We've been talking a lot about this on the Fire Escape, but I thought it might be helpful to sum up ten questions we writers can ask ourselves once we've completed a story (these were presented during my workshop at the NESCBWI conference last weekend):- How and why did or didn't I define race? Did I use labels like "Black" or "white"? If so, which ones and why?
- Did my setting, plot, and characters determine the cultural casting?
- Am I aware and in charge of any non-verbals that are race-specific (i.e. "grew pale")?
- Who are my story's change agents culturally and why?
- Are my characters of other races more than just foils for my protagonist?
- Is my narrative voice specific when describing foreign places or people (i.e."Igbo" vs. "Africa")?
- Have I relied on a certain jargon, diction, or accent to characterize, and inadvertently tapped into cultural stereotypes?
- How did I define beauty ("big eyes" = "not Asian")?
- Could my characters be imagined as different ethnicities? Do I want that?
- Should I hand more casting power to my reader and cut back on some physical descriptions?
Photo Credit: Mahidoodi via Creative Commons