How to Get Your Characters Right (Especially When They Aren't Like You)

In this interview, I talked with Diana M. Pho, a two-time Hugo nominated editor at Tor.com Publishing.

We talked about:

• The concept of sensitivity readers and how using them isn't that different from what authors have been doing on their own for years.
• How using a sensitivity reader can be more of a partnership than just a Band-Aid solution.
• How to find a sensitivity reader.
• When it's a good time to bring in a sensitivity reader.
• How unless you're writing a memoir or an autobiography, you're writing about the "other."
• How writing about different people is a craft skill you can develop. (She recommends a book called "Writing the Other.")
• How if you do work with a sensitivity reader, you can find practical ways to raise that person's profile.

You can listen to the entire interview by clicking the player above or by finding the Grammar Girl podcast on any podcasting app, but if you prefer to read it, we also have a complete (rough) transcript.

Photo Credit: Gerry O'Brien.

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