EPISODE · May 28, 2026 · 57 MIN
Not a Token: What It Really Takes to Write Outside Your Experience
from Most Writers Are Fans · host Terry Bartley
What does it actually mean to write diverse characters, and who gets to do it? In this conversation, Terry sits down with Black romance author Rae Shawn to dig into one of the messiest, most necessary questions in contemporary fiction: when writers reach beyond their own experience, what separates authentic representation from tokenism, trend-chasing, or outright harm?Rae writes contemporary Black romance rooted in real cities, real class dynamics, and real psychological complexity, and she brings that same grounded honesty to this conversation. She and Terry discuss the difference between wanting to include diverse characters and actually doing the work, why the sports romance genre's whitewashing of majority-Black leagues is such a tell, and how "just having a trans person in your book" isn't the same as having a trans character.They also get into the industry-level problem: what it means when a white author lands a six-figure deal for a story about a marginalized community's experience while actual members of that community are still screaming into the void, and what indie publishing does and doesn't change about that dynamic.Topics covered in this episode:Why "inclusive" can still be cringy and how to tell the differenceThe cowboy romance moment as a case study in selective historical memoryToken characters vs. characters who happen to be marginalizedTrans representation, coming-out narratives, and the gap between what fiction offers and what trans people actually experienceWriting characters "outside your experience" and the cultural knowledge required to know when you're outside the normHow Rae thinks about class, mental health, grief, and regional identity across her ensemble castsSensitivity readers: why Rae used two trans readers for one character, and why beta readers alone aren't enoughThe 50 Shades problem and why romance bears a specific burden around prescriptive readingBrave New World, younger readers, and the question of whether fiction should only reflect what authors believeWhy consuming diversely isn't just a writer's responsibility it's a human oneThe publishing industry's role in gatekeeping whose story counts as a universal storyFind Rae Shawn:Website: loveraeshawn.comSocial media: @RaeshawnStories (Instagram, TikTok, Reddit)Patreon: Raeshawn StoriesMost Writers Are Fans is a Starlight King production. Audio/video editing by David Riverol.
What this episode covers
What does it actually mean to write diverse characters, and who gets to do it? In this conversation, Terry sits down with Black romance author Rae Shawn to dig into one of the messiest, most necessary questions in contemporary fiction: when writers reach beyond their own experience, what separates authentic representation from tokenism, trend-chasing, or outright harm?Rae writes contemporary Black romance rooted in real cities, real class dynamics, and real psychological complexity, and she brings that same grounded honesty to this conversation. She and Terry discuss the difference between wanting to include diverse characters and actually doing the work, why the sports romance genre's whitewashing of majority-Black leagues is such a tell, and how "just having a trans person in your book" isn't the same as having a trans character.They also get into the industry-level problem: what it means when a white author lands a six-figure deal for a story about a marginalized community's experience while actual members of that community are still screaming into the void, and what indie publishing does and doesn't change about that dynamic.Topics covered in this episode:Why "inclusive" can still be cringy and how to tell the differenceThe cowboy romance moment as a case study in selective historical memoryToken characters vs. characters who happen to be marginalizedTrans representation, coming-out narratives, and the gap between what fiction offers and what trans people actually experienceWriting characters "outside your experience" and the cultural knowledge required to know when you're outside the normHow Rae thinks about class, mental health, grief, and regional identity across her ensemble castsSensitivity readers: why Rae used two trans readers for one character, and why beta readers alone aren't enoughThe 50 Shades problem and why romance bears a specific burden around prescriptive readingBrave New World, younger readers, and the question of whether fiction should only reflect what authors believeWhy consuming diversely isn't just a writer's responsibility it's a human oneThe publishing industry's role in gatekeeping whose story counts as a universal storyFind Rae Shawn:Website: loveraeshawn.comSocial media: @RaeshawnStories (Instagram, TikTok, Reddit)Patreon: Raeshawn StoriesMost Writers Are Fans is a Starlight King production. Audio/video editing by David Riverol.
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Not a Token: What It Really Takes to Write Outside Your Experience
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