Hello everyone! Welcome back to another round of Bookish Debates! As promised, we ran a second round of debates in February...so here it is! 

For our second round, our theme was diversity, in honour of Black History Month, and we asked our dreamers for their thoughts on what it means to write stories with a diverse range of characters and how to create meaning that matters. 

Read on to hear what our dreamers had to say!

Note: As always, we welcome everyone to share additional thoughts in the comments!

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Questions posted on 19th February 

For writers: When it comes to writing a diverse cast of characters, what are the most important things to focus on? Do you have any projects with diverse casts? We'd love to hear about them and your experiences. 

 For readers: When it comes to books with diverse casts, what are the most important things that you're looking for?Is there anything you've noticed that is usually done well—or badly? What are some examples of your favorite diverse representation?

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All answers are slightly modified for grammar and structure.

Winning answer (tied) posted by: anonymous_audrey

Growing up, I genuinely saw a lack of diversity/diversity done properly in the media. (specifically Western) I think I spent a lot of my childhood being fed this stereotypical idea of diversity that, unfortunately, still goes on today. Diversity to me includes so many different aspects: mental health rep, race, gender dynamics, lgbtq+ rep etc.

I'm still a newbie to writing so a lot of what I focus on is based on things I've seen/experienced/heard/researched. The main thing to focus on is avoiding stereotypes. I've seen countless books that have a stereotypical idea of how people of different races behave, or a very badly done representation of different mental health issues. The problem with these is that they make people feel like they're misunderstood, and irrelevant and it's just downright disrespectful. I strongly believe that we must avoid pretending to be experts at any part of diversity because we're not. Writing diversity correctly involves so much research, and as a writer, I have to put that in.

I have a chick-lit novel called Hearts of Liars that primarily deals with a toxic parental relationship, and a young girl finding her way through the pressures of academics as well as dealing with her toxic homelife that always brings her down. (Okay, there's a little bit of romance) Another book I'm working on is a thriller that focuses on an MC with PTSD, and my ONC project deals with family dynamics. All these books took a lot of time for me to get the mental health aspect right, and it's so rewarding to me to have readers tell me that they see themselves in these characters and that they can understand and empathize with their struggles.

Now, coming to reading. I get very happy reading books that AVOID stereotypes of people in the guise of adding diversity. These are books that often have the stereotype be the one quality that the character embodies.

For example, an Asian character's only personality being that they're smart and get awesome grades. It reduces a person to nothing. Now, as a reader, when I see characters portrayed like this, I get upset. Because I genuinely want to see myself in these characters. I want to see their complexities, but the author doesn't give us a chance to and that makes me so frustrated and upset.

A great example of writing an intelligent Asian character is drum roll please I Am Jessica Chen by Ann Liang. Because, yes, this book is about a stereotypical Asian girl who gets the perfect grades, but it's also about failure. It's also about the pressure that goes along with that. We see what it feels like to fail, to feel like we're not enough. Giving characters layers that go beyond the stereotype is important.

Like Pea* mentioned, Arcane is literally PERFECT for the way diverse characters are represented. The characters have layers, we see diversity in every single character and we root for them. We can't antagonize any one single character because we see why they do what they do. I will die on the hill that Arcane is perfect.

But yeah, ending this rant: PLEASE don't stereotype to tag your book as diverse. Research, ask, get recommendations, and understand the diversity before attempting to write it.

(*Pea's answer is below, so please read on to see it!) 

Winning answer (tied) posted by: PathSojourner

Adding on to what everyone else has said, I also think, in a way, that adding diversity shouldn't be the point of our stories. The point is we have characters who just happen to be xyz. Depending on the story, their xyzness might be a key part of their identities, but for quite a few people their xyzness might not even be something they think about until someone points it out or makes a fuss about it.

For example, I happen to be of mixed race. Other than finding joy in connecting with my two very different sides of the family and their respective cultures, I just don't think about it. It's normal to me. I don't particularly care whether I'm represented or not, so long as it's a good story and the characters are multidimensional and respectfully portrayed. Of course, if someone does choose to represent me, I get a little kick out of it. But it's just not a central part of my identity.

