remarkable things

Writing With Color – General Topics

A collection of WWC posts that deal with more general writing advice, character creation and diversity topics applicable to most marginalized people, particularly People of Color and some ethnic and religious groups.

Writing Characters of Color: The Generals

On “Overthinking” Writing Characters of Color

On White Authors “Getting it Right”

On White Writers Writing Characters of Color (I, II, III)

Researching PoC + Supporting Writers of Color 

So You Want To Save The World From Bad Representation

Writing POC with Little Experience

Writing Authentically From Your Own Experiences

Useful Non-WWC Posts

Diversity Exists in the Real World by shiraglassman

How to Write WOC and MOC if you are White by kaylapocalypse

“I feel pressured to be inclusive in my writing!” by nimblesnotebook 

On White Fear & Creating Diverse Transformative Works by saathi1013

Diversity/Representation Topics

Diversity vs. Exploiting Cultures

Diversifying a Predominately-White Cast

On “Diversity Quotas”

On Excluding Diversity Out of Fear

Different Heritage POV’s in a Story

Including Realistic Diversity Naturally

“Normalizing” Protagonists of Color

Villains of Color

White-Dominant Rural Areas and Diversity

White Privilege, Publishing, and Diversity Quotas

Writing: Making Efforts in Diversity 

Character Creation

Character Creation: Culture or Character first?

Character Design and Assigning Race and Ethnicity

Characters’ Races Added Last During Development 

Determining your Characters’ Race and/or Ethnicity

More on Assigning Race after Writing

Characters of Color & Culture

A Discussion on Culture and Erasure

“Culturing” Culturally-disengaged PoC

Characters of Color with “No Culture”

Mixed Race + Disconnect from Culture

Stereotyped vs Nuanced & Audience Perception

Tradition and Culture vs. Stereotype

Western Neutral Characters

‘Whitewashed’ Character of Color?

Fantasy & Coding

Defining Coding (& Islam-coded Fantasy)

Denoting Race in Fantasy Setting

Fantasy Races Based off of People of Color

Naming People and Places, Avoiding Explicit Coding

Racially-coding Aliens

Real Religions in a Fantasy World

Religion in Fiction & Fantasy

South Asian-Coded Fantasy Caste System

Whitewashing in a Fantasy Setting

Including Racism in Fantasy

World-building: A Fantasy World without Racism

Writing Sensitive and Controversial Topics

Do I Need Permission to Write About Marginalized People?

Writing a Genocide to which you have No Personal Connection

On Outsider-Written Stories About Issues Of Another Group

Outsider-Written Stories, Issues of other Groups, Speculative Situation

Writing about Prejudice between People of Color

Reclaiming negative, dehumanizing stereotypes outside the group

Representing yourself when “yourself” isn’t white

Racism and Micro-Aggressions 

Everyday Racism, Friendship and White Allies

Incorporating Micro-Aggressions in Writing

Racist Characters + Including Racism in Stories Not “About” Racism

The Pitfalls of Racist Character Redemption Arcs

PoC Educating White Privileged Friend (Context: Black Characters)

Someone–Stephen King? Pretty sure I saw this in a Stephen King foreword–once said they’d like to say to a brain surgeon, “Boy, I’d love to do brain surgery someday.”

We treat “the ability to put words into a sentence” like it’s just the same as “the ability to form a coherent narrative that engenders a variety of emotions within the reader and puts them in a scene and shows them what they didn’t see before”.

And that’s like me drawing a stick figure and saying I’m an artist.

Writers are constantly devalued because everyone thinks they have a book in them and don’t realize the level of skill and commitment it takes to finish even a short story, much less a whole book. 

The Big Questions:  Is there more truth in Shakespeare than the Bible?

Akala, Rapper, Writer, Academic and founder of the Hip-hop Shakespeare Company.

Prof Stanley Wells, the world’s leading Shakespeare scholar.

“Race Card” by Gary Taylor

British Black and Asian Shakespeare Performance Database

They mean you have certain systemic advantages over more marginalized groups.

It’s not an all-or-nothing thing, either. A white woman in America has certain advantages over those who aren’t white; she also faces systemic, institutional sexism.

When you try to claim there’s no such thing as privilege, you’re saying there are no systemic or cultural inequalities. That every group is treated fairly and equally in our society. If you believe that, you might as well stop reading, because you’re too disconnected from reality to have any sort of conversation about this stuff.

