Hello everyone! My name is Rose Blackwell, known on Wattpad as PaintingTheRosesRed. I've been on Wattpad a looong time- I joined way back in 2012. For the first few years of my time on Wattpad, I was more of a silent reader, enjoying all of the amazing stories Wattpad had to offer but never writing any myself. In 2016, I finally worked up the nerve to publish my own book on Wattpad, and I'm so glad I did. My first, and to this day most popular, story is Icebound, a tale of an Inuit warrior's journey through an icy land of spirits and monsters to return to her tribe.

My stories Icebound and Tattered have each been featured, and Tattered was a winner in the FairytaleCommunity 's 2016 Retelling Awards. I'm also an administrator for TheFaeFolk , an account dedicated to promoting high fantasy of all kinds on Wattpad.

This article will explore some of the obstacles to diversity in the fantasy genre and how you can overcome them!

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Diversity is Important

I'm a fantasy nerd, no question about it. I love everything magic, and anything with gods and mythical creatures. Ask me about fantasy books on and off Wattpad, and I could talk for hours. If I'm being generous about the age I learned to read, I've read hundreds of fantasy books over the course of fifteen years. I think it's fair to say that at this point, I'm familiar with the genre and all the conventions and clichés that come with it.

I'm here today to talk to you about diversity in fantasy. It's a topic that has been more of a focus in the community recently, but one which still deserves much more attention than it gets. Some of you might be tired of hearing about it. "Rose," you might say to me. "I've been hit over the head a million times with this idea of diversity in fantasy, and while it's swell and all, I just really want to write about a medieval English fantasy world."

"Great!" I'd say to you. "Write your story about a medieval English fantasy world!" And I mean that completely genuinely. One of the biggest misconceptions people have about the concept of diversity in fantasy, I feel, is that anyone who wants to write a story in a more traditional, European fantasy setting will be judged and scorned for doing so.

Let me say this clearly: I am not here to tell you that it is wrong to write fantasy set in a European setting with a European cast of characters. I am not here to tell you that, if you've already written such a story, you are somehow racist or against diversity. That is not why I'm here because that is simply not true, and if that's what you think by the end of this article then you haven't been reading closely. Check out my story Tattered if you still don't believe me- it's set in a world based on Viking-era Scandinavia, and as such basically all of the characters are lily white.

This is what I'm here to tell you:

1. Fantasy has an enormous lack of diverse stories and is in sore need of more representation.

2. Fantasy readers are clamoring for something new, and diverse cultural settings can be that something.

3. It's insanely fun to write stories based on non-traditional cultures and mythologies.

The Lack of Diversity in Fantasy is HUGE

On to point one: fantasy sorely lacks diversity.

This may seem obvious if you're as well read in fantasy as I am; honestly, it should be obvious even if you've only read a few fantasy books. The genre is oversaturated with white characters and white settings. It's a plain fact.

Let's do an experiment right now- think of all of the fantasy books you've ever read. That's right, look through that mental goodreads list of yours. Now, have you read a single fantasy book with a black protagonist? Yes? How about more than one fantasy book with a black protagonist? Now onto the hardest level: a fantasy book based on black or African culture, where most of the characters are black?

The reality is that for most of you, you wouldn't have gotten past that first question. I know I didn't- and still haven't to this day, to be perfectly frank. I've been gratified to see more books with black protagonists pop up on Wattpad recently, but in the real world of fantasy publishing? Nada.

And it's not just black diversity, either, although that's often the most obvious example. Hispanic, Asian, Arab, Native American- you'd be hard-pressed to find a single fantasy book with someone non-white as a protagonist, let alone a book where the entire world is populated by people of these cultures.

Even as more fantasy books in recent years do attempt to embrace diversity and write about non-western cultures, many of the attempts feel shallow. The clearest example that's jumping to my mind is the recent YA fantasy novel Rebel of the Sands. It's advertised as a Middle-Eastern culture meets the Wild West setting, which seems to be code for "we can advertise a middle eastern setting without actually delving into Arab culture at all and really have a western setting populated by white people". The characters are almost never actually described as having dark skin, and if you take away all the Arabic names it would just be a simple fantasy country-western setting. I mean, the Wattpad book cover for Rebel of the Sands is literally a blue-eyed white girl dressed in Middle Eastern garb- they're not even trying to be subtle.

It might be strange to realize if you've never had to think about it before, but in fantasy (as with many things in this world), white is the automatic default. And we need to start questioning that.

Diversity Can Make Your Story Stand Out

Here's the reality: readers are bored with the same old culture and setting. I'm bored with it. I'd be surprised if you weren't at least the tiniest bit bored with it.

It just makes sense, doesn't it? Imagine that for eighty years, you've only eaten cheese pizza. I love pizza as much as the next gal, but only eating the same pizza for over eighty years? People will naturally and logically want something different, something unfamiliar and exciting. And as I said before, it's not because pizza is inherently bad- it's only that people want something to break the monotony. (Forgive me for the weird pizza analogy, but hopefully it gets the point across.)

We're seeing more people realize and take advantage of this reality in mainstream media nowadays. Moana was amazing for many reasons, but one of the biggest attractions was its beautiful and meaningful exploration of an incredible culture that most of us in the west knew nothing about. It was a new, fascinating fantasy world because it had a new, fascinating cultural setting.

In my opinion, it's part of the reason why the hype for Black Panther is so huge. Marvel needs to switch up the pattern of its movies before they become too formulaic. And how did they decide to do it? By making a movie in a diverse new cultural setting with an extremely diverse cast of characters. ("Wow, Rose!" You might be thinking. "That's exactly what you're saying the fantasy genre should do!" This is me giving you a knowing wink in return.)

Diverse Stories Are Fun to Write!

The third, and my absolute favorite point: writing and creating fantasy worlds based on foreign cultures is indescribably fun.

Seriously. Please take my word for it. It's simply and truly a blast. Maybe it's a personal love of mine, but I don't think that quite explains it.

We all love fantasy- why is that? I think that it's because we love imagining new and fantastic worlds, whatever kind of world that may be. We love creating mythologies for them, creating histories and cultures and customs. It's what makes us feel absorbed in the fantasy, what makes us truly able to enjoy the story that takes place in that world.

Fantasy authors have been taking inspiration for this kind of worldbuilding from European mythology and culture since the beginning of the genre- so why not do the same for diverse cultures?

Imagine I'm worldbuilding for a story. I've started to create the rules and culture for the world, and these are some of the details:

- Both the architecture and the script of this world are curved and circular, never straight or sharp. This is because it is widely believed that demons can follow straight lines, but become lost and confused when lines curve.

- An ancient temple is built over an active volcano because the burning pit is a sacred site, known as "The Fire of the Warrior-Kings".

- Powerful sorcerers can create objects of incredible magical power. However, there are two conditions of this magic: only the sorcerer who created the object can destroy it, and that sorcerer's life is tied to the object.

Doesn't this sound like the makings of an epic fantasy world and story? It's already beginning to form a complex, fascinating culture and setting for this world, isn't it?

The first detail is a common belief in Chinese folklore. The second is a real place that existed in ancient Persia, where the people practiced Zoroastrianism, a religion that worshipped fire. The last is a concept from the Hoshruba, an epic Urdu-language fantasy saga that has been influenced by Indian, Afghan, and Central Asian tradition.

You can even mix up cultures like this if you want! As long as it's still diverse, it'll create representation and make your story immersive and unique.