Tips on Writing People of Color | Writing Diversity
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- Опубликовано: 5 окт 2024
- Today I'm talking about tips on how to write diversely, specifically on how to write people of color (aka POC). Advice on avoiding the White Savior Trope, experiencing vs writing racial oppression, how to write racism in fiction, and more! - â open for more! â -
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There are a LOT of questions involved in writing diverse fiction. It's a complicated subject, even if you're a person of color yourself. I don't claim to have all the answers, but here's a starter course in things to be aware of when trying to write diverse characters or racism in fiction.
These tips are equally (and ESPECIALLY) important when writing science fiction and fantasy. Changing the colors of skin in fantastical books doesn't erase racist ideas that exist in the real world. It's important to be thoughtful of how readers will relate to and interpret your work.
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My name is Lily Meade. I love books! I like to live a life inspired by fiction. I truly believe that anyone can find their own happy ending, whether in a book or in real life. I am an aspiring young adult author. I absolutely love to read (especially YA fiction, but I read adult and nonfiction, too!) and write (novels mostly). I really love storytelling in any form.
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This was very helpful to me as a writer because I want to write some diverse characters, but I'm white, and I know that some things aren't mine to write about. This helped me because I definitely don't want to accidentally offend any race.
This is so important! I'm white, and I never want to hurt anyone with my words, but it's so easy to when you just don't know ANYTHING about other cultures and races. But when all I have to pull from, typically, is stuff written ALSO by white people.....yeah, it's an issue. Thank you for sharing your perspective on this, because I think it's something that needs to be talked about instead of avoided!
This is a terrific and badly needed video. Writing books isn't easy in any regard, but writing about identities and experiences beyond our own is endlessly complex. It's a process that needs to be approached with respect, humility, and an understanding of how influential the effects can be within the context of our literary canon as a whole. Thank you, Lily. You're doing important work here.
I'm working on writing something with a diverse group of characters so videos like this really help me. Thank you so much for taking the time to put it together. I'll definitely watch more if you choose to make them! 🤓💖
I'm not a writer but nonetheless this is a helpful video to readers as well, so that we know what to look for when reading badly written diverse characters. Thank you for your insight!
+emmmabooks I actually learned some of these tips by watching and reading reviews! Definitely cross-compatible.
So many great points about an important issue. Thanks, Lily!
This is so good!!! I actually do have a question that I've been wondering about. I've seen two kind of 'camps' in the writing diversely crowd, with one being "write diversely! We need more of this!" and one being "stay in your lane, leave diverse writing to those with experience who can get it right." I had only really been exposed to the first until a few months ago, but then I started hearing things about how publishers have quotas for books with POC protagonists (which is...awful) and if white authors take those spots it holds back POC authors. But, then I feel like we're left with a majority of books being strait/white/non-diverse and we're still at square one. I don't know! I mean, I think the problem is hugely in the publishing industry itself because obviously having quotas like that is really wrong. And I do think that the stay in your lane mentality is true when writing a story about the experience of being a person of colour. I'm really not sure now if it's best to write in my lane, to keep diverse characters as side characters (but that annoys me because if all the diverse characters are side characters it's like saying they can't be the main hero, especially if this becomes a pattern in books which it kind of already is), or if writing inclusively should take priority and we can hope that will push publishers to change their policies? Sorry if this is kind of a loaded question, I've just been thinking about this a lot lately! (I don't know if this even made sense haha) (that also ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated whoops)
+ShaelinWrites No, I totally understand! There's a lot of complexities and competing thoughts. It's good to think critically! I am definitely not in the "stay in your lane" group. While some stories should be left to those with experience, telling people to avoid writing diverse characters because they are bound to make mistakes not only puts a lot more burden onto POC authors backs, it also excuses people from learning how to do better. I definitely think the best course of action is to write inclusively and put the pressure on publishing houses to eliminate these gatekeepers. This also means being a good ally to your fellow authors, listening to them when they point out something problematic within the industry and boosting marginalized voices. You can't be trusted to write diversely if you don't have any diverse friends! It can be complicated to talk about because people don't all think the same, even within the same movement. That's one of the reasons I made this video (and am open to suggestions for more!), because I know it can be confusing to figure out what is and isn't okay.
That's super interesting, I totally agree! I have the same thoughts on the stay in your lane idea. In some cases it should be respected depending on the story, but in general if it's what we follow most stories will be, unfortunately, lacking in diversity.
Very helpful and excellent insight. Thank you for sharing ☺️ I would love to see more videos from you!
I thought this video was helpful and concise---thank you so much for posting it.
*That was really informative lily. I love books and I am always concerned on how a woman of color gets represented. I love your cute style. Thank you for sharing*
+Goodmorning Mathy Thank you for watching!
This is such excellent advice! Many people should take a moment to watch this
Thank you for sharing your nuanced thoughts with us, Lily! I write for young adults, as well, so I feel it's especially important to be cognizant of the real world they live in. I love the point about what your characters say/do/condone.
So informative with great, usable tips! Thank you so much for making such a desperately needed video!
