Market Correction, part 2

Hi everyone! 

I am Young Adult and Middle Grade author Barbara Binns, writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for adolescents and teens. As my tagline says, I write Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them. 

This is part 2 of a two-part post on Diverse Writing, how authrs can withstand those market corrections. (You can find Market Correction Part 1 here)

The world of writers, editors and agents prized the importance of a unique Voice as an author’s strongest asset. I’ve attended a host of seminars that stressed voice as something innate in an author. The sum of his or her life experience emerging in the way an author crafts their story.

“We can’t describe Voice, but we know it when we see it,” I heard editors on one panel say. They unanimously called Voice more important to their selection decisions than plot. As one agent told a class a few years ago, “I can teach authors how to plot. I don’t know how to teach Voice.”

The cry for diversity in books seemed to change the discussion from Voice to "I have a right to write anything I want." Say “ownvoices” in a group of mainstream authors (white, heterosexual, cis-gendered, middle to upper class), and you may need to duck. Many voice concerns that the demand for diversity and #ownvoices is pushing them out of contention with publishers.

Statistics paint a different picture. While I only have statistics about children’s books (I am a children's book author), there is no reason to believe the adult numbers will be very different. For 2018, only 21% of children’s books published in the US, (778 out of 3703) were written by non-white authors, either African American, Latino, Native American or Asian Pacific. (This is up from 15% in 2017.) Mainstream authors still own 79% of the publishing market. (https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/books/pcstats.asp#USonly)

A mainstream writer's main competition remains other mainstream voices. Voices that have  overdone the "jive talking best friend of color." Ditto the sympathetic gay character who gives the cis heroine fashion tips or the asexual person with a disability. And the character whose function is to help the white character see the error in their thinking while having no real character arc of their own, or perhaps heroically dying to reinforce the message. Readers have already seen numerous poorly represented diverse characters.

Mainstream authors may not be able to give the same level of authenticity to a marginalized person or culture that an #ownvoice can. But that does not mean they cannot, or should not, strive to represent these people to readers.

Here are some tips for efforts to write about marginalized groups.

#1

Realize that if you are writing outside your group, there are truths you were not exposed to in your life, and that are not part of your voice. That it will be difficult for you to expunge the beliefs set deep inside your brain. You cannot succeed by pretending that your lack of exposure does not affect your voice. Instead, try this exercise:  On a piece of paper, label the following rows:

Add in any other group you want to write about, for example, Disabled, Jews, Lesbian, Bi-sexual,  Atheists or people of mixed race.

Now write at least five characteristics that come to mind for each. Write quickly and do not self-censor. Put whatever pops into your head on the paper. Then examine your result. Think how that might show through in your writer's voice.  (In my diverse writing class I have students symbolically burn the paper to remind them to let go of those beliefs before they write.) Acknowledging these stereotypes and problem tropes residing inside your head helps you notice, and eliminate them, when they try to emerge in your writer’s Voice.

#2

Be observant. “I don’t see color” is not a good approach to take when preparing to write characters of color. Ditto for avoiding or pretending not to notice people with disabilities, a practice we routinely begin doing in childhood.

See the diversity, or lack of it, in your critique groups and beta readers. Recognize what that could mean when everyone in those groups loves the way you handle your diverse characters.

Notice this picture used by the Red Cross in 2014 to illustrate pool safety. If you are observant, you will note that none of the kids of color earn the "Cool" rating.

People who see the real world of color easily noticed it. The same things happens when they read a book or story. They notice who isn't present in your world, and who isn't "cool."

#3

Find friends in the group you want to write about. Not just people you nod to in passing, or know from work. Make friends, the kind you invite to dinner and they, in turn, ask you to "come to the cookout." This is not seeking out someone you can ply with a list of questions. That can be offensive and ruin the budding friendship before it actually begins. Nothing is worse than beginning with a question like "tell me about you people." That will not build the kind of connection that could add layers to your writer’s voice.

Perhaps this should really be tip #1. Because unless you do know members of the group in intimate detail, most of what you end up writing will be the product of what you don’t know.

An author I know wanted to set her story in Pakistan, but could not afford to make a first-hand field trip. She had friends from Pakistan (because America is a melting pot if you just look around). She went to their homes to talk about everything, including the water, how the air smelled, what languages were spoken, if a woman could wear a robe in the house, and even what's for breakfast. She also got details of how women and men share public displays of affection during a crisis. She ate Pakistani food, went to community events, and even attended a wedding.

The result: After her story was published she received emails about all the things she got right.

#4

No one is saying mainstream authors can't write about marginalized groups, but they should get their research hat on for MONTHS, if not YEARS before they start. Understanding does not come from a quick Internet search, or throwing out a few questions to whomever might toss back an answer. (Take a look at the research claims from anti-vaxxers to see where that can lead.)

Try this exercise you can try. After spending time doing traditional research,  try to be one of them. Look in a mirror, and see a member of a marginalized group staring back. Don't think about how he or she could change themselves to make life better or easier; just be them.

Be a Muslim and pray five times a day. Wear a headscarf and observe how others react. Or go to a nurses closet and borrow a wheelchair and try negotiating those pesky cracks in the sidewalk, or the broken glass that gets in your tire when you are try to turn the wheels by hand. Be the person surrounded by people who regard your differences as suspicious or wrong, or think you invisible.

Spending even one day like that could change your writer's voice, at least a little.

Final thoughts:

Anyone gets angry when they see their religion, culture or background being trampled. If aren’t old enough to personally remember the controversy over the cross floating in urine, check out a 2014 Huffington Post story (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/13/piss-christ-sale_n_5317545.html) or ask your angriest and oldest neighbor. You also know the on-going backlash that occurs every time someone takes a knee during the national anthem. I am sure you can think of other examples where you felt something important to you was being mocked in the name of art or freedom of speech or a desire to exercise their right to do what they wanted.

If a writer's voice is the sum of everything they have experienced in life, so is the readers. The market adjustment in terms of books involves readers being mindful of the things that can needlessly harm others. If you get a culture wrong, or reuse a tired caricature, or problem trope, today's market will call you out. This doesn't mean don't write diverse characters and cultures. It does mean be careful. If you make a careless or unknowing mistake, expect readers to use their collective voices and inform the market via social media. The market for books and stories has it's own voice. They are learning that using their own voices has power.

Additional Study/References

Visit me at http://www.babinns.com/spice-class/,
Check out sources like http://writingtheother.com/ and https://bookriot.com/2018/02/05/casually-racist-things-that-white-authors-do/

See some of the problems you want to avoid at the microaggressions project - http://www.microaggressions.com/