Young Writers Society

If you follow literary world happenings, you've probably heard of We Need Diverse Books and Own Voices and have seen those hashtags popping up all over. So let's talk about it! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, never fear. We'll talk about what these movements mean first.

1. We Need Diverse Books (#WeNeedDiverseBooks)
From my understanding, this was the first part of the movement. The official website can be found here, where you can learn more about this initiative. We Need Diverse Books is exactly what it sounds like, it's a movement to add more diversity to literature of all kinds, but the movement really started in kidlit (Young Adult and Middle Grade). If you think about it, I bet most of the books you read growing up featured a white, middle-class, able-bodied, heterosexual, neuro-typical, female protagonist. We Need Diverse Books is trying to change that and bring you guessed it diversity in all its many beautiful forms to books because not everyone in his world is a white, middle-class, able-bodied, heterosexual, neuro-typical, female. Go to the official website for much more information.

2. Own Voices (#OwnVoices)
From my understanding, Own Voices grew out of We Need Diverse Books. I think Rebecca Barrow (@RebeccaKBarrow) explained this well on Twitter recently:
"#ownvoices, as I understand it, refers to when an author and a protagonist share the same marginalized identity." So for example, maybe you're a blind, asexual, Asian-American, woman with a learning disability and you're writing a story in which the protagonist also happens to be blind (or asexual, or Asian-American, or living with a learning disability, or any combination of those), then you would be an Own Voices writer.


I think we can probably all agree that both of these movements are positive things for books, but this is a free space, so if you feel something different speak your mind!

So how can we as young writers contribute to these movements? Can you still write a book that adds to the diversity conversation if you yourself don't feel any part of your identity is marginalized? Should only Own Voices writers write books about their marginalized identity? (For example can only writers that are LGBT write books about being LGBT because only they really know what that feels like vs writing a book where the MC happens to be LGBT but the central theme revolves around something different and being LGBT is okay and accepted in the story). What is a white, middle-class, able-bodied, heterosexual, neuro-typical female to do if she wants to write a more diverse book? This is a conversation, so feel free to add your own questions as we go!

Have you read any books that fall in the We Need Diverse Books or Own Voices category? What did you think of them? Share their titles here!

And please let us all remember that issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, disability, etc. can be very sensitive to many people and isms of any kind will not be tolerated here. We are all here to learn and grow, so let's try to make this a respectful conversation. <3

Nice idea!

I think the "diverse books" means a little more than just writing about different things. I think it also means writing differently. For instance, you raised the question:

What is a white, middle-class, able-bodied, heterosexual, neuro-typical female to do if she wants to write a more diverse book?

My answer would be, if hypothetically, that's all she could write about: rewrite it. Change it. Write it how it is, not how everyone else wrote it. It's the same as say, romance in poetry; there's billions upon billions of love poems in this world, and I'd say about 99.9% of them sing the same tune. But every once in awhile there's one that actually makes you sigh and smile a little to yourself. My point: tropes can be diverse, you just have to think outside the box.

I like the idea of diverse writing... but I don't think that just means changing the characters- though that IS part of it. Why not change the setting? Why is everything set in the U.S.? Why can there be an Urban Fantasy/Modern Fantasy story based in Syria? Or Russia? Or Australia...? I know that a lot of people for good reason, stick to writing what they know when it comes to setting. Or in my case, setting stresses me out so much that I just make up my own fantasy world because I can never decide where to have my stories. Another element of the setting; try switching up where the story takes place- as much as I love YA, I'm tired of reading about highschool dances. Why can't we hear about a homeschooled kid or maybe a teenager that isn't in school because maybe they dropped out? And WHY did they drop out? (I've tried reading a few books where the character has "dropped out" of school but that's because they're some sort of addict or in the wrong crowd and that tires me too; why can't their be a story where someone doesn't make it through school, but the world doesn't end? And they actually make it in life alright? (I mean obviously there's got to be issues but it does not have to be gang related, and the MC does not have to be "edgy" and the story does not necessarily need swearing every few sentences simply because they dropped out of school! XP )

*inhales*

And the Own Voice idea is cool, but I would get really really bored just writing from characters with similar POVs/lives/things that I have. It would get really boring, I think, and I'm not even really interested in my "things". I mean, yeah there's some things that I could write about in my "Own Voice" but it wouldn't be fun to only be able to write about those things.

