#xo.help

For some reason, this seemed to disappear from our inbox when I checked it just now. Weird! I’m glad I was able to get it back.

Anyway, I don’t have too many, but based off of a quick search, I did find these for you:

Writing a character originally born in China (1, 2)

Writing a Chinese character who recently learned English (x)

Experience of an adopted Chinese female growing up in the US (1, 2,)

Writing a third-generation Chinese character wanting to learn more about their culture (x)

Writing people of color if you’re of another color (x)

Dear non-Asian writer (x) (includes stereotypes to avoid and other things to keep in mind while writing an Asian character)

I’d also recommend just taking a look through the Chinese tag on both of the blogs linked before (writingwithcolor and xiaolongrph) to see if there are any other resources that may be relevant to you. I know on the latter blog, they have some masterlists and guides about how to accurately name a Chinese OC, assuming that you aren’t giving them an Americanized name, but since you didn’t specify, I didn’t link those above.

Writing plots is always the most difficult part, especially when you have very little to work with (i.e. freelance groups where everyone does their own thing). Whenever I’m writing a plot, I try to follow a basic formula of paragraph one setting the stage and paragraph two introducing the plot twist. Here are a couple of other tips that may help:

Keep it short. Having more detail is fine for AU groups where you need a lot of information to set the stage of the group, otherwise it’s best to keep it to about two paragraphs. The first paragraph should set the stage of your group’s “world” so to speak. If it’s a tour group, explain how the tour came to be. If it’s a freelance group, talk about the state of the music/entertainment industry and how that works into your group. Nobody really wants to read a really long plot page for a group with the basic freelance plot where you only need to know what the twist is. Which brings me to...

Include a twist! Groups are more interesting if they have something that makes them stand out from all the others. It doesn’t have to be anything over the top. This twist can be as easy as how the gossip blog will be implemented into the plot (i.e. if it’s a blackmail group, how do you get the information? Is there a faceless group watching the characters’ every move or are their social media networks (aka sideblogs) being hacked?) or as complex as bi-weekly plot drops. Typically, I start off the second paragraph with the information regarding whatever your twist may be.

Break up your paragraphs! It’s difficult reading huge walls of text. Make sure that if you write a long plot that you break it up into multiple paragraphs. I said two, but if you feel like more line breaks are required, go for it. Just make sure it’s easy to read, otherwise you probably won’t get anybody reading it.

Keep it simple. There are a ton of amazing group ideas that pop up into the tags that never get opened because bandom has the tendency to not go for anything that requires a lot of effort. A convoluted plot won’t get as much attention either because people have a difficult time figuring out just what will be going on in the group. More often than not, people are also afraid to ask questions.

Sure thing! You didn’t give an age range, but I assume younger sister. If you’d like some older recs, feel free to come back and let me know. Most, if not all of these fcs should be younger than Ed’s age of 26 or could pass for younger.

Luca Hollestelle - age 21 - Instagram

Olivia Brower - age 23 - Instagram

Skyler Wright - age 19/20 - Instagram

Sage - probably early/mid 20s - Instagram

Rosey Jones - probably early/mid 20s - Instagram

Harmony Nice - age 20 - Instagram

Madeleine Alexandra - probably mid/late 20s - Instagram

Michelle - age 23 - Instagram

Julie Kennedy aka Lass Suicide - age 25 - Instagram

Clementine Desseaux - age 29 (but could pass for younger) - Instagram

That’s not an awful question! I personally struggle with small talk too, but unfortunately that is a stepping stone to getting to further, in-depth conversation. What you talk about with people will vary depending on personalities, interests, and a few other factors, but here are some basic things that you could talk about that could help build connections:

Start off with a fun ice breaker. This could be anything, honestly, but some of the favorite ones that I’ve come across have been making a post that’s like “like this and I’ll send you a cheesy pick up line” and doing exactly that to everyone who likes, or by starting a conversation based off the other character’s URL/Hangouts name and asking what inspired it if it’s something really unique.

Ask about their jobs! If this is a character that you have no knowledge of OOC or one that your character would likely not be familiar with, it can always help to ask the person you’re talking to what they do for a living. It will give the other muse the opportunity to talk about themselves (and in all honesty, most people enjoy doing that anyway), show that you are interested in more than just talking at them, and it will also give your character a chance to learn more about them, which can turn into further conversation based off of what they say.

