Writing the Other (Conversation Pieces)

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.

This book is a departure from my usual fare -- it's one on the art of writing. I'm writing a novel, and one of my fears is that, in attempting to write diverse characters with experiences different from those of my own, I will do something terribly wrong. This book was recommended to me as a way of thinking about character diversity.

It's a short book, and it really is no substitute for "primary sources." If you're writing a young black man from a poor neighbourhood, it's better off to read The New Jim Crow than to merely imagine the "otherness" that comes when writing such a character as a young, white female from a privileged background. Even so, the authors provide several interesting writing exercises and key points about privilege and difference.

The most useful part of this book was the discovery of the term, "The Unmarked State" -- that is, the 'normal' state of an individual in society. In the US, this is white, male, single, 20s/30s, not disabled, with English as a first language, etc. Any character you write who differs from this is 'marked' in some way. It certainly is a way to frame characters.

The book also makes a case against using diversity for the sake of diversity itself -- basically, how authors get diversity wrong. In all, it's a short read and worth the time. Much of it is common sense, but since MBA student will pay tens of thousands to be imbued with it, you can spend the ten bucks to get this book and learn how you can better write characters who are not you.

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.

I was looking for much more from this book. I'm particularly miffed that I paid $12 for a book so small in the first place, but the last FORTY PAGES are excerpts from other books. The actual book is only 70 pages, so for that, $12 is unreasonable.

I'm on the fence about keeping it or returning it.

I don't know what this book is made out of, but I've had books get wet before and be fine. When my water bottle leaked in my bag, this book literally fell apart. Such cheap material for a book that cost so much! Do not waste your money buying a paper copy of this book. If my water bottle hadn't leaked, I have no doubt that this book would have fallen apart on its own within a few months. I wish had my copy to send back to them to show how it fell apart, but I had to sacrifice the book to save the others in my bad (which went undamaged). This book was like a sponge! I've seriously never seen this before. Beware! Get the Kindle version instead. The paper copy is a rip off.

This text makes you consider different points of view. However, it doesn't do enough in providing examples (both good and bad) of writing for the reader to consider how well a certain method works/doesn't work in practice.

The practice assignments are sometimes vaguely written. Possibly these practice sessions work better in a class setting when the instructor can guide the participants. As is, they lack a feedback mechanism that is important.

The text is a bit too focused on being politically correct at the cost of properly analyzing the methods of "writing the other" that work. The reader is distracted by some of the statements made by the authors which are moral/ethical in nature, regardless of whether the reader might agree with those statements.

This book is a must for anyone seeking to enrich their writing with diverse characters and wants to tell convincing stories without appropriation.

Very insightful and thought provoking book. The first time I read a discussion about how a person's physical attributes or detriments can affect his/her view of the world was Lajos Egri's Art of Dramatic Writing. Cynthia and Nisi expand the discussion by incorporating other personal and cultural elements that affect our perceptions and interpretations of ourselves and each other. A must have for a fiction writer's library.

This book has been very helpful for me.

Strong learning tool to help writers develop a sense of perspective for divergent characters