Look around you. The world is full of color. So what about your story?
Often times, writers tend to either fall into one of two categories.
The first category is composed of authors that put too much effort in describing the visuals of their stories, but in all the wrong ways. This group tends to focus on writing every little detail about a scene and it detracts from the flow of the story or just comes off odd and clunky. They spend too much time telling you that so-and-so is 6'2 and a quarter, or that their suit or dress was of this brand and this design, that their eyes were the bluest blue or greenest green that you've ever seen. You get a scene where, often in the character's pov, the MC looks in a mirror and sees themselves and lists all their typical features: eyes, hair, hair color, HEIGHT(?), CHEEKS(?), shirt, shoes, shoe size, etc etc.
But they already see that stuff daily so why is today a day to mention it all?? plus, this takes up 3+ paragraphs (or one giant one) and pauses the whole scene. It's clunky, cliche, and bogs the story down.
Then you have the camp that doesn't describe anything or if they do, it's very vague and you have no clue what the character looks like aside from their blonde/brown hair, square jaw or heart-shaped face, and abs if it's wattpad (🙄).
But what other features do they have? What's their unique face? How do we envision them? Not asking for you to give every single detail like above, right down to the exact measurements of their hair and what brand of jacket they wear, but give us some details.
On wattpad, a lot of writers feature characters from their own backgrounds, and that's fine. I wrote a post about more diversified characters before, but I understand people want to write about who they're more familiar with. So by all means, write about your Arab, Desi, and African characters. Good on ya! And go ahead and write about your white characters too -
unless it's another cliche billionare non-Muslim American/Italian/British guy who abuses and controls the poor girl from whatever Muslim majority country and she falls for him or another story about the brown girl who says ew to "all" guys (but mostly brown guys) until she meets blue/green eyed, blond haired, Handsomejock McWhiteboy and falls for him and he converts for her...
Don't write those stories. Those are bad stories. Go sit on timeout.
No, but really, I've ranted about those stories before so I'm gonna cut this one short.
Anyways, write your characters from whatever racial/ethnic background you want (as long as you're not writing with the notion that xyz is superior or inferior to abc). Cool. Great.
But be diverse in writing them and treat them all the same. What I mean is, describe them and show them to us, and don't make any background the default. For example, here in America, it sucks but people tend to think or act like white is the default and everyone else needs a tag to them.
So when you read a story, the characters are portrayed as whatever variation of white until a specific detail is mentioned about their ethnic background. Until you hear that Samantha was Carribean, or that Kevin was half Vietnamese, they're basically some stock image of white in people's mind. Body size and such depends on if the author described them, so yeah you might know that Kevin was kinda chubby, or Samantha wore glasses that hung loosely on the bridge of her nose, but you're probably not imagining them with too much detail other than a generic outline.
And then also, telling their background is NOT sufficient detail either. Shocking news: NOT EVERYONE OF THIS OR THAT BACKGROUND LOOKS THE SAME.
So if I tell you my character was Nigerian or Fijian or Mexican or Scottish, what image should come to mind?
None yet because you still don't have enough details on them.
Are they light, dark, tall, short, handsome, ugly? What?
And, and, and, and BEAUTIFUL/HANDSOME are not detailed enough either. Those are such empty adjectives unless you add some details to explain WHAT about them is attractive. I'm looking at YOU authors who put "he was handsome" or "she was beautiful" in your blurbs and stories.
Let's not get into the pity party "I was so average," lines where you then proceed to mention how gorgeous said character is, but they don't see it.
It's okay to have attractive characters. Inside AND OUTSIDE the societal standards of beauty. So the girl has some weight to her, so the guy is shorter and not muscular, so he/she has "plain" brown eyes and black hair, big whoop!
Make it work without being an "I'm so ugly" situation when said character would be considered a 9 or a freakn 10 in real life!
Give them some unconventional features but have them still be moderately attractive. Everyone isn't a straight up 10 or 5 or 0 with nothing in between. Some people have big noses. Big feet. Some people have acne or scarred skin and rashes. Some people have eyes spaced "too far" apart. Some people have small faces. Some people have square heads. Some people have double chins. Some people have skinny fingers. Some people have calloused palms. Etc etc.
It doesn't have to be "she hated those cursed freckles" when, the way they're written they're often relegated to areas considered attractive in a certain way. Or "she hated those dimples."
