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*Watches scenes from my WIP like a tv show on repeat in my head instead of ever writing them down*

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Reblog if you didn’t write My Immortal

We’re going to find the author by process of elimination.

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I don’t have “abandoned” or “on hiatus” wips. I just put them on simmer for a bit. Indefinitely.

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I was wondering what kind of female black characters do people want to see more of? Like, them being soft or selfish?

Black Girls & Women: Representation We Want

As a Black woman reader, I definitely want to see more soft Black girls and women in literature. Girls with their own self-interests (caring about oneself isn’t necessarily selfish) and not always someone else’s caregiver is great too.

Note to writers of all races: By all means use this list as inspiration for your stories! 

More Black girls…

In love.

Interracial relationships (Black X White, Black X BIPOC)

Black love. Healthy parental bonds (Bonus: dark skin Black mothers!)

With close family bonds and healthy relationships and support systems (that don’t require enduring abuse, fixing their partner, or overall emotional labor to earn domestic happiness)

Being protected

As main characters, heroines and anti-heroes

On adventures

In fantasy and magical settings

In historical settings as peasants, upper-class society, and royalty. NOT always slaves.

Descriptions of Black Afro hair, skin, features as a normal thing in books (see this compilation) and not in an Othering way

On the other hand, vibrant, sometimes hyped up descriptions that allude to their beauty (see this ask. Or this one). Not Othering, just appreciating! 

Put us in fancy dresses and give us a sword and let us dance at the balls and have admirers!

Experiencing complex emotions not necessarily in reaction to racism or racist violence

On the book cover! And with an accurate, not light or white-washed model

~Mod Colette

Responses:

@madamef-er

Soft Black girls and nerd girls who like cute things. 

Shy Black girls not just in situations with boys. 

More lgbtqia+ Black girls. Studs! Femmes! 

Gender fluid and non conforming constantly changing their style because they like it!

Spies and not just as the ‘sexy bait’ or ‘weapons master’ let us sit behind the computer for once and be hackers and stuff

@tanlefan

Black girls who are just…people.

I want a fantasy escapism adventure that isn’t a thinly veiled discussion on slavery or racism or any other aspect of The Struggle. I am tired. 

Can I just have a happy Black girl who believes in fairies or something?

@esmeraldanacho-1776More autistic Black women/girls! I don’t care what genre really; just have them in there!

@briarsthicketAnd enby black people!

@mattiekins

Def soft Black girls. 

Energetic and playful. 

Or shy and quiet.

I want to see more Black girls who are nerds and not just mommy mommying or nanny nannying everyone. 

I want Black girls who want to be a ballerina, or a talk show host, or a game designer etc. 

I want a Black girl who gets to be happy. 

Who doesn’t have to act older than she is and be the shoulder for everyone, always.

@xiiishadesofgrey

I want more Black lady nerds, if we’re talking modern settings!  

More Black ladies who have a sporty/playful nature! 

Who aren’t afraid to get dirty and make chaos, without being dirty or frowned upon!

Strange as it sounds coming from me, more Black princesses! Brandy as Cinderella in the 90s was my first Cinderella, and I LOVE that.

Please, god, more Black wlws.

@daintythoughtswritersblock

I want to see tropes exercised 

Black women of all shades and tones

@hazelnut4370

Tbh just fellow Black people being happy, like I rarely see that,

Or enjoying hobbies

@rivergoddessdream

Happily childless Black women

Black women traveling the world

Fat Black women in happy, healthy, poly relationships

Black cis and trans women having a true sisterhood

Autistic black women

Black women in period pieces that aren’t about slavery and don’t take place in the US

Black women thespians

Black women painters

Black women revolutionaries

Black women front and center in the narrative

Black women healers and storytellers

Non christian Black women stories

Black women rockers

#complicated black women characters #tell those stories

@missnancywrites

More Black Girls…

With diverse cultural and social backgrounds!

That are nerdy, girly, intelligent, ditzy, all the personality types that white girls in literature get!