I’ve got advantages I didn’t earn, and I didn’t ask for. That doesn’t make me an awful person. It doesn’t make me a bad guy. It’s what happens when you’re born a straight white male in this country during this time period.

Pointing out that I have privilege is like pointing out I have brown hair. It’s not a judgement. It’s an observation of fact.

So maybe could we try to stop the knee-jerk defensiveness? The automatic, “Once a black person said they were sick of white tears and that’s racist so how dare you call me privileged when I’m a victim of racism too” nonsense? Or “I’m poor and also white therefore white people aren’t privileged!” (See paragraph three, above.)

The word “privilege” isn’t an attack on you as an individual. It doesn’t mean you should be ashamed to be male or white or straight or whatever. It’s an acknowledgement that society isn’t equal. Just like some people are unfairly hurt by those inequities, other people are unfairly protected and advantaged.

Ursula K. Le Guin on being a man – the finest, sharpest thing I’ve read in ages 

“There’s a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did you know that that’s all some people have? It isn’t much, but it’s better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan.”

General Resources

The 5 C’s of Writing A Great Thriller Novel

Thriller vs. Mystery

Writing A Thrilling Action Scene

Paul Finch: How To Write A Thriller

ThrillerWriters.org

International Thriller Writers

MysteryCozy.com

MysteryNet

Mystery Writers Forum

Old Fashioned Detective/Police Slang

Sisters in Crime

CopNet

The Police Officer’s Internet Directory

National Archive of Criminal Justice Data

Criminal Law Section of the Law Journal Extra

The Anatomy of a Murder

Crime & Clues

Crime Scene Forensics

General Forensics

Burglary Investigations

Dissociative Disorders

A Study In Physical Injuries

Government Resources

FBI’s Guide and Q&A For Authors

FBI website

CIA’s website

Drug Enforcement Administration

US Food & Drug Administration

United States Sentencing Commission

Federal Bureau of Prisons

U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms

The National Security Agency

United States Secret Service

National Rifle Association (NRA)

Serial Killers & Murder

Serial Killer Wikipedia page

Death and Dementia

Serialhomicide.com

Homicide Detective Checklist

Violent Crime Scene Analysis

Gang Activity & Hate Crimes

CSS Organized Crime Menu

HateWatch

The Austin Police Department’s Gang Suppression Unit

Gangwar.com

LA Gangs

Street Soldiers

Justice Department Computer Crime Initiative

National Security Institute’s Security Resource Net

Sex Crimes & Abuse

PedoWatch

The Facts about Rape page

Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN)

Criminals - The Sexual Sadist

Writing Domestic Abuse

Domestic Violence & Abuse

Terrorism

Terrorism Research Center

Counter-Terrorism Page

The International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism

NSI: Counter Terrorism

Equipment, Weapons, and Poison

Disaster Center

GunHoo

The Police Marksman

Firearms Tutorial

Snipercountry.com

Characters

How To Play The Stalker

How to portray a character high on cocaine.

Writing a character who is high on amphetamines.

How to play a mentally ill/insane character.

How to play a victim of rape.

Writing a character with Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Writing a character with schizophrenia.

Writing a character with Nymphomania.

How to write a character with HPD.

Tips on writing a drug addict.

Playing a character under the influence of marijuana.

Playing a character with an eating disorder.

How to portray a character with bipolar disorder.

How to play a serial killer.

How to write a character with an OCD.

How to write characters with PTSD.

Playing the manipulative character.

Portraying a character with borderline personality disorder.

Playing a character with Orthorexia Nervosa.

Playing the bullies.

Portraying the drug dealer.

Playing a rebellious character.

How to portray a sociopath.

Playing a character under the influence of drugs.

Playing a character who struggles with Bulimia.

Portraying sexually/emotionally abused characters.

Portraying characters who have secrets.

Portraying a recovering alcoholic.

Portraying a sex addict.

How to play someone creepy.

Playing a character who is faking a disorder.

Playing a prisoner.

How to play a sexual assault victim.

Writing a compulsive gambler.

With this post I listed 10 outline techniques to help writes move their story from a basic idea to a complete set of arcs, plots, sequences and/or scenes. Or to simply expand whatever you have in hands right now.

