The Briefing Room

Halo AU and lore hotspot. Idea discussion, fics, etc. Administrated by InfinityActual.

[the-briefing-room]

This is intended to be a hub of sorts; a place where people can find and/or share Halo content set in alternate universes or crossovers. Feel free to browse, and even submit content or send me links via DM!

The Briefing Room also has a discord! If you're interested in joining, please send me a DM and I'll see about sending an invite! As long as you aren't a well-known troublemaker or discourse-starter, you will absolutely be welcome! We already have a bunch of amazing people and lots of discussion going on!

-If you are under 18 or don't want to see nfsw content, block the tag #classified briefing

Thanks to all who stop by, and welcome to The Briefing Room.

[creatingblackcharacters]

hi!! I'm writing a novel in which one of the main characters is a Black trans man. I was wondering if you could tell me anything about the general attitudes towards transness among Black people, so I have a frame of reference for how his family might feel about his transition. it's okay if you can't though, or don't know much!

Post by @creatingblackcharacters · 2 videos

💬 2  🔁 695  ❤️ 1205 · “On Human Dignity.”  Blackness, Gender & Sexuality · Two things: As usual, there’s historical and social context that

Also, I don't think it's fair to ask what the "general" attitudes are 😅 because if I asked what the general attitudes towards transness is from the white population here, you'd never write about anything but sheer bigotry 😭 yet there are plenty of white trans people with loving families and communities!

A Black family's attitude towards transness depends on who they are, how they were raised, what they've learned and unlearned, and more. That's just gonna depend on the story you wanna write. If they're in a transphobic, homophobic household, versus one that is learning, versus one that's already welcoming and understanding- these are all options!

I would recommend looking into Black trans activists and their works- that would be where you'd find the most valuable perspective!

[writingwithcolor]

As an outsider, how can I fix the Hunchback of Notre Dame for better Rromani representation?

See my post I’ve shared where I’ve mentioned you and some other users:

[Seeking] Advice on reworking The Hunchback of Notre Dame for its 30th anniversary

From your post linked above: Some of it was influenced by the Romani YouTuber Florian, who goes in depth about Romani culture. Since he kind of gives some points, I agree with. Which I can greatly sympathize for all of you, even if I’m not Roma. This is also to help commemorate a flawed but underrated Disney movie that’s turning 30 as of this year. Since I want to know what parts of the story need changing, at least the Romani parts that need improving.

Since I’m wanting to find some advice on how to rework parts of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Specifically the Romani parts that I do agree is a bit misguided and ignorant at best, while very dubious at worst in representation. So if you were to rework the story(Even when you keep the basic outline of the story of either the novel or the film adaptations, mostly Disney), what would you change or alter to make it more accurate to the Romani people? As well as what do you think of the 4 notes of some of the story ideas I’ve came up with after looking at some of Florian’s YouTube videos?

Hi @ke96​

As the WWC mod team knows well - HoND is a special interest of mine, so although I am not Roma and will not be speaking to that, I got this. 

Also, I invite and defer to any Roma readers’ feedback and insights in the comments. 

SHORT ANSWER:

If you’re celebrating the anniversary, just write the version you want. You have to choose which version you’d like, that’s not our job here – we don’t tell you how or what to write. As you describe the role and jobs, or appearances and actions of the Romani cast, feel free to adjust as needed to whatever you feel is more appropriate. Just write it. You can’t fix what doesn’t exist. How do you know if it works or not, if you don’t do it? Just go do it. Everything else is getting ahead of yourself. 

LONG ANSWER / An Open Letter to Writers on Media Literacy and Introspection:

Your goal as stated is “course correcting” and better “educating” audiences on Roma in HoND. Those goals imply the authority to both know and educate, but self admittedly, you’re having trouble meeting the bare minimum for that standard. 

Your question about “reworking” or “fixing” HoND for better Roma representation is a question of media literacy. First off, why you? Specifically, why you? I don’t think the savior trope is intentional, and I know you’re self aware of it, so I won’t address it other than to say it’s there in the margins. 

