HighFantasy Tips & Tricks

Section One Part Four - Diversity: Part One

Hello everyone! My name is Rose Blackwell, known on Wattpad as PaintingTheRosesRed. I've been on Wattpad a looong time- I joined way back in 2012. For the first few years of my time on Wattpad, I was more of a silent reader, enjoying all of the amazing stories Wattpad had to offer but never writing any myself. In 2016, I finally worked up the nerve to publish my own book on Wattpad, and I'm so glad I did. My first, and to this day most popular, story is Icebound, a tale of an Inuit warrior's journey through an icy land of spirits and monsters to return to her tribe.

My stories Icebound and Tattered have each been featured, and Tattered was a winner in the FairytaleCommunity 's 2016 Retelling Awards. I'm also an administrator for TheFaeFolk , an account dedicated to promoting high fantasy of all kinds on Wattpad.

This article will explore some of the obstacles to diversity in the fantasy genre and how you can overcome them!

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Diversity is Important

I'm a fantasy nerd, no question about it. I love everything magic, and anything with gods and mythical creatures. Ask me about fantasy books on and off Wattpad, and I could talk for hours. If I'm being generous about the age I learned to read, I've read hundreds of fantasy books over the course of fifteen years. I think it's fair to say that at this point, I'm familiar with the genre and all the conventions and clichés that come with it.

I'm here today to talk to you about diversity in fantasy. It's a topic that has been more of a focus in the community recently, but one which still deserves much more attention than it gets. Some of you might be tired of hearing about it. "Rose," you might say to me. "I've been hit over the head a million times with this idea of diversity in fantasy, and while it's swell and all, I just really want to write about a medieval English fantasy world."

"Great!" I'd say to you. "Write your story about a medieval English fantasy world!" And I mean that completely genuinely. One of the biggest misconceptions people have about the concept of diversity in fantasy, I feel, is that anyone who wants to write a story in a more traditional, European fantasy setting will be judged and scorned for doing so.

Let me say this clearly: I am not here to tell you that it is wrong to write fantasy set in a European setting with a European cast of characters. I am not here to tell you that, if you've already written such a story, you are somehow racist or against diversity. That is not why I'm here because that is simply not true, and if that's what you think by the end of this article then you haven't been reading closely. Check out my story Tattered if you still don't believe me- it's set in a world based on Viking-era Scandinavia, and as such basically all of the characters are lily white.

This is what I'm here to tell you:

1. Fantasy has an enormous lack of diverse stories and is in sore need of more representation.

2. Fantasy readers are clamoring for something new, and diverse cultural settings can be that something.

3. It's insanely fun to write stories based on non-traditional cultures and mythologies.

The Lack of Diversity in Fantasy is HUGE

On to point one: fantasy sorely lacks diversity.

This may seem obvious if you're as well read in fantasy as I am; honestly, it should be obvious even if you've only read a few fantasy books. The genre is oversaturated with white characters and white settings. It's a plain fact.