Diverse Characters - Tumblr Posts
Here’s my advise as someone who’s been a poc my whole life:
1. Every poc has a different experience so it would be good to give your characters different backgrounds and personality traits. A personality trait I often include in soft black girls. We get a rep for being loud and aggressive so it’s good to get this kind of representation
2. Look into culture. It’s so important to pocs to express culture. Since you do high fantasy, you can even make up your own similar to real ones. Some important things about culture to include is language (including dialects), hairstyles, music, clothes, etc.
3. I don’t know the rules of your world, but you could also address how systemic racism affects your characters to give them more depth. Things like how some neighborhoods are majorily poc because of things like redlining and white flight, and that those neighborhoods are often underfunded because no one cares. A way this can show up in your story is a character comes from this neighborhood and doesn’t have as many opportunities or something like that
4. My last piece of advice is to just be careful. A lot of poc stories are just about the suffering and we can use some joy!
Thanks for including poc characters and being mindful with them. Good luck with your writing!
I'm trying to find the best possible way to write poc characters that is respectful and also gives them immense depth and characterization that contributes to the main plot as well as their individual plots moving forward (two of my other wips are centered around these two poc characters) and I would love to know any ideas, thoughts, concerns, etc that you all have in mind!
I also have a good amount of disabled characters as well, each disability and the degree falls within a wide range so any thoughts, ideas, concerns, etc about these topics as well would be amazing!
I want to learn from the audiences. I want to know good and bad experiences with other literature and/or media, things to avoid, things to include, and anything else you have in mind!
for context this is a high fantasy novel with a lot of world building and whatnot with a wide range of characters types!
Omg this show was so good until it wasn't 🙄😞
You know, I wasn't expecting my first (and hopefully last lmao) most-stereotypically-gay character ever to be a nonbinary (any/all pronoun-ed), morally dark-grey faerie chaos god.
But you know what?
I fucking love them for it.
(The Existence of Magic is an absolute sassy QUEEN and omfg, I wouldn't trade them for the world. They're pretty evil at times, but like,,, omfg. Their charisma. They're like an old-fashioned disney villain. Guys. I want to turn this SUPER SPOILERY late-series outline into a fully-fleshed out scene and share it with everyone. Please help stop me--)
Also @the-letterbox-archives has decided Magic's pronoun is "babygirl" so uh,,, have fun with that knowledge.
Taglist and Existence of Magic snippet beyond!
Redacted: "I'm sure you know of my relationship with Zenebe--" Magic: slowly furrowing one eyebrow and raising the other as high as possible-- Redacted: voice growing uneven: "--and that I--" Magic: drops their eyes to their hand, checking out their long, sharp fingernails Magic: dismissively: "I cannot buy your boyfriend, no matter how--" (gets interrupted; skipping) Magic: gives another combo laugh-scoff-eyeroll as they throw a hand out, beginning to meander back and forth lazily "--as I was saying, I cannot buy your boyfriend from Mulul no matter how many favors you request from me. I cannot take him without either his or Mulul's consent--" Magic: flicking their hand out, turns to face Redacted again "--and he's rejected, as you know, while Mulul is quite attached to that one. He is their trainer. I've asked." Magic: flashes Redacted a sharp-toothed, roguish grin as he looks up at them
Everything taglist: @honeybewrites @the-golden-comet @illarian-rambling @ashirisu @urnumber1star
@48lexr @aalinaaaaaa @thecomfywriter @paeliae-occasionally
I make way too many Picrews, but here's a few.
I finally have a place to post this. A while back I made a AU for my original story A Fourth Dimension Reality, and I really wanted to share it for some reason, so now I can, yay~
Link to the Picrew
A Fourth Dimension Magic Club: The Lost RaggleDoll
Word count: 2.6k
The old halls of the Magic Academy were filled with students walking to their various locations within the building. The lunch hall was presently empty aside from a group of five, everyone else had left for the day, but the group remained and spoke to each other…
“What do you mean you lost it?” Larson, one of the summoners of the group, spoke to his fellow summoner.
“Look, I was trying something last night and I guess he must have gotten distracted by something and ran off, but good news! I can summon a Black Hawk!” Cassie, the other summoner of the group, said.
“Oh? How well?” Jax, the researcher, spoke.
