Writing the Other | Online Writing Classes and Workshops

Representation is fundamental to writing great fiction. Creating characters that reflect the diversity of the world we live in is important for all writers and creators of fictional narratives. But writers often find it difficult to represent people whose gender, sexual orientation, racial heritage, or other aspect of identity is very different from their own. This can lead to fear of getting it wrong–horribly, offensively wrong–and, in the face of that, some think it’s better not to try.

The hard truth is this: Representation and Diversity are too important to ignore.

It IS possible to write characters who represent the “Other” sensitively and convincingly. Through our classes, workshops, and seminars and the resources available on this site and elsewhere creators can get a solid foundation in how to craft characters from any background, no matter how different they are from you.

Recent Classes

Deep Dive Intensive: Creating Diverse Characters

April 10, 2021April 2, 2021Writing the Other

Authors Nisi Shawl, Piper J. Drake, and K. Tempest Bradford will dive deep into character creation with writing exercises, discussion, and lectures on intersectionality, character relationships, avoiding stereotypes and tropes, and depicting characters from different genders, sexualities, classes, ethnicities, ability levels, and religious backgrounds. [...]

Are You My Ally? A Webinar for Writers and Creators

April 6, 2021May 2, 2021

Diverse Narrative Structure | May 2021

March 21, 2021April 21, 2021

Cultural Appropriation - What It Is and How To Avoid It

Cultural Appropriation: What It Is & How To Avoid It | Webinar

March 9, 2021May 2, 2021

Available Any Time: On-Demand Webinars

Writing Deaf and Blind Characters | On Demand Master Class

January 21, 2019August 25, 2020Writing the Other

Partially deaf and partially blind writer and editor Elsa Sjunneson-Henry walks writers through the process of researching and understanding both conditions for fiction writing. [...]

Writing for Trans and Non-Binary Narratives | On Demand Master Class

November 22, 2018August 25, 2020

Writing Native American Characters: How Not To Do A Rowling | On Demand Master Class

July 24, 2016August 25, 2020

More than Eunuchs and Extraterrestrials: Writing Positive Portrayals of Asexual Characters | On Demand Master Class

July 24, 2016August 25, 2020

News & Events

Support the Vonda N. McIntyre Sentient Squid Scholarship

November 20, 2019March 23, 2021Writing the Other

Are you interested in helping us help writers learn how to combat cultural toxicity? To create fiction that is inclusive, and that better represents and reflects the world? Yes, it’s possible. But we need your support to make it happen for more people. [...]

Nisi Shawl and K. Tempest Bradford in Conversation at Seattle’s University Book Store

October 30, 2019October 30, 2019Writing the Other

November 23, 2019 at 6 PM – Come hear authors, editors, and partners in crime Nisi Shawl and K. Tempest Bradford interview each other about craft and creativity. [...]

Custom Writing the Other Seminars for Agencies and Publishing Houses

June 30, 2018January 24, 2019Writing the Other

Agents, Editors, Publishers: Do you want to help your clients and authors create representative, inclusive fiction without inadvertently using damaging tropes or outdated [...]

Podcasts and Videos

Writing the Other on Writing Excuses – Crafting Chinese-American Characters

March 1, 2021February 17, 2021Writing the Other

Yang Yang Wang joins Tempest, Piper J. Drake, and Dan Wells for a discussion of language, food, and a whole raft of other cultural elements critical to crafting Chinese-American characters. [...]

K. Tempest Bradford and Sheree Renée Thomas on the Glitchy Pancakes Podcast

February 27, 2021February 18, 2021Writing the Other

K. Tempest Bradford and Sheree Renée Thomas do a deep dive into Own Voices fiction, why it’s so important, and how it fits in with Writing the Other. [...]

Writing the Other on Writing Excuses – Researching for Writing the Other

February 24, 2021February 17, 2021Writing the Other

Nisi Shawl and Silvia Moreno-Garcia join Tempest, Piper J. Drake, and Dan Wells to talk about how writing stories which feature people who are not like you is, in a word, difficult. [...]

What our students say about us

Taking this deep dive class connected me to a lot of wonderful people and resources. It helped me pinpoint several immediate problems in my current works in progress, gave me specific strategies to address those flaws, and ways to analyze my work in the future to better tell the inclusive stories that I imagine. I would not have been able to take this class without the scholarship.

― A Building Inclusive Worlds student

What an incredibly valuable class. This course provided a thoughtful and supportive place to dig deep into tricky issues and questions, and to examine our own context and assumptions. The resources were incredible, and I know I’ll come back to them over and over. The discussion was illuminating and my approach to my writing has already changed. I’d recommend the four week Writing The Other course to any author without hesitation.

― Amie Kaufman, author of the Starbound Trilogy

Thoughtful, insightful, and yet utterly unthreatening to sensitive writerly egos, this is the best workshop I’ve attended in ages.

― Lori Selke on the Classic Seminar

Going into the workshop I had a particular story I was burning to learn how to tell without being inappropriate. I was terrified I was writing it (and anything else involving characters of color) like an out-of-touch white dork. Ms. Shawl and Ms. Bradford were compassionate and emotionally generous while being very straightforward. Their class both eased my mind and made me realize how clueless I’ve been; it has started me on a lifetime learning project that can do nothing but make me a better writer.

― Ellen Saunders, a Weekend Intensive student