Tag: diversity

Horror Writing

Horror Writing: Benefits of Diversity in Books

Katie Marie

When more is more

Today I want to write to you about diversity.

To understand the benefits of diversity, you need to understand what diversity really means.

The dictionary defines diversity as including individuals representing more than one national origin, colour, religion, socioeconomic, stratum, sexual orientation, etc.

This is a great definition, as often when this conversation is had we focus it down to one of these elements and it is important to remember that it is a multifaceted movement.

Diversity is becoming more and more apparent in our media, and that’s great! We now see more autistic characters, more physically disabled characters, and characters with mental health issues in our media and our stories.

We are seeing these characters in our stories as actual three-dimensional characters, with real depth, more than just a surface level disability, or race, or gender, or sexual orientation, etc. More and more these characters are portrayed as a real, complex person, not just a stereotype or a sidekick, a tool for the author to say, “look I have a diverse cast”.

Horror Writing

Horror Writing: Writing Characters that Are Different From Yourself

Katie Marie

Compassion, respect, a veritable ton of research

This has been something of a hot topic from the moment the idea began, and it is something I’ve touched on before in previous blogs. That being writing characters from different cultures, ethnicities and genders than yourself.

Just to be clear, before I start talking about this, I feel I should point out that I’m a thirty-three-year-old (at the time of writing), white, British female (so you know where I’m coming from), and my main point in this blog will be that I feel it is acceptable to write characters that you feel fit into your story, PROVIDED that it is done with compassion, respect, a veritable ton of research and clichés are avoided.

While we’re on the subject, I also think that writers should ask themselves if the story they are telling is their story to tell. If, for example, you are a white British female should your story be be about the experience of a young American black man? Quite probably not.

But back to characters.

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