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Just got what I am sure is the best reader e-mail I’ve EVER gotten, and I wanted to share something about it because it speaks to the importance of writing inclusively... /1
It was from a woman who has been in a wheelchair for the last seven years. She read THE WAREHOUSE, which includes a character in a wheelchair. /2
Cynthia is a minor character. She’s there for three reasons: to deliver information (she lives next to one of the mains), to show how large corporations break us down and use us up (as workers at Cloud get injured they get moved to different positions)... /3
But most importantly... there are people in wheelchairs in the real world and I want to write about the real world. So the woman who wrote to me, she says that in the last 7 years she hadn’t read a book with a character who looked like her. /4
She told me she felt seen, and she thanked me. And, reader, that made my day. I mean, it’s rainy and we’re in the middle of a pandemic and there are no adults in charge and everything sucks. But reminded me why I do this: to connect. /5
I know this reads like a pat on the back. WOO LOOK AT ME AREN’T I WOKE. But I really, truly do think it’s important to say this:
Write inclusively. Write about the real world.
It matters.
/end
Write inclusively. Write about the real world.
It matters.
/end
