Screenwriting : Diversity by Melany Markham

Well I moved from the U.S. to the Netherlands about ten years ago, so I guess I have a bit of experience with this. I wait for it to happen. I don't set out to have specific ethnic identity. I'll start writing and through the course of progression/action/dialogue, I'll start thinking, "well maybe this guy is spanish, oh this woman might be asian, seems that this person might be eastern european." So then when I'm done with the draft, I'll go back, rewrite and make adjustments.

I'm Australian so naturally write multicultural scripts due to the nature of our society.In saying that I'm very specific on which cultures I use.For example if I had an American character living in NewYork who'd lost their family I might do a simple transition seen of them to reinforce their loss of them getting food from a Senegalese street vendor because in Senegal a traditional greeting and response is to ask how someone is with a response of "and your family".A simple way to reinforce the antagonists wound.Obviously With major characters it's a good way to create opportunities for conflict,miscomunications,comedy etc etc.When writing American voices to get geographic and sub culture language patterns and slang I'll just find a youtuber who does their videos from the right location and group in that location.And just watch videos until I feel I've found my characters authentic voice.And sometimes I'll throw some common Australian sayings into the mouths of American characters if they seem right for the character.I'm writing.I'm guessing Denmark would have 100's of saying's unknown outside of Denmark.Anyway that's how I do it as I never right Australian characters ever.

I am luck to have diversity in my life. So I have things to bring into my writing.

I have two rules for bringing in non-white, non-male

characters. 1) does it help the story, 2) why not.

Including diversity is as simple as waking up in the morning, easy peasy.

As I get more confident in my work, I try to be more and diverse. I’m not kidding myself, I still have a ways to go, but the efforts and intentions are there.

Karl Main (maybe Mainz not sure about it) was German 19 century writer. He wrote mostly western novels (!) and his descriptions were so detailed and colorful that his novels served as set ups to many early American western films (John Wayne era). He did it all from a prison cell not ever setting foot on American soil...he was only imagining stories he was told and read of ol' west...

...pretty damn powerful thing is this mind of ours, huh?

I’ve written diversity into just about every one of my projects thus far. I don’t understand story without it, between growing up back and forth between the west coast and the south I grew seeing plenty, then after joining the military and serving with a diverse group of people and traveling abroad I find it necessary to write with the purpose of showing there’s more than the same old cookie cutter stories and characters

I was born in France and moved to the USA, before returning to France, and now I live in Canada. So I can totally relate to your experience and diversity has always been an important part of my writing. Throughout history, writers have reflected society in their stories, and considering that we live in a very diverse world today, I think it's even more important to do it. That's also why my current project has an international scope, with characters coming from different countries and ethnic groups.

There's diversity then there's meme diversity. Sure, you can write characters who are "diverse" based on their gender, race, sexuality, and religion. You can also write characters who or diverse based on what foods they like, what subcultures they're a part of, where they were educated, and what their medical history is. These are just a few parameters of more granular diversity. Also note that there is more diversity within groups than between them.