Writing Diverse Characters: An Editor's Perspective

If you're writing a character whose background, culture, or lived experience is different from your own, you're doing something brave and worthwhile. Fiction should reflect the world in all its variety. But there's a gap between good intentions and good execution, and that's where editing comes in.

In twelve years of editing, I've worked on hundreds of manuscripts featuring characters from backgrounds the author doesn't share. Most of the time, the author cares deeply about getting it right. The problems that creep in are rarely malicious. They're usually subtle, and that's exactly what makes them hard to spot on your own.

What I Actually Look For

When I'm editing a manuscript with diverse characters, I'm not reading with a checklist of things you're not allowed to say. I'm reading as a reader would, asking myself: does this character feel like a real person, or do they feel like a collection of traits the author researched?

The most common issue I flag is what I'd call "trait-first characterisation". This is when a character's cultural background becomes the most prominent thing about them, overshadowing their personality, desires, and flaws. Real people don't walk around being their ethnicity or sexuality all day. They're complicated, contradictory, and specific.

I also watch for stereotypes that have snuck in without the author realising. The sassy best friend. The wise elder from a marginalised group who exists only to guide the white protagonist. The character whose entire arc is about their trauma. These aren't inherently wrong to write, but if you haven't interrogated why you made those choices, an editor should ask the question.

The Difference Between Sensitivity and Sanitising

One concern I hear from authors is that they'll be told to sand down every edge. That writing diverse characters means walking on eggshells. I don't think that's true, and it's not how I approach it.

Characters from marginalised backgrounds can be villains, can be flawed, can be unlikeable. The question isn't whether a character is "positive" enough. It's whether they're written with the same depth and complexity you'd give any other character. A one-dimensional villain who happens to be from a minority group is a problem. A fully realised antagonist who happens to be from a minority group is just good writing.

I had a client recently who'd written a thriller set partly in Lagos. She'd never been to Nigeria, but she'd done extensive research, spoken to people who had, and was genuinely trying to get it right. Most of it was excellent. But there were a handful of moments where a Nigerian character's dialogue read more like a textbook on Nigerian English than how a person would actually speak. That's the kind of thing I flag. Not "you can't set a book there" but "this specific line doesn't ring true".

Practical Steps Before You Send to an Editor

If you're writing characters from a background you don't share, here's what I'd suggest doing before your manuscript reaches the editing stage.

First, read widely within the community you're writing about. Not just non-fiction and research, but fiction written by people from that background. Pay attention to what they choose to include and, just as importantly, what they don't feel the need to explain.

Second, find sensitivity readers from that community. These aren't editors. They're people who can tell you whether something lands wrong from a perspective you don't have. I always recommend doing this before professional editing, because it catches things that fall outside an editor's expertise.

Third, examine your character's role in the story. If every character from a particular background serves the same narrative function, that's a pattern worth questioning. Are they all supporting characters? Do they all meet the same fate? Patterns reveal assumptions.

What an Editor Can and Can't Do

I want to be honest about the limits of what I offer. I'm not a sensitivity reader. I'm a white British woman, and there are cultural nuances I won't catch because I haven't lived them. What I can do is flag things that feel off as a careful, experienced reader. I can spot where a description relies on cliche rather than observation. I can point out where a character's voice shifts into something that feels performed rather than natural.

I can also help with the craft side of things. Writing across difference is, at its core, a writing challenge. It requires the same skills as any other character work: observation, empathy, specificity, and the willingness to cut a scene that isn't working even if you spent ages on the research behind it.

The authors I've worked with who do this best share one quality. They're more interested in getting it right than in being seen to get it right. They don't add diversity as a box-ticking exercise. They write characters who happen to be different from them, and then they do the work to make sure those characters feel true.

It's Worth the Effort

Writing across cultural lines is harder than writing what you know. It takes more research, more revision, and more vulnerability. But the books that come out of that effort are richer for it. Fiction that only reflects one narrow slice of human experience is poorer fiction, full stop.

If you're working on a manuscript with diverse characters and you'd like an experienced editor to read it with care and honesty, get in touch. I'll tell you what's working, what isn't, and how to close the gap.