Spend any time in writing spaces — especially Reddit — and you’ll see this question come up again and again:
“Am I allowed to write about this?”
Usually it’s followed by something like:
- a character who’s a different sexuality
- a different religion
- a different culture or ethnicity
- a disability the author doesn’t have
- a lived experience that isn’t their own
The short answer?
Yes.
You are allowed to write about whatever you want.
No one is going to come around and revoke your Writing Licence™.
Especially if you’re writing just for yourself, with no intent to seek publication. In fact, writing things from the perspective of someone who is other than you can be a good way to explore other people’s lives, as a personal growth exercise in empathy.
The Caveat
If you are writing towards publication though, there is one major caveat.
There’s a difference between writing about someone and writing as someone.
You can absolutely write characters who are:
- gay
- Muslim
- Māori
- autistic
- immigrants
- working class
- rich
- disabled
- traumatised
- devoutly religious
- militantly atheist
Your stories will be poorer if every character shares your background, your identity, your beliefs, and your lived experience.
But.
There’s a line between including someone in a story…
…and trying to tell their story.
Writing a trans character who happens to be a detective solving a murder?
Very different from writing a story about what it’s like to grow up trans in a hostile environment.
Writing a Muslim engineer on a space station?
Very different from writing a novel about the experience of practising Islam in a Western society.
Writing a character who uses a wheelchair?
Very different from writing a story centred on the experience of disability.
Where Caution Comes In
You don’t need to avoid difference.
You do need to be careful about claiming authority you don’t have.
If the story you’re telling depends heavily on the lived experience of being part of a particular group — the social realities, the cultural nuance, the internal tensions — then you’re moving into territory that deserves:
- research
- humility
- sensitivity
- and ideally, outside input
This is where sensitivity readers can be invaluable. Not as censors, but as consultants — people who can point out where you’ve missed something, misinterpreted something, or unintentionally leaned on stereotypes.
I’ve sought sensitivity reads for military characters (having written an ex-Marine, I didn’t want to be seen as misrepresenting his experience in any way), for a trans character (not that his trans-ness was overly apparent in the book), and even for those strangest of alien creatures… women.
After all, can any man TRULY understand what it’s like to be a woman in our society?
Intent Isn’t Everything
Good intentions don’t guarantee good outcomes.
You can mean well and still get it wrong.
You can be respectful and still miss context.
You can try to represent someone fairly and still write something that feels false to readers with that lived experience.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. It means you should listen when you’re told where you’ve stumbled.
The Takeaway
You’re allowed to write about people who aren’t you.
Your work will be stronger for it.
Just recognise the difference between:
- including a character and
- speaking for a community.
Representation is valuable.
Authority is earned.
Write widely.
Research carefully.
Listen when corrected.
That’s the job.