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

Diverse Narrative Structure November 2020

October 17, 2020October 13, 2020Writing the Other

In this course author Henry Lien will demonstrate that elements that we consider staples of European/Western storytelling–such as the three-act story structure, the empowerment arc, and individual heroism–are not universal across all cultures. [...]

Writing Fat Characters Master Class with Marianne Kirby and Meg Elison

September 27, 2020October 20, 2020

Deep Dive Into Building Inclusive Worlds

August 26, 2020September 27, 2020

Diverse Narrative Structure

July 19, 2020August 20, 2020

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

Purchase Gift Cards for Classes

March 31, 2020May 21, 2020Writing the Other

Writing the Other now has an easier way for people to gift our classes to writers. Gift cards are available through GiftUp! and can be used for any of the classes we teach with ticketing through Eventbrite. [...]

Help Us Help Writers Isolated Due To COVID-19

March 20, 2020Writing the Other

If we can raise $5,000 we’ll be able to offer more scholarship spots in upcoming classes and also create some free or donation-based webinars. [...]

Support the Vonda N. McIntyre Sentient Squid Scholarship

November 20, 2019August 27, 2020Writing 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. [...]

Podcasts and Videos

Mythology and Speculative Literature Panel from Carl Brandon Society

August 27, 2020August 27, 2020Writing the Other

Mythology is a rich vein for writers to mine when it comes to making new stories. But what are some dead angles that writers have when it comes to mythology? How do you go about integrating existing mythologies into your work in a respectful way, or should you do that at all? [...]

Writing the Other on Writing Excuses – Being an Ally

April 5, 2020April 5, 2020Writing the Other

Erin Roberts joins Tempest, Piper J. Drake, and Dongwon Song to talk about how to be an ally to members of marginalized groups. [...]

Writing the Other on Writing Excuses – Writing Characters With Physical Disabilities

December 11, 2019Writing the Other

Nicola Griffith joins Tempest, Piper J. Drake, and Dan to talk about how to faithfully represent people with physical disabilities through the characters we create. [...]

What our students say about us

Many writers live in fear of making offensive mistakes. This workshop is crucial for understanding how that fear can lead to marginalization or elimination of characters that challenge the status quo. And it’s fun, too.

― A Seattle student on the Classic Seminar

I can’t recommend this course enough; as well as delivering everything it promised in terms of new perspectives on writing about marginalised people, it gave me tools that will improve my writing overall, particularly with respect to character development and worldbuilding.

― Rivqa Rafael, a Multi-Week Class 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

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