*Watches scenes from my WIP like a tv show on repeat in my head instead of ever writing them down*

tannertan36
I'd rather be in outer space šø
Mike Driver

Discoholic šŖ©

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romaā
i don't do bad sauce passes
Cosimo Galluzzi
Peter Solarz

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Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her

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Not today Justin
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AnasAbdin
One Nice Bug Per Day
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@sebs-scribbles
*Watches scenes from my WIP like a tv show on repeat in my head instead of ever writing them down*
Reblog if you didnāt write My Immortal
Weāre going to find the author by process of elimination.
I donāt have āabandonedā or āon hiatusā wips. I just put them on simmer for a bit. Indefinitely.
@is-it-madnessāā this is the funniest you will ever beĀ
I was wondering what kind of female black characters do people want to see more of? Like, them being soft or selfish?
Black Girls & Women: Representation We Want
As a Black woman reader, I definitely want to see more soft Black girls and women in literature. Girls with their own self-interests (caring about oneself isnāt necessarily selfish) and not always someone elseās caregiver is great too.
Note to writers of all races: By all means use this list as inspiration for your stories!Ā
More Black girlsā¦
In love.
Interracial relationships (Black X White, Black X BIPOC)
Black love. Healthy parental bonds (Bonus: dark skin Black mothers!)
With close family bonds and healthy relationships and support systems (that donāt require enduring abuse, fixing their partner, or overall emotional labor to earn domestic happiness)
Being protected
As main characters, heroines and anti-heroes
On adventures
In fantasy and magical settings
In historical settings as peasants, upper-class society, and royalty. NOT always slaves.
Descriptions of Black Afro hair, skin, features as a normal thing in books (see this compilation) and not in an Othering way
On the other hand, vibrant, sometimes hyped up descriptions that allude to their beauty (see this ask. Or this one). Not Othering, just appreciating!Ā
Put us in fancy dresses and give us a sword and let us dance at the balls and have admirers!
Experiencing complex emotions not necessarily in reaction to racism or racist violence
On the book cover! And with an accurate, not light or white-washed model
~Mod Colette
Responses:
@madamef-er
Soft Black girls and nerd girls who like cute things.Ā
Shy Black girls not just in situations with boys.Ā
More lgbtqia+ Black girls. Studs! Femmes!Ā
Gender fluid and non conforming constantly changing their style because they like it!
Spies and not just as the āsexy baitā or āweapons masterā let us sit behind the computer for once and be hackers and stuff
@tanlefan
Black girls who are justā¦people.
I want a fantasy escapism adventure that isnāt a thinly veiled discussion on slavery or racism or any other aspect of The Struggle. I am tired.Ā
Can I just have a happy Black girl who believes in fairies or something?
@esmeraldanacho-1776More autistic Black women/girls! I donāt care what genre really; just have them in there!
@briarsthicketAnd enby black people!
@mattiekins
Def soft Black girls.Ā
Energetic and playful.Ā
Or shy and quiet.
I want to see more Black girls who are nerds and not just mommy mommying or nanny nannying everyone.Ā
I want Black girls who want to be a ballerina, or a talk show host, or a game designer etc.Ā
I want a Black girl who gets to be happy.Ā
Who doesnāt have to act older than she is and be the shoulder for everyone, always.
@xiiishadesofgrey
I want more Black lady nerds, if weāre talking modern settings! Ā
More Black ladies who have a sporty/playful nature!Ā
Who arenāt afraid to get dirty and make chaos, without being dirty or frowned upon!
Strange as it sounds coming from me, more Black princesses! Brandy as Cinderella in the 90s was my first Cinderella, and I LOVE that.
Please, god, more Black wlws.
@daintythoughtswritersblock
I want to see tropes exercisedĀ
Black women of all shades and tones
@hazelnut4370
Tbh just fellow Black people being happy, like I rarely see that,
Or enjoying hobbies
@rivergoddessdream
Happily childless Black women
Black women traveling the world
Fat Black women in happy, healthy, poly relationships
Black cis and trans women having a true sisterhood
Autistic black women
Black women in period pieces that arenāt about slavery and donāt take place in the US
Black women thespians
Black women painters
Black women revolutionaries
Black women front and center in the narrative
Black women healers and storytellers
Non christian Black women stories
Black women rockers
#complicated black women characters #tell those stories
@missnancywrites
More Black Girlsā¦
With diverse cultural and social backgrounds!
