Writing helps find sense of self, empowerment through creativity

Writing has always been my entire life. It’s always allowed me a sense of escape, a sense of self and a sense of creativity.

For any person associated with fine arts, it seems apparent that I’d want to establish a favorite writer, or even someone I could call an inspiration. But it’s really hard to find someone who I think is perfect in every aspect as a writer.

Many authors I’ve read fail to address the lack of diversity in books, and there’s really no excuse for it. They’re books, and it shouldn’t be that hard to include characters that are of a minority group.

I’ve read numerous novels, but since I’m also a writer and I’ve grown up, some of the stories I used to find great no longer cross my mind. I’m very picky about what I read and I’m super critical when I find redundancies and cliches.

So, recently, I’ve learned to just go with the flow and tell myself I don’t necessarily need an inspiration, but that I can learn from these authors and become one myself.

For instance, one of my favorite books by David Levithan is “How They Met and Other Stories,” which is a collection of short stories all about love. I appreciate him a lot because the stories vary in characters and plots. The characters are sometimes male, sometimes female, sometimes straight, sometimes gay, short, tall, skinny, fat — all of the diverse-filled goodness I love.

But one thing Levithan doesn’t really do is include stories that focus on different cultural backgrounds. Albeit, he’s gotten a lot better at that since “How They Met,” these 18 stories are what fueled me into writing my very own collection.

I wouldn’t call that an inspiration because rather than me loving the book so much that I want to write a similar one, it made me angry and made me realize that I could do better with inclusiveness of all aspects, rather than just sticking strictly to one type of character.

For the past six years I’ve been writing short stories that don’t contribute to the lack of diversity and embrace the fact that everyone is different.

Some of the authors of today fail to do that, and that’s one of my all-time imperatives — having characters that anyone can relate to, because they make up the stories.

Popular authors such as John Green or E.L. James are the pinnacle of writing to one group of people, and I can’t accept that because of the wide range of people that do read books.

I don’t want to be another John Green or E.L. James (not that I’d ever want to be her anyway) who only focus of writing toward one group of people, who are always praised for their redundant, “I’ve read this before” type stories.

I would rather be a writer that doesn’t stick to the norms of literature of today and actually make people feel like they exist, because that’s the exact type of feeling I get reading the same stories about the male/female, straight, white couple.

I don’t want to limit myself on my sense of creativity. Instead, I want to open new doors and try not to be like every other author. I want to create a sense of being that is solely only my writing.