In this video we explore the idea that “Show, Don’t Tell” is an outdated and inherently colonialist piece of writing wisdom, offer different frameworks for analyzing how and why exposition works in narrative, and offer tools to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

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 do a deep dive into Own Voices fiction, why it’s so important, and how it fits in with Writing 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. [...]

Food, sharing, cooking and eating is such an important part of many cultures — including survival, family, and a sense of place. [...]

Nisi Shawl joins Tempest, Piper J. Drake, and Dan Wells to talk about the numerous factors to be aware of when depicting religion whether you’re writing about a real-world religion or one you’ve created for your setting. [...]

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? [...]

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

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. [...]

A conversation with YA author Shveta Thakrar about writing YA and Middle Grade families outside of the WASP or Western family framework pushed by most media and literature. [...]

If you’ve heard from agents or editors that writing books that aren’t #OwnVoices isn’t something you can do, listen to us dismantle that idea and give advice for how you can go forward. [...]

Tempest interviewed Marianne about fat characters, why she uses the term Fat, non-conforming bodies, and stereotypes to avoid and representations she’d like to see. [...]

Julia Rios joins Tempest on Writing Excuses to talk about writing characters who come from one of the many Latin-American cultures or subcultures. There’s a LOT of discussion of food (yum!) [...]

Join three award-winning authors and editors as they dig into the roots of this dynamic in speculative fiction and publishing. [...]

In this episode Tempest joins Dan Wells and Dongwon Song to interview author TJ Berry about writing bisexual characters. [...]

Tempest joined the Writing Excuses podcast for an episode to talk about Colonialism, Cultural Appropriation, and their effects on writing and writing inclusive [...]

Should White People Write About People of Color? There is no one answer to this question, there is no one conversation that can provide definitive guidelines. However, it is a discussion worth having in the context of the classes we teach. [...]

Nisi talks about issues around writing representative fiction with Andrew Chamberlain of The Creative Writer’s Toolbelt alongside author Daniel José Older. How should we [...]