July’s the month I take a blogging sabbath. Throughout the course of the month, I’ll re-run some oldies but goodies. Enjoy!
Yesterday I turned in my first-round edits on BLUE BIRDS — a verse novel about the Lost Colony of Roanoke told from the perspective of Alis, an English girl, and Kimi, a Roanoke girl. The story didn’t start this way. I initially intended to write solely from Alis’s perspective. But when I realized the forbidden friendship between Alis and Kimi is what the entire story hinges upon, I couldn’t keep things as I first planned.
And that kind of terrified me.
There are a lot of opinions and strong, strong feelings as to who has permission to write certain books. I’m a non-Native author. What gives me the right to try and speak for a thirteen-year-old Roanoke girl?
I’m still not sure. But I’ve been a girl. And I know how profoundly friendship can shape a person. I’ve been in new cultural settings and have learned to see the foreign as familiar and the familiar as foreign. This answer won’t be enough for some readers. I understand that. But I’ve gone ahead and written the book anyway.
In the mean time, I’m drawing courage from the It’s Complicated series at the Children’s Book Council Diversity blog.
What are your feelings about writers working outside their cultural experience?
Writers get criticized for just about anything these days, but isn’t seeing life from a different perspective one of the reasons we write? Really, you aren’t a transplanted English girl in a foreign country where death is around every corner, either. Like you said, you might not be in their shoes, but you do know what it’s like to be human, and I hope that really is what writing is all about. Good for you!
“You do know what it’s like to be human, and I hope that really is what writing is all about.”
Thank you, Heidi. You’re exactly right.
Heidi’s words here are quite wise. I think the whole point of writing is to write about things we don’t understand, emotions or behaviors or people who challenge us and make us see the world differently. We’re trying to find a connection, a way to understand, like Heidi said, how to be human. People are people. Period. Write with passion and an open mind, stay true to your story, be honest–it’s hard to go wrong that way.
Val, xo
This is an absolutely excellent post, and brings up a question that is often on our minds as writers. Thanks for writing it.
I’m so glad a discussion has started about things like this at the CBC Diversity blog. It helps me feel more brave and less alone.
This discussion has been going on for decades, and I felt it when I was writing THE LAST SNAKE RUNNER back in 1999-2001. I completely agree with Heidi – we are human, and writers have a deep need to explore humanity and emotions. But we also need to write the things that excite us, that we’re interested in enough to spend years researching, and that we’re passionate about. And when you/me are writing historical fiction, a contemporary native writer may not get it right, either! They didn’t live in the 1600s living off the land/hunting or in log houses/tents/teepees. I’m SURE all historical fiction writers get all kinds of things wrong like voice and worldview points. When I read the journal of the Spaniard captain who was on the expedition to the Southwest in 1599 I was frankly shocked at his worldview and the things he wrote. It would never pass muster today, and there’s no way those views could be included in fiction today. We are way too politically correct now. BUT reading that journal helped me understand why things happened the way they did. Truly fascinating.
This is one of the many reasons I’m so fortunate to have you as a friend. You are farther along the path and have so much to teach me. xo
My middle grade novel was about a mixed-race girl and I did receive some criticism. How could I know how that feels? I am a southern white girl. But, like you, I know what it feels like to be a girl and to have mixed up feelings about who you are. I really think the rule of writing what you know is about the worst one there is for writers. I like how your post empowers writers like me to keep writing about what makes you want to keep writing.
I think write what you know is awful advice, too. I know very little, but there is so much I’d like to learn about. Happy to hear you feel empowered!
Hi, I’m new to your site and am impressed that you write novels iin verse! Wow!. The closest I’ve come to writing outside my own experience is an Irish-Catholic character based in 1919 Sacramento. I’m not Irish, and I’m not Catholic, so I read a lot of Irish writers and novels about immigration in earlier times. I haven’t ventured outside my own ethnic group, though, for a point of view character. I think it would be hard to get the right note. I do have peripheral characters from other ethnic groups in my stories, because that is part of my own experience of friendships and work relations. I visited the “It’s Complicated” site, and that’s a wonderful find. Thanks for the information.
Welcome, Elizabeth! The “It’s Complicated” series has been a wonderfully freeing way to look at writing outside our experiences. So glad you’ve found it.