Thought-Bubbles

Like a speech bubble, but... thoughts.

[writingwithcolor]

Pictured above: Black, Brown, Beige, White, Pink.

“She had brown skin.”

This is a perfectly fine description that, while not providing the most detail, works well and will never become cliché.

Describing characters’ skin as simply brown or beige works on its own, though it’s not particularly telling just from the range in brown alone.

C o m p l e x  C o l o r s

These are more rarely used words that actually “mean” their color. Some of these have multiple meanings, so you’ll want to look into those to determine what other associations a word might have.

Keep reading

[glass-sunshine]

Please. Use these kinds of descriptors. Avoid food (like the plague).

[writingwithcolor]

How do you feel about PoC authors themselves using food terms to describe their (PoC) character's skin tones? I've come across it a few times now and it always makes me wonder

Authors of Color using Food Descriptors

Romance novels and urban fantasy are so FRICKFRACK FAIL when it comes to this. It pops up in SFF too and it makes me so livid. :( Also, romance/urban fantasy as a genre as a whole is very white and tend to exotify POC while still centering their stories on whiteness. Makes me want to pull my hair out!

~Stella

I personally find it frustrating to see! Just because a Person of Color opts to use food to describe skin tones doesn’t “justify” it for a majority who are uncomfortable with it and can clearly see the issues in it. And while i cringe to see the narrator describing their dark-skinned characters via food, when the love interest does so from their perspective, it’s even more uncomfortable.

Now, if a story is well-written, despite a couple non-blatant fetishizing uses of food to describe skin, I will usually give it a chance to redeem itself with the quality of story. However, an excessive amount of such descriptions will make me throw in the towel (and the book, unless i’m reading from my Nook… then no i’m not throwing it) because it’s very distracting and lowers the quality of the read to me.

I think a lot of the use of food is simple not being aware of the issues. As a younger writer I used to use food to describe skin too, because in the rare instances I saw brown skin described in books i read, food descriptions were most of all i’d ever seen. I didn’t know better, but with knowledge and growing much more as a writer, I wouldn’t touch such a description now.

I hope as more awareness and diverse works hit the shelves (and writers read the Words for Skin Tone guide! wink wink) food descriptions in works will dwindle down significantly. 

One can only hope!

~Colette

[glass-sunshine]

Another reason to avoid describing skin color with foods:

– Most of the foods used to describe non-white people? Most of the foods used to ‘help’ describe skin color were also used in combination with the slave trade. Coffee, chocolate (cocoa), rum, honey…? Yeah. No bueno. Let’s quit it.

[glass-sunshine]

Repurposing

Hi friends, I am going to devote this blog to all things writing. As an amateur writer and one-day editor, I spend a lot of time thinking, researching, and reading about everything under the sun to do with writing.

[glass-sunshine]

Common mistakes many people don't even realize are offensive - some made by famous writers!

Keep on keeping on, my friends.

[writingwithcolor]

How do you feel about PoC authors themselves using food terms to describe their (PoC) character's skin tones? I've come across it a few times now and it always makes me wonder

Authors of Color using Food Descriptors

Romance novels and urban fantasy are so FRICKFRACK FAIL when it comes to this. It pops up in SFF too and it makes me so livid. :( Also, romance/urban fantasy as a genre as a whole is very white and tend to exotify POC while still centering their stories on whiteness. Makes me want to pull my hair out!

~Stella

I personally find it frustrating to see! Just because a Person of Color opts to use food to describe skin tones doesn’t “justify” it for a majority who are uncomfortable with it and can clearly see the issues in it. And while i cringe to see the narrator describing their dark-skinned characters via food, when the love interest does so from their perspective, it’s even more uncomfortable.

Now, if a story is well-written, despite a couple non-blatant fetishizing uses of food to describe skin, I will usually give it a chance to redeem itself with the quality of story. However, an excessive amount of such descriptions will make me throw in the towel (and the book, unless i’m reading from my Nook… then no i’m not throwing it) because it’s very distracting and lowers the quality of the read to me.

I think a lot of the use of food is simple not being aware of the issues. As a younger writer I used to use food to describe skin too, because in the rare instances I saw brown skin described in books i read, food descriptions were most of all i’d ever seen. I didn’t know better, but with knowledge and growing much more as a writer, I wouldn’t touch such a description now.

