Hi. I'm a white writer and a DM. I had an idea for a story about superheros. The main character is a black bisexual trans man with schizophrenia. He's married to an east asian cis man and they have a daughter who is biracial. He finds out he has telekenisis, although at first he thinks its a symptom of his mental illness. He then joins a team of super heros and ends up fighting bad guys. Anyway, any advice on what not to do?
I'm not a POC, but I've done a bit of research for my own characters and one thing that seems to come up with writing any kind of minority character is to make sure that they have a fleshed out personality so that the fact that they're black (or bi, or trans, or schizophrenic) isn't the only thing that defines them. Give them hobbies, interests, strengths, flaws, the same way you would with any other character.
One piece of advice that I came across that I found interesting (and helpful) is to google "How to not write a [minority] character" In your case I guess it would be "how to not write a black character (or east Asian)." What I've found is that this often turns up a lot of blogs or forum posts written by people who belong to that minority and often brings up a lot of do's and don'ts that you may not have thought about. A lot of people will often touch on stereotypes– which is another thing that you'll want to be careful of.
Hi, minority here! Here are a few Do's and Do Not's.
DON'T rely on stereotypes. It's lazy and unprofessional. DO explore different personalities just as you would with any other character. POC are first and foremost people.
DON'T whitewash. DO your research. Look up different cultures, different names, different practices. Making everyone seem "white" is not the same as giving them personalities. There are cultural and societal differences that need to be taken into consideration when constructing your character.
DON'T fetishize. Calling certain skin tones food names (mocha skin, caramel skin, etc), making a big deal over their appearance because they're "exotic", or anything else is just offensive. DO be respectful towards the difference in appearance. Making it a huge deal that they look different or being overly praising towards those differences is both awkward and unnecessary.
I hope I helped some! If you have any specific questions, feel free to shoot them my way.
Thanks for the advice!