During the 1992 Clarion West Writers Workshop attended by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward, one of the students expressed the opinion that it is a mistake to write about people of ethnic backgrounds different from your own because you might get it wrong, horribly, offensively wrong, and so it is better not even to try. This opinion, commonplace among published as well as aspiring writers, struck Nisi as taking the easy way out and spurred her to write an essay addressing the problem of how to write about characters marked by racial and ethnic differences. In the course of writing the essay, however, she realized that similar problems arise when writers try to create characters whose gender, sexual preference, and age differ significantly from their own. Nisi and Cynthia collaborated to develop a workshop that addresses these problems with the aim of both increasing writers' skill and sensitivity in portraying difference in their fiction as well as allaying their anxieties about ''getting it wrong.'' Writing the Other: A Practical Approach is the manual that grew out of their workshop. It discusses basic aspects of characterization and offers elementary techniques, practical exercises, and examples for helping writers create richer and more accurate characters with ''differences.''
Writing the Other (Conversation Pieces)
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
The exercises, developed from workshops the authors have conducted, reward writers with learning more about developing characters including those who are ''just like'' themselves and understanding past and present stereotypes. --Paula Guran, Writers.com Newsletter
This book can help interested writers develop characters to exhibit the complexity of the human experience (and, since we're talking genre here, multifaceted non-human experiences as well)[...] What I like best about this book is that Shawl and Ward encourage people to acknowledge their fears and concerns, but also to try anyway. --Broad Universe, November 2007
Just raising awareness about this writing challenge is a literary service[...]Such exercises clearly help flex writerly muscles. --Seattle Times, February 3, 2006
This book can help interested writers develop characters to exhibit the complexity of the human experience (and, since we're talking genre here, multifaceted non-human experiences as well)[...] What I like best about this book is that Shawl and Ward encourage people to acknowledge their fears and concerns, but also to try anyway. --Broad Universe, November 2007
Just raising awareness about this writing challenge is a literary service[...]Such exercises clearly help flex writerly muscles. --Seattle Times, February 3, 2006
About the Author
Nisi Shawl is a member of the Board of Directors of the Clarion West Writers Workshop. Her stories have appeared in Semiotext(e), Asimov s SF, Strange Horizons, and in the award-winning Dark Matter anthology series. She writes a regular book review column for The Seattle Times. A collection of her short fiction, Filter House is forthcoming from Aqueduct Press.
Cynthia Ward has published stories in Asimov's SF Magazine, Bending the Landscape, and other anthologies and magazines.
Cynthia Ward has published stories in Asimov's SF Magazine, Bending the Landscape, and other anthologies and magazines.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential, not only for writing the Other, but for writing Well.
December 17, 2011
By Anitero
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
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 majority. And my geekish pursuits tend toward reading books, watching anime, and playing video games, all of which are activities I can indulge in by myself.
But in the world of mass media, particularly genre media, my race ensures that I'm not part of the majority. I know what it feels like to read a story where my country is never mentioned, or watch a movie where the only character that is Filipino is a maid. While I'd wish it were otherwise, I don't generally view stories created outside of my country to be the venue where I'm going to find plentiful and authentic representations of Filipinos and Philippine culture. As a Filipino writer, I think that's one of my responsibilities.
But as I mentioned, in the Philippines, I am part of the dominant paradigm, the person of Unmarked State (we'll get to that later). The Philippines is home to many indigenous communities that have often been marginalized by both our local media and popular culture. As a contrast, I live in Metro Manila, "Imperial Manila" as some of our southern brethren call it, and grew up pretending to be part of G.I. Joe or one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, instead of being a Tikbalang or the hero Lam-Ang. And yet, as often as I can, I try to tap into the rich intangible heritage of our indigenous mythologies when I write...and, while I do it out of love and in order to promote those myths, it often scares me out of my mind. When I recently put together an anthology of stories inspired by Philippine mythology, my greatest fear was that I would be engaging in a form of colonization or appropriation (especially since the anthology is in English). And yet, I know that there are stories that need to be told, even if I'm not a member of the Ifugao, or the Mangyan, or the Tausug.
Write what you know. That's always the exhortation. But especially for someone who wants to write about characters, cultures, and perspectives decidedly beyond my experience, as a writer of fantasy and science fiction...what do I do?
Simple. You write what you don't know...but you do it right (or exert every effort to do so). That's where Writing the Other comes in. It's a book that was released in 2005, but wasn't widely distributed. Now that it's been released as an ebook, I wanted to take the time to extol its virtues as an essential textbook for every writer.
"During the 1992 Clarion West Writers Workshop attended by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward, one of the students expressed the opinion that it is a mistake to write about people of ethnic backgrounds different from your own because you might get it wrong--horribly, offensively wrong--and so it is better not even to try.
