I'm not sure if you are trying to be funny or not. I personally think people should write what they want but always ask yourself, is this a story that you should be telling? Given the description of your next historical fiction novel, yes this is absolutely a story that you should be telling, you are pulling from your own experiences. Now if you were writing this story directly from the perspective of the African-American actor, that I would question.
You should NOT get lost in it. All writing is an act of imaginative empathy, and if writers write books based only on their "lived experience" (god how I hate that term), we wouldn't have Anna Karenina or Portrait of a Lady or Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni (not a golem! not a jinii!).
Freakin' brilliant assessment of today's publishing climate (and other venues!) where the self-appointed cultural cops are acting like the men who've come to arrest Joseph K. in Kafka's "The Trial." And I can say that because I'm a short Jewish guy with really big ears. And I write stuff that I want burned after I drop dead.
Good thinking. My WASTELANDS steampunk series (think DARK TOWER or FALLOUT meets GAME OF THRONES) required a lot of historical and military reading on the Civil War through World War II.
If you're really worried about getting the treatment BLOOD HEIR or AMERICAN DIRT got, it might be a good idea to include an actual bibliography, especially on areas that might be potentially controversial like race and gender, politics from this period, etc.
This sounds great! Unless you're writing a memoir, you aren't expected to have identical lived experiences to your main character. Sensitivity readers are important and respect for the cultures/ethnicities/religions is too. Write the story you want to write. Rose sounds like a wonderful heroine.
I'm not sure if you are trying to be funny or not. I personally think people should write what they want but always ask yourself, is this a story that you should be telling? Given the description of your next historical fiction novel, yes this is absolutely a story that you should be telling, you are pulling from your own experiences. Now if you were writing this story directly from the perspective of the African-American actor, that I would question.
You should NOT get lost in it. All writing is an act of imaginative empathy, and if writers write books based only on their "lived experience" (god how I hate that term), we wouldn't have Anna Karenina or Portrait of a Lady or Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni (not a golem! not a jinii!).
Freakin' brilliant assessment of today's publishing climate (and other venues!) where the self-appointed cultural cops are acting like the men who've come to arrest Joseph K. in Kafka's "The Trial." And I can say that because I'm a short Jewish guy with really big ears. And I write stuff that I want burned after I drop dead.
I'm sure your ears are very culturally appropriate.
Write what you want, and anybody who tells you want you can't write is your enemy.
That said, it would probably be a good idea to do a lot of historical/cultural research to avoid foul-ups.
This book has a bibliography and everything!
Good thinking. My WASTELANDS steampunk series (think DARK TOWER or FALLOUT meets GAME OF THRONES) required a lot of historical and military reading on the Civil War through World War II.
If you're really worried about getting the treatment BLOOD HEIR or AMERICAN DIRT got, it might be a good idea to include an actual bibliography, especially on areas that might be potentially controversial like race and gender, politics from this period, etc.
This sounds great! Unless you're writing a memoir, you aren't expected to have identical lived experiences to your main character. Sensitivity readers are important and respect for the cultures/ethnicities/religions is too. Write the story you want to write. Rose sounds like a wonderful heroine.