word-nerds-united:

cogwrites:

please remember that your characters are more than the minority groups they belong to. they should, as a general rule, have personalities too

I don’t care how diverse your cast is if they’re all pieces of cardboard with the same or stereotyped personalities. When I see minority cast that are terribly written, it feels like the writer put them there to fulfill a diversity credit, not that they actually care about showcasing diversity. And that frustrates me.

I remember when my brother played…uh…m…metroid??? And told me the main character of this space adventure was a badass woman who could kick you across space. My eyes lit up and my brain was like “Girl! Girl! Girl!” Because there was a video game character who was me, a girl. Where previously I’d only seen predominantly male protagonists. It’s the best feeling in the world when you feel like it’s you on the screen and on the page.

But to find out that they have no personality? That the black guy is a drug dealer and the Ho-Chunk are in wild west grasslands? That’s devastatingly horrible. It ruins whatever diversity the author ever attempted to get at.

Please be diverse. Please give them a good backstory. Please give them a personality.