As Florian has said himself, HoND has the most widely known Roma heroine, and yet its many iterations were and are written by white western men who use Roma as props. Yes, Roma are expanded in media representation and yet their representation is simultaneously often regressive and harmful in how they are portrayed. This fact is not new to Roma audiences. On writing this – surely Roma readers could do it themselves, and yet have chosen not to. Might there be a reason for that? I think so.

For the same reason I’m not holding my breath for a Thai writer to rewrite The King and I, or a Desi author to rewrite the Jungle Book, or an Arab poet to reimagine Aladdin, etc. I don’t believe that BIPOC writers spend our creative labor, energy or imagination trying to live in the stories that fetishize us. In that same vein, while I would totally be down for a Roma writer to reimagine the story – I also recognize that, believe it or not, the story might not be worthy of their time.  

As Mod Rina and former Mod Marika went over in regards to writing cultures not your own: “If you aren’t ready to engage with a culture and its people directly, then I think you should wait until you are.” - Marika

Now, I know you’ve tried. You’ve tried many ways – but your efforts so far just don’t stick the landing, given your goals, although it isn’t for lack of trying. Wanting to set the record straight and speaking from a position of authority are not the same thing. Because feeling strongly about something, and also having the knowledge and skillset to enact change around that are… again, different. 

So, I think your enthusiasm is fantastic but also possibly obscuring the bigger picture, which is that there is a bigger picture. It’s a hard sell for anyone to come in and say they want to re-write a story that’s progressive in visibility, but regressive in construction by… revising the story’s regressive elements NOT from the lived perspective of those portrayed. 

If you want to write it for yourself, or to celebrate - that’s great. Do it. But when an author takes on the goal of ‘educating’ on someone else’s culture, the expectations and community response will grow stronger, and it becomes a bigger thing. 

Good luck and Godspeed,

- Melanie 🌻 

We currently do not have active Rromani mods as of this post, but you can see past posts under the “Rromani” tag

Rromani followers, we encourage you to share your thoughts and insights.

[creatingblackcharacters]

Hi. I want to create a Black dnd character but I am having a hard time finding good sources for the 1960s regarding hairstyles and fashion. I've tried using Google, Pinterest, and Tumblr but it doesn't pull anything up regarding what I am looking for. What website or books would you recommend for me to use for research/references?

@uptownlowdown hair and history question; you're up!

[uptownlowdown]

howdy!! i would say it truly depends on what you’re looking for, and what part of the 60s you want to research specifically! the beginning of the 60s look a LOT different from the end of the 60s.

at the beginning of the decade, a lot of black people still straightened their hair to some degree, and black women wore wigs as wigs were very popular across the board for all races during this time.

natural hair came into fashion during the mid to latter half of the 60s as it coincided with the black power movement. clothing should be pretty easy to research since we still tended to wear the things that were popular, BUT just as the natural hair movement gained traction, it wasn’t unusual at all to see black people wearing dashikis and african inspired prints toward the last half of the decade.

several black magazines like jet and essence are free to read on google, i would recommend looking at the covers for that decade. i always look to @vintagewoc, @blackinperiodfilms and @waheedpix for specific decades. black archives is an amazing resource but you have to really dig, since i don’t believe they sort by decade on their instagram. you can also look through my 60s tag!

sorry this is so short! but i plan on creating some sort of guide to early 20th century black hair since it comes up a lot! feel free to let me know if you have additional questions :)

[creatingblackcharacters]

And I'm back! I tried to do light strokes like you said. Oh! I also used another color Blue. Cerulean!

Well admittedly I can't remember what this is for (it's for cartoon dead people? Vampires?) but I like the LB+B the most, for this shade of brown.