That are fragile, shy or anxious. Almost every single Black woman I’ve seen in media or otherwise are wise and adult. Let us be an absolute wreck, or an anxious mess!

In science! Characters like Shuri, Moon Girl and Iron Heart in Marvel revitalized me, cuz young Black girls only get two types. Both these girls are in intellectual and in science, but have bery different personalities.

In interracial relationships, and not because they hate Black men or something along those lines. They just happen to be dating outside their race, black women get hate for that in real life and it’s unfair. Let us have relationships outside our race! That said…

In platonic relationships with Black men! I think that’s important, cuz I don’t often seen Black solidarity unless it’s for the purpose of showing how diverse the writing is. Let them share interests, daily frustrations that they would only understand, but don’t force a romance.

In solid friendships with other Black girls! For some reason, we’re pitted against in each other inside and outside of writing! Write some sweet wholesome friendship!

With different sexualities! Let there be some that are ace, others are gay, bi or pan! Just be sure you don’t sexualize them, or turn em into a robot.

Who are dark-skinned! This can be seen a lot in tv or movies, but when you want a black girl in your stuff don’t just hire a light-skinned Black girl or a biracial black girl. It’s not the same.

Who get to act their age! Black women have a long standing history of being adultified, starting from a very young age, and it’s extremely harmful. Little Black girls can wear what they please, the problem is people sexualizing them. Let the teen black girl be a teenager, she can look out for her siblings but she isn’t the keepern the house or their lives. Young adult Black girls are not ideal housewives or capable working machines, they mess up and mess around just as much as any young adult.

With mental/physical disabilities or illnesses. Alongside with being forced to be more mature than they are, disabilities/illnesses are never taken seriously and we’re forced to just deal with it. Having Black girls who happen to have these issues, but also have a healthy support group is always good!

@ink-and-roses

Seen as beautiful and desirable and NOT in a hypersexualized way

Interracial relationships are wonderful because Black girls are beautiful and lbr everybody sees it

Sensitive and allowed to feel something other than righteous anger

Some Black girls are skinny! Some are big! Some are slim and some are curvy! There’s no mold!

Dark skinned!

A YA protagonist out to save the world from something other than racism

Superpowers or magic that doesn’t come from generational trauma or slavery

Black characters who support other Black characters. None of this token crabs in a barrel business.

Black girl nerds and punks and goths exist. I promise.

And this may be a personal preference but I’m not against the idea of a damsel in distress. We are always being strong. Let her be soft and delicate and cared for. Let her be princess carried and rescued from the tower and the dragon.

[Note from Mod: It’s not just you! I love a Black damsel being saved and protected. What is progressive for one woman varies due to historical and present depictions and is why intersectionality in feminism is so important! -Colette]

@nightlyswordswoman

As a writer, I write a lot of my Black female characters like this because I rarely ever see Black women being represented in these ways! ESPECIALLY on the covers of books, unless the author themselves is a Black woman and even then its rare. 

Too often Black women are stereotyped as strong protector types that are always rough, tough, and don’t need anybody in books (and real life), when that’s honestly just dumb and inaccurate–Black women are as vulnerable as anyone else (in some cases, even more vulnerable, but that’s another topic). 

So yeah, this list is 100% accurate and I encourage those who are interested in writing Black female characters (whether you’re a Black woman or not) to consider writing them like this, because the stereotype needs to die lol.

But wait, there’s more!

@just-a-swsh-fangirl As an anime fan I kinda want to see a white male protagonist be paired up (romantically) with a Black female at the end of the series. It would make my Black self happy to see a girl like me in an important role like that.

@tgingwe

Black girls in STEM, pleaaase

Black girls with ADHD, depression, and other mental health conditions! 

Black girls with supportive families! 

Pan Black girls! 

African Black girls, with cultures that impact their lives and with complex relationships between their specific identities/cultures and the idea of being perceived as just Black outside of Africa! 

