JA - Authoress

Hello again to the lovely Carry On fandom! The COC admins are finally ready and excited to announce the 30 day prompt list for this year’s event. If you’re curious about what the Carry On Countdown is and want to learn more, please click here to visit our COC Introduction Post. 

Just as a reminder:

We encourage any and all fan-created content for this event. Fanfiction, fanart, songs, playlists, cosplay, memes, crafts, etc. are more than welcome in the Carry On Countdown.

The prompts are completely up to your own interpretation and can be used in your content however you like, but if you’re confused or have any questions concerning the prompts, please send us an ask so we can try to help clarify. 

Completing every prompt for this event is not mandatory to participate, so please complete as many or as few of the COC prompts as you want :)

The hashtags we ask that you use when posting content for the Carry On Countdown and its daily prompts are: #Carry On Countdown and #COC 2021. You are welcome to @ us in your posts, but please be aware your mention might not always show up in our notifications. (Thanks tumblr.) Using the hashtags is the best way to make sure everyone can find and enjoy your content, and to make sure the admins can reblog your post to the COC page. 

Now, without further ado, we present to you the Carry On Countdown 2021 prompt list: 

Day 1, NOV 25: End of Autumn

Day 2, NOV 26: Wings

Day 3, NOV 27: Youth 

Day 4, NOV 28: Date Night

Day 5, NOV 29: Side Ships/Alternative Ships

Day 6, NOV 30: Reunion/Reconnect

Day 7, DEC 1: Any Way The Wind Blows

Day 8, DEC 2: Wayward Son

Day 9, DEC 3: Carry On

Day 10, DEC 4: Body Swap

Day 11, DEC 5: Family

Day 12, DEC 6: Hurt/Comfort

Day 13, DEC 7: Cooking/Baking

Day 14, DEC 8: Creatures

Day 15, DEC 9: Vacation/Travel

Day 16, DEC 10: AU’s

Day 17, DEC 11: Decorating

Day 18, DEC 12: Angst

Day 19, DEC 13: Lyrics

Day 20, DEC 14: Bite

Day 21, DEC 15: Holiday

Day 22, DEC 16: Throwback

Day 23, DEC 17: Magic

Day 24, DEC 18: Side Characters

Day 25, DEC 19: Sleepover

Day 26, DEC 20: Grief

Day 27, DEC 21: Hope

Day 28, DEC 22: Prophecy

Day 29, DEC 23: Snow

Day 30, DEC 24: Flames

We sincerely hope you enjoy this year’s prompt list! The admins had fun coming up with it and we hope everyone has fun using it. Please do reblog this post to share your excitement. And of course, if you have any questions relating to the event or the prompts, feel free to send us an ask. (You’re also always welcome to send us an ask purely to share your excitement for the event, or to let us know if you plan to participate!)

And with that we wish everyone who plans to participate the best of luck with preparing your creations for this year’s countdown!

Much love,

(source)

Unsplash -  photography, illustration, and art

Pixabay - same as unsplash

Pexels - stock photos and videos

Stockvault.net - stock photos

freepngimg - icons, pictures and clipart

Veceezy - vectors and clipart

Kissclipart and kissPNG - more vectors and clipart (often transparent!)

Getdrawings - simplistic images and drawing tutorials

Gumroad - photoshop brushes (and more)

Canva - needs login but has lots of templates

Library of Congress - historical posters and photos

NASA - you guessed it

Creative Commons - all kinds of stuff, homie

Even Adobe has some free images

There are so many ways to make moodboards, bookcovers, and icons without infringing copyright! As artists, authors, and other creatives, we need to be especially careful not to use someone else’s work and pass it off as our own. 

(ʘ‿ʘ✿) “what you say ‘bout me”

the original post

WHEN THEY’RE ENEMIES

an issue i see a lot in various excerpts when using the singular they pronoun is unintentional pluralization! changing ‘themself’ to ‘themselves’ isn’t grammatically correct when referring to a singular they-using character

instead of saying ‘they took it upon themselves to help’, say ‘they took it upon themself to help’

instead of saying ‘they themselves were well known in the area’, say ‘they themself were well known in the area’

instead of saying ‘they did it by themselves’, say ‘they did it by themself’

Enemies to lovers, coffee shop AU’s, “there is only one bed oh my whatever shall we do”. These tropes are all great! But what about the tales that are hardly told on AO3? What about the underused tropes?