[creatingblackcharacters]

I wanted to send in a book I just finished and saw absolutely nothing in the tags for (figures, but still). It’s Percival Everett’s God’s Country, a satirical Western from the perspective of a white man who “hires” a Black tracker (he’s broke and offers a cut of his land) to help him find his wife and the men who kidnapped her. It’s a very clear-eyed, grimy look at the time, and basically any racialized violence you can think of against Black and indigenous people does occur, as well as heavy use of the n-word and other slurs and derogatory language. The protagonist is awful, clinging to whiteness because it’s the only thing that gives him any kind of power, a stupid, cruel, pathetic man, and the final scene (which I will not spoil) cuts him down to size in a beautiful yet tragic way.

I feel like I remember this one being recommended, actually! Because we were talking about how to write a racist protagonist while still managing to convey that they were in the wrong, without phoning it in.

[creatingblackcharacters]

Heya! Are there any posts you recommend on how to pick names for Black characters? Or any you’ve already made on this blog, I’m obsessed with giving my characters really meaningful names rn, and I’m also gonna try my hand at creating a couple of Black characters whose experiences are drastically different from mine

Post by @creatingblackcharacters · 1 video

💬 0  🔁 101  ❤️ 266 · What’s in a Black name? 400 years of context. · Hi, I wanted your opinion on giving Black (USAmerican) characters cultu

[creatingblackcharacters]

I know the ashy gray isnt a good way to design a Black character, so how do I depict one that isnt in a healthy state?

When i see a white charscter not taking care of themselves (lack of eating,not going outside), they're often depicted with a paler and desaturated color. What does that look like for a Black character?

Red tipped nose, yellowish UNDERTONE if you wanna show us getting sallow, undereye bags from exhaustion, eyes might be red. Mostly everything will be the exact same. All the symptoms y'all get, we get. Headaches, nausea, fever, sniffles, sluggish, etc. they would be depicted the exact same way.

[creatingblackcharacters]

✍🏾CBC Creative Writing Challenge!✍🏾

Dates: June 1st - June 13th*

*If you send me anything after the 13th, I am going to delete it! Pay attention!

Y'all been asking about this one forever, and I admit that I had to really think about how to make something like this possible without dying due to overwork 😅 but I think I got it!

The rules for this one are long and specific, under The Submissions, The Critics, and Things to Expect from Ice. So I'm putting them under a read more.

PLEASE READ THE RULES! Y'all were not reading the rules during the character polls and it drove me nuts 🙏🏾

The Submissions

In order to be accepted, your submissions REQUIRE:

The Title and Genre

The premise of your story- this can be a description, a blurb, a summary, anything that allows us as the reader to understand the set up of what's going on here.

A description of your character- this doesn't have to be their entire life story. We just wanna know their name, what they look like, background, powers- RELEVANT things! Ideally, this should tie in smoothly to the premise!

Think of it as the summary that's on the back of books when you go to read them, plus a little extra. It should pull your reader in!

Rules for Submission:

Character has to be Black. This includes Black biracials, yes! If it's a side character, fine. But don't tell me all about your nonblack MC's life saga just to go "and then here's Black Buddy". Keep that. We want to hear something tailored to the Black character!!

PDF converted into an image. That way we can click it and read the whole thing without it taking up a huge amount of space in the ask. If you can include an image description for accessibility, that would be kind of you.

One Page! 12 Point! Legible Font! You can write your magnum opus if you want, but I won't post it 🤣 twelve point font MINIMUM, one page MAX! Calibri is the font I find easiest to read, but be reasonable.

You don't have to fill the whole page! If you think you've got it in two paragraphs.... Great! Don't use no damn AI though.

Only do this challenge if you're willing to accept constructive criticism. This is a major one! People are going to judge your work. You have to accept that! You're ASKING them to! I will not accept submissions with apologies and clarifications and "this might sound racist now but-" Let the viewers make their own calls, unbiased! It'll reveal to you things you may not have even considered, which will guide your writing. Maybe you'll drop an idea, maybe you'll take on an extra challenge, it's fine!