That are nerdy, girly, intelligent, ditzy, all the personality types that white girls in literature get!
That are fragile, shy or anxious. Almost every single Black woman Iāve seen in media or otherwise are wise and adult. Let us be an absolute wreck, or an anxious mess!
In science! Characters like Shuri, Moon Girl and Iron Heart in Marvel revitalized me, cuz young Black girls only get two types. Both these girls are in intellectual and in science, but have bery different personalities.
In interracial relationships, and not because they hate Black men or something along those lines. They just happen to be dating outside their race, black women get hate for that in real life and itās unfair. Let us have relationships outside our race! That saidā¦
In platonic relationships with Black men! I think thatās important, cuz I donāt often seen Black solidarity unless itās for the purpose of showing how diverse the writing is. Let them share interests, daily frustrations that they would only understand, but donāt force a romance.
In solid friendships with other Black girls! For some reason, weāre pitted against in each other inside and outside of writing! Write some sweet wholesome friendship!
With different sexualities! Let there be some that are ace, others are gay, bi or pan! Just be sure you donāt sexualize them, or turn em into a robot.
Who are dark-skinned! This can be seen a lot in tv or movies, but when you want a black girl in your stuff donāt just hire a light-skinned Black girl or a biracial black girl. Itās not the same.
Who get to act their age! Black women have a long standing history of being adultified, starting from a very young age, and itās extremely harmful. Little Black girls can wear what they please, the problem is people sexualizing them. Let the teen black girl be a teenager, she can look out for her siblings but she isnāt the keepern the house or their lives. Young adult Black girls are not ideal housewives or capable working machines, they mess up and mess around just as much as any young adult.
With mental/physical disabilities or illnesses. Alongside with being forced to be more mature than they are, disabilities/illnesses are never taken seriously and weāre forced to just deal with it. Having Black girls who happen to have these issues, but also have a healthy support group is always good!
@ink-and-roses
Seen as beautiful and desirable and NOT in a hypersexualized way
Interracial relationships are wonderful because Black girls are beautiful and lbr everybody sees it
Sensitive and allowed to feel something other than righteous anger
Some Black girls are skinny! Some are big! Some are slim and some are curvy! Thereās no mold!
Dark skinned!
A YA protagonist out to save the world from something other than racism
Superpowers or magic that doesnāt come from generational trauma or slavery
Black characters who support other Black characters. None of this token crabs in a barrel business.
Black girl nerds and punks and goths exist. I promise.
And this may be a personal preference but Iām not against the idea of a damsel in distress. We are always being strong. Let her be soft and delicate and cared for. Let her be princess carried and rescued from the tower and the dragon.
[Note from Mod: Itās not just you! I love a Black damsel being saved and protected. What is progressive for one woman varies due to historical and present depictions and is why intersectionality in feminism is so important! -Colette]
@nightlyswordswoman
As a writer, I write a lot of my Black female characters like this because I rarely ever see Black women being represented in these ways! ESPECIALLY on the covers of books, unless the author themselves is a Black woman and even then its rare.Ā
Too often Black women are stereotyped as strong protector types that are always rough, tough, and donāt need anybody in books (and real life), when thatās honestly just dumb and inaccurateāBlack women are as vulnerable as anyone else (in some cases, even more vulnerable, but thatās another topic).Ā
So yeah, this list is 100% accurate and I encourage those who are interested in writing Black female characters (whether youāre a Black woman or not) to consider writing them like this, because the stereotype needs to die lol.
But wait, thereās more!
@just-a-swsh-fangirlĀ As an anime fan I kinda want to see a white male protagonist be paired up (romantically) with a Black female at the end of the series. It would make my Black self happy to see a girl like me in an important role like that.