Thank you for your tips. I am writing a medieval European fantasy series. One of the main characters is half black, his mother is the daughter of a mercenary captain and his father is the King's brother. Because of his mother's "commoner" status, he is denied a place in the line of succession and is frequently bullied, though being related to the royal family means his life is better than 99 percent of people in my setting. A plot point I thought of making is that he often has to have his mother or one of her friends do his hair, as black hair is not common in my setting. He partly resents this because he views it as being different, but at the same time, it is a fond memory of his childhood. A big part of his plot is about finding peace with both sides of his heritage. How can I as a white guy, write this competently, or is it not a story element I should tell and just leave all the hair maintenance off the page.
Thank you for your important points. Even though we are all human, the fact is that different groups have different experiences. I totally agree with you that anyone should feel free to write about someone who doesn’t look like them, but also 100% agree that care and attention has to be made to make sure the writing isn’t taking on a cliched and degrading point of view. Continue to speak your opinion, in a world that sometimes would rather not hear, your voice is needed even more.
Thank you!
Wonderful video and though I'd like to be able to say I knew all of this, it really brought these issues to my mind when they usually exist in the back of it. Thank you for being willing to share your voice, it's such an important and necessary part of our community
This is a great video! Thank you for the good information!
I'm really glad I thought of looking into _how_ to write diversity. I thought describing people with food sounded good, because coffee makes someone energetic and warm, but _it's food_ . Not only does this sound cannibalistic, but probably makes POC seem "exotic". Not what I'm going for.
Thank you so much for this wonderful video, Lily! It's so helpful and informative.
*Wonderful tips on the consequences. Thank you for sharing your fears of about your writing experience, I struggle with some of the same.*
+Book HQ Thank you for such a kind comment!
this is a wonderfully thought-out, nuanced video. thank you for sharing your insight!
I loved everything about this !
I'm so glad!
I really appreciate your work and tips! :-)
These aren't rules, these are tips, I think that needs to be clarified for some commenters below. You write for you, but you have an audience, you need to consider how your words might impact them, especially if you are writing YA + children's lit. It only benefits you to see other perspectives. Thanks for the video!
I'm a white cis man. I really don't want to write stories that are about U.S. slavery, or Native American genocide, or immigrant labor. Having said that, I don't want to ignore these or similar things if they become relevant, but not central, to a story.
I want to write fantasy and science fiction but I don't necessarily want to write worlds where white supremacy, sexism, or imperialism don't exist. Though sometimes I might.
For example, if I write a character from our world that gets sent to a fantasy world, they might have very different attitudes about a war between goblins and elves if they were, say, Native American, rather than white.
Or, if I had a main character in a sci fi story who was a bad ass bounty hunter who was a black woman, I think it would be a cop out to write the universe she inhabited to be full of corruption, crime, and other villainy, but no racism. I wouldn't want to focus on racism in particular (I want to focus on thrilling sci fi adventures!) but it would be weird if it didn't exist at all.
Since I don't want to focus on it or ignore it, I'm currently thinking about what I need to keep in mind when prejudice and marginalization comes up while I'm writing.
Now that I think about it, I don't necessarily want to avoid stories that are about imperialism, prejudice, systemic oppression, etc. That's a cop out too. I live in the world and participate in these things whether I like it or not.
I suppose it's kind of inevitable that I'll make mistakes isn't it?
Hmmmm....
I guess I'll just keep doing my best to learn and to think properly about these things. I should also be prepared to own up to my inevitable mistakes. Not really different from life in general then. 🙂
Thank you for making this video. I'm not a writer but I love to learn about and support poc authors and readers.
Thank you so much for this. I'm going to be passing your videos on to my white writing friends. ❤
Tabulus Rasa Actually, I judge people on their common sense. As it happens, my friends who happen to be both white and writers often ask me for tips on writing those of different races because they think I as a mixed person may have a wider experience, so I try to indulge them in that respect because I like helping my friends.
This was pretty rude and uncalled for, btw. I just wanted to say a nice thing about the video OP put in time and effort to make because I heard she was getting a lot of assholes giving her shit. Turns out anyone can be a jerkface, regardless of skin color.
Thanks for this video! Very helpful and insightful.
Hey, I don't comment much but I was brought over here from twitter where @yalitsos was saying how you were being trolled and recieving a lot of hate for this video. I wanted to come in and offer my support and say that I loved this video. Thank you so much for taking the time to put this together. It is very helpful and I hope you will keep going.
I will! Thank you!
same here. this was a great video. please include in your work other minorities like sexual and gender minorities as well if it fits the story/isn't forced. I am asexual and never see us represented. :(
This is such a great video! Glad you took your time to make it! ((:
As always, excellent video. You make such amazing, important content 💖
Thank you, Lily. This is great, and I love your videos. Please keep on with this series!
This was absolutely lovely and informative. Thank you!
love this, thank you for your work!
Great video, thanks for sharing the tips.
This is brilliant! Thank you so much for sharing.
Great video! I'm subscribing to your channel and watching everything else.
Thank you so much for this!