The Critics

Be constructive, not destructive. These are people looking for genuine feedback. Put on your Mrs. CBC hat and give that to them. You are well within your rights to say when something makes you uncomfortable, or if it's not something you would read due to that discomfort. Use your words to explain WHY. But if you feel yourself about to blow up with how much you hate an idea or a person... Keep it in your head or take it to your own page. We didn't ask for that.

Keep feedback to a reasonable length. I don't mind one or two comments with feedback, but if you got a LOT and you really wanna have this conversation with the poster (which is great!) you can always take it to the OPs inbox! I know it's selfish, but I'm gonna get a lot of notifications from this and if it's a back and forth, that is something that can be held between the two of you!

Understand that the premise is not the entire story. As always, you cannot determine if something is a problem based off of a page worth of context. So when you offer feedback, recognize that you can only approach it from a "consider this idea, because it may be a problem" perspective. Not a "this is inherently bad!!" We've talked about this! It's not on the idea, it's on the writer!

Things to Expect From Ice

For real, I won't be saying much! This is everyone's chance to play as CBC for two weeks lmao. But I will pop in as desired. I do know there's gonna be some little things I'll be checking for in every submission.

I'll be turning notifications off after a point for each one, so I don't get overwhelmed. If something feels wrong, if boundaries are being pushed and it comes to my attention, I may turn off reblogs.

I am not pre-checking submissions! Do not ask me in advance how I feel- that defeats the point of the project.

Okay! If you read this far, good job and thank you 👍🏾

[creatingblackcharacters]

You get THREE SUBMISSIONS.

[creatingblackcharacters]

This is an example of what the polls will look like:

How do you feel about this prompt and/or character description?

Black readers: Could currently use work (how?)

Black readers: Sounds cool so far!

Everyone else: Could currently use work (how?)

Everyone else: Sounds cool so far!

Voting ended onJun 2

Yes, this IS subjective! It's not like we're going to have full group agreement on "what needs work" and why. It's the Critics' job to elaborate and offer a constructive thought process. These poll are more so to quickly gauge the mood of a potential audience, just based off of what you (the Writer) are currently showing them. In other words: don't take this to heart as Law, take it as feedback.

[blumineck]

This is one of the scariest things I’ve ever done! Putting myself out there and asking for things is HARD, and I genuinely don’t know if there’s enough interest in this for it to be viable.

BUT shy bairns get nowt and all that, and if there is enough support and this does work out, then it’s a chance to do something really exciting. Very few people have had a properly fitted suit of historical plate to test with, and even fewer of them have an audience of this size to share their findings with. And while I may not be the best person for the job, I’m the only person that I am.

SO, if you want to see how far I can push movement in plate armour, or how many fantasy tropes I can recreate; if you want to see the process of making and fitting a full suit, and learn more about historical craftsmanship; OR if you want to watch a goofy goober pole dancing and attempting gymnastics in a clanky tin suit, with lots of failure along the way, please support this project.

There’s no way I can do it on my own, but if enough people chip in, there’s a chance!

And if you can’t or don’t want to contribute, don’t worry about it! I’ll still be here making my usual content either way!

[pangur-and-grim]

@creekfiend was very kind in sharing some writing resources with me, and I thought I'd pass along the kindness by listing them down below.

N.K. Jemisin's article 'Describing characters of color in writing'

Mary Anne Mohanraj's article on approaching characters of colour

Renee Harleston's article How to 'Write Characters of Color Without Using Stereotypes'

Working with Colour, a resource site for writers

the book Writing the Other by by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward, which had a description that cut deep, because I've definitely fallen into this trap out of fear:

and then a video recommended by @sheprd (thank you!) about pitfalls in descriptive language

if anyone else has more resources to add, feel free to reblog with them! this is something I want to learn more about.

[pangur-and-grim]

I was talking yesterday about how I should probably change the skin colour of a character in a not-yet-written book, because that character is a large, aggressive dragon-shifter and I was worried about her being read with unintentional and offensive subtext.