-To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before AU: For those of you who don’t know the Netflix rom-com “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before”, the basic plot is this (It’s been a while since I saw it, so everything I say to you might be lies. Also, if you do not care about the plot of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, feel free to skip ahead):

There’s this hopeless romantic girl, right? And somehow, no one will date her, despite her being gorgeous and funny and smart and sweet and having a room like a magazine photo (and her bed is in the middle of the room?? Every teenager I know has their bed against at least two walls, it’s common sense). Standard teen movie stuff. 

Instead of talking to guys she likes, she’ll write out detailed letters confessing her feelings to them. It’s a diary thing, I suppose. She also writes down their addresses on the letters. Where is she getting the addresses? Why is she writing them down? She never planned to mail them. Why are you the way you are, Laura Jean?

Anyway, wacky hijnks ensue and (le gasp) all five of the letters are sent. Somehow, this merely leads to a love triangle, where the proper thing would be a love pentagon, but whatever. There are no sword fights in this movie.

Anyway.

That was a roundabout way of saying why is that not a fanfic trope? There are enough fandom bicycles with several ships that this would work perfectly for! It’s a good way to add some drama to a high school AU.

-This isn’t a trope really, but Weddings: Once your OTP have trecked through the angst, skipped through the fluff, and settled into their domestic fics, what would the wedding be like? Weddings are really fun from a writing standpoint. You want drama? Emotion? Cute couple antics? Wacky best man and/or maid of honor shenanigans? First dances going well? First dances NOT going well? That one family member that shows up that no one wants there because they’re a reminder of when your grandfather split the family in half and caused quite a bit of psychological damage to 90% of the guests (that might be more of a specific problem with my relatives)? Let them get married!!!

-While in high school AUs, don’t neglect the drama club: The school musical is actually a great framing device for a story! It’ll be a common thing the characters are all striving for, a way to bring them together, a big final event for the finale, and, of course, no one can do drama like the theater kids. There’s so much to do here!

-On that note, D&D club will do a similar thing: Bonus points if actual paranormal activity starts happening and they have to become the heroes they pretended to be (and actually are in canon?).

-MASQUERADES: MASQUERADES ARE AMAZING. THE AESTHETIC. THE DRAMA. THE STYLE. CHOCK FULL OF PREMIUM RAZZLE DAZZLE.

-Amusement Parks: Amusement parks are up to their necks in story potential. Want romanticism? Want a kiss at night lit only by the glowing ferris wheel? Want humorous realism? Did someone throw up on the coaster again? Dear lord, this is my life, isn’t it. Want creepy stuff? Fun houses are less fun when everything is trying to murder you. And of course, your OTP could meet when person A decides to scam person B at carnival games, and person B is having none of it.

-Hunger Games AU: Ever wanted to murder people and not have to cover it up? Congratulations, the Hunger Games AU is for you! How will your ship react to a doomed romance? Will they Katniss/Peeta their way out of things, or will it actually be doomed? Will you pit all of your ships against each other? You decide!

this petition only has 310 signatures.

and here's another petition (with 5 signatures at the time of posting this) by a group of volunteers working with the Faith Action for Community Equity group that made the other petition:

if reading the above post bothered you, do something about it!

sign the petitions before August 2nd and share this post.

want to do more?

write an email to a member of the council urging them to support affordable housing for Kailua residents.

here's the contact information for the council members!

 Let’s say you’ve got a city where there’s tame white doves everywhere. They’re not pests, they’re regarded as sacred, holy protectors of the city, and the whole city cares for them and feeds them like they’re pets. They’re so tame because it’s a social taboo to hurt or scare one. Nice pretty doves :)

 Then someone points out that even if they’re not seen as pests, doesn’t having a completely unchecked feral pigeon population - that not only isn’t being culled, but actively fed and cared for - mean that there would be bird shit absolutely all over the place?