Cause I'll bet you 90% of your readers who may sometimes be insecure about their own looks are like "psh yeah i wish dimples were my biggest worry " or "I wish being 3 lbs overweight was my only 'flaw.'"
And the guys in these books aren't any better. Most of you writers are girls, so you don't really always know what insecurities guys ACTUALLY worry about, but rather what girls think about guys lol. Believe it or not, there is some common ground between the genders but also some differences, and some of you authors are bad at guessing them lol. Trust me, it's not all just, "Oh man, am I muscular enough?? Must pump iron! Me get strong! Me be buff. Me have square jaw and ripped abs. Me am handsome, raaaaaaaaah!"
._.
And heck, this is without mentioning that all imperfections needn't be "flaws." That is to say, the characters don't need to feel bad or insecure about every non-conventional beauty standard feature. Even if it's not a story about them "accepting" or "being proud" of whatever imperfection, they don't have to hate it either.
If Suhail is lanky dude, Suhail is lanky.
If Jamilah has thin lips and a stocky figure, Jamilah has thin lips and a stocky figure. She doesn't have to complain about her "muffin top" at the beginning of the story or cry over it every time she goes to put new jeans on.
Bushra's bushy eyebrows needn't be waxed (AND SHOULDN'T BE), and she doesn't have to proudly wiggle them at everyone either.
Zubayr's beard can be a little patchy or nor connect fully. Or it can grow unexpectedly large at a young age and he doesn't have to hate it, nor does it have to be his default sign of being religious or being a "backwards" bloke from "back home" to look bad in light of the chisel-jawed, stubble having, all-American (or British) white guy your female MC loves.
If you wanna give unique features to the characters, go right ahead. It's great. Don't make it their whole identity either though. If all I know about Jamal is that he wears braces, or all I know about Karen is that she has a single dimple on her left cheek, or that Adnan has a protruding Adam's apple, or that Amanda dyed her hair red, or Steve is overweight, or Kareemah wishes her "plain brown" eyes were blue or green or red, etc then I don't know what your character actually looks like.
And don't just list their features. Incorporate them into the story. You wanna tell me Ya'qub is a giant, lanky, workaholic? Then show me that the bags beneath his eyes seem to darken the more nights he spends up, hunched in his tiny office chair staring at the computer screen.
Jessica is a beautiful charmer? Show me her smooth, manipulative ways, her honeyed voice luring many into a false sense of security and trust, the knitted brows over her wide and glossy eyes that begged for help like a rabbit caught in a trap. Then show me that she's actually a fox patiently lying in wait to pounce on and devour whatever unfortunate looky Lou comes to help her.
Mr. Kenny was of a particularly frail build, and though he didn't exactly have much to offer in regards to height either, his cheerful and boisterous personality made him seem larger than life. With a laugh that boomed like a foghorn, and a grin as wide as all outdoors, there was never a dull - or quiet- moment around the lively old man.
Now, I began this post mentioning color, and I started to address that somewhere along the lines until we got lost. See what you did? Smh.
Anyways. Back to the topic of color. It's a great tragedy that in many many many parts of the world, skin color is an automotic factor of beauty. The default assumption, sadly, is that fairer = better.
Even in countries where 90% of the population have brown skin, medium to dark, somehow, the standard is still "fair and lovely." (<.<)
I could make a rant on that matter (and I believe plenty of us have already at some point or another), but that isn't my point here. Especially since, sometimes, in an effort to give positivity and encouragement to one segment that's looked down on, some people think the solution is to tear down the other side instead of putting things at equal.
Example: while not nearly as prominent as "fat-shaming," there are people who "skinny-shame" others in their efforts to spread body positivity to naturally thick, or otherwise overweight people. So then you have bullying over that, and it just gets messy and people suck.
So similarly, we're not here to get too much into the light/dark debate because there shouldn't be one. You can be beautiful/attractive in whatever skin color, complexion, or tone and it doesn't automatically make all others better or worse.
With that said, we shouldn't stick to one standard only and base all our characters on that because in real life, that's not how the world is. Even if certain cultures value on over the other, the reality is different.
But like I said, when you leave descriptions blank, people make general assumptions about the character until something more is mentioned.
If I said: Jesse, Stephen, Kimberly, and Wendy went to the store, what images come to mind. If it were cast as a scene on video, there's a 90% chance those characters were all white, white, sorta white, and super white.