“It only stayed for a few minutes, but I’ll get better I swear!” Cassie declared.
“I haven’t seen a Black Hawk in a while,” Gast, the ghost, said while he shivered at the thought of the demonic creature.
“Black Hawks?” Mandy, the witch, opened her spell book, “I wonder why I can’t have that as a familiar.” She pondered.
“Because Black Hawks aren’t tamable.” Jax explained, “they serve a purpose and without one they won’t listen to the one who summoned it.”
Mandy understood the explanation, but couldn’t help the disappointment she felt.
“Are you all dense?” They all looked to Larson, “aren’t you all forgetting about the lost RaggleDoll that might be tearing up the school?”
Cassie looked off.
“How long ago was it?” Jax asked in an attempt to start somewhere.
“Hmm… I can’t remember.” Cassie said. Her head turned up as she tried to remember the time, “oh, it was…” She trailed off.
Larson sighed at her indecisive tone.
“Well,” they looked at Gast, “Cassie came back to her dorm around midnight last night.”
She snapped her fingers, “that’s right, did we talk?” Cassie asked the ghost.
“Yeah, but you were really tired. I guess you weren’t really zoned in.” He explained.
“Then it was midnight!” Cassie restated.
Larson rolled his eyes, but Jax took out his pocket watch.
“Okay, it’s twelve in the afternoon right now,” he put it away, “so that means it’s been gone for half a day.” Jax set his book onto the table. He flipped to the end pages that were mostly empty and found his entry on the creature: RaggleDoll. “You know the most about it, so what else can you tell me?”
Cassie threw her hands up to roll the sleeves of her baggy robe out of the way, “well, he’s not usually temperamental. He only does things when I tell him to.”
Larson interjected, “Yeah, like the time you sicked that thing on your teache-”
“I didn’t do that!” Cassie spoke over him.
“But it does work with your thoughts, right?” Cassie confirmed Jax’s presumption, “so,” he wrote as he spoke, “I think it’s safe to assume there might have been something you wanted to do last night.” Cassie nodded, “can you remember what?”
“Yeah, I was trying to summon a Black Hawk because I read somewhere if you summon one on the dawn of a solstice it’ll turn into a Phoenix! So I was preparing last night.”
“Because it’s close to Christmas,” Jax said, “okay, then I think we should go back to the spot where you went. There’s a huge chance it’s still there waiting for December twenty-second!”
“You think?” Cassie seemed awestruck, “aw, he really is connected to me!” She was gushing over the thought of the creature.
“And that confirms you did send that thing after your teacher.”
Cassie ignored the comment, “come on then, let’s go and find my baby!” Cassie got up and stood behind Mandy, “can I ride your broom with you?”
Mandy smiled and got up, “but only us two, you boys will be fine following?”
They all got up.
“Of course, let’s just hurry up and get there.” Larson formed his own forbidden book.
“Then we’ll see you there!” Mandy winked and casted her broom to levitate. She got on it and Cassie jumped to sit behind her. They went up into the air where they took off for the exit of the lunch hall.
Larson, Jax and Gast all walked to the door leading them outside and Larson opened his book. There, he summoned his Galaxy Fox and waited as it grew in size to tower over the trio, Larson hopped onto his back and spoke.
“Got Cassie’s sent?” The fox gave a confirming whine, “good, now follow them.” The fox made no sound, but turned its head in the direction where Cassie and Mandy went.
Jax and Gast got on its back and then it took off to catch up with the flying pair…
It wasn’t too much later when the group arrived in the area where Cassie was last at. Cassie got off the broom and looked around the area.
“Oh, my little Raggle, I can’t believe he just ran off like that.”
Mandy went over to her after shrinking her broom. “You really didn’t notice when it ran off?”
“No,” Cassie faced Mandy, “it might have been because he wasn’t really moving when we were out here. So I figured he was tired and went back inside his scroll.” Cassie pulled her bag to her front and dug through it, “his scroll is in here though.”
“Then that at least means he’s out here somewhere.”
Cassie agreed and looked behind Mandy seeing the trio catching up to them. When they arrived, Larson’s fox went over to Cassie and started shrinking to a normal sized fox.
“Wo-woah!” Jax managed to jump off before the fox shrunk completely.