Wonderful, insightful video! Thank you so much for posting.
Thank you for this video! ❤❤❤
You are amazing. Thanks for taking the time to make this thoughtful, in-depth and so, so badly needed!!
Hey Lily! Thank you for this. This is so well done and very informative. Sorry people are being asshats to you this morning.
This was great! Thank you for sharing.
If I shouldn't describe a person's skin color with terms like "caramel" how else am I going to describe the color? Don't get me wrong, this video was really helpful, but would have been even more helpful if you named some alternatives.
Would "terra brown" be okay? (My MC is an artist and she, therefore, describes everything with really specific color terms, like oxide red or agate grey)
Wonderful video lily :)
Fantastic video, thank you!
I hate how many works have diverse side-characters and how few have diverse main characters
great video!!
Such a great video. The great thing about society is that we can all agree to disagree. You bring up REALLY GOOD POINTS. I enjoy thinking about these sorts of things. Even if I disagree with something (which I do, but that is neither here nor there!) these are things that need to be talked about. These are things that writers - and readers - should discuss and THINK about. If you agree, think about all the reasons you agree! How can you push your understanding about the topic deeper. If you disagree, why? How can you push your understanding about the topic deeper. Lily - awesome video and keep them coming!
More please! :)
Definitely!
Oh my word, Lily, you are so lovely! I'm so happy I found you. Thank you so much for sharing this. I really needed this. I care so deeply about creating a world where diversity, acceptance, and cultural openness is the norm. I'm also writing a novel, and I'm trying to see how, as a white person, I can include people of colour in my story in a way that shows inclusion, but that also isn't using them simply for the purpose of proving that I'm an inclusive writer. Does that make sense? I don't want to use race to prove something about myself, but I also don't want to write another whitewashed novel. It needs to be natural and make sense to the story, yet this isn't a story about race. It's a fantasy with themes of religious oppression, understanding a God who seems very angry, and redefining guilt and shame.
Now, obviously because it isn't ABOUT race, per-say, that doesn't mean that it needs to be whitewashed. Of course it doesn't. So here is where my thought process gets messy (please bare with me. I'm new at this, and I'm really wanting to do a good job reflecting the diversity of beauty in humanity).
I thought about adding black characters, and I knew I wanted to put them in a place of power and beauty. Because it isn't ABOUT race, it doesn't have to be a big theme. But I want to make sure the readers don't just see another story of black oppression (not because those stories aren't worth telling. Of course they are. But this is a fantasy where anything goes, and this story doesn't have that history. It has a history that I get to create, and I love the idea of giving black people a place of honour just because I can). But then I realized that the royal family, who I had considered making black, contains one hero, and a couple of villains. So then, I didn't want to reinforce villainous traits with non-white races. Then I considered making the protagonist black, and I'm still toying with it. But I'm afraid that being the protagonist, I might miss things that I should need to include, or do a disservice by not addressing much of what it's like to be a black woman. I don't know, because I'm not one.
I guess my big question is this. Is it a good idea to include cultural diversity in fantasy that doesn't address racism as it happens in the real world? Can I write diversity in skin colour but not so much in culture (remember, I'm creating a new culture that doesn't exist in the real world)? Should I avoid all of this altogether? Or should I rethink things, and include racism in my novel, because as far as we've seen through history, it's always had an effect on every culture that we know?
Thanks so much again for your thoughts. I subbed and can't wait to see what else you put out.
I'm in a weird place where I only get racism when people can't see or hear me. I'm Puerto Rican and my last name is Rodriguez, but a good portion of my genealogy is general white person and so I'm very light skinned (though in the summer my dark genes take over and I look like those parts of my heritage). But whenever I apply for a job, or scholarship etc online I've never heard back but the second I go inside and speak to someone, they pull up my application from the depths of the recycle folder. Also, every time anyone from a similar background as me has a wod with me, they instantly see the POC parts. I feel bad feeling like I have a problem because I don't look like I should and I'm mostly white, but I do. And I feel bad having to explain my POC background to people who see paper when they look at me when it's true. I feel like I should advocate, but then I feel like I'm just another white person trying to help in a cause they're not a part of. Ditto with LGBT (I'm an Ace) and with disabilities (multiple ones that no one sees when they look at me. I'm in this invisible limbo for minorities so that's what I write about, the weird outcasts of the outcasts.
Thank you for this :)
Additional note: I'd debate whether or not Harry Potter is a good example. Because, while Yes, the characters condone it on page, the overall tone of the book does the opposite. Non-magical humans, all of them, are portrayed as less, as vicious, jealous, vile and incapable of getting anything done without the help of magical humans, while most magical humans are get away with some really despicable acts that get portrayed as 'brave' etc.
+MeltingPenguins Yeah, I'm aware it also has lots of problematic elements. But my hope was that this could be a good reference in that it's widely known and this example is easily understood. I'd need a much longer video to go into the nuances of HP's pros and cons.
