OK I have thoughts. They are *kind of* political but also about writing, so fair game.
It's around the idea of avoiding cultural appropriation and racist tropes. I've seen resistance to the idea that you can't just write whatever you want. And you can, but…
How to put this? Imagine you are going on a trip to a new and interesting place, and you've paid a guide to take you there. That place is a book, and the writer is the guide.
The main character is not the guide. The narrator is not the guide. The writer is the guide.
It's OK for the MC or narrator to be an ignorant jerk, if the writer is nudging you and saying, "I know right?" It's not OK for the writer to NOT NOTICE or nod along with the jerkery.
You can't try to never offend, but you can try not to be boring and ignorant. Nobody wants to hire a guide who repeats threadbare cliches about things they don't understand instead of showing you cool stuff.
@petealexharris The problem I've started wrestling with (especially after all the recent Hollywood allegations) is - What if centralizing that jerk in your story just isn't that interesting?
Increasingly I've noticed how much writing focuses on crappy white men (always with a self-aware nudge that they know the man is crappy), at the same time my patience for that theme dwindles.
Write flawed characters, always.
Write ignorant ones. But should they so often be the center of our empathy?
Pete Alex Harris
Joshua