This opinion, commonplace among published as well as aspiring writers, struck Nisi as taking the easy way out and spurred her to write an essay addressing the problem of how to write about characters marked by racial and ethnic differences. In the course of writing the essay, however, she realized that similar problems arise when writers try to create characters whose gender, sexual preference, and age differ significantly from their own."
Writing the Other is the book that grew out of a workshop that Shawl and Ward put together to help writers portray characters who are outside the dominant paradigm. As such, each section of the book (or, rather, the main body) is composed of two parts. The first is an extended essay where the authors discuss a topic, or a set of related topics, explaining terminology and the pitfalls that can ensnare writers attempting to write "marked" characters, providing possible solutions along the way. The second part consists of writing exercises where the reader and prospective writer can attempt to apply the lessons learned from the essay.
The presence of the exercises-a holdover from the workshops-are a good indication that the book stays true to its subtitle, A Practical Approach, as most of the advice that is given is simple and concrete. (Note I didn't say "easy"-invariably, research is involved as pointed out in Shawl's essay, Beautiful Strangers.) This is particularly true in the aptly titled "Don't Do This!" section, where the authors go through a series of missteps some writers make in their handling of marked characters, giving specific examples and counter-examples to reveal problematic assumptions and omissions. (Think, "the Dark Hordes attacked...")
Even the more theoretical discussions can have an immediate and practical effect on readers (such as myself at the time) who are unused to the terminology-because certain words, once defined in the reader's mind, cannot but cause a shift (big or small) in perspective. Terms such the Unmarked State (the default setting of a character not otherwise described - usually white, male, single, young, heterosexual, and without disability), Glory Syndrome (the story is about the problems of those marked by difference, but only insofar as they affect those who are unmarked), parallax (which involves being conscious of what a character with a particular history/context would consider to be "normal"), and resonance (a complex of ideas that reinforce and highlight one another) make visible issues in a text which may bother a reader, but which are very hard to identify if the author is not specifically on the lookout for them.
That need for writers to be aware of marked states and positions of privilege, and to be rigorous in our questioning of our own assumptions and presuppositions, is something that permeates the entire book. What you'll come away with after reading Writing the Other is not only the conviction that it is possible to write characters of a different race, gender, or sexual orientation in a way that is authentic and believable, but also a desire to do just that. While the authors are blunt about what does and doesn't work, they also manage to be encouraging to writers who (I'm sure they are aware) may be growing more and more nervous as they realize what a minefield this aspect of fiction can be. It's always possible-in fact, it's likely-that we'll still get something wrong about the Other even after reading the book. But that's okay, in the same way that we'll never write the perfect story. The goal is worth striving for anyway.
Writing the Other is a slim volume, with the main text only 75 pages long. The remainder of the book is taken up by two of Nisi Shawl's essays Beautiful Strangers: Transracial Writing for the Sincere and Appropriate Cultural Appropriation, and also an excerpt from her novel, The Blazing World. Nevertheless, it provides insight into an often-overlooked aspect of the writing process, one of special resonance to those who seek to write science fiction and fantasy, and does so in a clear and concise manner.
But in the world of mass media, particularly genre media, my race ensures that I'm not part of the majority. I know what it feels like to read a story where my country is never mentioned, or watch a movie where the only character that is Filipino is a maid. While I'd wish it were otherwise, I don't generally view stories created outside of my country to be the venue where I'm going to find plentiful and authentic representations of Filipinos and Philippine culture. As a Filipino writer, I think that's one of my responsibilities.
But as I mentioned, in the Philippines, I am part of the dominant paradigm, the person of Unmarked State (we'll get to that later). The Philippines is home to many indigenous communities that have often been marginalized by both our local media and popular culture. As a contrast, I live in Metro Manila, "Imperial Manila" as some of our southern brethren call it, and grew up pretending to be part of G.I. Joe or one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, instead of being a Tikbalang or the hero Lam-Ang. And yet, as often as I can, I try to tap into the rich intangible heritage of our indigenous mythologies when I write...and, while I do it out of love and in order to promote those myths, it often scares me out of my mind. When I recently put together an anthology of stories inspired by Philippine mythology, my greatest fear was that I would be engaging in a form of colonization or appropriation (especially since the anthology is in English). And yet, I know that there are stories that need to be told, even if I'm not a member of the Ifugao, or the Mangyan, or the Tausug.
Write what you know. That's always the exhortation. But especially for someone who wants to write about characters, cultures, and perspectives decidedly beyond my experience, as a writer of fantasy and science fiction...what do I do?
Simple. You write what you don't know...but you do it right (or exert every effort to do so). That's where Writing the Other comes in. It's a book that was released in 2005, but wasn't widely distributed. Now that it's been released as an ebook, I wanted to take the time to extol its virtues as an essential textbook for every writer.
