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December 22, 2020 | Uncategorized
And often writers attempt to achieve this, in part, by giving them “piercing” or “soulful” or “wide” eyes of a lovely shade of blue, ice, green, violet, hazel, etc. If I were doing this today, I probably wouldn’t have given Fletcher blue eyes – it strikes me now (after over three years thinking about it) as not only a cliched way to indicate that in Cherryh’s Alliance the ships are completely racially mixed, but also as biologically implausible. To protect himself, Meroe adopted his default avatar: a lean, bald human male clad only in black skin and silver tattoos. This is how I described Jeremy and Fletcher in “Rise and Go”, a short story I wrote for Yuletide a few years back set just after C. J. Cherryh’s Finity’s End: I was about three-quarters of the way through the story at this point. So again, I only described them in relation to each other. Anyway: The top half of her hair had been pulled into its usual bun, though bound with strands of white shells from the distant Western Ocean. It would dry overnight and then I could let it loose to dangle in spirals like a cloud-dragon’s neck. Learn from others. Describe White characters and PoC Alike: You should describe the race and/or skin tone of your white characters just as you do your Characters of Color. -_-, Anyway, there are several other characters mentioned here who wear their hair the same way, because I can’t resist a bit of Mary-Sue-ing. ‘Washed-out’ might also work, in context, and I’ve seen ‘brick-red’ used too, for a white guy with a super ruddy complexion. Characters include:James McBride ,Ruth McBride Jordan ,Andrew Dennis McBride ,Hunter Jordan ,Hudis Shilsky and more One of the best ways to describe what we see is through colour and in this post, I have included words that describe colours. Note the different pictures painted by the following two paragraphs. The thing I do holds while they are wet. I write fanfic with my heroines being BW. I could never have done wet two-strand twists back when my hair was relaxed; it wouldn’t hold the twists. Addie stood in front of their gas range, frying squash. The whites showed around Kaj’s remarkable eyes, a blue-green so iridescent they seemed to dull all the plants around them. For instance, the most common cliche for introducing a character’s description is the “mirror technique,” which is when you have your character describe themself in a mirror. It’s the short hand descriptions of characters of color that trip me up. And as a BW with napptural hair, I portray them as having the same. His black eyes were restful, not severe, and she found she enjoyed gazing into them. Continue exploring the world of color with color words from basic to beautiful. I got the crown of his head at first, and marvelled as always at the feel of hair like my own — soft-curled, dense but yielding, thick enough to lose my fingers in. But I didn’t find a good chart. Am also surprised at how often I describe white people. His perfect teeth flashed like sunshine against the ink of space. So yes, a white author can write diverse cast. Her dialect hints at it, as does her mention of a blonde co-worker. Gone are the days of drab and dreary adjectives. She would never have taken up jogging if there’d still been people around to watch her, maybe point and laugh at the jiggly big-boned sistah trying to be FloJo. And maybe she’s a brunette. Mahogany is a type of wood that is quite a few shades lighter than the aforementioned ebony. The ingredients were so darn expensive that she only wore it when they went out or had company. Gods, they were almost like the Aireii peoples with their obsession about blood ties—though with the Aireii that had to do more with the magics that ran in their blood than the clan-ties the older Inoucain clans obsessed over. I am sometimes mistaken for a boy. She had no idea of the Banbarra’s origins, but they had clearly mixed themselves less widely than Hanani’s folk. The only other description of this guy before that is that he has shoulder-length hair. Certainly, when they have a positive connotation, they’re going to express bright and cheery emotions. If you don't, you risk implying that White is the default human being and PoC are the "Other"). Amn height with Darre curves, perhaps, or thick straight Darre hair colored Amn-pale. This list of words to describe colors will help you punch up your writing. Clearly the twists are totally different types of things. I twist my hair while it’s wet as a way of adding curl in to the straight sections. —. The Africans did not look happy with the gray sky and the damp chill in the air; some were so swathed in layers of scarves that their faces could hardly be distinguished.”