Writing POC 101

Introduction

     Have you ever noticed how almost all books consist of pre-dominantly white characters? Or if they have a character of colour, how it seems almost thrown in like a second thought? As if that somehow makes it diverse. As if having an eccentric non-white friend that is the epitome of every respective racial stereotype is somehow forcing the author to step outside of their comfort zone and realize that the world is not only white.

     We're all guilty of being colour-blind. I know I am. We've all written books with White-Only access, or instantly assumed without even reading that all the characters were white.

     Well what if they were POCs?

     What does POC stand for? It stands for people of colour. And a huge part of why authors don't write about POC characters is because they're not used to it—they're used to writing white because we've all been whitewashed. We've grown up reading white, so why not write it?

     This books aims to help change that.

     It's hard to write about a race you don't know—where do you go to for advice?

     "Oh, crap. Was that offensive?" / "Is that true?" / "What if that's just a stereotype?" / "Does that even exist?" / "How do I show that my character is a POC?"

     These are all questions that authors ask themselves—questions that lead them to avoid writing about POCs altogether.

     What if those questions had answers?

     Welcome to the answers.