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I have been working on a book (fiction) for several months. The book is set on an Indian reservation (fictional tribe), and several of the characters in the book are Native American. I decided to hire a 'developmental editor' to give me feedback on the book.

One of the key issues the editor raised was the question of whether a (in my case) White author can or should write about the experiences of minority groups. So I am looking at my work (have pretty much completed one book, have been working on parts of two other books that I had hoped to include in a series) and wondering if it is even worth my time to continue. I can do more research (although I am a little stumped as to how to research a tribe I made up), but maybe my work is just inherently flawed, since I will no doubt be bringing biases to the book, and may not be able to recognize those biases.

So I am looking for advice: should I give it up and walk away from it? I think it's a good story, but of course I am biased about that assessment, too. Or should I do my best to present an unbiased account, and then let the chips fall where they may? Both of these questions assume that the book(s) will get read, which may not ever happen.

Any advice/reactions would be welcomed.

citronella 7 Oct 11
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4 comments

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0

Do you have a good Native friend who would be willing to look it over or you could ask?

Otherwise perhaps you could contact a relevant community group or similar and run it past them?

2

It could be a problem if you've made them too different from real Native American tribes while describing them as belonging to that category. One option you have is to do a lot of research into real Native American tribes and to make sure that every aspect of your fictional tribe is true to a real tribe somewhere, if that isn't too disruptive to your story.

Another option would be to make the whole country fictitious so that you can have native tribes based on a mixture of tribes from around the world plus imaginary ones that needn't conform to any real tribe. You can then have as many connections to America as you like while at the same time being free to make it radically different in any way you like. If your story's a good one, it deserves to be told, and you are fully entitled to craft a specific world for it to fit into. You don't even need to name the country (or planet), and you can make the non-natives who dominate things there be very like Americans while at the same time throwing in a few cultural oddities that make it clear that they aren't quite the normal thing. It can become a parallel world with its own rules. In this way, no one can complain that your native tribes aren't authentic Native Americans when the invading tribe that took over the continent isn't American either. You can merge the invaders with their equivalents on continents and add something different on top of that too. If you make it your world, you are the expert on how that world works, and every aspect of your tribes is correct.

0

And I've written a screenplay about female sex workers. I'm neither female nor a sex worker. It's been a struggle...of sorts.

mischl Level 8 Oct 11, 2021
2

Hey, it is fiction, so you can go anywhere that you want to!
That problem didn't stop the writing of star wars or star trek !
Go for it!

Buddha Level 8 Oct 11, 2021
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