On writing a character of a different gender, race, faith or sexuality to your own.

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Originally Posted by dannyjenn

He's saying the issue is that he can't identify with Muslims, and so he is unable to write about them. Which I completely agree with... it's harder to write about someone if you don't understand the person's background. I would not be able to write about a Muslim without getting all the facts right simply because I'm not an expert on Islam... it's the same with any religion. I wouldn't be able to write about a Buddhist monk because the only thing I know about them is that they live in the mountains and do martial arts and meditate alot, although I'm sure there's much more to it than that.

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You are... unable? Just because I'm curious, have you ever tried challenged yourself as a writer by writing from the perspective of something completely foreign and unknown? Trust me, it's very giving. And saying you're not able is not much more than giving up before you even try... as a writer, challenging horizons and writing novel and foreign things (novel and foreign for you, anyway) is actually one of the things that can make you grow the most - not least because it teaches you one of the most important things a writer can do - research. Reading about strange things, unfamiliar things, and then putting them to the pen, is an awesome method of improving both your skills as a writer, and generally expanding your horizons as a human being ;)

I'm not trying to be moralizing or anything, you do what you feel is best, but I'd recommend expanding your horizons by writing about something completely unfamiliar - and I also recommend that you avoid berating your own ability to do research by saying "I'm not able". We're all able of doing what we want, we just need to work a bit for it. And you do most certainly not have to be an expert; not doing something because you're not an expert is like saying that you're afraid of failing; you're basically avoiding the most ultimate teacher of all: Failure and mistakes! ;)

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Originally Posted by dannyjenn

I said from my personal experience. Everyone who I know who is openly gay is involved in some sort of political activism, etc. I never said that all gays are that way...

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It was very vague, just saying:

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Originally Posted by dannyjenn

I really don't see gays as any different than anyone else except for the fact that (in my experience) everyone who is gay is really obsessed with / advocating for gay rights"

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I won't berate you, nor the guy who responded to you, for this misunderstanding. Saying it's a pesonal experience doesn't matter; we all judge based on our personal experiences. Furthermore you said "the fact that everyone who is gay...". Adding (my experience) as a side note doesn't really change the fact tht it can be interpreted that way.

But like I said, I won't berate you for this misunderstanding; it's been cleared now and all conversations feature misunderstandings, and it's mot always one or the other's fault; communication is intrinsically flawed that way.

Just thought I'd let you know that it can be misunderstood quite easily even though you never intended for it that way and tried to point it out ;)

Ahem, folks. Try to stay on topic. Last warning before official warnings/infractions go out.

Well, I actually have no problem with writing about any kind of character no matter how different than me, it's just basically the same as making any other character: a pattern; say, act, react. Depth; how the character perceives the world around them, which relies on the characters past and development through the story. And of course the characters flaws and abilities. All of this is the concept of a character.

The rest is up to the writer who executes the character.

This is all just a summary of a guide @Starbrow is working on, which I'm trying to get him to finish.

In the end though, it all depends on how versatile the author is.

I don't really have any trouble writing characters who aren't the same gender or anything as me. In fact, it's just as easy as writing a character that is, somehow. I guess I just have natural skill at it or something. Take Bryan, one of the major characters in my FE fic, for example. I have to say that he's one of the best characters I've ever created. He gets a lot of development and his personality changes drastically throughout his life as well.

As a little boy, he was shy, passive, and afraid to fight at all. He also cried a lot, though that was mostly because of bullies. He was picked on an awful lot and hated by almost everyone. Over time, this treatment, as well as his best and only friend, Skye, changed him.

As a man, Bryan's fierce, more outgoing, has a short fuse, lacks some manners, and is one of the best lancers in all of Talgria. His anger at the Red Claw grows so strong that he eventually murders many of its members quite brutally. His skills and prowess as a warrior gradually make him famous too. His leadership skills are lacking at first, but they improve a lot over time.

There's more I could say, but I'd have to reveal some major spoilers, so yeah. This'll do. :P

Granted, I was bullied a lot myself when I was younger, but not nearly as much as this guy.

Gender:
Whether I'm good at it or not, I generally prefer writing female characters. And on the occasion that I do write a male character, there's usually a female companion acting as either a supportive sister figure or a love interest.

