I am writing a story. This should come as no surprise. It is a story featuring Lovecraftian themes. This too should not be startling. The protagonist is female. That's where it gets unusual. I'll be the first one to admit I'm probably not the best person to write from a female perspective. Just as I'm probably not the best person to write from a black perspective, or a gay perspective. I'm a straight white male from a nuclear family in the Upper Midwest. The worst part of my life is depression, and it's not like that's anything new for writers. But I at least like to try. To make a good-faith effort to diversify the protagonists/narrators of my writing away from thinly-veiled versions of myself. Maybe I fail horribly every time. I certainly hope not. But I guess we'll find out tomorrow, huh? (Assuming I get the story finished by then).
Still though, it brings me back to a semi-rhetorical question I wrote in my notebook once: Is it worse to write diverse characters poorly, or to not write them at all? I don't know the answer to that.
