Started a new thing only to ditch it after three days. I went off to Melbourne for my husband’s 31st and while there did no writing. I also found out I can’t remember my blog password as I tried to log on form my phone. But at least I can automatically log on from my laptop.
I spent a lot of time thinking about this novella I have written. It’s 30,000 words and I made the main character black. She’s black because I’ve never written a protagonist that is another race before. I figured why not? If I make her like all my other characters what’s the issue?
But when I read articles about the issue I saw that there were a lot of opinions about it. Some people say that white people shouldn’t write about black people because they can’t do them justice, while others say that there is not enough diversity in literature. The fact that I’m writing this seems like some kind of justification for my choices.
Why would I write about a character that is a different race to me? The biggest factor would be because I haven’t before. I’ve only ever written white protagonists, and the reason why is because white characters are most familiar to me as that is what I know. I decided to mix it up because I just wanted to try something different.
I was worried that I might not be able to do her justice as a character in the story, but then I could do that with white characters. I was worried that she wouldn’t be as good as my other characters. But I realized that I can only write her the way I write my other characters.
It helps a lot that the story isn’t set in present day but in undisclosed future/world where she lives in an isolated military country. I am able to present the world as one where race isn’t as important as the mental state. Becuase, lets be honest, I only know what it’s like to be myself. I hope that people who read the story will view her the same as they would any other character.
Stephanie Haggarty 