Fiction and a More Loving World

Fiction is powerful. Magical, even. In 2014, Scientific American wrote an article reporting on a study linking reading—specifically Harry Potter—and the development of empathy in the reader. With all the hate reported in the U.S. in the last couple of years, empathy and love seem to be in desperate need. And authors have the power to encourage a more loving world. So how and in what ways?

1. Create Characters that Honestly Portray a Marginalized Population. Authors provide the opportunity to crawl inside someone else’s skin. We show the emotions and the uniqueness and not-so-different-ness of people. Readers have the opportunity to connect with someone who is different from themselves, and yet not so different (we’re all just human, after all!), and that can change their perspectives about someone they may have ignored—or worse. 
2. Don’t Consistently Reinforce Stereotypes. Personally, I’m not against a stereotypical minor character. I believe stereotypes exist because plenty of people fit. But we need to be wary of consistently allowing an entire group to always be villainous. Like police officers being the bad guys, parents being unreasonable, jocks being bullies. We have the opportunity to show authority figures can be relied on and the popular kid is kind and friendly. That’s power to stop fear.
3. Don’t Include a “Type” Because You Should. This is basically me saying, ignore the first two suggestions if they don’t fit the story. Readers recognize fakes. If it’s not natural or you can’t pull off a certain ethnicity, don’t include that just to make your story diverse. Yes, we need to create a more diverse world in our stories because the world around us is diverse. But it has to be real. Better authentic characters than a token minority.

If used well, fiction can create a more loving world. Through reading, we learn that people, regardless of race, socio-economic status, religion, or whatever difference, share similar emotions, similar fears, similar love. Yes, a story needs a villain, and plenty of bad guys exist in real life too, but fiction can be the starting point for people to react with love and kindness instead fear toward someone who is different.

Sarah Tipton is a writer of Christian Young Adult fiction. Her debut novel, Betrayal of the Band, releases in August 2017.

Writing Diversity

Last November, I participated in NaNoWriMo by writing a 50k YA novel with a black protagonist. She wasn’t my first character of color, but she was my first non-white protagonist ever written. (I'm white, just so you know.)

Why did I decide to write this protagonist? Because of a beautiful little thing you may have heard of called We Need Diverse Books (WNDB). The day WNDB trended on Twitter, I was caught up in it, mesmerized. Like someone took away this veil and opened by eyes to the fact that there is so much white representation in books, and not enough representation of everyone else. I had never thought about it. But it’s true.

And that’s “white privilege”, or part of it, anyway. And a dash or two (or five) of ignorance.

See, I grew up in a small town where we had maybe two black people. None of my friends were black. My parents didn’t know any black people. Then, in middle school, my family moved one town over, and none of my friends were allowed to come over “because of the dangerous black people.” By the time I really knew any people of color was in college. Now I know black and biracial people.

 But because of the bubble I grew up in, I never wondered what life today is like for people who aren't white. I don't have to think about people's assumptions of me based on my skin (white privilege), so I didn't think about how others are affected by assumptions based on their skin color.

When I realized our need for diverse books, I wanted to be a part of that.

So I wrote a black teenage girl as my protagonist. I did it in 30-days, without much thought to what it means that she's black.

After it was all said and done, I sat back, cracked my knuckles (not really), and then my bubble burst. Because I realized she was probably just a white girl I had colored brown. And then I started getting scared. What if I do this wrong? What if I offend people?

But here’s the thing. There’s more than just ignorance holding us back from creating rich, diverse books. Fear also holds us back. I thought so many times, “Maybe I shouldn’t be doing this.”

Except...no. We can fix ignorance by learning. We can face fear by doing the thing that scares us. It takes effort. It takes empathy. It takes looking outside of our bubbles, but it’s so worth it because most of our books shouldn’t have white characters. The world isn't mostly white, and we need to represent better.

Even if we fail.

For the record, I don’t want to fail. We should try hard not to fail. So I’ve been trying to fix my ignorance, and by doing so, I’m fighting the fear that I’ll mess up horrendously.

How?
–I’m paying more attention than ever to news and issues about skin color.
–Watching videos and reading articles by black people, talking about what it’s like to be black.
–Choosing a more diverse cast in my entertainment, like music, shows, and books.
–Asking questions. (I could work on this one more since the fear of offending has stopped me from reaching out much.)

And once I’m educated, all I can do is try. If I fail, at least I’m a better, more well-rounded and empathetic person for having made the effort.

I have a few questions for you! Have you created diverse characters? How about specifically diverse protagonists? How did you understand your character’s world? Lastly, do you have any advice for me and other writers? (Please?) Comment below!

I've only scratched the surface, and I bet I don't understand the half of it. But I'll never stop trying to get a better understanding.

Cheers,
Jessie
@Je55ieMullin5

The Joy - and Fear - of Being Published

There is little better for an author than opening an email to find within it the long awaited yes, the yes that trumps all past rejections, that validates all the hours spent in a make-believe world sometimes to the detriment of the real one, a yes that makes the author feel like they deserve to call themselves 'author' - the yes that comes from an editor and promises publication.

Last week I got a yes for my first YA contemporary LGBT novel, The Other Me. It is a complete departure from my previous work and while I am beyond thrilled that this story has found a home at Harmony Ink Press, I am also terrified.

Earlier this year, I was slaving away on two science fiction novels, but the 'feelz' weren't there. There was this story in my heart I was desperately trying to ignore and the more I ignored it, the louder the characters kept screaming. 

I’ve never attempted to write a contemporary novel and wasn't even sure I could, but those pesky voices in my head wouldn't shut up so I started writing, opening a vein and bleeding out the words (credit to Lisa Burstein for that fantastic metaphor!). 