My female characters tend to have more extensive backstories, as well, and on the whole turn out stronger than my male characters (partly because my male characters are only as strong as I am—which is to say, not very). Even those female characters who start out weak gradually become stronger as time goes on—I've found that my male characters tend to do the opposite, actually growing weaker with time (also like me). In fact, I do believe I shy away from male characters because they invariably inherit a good dose of my own traits.

Which isn't to say that my female characters don't do the same—Icira Witherflame inherited my secret evil disposition, for example. Ultimately, a lot of them have traits that I would want in a sister or lover; Joanie Aimes is supportive (and bisexual, discussed in a later section), Annie Jameson is intelligent (and flat-chested, rawr ;-)), Bella Austin is adorable and has a fantastic singing voice, Icira is compulsively evil but has a sense of fair play....

On the other hand, my male characters have a tendency to be angry and/or depressed all the time, and in several cases, they seem to think about little else besides women. As well, they are occasionally suicidal. And they never get better as the story goes on—they just. Get. Worse. It actually hurts to write them. At the moment, only one male character with this exact personality type has managed to slip through my filter onto the forums, that one being Colin Sonan. Other male characters revealed to the public only have one or two of these traits, but still tend to be unpleasant to write. Jim Gai and Commander M. are the only ones I actually enjoy writing.

Race:
There are currently only two or three cases where I've come close to writing a character of a race or nationality other than my own (I'm a Caucasian American, for the record). Joanie Aimes is one-quarter Jewish on her mother's side (also explored in the faith section below), Wyatt Sonan is half-English, half-American (his adopted son Colin is from Holon, despite the British accent), and in a case that probably doesn't even qualify, Joanie's talking, singing Bellsprout is based on the plant from Little Shop of Horrors as portrayed by Levi Stubbs, an African-American.

In all cases, I don't let the race/nationality really affect their personality. The characters' backstories are what ultimately determine that (or, in some cases, the other way around).

Faith:
Joanie, Collie [Calloway], Annie and Bella are all Christian, specifically Protestant (as I feel Catholicism would be a little too restrictive for them; no offense). This was done mainly so I'd have characters who celebrated the religious aspects of Christmas as well as the secular. This is a little bit of me seeping in again—being Protestant myself, I feel it important to at least acknowledge the holiday's original purpose. They don't overemphasize it, however, and they are the only characters of mine who do this.

Colin and Jim conform to the Sinnoh and Hoenn creation myths, a religion I like to call "Arceism". Colin is less extreme than Jim, recognizing Arceus as a godlike Pokémon rather than a literal god, but still respecting its power and role in the universe's conception.

Wyatt is atheist, a stereotypical scientist trait particularly appropriate for a geneticist like himself, who partially succeeded in "playing God" by creating Colin (and Icira, depending on the timeline). Jim's Alakazam is also atheist, relying on pure logic to ultimately conclude that there is no need for a creator deity or other paranormal concepts (Ghost-types notwithstanding). It's left to the reader to decide whether his superior IQ gives him the final word or if he's not as smart as the Pokédex says he should be.

This one does influence their personalities, to an extent—Alakazam is adamant that gods, souls and the like are myths, and will try to impose his logic on anyone he considers "misguided". Wyatt finds his adopted son's notion that Arceus is godlike "silly", but lets it go because arguing about it would be "pointless". As well, Wyatt only finds Colin's lack of Aura biologically puzzling at worst—Jim would probably find it damning, seeing Aura as the equivalent of a soul. Joanie, Collie and Annie are the only ones not influenced much by their religious views. Bella is influenced some, but I can't say more than that for fear of spoiling her backstory.

On a side note, I haven't worked out what Icira's beliefs would be. In all likelihood, she doesn't really care.

Sexuality:
Ah, now this one's interesting. Being a straight man with a slightly dirty mind, I do tend to find girl-on-girl extremely hot. But my personal preferences aside, I do write characters with sexualities differing from my own.

Joanie is bisexual, which is treated casually and only causes other characters discomfort because she's also very flirtatious (generally played for laughs). Bella's bisexuality, on the other hand, is played for drama—the events of her backstory resulted in her hating the idea of sexuality altogether, and she feels insecure about making friends of either sex because she's afraid of it evolving into something intimate.

