Table of Contents
- What You’ll Need Before You Start
- Step 1: Understand Cultural Appropriation in Writing Examples
- Step 2: Tell the Difference Between Cultural Appreciation vs Appropriation in Writing
- Step 3: Research Cultures and Write Characters from Different Cultures
- Step 4: Build a Practical Review Workflow for Your Thriller
- Step 5: Work with Cultural Sensitivity Readers for Fiction
- Step 6: Revise, Market, and Publish Without Causing Harm
- Conclusion: Writing Thrillers That Respect Every Culture
- Frequently Asked Questions
Last Updated: October 14, 2026
What You’ll Need Before You Start
Cultural appropriation in fiction happens when a writer lifts elements from a culture they do not belong to and uses them as decoration, threat, or shorthand. Avoiding it is a craft skill, not a checkbox.
Before you begin, gather a few things:
- A list of every culture your story touches, even in passing
- A notebook for research notes and source names
- A budget for sensitivity readers, if you plan to hire them
- A timeline that leaves room for revision
- A willingness to cut scenes that do not survive scrutiny
The steps below take you from first draft to final proof. Most writers find the process takes a few weeks of part-time work.
The goal is not to avoid other cultures. It is to write about them with accuracy, consent, and respect.
Step 1: Understand Cultural Appropriation in Writing Examples
Cultural appropriation is the act of taking elements from a marginalised culture without permission, understanding, or respect. It differs from cultural exchange, which is mutual and informed.
Common examples in fiction include:
- Using sacred Indigenous objects as generic “cursed artifacts”
- Dressing a villain in another culture’s religious dress to signal danger
- Mixing unrelated traditions into one “exotic” backdrop
- Giving characters a culture only through food, clothing, or accent
The Three P’s of Cultural Appropriation
We group the warning signs into three P’s:
- Power: You belong to a dominant group and take from a marginalised one.
- Profit: You gain money, fame, or praise from the taking.
- Perversion: You change or cheapen the meaning of what you borrowed.
If all three are present, you have a problem. If one or two are present, pause and check.
Thriller-Specific Risks: Sacred Objects, Rituals, and Villain Coding
Thrillers lean on fear, and fear is easy to build from things you do not understand. That is where the trouble starts. Sacred objects become plot devices. Rituals become horror set pieces.
The fix is simple in principle: give the culture the same interior life you give your hero. That means motive, history, and ordinary daily detail, not just atmosphere.
Step 2: Tell the Difference Between Cultural Appreciation vs Appropriation in Writing
Cultural appreciation in writing means you engage with a culture on its own terms. Appropriation means you use it on yours. The line is not about who you are.
Ask these questions:
| Question | Appreciation | Appropriation |
|---|---|---|
| Did you research the source? | Yes, in depth | No, or surface only |
| Did you get feedback from that culture? | Yes | No |
| Does the culture have agency in the story? | Yes | No |
| Is the element essential to plot? | Yes | Decorative |
| Would members recognise themselves? | Likely yes | Likely no |
A useful test: if you removed the cultural element, would your story collapse? If not, it may be decoration. Decoration borrowed from a living culture is where most harm happens.
Using a real sacred object as a thriller prop without permission can cause real offence and damage your reputation before launch. Once a book is out, you cannot unring that bell.
Step 3: Research Cultures and Write Characters from Different Cultures
Writing characters from different cultures starts with research, not imagination. But research for a thriller has a different shape than research for a literary novel.
Build a Source Hierarchy, Not a Reading List
Most writers collect sources in a flat pile. A stronger method is to rank them by proximity to the culture you are writing about:
- Primary voices, memoir, oral history, journalism, and fiction by authors from that culture, ideally published within the last decade.
- Community-produced material, cultural centre publications, language revitalisation resources, museum catalogues curated by the community itself.
- Academic and ethnographic work, useful for context, but often written about a community rather than with it, and frequently dated.
- Secondary summaries, travel writing, encyclopaedia entries, and news features. Treat these as leads, not evidence.
If your manuscript’s cultural detail rests mostly on tier four, you have a research problem, not a writing problem.
Research the Ordinary, Not the Exotic
Thrillers reward the specific. A character who works night shifts at a distribution centre, argues with a sibling about money, and has a favourite takeaway order will read as real. A character whose only cultural markers are a festival, a costume, or a ritual will read as a prop.
Ask:
- What do they want, and what stands in the way?
- How do they speak when they are relaxed, and when they are afraid?
- What do they find funny, boring, or embarrassing?
- What is their ordinary Tuesday like?
- What do they disagree with others in their own community about?
That last question matters most. Homogeneous portrayals are a hallmark of appropriation. Real communities contain argument, generational tension, and dissent.
Thriller Tropes to Examine Before You Draft
Certain conventions do more harm than others because they attach cultural identity to danger. Run your premise against this list:
- Exoticised settings, a foreign location used purely as atmosphere, with no named local characters who have interior lives.
- Racialised suspects, the villain’s foreignness doing the work of menace.
- Cultural practices as clues, a ritual, symbol, or custom treated as a puzzle piece for the detective to decode.
- Marginalised characters as victims only, present to be mourned, never to act.
- Sacred objects as MacGuffins, a relic that exists to be stolen, chased, or defiled.
- Language as decoration, untranslated phrases dropped in for texture, with no speaker who would actually use them that way.
If your plot depends on one of these, you can often keep the tension and change the mechanism. A stolen object can be a forged document. A ritual clue can be a scheduling pattern. The suspense survives; the harm does not.
