Resources/Further Reading

cornflake

practical experience, FTW
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this link kindof said so. That I should let my readers decide what race they are. https://www.mitaliblog.com/2008/10/ten-tips-about-writing-race-in-novels.html?m=1

That.. is not what that says.


The consensus is that in a third-person narrative voice it's best to avoid socially-constructed race words like African-American, Asian-American, etc. to describe only the characters who aren't of European descent. And North American authors conventionally don't use "European-American" or white because to label every character's race gets tedious. So don't use any such labels at all. Characters and first-person narrators, however, are free to use them any way they choose...

Do some wordplay with physical descriptions, and think about how the descriptions might empower or limit young readers....

Push your authorial envelope. For some of us, a risk is to avoid ethnic cues and clues and descriptors altogether as a purposeful technique to give room for the reader's imagination. For others, risky writing means striving to describe the ethnicity of our characters in a way we never have before.
 

LadyJil25

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That.. is not what that says.

I mostly meant this part

3. Respect your readers right to cast the story.

Heavy-handed authors force readers to receive stories and picture characters the way we want them to, dang it. Authors who understand and celebrate the dialectical dance with a reader often cut descriptions.

If my story doesn't require that my characters affiliate with a specific ethnicity (as with some fantasy or science fiction books, for example), could I err on the side of giving my readers' imaginations enough space to "see" the characters any way they choose?
As well as earlier when it discouraged me from writing ethnicities because I "want to make the world a better place". I kindof feel like that applies to me, as I want to give many people who read my work the pleasure of a character that they can relate to. I dunno...I'm reading so many things at once, I probably misread things. It's been a LONG day at work.
 

Helix

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I chose these people (I thought) carefully. There is someone from Mexico, someone from England, one from Scotland, one from Africa, one that had passed before the story began who was from India, one from Japan, one from Russia, one from Switzerland, etc! They are chosen carefully, yet also randomly by the Elementals as well. This is part of the story. This has to be fact that these people are actually from all over the world. That is a plot point.

They're all chosen from countries (including small ones, such as England, Scotland and Switzerland), except for the one who was chosen from an entire continent. You might have to think about this in more detail.
 

LadyJil25

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Trust me, I am. I've definitely decided to completely re-draft. I've had several hours now of just brainstorming and you guys are completely right. I'm not happy with this as it is. The one from Africa I am going to keep but I had decided on Kenya, I just forgot to mention a specific country in Africa. I think perhaps I may be on to something regarding a certain number from each continent. Except Antarctica obvi. They need to be born from human parents, and I don't think there are many births there. But maybe it doesn't have to be so random, really...hmm...