Writing Diverse Characters: 4 Lessons Learned

When I first started writing When We Vanished, I was figuring it all out as I went along. I didnt stop to question some of the important decisions I was making without even realizing it. Case in point: my characters racial and ethnic backgrounds. Originally, they were all race neutraltheir race was never stated. At the time, I figured this was a good thing. That meant that they could be any race the reader wished to ascribe to them, right?

Well, no. As I came to learn, if race is not stated,...