You should do it, if you find the time :D
This was such an informative vidéo, Lily! I've just been getting into your videos, and I really like your channel. I love watching videos like these. Is it okay if, for a character of color, I were to describe them as dark skinned? Or would that not be okay? I really don't want to come off as offensive if I were to describe a character this way. Thanks once again for you helpful tips!
That should be fine! The main problem with describing skin tones is that food descriptors serve as a form of fetishizing and/or objectifying people of color, further distancing them from your other characters. Here's a link to a post (from a really great blog) all about how to describe skin colors: writingwithcolor.tumblr.com/post/96830966357/writing-with-color-description-guide-words-for
"...white person with skin like sour milk..."
I am totally using that.
Feel free! I meant it as a joke, but I actually do agree with the suggestion that it could be a good descriptor of someone ill or otherwise in bad health.
+TheMightyPH Food descriptors can often be a form of fetishization or objectification, typically othering people of color from other characters in a manuscript. If you're going to describe someone as having skin the color of sour milk, the extreme of the metaphor seeks to other the character no matter what. Sour milk would likely only make sense in describing someone very ill, so therefore othering in this case is not a symptom of devaluation but a comparison from what is healthy and normal.
As a white person attempting to write a fantasy with the main cast being diverse. I really appreciate this. The video was eloquent and well composed. Thank you, this was very helpful. Please keep up your great work.
As person with darker skin I have zero problem with someone describing my skin as chocolate, coffee, caramel, cinnamon, ect I actually love it. It sounds endearing and downright delicious. Milky skin is commonly used for light skin, it also sounds delicious and more to the point, it's something most people could visualize easily, as is coffee or caramel, ect. There's no need to complicate it or take it as some kind of negative. I think you're making too much of this and I have a suspicion it's because of some ideology you may follow. You do know that white people are actually the worlds minority, right? Most of the world, the vast majority of the world in fact, are people of color. Only in some of the West will you find a majority of whites. Someone has been lying to you. All stories are yours to tell. I'm just going to stop now because honestly, it's like these aren't your actual original thoughts.
+EnervatedSociety These are my thoughts. They aren't solely my own ideas, because I'm not the final voice on diversity. They are, however, well and thoughtfully researched. It doesn't matter your personal thoughts or mine on describing with food terms, it is a common criticism repeatedly pointed out and criticized for years by many different people, so it isn't really a matter of personal preference. It's proven to be something that has bothered a lot of people, as well as an early indicator that a writer hasn't done much research into how to write outside their race. I don't appreciate being tone policed and I REALLY don't appreciate your implication that I'm not dark enough to be a valid voice in this discussion. I do live in the West and its current and very powerful white majority still has a lot to learn, so I think I'm fine. You have a right to your own opinion, but I also have a right to confront implications that I'm not being honest, that I'm not qualified to speak, or that I'm not black enough to count.
Editing your comment not to include "(much darker than you, by the way)" does not erase the fact that you did say it in the first place.
Great video! Not sure how anyone could give this a thumbs down. Ignore the trolls!
you're the best lily!!!!
Good advice! Currently, I'm writing a kid's book and one of my protagonists (main character) is a black kid. I don't care what race my character is, it's just the way how I picture him, and he's fun to work on. I know characters need a profile, development, and personality. Stereotypes are barely in my writing.
sounds like good advice to me. thanks!
This was exactly the kind of insight I was looking for as I struggle to ensure there is diversity in my fiction. Thanks so much for putting this together; I hope you do more like it!
I really liked your video and I have some question. I´m Writing a fantasy novel and I´m torn over how my characters are supposed to look. I really want all different skintypes in the novel becouse I feel it´s very unlikely that all characters are white and I find it rather boring. I´m white and I don´t want to affend anyone for writing characters in colour. My question is is it okay to write a villian that is black? The villians´ daughter is the one that later goes against her mother and they have a war. There are ofcourse other characters that are coloured as well. The thing is that I really would like the book to have a hero with dark skin, but then her mother has to be black to becouse the reason that they were really close in the begining was becouse they looked alike and then they started to dislike eachother for their different views. What should I do?
I also wonder if it´s okay to have only coloured characters in my novel and no white once? The reson I have concidered that is becouse there are so many fantasy novels with only white characters but I have never read one with only black characters and it bothers me. Is it alright to write a fantasy novel with only people of colour if you are a white author?
Very happy if people responded to this, and I´m sorry for my English and spelling. I´m not from an englishspeaking country.
"He had skin like milk that had been left out too long and is slightly discolored"
yeah, that's totally me, how did you know? :-D
Thanks for this video. I'm writing a LitRPG portal fantasy where the MC is an African American woman. I just feel that more diverse characters are more interesting. Also something like 90% of the genre have white male protagonists and I'm doing my best to evolve the genre.
This is the first video I've seen on the topic that actually gets it right!! Great job w this :)
Great video with fantastic tips, as usual. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Lily-and I hope people pay attention, because it really is a prevalent issues many people aside for yourself have repeatedly talked about. FWIW, I think the people who don't want to harm, at least, will listen. The rest, well-that's on them.
Keep up the great work!
