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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/35888
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

<sub>This is not quite the same question as <a href="https://writing.stackexchange.com/q/33824/29955">Writing Diversity</a> because it's not my intention to focus too much on diversity for my story, nor am I struggling with new ways to represent more cultures/minorities/ethnicity. It's also not quite the same as <a href="https://writing.stackexchange.com/q/33813/29955">Avoiding Tokenism</a> because my concern isn't with how the "more diverse" characters get written.</sub>

I'm setting an outline for a story I came up with. It's very, very bare-bones, so I'm still coming up with characters and plots. However, after some thinking I realized that, given the time and place the story takes place in, there will be little to no diversity between the characters. By that I mean most of the characters will be of the same race, sexual orientation, religion and origin place, following the same culture and customs.

Thing is, this doesn't fall right with me, as it makes the world seem lacking of variance. I also don't want for it to feel like I'm against diversity of any kind. Likewise, I'm making a conscious effort not to include characters of specific categories for the sake of diversity exclusively, as to not tokenize them or make them feel out of place for the time and location of the story.

**How can I include diverse characters in a story with a setting unfavorable for them, without making them feel out of place or serving as tokens?**

Original score: 15