If you’re like many writers, you want to avoid harmful stereotypes in your work. You don’t want to harm anyone, and you worry about getting canceled. You care deeply for others and for growing your writing career.
A sensitivity reader is a kind of editor who ensures your manuscript has no harmful stereotypes or offensive language, particularly of minority or otherwise disadvantaged groups. Sensitivity readers can be super helpful with making sure you’re portraying your minority characters accurately and in a positive manner. You may be asking yourself, however, When do I need a sensitivity reader? And when in the writing process should you hire one?
Not to worry; it’s quite simple.
To answer the first question, if you have any character who’s part of a minority group, you need to hire a sensitivity reader with expertise in that group. I’d even go so far as to say that even if you’re part of that minority group, you should hire a sensitivity reader, unless you’ve done a lot of research or taken classes on the topic of your group’s stereotypes and portrayals in literature—the type of research a sensitivity reader has done. The sensitivity reader should be a member of the group they’re editing for themselves, and have done the research on and/or taken courses about that group.
Even if your story doesn’t discuss the minority experiences of that character, such as the racism or ableism they experience, and even if that character only appears in your story a handful of times, you still need a sensitivity reader.
Why?
No matter how infrequently that character appears, you can easily fall into seemingly harmless, but actually harmful stereotypes and language. One example of this is the curing narrative. This is where as part of the resolution to a story, what characters have been working toward, a character is cured of their disability. Though this may seem like a good thing, it portrays disability as a flaw or otherwise bad thing to be triumph over, and says that with enough perseverance, people can “overcome” their disabilities. Not only is this not true and harmful to real people with disabilities, but also many real people with disabilities don’t want to be cured.
You need to hire a sensitivity reader for whatever minority groups your characters are.
Now, at what point in the writing process should you hire a sensitivity reader? It’s early. You should have one either look at your concept, when you’re still developing your project, or your first draft with perhaps some minor edits. That way, if the sensitivity reader catches any large, story-changing errors, you don’t have to overhaul a manuscript you’ve already spent a lot of time (and money) editing. I’d personally lean toward after you’ve finished a draft rather than a concept, so your sensitivity reader can also catch errors in language and how you present this character in the context of the story. Additionally, like other kinds of editing, depending on the popularity of the sensitivity reader, you’ll likely have to book them months or more in advance. Keep that in mind for your writing plan.
Finally, be sure to send them your whole manuscript—the whole concept or draft—and not just sections containing the characters of note. Though sensitivity readers’ prices increase with a larger word count, oftentimes, a single character can affect the whole story, so you really need that whole manuscript feedback.
Minority representation in stories and other forms of writing is important. People, especially children, are thrilled when they see themselves represented in the stories they love! Bad representation is harmful, but after you do your own research, sensitivity readers want to help you make sure your work brings good things to others.
I myself offer sensitivity reading services, as well as question-answer sessions where you can ask me about writing and portraying the groups I sensitivity read for—autism, anxiety, OCD, and more. You can find out more information here.
Happy writing!
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