Welcome to the Chaos | Profile Updates | ❖

🏳️‍🌈 - 25 Steps For Writing Casual Rep (Both Queer and Otherwise)

One of the most common things I hear from the writing community when it comes to getting started on casual rep is exactly that: How do I get started?

Fear is a huge contributor to many people's reluctance to write identities they don't share. Fear of messing up, fear of causing harm, fear of being reprimanded. Another big contributor is a lack of guidance. While there is a wealth of information out there, it's not all reliable, and not always interactive enough to ask questions. If you're not familiar with all the vocabulary yet, it can be hard to tease out straightforward steps from the discourse around this highly complex and nuanced topic. I've watched many authors get overwhelmed to the point of professional paralysis, opting to avoid the matter altogether because they don't know where to start.

I am not an expert at this. This is not a comprehensive post. I will gladly take questions and feedback on it from anyone who reads it. However, I have been on both sides of the casual-rep conversation for many years now, both as a writer with many intersecting privileges, writing identities I don't share; and as a reader with many intersecting marginalizations that fall under the casual rep umbrella. Because of this, I often find myself getting questions from other authors about how I've gotten to where I am now on the representation front. Here, I'm finally writing up an answer I can point people to when they ask.

While this blog series has been largely queer-specific, this post is not. It can apply to any kind of casual rep, and I have tried to keep it broad enough to encompass many. It doesn't matter if your characters are queer, POC, disabled, neurodiverse, mentally ill, or any other identity or experience you don't share: if you're just getting started on your own representation journey, you should find something of use here.

Without further ado, here are my 25 steps for you:

1. Is it your story to tell? This is perhaps the most foundational question an author can ask themself about representation in the modern writing world. If you are writing a marginalized identity that you don't share, your plot should not hinge on that character's experience of marginalization. As a rule of thumb, stories that center on a character's struggles with queerphobia, coming out, racism, ableism, etc. are stories that should be left for people who share that experience and identity to tell.

2. What is your reason for writing the book? I'll say it flat-out: You are not saving the writing industry or its marginalized readers from a lack of representation. As an author with some form of privilege (in any facet of your identity), including the full diversity of humanity in your work in a respectful and empowering manner is a bare minimum. On the flipside, if you don't feel you have the personal or emotional capacity to do it right, it's better not to do it at all.

3. Is it your story to sell? If you are pursuing traditional publishing or some other gatekept monetization opportunity, also take the time to ask yourself if it's ethical for you to take that opportunity with any story that stars a character with an identity you don't share. The answer may still be yes! But if you are the type of writer who has historically been given precedence over marginalized ones in gatekept publishing opportunities, this may bring additional responsibilities to your plate. In an ideal world, anyone could write any identity and publish it without issue. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world. 

4. Practice listening without talking. If you are new to the kind of representation you are writing, chances are high you do not yet know the right kinds of questions to ask. Chances are also high that many of your questions can be answered just by listening. Practice putting yourself in (public, online) spaces where people talk about these things. Challenge yourself to sit there for fifteen minutes, half an hour, an hour, three hours, without asking a single question or saying a single word. You might be surprised how much you learn.