You can just write a person

Sometimes I see posts asking for help with writing a character with specific traits, say they're from a specific race/culture/background/etc. etc.

And while I appreciate people asking these to avoid going for stereotypical depictions, every time I see these questions, I can't help but think: "Just write a person."

Yes, various traits can impact a person's life and change it in various ways. Going the extra mile to research how that impact looks like by studying the experiences of people with those traits is good, I'm sure that helps with making the characters more well-rounded, believable, and relatable.

But I feel the bad depictions of these traits don't just stem from lack of research, it's that the writers of those characters just made them walking, talking bag of traits and nothing more.

So I believe that simply making well-written characters who happen to have those traits is enough. That writing a person, who has their own dreams, morals, and struggles, but also happens to be from a specific race/culture or has a certain disability for example, is enough.

I'm not trying to say that going the extra mile by researching how the traits you want to give your character could affect them is pointless, I'm trying to assure that the skills one uses to craft the characters who lack those traits can still be used to on characters who do.

Hope I managed to get my point across, thanks for listening to my TED talk XD

Feel free to share your own thoughts on this!