1. JewelWisp

    JewelWisp New Member

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    Writing POC

    Discussion in 'Character Development' started by JewelWisp, May 19, 2017.

    Recently, I've hit a snag in the novel I'm working on. My two main characters, the "main character" and the "protagonist" (being two separate people) are both Women of color (the main character being Chinese-American and the Protagonist being black). Part of the dynamic I'm exploring had me thinking about the way I write POC. I am considering making my protagonist homeless, although I worry about the possibility of that being taken as a struggle because she is a POC. A black, homeless woman is a dynamic character to have, but I wonder if adding that adversity is irrelevant and/or stereotyping? It wasn't in my original plans for the novel either and so it would shift a lot of the story details in a way I never expected it to go. What do you think? The story isn't about homelessness or about race and so I wonder if having that as a layer could be silly and overkill?


    On top of that, what do you guys think about writing POC? How can I write them in a believable way that doesn't compare their skin colors to like...food? Ahah I read so many stories that use black skin and "chocolate color" as synonyms and I want to be more dynamic and believable than that. Any advice?
     
  2. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    I don't know about the US but in the UK, where I live, the vast majority of homeless people are white. So I wouldn't read your story and think it was a stereotype to have a black homeless person. But the majority of your readers would probably be from the US so put more weight on their reactions!

    Kudos for staying away from food descriptions. :agreed: If you Google "ways to describe black skin" or "ways to describe afro hair" etc, you'll find a lot of resources. There's a blog called Writing With Color that I've found helpful.

    I searched Google images until I found a picture of a random woman to use as my MC, and then read a bunch of descriptive words to see how best to describe her without chocolate, coffee, etc. It's also worth remembering that there's nothing wrong with just saying "brown".
     
  3. Walking Dog

    Walking Dog Active Member

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    I think you nailed it within the two sets of parentheses. Describing any prejudices experienced, or any cultural nuances setting them apart from the status quo would be a better part of the story, rather than describing physical differences, unless you think these differences are pertinent to the story. As a reader, I judge characters the same way I judge people - through observation of behavior. If you tell me your MC is a nice person who looks like this and feels like that, but then they do something rude, my evaluation of your character will be based on the latter, which is my experience of your character. Having your character define herself through the things she does is what counts for me (as a reader).
     
    Last edited: May 19, 2017

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