#creators-novel

[writingwithcolor]

A Careful Balance: Portraying a Black Character's Relationship with their Hair

@writingraccoon said:

My character is black in a dungeons and dragons-like fantasy world. His name is Kazuki Haile (pronounced hay-lee), and his mother is this world's equivalent of Japanese, which is where his first name is from, while his father is this world's equivalent of Ethiopian, which is where his last name is from. He looks much more like his father, and has hair type 4a. I plan to make his character very finnicky about his hair, both enjoying styling it, but also often being unsure how to style it (not in that he doesn't know how to, but has so many options for how to style it, he has trouble choosing). However, I know that there are some very harmful ways to write black hair, especially in regards to how the black character themselves feels about it. Kazuki does not hate his hair, in fact he takes joy in it, and I'm researching black hair and hair styles to be as accurate as possible. But I'm unsure if portraying a black character as occasionally overwhelmed by or vain about his hair is negative. How would you suggest either changing this or making it work? Does it need to be changed in the first place?

Black Character Overwhelmed by Curly Afro Hair

Your Black character wanting his hair to look its best and at times feeling overwhelmed seems reasonable and natural to me. It appears their challenge comes with how to style it. Not so much with struggling how it looks or how hard it is to manage. That is good, as this further helps avoid placing a strong negative focus on Black hair. 

Him caring a lot about how it is style should not be deemed vain or frivolous, either. In any case, hair care is self care. There’s nothing wrong with having pride with your hair, especially hair that mainstream society, historically and present, might say is not beautiful. This still matters, even in a fantasy world, since your readers still exist in this reality. It’s empowering and a welcome change to see someone who loves their afro hair, actually.

There are unique factors someone with coily afro hair would experience vs. straight, wavy, or looser curls, but people struggling with their hair (too frizzy, too flat, too limp, too thin, too thick!) is universal. 

There is a delicate balance to achieve.

Avoid Writing a Black Hair Journey Experience 

An overall negative Afro hair journey might be the reality for many, especially when society deems Afro hair as unacceptable and slaps so many uninvited opinions, laws and policies over its existence and on certain styles (again, historically and very much at present), but that’s the kind of story that is best handled by someone with the background. Someone willing to commit to the research might also be able to pull it off, although it’s truly not the kind of thing an escapism novel needs in my opinion. If the story is not meant to delve into “A Black /Black Hair Experience” then I'd avoid going that route. That is moving a bit towards a struggle narrative, depending on how much it defines your character’s story.

Add positive and neutral hair language and interactions

For your writing, I’d avoid using unchallenged negative language about his hair. Being overwhelmed at times and frustrated is one thing and expected. If his hair is constantly brought up, and is associated with uncontrollable, ugly, or too [insert struggle here], then rethink the direction you’re going. 

Add some positive or neutral terms, reactions, and interactions in the narrative towards afro hair, such as describing color and texture.

“His fine coils bounced in the wind.” 

“Hair black and shiny” 

“She wore her hair in two large, fluffy buns.”

“He admired his fresh, neat braids in the mirror, smiling at his reflection, before turning to leave.”

Another tip: It may have been for research purposes, but leave out any hair number categorizing in the story and rely on description. I’d say this goes for any story, as reading the number would feel off. 

“He had coily 4a hair.” Nahh! :P 

Also, I would suggest sending all passages that focus on his hair to a Black sensitivity reader for review.

More reading:

~Mod Colette

#asks #black #black hair #hair #afro hair #description #tragedy exploitation #struggle novel #creator responsibility #representation #guides #writeblr

[hualianschild]

absolutely love it when they put details like this

#no cuz I read that part and went THATS WHY IT WAS IN THE DONGHUA #ofc hua hua's words will cause a ripple in his calm waters (heart) #oh don't i just love it connecting references like this #the creators read the book and took note of every small detail #love them for it #now give me that scene where xl falls on hc's lap i know y'all have it in your pc somewhere #tami rereads tgcf #tgcf #heaven official's blessing #hua cheng #mxtx #xie lian #tian guan ci fu #hualian invented love #san lang #hualian #heaven officials blessing #tgcf novel #tgcf donghua #donghua #danmei

[jakud]

Esther Wheatley, park ranger, pilot of the prototype mecha Tarantula Hawk, will fight to protect desert-dwelling insectoid kaiju from poachers in MODERN CARAPACE: O Bounty Of Thy Ribs. A 72-page graphic novel you can read now!

