Writing an Identity Not Your Own

A Guide for Creative Writers

De: Alex Temblador

Narrado por: Alex Temblador

A practical guide to help authors authentically write and edit a character whose identity is different than their own.

Do you have the tools to authentically write and edit a character whose identity is different than your own? It’s not a subject that’s generally taught in creative writing programs, and there are so few craft books and online resources on the subject. Even if you can take a seminar, class, or workshop, there’s nothing like having an easy-to-understand book on hand to provide guidance and insight every time you craft characters with historically marginalized identities.

In Writing an Identity Not Your Own, award-winning author Alex Temblador discusses one of the most contentious topics in creative writing: crafting a character whose identity is historically marginalized. What is “identity,” and how do unconscious biases and bias blocks impact and influence what we write? What is intersectionality? You’ll learn about identity terms, stereotypes, and tropes, and receive genre-specific advice related to various identities to consider when writing different races and ethnicities, sexual and romantic orientations, gender identities, disabilities, nationalities, and more. Through writing strategies, exercises, and literary excerpts, writers will gain a clearer understanding on how misrepresentations and harmful portrayals can appear in storylines, dialogue, and characterization. Alex will guide writers from the brainstorming phase through the editing process so they can gain a full understanding of the complexities of writing other identities and why it’s important to get them right.

©2024 Alex Temblador (P)2024 Vibrance Press

Reseñas de la Crítica

"This thoughtful guide brings clarity to a fraught topic." - Publishers Weekly

"Alex Temblador breaks new ground in Writing an Identity Not Your Own, guiding writers to craft characters from historically marginalized backgrounds with sensitivity and depth―a seminal guide to responsible and enriching creative writing that is both timely and timeless. Every writer who aspires to write great fiction should have this book on their shelf. It's an instant classic in the new canon of essential craft books."—Blake Kimzey, Founder & Executive Director of WritingWorkshops.com

"At once accessible and forthright, Alex Temblador's WRITING AN IDENTITY NOT YOUR OWN is a helpful companion for writers. With friendliness and care, Temblador offers writer-to-writer conversations about the complexities of identity in cultural production. This book is reaching for an ever more thoughtful approach to literary representation—as writers grapple with their own and their characters' identities, positionalities, and relations of power."—Janelle Adsit, author of Toward an Inclusive Creative Writing; Co-Author, Writing Intersectional Identities