Using Cultural Characteristics to Develop Characters

As much as the media tries to disprove it, people are different from other cultures. Either you can say, "Oh that's not true!" or you can use it for your advantage in writing.

If you have an African-American male from California and a lady from uptown London, New England, their dialogue, habits, manners, how they perceive the world, and how they view themselves are going to be vastly different.

Develop these differences and readers will adore you!

You can create tension between characters with their cultural differences and draw out aspects of their personality readers haven't seen before.

For example, a guy from New York would like to think he can handle any emergency. Then he moves to the Tacoma desert in South America and finds out he can't do everything. But he's not going to admit it to the local who's heckling him the whole time.

Think about different cultures and bring out the differences. If your writing Sci-fi or fantasy, you're going to have to make it up.:) It will give your writing the ring of truth.