I think that it's actually really cool when people write about things that aren't their things. It's like how you want to be talked about or mentioned because that's kinda cool, right? Well to me it's kinda the same thing. "Oh hey, there's a book about with a Jewish kid!" Or "Oh hey, there's a book set in Canada!" (it doesn't happen very often, folks XP ) "That's kinda cool!"
There's plenty of people who can represent different cultures/lifestyles/characters in a way that is realistic and accurate and at the same time gives a unique outlook on something.

But that's just my thoughts! ^_^

This topic is my jam. Not that my knowledge of it is above average, but its personal magnetism compels me to speak my mind.

I love diversity because it is a part of our world that is often mislooked or sidelined. I would like to read a story about a protagonist that represents diversity and bring it as the focus of the story. That is what I want the stories to be told. Pick a minor group of people and place them under the spot light. It meets the requirement of discussing this diversity matter seriously while not forgetting that it is still a minority group, it is still ignored or put last from the order. The difference is that in the story, it is the focus, the people in it are the maim characters. I would like that to happen.

In regards to OwnVoice, I support it very much. I myself is included into the much-used middle-class, Malay, religion-and-law abiding, average male, but this is only true if the setting is Malaysia and the story focuses mostly on Malay/Malay issue in general. However, once I step into America for example, I become the minority: PoC, homosexual, and Muslim. I would very much like to have someone similar like me to write his story in the world of English. It enlightens people like me and helps us adjust our lives there, so the story is not just there to sate readers in general.

That is not to say those who cannot understand what it is like to be a minority cannot write stories about minorities. They absolutely can and I strongly encourage them to do so because ultimately it is better to have someone tackle the matter head-on rather than ignoring it and acting like it does not exist in the first place. Empathy is much needed, and it will surely help readers to discard their media-induced biasedness to certain minority and all.

That is my input to it right now.

Writing With Color is where you want to go if you want to research for characters of colour.

The gist that I follow: write stories with diverse characters; do not write stories about being diverse.

Aka— if you're straight: write a gay character, but don't write about the struggles of being gay; if you're white: write a Native or Asian or Black character, but don't write about the racism experienced by being part of that group; if you're neurotypical: write mentally ill characters, but don't write about how hard life is with a mental illness.

Basically, write genre fiction that takes into account a different perspective, but the different perspective isn't the plot.

Struggle narratives are best kept within the group itself. There are just plain old going to be nuances missed when you're not part of the group itself. It can also inadvertently harm people, because by perpetuating that these people have Bad Lives you end up looking like you're being voyeuristic or even exploitative. Marginalized groups don't exist as tragic backstories to mine in the name of being "diverse."

Honestly, the main thing I do to support both of those movements is the Resources section of YWS. People look there to ask for help writing marginalized characters, and part of my job is to point them in the direction of proper materials— or even point out that they're perpetuating harm.

What you can do as a young writer is to basically be aware there are other experiences other than yours, and you are not the authority on everything. A degree will not surpass lived experience, ever. You can study all you want, but study will always miss out on little things that were never thought to be captured. That's why some narratives are best left in the hands of the marginalized.

Educate yourself, yes. But do not speak over primary sources: those who have lived with it.

It's called "own voices" for a reason.

I’m not white or a male, but the first story that I ever wrote had a white, middle-class, able-bodied, heterosexual, neuro-typical, Male protagonist because these step-ups were all I read and were easily available to purchase. Of course, my stories had plotlines that only my countrymen could understand but somehow, I thought that having a white kid playing the protagonist will take me places.

I could blame the marketing instead of my ignorance but what does a twelve-year-old know about diversity? I did not know what the internet even was at that age? When the entire world was praising “The White Tiger” and referring it to as a cult-classic I was reading Sidney Sheldon, somehow it was okay for a twelve-year-old to read Sidney Sheldon and not know about diversity.

The school taught me what Diversity meant and they correlated it with people of different languages and different religion living in harmony. That’s all they wanted to teach for the betterment of the country. Race of the people was never really discussed. Later, though, fortunately, I understood the role race of the people played in the meaning of Diversity through books and movies.

