Writing the Other: intensely practical advice for representing other cultures in fiction

Shawl and Ward's impetus came during their tenure at the Clarion West 1992 writing workshop, when one of their classmates, having taken lumps for poorly handling characters of racial backgrounds other than their own, announced that from now on, they'd stick to writing white people like themselves, rather than get it so wrong and risk giving offense and having to deal with outrage.

This is no solution. If all the writers who are sensitive enough to worry about getting this kind of thing right opt out of it altogether, then what remains in literature from the dominant culture will be stories told by people who don't care about getting it wrong.

Enter Writing the Other, a slim volume of exercises, theory and essays on how to be less wrong -- and even, now and again, right. As Shawl and Ward are at pains to point out, science fiction and fantasy is all about telling stories about people who are fundamentally unlike the writer and the reader -- aliens, magical beings, AIs... The authors set out a general theory of empathic consideration for people unlike you that constitutes both a political education and a very useful guide for writers who are trying to tell those stories. (more")