BWFoster78
Myth Weaver
I guess what you're saying is that including certain elements in your story may distract from the story you want to tell,
Yes. Correct.
However, for me, just because I put non-white or female characters in my story, doesn't mean I'm going to focus on elements of racism or sexism. For me, my world resembles a close approximation of a Pangea sort of continent, where people of all different races live in close proximity. So instead of having all the whites in one place and all the Asians in another place, my world is "smaller" so to speak. That's why I chose to have more diverse characters, because for my story it makes sense. However, if I want to explore sexism because my main character is female and in a position of power, then it leaves that door open. So for me, I want more diverse characters so I can explore new and different ways of presenting characters. I don't believe in shoehorning characters in just to do so and I'm not sure many in this thread are advocating that.
Great. Good for you.
What I get is from others in this tread is that they think:
1. It's a good idea to insert diverse characters into your story just to have a diverse cast.
I'm not convinced that diversity for diversity's sake is a good thing.
2. There's no harm in inserting diverse characters.
I again disagree. I believe that my writing is made stronger by making it tighter. Introducing random elements for non-story reasons, I believe, weakens my writing.