Jim is an odd case. When I first started writing him, I assumed he was straight as a board. It wasn't until later that I decided to make him a closet gay—to escape discrimination, he pretends to be straight. When it comes right down to it, though, his sexuality matters very little, as he is pretty much married to his job. This isn't because of any difficulty with writing a homosexual relationship—it's more because of difficulty with writing Jim into a relationship with a character of either sex.

Probably the most exotic case of alternate sexuality I've written is Collie. Though straight in the loosest sense, she is literally attracted to—and will try to, er, "seduce"—anything male, human or not. As I have no idea what goes through the mind of such a person in real life, I resort to blaming this one on brain damage from a near-fatal drug overdose. Depending on who gets cast, this may be rewritten in the YouTube adaptation so she's just generally crazy rather than sexually depraved.

Wyatt is asexual, being a biologist in the most extreme sense. He believes there is no such thing as romantic love, only the biological instinct to mate and reproduce. As he has never felt the need to reproduce, he has never sought out a mate and remains unmarried and a virgin at age eighty. He has tried to pass this belief along to Colin, though due to either genuine disagreements between them or just poor writing on my part, Colin turned out straight anyway. Very straight.

In short, I have no issues with writing characters of different sexualities from my own. In fact, I rather enjoy it.

Overall:
It is my belief that diversity in all these fields is a must in a well-constructed universe. It helps make the whole thing more believable. Of course, I'm also of the opinion that characters dying for no plot-relevant reason is realistic and therefore acceptable, so maybe I'm not the best person to consult about writing.

For some reason, I do indeed have a lot of trouble writing female characters, even though I am a female myself (I know the thread is about differences, but I thought this was notable anyway). That doesn't mean I'm against writing them, however. I just don't feel as confident with them, and so I tend to write only male characters.

I am an atheist, and currently have a character that is somewhat religious. Although she is passionate toward the subject, she's not very intelligent or mature enough to really know what religion entails, but this will change over time. Anyway, that basically means I'm not afraid to go into religion despite my lack of personal feelings toward the subject.

Race is an interesting subject that I never really considered when writing pokemon fanfiction, though I will have to think more about it.

I'm heterosexual and wouldn't mind writing a character of a different sexuality, though sexuality isn't really important or discussed in my writing.

Okay, this is one I’m going to try and go in-depth with, because this really is a good question. And a warning – I’m blunt as all hell. But first…

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Some phenomenally huge proportion of original trainer characters in fanfiction, at least in my experience, are North American teenagers with very similar characteristics to their North American teenage authors.

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This fact utterly depresses me, simply because it makes things so boring. Reading about the same character, just slightly tweaked, is the reason I don’t read many OC Trainer stories anymore. Finding a good story about a character who isn’t like everyone else, who doesn’t share the same experiences, is much more rewarding to me than reading about another Buffy or Ash or [insert popular character here].

So as a general thing, I take writing outside my own experience as a challenge, and an opportunity to grow as a writer. That means, I’m totally willing to attempt a new sort of character, outside my own views. This also leads me to my very favorite subject when it comes to almost anything: RESEARCH!
With a bit of research, a few books, a website or two, and a conversation (online or in RL) with people, any author can find out just about everything they want to know about a subject. I don’t claim to be an expert in anything yet – just wait till I get my degree! – but I do know that talking to an expert, reading their work, or even better, talking to someone with experience relating to your writing is a definite aid.

Now to the actual question – Do I find it difficult to write outside my own Gender/Race/Sexuality/Etc?

Gender: As a rule, I don’t find it difficult to write outside my own gender. I have a preference to writing females, just to get more of them out in the real world. That’s why it is so interesting that the majority of my characters write now are male – I prefer writing girls, but somehow, I’ve ended up writing a whole lot of guys. Why? Because gender is fluid. As a little girl, I played in the mud and dug up worms and pretended to be a superhero. I played kick ball with the best of them and ruled the tetherball courts. I hated wearing dresses because I couldn’t play ball in them and skirts were a special kind of hell. I was also bored to tears by most ‘real’ sports and loved playing with Barbie dolls. To me, that was what being a girl was. Sure, my mom told me to act more ladylike sometimes and tried to get me to like dresses a lot more. But that didn’t change what I already knew, if not in these terms – Gender is fluid. There isn’t just masculine vs feminine, there’s a whole spectrum of behaviors and traits that slide along a fluid spectrum. It’s rare that people are just one or the other, because when it comes down to it, we’re all very alike despite our differences.

