Writing Advice of the Day

If you're worried about writing characters that are too stereotypical for their Race, Gender, or Sexuality the best thing you can do is not focus on those aspects

Instead of thinking "How do I avoid offending readers with my portrayal of this character?"

Try thinking "What makes this character their own person?"

While I understand the desire to avoid stereotypes altogether, doing so feels just as unrealistic as giving in to those stereotypes entirely. What makes a stereotype so harmful is the way that it takes a defining feature of a culture and turns it into something negative and misunderstood

Not to mention, if you spend all your time building a character around "what is and isn't okay to portray" then you'll never actually get to explore the character as an individual person

So stop chasing your own tail! Focus on making the character a person, regardless of their Race, Gender, Sexuality, etc.

Then, once you have a solid foundation for who they are, research their demographics and cross-reference harmful portrayals with your character.

Only then can you decide whether you want to change something about them.

And remember!

There are all kinds of people in the world!

It's okay to have stereotypical traits sometimes! So long as you make sure that the character is obviously more than those traits.

This advice can also apply to characters you've made that were based on characters from other media.

Lastly, don't be afraid of criticism. No matter how much research you do or how well you portray something, there's always going to be someone who complains or insults it.

But that's okay! People are entitled to their opinions, even if they're jerks who just want something to complain about.

Consider criticism like this a badge of honor. You're a real writer.