@tgingwe
Black girls in STEM, pleaaase
Black girls with ADHD, depression, and other mental health conditions!Ā
Black girls with supportive families!Ā
Pan Black girls!Ā
African Black girls, with cultures that impact their lives and with complex relationships between their specific identities/cultures and the idea of being perceived as just Black outside of Africa!Ā
Happy Trans Black girls!
@starcrossedrose
Love triangles where a Black character gets to be with the guy or girl in the end.
Love triangles revolving around a Black character.
Black retellings of fairy tales
Black characters in royal positions (King, Queen, Princes, Princesses, etc.)
@superviza
Soft, reserved, emotional, shy, spirited, spunky, bubbly, corny, weird Black women
a Black woman in a healthy relationship with a Black man who has a healthy obsession with her
little Black girls
modest black women
Black women without a criminal to success backstory
Black women they were raised in a healthy family with both Black parents who are still living
Black women in interracial relationships that arenāt necessarily white
No tokens;Ā Several Black women together with no beef
Black women in fantasy
Black women in friendship with ppl of other races and ethnicities
Black women who get to feel and express emotion with it being a threat
@sappho-of-etheria
Black girls who donāt live in the US
Black girls who are daughters of immigrants and have complex relationships with both their homeland and the land their family is from
Black girls with healthy relationships with their parents
Black girls who are indecisive about their lives and struggling to find their place in the world and the reason not being racism
LGBTQ+ Black girls with families that accept them and celebrate them
More Black witches/magic users who donāt fall in the magical negro type.
Quirky Black girls who have endearing and unusual interests
Black girls who both love sterotypical and non-stereotypical Black things
Black girls having supportive friendship groups and not being the one who constantly needs to support the others
Black girls saving the world
Black girls having a love interest who loves them and cherishes them not because they think they are weak but because they want them to be safe and happy
Black girls being the cherished love interest
Black girls being thought of the most gorgeous girl and not being overly sexualized
Black girls and their siblings/friends going to another world a la Chronicles of Narnia
Black girls being the chosen ones and saving the world
Black girls in medieval fantasy stories and not just being a slave or the handmaiden of the white princess
Black girs with different and complex relationships with their womanhood and how they express it
Black girls with different hair textures
But above all else I just want Black girls to be able to have the same range in character as their white counterparts. I am tired of never being able to relate to characters that look like me
Black girl rep wishlist continued
@just-an-anime-fangirlI kinda want to see a white male protagonist be paired up ( romantically) with a Black female at the end of the series. It would make my Black self happy to see a girl like me in an important role like that.
@bubblyjaay-blog
Donāt pull a Henry Danger.
I want Black girls to be loved and fall in love.Ā
Not just be perpetual straightlaced, sassy side characters whoās only there to be straightlace support.
@igotloki
Yes! All of this!Ā
Iām so tired of seeing people who look like me only playing the side kick or supportive friend at best.Ā
There is no reason we canāt be the main character in every genre.
@mutantgurls
Dark skin Black girl as main characters in romance, Rom-com, fantasy, science fiction
Black girls starring in romance, fantasy, or syfy. (Not just drama)
Black girls following other religion such as Judaism or Islam or theyāre atheists
Black girl getting to be soft, goofy, silly
Magical Black girls who get to transform into their superpower alter ego
Magical beings Black girls (Black fairies, mermaids, aliens)
Black girl being in relationships with non-humans ( Iām a teratophilia fans) like werewolves or aliens and being protected by them.
I adore that momentĀ when youāre walking and suddenly you just have ideas.Ā You know how to fix that plot hole. You know how that final battle is gonna play out. You come up with the most perfect line of dialogue. You find a way to link point a to point b. You have fine details to enhance everything.
