black lives matter

WritingWithColor - Ask Rules and Guidelines | FAQ

General Navigation

WWC Navigation | link: writingwithcolor.tumblr.com/navigation.

Stereotypes and Tropes Navigation

Stereotypes & Tropes Nav | link: https://writingwithcolor.tumblr.com/Navigation2

Thank you!

-WWC

Ask Guidelines

Ever since WWC opened for business, we’ve been inundated with Asks pertaining to writing BIPOC, and some of them are quite difficult to answer thoroughly. We check the answers with the other mods to make sure we’re giving you the best advice we can. Please be patient. 

On the other hand, here are Asks that we won’t answer:

general writing questions.

questions that are very broad or vague.

questions more than 2 parts not sent via submit.

questions that ask for facts you can easily Google.

questions that ignore our ask submission guidelines.

questions that have nothing to do with BIPOC or only deal tangentially with them.

questions that ask “how do I write an X character?“ or a variation of this Q. See FAQ.

questions that ask “Do you have resources for–” We will not do your research for you. Check out our many research guides to get started.

questions that indicate you have not browsed the tags thoroughly if at all, such as stating “sorry if this has been asked before” or “this may already be answered but-” These Q’s are grounds for automatic deletion.

questions that have nothing to do with writing (we will either direct you to blogs that can answer them or answer them at our own leisure).

questions using “PoC” as a replacement for an applicable race. Person/woman/man of Color is not a fancy way to say Black people; It’s an umbrella term for a coalition including a lot of different races/ethnicities. If your question isn’t specific it’s likely impossible to answer.

More questions we won’t / will no longer answer

questions about Muslim characters + magic. Here is why.

questions about the Wendigo. Here is why.

Additional Guidelines

We will not answer Q’s that are too similar to ones we’ve already answered (Check the navigation and/or our multiple search functions very thoroughly). We will not often redirect you to the answer.

Questions that are not concise and provide extraneous details will likely be deleted. With the amount of Qs received combined with busy schedules, there’s no time to shift through exceedingly long questions that provide way more details than necessary to answer the question. 

Additional issues with long asks: Unrelated details makes a question long and complicated to read and thus answer. It might also mean us misinterpreting your concern and/or answering aspects that you weren’t questioning.

Keep asks focused: Avoid providing a laundry list of multiple characters that you want rubber-stamped for correct characterization. Ask about a specific character or two. You’ll get a more detailed answer on that specific character that way.

Have patience with us: We receive hundreds of asks. It takes time. Also, it is impossible for us to answer every question, but we will prioritize questions that are on fresh topics not covered extensively here before.

Slur policy: Finally, we urge you not to send in questions with racial slurs that aren’t blocked out or denoted as “n word” “g word” etc. We may choose to delete uncensored slurs (and any other blatantly offensive Q’s) as to avoid triggering ourselves and/or others.

Please stop asking us to recommend blogs like WWC except for disability, lgbtqa+ etc. Check our recommendations page! 

Frequently Asked Questions

“What are ways to describe my character’s skin tone?”

“What about hair?”

“How do I introduce the race of my characters?”

“How do I denote the race of my characters in a fantasy setting?”

“How do I describe my Asian character’s eyes respectfully?”

“I want my real-world Native American character to do/experience X.”

“I’m afraid my character has harmful stereotypical traits.”

“How do I write a ____________ character?”

“Wouldn’t including PoC make my writing forced?”

“It wouldn’t be historically accurate for my story to include PoC.”

“What is Cultural Appropriation?”

“What is tokenism and why is it harmful?”

See below for answers to our FAQ!

Peter: I stopped a theif!

Stephen: A *Thief?*

Peter: yeah, a Theif!

Stephen: No Peter, it’s I before E. Except after C.

Peter: Thceif.

Stephen: No.

trans lifeline: 877-565-8860

depression hotline: 1-630-482-9696

suicide hotline: 1-800-784-8433

lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

trevor project: 1-866-488-7386

sexuality support: 1-800-246-7743

eating disorders hotline: 1-847-831-3438

rape and sexual assault: 1-800-656-4673

grief support: 1-650-321-5272

runaway: 1-800-843-5200, 1-800-843-5678, 1-800-621-4000

Black Panther & the Black Mamba