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.

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Unlock Your Character Workshop

October 7, 2024October 7, 2024Writing the Other

In this workshop, we’ll use writing exercises and group discussions to delve into character backgrounds to uncover the foundations of who they are. [...]

Dialogue Bootcamp – Online Writing Workshop

October 7, 2024October 7, 2024WtO Admin

Crafting dialogue doesn’t come naturally to every writer. Luckily, it’s a skill that can be learned and easily honed. [...]

Unlock Your World and Setting – An Online Workshop

October 7, 2024October 7, 2024WtO Admin

In this workshop, we’ll delve into aspects of your world that writers often overlook, but have major impact on the story and add depth to your setting. [...]

Description Bootcamp – Online Writing Workshop

October 7, 2024October 7, 2024WtO Admin

This asynchronous workshop is for writers who either struggle to describe people and/or settings or for those who need help honing this essential writing skill. [...]

Worldbuilding Bootcamp – Online Writing Workshop

October 1, 2024October 7, 2024WtO Admin

In this workshop, authors Nisi Shawl and K. Tempest Bradford will guide you through short writing exercises that will help you dive into aspects of your world that writers often overlook, but that impact your story and characters in major ways. [...]

Character Bootcamp – Online Writing Workshop

October 1, 2024October 7, 2024WtO Admin

Join us for a day of writing exercises and feedback that will help you dig into your characters’ background, giving you a solid foundation for their motivations and actions in your story. [...]

News & Events

Grab these Free Resources to Level Up Your Writing Craft

October 7, 2024October 7, 2024Writing the Other

You don’t need AI to become a better writer. This list of free writing-related resources is a broad selection of link libraries, playlists, and episodes filled with volumes of wisdom to help you with your craft. [...]

Excerpt: Refusing Compulsory Sexuality by Sherronda J. Brown

April 6, 2024October 7, 2024Writing the Other

In this book, the author breaks down the ways in which cultures (mostly Western ones) force sexuality on everyone, regardless of orientation. Creators who build worlds and futures should always interrogate their own culture’s “norms” in order to consciously create narratives that challenge, or are in sync with, said norms. The introduction to this book, excerpted below, is an excellent start to interrogating sexuality and the status quo. [...]

Writing the Other and Clarion West Join Forces!

July 25, 2023July 23, 2023Writing the Other

Writing the Other and Clarion West, two Seattle-based writing organizations, announce the beginning of a new partnership. Clarion West will serve as the fiscal sponsor for Writing the Other, as the organizations explore partnership opportunities and shared resource development. [...]

Available Any Time: On-Demand Classes

On Demand: Building Inclusive Worlds | Part 1: Foundations

April 13, 2024Writing the Other

For creative writers looking to decolonize their fiction and avoid harming marginalized people and cultures, crafting immersive worlds for science fiction, fantasy, and other speculative narratives can be especially challenging. Taught by a team of renowned authors and experts, this course explores and explains the foundational worldbuilding concepts of ideology, religiosity, cosmology, sociology, and more. Whether you’re a seasoned storyteller or just starting your journey, this course will equip you with an advanced worldbuilding skillset plus the confidence to create inclusive narratives and worlds that resonate with a wide range of readers. [...]

On Demand: Research Skills for Fiction Writers

February 21, 2024February 21, 2024Writing the Other

Research is a necessary part of the creative process for every fictional narrative, whether you’re creating whole new worlds or futures, using historical settings or events, or crafting characters whose identities or cultures are very different from your own. You don’t have to be a scholar or even a university student to get help and learn how to find the information you need to craft great stories. In this course, reference librarian Melody Steiner will take you through the research process step-by-step. [...]

On Demand: Writing Bisexual and Pansexual Characters | Master Class

September 15, 2023February 21, 2024Writing the Other

Bisexual author Cecilia Tan walks writers through the process of researching and representing characters who are not attracted exclusively to people of a single gender. Termed pansexual by some, bisexual by others (the “B” in LGBTQ), these sexual identities are among the most stigmatized and misunderstood, and are often represented by cliches and inaccurate stereotypes. [...]

On Demand Webinar: Cultural Appropriation – What It Is & How To Avoid It

November 16, 2021Writing the Other

Most writers want to avoid Cultural Appropriation but worry that they don’t fully understand what it is or how to ensure their work does not include it. In this On Demand webinar, we’ll give you the resources you need. [...]

On Demand: Writing Fat Characters | Master Class

November 14, 2021February 21, 2024Writing the Other

In this Master Class authors Marianne Kirby and Meg Elison will help you move beyond these kinds of tropes and create characters with big bodies that constitute good representation. [...]

On Demand: Should Authors Write Characters Different From Themselves?

November 13, 2021February 21, 2024Writing the Other

Though framed as a yes or no question, the answer to this is complicated and complex. In this On Demand webinar we’ll give you the answer. [...]

Resources

Excerpt: Refusing Compulsory Sexuality by Sherronda J. Brown

April 6, 2024October 7, 2024Writing the Other

Thoughts On Exposition by Kim Stanley Robinson

January 23, 2024January 17, 2024Writing the Other

The good/bad encoded in the “Exposition Bad” binary is wrongly applied, because writing is always telling stories, it’s a function of being caught in time; whether the protagonist of the story is a person or a rock, whether the story is narrated or exposed, there is an equal chance of it being interesting. And the advice “show don’t tell” is a zombie idea, killed forty years ago by the publication in English of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, yet still sadly wandering the literary landscape, confusing people. [...]

Death to “Show, Don’t Tell”! | A Conversation with Rebecca Makkai and Cecilia Tan

January 23, 2024February 8, 2024Writing the Other

In this video we explore the idea that “Show, Don’t Tell” is an outdated and inherently colonialist piece of writing wisdom, offer different frameworks for analyzing how and why exposition works in narrative, and offer tools to determine what to tell, what to show, and how much space each tactic gets. [...]

What our students say about us

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

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

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