Indigenous Knowledge, Sacred Material, and Community Permissions
Some knowledge is not yours to use. Sacred stories, ceremonial objects, and restricted practices often belong to specific communities and carry rules about who may share them. In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural heritage is protected under both state and Commonwealth law, and the Australian Government’s guidance on Indigenous cultural and intellectual property explains how these rights work.
Research is not a licence. Knowing a detail does not mean you have permission to publish it.
Step 4: Build a Practical Review Workflow for Your Thriller
A review workflow catches problems before your editor or readers do. Build it into your draft cycle, not after. The version below is designed for thrillers specifically, because the genre’s conventions create risks that general writing advice does not address.
Stage 1: Flag and Source
Go through the manuscript and mark every cultural element with a comment. For each one, record:
- What the element is
- Which culture it comes from
- Where you learned it
- Whether you have a source you could cite if asked
If you cannot name the source, you guessed. Guessing is where appropriation starts.
Stage 2: Run the Scene-Level Checklist
For each flagged scene, ask:
| Check | Question |
|---|---|
| Agency | Does the character from this culture make a decision that changes the plot? |
| Interiority | Do we know what they want, fear, or regret? |
| Specificity | Is the cultural detail particular, or a generic stand-in? |
| Function | Is the culture doing work in the scene, or is it decoration? |
| Consent | If this involves sacred or restricted material, do you have permission? |
| Reversibility | Would the scene still work if the character were from your own culture? If yes, the culture may be ornamental. |
A scene that fails two or more checks needs revision, not a footnote.
Stage 3: Before-and-After Revision Examples
Abstract advice is hard to apply. Here is how the same beat can be reworked.
Before: The detective finds a carved mask in the suspect’s flat.
After: The detective finds a carved mask in the suspect’s flat.
The tension is identical. The cultural object is no longer a guilt signal.
After: The ritual is referenced but not explained.
Stage 4: Community Review
Ask a reader from that culture to review the flagged scenes. Give them the checklist above so they know what you are looking for. Log their feedback in the same document as your flags, and note what you changed and why.
Stage 5: Re-check After Revision
Revisions create new problems. A scene you rewrote to remove a stereotype may now lack specificity. Run the checklist again on anything you changed.
Read your flagged scenes aloud. Problems you skim past on the page often jump out when you hear them spoken.
A clean checklist is not a guarantee. If a reader from the community raises a concern you do not understand, that is a signal to ask more questions, not to overrule them.
Step 5: Work with Cultural Sensitivity Readers for Fiction
Cultural sensitivity readers for fiction review your manuscript for inaccurate, harmful, or stereotyped portrayals. They are not censors. They are specialists who know the culture you are writing about.
Selection, Scope, and Compensation
Choose readers who belong to the culture in question and who read your genre. A sensitivity reader for crime fiction is not the same as one for romance.
Set clear scope in writing:
- Which chapters or scenes are under review
- What kind of feedback you want (accuracy, tone, language)
- How long the review will take
- What you will pay them
Rates vary by experience and length, so ask directly and agree terms before work begins. The Australian Society of Authors publishes guidance on fair contracting and payment for freelance editorial work in this market.
Treat their feedback as expert input, not a veto. You decide what to change. But if you ignore consistent notes, ask yourself why.
Step 6: Revise, Market, and Publish Without Causing Harm
Revision is where the real work happens. Go back through your flagged list and fix what needs fixing. Cut what cannot be fixed.
Then check your marketing. Cover art, blurbs, and social posts all carry the same risks as the manuscript.
Finally, credit your sources and readers where appropriate. A short acknowledgements note costs nothing and builds trust.
Writers preparing a first draft for submission, or revising a manuscript that has already had beta feedback.
Conclusion: Writing Thrillers That Respect Every Culture
The hardest part of this work is not research. It is the moment you realise a scene you love has to go. That moment is where your book gets better. Arnold Van Der Vegt offers a collection of gripping mystery and adventure novels that transport readers into suspenseful worlds. Drawing from his own extensive travels and life experiences, he crafts stories filled with intrigue, cunning characters, and high-stakes challenges.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is cultural appropriation wrong in fiction?
It causes real harm when writers borrow sacred or marginalised cultural elements without permission, context, or benefit to that community. In thriller fiction, this often shows up as using Indigenous rituals as plot devices or coding villains with foreign cultural markers. Such portrayals reinforce stereotypes that affect real people. Avoiding cultural appropriation means treating the cultures you write about as living communities, not as scenery or props for suspense.
Can writers create characters from cultures they do not belong to?
Yes, but it requires genuine research, consultation, and humility. Writing characters from different cultures is not automatically appropriation. The difference lies in power, intent, and outcome. Ask whether your portrayal deepens understanding or reduces people to stereotypes. Seek feedback from people within that culture, and be willing to revise. Many acclaimed crime and thriller authors write outside their own experience successfully by doing this work.
When should a writer hire a cultural sensitivity reader for fiction?
Hire one whenever your thriller features a culture, community, or identity significantly different from your own, especially if that culture is marginalised. Sensitivity readers review your manuscript for stereotypes, inaccuracies, and harmful tropes. They are not censors; they improve authenticity. Their feedback on language, customs, and power dynamics can strengthen your plot and character development. Rates vary, so discuss scope and compensation upfront.
How can a thriller use a culturally specific setting without making it seem exotic?
Treat the setting as a place where people live, not as a backdrop for danger. Research local geography, politics, and daily life. Give characters from that culture agency and interiority beyond their role in the plot. Avoid framing the location solely through a foreign protagonist’s fear or fascination. When the setting shapes the mystery organically, it reads as authentic rather than exotic.