Hi, I Was Trying To Write About A Character Who's A Beautiful Black Woman. I'm Trying To Describe Her

Hi, I was trying to write about a character who's a beautiful black woman. I'm trying to describe her wide nose in a positive light but I just can't think of a nice way to describe it. A lot of it comes from me because I'm a WOC that always hated her wide, flat nose. I feel like every time I read a description of a wide nose, it's always very masculine and animalistic, which is obviously messed up. I think wide noses are beautiful now but I don't know how to express it. Help!

Describing Wide Noses

I know what you mean about not crossing positive associations of wide noses. A shame since there’s no such problem with narrow, straight noses that I know of.

I hope we can reach a point where wide noses are normalized in the narrative without needing to be assured it’s something positive and attractive. I do think, though, if you note or describe her as beautiful, all the while mentioning her wide nose somewhere in a description of her, then you’d be fine.

As long as you’re keeping negative associations “away” from her nose so to speak and aren’t attributing it to masculinity (Black women being connected with masculinity is almost always rooted in misogynoir) or animalistic.

Otherwise, you could use a combination of positive and/or neutral words in your descriptions to imprint the idea that you’re describing her (and her nose!) favorably.

I’ll spin up a list for ideas, though all the following words might not apply to her as wide noses have a variety of appearances and can be short, long, pert, etc.

Adjectives for wide noses

Ample

Broad

Button

Full

Prominent

Round

Short

Short-bridged

Small

Soft

Wide

You could also pair positive adjectives with her nose or her face in general, such as attractive, cute, beautiful…

Just note those words are judgments, i.e. “Telling” description that do not convey a specific physical image and is also a matter of opinion (and imagination). Though probably best used sparingly, if you’re wishing to “direct” the audiences’ perspective as you are here, they could prove helpful!

Some example sentences:

“She was attractive; warm brown skin, even warmer brown eyes, a cute, rounded nose…”

“…Her short, wide nose centered prettily on her face.”

“She had a broad, attractive nose that went well with her delicate features.”

I hope this is helpful to you!

~Mod Colette

Anyone else only in their 20s but feel like they are running out of time to get their life together??

When Metal is still anyoung baby, he has difficulties having his naps unless someone is holding him.

often, that’s an easy task for Gai to do when Lee is unable to, or has been holding his son all day and needs a bit of a break.

Sometime though, Metal will get really upset and angry, crying none stop even when Lee and Gai know he needs a nap.

those times, there’s only one solution.

Kakashi.

Metal doesn’t seem to care if Kakashi is in a meeting, or soung paperwork, or chilling out at home. All he wants is to be in his grandpa Kakashi’s arms for nap time and he won’t settle until Kakashi is holding him.

Gai thinks it’s the most adorable thing ever. He’s always taking pictures of it, and even gets a picture from Tenzo one day while Kakashi’s in a meeting. Kakashi looks like he’s arguing a point, but at the same time he has metal in a little baby sling cuddled right up against his chest.

Gai loves those moments the most because Kakashi just looks so amazing acting like a grandpa while he has to work.

Is this a good way to point out that a character is not white without being super obvious; "The white snow provides a high contrast against her russet skin." ?

It’s not that I don’t want people to notice, but I want to describe characters without just putting their description out there. I wanted a good way without going, “They’re not white.”

Ways to Indicate Race

Noting skin color by contrast is perfectly fine, though describing skin color is not necessarily enough to lock in the notion that your character is a Person of Color, especially if they happen to be light, white passing, or otherwise.

Even then some people might “miss” or ignore descriptions of even dark brown and tell themselves it’s a white person so that alone tells you extra efforts are at times called for.

Physical descriptions: Along with describing skin color, you can note facial features and/or any cultural or religious garment worn by themselves or family members. Obviously not to say PoC look the same, but there are common features to a race, such as afro hair to Black people, though there’s incredible diversity even within Black hair.

Engage in their culture: If a character and their family is celebrating the Chinese New Year, going into their early memories with the holiday and what it means (or doesn’t mean) to them, we’re likely gonna assume they’re Chinese. You can communication culture by many means, such as food, language, house decor, conversation. and so on.

Associations/Club: Maybe they’re in a Black Student Union, or someone attempts to recruit them to a school, club, program or organization that pertains to their race, or even a friend/family member encourages them to join.

Use another character(s) to state it. A younger or older character might boldly note the differences in their skin or looks to the character. Someone might make a funny, awkward, exoticizing, racist or insensitive comment or joke.

Use character “voice”: The character might make a quirky or casual statement related to their race.

Racial Grievance: A character making note of a racial grievance and/or facing racism or micro-aggressions can indicate their race.

Just state it. There’s honestly no shame in just stating a character is Black, Indian etc. But it’s like with any story detail; it should fit naturally as it may be odd to just blurt it without cause. Describing parents, and what they look like/are from and how it compares to your character might be one means for indicating their ethnicity smoothly.

Threading indicators like these, at least early once and then throughout the story at your discretion, should be effective for letting us know the character is x race.

I’d also like to add that only stopping to describe your Characters of Color implies White = default so be sure to describe your White characters as well within your writing.

Hope this was helpful!

~Mod Colette

Can we talk about the note Kakashi taped to the wall in Naruro's apartment to remind him to eat vegetables?

So adorable. He just wanna make sure that his kid is eating healthy, he's doing his best 🥺❤️

“Babies only cry if they are hungry, need changing, or need to be picked up”

Lies

Babies (and small children) also cry for reasons such as:

1. “I am tired and that makes me angry”

2. “I scared myself with a fart”

3. “You are the wrong parent”

4. “I ran into something with my face”

5. “I’m facing the opposite direction then the one I want to”

6. “I fell asleep in one place and woke up somewhere completely different”

7. “I am a very small person in a very big world”

8. “I got scared because YOU farted”

Babies have more then 3 states of being and sometimes you just have to hold them and bounce them gently while saying solemnly “yes it is very hard to be a baby” because frankly it is