What a fantastic, challenging book. It has you looking at all of your bias, prejuide and privilege. This helps writers to develop characters that are more complex and true to life.

Interesting, with a couple of new-to-me ideas. Definitely food for thought!

This is a difficult and complicated subject to be sure. This book offers a first step toward creating a common language around writing “others” as well as offering some helpful advice.

UPDATE, 04.09.22: I want to come back to this review for a couple of reasons. First, to remove my star rating, for reasons I'll go into below. Second, to note that I just found out that there is now an accompanying Writing the Other website that improves upon most of my complaints regarding the book. The website is a multifaceted learning opportunity for anyone interested in learning more about diversity in literature. The webinars it offers are hosted by people from a variety of backgrounds, ta...

I bought a physical copy of “Writing the Other” last year, but now that there’s an ebook edition out, I decided to write a review that will hopefully encourage more people to buy and read this very important writing. book. We Filipino authors especially should never forget that, as the book says, “difference is not monolithic.” I’m a Filipino, and a geek, but I’m not used to feeling like an Other, like I’m not a part of the mainstream. I live in the Philippines, so I am, in fact, part of the maj...

A nice introduction to the concept of writing outside of one's own experiences. I would love to see an updated edition with more practical advice.

The core of how I felt echoes Amy Rae's solid critique.My personal hypothesis as to what went wrong here is that most of the text presents liberal solutions to colonialist problems, but without ever examining a number of incompatibilities between [neo]liberalism and postcolonial ideals. The authors didn't spend enough time unpacking and considering the issues to really be authoritative in their advice, resulting in a text that is variously naive or incomplete.A scattering of gripes (in no partic...

I found this extremely underwhelming. If you're the sort of person who would seek out a book like this, you're probably already familiar with pretty much every point they make, and they don't even make them in any particular detail or with any especially enlightening examples. The main thesis is that it's better for dominant/majority group writers to try and fail than it is for them to actively avoid diversity in their books at all, which I guess is just a matter of giving writers who want to do...

Although much of what is discussed in this book seems fairly obvious, especially given the prevalence of discussions of racism and portrayal of non-white characters on the Internet these days, so many of those Internet posts specifically cite this book, which is why it all sounds so familiar. Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward do a good job of explaining how to write character who are different from yourself in specific categories—though the fact that they blatantly ignore class as "not significant" is...

A good introduction to writing diverse and believable characters. Some good pointers towards what to include and, more importantly, what to avoid. It also has a series of exercises to help writers practice and define their skills in this area.

First off, to my pleasant surprise, the Kindle version of Writing the Other by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward also includes two other essays: Beautiful Strangers: Transracial Writing for the Sincere and Appropriate Cultural Appropriation, as well as an excerpt from Shawl's novel, The Blazing World.I studied social work as an undergraduate and then again in grad school. For those who didn't know, social work focuses a lot on systems of oppression and the impact on people and communities. So when...

I would recommend this book to every writer. A little bit more to writers of sci fi/fantasy, but really everyone. Though it specifically focuses on people of color, it's a primer on how to make sure you're appropriately incorporating "the other" into the world of your fiction--that is to say, people who aren't like you. Even if you're a white person living in Sweden, writing about white Swedes, there are presumably still people who are different enough from you (gay, disabled, poor) who ought to...

Don’t read this book fast. It’s not meant to be read fast. Read this book slow. Do what I did and forget it at work on a Friday; then, pick up something else. Read, and take note of the suggestions Shawl and Ward have offered in this book with the other book you started. Come Monday, get back to this book, finish it, and read it again. Even if you’re not an author, or a would-be author like me- this is a really good book just to have around in order to consider other books you read. Quite honest...

Really helpful little guide, mostly written for science fiction writers but applicable to all. I wish they’d spent more time on specific things to do/not do and less on why this is important.

A fellow writer lent me this book because I'm writing a book with African American characters (I'm Euro-American). The two authors refer to differences in ROAARS (Race, Orientation, Ability, Age, Religion, Sex). It includes writing exercises but I skipped them to read right through. I got a lot of help from it -- like don't use food to describe skin color. Oops, I need to go back through and take out my references to caramel. They urge writers to not avoid writing about others for fear of misapp...

Interesting advice directed toward writing "about characters marked by racial and ethnic differences." However it seems to put across an argument suggesting you must paint all people of a specific racial group as being the same so as not to offend any of them. IMO. you'd do better to treat them as individuals with individual thoughts and opinions. Not all blacks live in the getto and dig hip-hop, just as not all Asians eat rice and noodles. Figure out WHO you want your character to be first, the...

*This is the book club book of the month for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group Book Club.If you’re not as woke as many of those in my writing circles are, this is a must-read for you. But otherwise it is a basic, very condescending (considering it’s 2020) little book about do’s and don’ts when writing about people who aren’t like you.“We will show you what works (and what doesn’t) when writing about characters of races, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, religions, nationalities, and oth...

A look at how to better incorporate different voices (of different races, orientations, ages, abilities, religions, or sexes, using the not-that-easier to remember ROAARS mnemonic--and there are literally infinite other dimensions that matter, too), into your writing. Steadily chipped away at this one over several months as I read pieces of it and worked through the exercises. Good: Practical, concise, and readable, uses lots of good examples of what not to do, with suggested exercises and bibli...

This book is a good introduction to this important, useful topic. The authors are generous, patient, and willing to admit to their failures and biases in order to enable to readers to engage with their own and try to improve. I wish the book were longer and went into more detail; I imagine the topics worked better as a workshop, generating additional interactions and discussion. Since this book was written in 2005, much has been discussed at writing conferences and posted online about how to app...

This was written in 2005 and it shows. This was/is an important primer for a lot of white folks, but it's got some notable flaws.Notably, the ROARRS designation puts Race/Sexual Orientation/Age/Ability/Religion/Sex on the same playing field, and ignores other critical qualities like class. And while some of these are core to our lifelong identity, others change (most notably age). And nothing acknowledges the particular importance race plays in our culture, as though it doesn't want to be offput...