Most of my original characters are white or Asian, because most of the people I know are white or Asian, but I'm neither. I don't see a problem with that, because I honestly don't think a person's race has that much of an impact on who they are. Their cultural heritage, sure, but that doesn't necessarily have to be linked to race. My white characters aren't usually fully English; in one story, two of the main characters are Welsh, one of them's half-Italian and another one's Indian. I think that has a more of a bearing on who they are than the fact that they're white or Asian, to be honest.
- ayanasioux:
- I have to know, because it's been lingering in my mind, what drives people to write about white people (on this site that is) when they're not even white themselves?
I agree partly with this. I like writing about other ethnicities, not necessarily races, because I find the cultural background that comes into it quite interesting and it makes for more interesting characters, but I don't really relate more to a character who's the same race or ethnicity as me. It'd be kind of hard to find a character who was and I don't think I've ever seen one but apart from that, I really don't think someone's race or ethnicity influences who they are to the point where you can't relate to them if its different to yours. I think relatability is much more affected by a character's personality than anything else at all, and that has nothing to do with race, or even ethnicity.
- dr. faustus.:
- No one is asking you to change the color of your skin. I'm black and I find writing about other races is beautiful. No matter who I hang around of feel more related to (that's just me). I love all the characters I write about, white, black, brown or yellow... it's just the simple fact that diversity is lacking in stories and it some times or can feel good know you can relate to a character that's just like you. There are a lot of caucasian actors on TV and movies and rarely any other type of race. It just gets boring from time to time.
June 5th, 2011 at 04:34pm