Other people may feel differently, but sometimes I think we get lost in trying to shout from the rooftops that xyz is diverse, when everyone, in the end, is just people who happen to have certain traits. Yes, you can and should point out and dive into/discover some of those more diverse traits, but it's not the be-all and end-all of any given character. It may not even be part of the top ten ways they describe themselves.

Another thing to note when trying to get research! Different cultures fundamentally think differently. (Just think of the very different storytelling methods of Japanese vs. American storytelling in particular.) Therefore, trying to get inside their worldviews may be difficult.

Reading stories from their own authors is a key part, as is any real-life experience you can get, but! If you want to do some extra research, try to look up some anthropology and any studies on that culture. It can be helpful to learn general cultural patterns (honor/shame, power/fear, guilt/innocence; how important is family; the role of food; what is celebrated; what is valued; what is taboo/rude; when, how, and with whom they express emotions; who is in power/has influence; the value of education; openness to outsiders) and then search out how that fits for the specific culture you are trying to represent.

There are also six universal anthropological things across cultures that you can search up as well. Take the things you can find and see how you can use them to illustrate realistic people in your writing. I personally love the little turns of phrases or physical gestures that really sell the reality of a culture or diverse character in writing!

Second place (tied): avadel

Good stories have a unique way of expressing truth and telling something about what it means to be human. They do this best when the author knows what they're talking about when they see something in the world and manage to paint their unique perspective onto the written word. The more an author understands about the world, the better they can express it. I believe that's where the adage "Write what you know" comes from.

So, I think by people telling the stories that are closest to them, they'll represent the truth of that situation. For people that aren't familiar with that subculture, that story will be 'diverse' to them. That's the beauty of reading. We get to "live a thousand lives". We are opened up to world views we might never have considered.

By being good writers striving to tell good stories, we're going to write a viewpoint that someone else has never seen before. To a country girl, the city is diverse. To Country A, Country B is diverse. It depends on where you stand. I think as long as we're being true to our characters and our stories, we don't have to make any special effort to be 'diverse'. My unique experience is going to be diverse to someone, and theirs to me. That's what makes literature so powerful and compelling.

Second place (tied): sweetiepeabooks

Diversity in writing is beautiful, and as a writer, it's so important for me to include it in my work. The most important thing to focus on is the character itself, by giving them a great, fulfilling role in the story. Now, depending on the character, another important focus is research (especially if their background is very different from yours). For writers, this is also where sensitivity readers can be helpful, as they point out any issues in regards to how the character is portrayed (this includes POC, LGBT+ religious, etc. characters).

Pretty much all my projects have diverse casts. My current book on Wattpad, The Black Herons, has an all-diverse cast. 4 out of 5 of the main cast are POC, and all of them are in the LGBT+ community. When writing them, I wanted to focus on their role in the story and their personalities before diving into their backstories.

Now, from a reader's perspective, I just want to have more favorite characters, and it doesn't matter what they look like, or where they come from.

I think a great example of diverse representation was in Arcane. You had black women in power like Mel and Ambessa, a lead lgbt romance with Cait and Vi, and disability rep with Viktor. And they all drove the plot forward so seamlessly. They were all so complex, and despite their flaws, I loved all of their stories.

A bad example is Genshin Impact, which is a game and not a book/show, but it can do so much better. The recent region of Natlan should have had a cast full of POC instead of just one character (Iansan). Diversity in Genshin feels ignored, basically.

Overall, treat your diverse characters with care and attention. Don't sideline them. Don't kill them off (for shock value, at least. The death should have meaning). Just do your research, give them love as a writer, and if you're worried about any flaws in representation, look for a sensitivity reader.

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That's all for now! We appreciate all that those took a moment out of their lives to participate in this discussion and congratulations once again to all the winners! We hope to see you all next round!