Writing Diverse Characters

A photo from my trip to the beach.

I don't care to be a person who follows what others think. I'm not a person who follows trends or has to have the latest of anything.

However, I spent last Saturday at a Diversity Conference for Writers sponsored by Oregon Writers Colony. I didn't go to this conference because Diversity is the new buzz word. I went because I write one and soon two series who have Native American main characters. And even in my westerns I tend to add people from all walks of life. I've always believed the world was made up of a kaleidoscope of people.  From their ethnicity to their religion and every thing in between, having this mixture is a wonderful way to keep the world interesting.

Growing up the rural area where I lived was all white other than a few Basque families. Or so I thought. It wasn't until I was an adult I learned there had been a Black man living in one of the towns. I had never heard of him or seen him. I learned about all the different cultures, religions, and ways of life from reading books and watching television. There was a world of exciting people outside our little rural community.

There was a comment made at the conference that I wish I had had the nerve at the time to refute. One participant said she thought the rural people were the ones who held onto the old ways of White supremacy. Having grown up rural and continued to live rural, I don't see that. You could say she was bigoted toward rural people.

The speakers on Saturday were interesting, funny, and motivational. They talked about history and about change. About word choices and being aware of differences and not stereotyping or falling into the trap of trying to make them different.

We started off with a keynote address "Does Difference make a Difference for Writers?" by Kathleen Saadat. It was full of great words of wisdom and started the event off with a feeling this was going to help me be a better writer.

The first workshop I attended was Power, Privilege, and Writing with Emily Prado and Nancy Slavin. I have to say, I felt this one was too politically correct. There were words they said shouldn't be used that could have a totally different meaning than to be putting someone down. I think you can go overboard on this policing.

After lunch Poet, Emmett Wheatfall handed out a packet of his poems. They were thought provoking and made me realize a poem can sound better when read by the poet. They put the right emphasis on words to make the piece sound completely different than when reading it yourself.

Then there was a panel of  Poet Laureate Elizabeth Woody, comedian Debbie Wooten, Novelist D'Norgia Tayplor-Price, and  graphic artist and graphic novelist Brian Parker. They talked about "Including Many Voices in the Creative Arts and Publishing." The information about their lives, how they came to where they were and how to keep making Publishing a place that really encompasses all cultures was uplifting. Debbie had us laughing a lot!

The last workshop I took was "Writing About a Culture Other Than Your Own" by D'Norgia Taylor-Price. She has a nice delivery and gave us a handout and we had to pick a culture and world different than our own and take 15 minutes to write it up.

This was my short story:
Angela Flores stood on the small balcony of her new studio apartment. Three years ago she'd decided to become more than a motel maid. A month ago that dream came true. She'd registered at the Culinary Institute.Cooking with her abuela always made her happy.

She wanted a job, a career. Where even if she was tired at the end of the day, she would feel fulfilled. There had been too many nights her mother could come home complaining about her day.

Angela didn't want to be worn out and bitter in twenty years. 

 Children played in the street below. Luck and her aunt had found the small apartment that allowed dogs. Moving to town where she knew only her aunt, Angela wanted Melody with her. This area was pet friendly and a young mother in the building had offered to take the mid-sized poodle for walks every day while Angela was at school. 

Angela stepped back in the apartment to finish unpacking when Melody yelped.

She spun around and found a rock next to her cowering dog. 

I learned I have been doing everything right while writing my books with characters of a culture than my own. I've respected that they are people with the same feelings and dreams as me. But there may be some ways they live or even some aspects in life they will see differently than me. That calls for researching the culture and having someone from that culture review my writing before it is printed. That's what I do with a sensitivity reader. Someone of or who knows the Native American culture I write about who can tell me when I'm off or clueless.

I went to the conference to see if I needed to be doing something different and it turns out I've been doing what I needed to do to write characters in a culture other than my own.