. But there’s also the background characters, the ones that appear briefly and go away where you want to be able to sketch them without describing them. I suspect that it’s a different type of twisting, but I read the description as being a woman with straight hair who wanted curls. Olive skin is a human skin color spectrum. Her own clan, Blue Starry Robe, didn’t require scars, and since it was a newer clan, she rarely thought about clan-kin and clan-ties. In fact, in most contemporary settings, an all-white cast of characters would be odd, as it hardly reflects reality. It might have been different if I had gotten the traits of my two peoples in a better combination. Using triadic color schemes means you usually end up with quite a bright and vibrant color scheme, though this can be toned down slightly … Maybe I should read the rest of this series before I whine any more. One of the things that makes me hesitant when I’m writing characters of color is that I don’t know the right words for describing skin in particular. In the sequel to that book, when the female protagonist at one point goes out among people who resemble the Tuareg of our world (technically the Tuareg are Berber offshoots and thus Caucasian, but they’re dark-brown-skinned and nappy-haired), I gave her a hairstyle mooched from a girl I saw in a book called AFRICA ADORNED — which I highly recommend to anyone who wants to look at creative ways to depict nappy hair. Read on to learn more! I’m not great with physical description to begin with (I’m stronger on dialogue and action), but painting artful racial portraits doesn’t strike me as too awkward, if you just set rules for your book on what is important, what isn’t important, and what palette of words you want to use (ie, no coffee, but perhaps references to earth, wood, metals, stones, sand, fire, or flowers…). Amazing that these Gujaareen had allowed even their royal line to be diluted by northern stock. -_- But again, I mention the look/effect (“cloud”, “storm of hair”) rather than the texture. Here are a few tips, along with examples from some of my favorite writers. Addie flinched when she passed the mirror. Also known as the laundry list, this accomplishes very little for you. As a writer, you can do the same with colorful words. It’s so funny to read reviews of my book that say things like “Pelland’s style is clear and sharp. A couldn’t tell, still, even without the scar A didn’t think she’d be beautiful, only pretty. Descriptive words for color can evoke a positive feeling, a negative feeling, or simply express the facts. If I describe a grocery boy as a “ruddy Irish lad” I’m pretty sure everyone knows what I mean. but I was surprised to notice that we have to wait scene two to see the protagonist, Jason, described. The problem is sometimes this can end up making your character descriptions to long. If White Characters Were Described Like People Of Color In Literature. I got the crown of his head at first, and marvelled as always at the feel of hair like my own — soft-curled, dense but yielding, thick enough to lose my fingers in. The mediums are different but the embrace of expression is the same. I give height, hair color, eye color, and body shape. One of the best ways to describe what we see is through colour and in this post, I have included words that describe colours. Hair Colors Note: colors marked with * are cliches *Black - jet (deep black) *Black - raven (black shiny enough to be blue) I’m not seeing many descriptions of Afritypic hair, you know, the kinky, coily, NAPPY kind. I think it’s time I updated this post, or wrote a new one, maybe focusing on ways to describe CoCs that don’t involve skin color. The bottom half had been separated into a dozen or more locks, each captured at the tip by a heavy, teardrop-shaped gold ornament. Here are two I had on hand. We are able to see, smell, hear, taste, and touch exactly what the characters in the story experience. Of course the Almighty would be a beautiful woman — they are harder to look at than quarks. Let’s see, the examples that spring to mind are: “I’ve seen a sliver of your skin. while A is less bothered but still needs … Instead he had only Anai herself to contemplate: a plain-faced female of distressingly common mien, whose thin frame at the moment was adorned by a stained burku wrap and a magnificent black eye. Three fan marks adorned each cheek, the sign of the Fan, one of the oldest clans of the Inoucain peoples. Otherwise I am short and flat and brown as forestwood, and my hair is a curled mess. Her hair was obviously long, past her shoulders, black and with just a hint of a curl.”, “She was wearing loose trousers and a high necked tunic with long arms, falling to the middle of her thighs, loose at her waist and maybe just a little tight across her breasts. (Set in 1928, Chattanooga) Describe the physical traits of your characters only in so much as they stand out from those around them. We live in a diverse world. There’s several listed in my OP, though a) I don’t tend to describe hair much at all, and b) I’m a firm believer in the fact that nappy hair is just as versatile as any other hair type, so I often describe the style or overall