 A part of you wants to say no, because these are your nice, pretty doves. To explain that there’s a reason why they’re not shitting all over the place, maybe they’re super-intelligent and specifically bred and trained to not shit all over the place. The logistics of how, exactly, could anyone breed and train a flock of feral birds go unaddressed.

 An even worse solution would be to not have those birds, editing them out of the world. No, they spark joy, you can’t just toss them out!

 Now, consider: Yes, yes they would, but the city also has an extensive public sanitation service that’s occupied 90% of the time by cleaning bird shit off of everything. One of the most common last names in the area actually translates to “one who scrapes off dove shit”, and it’s a highly respected occupation. And thanks to the sheer necessity of constantly regularly cleaning everything, the city enjoys a much higher standard of cleanliness, and less public health issues caused by poor public sanitation.

The Augsburg concept has one big pigeon house every 500m in which wild pigeons are fed, protected from weather and have nesting opportunities. Cities doing that have WAY less uncontrolled populations (since they can take out eggs if they feel they need reduce the population), way less shit AND a healthy population since it’s easier for veterinarians to notice and get to sick animals.

So I’d say one can of course still keep your general idea……but there’s also those MASSIVE palace-like pidgeon houses and only the most worthy are allowed to enter and directly interact with the pigeons (feed them, heal them, clean their lodgings). One big entrance for the human servants (priests??) and millions of small holes for the pigeons.

Black Girls & Women: Representation We Want

As a Black woman reader, I definitely want to see more soft Black girls and women in literature. Girls with their own self-interests (caring about oneself isn’t necessarily selfish) and not always someone else’s caregiver is great too.

Here’s my list!

More Black girls…

In love

With close family bonds and healthy relationships and support systems (that don’t require enduring abuse, fixing their partner, or overall emotional labor to earn domestic happiness)

Being protected

As main characters, heroines and anti-heroes

On adventures

In fantasy and magical settings

In historical settings as peasants, upper-class society, and royalty

Descriptions of Black Afro hair, skin, features as a normal thing in books (see this compilation) and not in an Othering way

On the other hand, vibrant, sometimes hyped up descriptions that allude to their beauty (see this ask. Or this one). Not Othering, just appreciating! 

Put us in fancy dresses and give us a sword and let us dance at the balls and have admirers!

Experiencing complex emotions not necessarily in reaction to racism or racist violence

On the book cover! And with an accurate, not light or white-washed model

~Mod Colette

Responses:

@madamef-er

Soft black girls and nerd girls who like cute things. 

Shy black girls not just in situations with boys. 

More lgbtqia+ black girls. Studs! Femmes! 

Gender fluid and non conforming constantly changing their style because they like it!

Spies and not just as the ‘sexy bait’ or 'weapons master’ let us sit behind the computer for once and be hackers and stuff

@tanlefan

Black girls who are just…people.

I want a fantasy escapism adventure that isn’t a thinly veiled discussion on slavery or racism or any other aspect of The Struggle. I am tired. 

Can I just have a happy Black girl who believes in fairies or something?

@esmeraldanacho-1776More autistic Black women/girls! I don’t care what genre really; just have them in there!

@briarsthicketAnd enby black people!

@mattiekins

Def soft black girls. 

Energetic and playful. 

Or shy and quiet.

I want to see more black girls who are nerds and not just mommy mommying or nanny nannying everyone. 

I want black girls who want to be a ballerina, or a talk show host, or a game designer etc. 

I want a black girl who gets to be happy. 

Who doesn’t have to act older than she is and be the shoulder for everyone, always.

@xiiishadesofgrey

I want more black lady nerds, if we’re talking modern settings!  

More black ladies who have a sporty/playful nature! 

Who aren’t afraid to get dirty and make chaos, without being dirty or frowned upon!

Strange as it sounds coming from me, more black princesses! Brandy as Cinderella in the 90s was my first Cinderella, and I LOVE that.