I haven't gotten my hands on Writing the Other yet (it's still in the mail!) but from reading my way through these articles and watching the Princess Weekes video, I now understand that 'white-ifying' a character you're worried about is a lazy and cowardly solution. so, if I do ever finish the book Eres loses Everything, I'll keep her as is, do my best to be thoughtful, and hire a sensitivity reader to pick out any blind spots.

thank you to everyone who passed on resources, I really appreciate it!

[pangur-and-grim]

here are a few more resources I've found, if anyone’s interested:

Writing Diversely FAQ

Writing With Colour blog

A conversation between many writers on writing diverse characters

Four Tips to Help You Incorporate Diversity and Inclusion in Your Writing

A Medium Article: "Yes, You Should Be Afraid to Write “Diverse” Characters"

[what-did-i-get-myself-into-blog]

somewhere out there is an anecdote from SOME retail employee about a guy in full Data cosplay asking about a game, totally in character, and at the end fucking winks before leaving and I cannot find it but ive read it somewhere its driving me nuts I need it

[bucketofdeltav]

So my beta reader for the Big Fics is an astrophysicist, right. Who is currently also writing a hard sci-fi novel about the exploration of Phobos (more power to them, I cannot with the physics required for that, best I can do is soft sci-fi/fantasy and that reminds me I should finish that story).

Anyway I was bitching about how hard it is to come up with feasible planets in Star Wars because sometimes you need a new planet from scratch and sometimes you need to know more about a planet than the 'has jungles, is probably a moon technically' than Wookieepedia will give you, and they're like 'oh yeah I can do something about that'.

So they've written (in Matlab but they swear it will run as a .exe as well and I may be conscripted to embed it as a web tool at some point) a star system generator.

You input what you know about the planet (ecosystem, population, sun colour, does it have liquid water, does it have a moon or moons, is it a moon or moons, temperature averages, atmosphere, you get me) and it will give you the... everything else about the star system, in obedience to real-universe physics. And if you input nothing you get a randomly generated star system.

And I’m like oh I know people who will be into this with a vengeance, and they're not on Tumblr, so this is me seeing who exactly would be keen on, and I cannot stress this enough, a real-physics comprehensive star system generator.

It's still in the debugging phase (last error fixed: every planet wants to have a population of exactly 5000 regardless of other factors, turned out to be a missing equals sign somewhere), but I'm psyched for this and trying to gauge interest for how high a priority 'make this an accessible web tool' needs to be.

[melyzard]

[elodieunderglass]

@bucketofdeltav says the URL is here: http://tumblr.com/star-system-generator

okay it has its own blog now (@star-system-generator) on Tumblr

Follow @star-system-generator and get more of the good stuff by joining Tumblr today. Dive in!

[nudityandnerdery]

[christinaroseandrews]

This guy knows what he’s talking about. He’s one of the lead writers for Leverage and if you ever watch the series on DVD, do yourself a favor and listen to him talk about how the scripts got written. Some of the advice he has is stuff I use all the time: 1. Don’t introduce an important plot person or thing after the first half of the story. 2. Always tie up loose ends. 3. Introduce important things in the middle of unimportant things. 4. If you have to infodump, find an emotion to tie it to and it will seem less like infodump and more like a motive rant. Seriously this guy knows how to write.

[victusinveritas]

[ralfmaximus]

Don't skip the final step! Do a search on your new character name to make sure it's not an egregiously offensive slur in some real human language.

[redstonedust]

pet peeve is when you look up fashion references from a specific era and you keep getting modern day '[era]-inspired' fashion like NO i want authenticity damn it. i can see your 2020 photo quality and your 2020 hair and your 2020 makeup. youre not fooling me.