But I just named people I knew in real life.
Jesse was African-American.
Stephen is Chinese and Vietnamese.
Kimberly is Mexican.
And Wendy is Caribbean.
And don't think you avoid this stereotype just based off the names alone.
Abdullah.
Faisal.
Aminah.
Fatimah.
Chances are, unless you thought of someone in your life with those names, at least 85% of you imagined light-skinned Arab or Pakistani characters. (Again, this is assuming you didn't think of someone you personally know or know of or if it's a popular name in your region of the world).
But what if I told you the Abdullah I know is as dark as the midnight sky but with such radiance that his nur outshines the sun? Or that the Fatimah I knew had skin like rich caramel? That Aminah was always either white as snow or pink as a flamingo. And Faisal's sandy complexion is highlighted by the bumpy patches on his face, shadowed by the silky mess atop his head.
Generally, it's preferred not to rely on cliche descriptions for color. And that goes double in regards to food related terms (chocolate brown skin for ex) because sometimes it's seen as dehumanizing. Especially if you only do it to your characters of color and then leave your white or fairer characters to more fitting terms or don't even use any. And when you ONLY get into mentioning race/ethnicity/color when it comes to your "minority" characters, you're making white/European the default.
Just like if you say, "someone went to the store."
Then say, "SHE bought a delicious mango."
Some people will go "Ohhhh, it's a woman."
Why? Because they assumed the default was a man. Same thing here, different extent.
Idk how many of you read/watched the Hunger Games but remember the silly uproar over the portrayal of Rue? They casted a black girl and some people lost their minds calling it an unfaithful change and PC appeasement.
But the author described the girl and her peeps as olive complexion, as tanned etc.
But in some people's heads, they imagined only a white girl who was in the sun a little. It never crossed their minds that perhaps she had more color than that. That just because the author didn't say she was chocolate brown or jetblack or dark as asphalt, she couldn't possibly be portrayed by someone not of European descent.
A more recent example. There's a book out by a Muslim author I won't name (I don't like the book or the undue hype it's gotten) and so many of her fans were tweeting her pics of celebrities or drawings that they imagined to depict her characters. She got mad.
95% of the celebrities and drawings were European or super duper fair skinned.
The characters themselves were based off of the author's Moroccan background, and she wrote many of them to have brown skin. But readers couldn't fathom the idea. They were shocked to find that this princess and that guy were even a little dark.
Their default was: white/fair until proven otherwise.
So we need to change that. That can't be the way we write our characters. Whatever ethnic background and skin color we write our characters to be, make it clear and known. If they're white or fair, say it (but don't make that the standard of beauty for them). If they're medium or dark or something in between, SAY IT.
People, don't be afraid of melanin lol. Don't go to extremes in glorifying it like some people, but don't ignore it out of fear or whatever. And don't leave the characters ambiguous. Paint a colorful story. Not with some false and forced "pseudo-diversity" where you just throw in a brown or black character to fill a quota (ahem hollywood).
Make it real. It starts with the words you write. The descriptions you give. The real, human characters you put into your stories.
Your story takes place in NYC? How much more of a diverse city are you gonna get?
It takes place in London? Pakistan? Nigeria? Saudi Arabia? WHEREVER. People are going to have varying skintones and complexions. In my family alone my siblings and I are all different colors.
So don't try a generic, "oh u know how to imagine this character, I said she's Asian, I said he's African, I said...."
No, you didn't say. You didn't say enough.
But fret not. Now you can learn to. You can start incorporating some color into your character descriptions and make them feel more real and imaginable. This saves you from the horrendous trend of having to "cast" characters in your wattpad book based on the same recycled celebrities and famous people. (Ladies, you may be disappointed but I'm telling you for your own good, there are NOT a million guys who all look exactly like Omar Borkan Al Gala or Zayn Malik.)
Here is a link to a blog post designed to help writers describe characters and their complexions. It's better than just googling a color and throwing it on your character, because let's be honest, when was the last time you saw someone and though, "hmmm... her skin looks exactly like a field of wheat that sun personally came down to gently kiss on a summer evening."
Yeah.
So here's the link
http://writingwithcolor.tumblr.com/post/96830966357/writing-with-color-description-guide-words-for
(also posting in the comments)
Check it out, and as always, good luck and happy writing!