Okay, maybe this post will get me in trouble, but I'm growing increasingly concerned by the whole "woke" movement overtaking many writers nowadays. It's not enough to simply write a good story - writers nowadays must show their bonafides by writing culturally sensitive novels that cater to every group in existence. And woe by unto the writer who fails to do so.
What's more, even trying these days isn't enough. Laurie Forest wrote a great book called The Black Witch, where she even tried to be as "woke" as possible. But she wasn't woke enough, because a few busy-bodies took her novel to task and nearly crashed it before it had a chance to get off the ground. Fortunately, not everyone is a killjoy and rightly recognized Laurie's talent vice her ability to properly virtue-signal.
Being woke is about being superficially diverse, and it most often feels forced. The Marvel Comics Universe is on the verge of going broke from changing its primary stories to accommodate this movement. Social justice warriors may celebrate the new levels of wokeness, but they aren't the ones who buy comic books.
Not only is it supremely hard just to write a good story, but it's damn near impossible to do so while trying to check every box in the universe to make sure you don't offend someone by including, or not including, something. Further, it's actually an insult to various groups to try and shoehorn them into characters already written. Rachel Weisz of Oz The Great and Powerful and The Lovely Bones said it best when asked about who should play the female James Bond, she opined, "Why not create your own story rather than jumping onto the shoulders and being compared to all those other male predecessors. Women are really fascinating and interesting, and should get their own stories." Bravo for her! Women have incredible stories, as does every ethnic group in existence, so why cram them into already created heroes and into already created story universes? The new Ghostbusters movie flopped terribly because most fans knew the original, and they knew this version was merely a way to create wokeness on the back of an already created universe. Couldn't the writers come up with an original story that didn't piggyback off of something else? Did they think that women would be unable to carry a new story in an original universe all by themselves? Isn't that just a tad bit sexist?
What's more, even trying these days isn't enough. Laurie Forest wrote a great book called The Black Witch, where she even tried to be as "woke" as possible. But she wasn't woke enough, because a few busy-bodies took her novel to task and nearly crashed it before it had a chance to get off the ground. Fortunately, not everyone is a killjoy and rightly recognized Laurie's talent vice her ability to properly virtue-signal.
Being woke is about being superficially diverse, and it most often feels forced. The Marvel Comics Universe is on the verge of going broke from changing its primary stories to accommodate this movement. Social justice warriors may celebrate the new levels of wokeness, but they aren't the ones who buy comic books.
Not only is it supremely hard just to write a good story, but it's damn near impossible to do so while trying to check every box in the universe to make sure you don't offend someone by including, or not including, something. Further, it's actually an insult to various groups to try and shoehorn them into characters already written. Rachel Weisz of Oz The Great and Powerful and The Lovely Bones said it best when asked about who should play the female James Bond, she opined, "Why not create your own story rather than jumping onto the shoulders and being compared to all those other male predecessors. Women are really fascinating and interesting, and should get their own stories." Bravo for her! Women have incredible stories, as does every ethnic group in existence, so why cram them into already created heroes and into already created story universes? The new Ghostbusters movie flopped terribly because most fans knew the original, and they knew this version was merely a way to create wokeness on the back of an already created universe. Couldn't the writers come up with an original story that didn't piggyback off of something else? Did they think that women would be unable to carry a new story in an original universe all by themselves? Isn't that just a tad bit sexist?
Our stories have to come from within, and they come off as fake when we try to write everything to please everyone. There are some things I'm no good at writing because I don't have the background or context. For example, I originally wanted to write Wrongful Death from the perspective of a high school girl, only to discover I knew nothing about how high school girls thought, so writing as one would've been fake. It'd be the same to try and include every intersectional movement out there.
This is not to say that we should write stuff that is intentionally offensive or that doesn't see the world as it is. However, we can't force it if we want our stories to be readable. Let it come naturally and let the audience decide. The outrage mob will always be there, but a group that genuinely enjoys your work will abandon you if you try to be what you're not.
