AniNovu
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Character Ethnicity - Discussion
🕑 Added 2018-08-27 14:52:58 +0000 UTC Here's an interesting question for you.Do you care about the skin color of the characters?
I realized as I was writing down all my MLV characters into that spreadsheet that I have a habit of making all my characters white. This is largely just because I live in a mostly white community, and it's how I grew up.
So as I craft new characters in MLV in preparation for when I return to it, I've been trying to be a bit more ethnically sensitive, and include more characters of various skin color. Dolareido is a major city, and would have a wide variety of ethnicities after all.
Problem: describing a person's skin color is a surprisingly difficult thing to do elegantly, especially without accidentally putting in some racist tones.
It's a touchy subject for some, and I wonder if my readers notice at all. Otrera for example, I imply had a Greek mother, but an African father, as I wanted to explore some different skin colors in my characters.
What do you think? Should I worry about it, go out of my way to describe it more?
Comments
Novus Animus
Damn, you're making me nervous! I hope you enjoy where I take MLV next.
geekstyle
Yeah, I've tried Medusa but wasn't particularly fond of it. I want to support however I can so that you can write full time (which you now are) and faster finish Medusa so that you can come back to MLV! Eagerly waiting for MLV to come back! (:
Novus Animus
Wow, thanks for the support. Surprised you've been supporting me so long when you don't read Medusa! I can agree with a lot of what you said. New characters, new situations, new experiences, I'll write on my own and ask how you readers felt about it later. I definitely want plenty of room to be able to write my own style. As for votes being too specific, my latest vote is quite vague partly for the reason you said. I do think I'll stick to more vague votes in the future, to avoid spoiling the details of scenes too much. (though that said, it's impossible to include voting and not spoil things a little)
geekstyle
Taking a step back, while I understand that the reason you're asking for more opinions is so that you can write in a way that would suit the readers. But here's another thought: People often don't know what they want (to quote from Steve Jobs). I never read Medusa. But I saw that you frequently ask the readers about very specific things that they want to see in a specific scene. While that can be a good thing, sometimes it could spoil the experience unknowingly. What I would suggest is to write in a way that would best suit your own style based on what you think best. Then, get feedback and opinion after you write, not before. You have a great fanbase (including me) for MLV for a reason. And that's because of your unique style. It's what impressed us. If we have suggestions or if we have feedback, as fans, we would surely give it to you whenever we think it's appropriate or necessary. To answer this specific questions in this post, i would say that it would depends on whether the race and skin colour would create an impression or have an impact on the story. For example, what does have a Greek mother and African father mean? How would a third culture kid's upbringing and experiences impacted his personality, belief and actions? Was he always bullied and feel like an outsider when he was young, which is why he wanted to build his own empire and cult? On a completely different thought process, i think having a clearer description of the person (especially if he/she appears often) would help the reader to visualize (and remember) the character better.
