Writing Folks Who "Just Ain't You"

As writers, we all know that little swell (or maybe massive swell) of butterflies when we try to capture the voice/characteristic/personality of characters who clearly aren't us. It may be writing across gender lines, racial lines, sexual identity lines, or just a pessimist trying to write an optimist, or a rural trying to write an urban. 

For this roundtable, let's talk about how we do that in a way that satisfies a writer's need for authenticity. 

Where do you fall on the scale between "I can write any kind of anybody" and "It's really hard to write people who aren't like me"? Why do you think that is?

Ron Thomas: Fortunately, there is more than one “me” in my head! I can draw on my serious side for a lead character and my wise ass side for the sidekick. Even the villains draw on a bit of “wish fulfillment” for me. I heard a long time ago that mystery writers are closet criminals...

James Palmer: This is always a challenge, especially if you're writing BIPOC or LGBTQ+ characters. I don't know what the answer is except for getting to know different types of people, especially those from these groups, and read the fiction they write. Any writer who gets it right is a good choice too. Matt Ruff is a white dude, but his Lovecraft Country is a masterclass on how to write black characters without comparing their skin to coffee or cocoa every paragraph.

Brian K Morris: I like to think I can write, pretty much, any type of character. To do it correctly, I need to research them, their way of life, their mode of thinking. In a way, it’s profiling the subject by studying others.

And this doesn’t just cover a demographic. When I’m asked to write an existing character, or I pitch a story to do so, the same kind of research needs to happen. I need to get them right. If they have a distinctive way of acting or speaking, I need to emulate that as best I can.

Sheela Chattopadhyay: I find that this is more of a matter of perspective, rather than just a straight line issue. You need to understand the cultural differences that can affect someone's perspective to make this happen in some cases. In other cases, you have to understand where the person is coming from and their motivations.

Sean Taylor: I like to think that with enough research and getting to know people as themselves, I can write just about any character. However, I know I have limitations, many of which I know and many of which I still have to learn when I bang my head into that wall. 

What are the differences that are easier to write for you? What are the differences that are more difficult? How do you overcome them?

Sheela Chattopadhyay: I find this question no different than question 1. If I'm having an issue with differences, I start trying to find people who are similar to what I'm stuck on and have a conversation to get to know their perspectives. At the end of the day, a person is another being.

Brian K Morris: I think the easiest differences are not that, but our similarities. Do we share the same personal values? If so, why, given our different emotional and mental make-ups? Chances are, we might share similar values on, say, body autonomy. However, a woman’s reasons for having their values would almost certainly differ from mine. My job would be to find out the reasons, then represent them honestly in a story.

Obviously, the more difficult things to write involve hatred and all the negative “isms” that many of us in a less enlightened age grew up with. Sometimes, I’ve got to write those characters, and I hate getting into the mindset that forces me to make them ring true to the reader.

Sean Taylor: There are so many things that are just "people" things. Those are easy to write. Everyone dreams. Everyone chases things they desire. Everyone gets angry. That sort of thing. For me, the issues come in the subtle complexities and shared history of a type of person I'm trying to write. For example, I don't have a country-long history of active and systemic oppression in my personal story, so while I can know the facts about that, I can't know the internalized feelings such a history would cause me. Because I have never been at the mercy of a culture that limits women and oversexualizes them, I don't know what it's like to clutch my keys point out when a strange man approaches me on a sidewalk downtown. I can write the actions just fine, but I've never experienced the implications, so I have to find the closest approximation from my own story to "fake" it, hopefully at least somewhat closely. 

Van Allen Plexico: The more you read from diverse material, the easier it becomes. It's hard to write characters one is not familiar with. If you read a lot of material that features different kinds of characters, you're much more likely to absorb their thought processes and behavior and patterns of speech, and it becomes much easier to write them yourself. If you limit yourself to only a few types of literature, then it has to be much harder to write other types of characters, because they're much less familiar.

Ron Thomas: The toughest thing to write is the NPC’s. I need a character to be a throwaway thug, but I can’t just create a punching bag. Infusing a guy who is only there for a page with uniqueness is a challenge.

Why is it important to you to be able to authentically write such a variety of diverse characters in your stories? 

Brian K Morris: Given that in the last couple of years, I’ve been writing more and more about social values, many of which we now find abhorrent, I need to present those times with honesty and without diminishing the victims of those socio-political environments, along with the joys of community or the positive results of struggle and sacrifice.

I can’t sugarcoat those issues that gave rise to dissent over the years or give any reason to have the reader believe I endorse them. But those situations are part of our history and—fortunately or otherwise—add spice to a story, so I feel the need to get the situations and their effects right.

Besides, my accounts of the situations might be the first time my reader is exposed to accounts of those less enlightened times. I’d like to get the reader thinking about those situations in the hopes of getting them to consider doing things in their lives a better way.

Sheela Chattopadhyay: Authenticity is needed for integrity. Sometimes a story requires diversity to help world-build. However, you don't want to overdo the world-building building that the story becomes a minor part of the whole work. You need a balance of elements to make it work.

Sean Taylor: I want the worlds of my stories to mimic the real world. The real world is diverse, so my books should be too, as far as I'm concerned. I also support diversity, equity, and inclusion, so it's only natural that I would want my stories to reflect those values too. Wanting it and achieving it can sometimes be a world apart though. 😕

Ron Thomas: I am not trying to put in a bunch of “types” just to show I can do it. Every rural character doesn’t need to be in bib overalls. If I need a farmer, I write a farmer.

Let's talk about the opposite. How bad can it hurt your stories if those characters aren't authentic or are created in sweeping penstrokes of stereotype and cliche?

Brian K Morris: On the side of representing a mindset or a culture that you’re not a part of (otherwise, I’d be writing stories dealing with heterosexual, elderly Caucasian males who sit in their underwear and type all day), I owe them their due by making certain I represent them accurately. This requires research, preferably from talking to people over the years to know THEM, just not the stereotypes spoon-fed to us over the years.

Besides being potentially offensive, stereotypical characters don’t make a story shine. Every person you write about should propel the story in some way and possess a quality that makes them engaging to the reader. Following a stereotype or cliché is a foundation of sand upon which to build a tale.

Sheela Chattopadhyay: It can make it hard for the reader to keep up with the story. Frustrating your reader is not a smart move.

Sean Taylor: Modern readers want modern stories. They want diverse worlds, diverse characters. Members of the changing world want to see themselves in the stories we write. We disregard them at our peril. Even worse though is including them in the stereotypical ways (at best) or downright offensive ways (at worst). There's no quicker way to turn off a reader. 

Ron Thomas: One of my biggest difficulties is writing women (because I still don’t understand them!). Accepting that my readers are going to be 90 percent men, I still want female characters to be three-dimensional. Luckily, I have a few great female beta readers (even an ex-girlfriend who I am still friends with). I let them check my dialogue and character beats.