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delacruz August 14 2012, 01:05:06 UTC
Omg, perfect picture is perfect ( ... )

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beforeskylines August 14 2012, 03:04:31 UTC
i find religion easy to talk about for some reason. i think it's because i was raised around a lot of overly religious people that i have a need to represent that their are differing views on the subject. that may be why race is harder for me because i grew up in a diverse area and so it feels like such a fact to me that of course other races exist in my world i forget that if i dont acknowledge they're not whit everyone will assume they are.

But lets be fair, some of us are worrying about marketability as well and I feel like there's a clear painted picture of who is reading what books, based on fandom and things like that...so there's also the worry about writing something that there isn't a real market for.

love all the points you made in this and feel like you brought the surface the main issues people have with diversifying.

also, i see you're characters walking a very STRAIGHT line thus far. find the key word ;)

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delacruz August 14 2012, 03:41:29 UTC
also, i see you're characters walking a very STRAIGHT line thus far. find the key word ;)

It's something I totally admit to! I've started characters with different sexualities but, ngl, I over think it and never feel comfortable with my portrayal. I don't want to commit a faux pas, you know? You've pointed it out and inspired me, though. Since the entire point of this work shop is to work on diversifying, I'm going to try my hand at shaking that area up a bit in my writing.

With religion, it's odd because I grew up surrounded by diff types myself... It just doesn't seem to come up in my writing much but now that I think about it, I've had a few non-christians.

One of the characters from We Shake Cities that I didn't mention is a Santeria. Also, she's Puerto Rican/Cuban and Black but I immediately feel guilty because she's not wealthy... thoughts?

love all the points you made in this and feel like you brought the surface the main issues people have with diversifying. I want to hear more people talk about this, to be honest. I ( ... )

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beforeskylines August 14 2012, 04:23:31 UTC
i'm excited! taste the rainbow, nicole! i'll send you a pick of skittles.

i don't think religion comes up a lot in my past projects but it will in this once since they're all on the edge of death which tends to make people think about that kind of thing.

I LOVE YOU. i get a really ill feeling if i write a PoC as lower class because i feel like that's the stereotype? like i said, there can be fact in stereotypes but getting that to transfer into fiction realistically is a hard task to take on.

Same! i actually thought that would come up a lot more so far but it hasn't!

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unnecessary_ August 16 2012, 01:52:21 UTC
I don't think that religious diversity is important in fiction, but I suppose that's because I don't value any religions. There's no such thing as a religion-ist that I know of such I'm not sure that this is even prejudice. Religion is a system of rules. I think it's important to respect culture and man cultures go hand-in-hand with religion, but I don't think it makes anyone feel left out to not see their religion mention in fiction. Correct me if I'm wrong?

But lets be fair, some of us are worrying about marketability as well and I feel like there's a clear painted picture of who is reading what books, based on fandom and things like that...so there's also the worry about writing something that there isn't a real market for. I think that if you care about making money, write a white straight girl with violet eyes. If you care about changing the world, affecting literature positively, and portraying minority characters, you need to forget the straight white girl with violet eyes. BOTH types of books can make millions, if they're ( ... )

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delacruz August 16 2012, 02:03:32 UTC
I don't look down on people who want to write something that will sell. I'm one of them. Even so, I know that you can do it with diversity too, if you find a great balance but yes, the lazy way is the violet eyed white girl and it's tempting to a lot of people.

Olive toned is such a general term and again, I feel like it was a cop-out. I definitely don't see her as the real movement towards change. Both her mother and sister were blonde with blue eyes, no? Jennifer Lawrence or whatever her name is played her really well with a dye job. But...baby steps, I suppose.

I wonder why this is. I wonder if you're internalized the idea that society just will not accept a character of color?

I think that it's the same problem that a lot of people seem to have. A nagging feeling that I'm not doing it right or that they'll come out completely one way or another.

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