Thank you for this video. Including more diversity in my writing (and doing it well) is something I'm very interested in. I know I have a lot to learn, and I would love to hear you talk more on this subject. And I'm sorry for any rude comments you might be getting.
Thank you!!!
I really like this video! One thing I’d like to point out is: I go to a very white school (I’m white, too.) and the 10% of the school that IS black, I’m friends with. It’s okay to have main white characters with friends who have dark skin, you just have to make sure to not make them the ONLY black characters in the area they live. Make some side characters or other friends who aren’t JUST white! Unless it’s a big part of the character’s backstory, of course. I am making this mainly in reference to comic creation as that’s what I’m looking into at the moment, but this can count for all types of writing.
Hello! I just wondered, could you do a video with some focus on racial personality tropes? I'm trying to write a fantasy and so far I've found stuff saying that some harmful stereotypes include 'stoic, tough black woman who is the emotionless juggernaut' and such, I'm just wondering what your take is on that (because of the whole balancing act between racial stereotypes and female character stereotypes that statement creates.) I'd really like to know how to do this well and could use the help, please!
Loved the video! Hi I'm a POC multi racial writer and in my current book my MC shares only half of my ethnicity and most of the rest of the main cast, all POC don't share their race with me. Is it okay to write about this? There's some depiction of some violence, drugs, poverty etc. I'm from a third world country and I have some first hand experience with it. Do you think this would be offensive to the book community if I write about this? All my characters are good people but they make bad decisions some time. I've tried to be as sensitive as possible but with all the things going on book twitter I'm really scared that my book is going to get backlash. I have anxiety so that doesn't help things. Please help.
~Psuedonym writer
+wendy parker I think you should be fine! You don't have to avoid difficult topics like poverty or drugs, there is a difference between writing stereotypes to negatively portray an ethnicity than just using these as additional factors in a nuanced character. I've also made a video with tips on writing poverty, if you like to check it out. You don't need to share characteristics or backgrounds with all of your characters. Stories would get very boring if that was the case. Thank you for your kind comment!
I loved this video! I purposefully included POC in my novel. It was really important for me to include people of all ethnicities because I feel like there’s no escaping that sort of world. I didn’t want to portray them in a specific way and, to me, that’s the hardest thing. I want to describe them, but I feel as if I describe my villain’s eyes (he’s Asian), it will have some sort of backlash. Also, can I just say how hard it is to describe a Filipino/White mix? It’s really hard to make it obvious that he is not white...and he's one of my main characters! I often don’t make their race their defining factor. I mention their dark skin, but I never make their race important. Their personalities and what they bring to the story has always been more important.
So, I'm sitting here in tears. it's the first of your videos I've had the chance to see as my Internet aweful. The personal story sounds so much like mine. This will not be my last video. You are amazing never forget it.
Thank you so much for such a lovely comment! This really meant a lot to me!
You have a very sweet disposition and it was a pleasure to watch this video. Do you have any advice for writing PoC as main characters, rather than side characters? I want diversity in my stories, but I don't want to have it be on the sideline on the account that I'm not a certain race, background, gender, or sexual orientation.
Token characters are pretty upsetting and disappointing. Life is a lot more complicated than that. Wonderful video as usual and here's to writing diversely but respectfully.
I know I’m like two years late but I wanted to ask. If I wanted to describe the skin colour of someone who is black or tan or Arab or Chinese or Indian how do I say it in a way that won’t be racist. (I also did mention white characters skin colours too as pale)
Great video, Lily! :D The MC of my current WIP is a POC, and I find myself struggling a bit with certain aspects of writing her. Mostly I have the fear that me NOT mentioning the colour of her skin will make people assume that she's not a POC (because of everyone in media being whitewashed as it is), nor do I want to mention it too much, and seemingly make too big of a deal of her BEING a POC, out of fear that people will think that I'm doing it to score points, or something. I feel like I'm rambling, but it is something that I'm struggling with. However, I've found that in most books I read, skin colour isn't mentioned. At all. I guess I just don't want people to assume things, which is a hard thing to work out. I'm hoping that I'll figure it out, though. Sorry for the rambling, but thank you again for a great video. If you have any tips of ideas, feel free to send them my way. Happy writing! :)
+The Nerdy Book Nerd It's a fine line for sure. I don't think you need to talk about it ALL the time, but I do think it is worth pointing out every once in a while, because people do read with a white default (often whether they want to or not, bc it's so socially ingrained).
Lily Meade Yeah, that was kind of my thinking :) Thank you!
Tabulus Rasa 🤦The "white default" is not about liking things from a certain group, it's when reading, if the character's race isn't mentioned, people assume they are white. Really should learn what racism is.
I don't mean to offend only to be enlightened by asking this question. If a writer describes a character of color that is well developed and doesn't die skin tone using coffee so we the reader gets a vivid image in their mind of how they look why is that offensive?
