okay i am here for all the #ownvoices books always, but there is a way to write outside your lane if you choose to do so. aside from tons of research and feedback, it requires humility and an acute awareness that you are telling a story with severe personal limitations. possesing the writing skill or a passion for the cause you’re writing about or a secondhand experience of having witnessed an event related to what you’re writing does not entitle you to write a story from a POV you don’t share.

there is no room for entitlement here at all.

i’ve been thinking a lot how important it is to protect your creative energy from being harmed by people who don’t quite understand what it means to be a writer, and i have a few thoughts: 1) there’s the well-meaning but ultimately frustrating banter loved ones will engage in with writers about the practical (read: financial) barriers to writing professionally, and that’s it’s own demon.