writermag.com • The Writer | 9moved on by now from the idea that
our default environments and charac-
ters are white. (Ask yourself: When you
imagine the characters in your stories,
do you imagine them all as white? If so,
you may bump into a problem with
verisimilitude, quickly.)
OK, let’s get to it. How do we write
other voices, other characters, in rea-
sonable, responsible fashion?
First, we need to do a little pre-work.
The writer Alexander Chee posited
some important questions to writers
who want to write the other in an article
for The Vulture: Why do you want to
write from this character’s point of view,
and why do you want to tell this story?
My own first question, as an editor to
writers who send me stories from
another’s point of view, is similar: Why
are you not telling your own point of
view in this story? (This whole thing
may just be personal to me: I feel like I
have a ton to write about from the per-
spective of my own demographic, but
that might be because I occupy two
worlds – I’m Asian, but I was raised here
in America, and for a long time I think I
pretty much thought I was white. That
can happen when you’re a member of
what people term the model minority.)
On the heels of that, have you done
your homework? What does it look
like? Because I can guarantee you that
you probably still have to do yet more
research, more talking to people of the
demographic whose voice you’re using.
Chee has another piece of advice that
I think is really important: Are you
reading writers of this community
already? Even if you have access to folks
who can talk to you about whether or
not you’ve represented their community
properly in your work, this is an impor-
tant step. It’s good to see how writers of
varying ethnicities, abilities, orientations
view their own demographics. If you
don’t read these writers, you’re missing
out on a key, readily accessible resource.
Second, I want to call out two ter-
rific resources that I’ve been skating
around. I took my first deep dive into
one of them this month, and I quickly
lost an hour to exploring. The Writing
with Color website should be consid-
ered part of your toolbox. It invites
readers to posit their questions about
writing people of different ethnicities
and marginalized communities; its
panel of volunteers then gives answers
to help the writer along. This is a quick
tool that may help you to flesh out sup-
porting characters, neighborhoods,
other components of a life you may not
have first-hand access to as a writer.
The second resource is from writers
Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward. It’s
called Writing the Other. Shawl and
her team teach workshops both online
and in person, but you can give your-
self a kickstart by reading the book
based on a live workshop Shawl and
Ward taught at Clarion West. The
book includes exercises that are each
designed to help you to understand the
neurology and the psychology behind
some of the mistakes people make
when they misrepresent demographics
that are not their own. It also includes
two concise essays from Shawl thatfurther illuminate both why we should
be striving to write other voices and
how to better accomplish this.
It’s been a few weeks since my
writer and I parted ways. I’m very
much torn when it comes to the way
things played out. In conversations
ensuing, we each agreed that the whole
event – *waves arms broadly* – has
eaten an alarming amount of brain
space and emotional energy.
But this is as it should be. When
you are treading waters in someone
else’s ocean, you need to pay atten-
tion. You need to be responsible. You
need to do the work and be fully
aware that you are the guest. Some-
times, it works out in your favor.
Other times, it doesn’t turn out the
way anyone wants it to.
And now I think I’ll go find a couch
to lie on, and a cold compress.Yi Shun Lai is the fiction editor and co-owner
of Tahoma Literary Review. Read about her
writing coaching and editing services; her
novel, Not a Self-Help Book: The Misadven-
tures of Marty Wu; and her daily adventures at
thegooddirt.org.