How An Author Can Diversify Their Characters And Enhance Their Story

There's been a huge push recently for more diversity in books, movies, and TV shows. But I think sometimes we get bogged down in what constitutes diversity.

 

It isn't having a list you reference. When you get down to it, diversity is realism. It's creating real characters in the real world. Or, in this case, the fictional world.

 

Diversity is more than race or sexual orientation. It also includes body types, physical and mental disabilities, and even religious diversity.

 

No two people are exactly the same. Shocker, I know. We all have different experiences, different morals and values, and different things that turn us on. And as a writer, that should be looked at as a blessing. There is nothing more boring than one dimensional characters.  

But what if you write science fiction or fantasy?

 

People, at their core, are still people. Even if you're writing aliens you want readers to be able to relate to, then they need to have their own unique personalities--their own backstories--their own problems and challenges. They aren't a monolith.

 

So how do you include diversity in your story?

 

It's not as complicated as you might think.

 

Several of my books contain some level of diversity. In my Finding Anna series, Brianna is suffering from a mental illness. In Behind Closed Doors, Elizabeth is a curvy woman who has body image issues. My hero in Longing for His Kiss has a limp from a combat injury.

 

These are only a few examples of how a writer can diversify their characters and enhance their story. Humans are complex creatures. You characters should be as well.

 

The first step when writing should always be to get to know your characters. Some writers go as far as writing character profiles before they begin the first chapter. Others, like myself who write by the seat of our pants, get to know our characters backstories as the story unfolds. We peel back the layers one at a time and build on that until we have a well rounded character.

 

Either way, getting to know and understand your character's history and motivations are key. If someone has body image issues, you may want to explore what led to those issues. When talking about sexual preference, addressing when the character first noticed their changing desires helps increase the connection a reader feels to the character.

 

In my BDSM stories, I almost always mention how one or both of my characters discovered they enjoy kink. This can be as detailed as it needs to be, but if a character feels strongly about something, no matter what it is, it's a good idea to give the reader a way to understand.

 

This goes beyond the topic of diversity, of course. If a character detests avocados to the point where they are running out of a room at just the sight of one, then explaining that reaction is a good idea. 

 

Don't leave your reader hanging. Bring them into the character's world. Let them experience what the character has experienced. Tap into those emotions. Make the story come alive.

 

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LEGACY OF A DREAMER, Allie Jean, Paranormal

Chantal Breelan is plagued by horrible nightmares too realistic to ignore. Her past has been a mystery, and the foster system isn’t providing any answers. Starting a new life alone at eighteen is a challenge, especially when things that go bump in the night appear out of the shadows, and her dreams begin to breach reality. Darkness surrounds her from all sides, but is it only evil that hides in the shadows, or are the answers to her past lingering just beyond?

ZOMBIFIED, Maggie LaCroix, Paranormal Fantasy

Monsters know their place: vampires are sexy; zombies just decompose.  But Maggie La Croix’s Zombified conjures up an entirely different kind of undead raised by good old-fashioned Voodoo. Take Henri—still gorgeous, over one hundred years after his death. And now a hurricane has set him free from a curse.

Enter Josie, a reporter with her eyes on Henri. But falling for a man without a heartbeat could get her more than a broken heart. It could get her zombified.

 THE SIX, K.B. Hoyle, Fantasy

Darcy Pennington feels like she is an insufferably average thirteen-year-old, but when a change in her dad’s job forces her to attend Cedar Cove Camp, she unwittingly stumbles upon a magical gateway. Along with five other teenagers, she will travel to a world called Alitheia. The “arrival of the Six” was prophesied long ago, but will she have what it takes to save Alitheia?

MORE, T.M. Franklin, Paranormal

Haunted by terrifying nightmares and certain she’s being watched, college student Ava Michaels finds an unlikely ally in Physics tutor Caleb Foster. But Caleb isn’t quite what he seems. In fact, he's not entirely human, and he's not the only one.

Together, the duo faces a threat from an ancient race bent on Ava’s capture, and possible extinction. As Ava fights to survive, she learns the world’s not what she thought.

It's a little bit more.

THE SILVER CRESCENT, Debby Grahl, Paranormal

An ancestor’s tale of betrayal, murder and a stolen fortune in silver leads Elise Baxter to Max Holt’s Victorian inn.

She is reluctantly, though irresistibly, attracted to Max. Leery of loving again, Max lets passion overrule caution, tumbling them into an erotic encounter.

Guided by ghosts and opposed by an evil presence, the couple searches for the treasure. But there are others who will stop at nothing to unlock the mystery of the Silver Crescent.

 THE MEMORY HEALER, Julie Filarski, Paranormal

When Beth Montgomery reluctantly agrees to carry out a psychic assessment of Carrington House, she is transported to another era, where she sees a date on a calendar that fills her with dread.

Back in the present time and sensing an eternal bond with the irresistible Dr Matthew Jamieson, she wonders whether he was once the darkly handsome but unfaithful Samuel Methven. Beth must regress to the tragic events of 1895 to learn the truth.