So, I find writing girls and boys to be equally easy. I also find it equally challenging. Just because I’m a girl, doesn’t mean I know how every girl works. It definitely doesn’t mean I know how every boy works. Knowing that gender is fluid, I focus more on character, developing who that person is before finally assigning a gender. Sometimes I create characters with just a gender, and then start designing the person I want them to be, because I want a specific character. Donna, one of my characters, was always intended to be a girl. I designed her with the thought that I wanted a girl who could be a butch woman with a lot of stereotypically male traits, and make that aspect of her NOT be her defining character. Dexter, who is androgynous in appearance, but with a more stereotypically female personality, was designed with the idea of a character who could be male but not fall into a stereotype. Branigan has all the stereotypical traits of a manly man – he’s muscular, tall, broad shouldered, and has a deep voice. He’s also fabulous, a total diva who loves fashion and wants nothing more than to be a star coordinator and have his own fashion line for humans and Pokemon.

Sexuality: Sexuality is something I see as very similar to gender in that it is fluid. You can be any number of things when it comes to sexuality, and I try to express that in my writing. As a cis, bisexual identified woman who is probably more likely to be pan or omnisexual in practice, I have some experience with many, many sexualities, so I feel comfortable writing from the point of view of many of them. It also helps, that when it comes down to it, being gay/lesbian/bi/pan/queer doesn’t make you any different from a straight person. Writing from the perspective of straight Branigan, bisexual Donna, asexual Regina or gay Dexter is as easy for me as writing about myself.

Okay, that’s not a good thing to say, because I have difficulty writing about myself – let’s say it’s as easy as writing about why people love Pokemon. But in all seriousness – there is no great wall of Gay vs Straight. There is no reason to think that there is some great divide between sexualities and no reason to be afraid. I mean, yes, people can mess when they write about sexuality but that’s why we have RESEARCH! To correct and prevent those kinds of mistakes. Everything is better with research on top.

I’m not gonna say that it is easy. People (including me) want to stick to the familiar. I would have no trouble a) ignoring sexuality or b)making everyone bisexual if I wanted to make things easier on myself. But I want to grow as a writer and a person and that means understanding things. When I write about something, I grow to understand it more. So while it is confusing to stick to homosexual or heterosexual for me because I think both sexes are equally beautiful and attractive, I work at it. I practice, and find people to read my work for me, to catch the right tones and avoid misunderstandings.

Race: Not gonna lie, working outside my race is fun for the most part. I honestly believe I have the most trouble writing white characters, simply because in general, white privilege is extremely prevalent in almost any modern fantasy world. Scratch that, any world that isn’t explicitly this. I love that Pokemon the anime doesn’t show this, but in my more realistic and dark Pokemon fic, there is white privilege. And I have to research a lot to get into that mindset, and not think about things I do naturally as a WOC. I don’t avoid writing Caucasians because of this however – Dexter is a white male character (and yes I know the problems of having the gay male be white and financially secure/upper middle class) and he’s arguably one of my main (and first) heroes for the project. So that’s a problem area I try to work on.

What’s not a problem area? Writing for other races and cultures outside of Black and White. Trust me, I love writing about Black people and making Black heroes, because I want more people like me. But I also love exploring Hispanic culture, Brazilian culture, Arabian, Israeli, Muslim, African, Scandinavian cultures because they’re so different. From the many gods of ancient Africa, to the Buddhist religion, to the tenements of Islam – it’s a fascinating read for a research geek like me. So while Race Matters in my writing, race doesn’t mean I won’t write about it. Jayne, the hero for my fake!Nuzlocke is African American and Denzel, his best friend and co-hero, is Brazilian. Why? Because a) I like it b) I made Hoenn into a mash of Africa and South America, and c) I wanted it.

Writing outside my race is a good writing tool for me.

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Is that a result of the anti-Arab culture in the US, perhaps? Do Americans fear radical Islam too much to write sane, moral believers?

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I hate this so much! I hate the sweep of fear of Radical Islam, I hate the condemning of Islam as a violent religion, I hate the cleaning up of Christianity, which is just as bloody and violent as any other religion. Hate hate hate.

Now back to your regularly scheduled breakdown of things.