"During the 1992 Clarion West Writers Workshop attended by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward, one of the students expressed the opinion that it is a mistake to write about people of ethnic backgrounds different from your own because you might get it wrong--horribly, offensively wrong--and so it is better not even to try.
This opinion, commonplace among published as well as aspiring writers, struck Nisi as taking the easy way out and spurred her to write an essay addressing the problem of how to write about characters marked by racial and ethnic differences. In the course of writing the essay, however, she realized that similar problems arise when writers try to create characters whose gender, sexual preference, and age differ significantly from their own."
Writing the Other is the book that grew out of a workshop that Shawl and Ward put together to help writers portray characters who are outside the dominant paradigm. As such, each section of the book (or, rather, the main body) is composed of two parts. The first is an extended essay where the authors discuss a topic, or a set of related topics, explaining terminology and the pitfalls that can ensnare writers attempting to write "marked" characters, providing possible solutions along the way. The second part consists of writing exercises where the reader and prospective writer can attempt to apply the lessons learned from the essay.
The presence of the exercises-a holdover from the workshops-are a good indication that the book stays true to its subtitle, A Practical Approach, as most of the advice that is given is simple and concrete. (Note I didn't say "easy"-invariably, research is involved as pointed out in Shawl's essay, Beautiful Strangers.) This is particularly true in the aptly titled "Don't Do This!" section, where the authors go through a series of missteps some writers make in their handling of marked characters, giving specific examples and counter-examples to reveal problematic assumptions and omissions. (Think, "the Dark Hordes attacked...")
Even the more theoretical discussions can have an immediate and practical effect on readers (such as myself at the time) who are unused to the terminology-because certain words, once defined in the reader's mind, cannot but cause a shift (big or small) in perspective. Terms such the Unmarked State (the default setting of a character not otherwise described - usually white, male, single, young, heterosexual, and without disability), Glory Syndrome (the story is about the problems of those marked by difference, but only insofar as they affect those who are unmarked), parallax (which involves being conscious of what a character with a particular history/context would consider to be "normal"), and resonance (a complex of ideas that reinforce and highlight one another) make visible issues in a text which may bother a reader, but which are very hard to identify if the author is not specifically on the lookout for them.
That need for writers to be aware of marked states and positions of privilege, and to be rigorous in our questioning of our own assumptions and presuppositions, is something that permeates the entire book. What you'll come away with after reading Writing the Other is not only the conviction that it is possible to write characters of a different race, gender, or sexual orientation in a way that is authentic and believable, but also a desire to do just that. While the authors are blunt about what does and doesn't work, they also manage to be encouraging to writers who (I'm sure they are aware) may be growing more and more nervous as they realize what a minefield this aspect of fiction can be. It's always possible-in fact, it's likely-that we'll still get something wrong about the Other even after reading the book. But that's okay, in the same way that we'll never write the perfect story. The goal is worth striving for anyway.
Writing the Other is a slim volume, with the main text only 75 pages long. The remainder of the book is taken up by two of Nisi Shawl's essays Beautiful Strangers: Transracial Writing for the Sincere and Appropriate Cultural Appropriation, and also an excerpt from her novel, The Blazing World. Nevertheless, it provides insight into an often-overlooked aspect of the writing process, one of special resonance to those who seek to write science fiction and fantasy, and does so in a clear and concise manner.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Tom Marcinko
Format:Kindle Edition
This very useful handbook comes from two excellent writers of science fiction and fantasy, but should be helpful for anybody who writes any kind of fiction or nonfiction.
It isn't easy to get out of your own head, skin, or background. But one of the reasons we read and write is to imagine people different from ourselves. Many writers are afraid to try, though--they're afraid they'll get it wrong.
WRITING THE OTHER provides help and encouragement for writers to take the leap. I've never read a book on writing quite like it.
This slender book also gave me new ways of thinking about issues of race, sex, religion, etc., not just as a writer but also as a citizen.
Highly recommended.
It isn't easy to get out of your own head, skin, or background. But one of the reasons we read and write is to imagine people different from ourselves. Many writers are afraid to try, though--they're afraid they'll get it wrong.
WRITING THE OTHER provides help and encouragement for writers to take the leap. I've never read a book on writing quite like it.
This slender book also gave me new ways of thinking about issues of race, sex, religion, etc., not just as a writer but also as a citizen.
Highly recommended.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By ah473
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a great, quick read loaded with advice for writing about any kind of "other." While it's intended for science fiction and fantasy authors, it's good for writers of any genre - fiction or nonfiction. The focus is on the differences most relevant in North American mainstream culture: race, sexual orientation, age, ability, religion, and gender. The book offers a crash course in not just writing about the "other" but helping us to see the ways in which we are all "others" to someone. Great advice and writing exercises. I recommend this to all writers who care about populating their writing with characters different from themselves. It would also be great for use in any creative writing classroom above an introductory level.
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