HUNTED, Lorenz Font, Paranormal

Disease is ravaging the vampire com-munity in New York City’s underworld. Harrow Gates is sick, alone, and hunted. When Pritchard Tack offers him a new beginning, he is in no position to refuse.

Jordan is a young vampire whose only focus is revenge. In her search for her family’s killer, she meets a man who threatens to pull her heart away from her sworn mission. Is love strong enough to override her thirst for vengeance?

MOUNTAIN CHARM, Sydney Logan, Paranormal

“True love and sweet whispers, till death do us part;

Send someone to love my Appalachian heart.”

At the age of thirteen, Angelina Clark followed in the footsteps of her ancestors by casting an Appalachian love spell, which promised she would blossom into a beautiful and gifted woman who would find her true love. A young Angelina had been thrilled to participate in the sacred ritual, but through the years, her father’s untimely death and her mother’s failing health have shaken Angelina’s magical faith to its core. As her twenty-first birthday approaches, she refuses to practice her supernatural gifts and no longer believes in the love charm.

REDEMPTION, Lindsey Gray, Paranormal

Life is for living. Afterlife is a chance at redemption. As the only remaining female vampire in existence, Lily attempts to make her way towards her ever after. But with best friend Becca, new beau Ian, human hus-band Ryan, Archangel Peter, and a host of demons all standing in the way of Lily's chance at a peaceful eternity, how can she possibly survive?

CONVERGENCE, J.D. Watts, Paranormal

Daniella Rossi is a nineteen-year-old college student who sees the world quite differently than those around her. From infancy, she was aware of the beings that walked among her kind who were not like them, as well as her own personal Guardian who watched over her. Dani always knew she was different, but she never dreamed the full scope of her importance. When a new male Guardian comes to replace her lifelong friend and companion, will Dani be able to accept him as she deals with a world full of the other Children of Creation, Angels, both good and evil?

OBVIOUS CHILD, Warren Cantrell, SciFi

In 2015, Sam Grant is chosen to take part in a contest that will choose the world’s first time traveler. There’s just one prob-lem—Sam doesn’t want anything to do with the contest. Yet his deliberately profane public appearances and sabotaged interviews only boost ratings. Now stuck, Sam must plot how he’ll get out of the contest, or if he should embrace it all and become the most famous person in history.

GHOSTWRITER, Lissa Bryan, Paranormal

Unemployed, with her savings dwindling, Sara Howell thinks things are looking up when she lands a ghostwriting job and rents the affordable island home of her favorite author, Seth Fortner, who mysteriously disappeared in 1925.

Strange things happen, making Sara wonder if Seth ever left. When she finds an old trunk of Seth’s letters, she delves into a world she never imagined, filled with love and a family curse it seems only she can break.

THE STARS ARE FALLING, Michelle Birbeck, Paranormal

Jenny’s life revolves around surviving university, watching the stars, and staring at her housemate, Dale. But as the night sky glows with the light of falling stars, Jenny’s classes and crush seem unimportant. The Stars are retaking Earth, saving mother nature by eliminating the problem. Together, Jenny and Dale can save the world and the human race, but surviving long enough to convince the Stars of that is perilous and may kill them both.

EVERYBODY OUT OF THE LAUNDROMAT, I NEED TO THINK!, 

Phil G. Glenn, Paranormal

When the ordinary life of Virgil Blaine crosses the path of the even more ordinary Doug Coulthard, it sets off a series of extraordinary events. Doug Coulthard is a Filing Clerk and the President of the Unpublished People’s Poet’s Party –Political Unit (UPPPPU) where a catastrophe has just happened; two of his long time members have been published. The UPPPPU goes on a recruiting drive by distributing leaflets, one of which finds its way into Virgil Blaine’s pocket. Virgil Blaine, who is a slight poet himself, attends one of the meetings where he meets Forward Slash who offers Virgil Blaine a job. The offer comes with two things Virgil Blaine has never had; a job and a car and on a whim he accepts. The problem is, through no effort of his own, his position is suddenly elevated. Virgil Blaine says the job is ‘messing with his DNA – Deliberate Non-Achiever’ and he misses his old life and so hatches a plan to get it back…

SEBASTIAN AND THE AFTERLIFE, William j. Barry, Paranormal

Sebastian, an average seventeen-year-old boy, has just paid this debt. He awakes in a surreal world somewhere between mor-tal life and the afterlife, where the Grim Reaper rules and his loyal agents maintain the law. But not all is peaceful in this mystical realm. Axis Red and his soul pirates threaten the future of all who dwell there.

Sebastian soon finds himself at Sapentia, a high school for the departed. There he makes new friends but longs for his lost love, Sarah, who is still alive in the mortal world. Some things are forbidden; some lines cannot be crossed. What will Sebastian risk to be close to Sarah again?

Continue the adventure with Sebastian and the Afterlife Book II - Agents of the Reaper

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