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

Sensitivity Readers Webinar: What, When, How, and Why

September 29, 2021September 28, 2021Writing the Other

Creators who want to include characters or cultures different to their own in their work are often encouraged to employ the services of sensitivity readers or cultural consultants. But, how do you find a sensitivity reader? When in the process should you look for one? How many should you hire? How much does it cost? What’s the best way to work with them? Why do you need one at all? [...]

NaNo Prep: Character Workshop

September 9, 2021October 9, 2021

NaNo Prep: The Friend, The Lover, and The Enemy – Mastering Key Relationship Arcs

September 9, 2021October 9, 2021

NaNo Prep: Worldbuilding Workshop

September 9, 2021October 13, 2021

Available Any Time: On-Demand Webinars

Writing Deaf and Blind Characters | On Demand Master Class

January 21, 2019October 4, 2021Writing 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, 2018October 4, 2021

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

July 24, 2016October 4, 2021

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

July 24, 2016October 4, 2021

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

The class on worldbuilding provided many valuable insights into how to include a diverse cast of underrepresented groups, demonstrating how to break out from traditional hierarchical and normative presentations with solely focused on privileged groups. Rather than a prescriptive list or an approach that focused on performative and manipulative “wokeness” the class offered insight and an opportunity for dialogue on true worldbuilding and the art of crafting secondary worlds that are inclusive and avoid accidental usage of analog cultures and otherization. Lessons on research, criticism, and varied frameworks left me well prepared with a toolbox to tackle issues of inclusiveness for today, tomorrows that may or not may not be, and histories that never were.

― B Phillip York, a Building Inclusive Worlds student

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

A lively, entertaining, and above all stimulating experience, proving yet again that even the examined life benefits by being re-examined from time to time, all the more so in the case of writers.

― Suzy McKee Charnas, author of Walk to the End of the World, on the Classic Seminar

This class was eye-opening and world building for me as a writer. The content was amazing, the guest speakers impressive, and the exercises broadened my thinking. If you want to build worlds in your writing (and after the class I would argue that worlds get built in all fiction) you need to take this class. It will give you the knowledge, courage and community to take risks, to be inclusive in ways you’d not yet thought of, and to change the world by building a better one.

― Michelle, a Building Inclusive Worlds student