All Writers Are Liars
Two lies told by writers, in particular, Doctor Who writers:
1. I don't do this for the money.
Unless the writer in question is independently wealthy, or already rakes in so many dead prez that slumming in Whoville is a paycut, this is a big fib. It's the Benjamins that make it possible to write the books, and even the short stories and stuff. I was able to go part-time from my library job because of the income from the NAs. There's no way I could spend three to six months hammering out a BBC Book for free, even with Jon's income to rely on.
2. The reason I didn't use Anji's ethnic background was [fill in the blank].
The real reasons for this are (a) the horrible prospect of fucking it up - even BBC Books couldn't get straight whether Anji was of Pakistani or Indian descent and (b) not fucking it up would require research - reading fiction and non-fiction, magazine articles, watching films and TV shows, maybe even interviewing relevant people. The reason I didn't take the opportunity to do something with Anji's background in Tigers was not that non-White characters shouldn't be defined by their heritage, it was because I was too lazy (and too uninterested in the character) to bother. Fortunately, Anji explicitly denies her gender, race, and culture, making it easy for White boys (and me) to write about her.
1. I don't do this for the money.
Unless the writer in question is independently wealthy, or already rakes in so many dead prez that slumming in Whoville is a paycut, this is a big fib. It's the Benjamins that make it possible to write the books, and even the short stories and stuff. I was able to go part-time from my library job because of the income from the NAs. There's no way I could spend three to six months hammering out a BBC Book for free, even with Jon's income to rely on.
2. The reason I didn't use Anji's ethnic background was [fill in the blank].
The real reasons for this are (a) the horrible prospect of fucking it up - even BBC Books couldn't get straight whether Anji was of Pakistani or Indian descent and (b) not fucking it up would require research - reading fiction and non-fiction, magazine articles, watching films and TV shows, maybe even interviewing relevant people. The reason I didn't take the opportunity to do something with Anji's background in Tigers was not that non-White characters shouldn't be defined by their heritage, it was because I was too lazy (and too uninterested in the character) to bother. Fortunately, Anji explicitly denies her gender, race, and culture, making it easy for White boys (and me) to write about her.