It's something I'm concerned with a lot--that's not saying I don't fail at it too, but I'm trying. Changing blond hair into braided dark hair, that sort of thing.
*nods*
I know what you mean. I find that being conscious of the choices I make in writing helps me make better choices and pay more attention to what I'm doing wrong. For me, it's been a process of turning off defaults I never thought much about and making the choice of which characters are speaking and whose story is being told an active decision. Sometimes it's very significant things and sometimes it's small things, but I've found that the act of taking control of those decisions - of not letting subconscious conditioning decide whose story is most important - makes me more able to try and try and try to get things right.
We can't change anything if we're not conscious of what we're contributing - good or bad or both - and when it comes to the very personal act of writing, paying attention is easy. There's no excuse not to. (My patience with writers who clearly never look beyond the perspective of white men has dwindled to essentially nothing lately. I don't feel bad about this.)
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(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-28 01:30 am (UTC)*nods*
I know what you mean. I find that being conscious of the choices I make in writing helps me make better choices and pay more attention to what I'm doing wrong. For me, it's been a process of turning off defaults I never thought much about and making the choice of which characters are speaking and whose story is being told an active decision. Sometimes it's very significant things and sometimes it's small things, but I've found that the act of taking control of those decisions - of not letting subconscious conditioning decide whose story is most important - makes me more able to try and try and try to get things right.
We can't change anything if we're not conscious of what we're contributing - good or bad or both - and when it comes to the very personal act of writing, paying attention is easy. There's no excuse not to. (My patience with writers who clearly never look beyond the perspective of white men has dwindled to essentially nothing lately. I don't feel bad about this.)