I’ve heard numerous white authors use variations of that phrase when they decide to include characters from marginalized groups in their stories. Writers make things up all the time, they insist. They seldom appear capable of seeing any other reason for negative reaction to their work. Readers, critics, and reviewers who complain about their works must be prejudiced against white people. They are sure of this because others, people just like them, think their writing, characters and tropes are spot on target. Thus they say the call for #ownvoices is an anti-white (or anti-cis, anti-Christian, anti-able-bodied, etc) is all about reverse racism.
The inability to even imagine any other reason serves as a demonstration of why imagination alone is never enough. You need imagination, plus knowledge, plus empathy. If an author cannot put him or herself in the place of readers who are different from them, how can they accurately put themselves in the place of characters from those groups?
Write what you know. That used to be an acceptable mantra. Now I see many authors rebelling against that idea. It never meant that white, middle-aged men or women could only write about white middle-aged characters. Or that you had to suffer the loss of a limb before you can write about what it is like. But it does mean an author should understand enough about the writing craft to differentiate between what they know, and what they only think they know.
What you don’t know, learn. Obtaining knowledge of a culture involves more than studying a recipe to make your character sound like he/she knows how to whip up some ethnic dish. It’s even more than grabbing Wikipedia to get which types of fruits and vegetables are found in which part of a territory for them to use. Writers should get to know a culture and its people well enough to write beyond common media stereotypes. Writing cross-culturally requires enough knowledge to develop empathy. That’s how an author can bleed on the page for them.
VOICE is a big thing in the publishing industry. Most editors and agents will admit Voice is more important to their selection process than Plot. Ten different people can write about the same subject. Voice is a composite of everything we are, things we have done and experienced all our lives, there will be ten different writing voices. For example, an #ownvoice who lives with a disability 24/7/365 will craft a very different disabled character than one who is a caretaker for a disabled person. An author who simply knows a disabled person, or one who has learned since childhood to turn away or keep silent around disabled people, will have yet another voice. These experiences will lead to different styles of storytelling, and different stories.
Like singers performing covers of the same holiday lyrics, some audience members will admire one version and turn away from the other. Some readers will appreciate the level of authenticity an #ownvoice can bring to their storytelling. Others may prefer the stereotypes that imagination untempered by real subject matter expertise, often produces.
Know Your Audience. If you are writing commercial fiction, you write for an audience. Some will know more about your subject matter than you do. When you write about a person from a marginalized group, it’s not the same as writing about a vampire or wraith, or alien. They do not exist, you get to make up their entire culture, history, and motivation. As long as it is complete and internally consistent, you are good. No Martian will ever be hurt about his or her (or its) culture being incorrectly portrayed.
That’s not true when writing about real life cultures and groups.
Colorblind. Authors who claim to be colorblind cannot simultaneously declare they understand the life experiences of POC. If you can’t distinguish between a Moslem, a Sikh, or a Hindu, then you are not ready to put either of them in your stories with any degree of accuracy. Yes, anyone can write anything they please, use their imagination and risk dropping caricatures or problem tropes on their pages. You can also chose to remain careless about who is hurt by things you get horribly, perhaps even tragically, wrong.
Authors wishing to write about individuals, groups, and cultures they have little first hand experience with, it is wise to begin practicing the words in the lyrics from one of the show tunes written by Rodgers and Hammerstein for The King And I. Begin by Getting to Know You.
If you don’t make the effort to get to go beyond “common knowledge” and media generated stereotypes and get to know the people and cultures you want to write about, don’t get angry when your lack of knowledge is criticized.
Write what you want, but Own what you write. Strive to do it the best way possible and present the best characterizations you can, for all your characters.