Happy Trans Black girls!

@starcrossedrose

Love triangles where a Black character gets to be with the guy or girl in the end.

Love triangles revolving around a Black character.

Black retellings of fairy tales

Black characters in royal positions (King, Queen, Princes, Princesses, etc.)

@superviza

Soft, reserved, emotional, shy, spirited, spunky, bubbly, corny, weird Black women

a Black woman in a healthy relationship with a Black man who has a healthy obsession with her

little Black girls

modest black women

Black women without a criminal to success backstory

Black women they were raised in a healthy family with both Black parents who are still living

Black women in interracial relationships that aren’t necessarily white

No tokens; Several Black women together with no beef

Black women in fantasy

Black women in friendship with ppl of other races and ethnicities

Black women who get to feel and express emotion with it being a threat

@sappho-of-etheria

Black girls who don’t live in the US

Black girls who are daughters of immigrants and have complex relationships with both their homeland and the land their family is from

Black girls with healthy relationships with their parents

Black girls who are indecisive about their lives and struggling to find their place in the world and the reason not being racism

LGBTQ+ Black girls with families that accept them and celebrate them

More Black witches/magic users who don’t fall in the magical negro type.

Quirky Black girls who have endearing and unusual interests

Black girls who both love sterotypical and non-stereotypical Black things

Black girls having supportive friendship groups and not being the one who constantly needs to support the others

Black girls saving the world

Black girls having a love interest who loves them and cherishes them not because they think they are weak but because they want them to be safe and happy

Black girls being the cherished love interest

Black girls being thought of the most gorgeous girl and not being overly sexualized

Black girls and their siblings/friends going to another world a la Chronicles of Narnia

Black girls being the chosen ones and saving the world

Black girls in medieval fantasy stories and not just being a slave or the handmaiden of the white princess

Black girs with different and complex relationships with their womanhood and how they express it

Black girls with different hair textures

But above all else I just want Black girls to be able to have the same range in character as their white counterparts. I am tired of never being able to relate to characters that look like me

Black girl rep wishlist continued

@just-an-anime-fangirlI kinda want to see a white male protagonist be paired up ( romantically) with a Black female at the end of the series. It would make my Black self happy to see a girl like me in an important role like that.

@bubblyjaay-blog

Don’t pull a Henry Danger.

I want Black girls to be loved and fall in love. 

Not just be perpetual straightlaced, sassy side characters who’s only there to be straightlace support.

@igotloki

Yes! All of this! 

I’m so tired of seeing people who look like me only playing the side kick or supportive friend at best. 

There is no reason we can’t be the main character in every genre.

@mutantgurls

Dark skin Black girl as main characters in romance, Rom-com, fantasy, science fiction

Black girls starring in romance, fantasy, or syfy. (Not just drama)

Black girls following other religion such as Judaism or Islam or they’re atheists

Black girl getting to be soft, goofy, silly

Magical Black girls who get to transform into their superpower alter ego

Magical beings Black girls (Black fairies, mermaids, aliens)

Black girl being in relationships with non-humans ( I’m a teratophilia fans) like werewolves or aliens and being protected by them.

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I adore that moment when you’re walking and suddenly you just have ideas.  You know how to fix that plot hole. You know how that final battle is gonna play out. You come up with the most perfect line of dialogue. You find a way to link point a to point b. You have fine details to enhance everything.

That moment of sheer inspiration, that absolute spark of brain magic, is simply phenomenal. 