I hope as more awareness and diverse works hit the shelves (and writers read the Words for Skin Tone guide! wink wink) food descriptions in works will dwindle down significantly. 

One can only hope!

~Colette

[glass-sunshine]

Another reason to avoid describing skin color with foods:

– Most of the foods used to describe non-white people? Most of the foods used to ‘help’ describe skin color were also used in combination with the slave trade. Coffee, chocolate (cocoa), rum, honey...? Yeah. No bueno. Let’s quit it.

[writingwithcolor]

Pictured above: Black, Brown, Beige, White, Pink.

“She had brown skin.”

This is a perfectly fine description that, while not providing the most detail, works well and will never become cliché.

Describing characters’ skin as simply brown or beige works on its own, though it’s not particularly telling just from the range in brown alone.

C o m p l e x  C o l o r s

These are more rarely used words that actually “mean” their color. Some of these have multiple meanings, so you’ll want to look into those to determine what other associations a word might have.

Keep reading

[glass-sunshine]

Please. Use these kinds of descriptors. Avoid food (like the plague).

[chillyatta-deactivated20170816]

DC ladies - “before I am your daughter, your sister, your aunt, niece, or cousin, I am my own person, and I will not set fire to myself to keep you warm”

[mockeryd-deactivated20201004]

But guys, Vixen getting her own cartoon is a big deal.

Know why?

Because she’s the first super-heroine to get her own animated series.

Wonder Woman hasn’t even gotten one! They were going to do a Batigirl animated series a while back but it fell through. And it’s even a bigger deal because DC is making an animated show centered around a black woman. I don’t remember that happening like ever.

So Vixen is a big deal and it’s going to need our support.

[heavens-to-murgatroid]

If you don’t have me on snapchat you are missing out on some gems.

[prettyboyshyflizzy]

“I’m loyal to my fake nigga”😭😭

[brownbbygirl-deactivated2017033]

Bruuhhh

[writeworld-blog]

cincocosas said: Hi, do you have any advice for writing a musical play? Thanks

[writeworld-blog]

I confess that I am not very knowledgeable on this topic. Though I’ve written songs and plays, I have never written a musical, and so I cannot offer you any advice from firsthand experience. Bearing that in mind,...

[crazekatlad]

Some more Harry potter gifs p2

[crazekatlad]

Harry potter gifs somebody help me p1

[beauxbxtons]

Something I’ve never noticed before:

Snape not only deflects McGonagall’s attack but uses it to take down Alecto and Amycus in a single armwave behind his visual field. Like they both had their wands out too but BOY they did not see that coming. Snape knew that he needed to get rid of them before being driven out of the castle so that they wouldn’t harm any of the students GOD what a badass motherfucker 

[the-right-writing]

If she starts cleaning up imaginary lint from the sofa, one sort of person is suggested. If she spills her scotch and lets it sink into her skirt without seeming to care, that suggests another. Something prosaic like sitting down and reading the newspaper does not tell the readers much. But if she turns at once to the medical column, that might tell us something. The actions you give your characters should be densely informative.

Jerome Stern, Making Shapely Fiction (via the-right-writing)

[gyarados]

You’re welcome

[lady-gorthaur]

This is the most useful thing I’ve ever reblogged.

[danwasonfireonce]

i used to think when people said my cousin twice removed that their cousin must’ve did some fucked up shit to get kicked out of the family twice

[happylifewiththemachines-deacti]

When I found this the first thing I thought was “now I can find out how Count Olaf is related to the Baudelaire children.”

[lindseycocks]

I used to think relatives that were “removed” were divorced out of the family.  So I was confused why those relatives remarried the same person over and over again only to divorce each time 

[hawk-and-handsaw-blog]

friends don’t let friends leave marvel movies before the end of the credits

[frostbitefingers]

#however friends do look at each other and then silently judge the people who do leave

[unbfacts]

A man proposed his girlfriend in very unique way. he took his runner girlfriend on a run that ended at the place where they first met. When he showed her his GPS tracker, the tracked route read “MARRY ME”.