There is always a piece of the author in everything they write. For the most part, the pieces of me in my previous work were buried beneath layers of science fiction. They never left me feeling vulnerable because what personal content might've been there was so well hidden, obscured by the extremely fictional world. The Other Me is the complete opposite. While it is neither autobiographical nor based on real events, the story is largely inspired by many of my own experiences in high school. Writing it proved one of the most cathartic experiences, but it also left me feeling exposed. And now even more so knowing my book is going to be available for the whole world to read.

This is a story I think deserves to be told and not just to a select few, which leaves me with this strange dichotomy of emotion: pride and joy as an author, and a lot trepidation as a person whose heart and soul is splashed on the page awaiting judgement and opinion. Perhaps this is what it truly means to be an author: to put the work first, to believe in the story so much that it doesn't matter what people might think they know about me having read it.

The Other Me is set in my home country South Africa and is about a girl, Treasa, who falls in love with a broken boy, Gabriel. With a shared passion for music and geeky astronomy stuff, Gabriel inadvertently helps Treasa discover her true identity while dealing with his own inner demons. The Other Me is scheduled for publication later this year! In the mean time, you can check out the novel’s Pinterest board here.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Diversity in YA and MG: A Call to Action

There’s been a lot of talk about the lack of diversity in publishing lately, and I don’t mean just YA and MG. This is an ongoing discussion in (adult) literary fiction circles, too. 

  

It’s almost 2013. Why are we still talking about this?

Well, there’s this:

On Dec. 4^th, The New York Times published this article about Latino children who fail to find characters like themselves in books.

And there’s this:

“Racist Party Picture Lands Penn State Chi Omega in Hot Water.”

What is the relationship between these two? Well, that’s a good question. (I’m interested in hearing your responses in the comments.)

But when we talk about the lack of diversity in YA and MG, we’re not just talking about the lack of main characters who are people of color. We’re also talking about characters that identify as LGBTQ, who have disabilities, who come from bilingual or multilingual families or communities, and from various faiths or religions.  

There’s been a lot of talk about book covers and the whitewashing of the publishing industry and privilege and educational inequality. But for readers and writers who are underrepresented, talking about it is not enough. Something needs to change.

So what can we do?

For starters, you can make it your mission to read widely and diversely. You can recommend these books to readers. You can put these books in readers’ hands. You can ask for these books at your local library or independent book store or wherever you buy books. You can review these books and blog about them. You can write these books. You can publish these books.

Also, here’s a starting point: back in August, Roxane Gay, one of my favorite writers (who is also a fantastic essayist, cultural critic, blogger, and superwoman) compiled this list.

Now, here’s where you come in. I want to compile a list for YAtopia—a diverse YA and MG list for readers of underrepresented groups. So let’s get started. What are your recommendations?        

Diversity in YA Lit

First, I want to make a little announcement. Last time I posted, I mentioned that my sister and I were trying out for the YA Rebels. Well, guess what?

We're the new Saturday Rebel(s)! All the Rebels are posting intro videos up this week so check them out and you can see ours on Saturday! I wrote a post about all the new rebels, but my web host's server crashed last week and hasn't come back up, so you can see the Google cached version (without pictures) here if you wish.

Now on to my regularly scheduled post...

My post today was inspired by this post by Zoe Marriott (who, by the way, I met through YA Rebels auditions!) as well as the posts over the past week(ish) by YAtopians Kelley, Leigh, and Sharon. It seems we're inadvertently tackling "issues" in YA lit this week!

Zoe's post is basically encouraging (especially) white, straight, able-bodied writers to add more true (non-stereotypical non-token) diversity to their characters. I didn't even fully realize until I read this post that I'm 20k words into a novel where my FMC is 4th generation Chinese-American, my MMC is a Ugandan who has been in the US a few years, and one of my antagonists is a Japanese woman pretending to be the German Ambassador's daughter (don't ask; just trust me on this one for now). BTW, to avoid confusion, both of my MCs and most of my characters are also weredragons. There's also diversity in the types of dragons that definitely causes tension between the different groups. I mean, check out how different these two dragons are:

There are even "differently-abled" people as supporting characters all over the place. The reason why that specific phrase is used and in quotes is they're differently-abled compared to the other dragons, not necessarily compared to human conventions. There is one woman who suffered a brain injury that prevents her from fully changing back to a human and she has dragon scales covering some of her human body. Another character is in terrible shape - missing both legs, terribly scarred face, and other dragon-specific injuries.

FMC: Katherine "Kitty" Lung

My point is, I didn't really set out to create this "diversity." It's simply a result of the different dragon mythologies I wanted to blend to create my world AND the fact that these dragons are constantly facing dangerous situations with a high probability of severe injuries. And I've learned over the years that I'm apparently more accustomed to living in "multicultural" settings than most people expect a blue-eyed girl born in Missouri to be, thanks to my life as a military brat.

MMC: Bulisani "Sani" Mathe

I'm comfortable with all these different cultures, it seems natural to me - especially in a country as diverse as the US. But I do still worry about getting something wrong. I'm doing tremendous amounts of research on cultures, but I fear that I'll make one mistake and be accused of being "ignorant" or "insensitive." (I may somehow be the former, but I'm definitely not the latter.) My FMC is 4th generation American - but is she too Americanized? Too Chinese? My MMC is Christian, like 80% of Ugandans but will I be accused of trying to make him more relatable by mentioning his religion?

These are all real, valid fears I have and I know it's a risk. But for me, for this story, it's a risk I'm willing to take. I know I'll have to find a publisher to take those risks with me too - and with all the talk of whitewashing covers the past few years, I'm worried.

So what do y'all think about diversity in YA Lit? I'd really love to have a conversation about it in the comments.

UPDATE: I just realized I didn't discuss diversity in terms of sexual orientation, but that is something to think about too.