Writing diversity for diversity's sake

The stories of Bryan Young: Diversity for Diversity's Sake

bryanyoungfiction.com

I found this over at The Writers Workshop and thought it was fantastic. (That community's worth joining, if you haven't already: https://www.imzy.com/writers)

I love the idea of asking yourself questions: "Why isn't my leading character female? . . . Why isn't my character LGBT? Or a person of color? Or any other under-represented community?"

A while ago, I started more consciously introducing diversity into my books. It didn't take much effort--I just started making an effort to write an environment that reflected the diversity of the world I live in. (Before that, I'd unconsciously spent a lot of time writing worlds where everyone was like me: white, cisgender, educated, somewhere in the realm of middle class, etc. Super boring.) Since then, my beta readers have seemed thrilled. I did start introducing diversity for diversity's sake... and it's been nothing but good for my writing.