WWC Rules | Guidelines | FAQ
WritingWithColor Asking Rules | Guidelines | FAQ
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Before you ask your question, please do the following:
Review these rules & guidelines.
Read our What Does Our Motivations PSA Mean? post
Read the FAQ and the recommended reading within.
Search for the answer to your questions via:
- WWC's Main Navigation & Stereotypes Navigation
- Use the “search writingwithcolor” bar to search keywords
- Try WWC’s Google Search, which picks up phrases & sentences
WWC Ask Rules (ASKS CURRENTLY CLOSED)
General writing questions.
As in writing q’s that have nothing to do with BIPOC or only deal tangentially with them.
Questions that are very broad or vague.
For example “how do I write a Black character?“ or variations of this question. See the FAQ and our WWC General Topics Compilation
Questions that ask for facts you can easily Google.
Need help using Google? Check out: Writing Research and Google Search Tips
Questions that seek our permission or approval to write about a topic.
We call these rubber stamp questions. Asks designed to solicit simple approval are time consuming and difficult to answer.
Further explanation on rubber stamp asks, what they are, and how to fix them:
No Longer Accepting Rubber Stamp Questions
Questions that ask us for resources.
“Do you have resources for–” STOP! We will not do your research for you.
Please don’t use WWC to point you towards references. We are not here to be your Google. Specific questions that arise within your research is one thing, asking us to spoon-feed you where to do your research is another thing entirely.
- WWC Research Tags: Research | Writer Reference
- How to research your racially/ethnically diverse characters - guide
- WWC How to Research Compilation
- WWC Recommendations and Resources
Questions using “PoC” as a replacement for an applicable race.
Person/Woman/Man of Color is not a fancy way to say Black people; It’s an umbrella term for a coalition including a lot of different races/ethnicities. If your question isn’t specific it’s 1) difficult to answer and 2) generates a general and not as helpful response
Questions that indicate you have not browsed WWC thoroughly if at all.
If you start off by saying “sorry if this has been asked before” or “this may already be answered but-” You’re telling us you haven’t checked. These Q’s are grounds for automatic deletion.
Questions that ignore our ask submission guidelines.
- Use “ask” for questions that are 2 parts. If a question is longer than 2 parts, use submit.
- We also request that you don’t send writing questions via fanmail.
Questions that have nothing to do with writing.
We are a writing advice blog. We consider questions seeking our perspective on current events or controversies to be off topic. We will only answer these sort of questions at our own leisure (or if we find them helpful for others to answer).
Banned questions (due to excessive discussion or other reasons, explained within the links)
questions about Muslim characters + magic. Here is why.
questions about the Wendigo. Here is why.
questions about Asian women (and Asian characters in general) with colored hair / colored streaks in their hair. Here is why
questions that ask for a rubber stamp of approval. Explanation
Submit your question properly
Use “ask” for questions that are 1-2 parts.
If a question is longer than 2 parts, use submit.
No fanmail writing Q’s (Fanmail for general commentary is fine)
Please read below the cut for instructions on how to be anonymous
Ask questions we haven’t covered at length
We will not answer Q’s that are too similar to ones we’ve already answered (Check the navigation and/or our multiple search functions very thoroughly). We will not often redirect you to the answer. This is not the same as having a follow-up question about an existing guide or discussion. Go ahead and ask. We’d be happy to clarify!
Provide All Relevant Details | We Are Not Mind Readers
Please provide all racial demographics of all characters involved. Our responses will change depending on the race of the characters involved, and if we are not provided race, we will assume parts of the demographics (just to make the question answerable) which leads to further problems down the line
Keep asks focused: Avoid providing a laundry list of multiple characters that you want rubber-stamped for correct characterization. Ask about a specific character or situation. You’ll get a more detailed answer on that specific character/situation that way.
Don’t expect an instant response to your question
We receive hundreds of asks. It takes time.
Also, it’s impossible for us to answer every question we get.
We will prioritize questions that are on fresh topics not covered extensively here before.
Please stop asking us to recommend blogs that are…
…like WWC except for disability, lgbtqa+ etc. We have answered this already. Check our recommendations page!
Finally, we urge you not to send in questions with racial slurs that aren’t blocked out or denoted as “n word” “g word” etc. We may choose to delete uncensored slurs (and any other blatantly offensive Q’s) as to avoid triggering ourselves and/or others.
Frequently Asked Questions
“What are ways to describe my character’s skin tone?”
“How do I introduce the race of my characters?”
“How do I denote the race of my characters in a fantasy setting?”
“How do I describe my Asian character’s eyes respectfully?”
“I want my real-world Native American character to do/experience X.”
“I’m afraid my character has harmful stereotypical traits.”
“How do I write a ____________ character?”
“Wouldn’t including PoC make my writing forced?”
“It wouldn’t be historically accurate for my story to include PoC.”
“What is Cultural Appropriation?”
“What is tokenism and why is it harmful?”
See below for answers to our FAQ!
germansingergirl
blakekathryn
gummygunk
annaxmalina
tangentwithtanner
snowghoul
kaledo-art
dededos