What I’m trying to say is that we write stories of the people that we think the mainstream media would instantly pick up, which would become an instant hit. Of course, the notion gets rusted when we come in contact with our conscience but we can’t really dismiss this fact.

But I think these two hashtags are for a noble cause. (Hashtags are noble!) Young writers need to come in contact with their conscience right when they begin so that they don’t have to spend years trying to fit in a geographical zone that they don’t know where it is on the map or being politically wrong. (I think that’s how fantasy began.)

Diversity! My favorite subject. I already tended to write LGBT or disabled leads as my top two preferences for protags, and I always thought it would be a hindrance, eg it would be so much harder to find a publisher for a space opera with a gay MC than a straight one. Turns out that's totally wrong and a ton of agents and publishers are really pushing for more of this. #OwnVoices in particular is a huge tag on Twitter and a lot of agents are asking for it.

The question posed is how can young writers help.

1. Write, and share your experiences. Use your #OwnVoice to bring awareness. You have your own individual struggles that other people don't realize or understand, and by giving them to a MC, you can show people living with disabilities happily, overcoming discrimination, saving the world while also being gay, and all that sort of stuff.

2. Read, and listen to others' experiences. Naive writing comes from living in your own bubble. And a lot of times, even though we think we understand something, it takes a really well written book to put it into perspective.

Some lists of books...
YA written by people of color
YA with queer female leads
Fantasy with queer female leads

Some 15 minute podcasts:
Writing Other Cultures
Writing the Other
^Both of those include a "book of the week" recommendation related to the topic that you should check out. IIRC they are both about POC.

A short answer: Primary sources!

A long answer: Primary freaking sources!

For those who aren't familiar with research lingo: "Primary sources" are firsthand accounts of something. They can be letters, diary entries, eyewitness accounts, newspaper articles, photographs, basically things that come directly from the source of whatever it is and have minimal contortion by other people or influences. A photograph can have passed through fifty hands and still be a primary source as long as it's uninjured and unedited (and even an edited photograph can be used to show the flavor of the times, depending on how and when it was edited).

In the modern day, primary sources can also include blogs, podcasts (by eyewitnesses or the equivalent when it comes to diversity), Twitter accounts, emails, anything that consists of firsthand information from a direct source. And it's incredibly easy to email a lot of people! And a lot of "diverse" sources tend to run blogs because they're a good way to get information to a lot of people in a simple, quick manner.

In short, if you have never experienced anything from their side of the story, turn to primary sources first.

Sure, you can check out secondary sources (things written after-the-fact by someone who did not experience something, usually scholars or researchers), but those aren't quite as reliable. Know your biases and the biases of the author when you're reading secondary sources.

And research, research, research! You might get the idea that I am big on research. I really am! I think it's the best thing the internet age has to offer us -- we have near-infinite information at our fingertips! Yes, we'll have to filter through some of it with our own knowledge, and really go digging to find some accurate stuff, but this is where we take advantage of our accessibility to transportation and find more primary and secondary sources at a local library if we can.

And if you really want to portray diversity, you'll talk about it with one or two (preferably a handful of) people who have actually experienced the thing.

For example, I have a project I'm working on that features Deaf and Hard of Hearing characters, and while I'm doing my own research (and my characters' hearing loss is not directly related to the plot), I have a hard of hearing friend who I trust more on matters of the Deaf/HoH community than my own intuition. If I doubt something I'm writing, I'll take it to them and see if they can point out something I can fix or something I'm writing insensitively.

If I were to write a story that features Autistic characters, I would trust myself as a primary source (yes, you can be a primary source!) but also seek input from other Autistic people, since my experience is flavored by my own biases and I love love love seeing input from others on how they experience the world instead. As a neurodiverse writer, it helps me write more balanced characters that aren't explicitly based on myself, but rather are individual people with their own characteristics and stories.

In short, primary sources, primary sources, primary sources. And talk to people! Open up your world by actually bringing people of these groups into your life! Become friends with them! Expand your worldview!

You have the world's biggest toolbox at your fingertips, so open it up and use it!