Gast, on the other hand, didn't move in time and fell on his face. Larson just effortlessly landed anticipating the shrinking. The fox was now no bigger than a puppy as it happily jumped on Cassie. Enjoying the attention, Cassie giggled while playing with it.
“Good boy!” Cassie rubbed his head and crouched to pet it.
“Return!” Larson said and the fox whined.
Cassie pouted to Larson before returning her attention to the fox. “Don’t worry, we’ll play later!”
The fox seemed to cheer up at that and went back to Larson at his command.
“It’s still shocking to see a summoner at all, let alone one who can summon light and dark creatures.” Cassie looked to Mandy, “I guess you really do care for all these creatures.” Mandy smiled.
“Of course!” Cassie declared, “that’s why we have to find my Raggle!”
“This the spot you were at?” Larson asked.
“Pretty much, it was this area.” Cassie confirmed.
“Now, where would he have gone?” Jax asked.
Gast got himself up and joined the rest of the group. “This place is pretty big, are you sure we’ll find him?”
“No,” Larson said, “but that’s where you come in.” He faced Gast, “that thing’s a creature of the dead. That means you should be able to ask some ghosts if they’ve seen him.”
“It’s not a thing!” Cassie went over to Larson, but he ignored her.
“I-I mean, I’ll try…” Gast took a deep breath. He went over to a tree and touched it.
As he worked, Cassie went in front of Larson, “you know, this is why your book is sealed. Because you don’t respect the creatures you summon.”
Larson side-eyed Cassie. “These things are here to listen to me. I don’t have to respect any of them.”
Cassie fumed at the notion, but shook her head, “whatever…” She looked over to Gast and saw another ghost floating out from the tree he was in front of.
“Why are you disturbing me!” The ghost's shrill voice yelled.
“Puh-please, we just want to a-ask you something.” Gast said, the ghost waited, “um… have you seen a little small creature around here? It has a rag over its body and is very small.”
Cassie ran back to Jax and easily took his book from him. She found the page with the RaggleDoll entry and opened it.
“It looks like this!” She said holding the page for the ghost to see.
“Hmm, I have. Weren’t you with it?” The ghost asked Cassie.
“Yes, but I think he ran off when I wasn’t paying attention.” Cassie explained.
“Well, keep a better eye for your pets,” Cassie nodded to the scolding, “but, I believe I saw him in the clearing, past the Living Tree.” Cassie beamed, “now, don’t disturb me again!” The ghost then vanished into thin air.
Mandy put her hands on her hips, “Gast couldn’t have found a less annoying ghost?”
Jax just smiled at the comment. He went over to Cassie and took the book off her hands. “We should get looking.”
Cassie didn’t wait very long before she ran off on her own leaving everyone else to walk to the area.
“Raggle!” Cassie yelled as she ran, “where are you? I know you’re hungry, because I’m starving! Let’s get something to eat!” She called out to it again once she was in the clearing. Cassie got the Living Tree and stood in front of it, “where could he have gone…?” She stared at the tree for a while. Her eyes narrowed as her gaze never broke from the tree.
“This place is way too open for us to have not seen it already. I say that ghost doesn’t know what it saw.” Larson complained once they all reached the clearing.
“Got any better ideas?” Mandy asked.
“Yeah, let’s just summon a Scouter.” He suggested.
“And risk getting the RaggleDoll hurt, if not killed?” Jax said.
Larson said nothing.
“Guys?” Cassie got their attention, “I don’t think this is the real Living Tree.”
“Huh? What are you talking about?” Larson walked up and stood beside her.
“I managed to get a branch off here one time and it doesn’t feel anything like the one I have. See?” Cassie took Larson’s hand and placed it on the tree’s trunk, “it feels fake.”
Larson’s eyes narrowed. “I think she’s right.”
“Guys, that’s nothing to joke about.” Mandy stated.
“You should know, feel for yourself.” Larson stepped out of the way and Mandy stepped up placing her palm on the tree.
“No way… this isn’t good. What happened to the real one?” Mandy asked herself.
“We’ll have to report this to the headmaster.” Jax said.
“But not before we find my Raggle!” Cassie brought the task back to the surface. As Cassie spoke, the tree began to shake.
“What the-?” Gast stood defensively.
The tree kept shaking until they could see something emerging from its trunk. The shaking grew in intensity until they started to hear thumping. One spot was being hit over and over. On one last hit, the RaggleDoll they were looking for shot out from the hole it created, emerging from the tree.