#artists on tumblr #jakud #modern carapace #kaiju #comics #mecha #graphic novel #digital comic #monsters #robots #comics on tumblr #creator owned comics #comic book

[definitelyalmosthuman]

Click the link I promise nothing bad will happen 🙂💌

#I'm seriously losing my mind #sorry #webnovel #tapas creator #tapas novel #tapas.io #tapas webnovel #I'm gonna run out of tags Jesus #respectfully yours novel #if I don't rip all my hair out trying to promote this book I'll call that a win

[essektheylyss]

Open, non-exhaustive list of content I would read/watch in a heartbeat about the political situation in Rexxentrum post-Solstice:

One-shot or mini-arc of the Nein going full National Treasure level heist on the Cerberus Assembly records management department before a Ludinus simulacrum can reach the burn boxes

Faux Trump aide exposé-style novel of Athesias Uludan compiling and publishing The Dirt in the aftermath as part of his apology/comeback tour

Colville-run Dirty Dozen one-shot or EXU of Oliver Schreiber dragging some particularly unruly ex-Scourgers out of semi-retirement (read: house arrest) to take Ludinus out once and for all in exchange for full indemnity

Found documents a la Midst appendices of the Cobalt Soul documentation and evidence compiled about the incident

The Archmage: An Autobiography by Martinet Ludinus Da'leth (discovered and published posthumously) [1500 pages and riddled with exaggeration and inaccuracies, the last 20% has clearly been written by AI a simulacrum]

Lorekeeper rundown Youtube video from Dani Carr

Yet another novel: Wildemount's most (in)famous and (un)reliable documentarian smelled a story (Taryon's version)

Literally just a main campaign episode of the Nein infodumping to Allura at a war council meeting with the Hells present. I need this information so badly. I am fucking begging.

This sounds like it runs the gamut in level in terms of seriousness but I would like it stated for the record that I would unhinge my jaw to consume any item on this list.

#why do people run to creators for ship vindication when they COULD be out here asking for the most niche worldbuilding content #if there's one thing we learned from the midst ama it's that the people want the DEETS (about mundane civil processes and politics) #critical role #anyway lmao please note that i WILL write that athesias fic if I have to but that's just SPECULATIVE I want the DEETS #EVEN IF A LIAR IS RECOUNTING THEM I WANNA KNOW #anyway what you can really deduce from this list is that I want more CR novels of the most niche shit. will I get them? unlikely. alas. #I will continue to bang my pots and pans about it and write my silly fics regardless

[boinin]

In putting together the resource post, I found a couple illustrations from the first novel that I haven't seen anywhere before, at least on the English speaking side of the internet.

The light novels are illustrated by Sannomiya Kota, who's the artist for Episode Nagi.

Here's a couple from Nagi's part, including a cute Choki cameo.

...and here's two from Bachira's! I'm shocked not more people have shared these or talked about them. There's his monster! and Yuu!!

His is my favourite LN backstory to date 💛

#in case you were in any doubt about who the creators' favourite is #bachira gets four illustrations (same as everyone else) #isagi the so-called protagonist gets two #and nagi gets FIVE #blue lock #blue lock official art #blue lock light novel #bllk official art #bllk light novel #nagi seishiro #choki #bachira meguru #bachira yuu

[delusionalblfan]

why be bitches and still refusing to accept Babe likes to have it in his derriere? just enjoy the fact that stereotypes are being wrecked (fortunately!) and be glad. we are blessed with a power bottom Babe and a puppy top Charlie

#bless creators of this series #and author of the novel #bless bless bless you so much #pit babe the series #charliebabe #charlie x babe

[immediatebreakfast]

"God grant that we may be guided aright, and that He will deign to watch over my husband and those dear to us both, and who are in such deadly peril. As for me, I am not worthy in His sight. Alas! I am unclean to His eyes, and shall be until He may deign to let me stand forth in His sight as one of those who have not incurred His wrath."

Mina...

Mina what the fuck are you talking about?

God doesn't deserve you Mina. It doesn't.

God doesn't deserve to dangle the promise of eternal peace to you. All righteous fearing woman capable of running towards ancient evil to save your dear friend. Insessant, and intelligent fiend who is all kind towards her love, and loved him with all of her might when he was not himself.