[sebs-scribbles]

peak fantasy environment designs:

floaty islands

glowing mushrooms

bigger versions of normal animals

animalistic dragons

deep, sentient forests

sky/space whales

[sebs-scribbles]

character dynamics that cause me to start speaking in tongues: 

rivals 

you’re flippant and brash and INCREDIBLY annoying and i’m almost always annoyed while trying to put you in your place but i actually really adore you and miss you dearly whenever you’re not around 

we’ve become accidental co-parents to a ragtag team that’s almost always coming apart at the seams and have managed to establish a working relationship so smooth that people always think of us as a matched set… but that’s all we are right? professional partners? 

rivals 

we’re childhood best friends and know each other better than we know ourselves, so it’s natural that our friendship takes a different shape to that of others’ right? but i don’t really feel this way about any of my other friends…

rivals 

we were once unspeakably close but a complex series of events have caused us to be pushed apart– maybe even to opposite sides of a conflict. still, there’s years of history lying like a pile of kindling at our feet, read, at any moment, to explode.

you’re a thief/conman/vigilante and i’ve always made it a point to stick to the hard and fast rule of law, which means tracking you down and bringing you in. and if i can’t get you out of my mind, well, that must just be my devotion to justice, right? 

rivals. 

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i am delighted to inform you of the existence of the Rosefinch, which is a real actual bird that exists!

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64 Sensory Prompts

Watching a meteor shower

Digging your fingers into fresh dirt

Snow being shoved down the back of your coat

Napping in sunshine

Trying to walk on ice

Walking through the woods

Raindrops on eyelashes

The way cold glass fogs when you press your hand against it

A perfectly brewed cup of tea

The taste of Vodka at the back of your throat

Blood at the corner of your mouth

Cloying sweetness on the back of your tongue

The first glass of fresh water

Stale breath when you wake up

The taste of salt on the tip of your tongue

The taste of almonds

Your bed after travelling

Red wine stained lips

Satin in candlelight

Reflections in glass

Thigh-high stockings and garter belts

Neon lights at 1.30am

Darting shadows in the corner of your eye

Dust floating in golden sunlight

The smell of ozone during a storm

The smell of Cologne/Perfume on warm skin

The musty smell of an abandoned home

The bitter tang of acetone

The smell of burning wood

The smell of freshly baked bread

The cold, sharp smell of the first frost

The smell of blood

The feel of fingertips trailing over a bare shoulder blade

The feel of fingers brushing together by accident

Blowing a raspberry against someone’s skin

Being so close that you can feel your lips brush when you whisper 

The tender ache when you press against bruises

A person’s weight as they lie on top of you

Stepping in something squishy

Gritty eyes when you stare into fire too long

A door closing

A ticking wristwatch

Your favourite song on repeat for the hundredth time

Distant traffic

The creak of leather

The waver in a person’s voice when they’re stressed

Singing badly as loud as you can

A quiet sigh as they turn away

Trying to pull on clothes with damp skin

The empty space that can’t be breached between you in bed

The jittery, sick feeling when you can’t do anything

Exhausted numbness after crying

The relief of fatalistic recklessness

The moment when reality starts to make sense again

Finding old photographs you’d forgotten about

Someone accepting the bad parts of you without judging

Brown iodine stains on skin

Rust red dirt

Orange sunsets

Yellow halogen lights

Green wine bottles

Fingertips smudged in blue ink

Indigo skies just before dawn

Violet bruised eyes

Feel free to use in writing and art - I’ll be tracking the tag ‘sensory prompts’ if you want to share :)

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things people do in real world dialogue:

• laugh at their own jokes

• don’t finish/say complete sentences

• interrupt a line of thought with a sudden new one

• say ‘uh’ between words when unsure

• accidentally blend multiple words together, and may start the sentence over again

• repeat filler words such as ‘like’ ‘literally’ ‘really’ ‘anyways’ and ‘i think’

• begin and/or end sentences with phrases such as ‘eh’ and ‘you know’, and may make those phrases into question form to get another’s input

• repeat words/phrases when in an excited state

• words fizzle out upon realizing no one is listening

• repeat themselves when others don’t understand what they’re saying, as well as to get their point across

• reply nonverbally such as hand gestures, facial expressions, random noises, movement, and even silence

[sebs-scribbles]

My brain has two writing modes. Either this:

or this:

there is no in between

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I Photograph Beautiful Libraries From Around The World

As a travel photographer, my favorite subject to shoot is architecture.