That moment of sheer inspiration, that absolute spark of brain magic, is simply phenomenal.Ā
peak fantasy environment designs:
floaty islands
glowing mushrooms
bigger versions of normal animals
animalistic dragons
deep, sentient forests
sky/space whales
crystal clutters
multiple moons
planet rings visible from the ground
#*banging on table* A DEER BUT ITS BIG
character dynamics that cause me to start speaking in tongues:Ā
rivalsĀ
youāre flippant and brash and INCREDIBLY annoying and iām almost always annoyed while trying to put you in your place but i actually really adore you and miss you dearly whenever youāre not aroundĀ
weāve become accidental co-parents to a ragtag team thatās almost always coming apart at the seams and have managed to establish a working relationship so smooth that people always think of us as a matched set⦠but thatās all we are right? professional partners?Ā
rivalsĀ
weāre childhood best friends and know each other better than we know ourselves, so itās natural that our friendship takes a different shape to that of othersā right? but i donāt really feel this way about any of my other friendsā¦
rivalsĀ
we were once unspeakably close but a complex series of events have caused us to be pushed apartā maybe even to opposite sides of a conflict. still, thereās years of history lying like a pile of kindling at our feet, read, at any moment, to explode.
youāre a thief/conman/vigilante and iāve always made it a point to stick to the hard and fast rule of law, which means tracking you down and bringing you in. and if i canāt get you out of my mind, well, that must just be my devotion to justice, right?Ā
rivals.Ā
i am delightedĀ to inform you of the existence of theĀ Rosefinch,Ā which is a real actualĀ bird that exists!
I would also like to take this time to inform you all of the very noisy Galah Cockatoo!
64 Sensory Prompts
Watching a meteor shower
Digging your fingers into fresh dirt
Snow being shoved down the back of your coat
Napping in sunshine
Trying to walk on ice
Walking through the woods
Raindrops on eyelashes
The way cold glass fogs when you press your hand against it
A perfectly brewed cup of tea
The taste of Vodka at the back of your throat
Blood at the corner of your mouth
Cloying sweetness on the back of your tongue
The first glass of fresh water
Stale breath when you wake up
The taste of salt on the tip of your tongue
The taste of almonds
Your bed after travelling
Red wine stained lips
Satin in candlelight
Reflections in glass
Thigh-high stockings and garter belts
Neon lights at 1.30am
Darting shadows in the corner of your eye
Dust floating in golden sunlight
The smell of ozone during a storm
The smell of Cologne/Perfume on warm skin
The musty smell of an abandoned home
The bitter tang of acetone
The smell of burning wood
The smell of freshly baked bread
The cold, sharp smell of the first frost
The smell of blood
The feel of fingertips trailing over a bare shoulder blade
The feel of fingers brushing together by accident
Blowing a raspberry against someoneās skin
Being so close that you can feel your lips brush when you whisperĀ
The tender ache when you press against bruises
A personās weight as they lie on top of you
Stepping in something squishy
Gritty eyes when you stare into fire too long
A door closing
A ticking wristwatch
Your favourite song on repeat for the hundredth time
Distant traffic
The creak of leather
The waver in a personās voice when theyāre stressed
Singing badly as loud as you can
A quiet sigh as they turn away
Trying to pull on clothes with damp skin
The empty space that canāt be breached between you in bed
The jittery, sick feeling when you canāt do anything
Exhausted numbness after crying
The relief of fatalistic recklessness
The moment when reality starts to make sense again
Finding old photographs youād forgotten about
Someone accepting the bad parts of you without judging
Brown iodine stains on skin
Rust red dirt
Orange sunsets
Yellow halogen lights
Green wine bottles
Fingertips smudged in blue ink
Indigo skies just before dawn
Violet bruised eyes
Feel free to use in writing and art - Iāll be tracking the tagĀ āsensory promptsā if you want to share :)
things people do in real world dialogue:
⢠laugh at their own jokes
⢠donāt finish/say complete sentences
⢠interrupt a line of thought with a sudden new one
⢠say āuhā between words when unsure
⢠accidentally blend multiple words together, and may start the sentence over again
⢠repeat filler words such as ālikeā āliterallyā āreallyā āanywaysā and āi thinkā
⢠begin and/or end sentences with phrases such as āehā and āyou knowā, and may make those phrases into question form to get anotherās input
⢠repeat words/phrases when in an excited state
⢠words fizzle out upon realizing no one is listening
⢠repeat themselves when others donāt understand what theyāre saying, as well as to get their point across
⢠reply nonverbally such as hand gestures, facial expressions, random noises, movement, and even silence
My brain has two writing modes. Either this:
or this:
there is no in between
I Photograph Beautiful Libraries From Around The World
As a travel photographer, my favorite subject to shoot is architecture.
