Comments on: Diversity in Publishing: We Need Writers Who Will Tell The Truth https://diymfa.com/community/diversity-in-publishing-books/ Tools & Techniques for the Serious Writer Tue, 02 Dec 2014 11:34:00 +0000 hourly 1 By: Em https://diymfa.com/community/diversity-in-publishing-books/#comment-1555 Tue, 02 Dec 2014 11:34:00 +0000 https://diymfa.com/?p=13192#comment-1555 Beautiful article. I’m not black. I’m not even American (I’m British, if you want to put a label on me). But your article made me cry when you spoke about truth. I thought about how I’m refusing to allow myself to write. Is it to do with telling/not telling the truth? By not writing them at all, I’m betraying my characters by not giving them a voice, and it hurts. They’re outsiders (in other ways from being black), and the inner demons tell me that I’m not worthy to write. To be a truth teller, because it’s an important job, and who the heck do I think I am?

The truth is, I want these characters to be themselves, I really do. I want to give them the space, the freedom to breathe for themselves. But at the same time that scares the shit out of me. And I want them to do what I tell ’em!

I guess I’m not going to get my own way, huh? 🙂

I think I will take from this that it’s maybe not what I think it is that’s stopping me from writing anything — it might not be me not allowing myself to write, but me not allowing the characters to tell their story.

Thanks for your thought-provoking article. Here’s to truth, in its many and varied forms. 🙂 As Kafka said, “There is only one truth. But it is alive, and therefore has a vividly changing face.”

Em x

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