“Raggle!” Cassie gasped and went to grab it. She caught it in mid-air, but her robe got caught on something. “What’s that?” her RaggleDoll tore at the white fabric until she was free and Cassie harshly fell to the ground. She tumbled, but held onto the RaggleDoll until she finally stopped.
However, the group that was still in front of the tree grew defensive as someone else emerged from the newly made entrance.
“You had to return here! That could have been mine!” From within the tree, a black figure started to climb out. They were blocked by a large hood, but they could all tell he was less than stable.
“You can’t have him!” Cassie got to her feet and let her RaggleDoll drop beside her where it was ready to attack, “why did you take him?” Cassie asked.
“Because, you don’t deserve to summon creatures of the dead! That belongs to our class!”
“Really? You’re just a little upset because I can summon him?” The hooded figure said nothing, “don’t be such a loser. You killed an important landmark over that?”
“Look, we won’t hurt you, but you’re gonna have to answer to killing this tree.” Jax stepped up and said.
“As if I would let the likes of you take me!” The hooded figure threw his arms up and out from the robe’s sleeves came all types of creatures. Cursed vipers, zombified plants, and demonic statues all came out and attacked her.
“Are you serious!” Cassie said backing up as she avoided the onslaught of attacks. Her RaggleDoll followed her as it protected Cassie from anything she might have missed. Cassie threw her robe on the statues, temporarily tangling them. She kicked the snakes away from her feet and the RaggleDoll kept the plants away from her by swiping at any roots that grew near her. Cassie got herself steadied as she looked at the creatures, now it seemed she was cornered.
“You’ll have to try harder than that! Sun’s Ignis!” Mandy waved her wand producing fire as she set the plats ablaze.
“Just give up, please.” Gast spoke as from below him, ghosts rose up and took control of the statues making them break themselves apart.
“There’s no use fighting us.” Jax threw a chain out that wrapped around the heads of the vipers and made them writhe in pain before disappearing into thin air.
“What? No, you can’t destroy them!”
“Watch yourself moron!” Larson summoned the forbidden Vitiated Pegasus that charged straight for the man and kicked its hoves into his chest. He flew back and the Peagasus was quick to pin him.
“Is he down?” Cassie asked, walking over.
The person was struggling, but he couldn’t move and wasn’t going to.
“Seems like it.”
“Alright, let’s get him turned in. I got my Ragglebaby back so we can go home!” Her RaggleDoll jumped up into her arms and she it gave a loving hug.
“I bet you would just want to leave,” Cassie looked to Larson, “that tree is still dead and you know what that means.” Larson stared at Cassie, she looked off.
“No, I actually don’t.”
Larson gave her an irritated look as he went for her and grabbed her now exposed arm. “Don’t play dumb!” Larson then went into her bag and pulled out the branch she had taken from the tree.
“No! That was mine and this tree will take years to be that powerful again!”
“Doesn’t matter,” Larson let go of her arm, “they’ll eventually find out that you have this. So get over it.” Larson walked over to Mandy, “you gonna bring that tree back to life?”
“Oh no, I’m not trying to be sent to any head witch meetings. I like doing my own things as a regular low class witch.”
Larson shrugged and stuffed the branch in his pocket. “Then bag this guy and let’s get back. We gotta tell them about the tree.” Larson directed.
Cassie ran to Larson’s side and walked with him. “Lars please! You can’t let them have my only branch!”
Larson glanced over with a smirk. “Looks like you should have been smarter and taken two.”
“Ugh! Don’t pull that here! You know I couldn’t take anymore. I’m not trying to get in trouble!” They walked off loudly together as Cassie continued her vocal assault.
The rest of the group just watched before turning their attention back to the hooded individual, “well, who wants to restrain him?”
“I’ll take him, ‘cause someone’s gotta stay around that Pegasus and I don’t want it to be me.” Mandy said walking to the hooded person.
“Well come on Gast, help me out here.”
“M-me?”
“Yes you. Come on, it’s just a little Pegasus.”
“I can handle creatures like the ones Cassie specializes in, but real things…” he looked off, “o-okay, let’s just hurry this up.”
