The Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) has
been presenting digital workshops free to members and archiving them for one
month. I recently listened to “Writing Identity Elements Into Our Stories” with
authors S.K. Ali, David Bowles, and Linda Sue Park. It was described as “how to
accurately and respectfully write identity elements into our stories,” and I
was hoping it would help with writing characters outside my culture. When I
listened to it, however, the theme could be better described as “how to write a
story from your own culture.”
Faithful readers of this blog know that I’ve published two middle-grade
historicals outside of my culture. The first, Desert Jewels, is about a
Japanese-American girl living in an internment camp during World War II. The
other, Creating Esther, tells the story of a Native American girl
who leaves her reservation in the later 1800s to attend a boarding school. My
next two blog posts will explain why I chose to write those books and why I
picked POV characters from outside my culture. But I want to direct this post
to statements made during the workshop.
A preliminary comment, however. Other than in this paragraph, I won’t
be using the word “race.” There is only one race—the human race—and we all
share it. What we don’t all share are the various ancestries, heritages,
cultural experiences, and skin colors within the human race. With that out of
the way, here are my comments from the SCBWI workshop.
I really appreciated S.K. Ali’s reminder that no “culture” is unified
but that practices and experiences vary widely within the larger group. Even
though she grew up Muslim, she had to be sensitive to these differences when
writing about her Muslim protagonist. And her insight applies no matter what
group your character belongs to.
In recent years, the “Own Voices” movement has been encouraging authors
from “marginalized” groups to write about characters who belong to that group. I
liked the way Linda Sue Park reframed it during the workshop, saying she
prefers the term “lived experience.” This better reflects S.K. Ali’s comments
about the many cultures within a culture.
The one place the “lived experience” concept breaks down, however, is
in historical fiction. I could use my “own voice” for writing about a German
immigrant in the 1800s, but it doesn’t qualify as lived experience because my
ancestors’ lives were nothing like mine. Imagine eating beans for days on end
while waiting for the crops that may or may not come in, or caring for a
seriously ill family member on your own because the nearest doctor was one
hundred miles away and your only way to reach him required the use of a farm
horse built for heavy work rather than speed. Or imagine standing in a dirty,
noisy factory for twelve hours a day without any safety measures to keep you
from losing an arm. The only way I can understand these experiences is through
extensive research, which is also the way I learn about protagonists with a
different heritage.
The third member of the panel, David Bowles, compared his audience to
people sitting around a campfire. The ones in the inner circle share his
heritage, and these are the ones he writes for.
I write for a different audience. I think it is important for “privileged
white kids” to understand what others have gone through and may still be
experiencing. I commend David Bowles for writing for the inner circle, which I
probably couldn’t reach. But it’s important to write for the outer circle, too.
That was how I envisioned my role when writing Desert Jewels and Creating
Esther.
Next week I’ll talk more about Desert Jewels and why I chose to
use a Japanese-American protagonist in that book.
__________
Desert Jewels is available from Amazon in paperback and Kindle versions at this link [The Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) has been presenting digital workshops free to members and archiving them for one month. I recently listened to “Writing Identity Elements Into Our Stories” with authors S.K. Ali, David Bowles, and Linda Sue Park. It was described as “how to accurately and respectfully write identity elements into our stories,” and I was hoping it would help with writing characters outside my culture. When I listened to it, however, the theme could be better described as “how to write a story from your own culture.”
Faithful readers of this blog know that I’ve published two middle-grade
historicals outside of my culture. The first, Desert Jewels, is about a
Japanese-American girl living in an internment camp during World War II. The
other, Creating Esther, tells the story of a Native American girl
who leaves her reservation in the later 1800s to attend a boarding school. My
next two blog posts will explain why I chose to write those books and why I
picked POV characters from outside my culture. But I want to direct this post
to statements made during the workshop.
A preliminary comment, however. Other than in this paragraph, I won’t
be using the word “race.” There is only one race—the human race—and we all
share it. What we don’t all share are the various ancestries, heritages,
cultural experiences, and skin colors within the human race. With that out of
the way, here are my comments from the SCBWI workshop.
I really appreciated S.K. Ali’s reminder that no “culture” is unified
but that practices and experiences vary widely within the larger group. Even
though she grew up Muslim, she had to be sensitive to these differences when
writing about her Muslim protagonist. And her insight applies no matter what
group your character belongs to.
In recent years, the “Own Voices” movement has been encouraging authors
from “marginalized” groups to write about characters who belong to that group. I
liked the way Linda Sue Park reframed it during the workshop, saying she
prefers the term “lived experience.” This better reflects S.K. Ali’s comments
about the many cultures within a culture.
The one place the “lived experience” concept breaks down, however, is
in historical fiction. I could use my “own voice” for writing about a German
immigrant in the 1800s, but it doesn’t qualify as lived experience because my
ancestors’ lives were nothing like mine. Imagine eating beans for days on end
while waiting for the crops that may or may not come in, or caring for a
seriously ill family member on your own because the nearest doctor was one
hundred miles away and your only way to reach him required the use of a farm
horse built for heavy work rather than speed. Or imagine standing in a dirty,
noisy factory for twelve hours a day without any safety measures to keep you
from losing an arm. The only way I can understand these experiences is through
extensive research, which is also the way I learn about protagonists with a
different heritage.
The third member of the panel, David Bowles, compared his audience to
people sitting around a campfire. The ones in the inner circle share his
heritage, and these are the ones he writes for.
I write for a different audience. I think it is important for “privileged
white kids” to understand what others have gone through and may still be
experiencing. I commend David Bowles for writing for the inner circle, which I
probably couldn’t reach. But it’s important to write for the outer circle, too.
That was how I envisioned my role when writing Desert Jewels and Creating
Esther.
Next week I’ll talk more about Desert Jewels and why I chose to
use a Japanese-American protagonist in that book.
__________
Desert Jewels is available in paperback and Kindle versions from Amazon and in paperback from Barnes & Noble.
Creating Esther is available in paperback and Kindle versions from Amazon and in paperback from Barnes & Noble.
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