[bincliff]

hello i'm a historical fashion researcher and i have a lot of experience looking up things! this is a very widely experienced irritation and you're definitely not alone in this, but i am here to share everything i know!

so, ways to get around this:

turn off AI results. they're literally nonsense to us

don't use pinterest because the sources/provenance is often hard to trace

a standard internet search can be okay, but museum collections are the top tier (list of collections below this list)

instead of broad terms like victorian, regency, tudor, renaissance etc. try using the decade you're looking for. if you're not sure of what decade it is but have a vague image in your head, look on the fashion history timeline and just jump around until you find it. but even changing to e.g. 19th century will give better results than victorian

including terms like womenswear/menswear, daywear, formal wear, evening wear, court dress should increase the value of your search too

including "fashion plates" in your search can give you a nice impression of the intended silhouettes of the era. some of these might be a little stylised but will show you what was considered in vogue

for pre-fashion plate eras or things like makeup and styling, you'll have to look at portraiture or manuscripts. these are harder to actually find what you're looking for, but searching museum collections and limiting results to specific date ranges will be your friend

when looking at art, do bear in mind sometimes artists would paint fabric extra flow-y to show off their skills. it might not have been exactly like that in terms of fabric weight or drape. so, a pinch of salt required!

if you find something on image search where the provenance is dubious, reverse image search and you might find a source! i've been able to trace random pinterest images to real sources, but this does take a lot of time and effort and is often not worth the headache

some online resources and museum collections:

fashion history timeline is an invaluable resource if you're trying to get a feel for everything and should be your first port of call. it'll also link to good examples

the met has a vast number of extant examples of clothing, as well as fashion plates

costume institute fashion plates is a subcollection of the met for fashion plates (1800s-1922)

v&a also has many extant garments, fashion plates, and incredible articles on clothing and aesthetics. read the details of the objects because they'll often reveal a lot about the piece

lacma is good for C19th-20th pieces

nypl digital collection for photographs

national portrait gallery or similar for portraiture, or literally any museum in your country that has historical art

national museums scotland can be useful situationally but might be oddly specific

stout style history is a great collection for finding image references for fat people wearing historical clothes. survival bias of a lot of museum pieces tends towards smaller clothing that couldn't be repurposed, but this aims to counter that. it's not sortable, but is still a really nice resource

wikimedia commons is surprisingly handy! and the images, if you should need to link/repost them, are public domain

auction websites sound like a funny one to recommend. some won't have mannequins and some will. just look up historical garment auctions and you'll find some!

anyway, i hope this has been a good place to start for anyone interested! there are probably some i've missed because there are so many museums across the world and i don't know about all of them or can't remember them. but these are the ones i've used the most! (my specialisation/jobs i've had to research for have only really been in western fashion, so my resources reflect that)

[haemey]

Wikipedia has a list of fashion museums. Unfortunately, the page itself is only available in German, but the introductory paragraph is very short and after that, it's organised by country, and then it's a simple list. If you click on a museum's article, the website is usually linked in the overview table.

[dykepuffs]

There is a really frustrating thing where some kinds of speculative story are hard to write because they will be assumed to be bad (clumsy, harmful, regressive) metaphors for real-world events or people, rather than exploring completely speculative ideas. Like:

"What if a small group of religious extremists, persecuted in their own country, moved to an inhospitable uninhabited island and had to rebuild society there?" - But the Americas and Australia weren't inhospitable and were full of Native nations, why are you perpetuating the idea of Terra Nullius and manifest destiny? - Yes, that's because this isn't a metaphor for the British invading other countries, it's a metaphor for finding out how much of a person's religious practise is rooted in worldly concerns, vs how much they will really stymie themselves for the sake of God.

"What if 1/100 children born was a werewolf?" - But queer people are no danger to straight people, and disabled people don't have predictable patterns to their illnesses, and most people who have uncontrollable rages really CAN control them and are just lying, and no minority group has superpowers... - Yes, but that's all immaterial, because I wanted to talk about a load of other metaphors about the passage of time and responsibility and the relationship between humans and wildlife.

It almost feels like death of the author, like "Death of the most obvious metaphor" - If you couldn't reach for the (tormented) parallel between being an alien species and being stateless, what stories could someone tell? If your changeling-baby was neither disabled nor adopted, what would the story be about? Etc.