Jax chuckled at the reaction and they both went up to handle the Pegasus while Mandy trapped the hooded figure inside of a bottle and went to join the pair that had already left off…
The old halls of the Magic Academy were filled with students walking to their various locations within the building. The lunch hall was presently empty aside from a group of five, everyone else had left for the day, but the group remained and spoke to each other…
~Writeblr Introduction~
So, I'm not good at introductions. However, I've done this before, so maybe it'll be easier now.
Hi, I'm an aspiring writer who wants nothing more than the world to have a favorite character who actually looks like them. Being an introvert; I usually write stories about loneliness, isolation, anxiety and longing. My usual genres are YA, Romance, Fantasy, Supernatural, Adventure, and recently I'm getting into Comedy, Sci-fi, and Satire.
I try and make my stories very inclusive. I showcase my characters in a way where they're not liked for their ethnicity, but you like them and they just so happen to be a POC.
I'm also teaching myself to draw.
I wouldn't say I have WIPs when most my stories have more the 30k+ words, but I'll tell you all about a few I'm working on.
A little BG before that, just so there's no confusion. I have a very big universe I've built where I follow my one MC, Cassie, through several different reincarnation stories.
The Demonic Repentance
Genre: YA, Romance, & Supernatural
Akuma is a Demon tasked with fixing Hell after the ruler ruins it with his selfish desires. Having no other choice, he goes outside of Hell in order to find a solution. Instead of a solution he finds an Angel.
This is probably the most edited and actually finished stories of mine.
A Collection of Short Stories: Quiet Girl
Genre: Comedy
When it comes to talking, Cassie finds it to be too much work and opts to think instead. Plus, with ten guys who never leave her alone, it is just a bit better to stay quiet and leave a good impression.
Cassie ventures through her twenties as she tries to live through adulthood while also trying to keep her heart beating every time she sees someone she likes.
This is a Harem story that's more crude than it is overtly sexual. Just adult jokes more than anything.
The Makings of a Love Story
Genre: YA & Romance
After dealing with her first break up, Cassie struggles to return to herself, leaving herself open to yet another relationship much too soon. However, this new relationship isn't anything like her pervious one and has the chance to be better for her, if she learns from the past.
I'm currently having writer's block with this one.
Kingdom of Bumalia
Genre: Fantasy & Romance
The turbulent history of a long lost kingdom. The True Blood within the family is untouched by Lower Blood, until one prince is born. He wants nothing more than his kingdom to prosper and takes a risk unlike his ancestors.
I'm reworking this, so I technically finished this years ago, but it's horribly written by my standards now, lol.
A Fourth Dimension Reality
Genre: YA, Comedy, Satire, & Sci-fi
What happens when you live somewhere you don't belong? Those feelings of being alone and thinking you're the odd one out are over with when you realize you do belong on Earth.
However, Larson and Cassie don't. Being from another dimension is the tie that keeps them together while navigating the strange reality they were stuck in.
This is by far my favorite story, I've written close to 100k words and I'm not sure when I'm gonna actually end it.
I have lots of other stories that are nearly done, but I dislike writing endings because 1. I suck at them and 2. That would mean ending my story and that's such a hard pill to swallow.
That's it from me, I'd love to hear from any of you. I'm pretty easy going and accept almost everyone. So don't be like me and be shy, interact and maybe we could be friends!
Alright, I'm gonna do something I've never done before...
Be consistent
All jokes aside. Between this being a draft and it going up. I'm going to challenge myself to write character scenes to introduce you all to the world of my many characters and their relationship with with my main character, Cassie.
The challenge: For the whole month of January, I have to post a small scene showcasing a few of my characters. They can be of any length, but they at least have to be more then 1k. If I can't reach that, then I'll have another story making up the difference.
Now, I'm expecting myself to fail because I become overwhelmed very easily; but I'm hoping this challenge will give me the necessary stress to actually finish it.
Update 1/03: I'm four days strong and I'm liking this challenge so far. I made a whole blog for this challenge, so go check it out!
So, wish me luck. If you want, you could participate as well, so I don't suffer alone but tag me so I can see your stories 🤗
Shout out to me for writing diverse characters even back when I was anti-lgbt
For example, I wrote a bi nonbinary character and had them correcting everyone who got their pronouns wrong. I didn’t even know what any of that was when I wrote it, I just thought it made for an interesting character quirk.