Libraries hold some of the most treasured interior architecture that I have ever seen. They are beautiful, colorful, ornate and exquisite to photograph. Here are many of the libraries that I have photographed during my travels.

Strahov Library, Prague, Czech Republic

Real Gabinete Library, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY

NY Public Library, New York, NY

Saint Genevieve Library, Paris, France

State Library Of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library, Antwerp, Belgium

Stuttgart Municipal Library, Stuttgart, Germany

Austrian National Library, Vienna, Austria

Los Angeles Public Library, Los Angeles, California

House Of The Redeemer Library, New York, NY

Jose Vasconcelos Library, Mexico City, Mexico

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listen……. ‘my love’ is literally the strongest and greatest pet name in existence. there is literally nothin better than somone callin you that….. especially when things are soft and quiet and they look at you with utter adoration and whisper “what’s the matter, my love??” or “i hope everything is okay with you, my love” like oh my god?? let me marry you already

[sebs-scribbles]

*adds three (3) words to my current draft*

me: 

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me: writing at night increases my focus on the work itself and really allows my creativity to flow, not to mention giving me the lack of distractions needed to improve my word choices also me:

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listen. if u like/reblog my posts fairly frequently, u better believe that i have noticed ok. even if we don’t ever talk. if we aren’t even mutuals! doesn’t matter. i see you. i see your URL pop up in my notifications every so often. and when it does? oh, when it does……… i’m like “oh hey there’s my buddy! gee i sure missed u pal!” and i get real happy for a minute ok. sorry, i don’t make the rules.

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Read to become a better writer

When I started as an editor-in-training, one of the first things our professor made us do, was to take one of the great European literary classics (mine was Kafka’s The Trial) and look at it as if it were an unknown debutant’s manuscript that lands on our desk. Would we publish it? Which parts would we keep and which elements would we change? It’s an excercise I still like to do as a writer: read a book to see what the author did and if I agree with it.

Here are three things I learned from reading books.

1 Planting clues

This is probably the first thing I ever realised about storytelling. When I was 11, I read a book in which the main characters go off on an adventure and are saved in the end by a friend’s dad, who conveniently turns out to be a policeman with a police radio to call for back-up.

What I learned: The ending of the book would have been less forced if the author had told us that the father was a policeman when he introduced him in chapter four, not at the end. Plant your clues earlier in the story to avoid a deus ex machina.

There’s a rule of thumb that you can’t convey new information needed for the climax after 80% of your story.

2 Who is the hero anyway?

This next book was a detective story with a depressed, alcoholic, unhappily divorced protagonist. In the end, it was not the depressed detective, but an innocent bystander who found the crucial last piece of information to solve the mystery. The detective just sat there and was depressed.

What I learned: The protagonist must be the catalyst of the story, not some C-character. The protagonist must be the one who saves the day/themselves/the victim/….

3 Just talk to each other!

a A budding couple pines for each other but nothing ever happens because he thinks he’s not good enough for her and she thinks he doesn’t love her anymore. I’m all for a well-written slow burn, but there’s a difference between slow burn and just plainly frustrating your readers.

b Character A was eavesdropping, didn’t hear everything character B said but still acts on the things they did hear. The whole storyline of the book could have been avoided if they would just talk to each other.

What I learned: Confusion and wrongful assumptions can make for an interesting plotline. Just make sure that your entire story couldn’t have been cut short if two people would just talk to each other.

If you don’t make them talk, give them a watertight reason why they can’t. For example: they couldn’t talk because they never were in the same space together.

Btw: I notice that this trope often does work for comedy.

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Okay, that’s it for today, lesson’s over. Your homework for next week: when you read a book, see if you can learn anything. I may throw in a pop quiz next class. Kidding.

Follow me for more writing advice. New topics to write advice about are also always welcome.

Tag list below, a few people I like and admire and of course, you can be too. If you like to be added to or removed from the list, let me know.

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