Religion: Religion is tough, because at best I’m Agnostic and at worst I’m Complete Athiest. I don’t care to search for a God, if zie exists. I don’t believe in divine rights unless we’re talking paganism or multi-god pantheons, which I enjoy. Religion is a conundrum to me, because at best, it’s very similar, at worst, it’s all crap. So writing religions without biasing them can be difficult. I try my best, and design religions of my own a lot. But writing religion is still uncomfortable for me. That’s probably why I don’t focus on it, but still craft templates and notes based on religions and possible fanon religions.

It's a mixed bag to me. It has some negatives. One, you don't wanna make it like "Okay, we have one white guy, one hispanic girl, one middle-eastern boy, we need a black girl!". That just seems wrong to me, IDK how to explain it, it just is. Two, & this applies to more shows than Pokemon, it's hard to determine things like race & beliefs in a world that is so different than our own. We don't have alot to go on when it comes to how beliefs & culture differ between regions & people from those regions. Three, you can't just make a character based on your experiences w/ different types of people. Just because you see a person of a different culture/lifestyle acting &/or talking a certain way doesn't mean that's how every person of that culture/lifestyle lives. On the other hand, it's a great idea to include diversity. Making a handful of characters only have some small differences can make for a boring cast since there's so much that's the same between them. Having situations/life looked at from more than one side makes for interesting interactions & stories.

Unless one is writing fic related to our Real World, then really, races and religions (or our world) should not be a big issue.

Every single canon of different fictions had different world, they are not necessarily have the same races and/or religions in our world. And besides, I personally never ever include Real World religions in my fic. Say for instance, in The Tales of the Abyss, everyone in that canon world believe in the religion known as "Order of Lorelei". In the game Final Fantasy XII, other than the Hume race, there also exist the Viera race, Bangaa race, Seeq race, Moogle race, Garif race, etc.
What I was trying to say is, when we are writing fictions that is set in a world different from our world, we then shouldn't think in the same thinking pattern as like in the people of the races and/or religions in our world.

According to the concept of my understanding, the Pokemon World is not our world. Although they may have mentioned the word "American", "Egypt", "Indian" somewhere in the game and Pokedex, that still doesn't mean that is the same America, Egypt, or India in our world. Therefore, in my Pokemon fic, I tried to avoid all words that may related to races and religions in our world. Oppositely, I'll not say people in the Pokemon World are all Japanese, only because the canon was originated from Japan. People in the Pokemon World have their own race, own religion, and their own nationalities, and I will not trying to compare that to those of our world.

I haven't written any fictions that is based in our world yet, so I'm not sure what's the difficulty to write about characters that is in the race/religion/sexuality different from myself. But in any case, I don't think I'll write such fic either, because I don't enjoy to think up story about something I don't familiar with.

Gender: I don't really have a preference. I'm absolutely fine with either.

Race: In Pokémon fanfiction, I don't mention race at all. I don't feel it's relevant. In original fiction I admit that most of my characters are Caucasian -- even though I'm not white myself, I live in a Caucasian community and that's just what I know. I think writing about characters of other races would be a good experience, but I would have to do a lot of research to pick up customs and other things unique to different cultures.

Religion: I don't bring up religion in my stories.

Sexuality: So far I have only written about heterosexual characters, although I don't think I would have an issue with writing about characters of any other orientation.

A year ago, I may have had problems writing people who were of a different religion or sexuality than me (straight and, at the time, catholic). Gender has never really been a problem for me- my best friend, who I think of as a sister, is female. Race makes no sense to me, but if you mean culture, that's never been hard, either- worldbuilding is my passion, and so every character I've ever written is a new culture.

Now, though, I'm confident I could write a homo- or bisexual character comfortably, though serious romances of any kind (straight or otherwise) aren't exactly my forte. And I've been exposed to so many beliefs this past year and changed my own (agnostic, thank you) that I think writing a differently religious character would just entail some research.

All in all, I think that any writer who can only write people similar to them should try and not. As in, they should try and diversify their character population as much as they possibly can. Why? The world is not made up of white north american christians, white european atheists, and people of your age group.

People are unique, and I support writing them that way.

Ugh, I was hoping to avoid this thread.

To be honest, after reading through this entire thread, I noticed something. A lot of people here kept chiming in that people, as a whole, aren't that different. Race, gender, sexuality, education, it all doesn't matter, the differences are quite small.