Please, god, more black wlws.

@daintythoughtswritersblock

I want to see tropes exercised 

Black women of all shades and tones

@hazelnut4370

Tbh just fellow black people being happy, like I rarely see that,

Or enjoying hobbies

rivergoddessdream

Happily childless black women

Black women traveling the world

Fat black women in happy, healthy, poly relationships

Black cis and trans women having a true sisterhood

Autistic black women

Black women in period pieces that aren’t about slavery and don’t take place in the US

Black women thespians

Black women painters

Black women revolutionaries

Black women front and center in the narrative

Black women healers and storytellers

Non christian Black women stories

Black women rockers

#complicated black women characters #tell those stories

@missnancywrites

More Black Girls…

With diverse cultural and social backgrounds!

That are nerdy, girly, intelligent, ditzy, all the personality types that white girls in literature get!

That are fragile, shy or anxious. Almost every single black woman I’ve seen in media or otherwise are wise and adult. Let us be an absolute wreck, or an anxious mess!

In science! Characters like Shuri, Moon Girl and Iron Heart in Marvel revitalized me, cuz young black girls only get two types. Both these girls are in intellectual and in science, but have bery different personalities.

In interracial relationships, and not because they hate black men or something along those lines. They just happen to be dating outside their race, black women get hate for that in real life and it’s unfair. Let us have relationships outside our race! That said…

In platonic relationships with black men! I think that’s important, cuz I don’t often seen black solidarity unless it’s for the purpose of showing how diverse the writing is. Let them share interests, daily frustrations that they would only understand, but don’t force a romance.

In solid friendships with other black girls! For some reason, we’re pitted against in each other inside and outside of writing! Write some sweet wholesome friendship!

With different sexualities! Let there be some that are ace, others are gay, bi or pan! Just be sure you don’t sexualize them, or turn em into a robot.

•Who are dark-skinned! This can be seen a lot in tv or movies, but when you want a black girl in your stuff don’t just hire a light-skinned black girl or a biracial black girl. It’s not the same.

Who get to act their age! Black women have a long standing history of being adultified, starting from a very young age, and it’s extremely harmful. Little black girls can wear what they please, the problem is people sexualizing them. Let the teen black girl be a teenager, she can look out for her siblings but she isn’t the keepern the house or their lives. Young adult black girls are not ideal housewives or capable working machines, they mess up and mess around just as much as any young adult.

With mental/physical disabilities or illnesses. Alongside with being forced to be more mature than they are, disabilities/illnesses are never taken seriously and we’re forced to just deal with it. Having black girls who happen to have these issues, but also have a healthy support group is always good!

@ink-and-roses

Seen as beautiful and desirable and NOT in a hypersexualized way

Interracial relationships are wonderful because black girls are beautiful and lbr everybody sees it

Sensitive and allowed to feel something other than righteous anger

Some black girls are skinny! Some are big! Some are slim and some are curvy! There’s no mold!

Dark skinned!

A YA protagonist out to save the world from something other than racism

Superpowers or magic that doesn’t come from generational trauma or slavery

Black characters who support other black characters. None of this token crabs in a barrel business.

Black girl nerds and punks and goths exist. I promise.

And this may be a personal preference but I’m not against the idea of a damsel in distress. We are always being strong. Let her be soft and delicate and cared for. Let her be princess carried and rescued from the tower and the dragon.

[Note from Mod: It’s not just you! I love a Black damsel being saved and protected. What is progressive for one woman varies due to historical and present depictions and is why intersectionality in feminism is so important! -Colette]

@nightlyswordswoman

As a writer, I write a lot of my black female characters like this because I rarely ever see black women being represented in these ways! ESPECIALLY on the covers of books, unless the author themselves is a black woman and even then its rare. 

Too often black women are stereotyped as strong protector types that are always rough, tough, and don’t need anybody in books (and real life), when that’s honestly just dumb and inaccurate–black women are as vulnerable as anyone else (in some cases, even more vulnerable, but that’s another topic). 