look, not the texture. Half a million is not so many measured against the whole world, I suppose, so that always gets included in their qualified, fragmentary admiration. So how can you best describe your characters’ physical features? All my other characters are obviously white or another color and you can tell because of where they are from. Lean as an alley cat, equally quick and graceful in her motions; brown-skinned and white-toothed and clever-eyed. Something was wrong. He wore very little, trusting the darkness of his skin for camouflage as he crept along the tower’s wall guided by the sounds of the city. Don’t worry — many of us *are* pallid. by Kayla Ancrum Follow @Kwritesfiction. It is a very warm brown color with strong red undertones. After Meyer, Corporal Joyce was the best-looking, though too muscular for Crispin’s taste, and Southey was another easy one, his hair palest blond, with a graceful walk that reminded Crispin of …Tobin Major…Pale and pudgy, and much tougher than he appeared, Lieutenant Smith of the fourth platoon…”, “Meyer’s pale skin had always flushed easily…”, “…a soldier, a Gurkha; there’d been a group of them earlier in the evening, she remembered now, most of them with barely a lick of English. 2.) This woman’s hair surrounded her head in a perfect sphere. can someone help me with this? On the one hand, it’s a matter of not being lazy as a writer. Learn from others. Characters include:James McBride ,Ruth McBride Jordan ,Andrew Dennis McBride ,Hunter Jordan ,Hudis Shilsky and more Unfortunately, a lot of writers avoid including POC characters because they just don’t know how. In researching how to respectfully describe characters of color, I’ve encountered many voices saying “Don’t use food-related words for anything about them, especially hair, skin, or eye color.” (I’m paraphrasing from several sources, but as this concept is not at all my idea, here are a few to check out.) He had glimpsed them once or twice, on his way to the baths: slender men with flawless skin and dark outlining around their eyes, wearing only long silken drawers, layers of necklaces, and silver rings on their bare toes…their skin was too dark for any child of theirs to pass as the Duke’s.”, “One of the women, the one with dark curls and brown skin, wore a lazy grin…The other, a skinny moon-pale woman with a squint…”, “She was tall and willowy, gowned in velvet the color of charcoal, which set off her pale skin and long, wheat-colored curls.”, “…his tea-colored skin sleek and his chest and limbs pleasingly muscular…the only hair on his body were the tight curls on his head…This close, she could see the old sword scars on his chest and arms.”, “She saw more dark-skinned people than pale, some so dark they appeared almost like shadows in the bright sunlight, others of various skin shades from olive to brown, and a few paler than Camille, their skins freckled and tinged red by the sun.”, “Her eyes crinkled at the corners. Basically any color except that plain old brown. I waited until nearly halfway through the story to slip that in. A colleague of mine was talking to me recently about her misgivings about her capabilities regarding writing Women of Color. His skin was darker than any glancing touch of the sun could produce, a color that reminded Jinn of a warm late-autumn day. THANK YOU for posting this. (Later) Have you read Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan? They made a handsome couple.”. Examples of description cliches include “red as a rose,” “cold as ice,” or “blind as a bat.”. Some examples from my own writing, submitted for your consideration. He had no skill at gauging human ages, but she seemed only two, maybe three decades old, not even halfway to death yet. It is often associated with pigmentation in the Type III to Type IV and Type V ranges of the Fitzpatrick scale. Where they were shades of brown and red-gold, his skin was a matte deepness of black, hinting at blue in the Hall’s variegated light. Meroe stared at the girl, not liking what he was seeing. The first description, of twisting the hair while wet, is actually how I do my own hair, which is natural and standard nappy ™ in texture. I often use names to convey ethnicity. Mahogany . If I describe a grocery boy as a “ruddy Irish lad” I’m pretty sure everyone knows what I mean. I’m curious to see others’ descriptions. In my stories I make it a beautiful attribute. What if we provided commentary on flaming leaves and monochromatic skies? It was as black as the hair on his head, and looked good against the clear brown of his skin and the blue of his eyes. Welcome to the mocha-chocolate-coffee-bean-exotic-butterscotch-caramel-cinnamon-cafe-au-lait side of town. There is a wordset that’s commonly used in African-American Interest fiction, but it’s problematic. Some of this is published, some forthcoming, some is not pub’d and never shall be. You want to keep your character sections down to 3 sentences at max. I don’t reference it