No. They're not. When the only differences are subtle, those subtle distinctions become quite important. This is when the privileged, politically correct chime in, 'no, they're not!' Yes, they are. Let's remove every single one of those distinctions. Let's pretend we're not talking about people. The fastest example I can come up with is guns.

~Yes, I know it's very... stereotypical of me to choose weapons, but it is something I know extremely well enough for a great example~

So, the differences between a Polish Tantal and an East German AK-74 (yes, 74, don't correct me, CoD kiddies) is very small. In fact, the difference between them is so small, that all parts are actually completely interchangeable, so the difference may as well be negligible. Now, let's say you had to do an friend or foe identification exercise as a scout. Someone has, for whatever reason, stuck their rifle out a window. You know you are working with a group of polish soldiers (or you are one of those soldiers). Now, you can't tell whether you're looking at a friend, or an insurgent, unless you know what to look for. In this case, you know it's a friend and not to open fire upon that location as soon as someone sticks their head out because of two extremely subtle differences: furniture, barrel attachment (tantal has a loner buttstock and is typically equipped with a rifled grenade attachment, the east german looks like a regular polymer AK-74 except its furniture has a strange pebble grain upon it).

Now, I know that this rather base physical example doesn't exactly translate well to people. However, the subtle differences between people comes down physical expression and how they relate to the physical world.

Gender, race, sexual preferences, the type of food you were raised on... it all has rather subtle ways of colouring your experiences. Gender doesn't nearly have as much play as people think it does, but that's not to say it has little play as many postgenderists would have us believe. The main, basest difference between the two furthest ends of the masculine/feminine spectrum actually lies in one of the most basest of instincts.

Fight or Flight.

This actually becomes rather apparent when you look at suicides across all cultures. Men choose more permanent methods of suicide: they either fight against what's depressing them and choose to live, or they run away, successfully, kill themselves. Women, on the other hand, aren't nearly as simple. Women have a third outcome in that instinctual decision tree. Fight, flight, ask. This becomes quite apparent, again, in the most vulnerable of states: heavy depression and suicide. Women are far less likely to choose quick and permanent methods of suicide, using it as more of a cry for help, and, if help doesn't come, if no one cares, it at least slides over into the final option of flight.

Now, I cannot say whether this is a purely social phenomenon or not. I personally it's a mixture of both, having major roots in biology, followed by a social reinforcement of said base instincts, a pressure to conform to the furthest ends of the extremes... at least in this instance.

Race has an even more prevalent, albeit less universal, colouring of reality. Race and culture are bound together. Think about it. Symbolism? Culture. How others treat you? Racially motivated. How you relate to others? Culturally and racially motivated. Social expectations, superstitions, religious fetishes (no, not that kind of fetish, you sicko), upbringing, all racial and cultural. Race, it's individual biological idiosyncrasies and environmental effects colour the language of its people, which in turn also compounds its effects on its culture and social structure. Now, migrant races, or historically slave or prison races, tend to develop new cultural identities based on the environmental circumstances. However, they generally hold the same ideals, expectations, outlooks... they see similarly despite even more minor differences.

How they see the world and how you, as a white male (or whomever you are, making an assumption on my audience, I know you're out there you non-white males :P), will be, while somewhat similar, radically different.

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Now, personally, I have a little trouble writing people of other genders and cultures. I'm still reeling from the discovery that most of the people I know don't have multiple threads of emotions working on concert with each other, rather feeling only one base emotion at a time (seriously, getting your face contorted into a smile makes you happy and the sensation of you smiling actually drives out negative emotions?! What?!). I dunno. I always expect people's internal worlds to be much richer than they actually are. People have noted that my male characters tend to be a bit... wordy, but I write natural feeling conversations.

To date, the hardest character to write was a white male rapist, in his late 20s, who recently became unemployed. It was in first person, and the lead up to the rape... well, it freaked me out. I got too much into his head, felt ill with myself, and stopped writing the story all together. I can understand alternate drives, the individual characters within my story do have their own wants, needs, emotions, background; and they all feel quite different.

I dunno, I don't really think about including the views of other genders and races consciously. It just happens.

Besides. It's better to write what you know and get it right, then try to go out on a limb and write something you don't know and make a massive fool of yourself.

Forgive me if there are any errors in this longwinded text. I have to go to work and have no time to proof read it.