Libraries hold some of the most treasured interior architecture that I have ever seen. They are beautiful, colorful, ornate and exquisite to photograph. Here are many of the libraries that I have photographed during my travels.
Strahov Library, Prague, Czech Republic
Real Gabinete Library, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY
NY Public Library, New York, NY
Saint Genevieve Library, Paris, France
State Library Of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library, Antwerp, Belgium
Stuttgart Municipal Library, Stuttgart, Germany
Austrian National Library, Vienna, Austria
Los Angeles Public Library, Los Angeles, California
House Of The Redeemer Library, New York, NY
Jose Vasconcelos Library, Mexico City, Mexico
listenā¦ā¦. āmy loveā is literally the strongest and greatest pet name in existence. there is literally nothin better than somone callin you thatā¦.. especially when things are soft and quiet and they look at you with utter adoration and whisper āwhatās the matter, my love??ā or āi hope everything is okay with you, my loveā like oh my god?? let me marry you already
*adds three (3) words to my current draft*
me:Ā
me: writing at night increases my focus on the work itself and really allows my creativity to flow, not to mention giving me the lack of distractions needed to improve my word choices also me:
Me: *Stays up late to write*
Me, looking at the aftermath in the morning:
listen. if u like/reblog my posts fairly frequently, u better believe that i have noticed ok. even if we donāt ever talk. if we arenāt even mutuals! doesnāt matter. i see you. i see your URL pop up in my notifications every so often. and when it does? oh, when it doesā¦ā¦ā¦ iām like āoh hey thereās my buddy! gee i sure missed u pal!ā and i get real happy for a minute ok. sorry, i donāt make the rules.
All of you, I see you, and I love youš
I love all of you
Read to become a better writer
When I started as an editor-in-training, one of the first things our professor made us do, was to take one of the great European literary classics (mine was Kafkaās The Trial) and look at it as if it were an unknown debutantās manuscript that lands on our desk. Would we publish it? Which parts would we keep and which elements would we change? Itās an excercise I still like to do as a writer: read a book to see what the author did and if I agree with it.
Here are three things I learned from reading books.
1 Planting clues
This is probably the first thing I ever realised about storytelling. When I was 11, I read a book in which the main characters go off on an adventure and are saved in the end by a friendās dad, who conveniently turns out to be a policeman with a police radio to call for back-up.
What I learned: The ending of the book would have been less forced if the author had told us that the father was a policeman when he introduced him in chapter four, not at the end. Plant your clues earlier in the story to avoid a deus ex machina.
Thereās a rule of thumb that you canāt convey new information needed for the climax after 80% of your story.
2 Who is the hero anyway?
This next book was a detective story with a depressed, alcoholic, unhappily divorced protagonist. In the end, it was not the depressed detective, but an innocent bystander who found the crucial last piece of information to solve the mystery. The detective just sat there and was depressed.
What I learned: The protagonist must be the catalyst of the story, not some C-character. The protagonist must be the one who saves the day/themselves/the victim/ā¦.
3 Just talk to each other!
a A budding couple pines for each other but nothing ever happens because he thinks heās not good enough for her and she thinks he doesnāt love her anymore. Iām all for a well-written slow burn, but thereās a difference between slow burn and just plainly frustrating your readers.
b Character A was eavesdropping, didnāt hear everything character B said but still acts on the things they did hear. The whole storyline of the book could have been avoided if they would just talk to each other.
What I learned: Confusion and wrongful assumptions can make for an interesting plotline. Just make sure that your entire story couldnāt have been cut short if two people would just talk to each other.
If you donāt make them talk, give them a watertight reason why they canāt. For example: they couldnāt talk because they never were in the same space together.
Btw: I notice that this trope often does work for comedy.
***
Okay, thatās it for today, lessonās over. Your homework for next week: when you read a book, see if you can learn anything. I may throw in a pop quiz next class. Kidding.
Follow me for more writing advice. New topics to write advice about are also always welcome.
Tag list below, a few people I like and admire and of course, you can be too. If you like to be added to or removed from the list, let me know.
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