writing with color, skin tone
I'm trying to describe a character in a story and I'm having issues describing her appearance. She is a black woman with specific (vitiligo like) markings and I don't know how to write that.
I don't plan on saying black women or anything like that, I just want to specify here black because shes more of African decent(so if I said woman of color I don't want her to be mistaken as Asian,Indian etc.) I like describe my characters in detail so the reader can get a good image of what they look like. She's a main character and is to be portrayed beautiful yet unique. it's a fairytale styled story.
Ex for other random charters off the top of my head. (A more "romantic feel for a woman) "There she stood with her shimmering copper hair blowing in the wind. She was tall and slender with smooth olive skin rich brown eyes that captivated any who looked her way." (gloomy creepy guy) "glaring Calli's way with his cold blue eyes she froze. He had a bold nose and high cheek bones, His pale colorless flesh made him appear as if he were a corps recently risen from the grave"
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/24980. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
I don't know a single person who uses "of African descent" in everyday speech and the people I spend time with are pretty accepting, liberal-Democrat New Jersey sorts of people. The black people I know call themselves "black" when talking to me. While it may be language a narrator would use (depending on the tone) and my experience is limited to my specific circumstances, books that read like politicians speak tend not to be page-turners.
So when you're deciding on the language you're going to use, I suggest keeping in mind that the words you use and when you use them are equally important tools.
Viewers visualize characters as being like them, unless they're told otherwise. And whatever you tell them first often makes the biggest impression. If the very first thing you write about your character is the color of her skin, you're not creating a character, you're creating, at best, an archetype; at worst, a token character of African descent. It's also worth remembering that "of African descent" doesn't necessarily mean dark-skinned.
And readers will always remember the character, not as the woman who plays the piano and loves skiing and is dark-skinned, but as the African woman of color who plays piano and skis.
Race and appearance are factors in almost every part of our lives. A question worth your time to ask: Why do you want this character to be this particular race? Why is her skin being black (with vitiligo) important to the story you're telling? How is it important to her character? These questions should give you guidance about when to bring these up.
0 comment threads
0 comment threads