When I started this blog (and still to this day) the top concern of authors I work with is is stereotypes and tropes. It's an important concern, stereotypes aren't just lazy writing (there isn't a person of color in the world simply bored of reading cliches...

Here is a list of style guides from journalistic societies and cultural groups to help you avoid offensive terminology. These guides not only define terms but also directly state if they are slang, offensive, or simply outdated.

When you avoid pointing out whiteness and put effort into to point out non-whiteness what you're doing is increasing the invisibility of whiteness, standardizing it, making white the norm and making everyone else the "other." You are helping to increase t...

Your agent should love your story and believe in it enough to pound the proverbial pavement to get it sold. With all the problems with the lack of diversity in published it's important you don't waste your time querying just any person.

There are hundreds of agents out...

One of the best tips I give writers who want to create a character outside of their own identity is, read. Read about the people you want to write about.

Once I worked with an author who intentionally veiled the race of several of her characters. She thought she was being clever. To her having no race means the reader could just see them as human beings and not be categorized. She had good intentions but I advised again...

Recently I've sensitivity read manuscripts and I've been noticed characters with unacknowledged privilege and it needs to be addressed. Privilege extends far beyond the advantages of being a "straight white male." Class, able-bodiedness, religion, immigration status, s...

People have done (and are doing) horrific things to one another. As writers, we put these things in our stories because they are real and filled with complex conflict. Those things get inserted into our stories,

however, because they are real atrocities we need to...

This test can help determine if the characters with marginalized identities have real utility and meaning in the plot and aren't just Quota Characters.

The purpose of this blog is to encourage writers to be inclusive in their writing, to include more marginalized characters in the stories you create.  Yes, there needs to be more diversity in writing but it needs to be done thoughtfully, with purpose and intention....