Take note of their interests/hobbies and ask about them. If you see someone reblogging something that you are also interested in or have thought about getting into, it never hurts to ask someone their thoughts on said hobby. You could find that you end up having a lot in common with this muse and you could have something to carry on with in future conversations.

I’m going to go ahead and link you to a few conversation starter lists that I found as well that can hopefully help to spark something. There’s a lot of options within these lists, so I’m sure something’s bound to stick out! 

250 Quality Conversation Starters: The Only List You’ll Need

Deep Conversation Topics

33 Killer Conversation Starters With Anyone

101 Conversation Starters

Easy Conversation Starters

When you’re just starting to get to know someone, I’d say it’s best to avoid potentially controversial topics. You’ll want to save that for later when you already have common ground and a good rapport with the person. Just remember that conversation may not always be easy right off the bat, but don’t let that turn you off from interacting. Rome wasn’t built in a day!

That’s not a stupid question at all!

I don’t know if I’ve seen tutorials specifically for that kind of thing, but I think it really depends on the overall scheme of the graphics that you’re making for your theme, since you’d want them to either match or be aesthetically similar. The graphics you make could be super intricate (a gif in the background with a variety of fonts) or they could be super simple (a cute font on a transparent/solid color background or a single image, possibly blurred, with whatever text you want over it), so it’s up to you whichever way you decide to do them. I’d recommend taking a look at the graphics from the groups that are currently open now and seeing which aesthetic is more your speed, then figuring out why you like that aesthetic, then trying to recreate those elements in a way that’s unique to your group. If there are certain looks that you want to go for, it’d probably be easier to find tutorials on how to accomplish that compared to finding one specifically for how to make admin graphics.

 Since you’re just starting out with making graphics, I’d say you should try a simpler approach first and work your way up as you learn. Ultimately, I think the main thing that you want to keep in mind is that you don’t want the banner to be too busy because the main focus should on on the words on the banner and not the background. Also make sure the font is legible!

Another option that you could utilize: there are plenty of people who offer templates that can be used for admin graphics. I’d recommend taking a look through the “admin pack” and “character psds” tags here on Tumblr, either to use the resources others have provided or simply for some inspiration that could help get you started in the right direction! You could always take a look through our “graphics help” or “tutorials” tags to see if anything sticks out to you.

I do have some recs! I don’t have a ton of male fcs to offer, unfortunately, but I can keep looking for some if that’s what you’re looking for. I also included a few Brazilians even though they’re technically only Latinx and not Hispanic (since they speak Portuguese), but hopefully that’s alright.

female

Val Mercado - Dominican. She’s not exactly underused, but I don’t see her as much as I used to.

Sophia Miacova - Mixed (Mexican and white).

Jessica Torres - I didn’t find anything specific about her ethnicity other than that she is Hispanic/Latina.

Barbie Ferreira - Brazilian (?). A source I found said she has Brazilian ancestry, but there are others that say she’s only white ethnically, so I’m not 100% sure.

Molly Texeira-Torres - I didn’t find anything specific, but she’s listed as Hispanic. She’s already in the music industry (she used to work with WATIC back in the day and travels with other artists now!).

Melanie Iglesias - Mixed (Puerto Rican, Italian, and Filipino).

Lisa Ramos - Dominican.

Vic Hollo - Brazilian.

Michele Maturo - white (Spanish and Italian).

Rafaella Consentino - Brazilian (nationality, at least).

male

Jessey Stevens - Brazilian.

Blake Michael - Mixed (he’s listed as having Ashkenazi Jewish, Russian, Eastern European, Mediterranean, and Hispanic descent, but I’m not sure how much of each).

Francisco Lachowski - Mixed (Portuguese, German, and Polish). He’s of Brazilian nationality.

Ricardo Baldin - Brazilian.

Pablo Herrera - Colombian.

Mario Jefferson - I didn’t find anything specific, but he’s from/lives in Spain so I assume he is Spanish.

Gabriel Soares Torrubia - I didn’t find anything specific, but he lives in Barcelona.

I only just saw this message, I’m so sorry it took this long to get to it!

One thing to keep in mind when playing a character of a different ethnic/cultural/religious background than your own is to be incredibly careful about not turning the character into a caricature. Utilizing common themes in these cultures isn’t a bad thing, but be sure not to turn your character into a walking stereotype.

I’m still tagging things, so I took a look through our