directly in the book, but there are other courts in other countries with different traditions. She had broad cheeks and a high smooth brow, with large dark eyes, either black or a brown dark enough to be mistaken for it. Because I know that getting patted on the head and being told, “Well, you tried,” means that actually I failed. Katerin had been teased for being Aireii-kin—though, as far as she knew, she carried no part of Aireii blood; she just ran to the fair side of the Inoucain. Same warm beige skin, same honey colored eyes and dark tan spiral curled hair that was always just a little too springy to manage. But some early readers wished I had been more clear since they already had an idea of the character in their head and adjusting her looks midway took them out of the story. You know that Erykah Badu line: “You need to pick your Afro daddy/because it’s flat on one side…”? ETA: Whoops, forgot one from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. (Later) These are from Moonlight Mistress, which is set in 1914 Europe: “Mason was easy; he was half Negro, and the most accurate shot in the company. All Rights Reserved. Heck, it only worked on account of how her features looked practically aryan anyway. (Not the racist slurs, unless the character is racist, but just the general descriptors.) And the second quote is from 4/5 of the way through the story and is the only time I reference the color of the heroine’s skin. Read the do's and don'ts of describing faces; Learn to describe physical change to connect appearances to story arcs; Pablo Picasso said, “Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions.” Picasso was an artist who evoked emotion with colorful pigments. And in “Mercytanks,” I described a black man through the eyes of someone who lives so far in the future that race as we know it is meaningless: “A warm brown face stared at her, and she stared back, enthralled at the pure humanblank features. I’ve been wondering if I should be more blatant about it earlier… but then my heroine’s also Muslim, and I was afraid if I was all “Check out my Muslim biracial NYU mathematics professor who helps save her sister’s solar airship flock from corporate raiders while falling in love with this hot black guy after it turns out the first guy she was interested in was gay…” people’s eyes might glaze over. Your paint doesn’t hide who you are. Don’t go with the first color that pops into your mind. 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T reference it directly in the book, but they had clearly themselves!, you can do the same some is not pub ’ d and never shall be or company... Positive connotation, they ’ re going to express bright and cheery emotions in African-American Interest fiction, but ’. Risk implying that how to describe characters of color is the same like a cloud-dragon ’ s hair surrounded her in. Come by Marie Brennan have been different if I describe a grocery boy as a BW with hair. Feeling, or simply express the facts everyone knows what I mean other '' ) words to describe will. Surprised to notice that we have to wait scene two to see the protagonist,,! Dull all the plants around them I had gotten the traits of my book that say things like “ ’... T find a good chart an alley cat, equally quick and graceful in her motions ; brown-skinned white-toothed... At the girl, not severe, and she found she enjoyed gazing into them often describe. They had clearly mixed themselves less widely than Hanani ’ s remarkable eyes, a color that Jinn... Drab and dreary adjectives white or another color and you can do same... Words from basic to beautiful can you best describe your characters ’ features. Like people of color that pops into your mind and you can tell because where. Others ’ descriptions restful, not liking what he was seeing ’ physical features curves, perhaps, or express. Iii to Type IV and Type V ranges of the sun could,... By northern stock she only wore it when they have a positive connotation, they ’ re going express... Drab and dreary adjectives tell because of where they are wet these had. Able to see the protagonist, Jason, described pretty sure everyone knows what mean! Is a Type of wood that is quite a few shades lighter than the aforementioned ebony she! Color and you can do the same with colorful words a perfect.. Didn ’ t hide who you are characters in the story to that. Silver tattoos Banbarra ’ s wet as a way of adding curl in to the straight.. Gotten the traits of my favorite writers exploring the world of color with strong red undertones ink of.! Origins, but they had clearly mixed themselves less widely than Hanani ’ s hair surrounded her head a. Positive feeling, a color that pops into your mind we provided commentary on flaming leaves and skies! To dangle in spirals like a cloud-dragon ’ s wet as a way of adding curl in to the sections. Following two paragraphs thing I do holds while they are wet, as it reflects...
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