Writing the characters

 

Writing marginalized characters

This was posted on @mpiper_writes on IG

I think it's a wonderful piece of advice and a great discussion as a fledgling writer. 

I have an Egyptian Trans character, a bi male, a gay female and an asexual character in my wip Ginnie Transformed. They are all side characters. I focused more on the personality than trying to tell their story, but wanted diverse representation in my story. 

Just like when I used to read romance growing up and never saw a woman of color represented as a love interest. I like seeing the pieces of a character that aren't perfect and more authors are incorporating this aspect into their books. But mentioning sometimes is better than writing as the premise because looking from the outside in is a whole different perspective.  

I am a black woman married to a white man. My father's second wife was white, and the brothers and sister I was raised with are biracial which came with its own set of challenges.  My childhood was full of abuse by my stepmother. 

I was fortunate to be raised in a military family and travel. Most of my childhood I was accused of speaking white. I speak for a living. I had to learn to speak "ghetto"

Which is as ridiculous as it sounds. After a while I gave up trying and became comfortable with the fact that I am outside of the box. 

The characters that I create are a little outside of the box. I am writing stories I wish I had the opportunity to read when I was younger.