Gender I can agree to, there's distinct psychological differences between the female and male brain. Though they're often negligible. However, everything else, it's not anything absolute. Race doesn't definitely leave you one way or the other, neither does religion. Based on personality, two black guys growing up in two very equal, mildly racist societies will react entirely differently to it and develop in entirely different ways. One may become a delinquent, on the fringes of society, another may grow up to be entirely normal. Same with two kids growing up in a closed Christian environment. One may turn out a fundamentalist, the other a normal, reflected believer. Or become an atheist.

Yes, having a specific race or belonging to a specific religions changes what you become. Everything we are changes what we become. But it doesn't define us in any way. Take a hundred women, a hundred men, a hundred afro-americans, a hundred Indians, isolate them and see then grow up, and you will see that they develop in radically different ways. Without a prejudiced society, there's no one telling the black man it's wrong to be black, there's no one telling the woman she has to be pretty. The personalities they grew into on an independent basis, will not be clearly defined by race, gender, or anything like that.

Me, as a white male, seeing the world the way I do, is a result of me being me, and society relating to white males in a specific manner. But being white does not define me, it might only have slightly affected the way I grow up. Maybe I would be exactly the same if I was black, maybe not. While it influences me, it would not automatically define me. Thus there's no automatically common personality traits among whites, or africans, or christians, or jews. As people, we are all the same. Society shapes us, but having the same premise does not make us grow the same.

So everything that's cultural is negligible, it doesn't make us different people where one culture is clearly different and/or has distinct personal traits that other cultures do not. I agree that biology shapes is, in a negligible manner (but it's there), however, cultural aspects does not define us, only ever so slightly define us. But two people with different personalities will react differently to the same cultural stimuli. Heck, two people with very similar personalities might do so.

Now I feel like I'm getting repetitive, but yes - I agree that there's nuances that shape us, but they're not common within a specific culture/education/whatever, so when writing a person of a specific culture, there's no traits you have to do, because he's that culture alone. You have to consider how his entire life has shaped him, through both biological and cultural factors. And that is what is "him" as a person - how his life has shaped him. Thus we are all people, all the same. We grow by interacting with our society, our culture, through what we are, what we were born as. But that's it. A specific culture or race does not a specific person make.

Again, I agree slightly on the gender differences, but there's only general correlations, no absolutes.

Once again, this thread is for discussing the difficulties or ease that are involved in writing characters from different demographics than your own, not for having a debate about those issues in general.

Infractions have been given out. If this problem continues, this thread will be closed. Please try to control yourselves.

I don't write here on the forums, but I do write off-site and just for fun. Most of my stories tend to fall into two camps- very short stories or novel-length. Whenever I write short stories, I don't pay attention to the faith/race/sexuality/etc of the characters unless it pertains to the story at hand. If it doesn't play a role in the story, I avoid it (I don't like fluff or writing anything that isn't necessary to the story). In terms of gender, most of my short story characters are male, but female characters also come easily to me. Since each character is unique, I cannot say that I could write a male character into a female one easily. The change would be different (based on physical characteristics) and would require a different story. If the plot revolves mostly around the mind (say debating, conversation, etc.) then I have a better time with genders.

In my longer works, it is a bit different, but the basics are still the same. If it's not related to the character or story, I leave it out. Race is the one that is left out most of the time, as to me the color of the skin doesn't matter much. What I have in my head as a picture is going to be different than what others think. At most, I like to do features such as build, hair, eye color and such (these are genetic things, so I pay less attention to it). In terms of gender in my longer stories it does play a role, especially if there is a lot of action. But I'm still comfortable writing with male or female characters, the way they interact with their world will simply be different. Religion is a big one, though I don't write about current/real religions; I make up my own. So it's relatively easy for me to write with religion.

Sexuality is a tricky one. I don't like romance much at all, but my characters (being mostly male), have been said to be gay before. In my mind they weren't (just in some reader's minds), because I find friendship to be a high value and something to drive the plot. English as a language lacks a word for it in my opinion, but essentially, the characters are friends, who do love each other, not romantically (platonic doesn't quite suit it), but also not like a family/brotherly love. It is a relationship, but not one of romance. In general, I don't like romance novels dealing heavily in relationships and love, so it is hard for me to write a romantic scene, and for the most part, my stories don't go in that area.