as they are unsure of what they consist of, adding to the misinterpretation. Therefore, they will gravitate back to ‘write about what you know’ advice, creating a paradox, as people of colour aren’t written about, causing offence and preventing education.

I do feel as if it is important to place knowledge at the centre of the writing process, but this does not mean that we cannot educate ourselves. We can seek the knowledge which will aid us when creating authentic characters. If you have a story that you want to tell, you can gain the information you need to help you tell it through research. Don’t we have a responsibility to represent all types of people? There are many ways that you can go about this. The first and most obvious way to acquire information is to read. Reading both fiction and non-fiction relating to your subject area will allow you to gain knowledge, especially if it is written by an author who is the ethnicity that you are interested in. From there, it would be useful to gain some active research. Perhaps talking to friends or willing partakers from different backgrounds would benefit you, especially when eliminating any stereotypes which could unwantedly creep in. After this, creating drafts or character profiles would be useful as you could have them critiqued by readers from different backgrounds.

Overall, we live in a diverse society, where all backgrounds, religions and races are welcome, so our writing should express this. Progressing with empathy and perspective could lead to the creation of important and telling works. There is a need for diversity in literature to reflect and honour the lives of all readers, so with respect and good intentions, we should be aiding this. Understandably, it is the readers prerogative as to whether they would like to read it or not.