The Benefits of Being an Inclusive Writer

People are diverse, and your characters should be too! Read why NaNo Participant Laitie Montai encourages including diverse characters in creative writing, and a few tips on how to make it a practice:

I never liked reading as a kid. It was hard to do and wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t fun. In reality, I couldn’t find any books that interested me. 

The first books I remember liking are the American Girl Dolls: Samantha series. Samantha is a young girl, like me, with brown hair and brown eyes, like me, and from a privileged upbringing, like me. I wouldn’t read anything else until I found Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata about a young girl with an older sister that she looks up to. 

As an adult reader and writer, I realized that I needed more books about girls like me to encourage me to read more. But calling out to reluctant readers is just one of the wonderful reasons to be an inclusive writer.

Think about how much researching different lifestyles and backgrounds can expand your mind and, in turn, your writing. Think about how different characters with different life experiences can intermingle and clash so beautifully that your story just explodes in a multitude of colors that you could never have even imagined before! Isn’t that the fun of being a writer?

Now, I know there’s no denying it. Might as well come out and say it. If you’re privileged in any way, shape, or form, being inclusive in your writing is hard. I get it. I certainly struggle with it. But I refuse to publish anything more without it.

When it comes to writing inclusive characters, the first thing I always have to remind myself is, “It’s OK that being inclusive is a conscious effort for me.” I’m white, so I don’t know what it’s like to be a person of color. I was raised Christian, and I don’t know much about other religions. I grew up in the upper-middle-class suburbs, so I don’t know what it’s like to struggle financially. The fact that it’s a conscious effort for me shows that I’m at least trying.

There is a delicate balance of inclusive writing between “not trying hard enough” and “trying too hard.” But, honestly? There might not be such a thing as trying too hard, and that’s where your revisions can help you.

There are many ways you can try to be an inclusive writer, but just mentioning that a character is a person of color and leaving it at that probably falls under “not trying hard enough.” Of course, you can always research. But I often find the best way to try is to talk to people from the community that you want to represent—as long as you do it with consent and respect. Many times I have reached out on social media, asking if someone from the particular community I’m researching would be willing to answer a question about my inclusive character. But please be aware that it is not the job of other people, especially from marginalized groups, to educate you.

Sooner or later, you will need to reach out to the community you’re writing about, anyway. Because, unless you’re lucky enough to have a friend or two within the community that you’re writing a character from, you’re going to at least need to find a sensitivity reader. A sensitivity reader is someone who has a writing or editing background (or is an avid reader) with extensive personal experiences that they use when reviewing projects submitted to them for misrepresentations, bias, racism, or unintentional stereotypes. Sensitivity readers are getting more and more commonplace. Happily, inclusive writers—like you and me—are getting more and more common, and we need sensitivity readers to make sure we do it right. Just make sure that you’re adequately compensating sensitivity readers for the time, effort, and emotional labor that goes into the work they’re doing.

So go ahead. Please. Try too hard. Include anyone and everyone you can possibly think of. For the little kid like me who hated reading because no one wrote characters like them. You’ll open up a million new worlds for them and yourself. I promise.

Born and raised in Rochester, NY, Laitie Montai has had a pretty average life. But a look inside her imagination would make you think otherwise. She can usually be found daydreaming or writing or her daydreams down in a word document or journal. Today, she still lives in Rochester with her Mr. Beloved, two birds, two cats, and fifteen fish.