It doesn't have to be! A lot of people have (willfully) misinterpreted what I said, but I meant to only point it out as a POTENTIAL warning sign of possible lack of research or other offensive content. It is a really common complaint when you research how to write characters of color well, so it's inclusion could be a sign that someone hasn't done/doesn't care enough to do research. But its existence doesn't automatically mean it's offensive! In fact, a book coming out next year called THE BELLES uses food terms to describe almost all characters (of many different colors). I certainly wouldn't say that book is offensive. It's a fantasy novel about a world where beauty is a form of magic and actually talks a lot about beauty/society standards, self image, and racism.
I honestly don't care what colour a person is, as long as the actor/actress is decent.
+Alistair Harris In written novels, there are no actors to show you what a character looks like, so the responsibility is ok the author to describe. Most people read with a White Default (including me!), so it is important to point out and reinforce these descriptors throughout the text.
Sorry, I should have mentioned all types of story based things, like TV shows and movies.
"most people read with a white default" that sounds more of an issue with the idividual (including minorities)
+Alistair Harris I agree! It's definitely something to be worked on.
I don't think it can be worked on, lets say you write a story about an old African tribe, people will think it will be an African character, that goes for all things really.
When you make a story in morden times in America and you get a character called Stacy, people won't know what colour the character is and if you only distibute the book in only America, the chances of a white person reading it is much higher and since they don't know what colour the person is, they will just think the person is white.
+Alistair Harris Also agreed! When I say that it needs to be worked on, I mean on the author side. The default itself it sort of societally ingrained by outside factors, so it's on the author to point out a character's true race instead of trusting a reader to pick up on it.
Ok, I’m a 23 black male beginner writer. I’m having a hard time figuring how to describe the skin tone of my main character. He’s medium-dark-skinned. Darker than Will Smith but lighter than Martin Lawrence. Anyone have any suggestions?
I understand the importance of writing POC that don't feed into negative stereotypes. And even though I don't agree with everything you say I appreciate the time you put into making videos that help people stop and think from other's point of view. But I have to ask, why is it negative to write someone as a maid, convenience store clerk, or janitor? Why are these jobs considered negative for POC? Why are they considered negative for any race? Because they don't pay a lot of money? I can see a point of showing POC in more than just these roles as in real life POC have all sorts of jobs and writing that would be realistic. Still, those jobs are not below anyone. My grandmother worked all three of the mentioned jobs. For many years after her husband died all she had was her maid/janitor job to feed, care for and put her 4 boys through school. She worked hard and her sons were proud of her. She was never ashamed to tell people that was her job, because she wasn't too good for those jobs. No one is.
No, certainly not. Those jobs are not below anyone. The main concern with POC in those roles within a story is if that is the only roles they are in. Particularly in a job like a maid, it harkens back to when that was the only job available for people of color. That there was no choice, upward momentum, or opportunity. It can imply the same sort of oppression if that's the only roles your POC take, but of course, none of those jobs are below anybody and it's not inherently problematic for anyone to do them. They are necessary jobs!
Edited for context: Someone downloaded and cut my video into clips to comment on their own channel. I really hope my comments can stay a supportive and open space for people looking for advice or to learn. I apologize if anyone treats you otherwise. I'm still open to making more videos on this subject despite this incident, so please let me know if you would like that and what you'd like to know more about.
MORE INFO! Here's a post specifically on describing skin, because that seems to be coming up often in these comments: writingwithcolor.tumblr.com/post/96830966357/writing-with-color-description-guide-words-for
This post explains the problems being food descriptors better than I do: writingwithcolor.tumblr.com/post/95955707903/skin-writing-with-color-has-received-several
There was nothing remotely constructive about the shock jock antics in that video. The "criticism" displayed a level of ignorance and lack of empathy that was honestly astounding. Using someone's well thought out and presented opinions as fodder for a racially charged rant about your superiority is just disgusting.
Hi Lily, I luv luv ur channel and all the amazing work you are doing to make writing careers more accessible to young people! You probably know this site, but another good resource for diversity is www.blacksci-fi.com if any of your fans are interested. There are so many wonderful authors of color and lgbtq authors out there in the speculative fiction genre - half the battle is supporting them and hyping up their work bc we have always had a stake in fantasy. We just aren't as well known by the culture of power. We definitely want authentic and quality representation so supporting #ownvoice is so important. Thank you for sharing your events to the online community and giving people a safe space to discuss all this wonderful literature!
This was a very good video on writing diversely. Anyone can make this mistake in various ways. I'm a black person and have caught myself in different traps. But the thing is when I realize I've made a mistake or a character could be harmful because of a trope I didn't know about...I make the change. I'll give two examples.
1. One of my WIPs formerly had one of the three lgbt characters in a love triangle die. Now it's NA horror and the relationship is not the crux of the story. But still, over time I changed my mind because of tropes like kill your gays. While I was personally confident my story didn't fall into that trap. The problem is the trope is there and too many authors and tv shows have pointlessly killed gays as plot devices. Mine might not be one but why risk a reader falling in love with this character or enjoying their journey only to see her killed off and possibly feel it's because of the character being gay. The risk was not necessary so I decided to change that idea and work to make the rest of the story gel with that.
