Image of a coffee cup, piping hot!
Featured Author
Kevin Hosey has had short stories published by Simon and Schuster. His first novel is currently going through the editorial gauntlet at a major publisher.
Featured Book
Exotic and eclectic short stories are the main course in this collection of 14 SF/F short stories by archeologist T. Jackson King.
Speakers’ Bureau
Request a SFWA Author to speak at your school, library, or public event. (learn more)
Nebula Awards®
Awards for excellence in genre-themed writing and dramatic media. (visit site)
Search Site
Posts Tagged ‘Nisi Shawl’
Transracial Writing for the Sincere
Friday, December 4th, 2009
by Nisi Shawl
“I’d never write about a person from a different ethnic background. The whole story would probably be full of horrible stereotypes and racist slurs.”
Amy closed her mouth, and mine dropped open. Luckily, I was seated when my friend made this statement, but the lawn chair must have sagged visibly with the weight of my disbelief. My own classmate, excluding all other ethnic types from her creative universe!
I think this sort of misguided caution is the source of a lot of sf’s monochrome futures. You know the ones I mean, where some nameless and never discussed plague has mysteriously killed off everyone with more than a hint of melanin in their skin. I wonder sometimes what kind of career I’d have if I followed suit with tales of stalwart Space Negroes and an unexplained absence of whites.
But of course I don’t. I boldly write about people from other backgrounds, just as many of the field’s best authors do. Suzy McKee Charnas, Bruce Sterling, and Sarah Zettel have all produced wonderful transracial characters, as I show in examples below. Before getting into their work, though, let’s discuss how to prepare for your own.
If you want to go beyond the level of just assigning different skin tones and heritages to random characters, you’re going to have to do some research. Because yes, all people are the same, but they’re also quite different. For now, we’ll set aside the argument that race is an artificial construct, and concentrate on how someone outside a minority group can gain enough knowledge of the group’s common traits to realistically represent one of its members. (more…)
Tags: Nisi Shawl, world building
Posted in SFWA Blog, Writing Technique | 9 Comments »