So yeah, this list is 100% accurate and I encourage those who are interested in writing black female characters (whether you’re a black woman or not) to consider writing them like this, because the stereotype needs to die lol.

But wait, there’s more!

@just-a-swsh-fangirl As an anime fan I kinda want to see a white male protagonist be paired up (romantically) with a black female at the end of the series. It would make my black self happy to see a girl like me in an important role like that.

@tgingwe

Black girls in STEM, pleaaase

Black girls with ADHD, depression, and other mental health conditions! 

Black girls with supportive families! 

Pan black girls! 

African black girls, with cultures that impact their lives and with complex relationships between their specific identities/cultures and the idea of being perceived as just black outside of Africa! 

Happy Trans Black girls!

@starcrossedrose

Love triangles where a black character gets to be with the guy or girl in the end.

Love triangles revolving around a black character.

Black retellings of fairy tales

Black characters in royal positions (King, Queen, Princes, Princesses, etc.)

@superviza

soft,reserved,emotional,shy, spirited, spunky, bubbly, corny, weird black women

a black woman in a healthy relationship with a black man who has a healthy obsession with her

little black girls

modest black women

black women without a criminal to success backstory

black women they were raised in a healthy family with both black parents who are still living

black women in interracial relationships that aren’t necessarily white

no tokens, several black women together with no beef

black women in fantasy

black women in friendship with ppl of other races and ethnicities

black women who get to feel and express emotion with it being a threat

@sappho-of-etheria

Black girls who don’t live in the US

black girls who are daughters of immigrants and have complex relationships with both their homeland and the land their family is from

Black girls with healthy relationships with their parents

black girls who are indecisive about their lives and struggling to find their place in the world and the reason not being racism

LGBTQ+ black girls with families that accept them and celebrate them

More black witches/magic users who don’t fall in the magical negro type.

Quirky black girls who have endearing and unusual interests

Black girls who both love sterotypical and non-stereotypical black things

Black girls having supportive friendship groups and not being the one who constantly needs to support the others

Black girls saving the world

Black girls having a love interest who loves them and cherishes them not because they think they are weak but because they want them to be safe and happy

Black girls being the cherished love interest

Black girls being thought of the most gorgeous girl and not being overly sexualized

Black girls and their siblings/friends going to another world a la Chronicles of Narnia

Black girls being the chosen ones and saving the world

Black girls in medieval fantasy stories and not just being a slave or the handmaiden of the white princess

Black girs with different and complex relationships with their womanhood and how they express it

Black girls with different hair textures

But above all else I just want black girls to be able to have the same range in character as their white counterparts. I am tired of never being able to relate to characters that look like me

Writing With Color – Featured Description Posts

Some of our most useful posts on describing People of Color, all in one place.

Words to Describe Hair

Words to Describe Skin Tone

Describing Asian Eyes

Describing Wide Noses

Describing Undead & Sick Dark Skin

Describing POC and Avoiding Caricatures

Describing Unnatural Skin Tones: Green

Describing Unnatural Skin Tones: Jaundice

Indicating Race of Characters (FAQ Questions #3-4)

Not Indicating Race at All – Note: You Probably Should

Praising Beauty Without Fetishizing

Olive Skin, Race and Ethnicity

Specific Description Posts  

Describing Skin as Swarthy (Spoiler alert: it’s sketchy)

Describing East Asian Skin as Porcelain (Spoiler alert: it’s also sketchy)

Describing Skin as Russet (Spoiler alert: it’s alright)

Describing PoC as Exotic (SA: it’s othering)

Describing Skin as Ebony (SA: it’s cliche)

Describing Natural Hair as Cloud-Like (SA: it’s cool)

Describing Black Hair as Unkempt (SA: it’s offensive)

Describing Black Hair as Kinky (SA: it depends)

Describing Skin as “Dark as Night” (SA: it also depends)

Describing Skin as Like Dirt or Soil (SA: See above)

Describing Skin as just “Dark.” (SA: it’s vague)

Describing Black Hair as “Nappy” (SA: it ain’t recommended)

Describing Skin With Food (SA: it’s a no-no)