2. Another WIP had a spunky Asian character with gelled hair and I thought that was fine. But then I read an article by an Asian female discussing how Asians are being negatively affected by an overabundance of spunky stereotypes which push out the diversity of Asian personalities. Now as a black person I know what it is like to be annoyed by stereotypes of my own race. After reading this article and some serious thought. I decided to change the character. He had a small part anyway and ended up getting kidnapped in the idea stage. But then a bigger change happened that I didn't expect. He went from tiny part Asian character to a main secondary character who blossoms from being in the closet to having a relationship with the MC and becoming his 'rock' as well as directly helping. He was no longer a prop but a shy bad ass. Plus he pushed out a typical white jock character who kept setting my teeth on edge. Happy to see him go. And that would never have happened if I had stayed in my bubble for the sake of the story and my story telling rights? The point is that my story is better!
So yeah I'd tell people getting mad about being encouraged to make changes. That change is good. No one is holding a gun to your head but understand that what you might see as okay could be harmful to someone else. Is it really worth it? To get the story the way you want by placing harmful tropes out there? I don't think so. I just don't.
+queendsheena1 These are great examples! I'm so glad you shared them with me. I was not even aware of the spunky Asian stereotype, so I'll make sure to keep it in mind. You are so right! Change is good! Writing is all about confronting problems. It shouldn't matter if the problem is a plot fix or something like this, both require bettering yourself and flexing your imagination a bit harder. Thank you for your comment!
You're welcome.
queendsheena1 Do you share experiences and insights like this elsewhere on the internet? If so, I'd like to follow you.
Thank you for those kind words, Sarah! I have my twitter: @queendsheena and my blog. This month I'm focusing on reviews but usually, I talk about a variety of things. You can check out my post on a book that did a very bad job in the diversity department: queendsheena.blogspot.com/2017/03/book-review-rant-riot-school.html
Oh my god you are an absolute angel sent from heaven. You're so cute, your voice is sweet and overall you are very informing! I have a couple POC in my WIP and when I go to edit I will be keeping these things in mind! Thank you thank you thank you!! I am now subbed and will be checking out more of your videos!!!
+Paméla B. Good luck in revisions! I'm sure you'll do great.
Lily Meade thank you so much!!
The image on the video does look a bit washed out. If you have an exposure setting on your recording device you may want to try different settings. If there isn't a setting to control exposure try changing the lighting. look for videos or articles about defusing the light.
As far as the topic goes I think its a matter of being mindful. If your world is idyllic you will have to be diligent about removing anything that would imply prejudice. But you might want to intentionally set a biased tone in your work. I think it boils down to intent and execution. It's easy for things to creep into a story unintentionally or for you to put something in deliberately but not do it in a manner that is well received.
Yes, I agree, it's all about intent. It's also wise to think about how others might interpret your work, even with positive intentions, and make sure you are doing your best to make your thoughts clear. My camera doesn't allow me to change exposure settings in manual mode, but if I switch to another mode I can't get it light enough. I'm looking into alternate options, but worst case scenario I prefer this look to the grainy orange coloring of my last few videos. I am pretty light skinned though and it's definitely noticeable under direct light, LOL.
Lily Meade love these tips! Thanks for the video!
That is such a good video! I am struggling myself to include POC into my bookworld, because I always treat them so nice that they become flat characters ... I am scared of writing something bad about them xD
My black character called the white guy "ghostie." I have no shame.
Perfect! I was looking for a video like this; thank you! It was really informative.
I have read books where white people are described as having "milk white skin" and it never sounds healthy to me hahaha. You are so right; food descriptions are not good.
Exactly! Milk white makes me want to check for a pulse.
Maybe!
Tabulus Rasa I mean no offence. I said "milk white skin" because of the example of curdled milk Lily used in her video.
Also, most often "milk white skin" seems to be used in a context of beauty: such as Snow White, but you could be right.
I very much agree people should not avoid using descriptive words, but I'm learning that food is not always the way to do it. There are exceptions like with every writing "rule" though.
@Potential Rapist
Sweetie, this is clearly a sensitive subject for you and I am sorry you are upset, but I think you may have tagged the wrong person. As you can see in my picture, I am as white as white can be, and I do not wish I did "not exist." I am just a writer, trying to learn what people may find offensive as I write.
However, I will say this, you do not HAVE to follow the suggestions she made in this video- you can go your own way as you want- but these are her opinions and she is free to share them. In the end, they are just opinions that are allowed to be different from yours. Often, opinions of others can not be changed with anger, so keep your health in check by worrying less over opinions you don't agree with. Just a suggestion~! I understand you have anger, but I highly doubt angry comments will help(particularly directed at me for some reason) : )
Someone stupid made a whole video about you. You are an inspiration. Sorry some people have guilty consciences. Lots of love. I love your storytelling skills. Much love.
Not trying to be antagonistic but why is the race of the character important in anyway? People who aren't racist are the people who don't focus on race at all.
knoxonator The race of a character or person matters because it has a lot to do with their identity, how they see the world and how the word sees them. Race isn't just biology and skin color. Race influences cultural norms, food, religious practices, opportunities...it influences A LOT. People who "refuses to see race" are ignoring all of that. It's peak social privilege trying to pass itself off as enlightenment.
