In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, Bethany and Mariëlle discuss the dos and don’ts of writing non-binary characters. Here’s what we talk about: What non-binary means How diverse the non-binary community is How to handle characters who are questioning their gender identity Pronouns and how to use them in our writing Naming characters bey…

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, Bethany and Mariëlle talk about how to write transgender characters. Here’s what we discussed: Who gets to write trans characters Which stereotypes and tropes to avoid Other things to avoid when writing trans characters The things we SHOULD be writing about when writing trans characters And here are th…

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, Bethany and guest host Louvie Tucker talk about writing better male characters. This is the second part of a two-part episode on the topic. Here’s what we talk about: Physical representation of male characters Derogatory language often applied to men and how we might handle it in fiction Representation…

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, Bethany and guest host Louvie Tucker talk about writing better male characters. This is the first part of a two-part episode on the topic. Here’s what we talk about: Masculinity in terms of definition How class affects definitions of masculinity Deconstructing arrogance, emotionality, and protective in…

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—talk about writing better female characters. This is the second part of a two-part episode on the topic. Here’s what we talk about: Words and descriptions to avoid when describing women Words and description to deeply consider before using them Gendered words to avoid or conside…

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—talk about writing better female characters. This is the first part of a two-part episode on the topic. Here’s what we talked about: That, in the US, women are estimated to buy 70–80% of fiction books There are way more male than female leads in children’s books That novels, on …

In this first episode of Season 3 of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—discuss how to write hair and head coverings. Here’s what we talk about: That hair, hair care, and head coverings are often ethnically dictated and gendered That there is no such thing as “ethnic” hair: we all have ethnicity! How to describe different natural h…

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—bring our season on Race and Ethnicity to an end by delving into some lingering some questions. What we talked about If and how to use racial slurs in our writing When and how to acknowledge our characters’ racial history Whether authors are allowed to write POV characters belon…

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—scratch the surface of an incredibly broad topic: writing interracial and intercultural relationships. What we talked about That writing relationships between characters of different races and cultures is really not that different from writing relationships between characters wh…

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—talk about naming our fictional characters. What we talked about General things to look out for when picking our characters’ names All the different aspects that might influence which names make sense for your characters Where to look for names How to verify whether these names …

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—interview Clare Sager about building different worlds in our fiction. Clare Sager is an office lackey turned full-time author. With both a bachelor of arts and a masters of arts in Creative Writing, she is now living her life-long dream of writing fantasy adventure stories of sw…

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—take a pause to talk about what to do when hiring professionals to better your writing is not an option (yet). What we talked about That there’s privilege in being able to advice others to do it right or not do it at all That not everyone has the same resources going into publis…

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—ask Erin Olds, CEO of Salt & Sage Books, all our questions about sensitivity reading. Who is Erin Olds? Erin Olds loves to travel, read, and drink boba tea! She currently lives in Seattle, where she homeschools her two excellent children. Erin is the CEO of and editor at Salt & …

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—discuss diversity and representation in Disney’s Encanto. What we talked about All the ways in which diversity shows up in Encanto, from skin colour to body type, to the different roles the characters get to play How no cultural artefact, including Encanto, can speak for an enti…

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—interview Professor Grace L. Dillon about Indigenous Futurisms and how (not) to write Indigenous characters. Grace L. Dillon (Anishinaabe with family, friends, and relatives from Bay Mills Nation and Garden River Nation with Aunties and Uncles also from the Saulteaux Nation) is …

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—compare two F/F romance novels to talk about how to “Show, don’t tell” race and ethnicity in your writing. What we talked about Caren J. Werlinger’s She Sings of Old, Unhappy, Far-off Things J.J. Arias’s The Single Matchmaker How these two authors use different ways, including n…

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—interview Antoine Bandele. Antoine Bandele is an Amazon bestselling author in action adventure fantasy, dark fantasy, sword & sorcery, African American fantasy, and African literature. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, though he spent one year in Fort Lewis near Tacoma, Was…

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—discuss the writing of race and ethnicity in fantasy and sci-fi stories. What we talked about How race and ethnicity is done in fiction and TV series that are not grounded in real-life human history What gets lost and is added in translation when novels are turned into films or …

In this first episode of Season 2 of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—discuss how to write skin color. Here’s what we talk about: Why we should avoid comparing anyone’s skin tone to food, even if people from a certain community do that among themselves Why we should be careful when using the term ‘colored’ to describe black chara…

In this final episode of the first season of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—discuss holy days and answer some listener questions. More specifically, we talk about: the fact that there are many more holy days than Christmas and it serves us as writers of diverse characters to be aware of that that stories around our holy days cr…

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—conclude our conversation about marking the unmarked by discussing description. In this third episode on the topic, we discuss: marking and unmarking in terms of description the Twilight series and the problematic use of dark and light why we, as writers, have to consistently as…

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—continue our conversation about marking the unmarked. In this second episode on marking the unmarked, we discuss: the importance of being conscious about the language you use AND how you use it that language is forever changing and we need to keep up with it how the gendered (an…

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—talk about marking the unmarked. It’s the first episode of three on the topic. In this first episode on marking the unmarked, we discuss: what we mean by “marked” and “unmarked” how conscious marking and unmarking in our stories make us better writers the “Everyman” archetype in…

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—talk about diversity within diversity and what writers can learn from the concept of intersectionality. More specifically, we talk about: how Kimberlé Crenshaw came to coin the term ‘intersectionality’ Black Lives Matter as an example of an organization that does diversity withi…

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—talk about the third common pitfall when representing diverse characters: tokenism. More specifically, we talk about: what tokenism is and why it is problematic why characters such as JK Rowling’s Cho Chang are the perfect example of tokenism the custom of turning diverse charac…

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—talk about two very common pitfalls when representing diverse characters: essentialism and affirmative myopia. More specifically, we talk about: what essentialism is and what makes it problematic the fact that a lot of stereotypes that persist today are based on pseudo-scientifi…

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—talk about how representation actually works. We talk about: at representation is about who we make visible and who are rendered invisible because of those decisions why minority voices are automatically amplified when they are represented that representation is not just about w…

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—talk about the fear of cultural appropriation. More specifically, we talk about: How we define cultural appropriation The difference between cultural appropriation and cultural exchange Assassin’s Creed III vs. Disney’s Pocahontas, and why Assassin’s Creed III does it better tha…

Show notes episode 3 – Common fears and frustrations In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—discuss some of the fears and frustrations that might come up when writing diverse characters. More specifically, we talk about the following fears: Representing someone in the wrong way… …and why that shouldn’t keep us from t…

Episode 2 – Diversity and representation in fiction In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—explain why a conversation about diversity and representation in fiction is necessary. We also talk about: the fact some characters are overrepresented while others are severely underrepresented in fiction positive, and less po…

In this first episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany A. Tucker and Mariëlle S. Smith—talk about why we started this podcast, what our goals are for the show, and what topics we will be discussing in our first season and beyond. We also talk about: who this podcast is for—fiction writers wanting to write characters who aren’t like them in…