Don't blame yourself for the assault, and never think that you are guilty for not having the means to stop it. Mina can't tell herself "if I had been better" she can't. How many times must she torture herself with thoughts of hellfire that are so close in her mind, yet far in reality.

Mina tells that she is not worthy of His sight when god should grovel at her feet for forgiveness. How dare He to make her suffer like this. Mina is not a Martyr nor a Saint. She is not Saint Inés calling for the sword to fall so she can be freed, nor Saint Águeda screaming in joy as she finally died.

Mina's suffering is not holy, it's human. It's so human that it hurts to read. How were her ambitions in life greedy to incur god's wrath upon her? Why must she become another footnote on Dracula's horrible quest for power? (Why was Lucy not saved? Why?)

Mina is losing hope in herself when she is the most strong. She can't let herself become comfortable at the idea of a violent end if it means to be seen in god's light again. Mina can't become suicidal to beg and pray to the being that abandoned her in her most traumatic moments.

Mina may think that she doesn't deserve god, but it's god that doesn't deserve Mina.

#I want to scream at her #She is not a symbol of righteous religious suffering who will be rewarded with peace in heaven #Mina is a human woman capable of so many things and she will never be at fault for this tragedy no matter how many times she tells that #If god in the Dracula novel it's real then humans should climb up and kill it #It really reminds me of a little paragraph of a song by el Cuarteto de Nos (it's an argetinian political rock band) #“I don't believe in god - all powerful - creator of heaven and earth - maker of evil and storms - castrator of willpower” #“I believe in me - nothing powerful - creator of churches and miracles” #dracula daily #dracula #mina harker #mina murray #cw catholicism

[tricitymonsters]

TRI CITY MONSTER MORE LIKE IDIOTS BEING DEMONIC DISASTERS

Have some fake screenshots (that are still like.. very in the tone of the game lol)

─•~❉᯽❉~•─

Tri City Monsters is a multigenre visual novel that throws you head first into  a supernatural underworld right in your own home turf.  Meet hot monsters living their lives as humans and get swept up romancing either version.

TCM features:

Choose your name and pronouns / Choose your body type for  🔞 Scenes / Romance the monster or human forms /Decline spicy scenes without getting punished or breaking hearts

Gorgeous character artwork by @totatoti​

Mori is available for free on itch

Amir is in early access

Akello is in development.

Discord with regular events, rampant blorbo bonking, and fun, laid back community

#tricitymonsters #visual novel #interactive fiction #kinetic novel #romance game #indie game dev #indie game #queer creators

[gkstndjd10]

I'll be honest the museum fight was when I've loved hsy and yjh (individually) more the entire novel

Kdj is the only person who knows how much yjh wants to live and always nags him when yjh is thinking about regressing again, therefore yjh became comfortable with him about existence as the subject and goes to him when he cant find his purpose of living in that lifetime. But good GOD hsy and yjh's conversation in the museum and the realization why yjh is doing that punched me in the gut a hundred times

She's yjh's creator, and without knowing what the fuck to do next after kdj's neither-alive-nor-dead situation, he's losing his mind over his purpose now that the story is over. And as his creator he damn well respects her for it, which is why he'd gone to her not to ask her what should he do to continue living on?, like the questions he would ask kdj because ofc that son of an asshole knew everything about him, but to ask her, 'plead' if you will, to end him in that very moment

#he doesnt want to get the final ark #he wanted to meet his creator and die by her hands #this tortured me more than i anticipated #im never gonna reread this again (lying) #orv #omniscient reader's viewpoint #han sooyoung #yoo joonghyuk #yoohan #omniscient reader #orv spoilers #orv novel

[chinomiko]

I just wanted to thank you for all your work you’ve done over the years, I first played my candy love when I was around 11 years old maybe younger, and I’m 22 now, I still play and interact with the games to this day, your art and contributions in general have been so amazing, i feel like I’m rambling I’m sorry, I’ve been nostalgic lately because of an injury thats kept me inside for a while and just wanted to pop by and say this ❤️❤️

Hello !

Thank you so much for your message 💕 I hope you get well soon, take care of yourself !