If you have a vague story idea or a detailed one, this post is for you to both discover and organize. A few technique will work perfectly. A few won’t. Your mission is to find the one that works best for you. That said, I advice you to try out as many techniques as possible.

So, are you ready? Open your notebook, or your digital document, and let’s start.

1. Snowflake method: Start with a one-sentence description of the novel. Then, develop this simple phrase into a paragraph. Your next step is to write a one-page summary based on the paragraph, you can write about characters, motivations, goals, plots, options, whatever you feel like. From this point on, you can either start your book or expand the one-page summary into four pages. And, at last, four pages into a brief description of known sequences of scenes. Your goal is to make the story more and more complex as you add information, much like a forming snowflake.  

2. Chapter by chapter: List ten to twenty chapters, give each chapter a tittle and a brief description of what should happen. Then, break each chapter into three to five basic sequences of scenes. Give each sequence a title, a brief description and a short list of possibilities (possibilities of dialogues, scenarios, outcomes, moods, feelings… just play around with possibilities). From this point on, you can either create the scenes of sequences with a one-sentence description for each or jump straight to writing. Your goal is to shift from the big picture to a detail-oriented point of view.

3. Script: This might sound crazy, but, with this technique, you will write the screenplay of your story as if it’s a movie. No strings attached to creative writing, just plain actions and dialogues with basic information. Writing a script will take time, maybe months, but it will also enlighten your project like no other technique. Your goal is to create a cinematic view of your story. How to write a script here. 

4. Free writing: No rules, no format, no step, just grab a pen or prepare your fingers to write down whatever idea that comes up. Think of possibilities, characters, places, quests, journeys, evolutions, symbolisms, fears, good moments, bad moments, clothing, appearances. Complete five to ten pages. Or even more. The more you write, the more you will unravel. You can even doodle, or paste images. Your mission is to explore freely.

5. Tag: This technique is ideal if you have just a vague idea of the story. Start by listing ten to fifteen tags related to the story. Under each tag, create possible plots. And, under each plot, create possible scenes. Grab a red felt pen and circle plots and scenes that sparkle your interest.

6.  Eight-point arc: With this technique you will divide your story into eight stages. They are Stasis, Trigger, Quest, Surprise, Critical Choice, Climax, Reversal and Resolution. The Stasis is the every-day-life of your main character. Trigger is an event that will change the every-day-life of your character (for better or for worse). Quest is a period of your main characters trying to find a new balance, a new every-day-life (because we all love a good routine). Surprise will take your character away from their new found every-day-life. Critical Choice is a point of no return, a dilemma, your character will have to make the hardest decision out of two outcomes, both equally important. Climax is the critical choice put to practice. Reversal is the consequence of the climax, or how the characters evolved. Resolution is the return to a new (or old) every-day-life, a (maybe everlasting) balance.

7. Reverse: Write down a description of how your story ends, what happens to your characters and to those around them. Make it as detailed as possible. Then, move up to the climax, write a short scenario for the highest point of your story. From there, build all the way back to the beginning. 

8. Zigzag: Draw a zigzag with as many up and downs as you want. Every up represents your main character moving closer to their goal. Every down represents your main character moving further from their goal. Fill in your zigzag with sequences that will take your character closer and farther from the goal.

9. Listing: The focus of this technique is exploring new ideas when your story feels empty, short or stagnated. You’ll, basically make lists. Make a long list of plot ideas. Make another list of places and settings. Make a list of elements. And a list of possible characters. Maybe a list of book titles. Or a list of interesting scenes. A list of bad things that could happen inside this universe. A list of good things. A list of symbolism. A list of visual inspiration. A list of absurd ideas you’ll probably never use. Then, gather all this material and circle the good items. Try to organize them into a timeline.

10. Character-driven: Create a character. Don’t worry about anything else. Just think of a character, their appearance and style. Give them a name. Give them a basic personality. Give them a backstory. Develop their personality based on the backstory. Now, give this character a story that mirrors their backstory (maybe a way to overcome the past, or to grow, or to revenge, or to restore). Based on your character’s personality, come up with a few scenes to drive their story from beginning to end. Now, do the same thing for the antagonist and secondary characters.

So, when is it time to stop outlining and start writing?

There Is No Right Or Wrong