My name is Alejandra, not Susan. Respect my identity. Ignoring a person's race also ignores social experience that is directly tied to race, which I described in my previous comment. You can read sociology literature to understand this better. Or you can use ad hominem attacks because you don't understand; and deliberately misidentify people and pretend that's an argument.
+Alejandra Magallanes You sound like you're part of the alt right. By your logic race determines culture. So for example if a black person is born and raised in Britain and British culture they would be part of the white race. Since the very idea of that is ridiculous race can not influence culture.
Wtf are you talking about? A black person born in Britain would not be part of the white race. That's not even close to what I said. And Black British culture exists. Do you just not think about the effects of colonialism at all?
Race absolutely influences culture. That's where cultural appropriation becomes an issue, especially in cosplaying. If you aren't Native don't wear ceremonial dress or war paint. If you aren't Black don't speak in AAVE. If you aren't Latinx don't wear sugar skull makeup. It's that simple. These things are personal and tied to race and culture. I'm not talking about stereotypes, but nice try at using that as a red herring.
+Alejandra Magallanes I apologize for misinterpreting you. Could you please explain what you me what you meant by race influences culture, perhaps an example?
One answer: Don't include races, unless the story calls for it. This leaves the reader to project into that character with whatever race they might have.
Andrew McClenning Which is default white. Look what happened when Hunger Games came out. Despite Rue being described as black, everyone saw her as white. Representation matters.
@@ZenitaDee I haven't ever heard that people viewed Rue as white.
All your advice does is hamper creativity in writing. You should write what you want to write, not constantly have a checklist of things that you feel like you and every writer must do to avoid offending people. You do know that some writing (and art in general) is meant to offend, right? If that's the goal, then that's the goal, and you shouldn't be the one telling a creator that they shouldn't do it.
And who made you any authority on writing anyways? I wouldn't even take famous authors like JK Rowling or JRR Martin as authorities on how to write, but at least they are proven successful writers. You? You're a nobody with an ideological agenda that informs your so-called advice for other writers.
Look, there's genuine advice on how to write good stories, and genuinely things to generally avoid for the sake of a good story. Not writing Mary or Gary Sues, for example. But even in that case, there are exceptions which make those work. Superman and Saitama are examples of characters that are hugely successful with fans who are Gary Sues. So it's a guideline, but ultimately, it's up to the writer to write how they want to write.
I advice all writers to ignore your advice, for the sake of their creativity. My best advice for writers is write how you want to write. If it works, then it works. As an art, there's hardly any rules to it.
I'm not hampering anyone's creativity. There are plenty of different options for any and everything I discuss here, so if you think ignoring other possibilities is an attack on creativity instead of a lack of personal imagination, that's not my fault. Challenging viewpoints in fiction or art is fine, but if you are trying to argue that intentional racism in art should be a goal we will just need to agree to disagree. And I'm definitely not an authority on writing, but as of commenting here 900 or so people think I'm more of an authority than you are, so... pot calling the kettle black much? You can advise writers to do whatever they want, so can I.
You are hampering creativity by telling people that there are things that they shouldn't write because you said so. I'm saying that people should write what they want to write. No exceptions. If it doesn't work, then it doesn't work. But that's not to say that they shouldn't have done it.
Intentional racism shouldn't be a goal. But it COULD be a goal. It could be the point to a piece of art. Who are you to tell somebody what the point of their work of art should be?
Yeah, great, 900 people agree with you because you were already speaking to their quire. Argument from popularity is not valid. It's the same reason why I also don't view massively successful writers as authorities either. Argument from popularity is even less valid when you don't have that much popularity.
As art, the only person who should be the authority on art is the person making the art. Other people can like it or hate it, but I was under the impression that art was made primarily for the sake of the creator of the art, not for other people viewing the art.
Oh wait a sec, where the hell did you get 900? That's your subscriber count, but just because somebody is subscribed to you, doesn't mean they agree with everything you say or even like your videos. Such a thing as "hate subscribing" does exist, you know. You have 36 comments. Even assuming all of them are expressing how much they agree with you means you're nowhere near 900. You have 32 likes, also nowhere near 900.
And if you wanna go by your metric of counting who agrees with you, I will point you to this video:
/watch?v=enW-_eWtLe0
This person's video is basically disagreeing with everything you say in this video of yours. She has over 6000 subs. Which means, according to your own logic, you have 6000 people disagreeing with you. Last I checked, 6000 > 900.
Look, YOU follow your rules if you want. The people who agree with you follow your rules, if they want. But nobody else has to nor should. In fact, my advice is to ignore your advice for the sake of writing more genuinely rather than checking off boxes on a list of your agenda. I for one, as a writer, refuse to be restricted by your rules.
ShadeSlayer1911 All I'm reading is, blah, blah, I don't want to put effort into realistic representation. You want to talk about genuine characters, but how genuine are one dimensional characters based on stereotypes and lazy development?