As creators, we put ourselves out in the internet, and the internet is not always a kind place… Receiving such kind and supportive messages is always a very welcomed boost 🙏💕

If you have some favorites artists or creators don’t hesitate to drop them a little message, you’ll certainly make their day 🥹

#chinomiko #my candy love #eldarya #otome game #visual novel #artist #game creator

[ariakey]

You'll never believe who's the one screaming "help me" here. 😌

But worry not they won't end up in tragedy. Quite the opposite.

In my comic Obnubilar (read first 50 trial pages here) the scene I made where Cupid attacks Jacob is way more tame than how I imagine it in my head but of course I didn't want to add a whole huge gruesome scene in there right at the start.

So this is how I actually envisioned it. It's a redraw from an old piece I made at least 3 years ago! Quite happy with how it looks not gonna lie 🥺🌟❤️💙

These two can both be scary haha don't underestimate Jacob! 💙

#ocs #ariakey #obnubilar #comic #angels #comic artist #indie comics #indie creator #indie artist #graphic novel #artstyle #angel ocs #angels and demons #fantasy art #artists on tumblr #digital art #art #my art #digital drawing #design #artist support

[estellaedgewater]

Day 24 of writing until I finish my book.

#spicy content #spicy creator #writers #writerslife #writeblr #writing #writing productivity #novel writing #writers on tumblr #writing challenge #daily writing #my writing #creative writing

[bigskeletonboobies]

I hope Tom ( CarnivoreKitty) can find it in his heart to figure out what was wrong about his ideologys and tires to find a way to apologize , to learn, and to grow. Most people deserve 2nd chances and I hope he takes it and does something great with his second chance. Untill then fuck him.

#lurking for love #this is the 3rd time a yandere vn creator i like has this :( #yandere vn #yandere visual novel #jacob alden #idk what other tags to add #carnivorekitty

[pttucker]

Among all those comments, a particular one caught her attention. – Dear author-nim. It was a great read. May I ask about your release schedule? Such an unparalleled naivete that made him use his real name as the username. Han Sooyoung stared at that name for a long, long time. She looked closer, and discovered another comment attached to it. – Are you… going to release another chapter tomorrow? She repeatedly clenched and unfurled her fists many times. Sweat was soaking her small hands. Is it really okay for me to write this? Even then, isn't it fine this way? Han Sooyoung hesitated for a long time, before typing her reply. While thinking about a certain someone, still alive beyond this screen. While thinking about a certain boy who'd breathe, eat, shout some nonsense about 'I'm Yoo Joonghyuk', and do whatever it takes to endure his own apocalypse. And so, the story of a regressor that reached 3149 chapters started in this manner. – Yes. A new chapter will be published tomorrow.

I WAS RIGHT!!!!!!!!

Well, I was right after I spent like half the novel convinced the author was actually Dokja. At least I wasn't alone in thinking that, considering Sooyoung thought so too. 😂

Though I do love that it's not at all how I thought it was. I figured she was the author and just forgot because she lost half her memories to her avatar and just assumed that Dokja wrote it because that was the most logical option that her Predictive Plagiarism could come up with.

Was not expecting all this wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff, though I guess I should have by the time I reached the end of the novel and all sorts of things in the beginning were being affected by the ending. Time travel. Dimension travel. Just full of paradoxes.

I loooooove though that the novel is "trash" because she has to speed write it as fast as possible based on vague memories while using Predictive Plagiarism (...plagiarizing herself...) because she only has a limited time with her own body and also because she needs to keep Dokja engaged, needs to pump out chapters as fast as humanly possible to give him his reason to live until the next day.

And I love that the reason it only has one view is because she doesn't bother to read it, not even to typo check. She already knows it has a reader. A paradox it may be, I love that the novel truly was written for Dokja and not just after the first hundred or so chapters when all the other readers fell off. Nope, it was written for him and him alone from the very beginning. Sooyoung already knows that she doesn't have to make it good, she just has to make it, and that in turn will save him, even if it dooms millions of others.

Oh man, Sooyoung seeing him in the hospital after he tried to jump out of a window and wondering where the heck tls123 is, why haven't they started posting yet, they need to hurry up and save this unbelievably precious idiot. 😭💖

Sooyoung of all people having to wrestle with the knowledge that if she saves one person, she will kill billions (perhaps trillions) of other people across multiple worldlines.

Well, actually, perhaps it's fitting that it is Sooyoung of all people because I don't know how many others in Dokja's party who would doom this entire universe of parallel worlds to save a single person, even if that single person is Dokja himself.

Like, it parallels pretty well with what's going on with Sooyoung's other half...she's the weird one in the group who wants to go save the Dokja they left on the train while even Dokja's incarnation is worried that they're going to cause a lot of harm in the process and open up another worldline of tragedy, which they all know Dokja would not want.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Han Sooyoung is perhaps one of the few people selfish enough to save Kim Dokja at the cost of the entire universe and it's so interesting to think back on the fact that she literally tried to get Joonghyuk to kill him way back in the earliest chapters and now she's using Joonghyuk to save him.

(Oh man...when Joonghyuk finds out who his creator is...)

#granted it's almost difficult to think of hsy as yjh's creator because of all the weird circular time travel stuff #like...yjh lived as a real person because dokja read about him...dokja read about him because hsy wrote it... #hsy wrote it based on things dokja told her and things the living breathing yjh said and did or MIGHT have based on his real personality #...the personality that she gave him...which dokja read and brought to life...which made hsy write it later...around and around we go #like she's his creator but also it's almost like yjh created himself along with the help of dokja??? #lol orv you hurt my brain sometimes but I love you #(also hankim shippers rise up! get you a woman who will destroy the universe for you!) #orv spoilers #orv epilogue spoilers #orv #orv novel chapter 532 #omniscient reader's viewpoint #orv liveblog #hsy #kdj

[fifthpilot]

So About the New Asra Tale by Dorian...

The plot was, not great. It was pretty boring, but it did touch up on a few interesting points from Asra's main story; like how much of his memory did he loose, his past before MC's death, and what extremes he had to go through because of MC's death like erasing his own memories of certain spells, which in my opinion is a very interesting scenario. Things did seem rushed considering the fact that the story had two endings depending on whether you chose to use the spell or not; and how the supposedly "bad ending" kind of implied that you and Asra somehow may have brought back the plague? or Lucio i.e the plague? It was left up to interpretation. The writing was, not good. I think they did try their best to stay true to Asra's tone even if it was a bit too on the nose at times and a little overbaord. But it was mainly the MC and the Magician that felt most off note to me.

That all being said, I like many others don't consider this a part of canon, it does ultimately give off a very wattpad feel. But in all honesty so did some of the main content after probably halfway through the main 3's routes. I think many people forgot just how erratic and disorganized the Nix Hydra Team was and how many people who came up with the original storyline had left the company before the end of the M3 routes. But a lot of people don't seem to notice that because all the content was in one place, the arcana app. Which brings me to my next point.

I think a good portion of the hate Dorian is getting is mainly due to the fact that their app is terrible. The UI is confusing, the app lags a lot and it's very slow. The game looks different on the dorian app, the font is wrong, there's no music, the character sprite animation is messed up, and the LI never says your name. And a lot of people have demanded that Dorian uploads the new conent to the Arcana app. But after thinking about it I personally think it's a good thing that the Dorian content and the "original" content stay physically seperated, so we know where one starts from where one ends. And I know a lot of people would disagree because using the Dorian app is a hassle, but like I mentioned before. Dorian is making fanfiction (but worse). They're using whatever's left of the arcana fandom to make some cash. This whole thing with Dorian creating new routes and new content is just another marvel-like tactic of beating a dead horse with a stick. And, they're even using the same Nix Hydra trick of placing the best content behind a paywall.

I'm personally not even upset at how terrible the app is, or how rushed and boring and generally just bad the tale was, I think I'm more upset that we won't put the Arcana Game to rest. And instead we have to watch as corporation after corporation uses the story for whatever means it wants to make money. I'm more upset that things can't just end and be celebrated for being. And how the way we engage with media has mutated into something more greedy and gluttonous.

What I'm saying is, we had a beginning and ending, we had prologues and epilogues and hidden scenes. We had plenty. We don't need more. Sometimes enough is enough.

#the rest should be left in the hands of fans #as free content creators for passion and love #not for a make cash scheme #while it was amusing to read a new asra tale and see some cute official art #i think we should put the pen down and honor the story properly #by leaving it the fuck alone #the arcana game #the arcana #dorian games #asra #asra alnazar #asra the magician #asra the arcana #arcana thoughts #also like maybe a new adaptation like an anime or novel woukd be cool but this. #this is shit