July 06, 2021

Writing About Minor Characters Who Are People of Color / Vlog


Thank you for coming to a vlog edition of Write with Fey!

First, a few updates. If you don't use Blogger, you can skip this part.

BLOGGER USERS:  **I updated this update. TWICE. lol** If you clicked on this post’s title in your Reading List, you either (depending on what device you use, apparently) came to this post right away or had a redirect page that brought you to this post, which is normal, although the redirect URL looks odd now (just ignore that). 

But if you clicked on my blog's name instead (WritewithFey), you were taken on a bit of a journey to a Follow.it page for my blog. On that page, I added a special message just for Blogger users to prevent any confusion about what was happening. That was different, huh? But not so bad, right? Just one more click.

This is just something to keep in mind. Either way, you will still get here. :)

WHOOPS (also for Blogger users): Last week, you might’ve seen something odd happen with your Reading List on Blogger. All of my posts from this year suddenly popped back up to the front of Reading Lists. If you saw this, my apologies. I had no idea this was going to happen and couldn’t control it.

So why the changes to my blog? Well, like many bloggers, I had to change my email subscription service for blog posts to a different service provider. I followed all of their instructions, which involved importing my RSS users. Not every blogger takes this step. I wasn't sure if I should, but I decided to do what they suggested, which involved technical difficulties and confusion (i.e. everything I mentioned above).


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Now to the real purpose of this post, to share my latest YouTube video for writers.

This is a PowerPoint presentation with audio that focuses on writing about minor (or passing) characters who are people of color, especially if you're not of the same race as that character. This is not an exhaustive list but rather a starting point of do’s and don’ts to help you along the way and to encourage you to go further in your research. I hope these tips will lead to you wanting to write more inclusive and safe stories. 


Writing About Minor Characters Who Are People of Color


Length: 18:37


Thank you so much for watching/listening to this video, or saving it to watch later! And, as always, thank you for visiting my blog!


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If you had signed up in the past to receive emails every time I publish a blog post, this feature will continue but with Follow.it instead of Feedburner, so you don't have to do anything. If you were signed up but are just now receiving the emails after I imported my subscriber list to Follow.it, that means Feedburner wasn't sending everyone emails as they should've been. Sorry about that!

If you're not getting emails but would like to, you can subscribe by clicking the green button below. There's also a form in the side bar and more nifty green follow buttons in a few spots on my blog.

I appreciate every email subscriber. And I appreciate everyone who has followed my blog to get my posts in their Blogger Reading List. (Also in the sidebar.)

Thank you all so much!




38 comments:

  1. Okay. Well, I seemed to land on this page automatically, so I don't think there will be a problem seeing your vlogs. Thanks for all the explanations, though.

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    1. That’s good. I’m glad you came to this post automatically, no detours. It really depends on what’s clicked on in the Reading List, I guess. I just wanted to make sure there was no confusion if someone saw a different page or a strange-looking URL.

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  2. That's an excellent starting point/reference guide for writers. Thank you for sharing!

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    1. Thank you, M.J.! I appreciate your comment. This is an important topic.

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  3. Following. I heart writer points on writing. Hope you had a good holiday weekend!

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    1. Thank you so much for following, Adrienne! I stayed and tried to calm down my scared cats. lol I hope you had a great weekend!

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  4. Definitely an important topic. Being thoughtful about our characters and their backgrounds is very important - especially when they're not of our background or culture

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    1. I agree. Thank you so much for your comment, Jemi!

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  5. Good topic for the vlog. I will check it out! @samanthabwriter from
    Balancing Act

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    1. Thank, Samantha! I appreciate that. I hope you find it useful. :)

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  6. I have to figure out this Follow.it thing and love the idea of your vlog. I'll definitely check it out. Good going. Your newsletter is an inspiration.

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    1. The process of switching over email subscribers is very easy. I just rain into some hiccups with the RSS feed, which you can keep with Feedburner.

      Thank you, Yolanda! I’m glad you love the idea of this blog. I’d thought about discussing this topic for a while. This year, it felt more important than ever to do it.

      Thank you! I try my best to send out good newsletters. <3

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  7. I've been wondering about writing about who aren't caucasion. I will check out your vlog when I can set aside a good 20 minutes. I'll return *here* if I have any questions or thoughts to share with you. Thank you so much for doing this!

    As for the Follow.it, I hope it's free! haha!!

    ♥.•*¨Elizabeth Mueller¨*•.♥

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    1. I’m really happy that I posted this blog here then for you to find. I hope it helps you. :) I would be happy to have any discussion with you. You can also email me. (Email on my About page.)

      You’re very welcome!

      My Follow.it is the free one. lol

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  8. You're on YouTube? I'm subscribing. yay!!!

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  9. I have always wanted to treat characters as people where color was part of culture. For example, my characters are all dark skinned but I never even mention it. I'm not sure that's possible anymore.

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    1. I suppose it would depend on how you did it. The thing to consider would be if readers would be able to easily come to the conclusion that your characters are dark skinned. If it’s not mentioned, readers may default to imagining your characters as white. I haven’t read your books, so I can’t be certain, but your books are on my TBR list because I’m fascinated by the premise. :)

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  10. Good tip about sharing skin tones of all characters. Thanks for always sharing your information. Appreciate ya.

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    1. Thank you for your comment, Sandra! That’s one tip that I truly find important

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  11. Great vlog. I've run across many of your points through my own searches, and have worked to improve my own works. The kinky hair was new to me. I have used that with one character because I envision it like an 80's hair crimper, but I'll be working to change that. Zig-zag, I'm thinking...

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    1. Thank you, Loni! When I used a crimper on my hair, I called my hair crimped. Very weird word. lol Crimped, crimped waves, zigzag, something like that would work.

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  12. I will check out your vlog, Chrys, especially since I'm writing about Indigenous people. I'll be looking you up on You Tube! You remain an evolving inspiration!

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    1. Thank you, Louise! That means a lot to me. I do mention Indigenous peoples in this video and provide tips unique to them. Look out for my November post, which will be about Indigenous peoples, not characters but how to support them. Oh, and I just did a post from June about Florida and Seminoles, if you’re interested in that. I’ve been doing a lot of research about Indigenous peoples lately,

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  13. Switching over the email thing has been a bit of a trial, but it had to be done. I follow via Feedly, so I don't have the email issues.

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    1. That’s good that you don’t have email issues. :)

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  14. I've been getting emails from Follow.it, asking me to switch over to them. I've been putting it off, partly because of laziness. How easy was the switch-over for you? Did you find switching over worthwhile to do?

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    1. Switching the email subscription was super easy. You can do it yourself, but I had someone assist me. All they needed was my blog’s URL to start. And then I sent them the CSV of my email subscribers, which you can download from Feedburner. The people from Follow.it uploaded my subscribers, but I had to send them screenshot proof that those were my subscribers. They send you links and step-by-step instructions through email. That was it for the email subscription. :)

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  15. Great post, Chrys! Definitely something to look out for when writing.

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  16. You know, I kept getting this follow.it emails stuff too. I wasn't sure if I needed it since I'll be transferring my blog to a wordpress website. Soon. Hopefully! Thank you for sharing all this important information, Chrys. It's always appreciated. Have a beautiful weekend!

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    1. I got an email from them, too. At the time, I deleted it. I thought it was odd that they were reaching out to me. Then I did research and they turned up as the best alternative. You’ll only need to sign up with them if you have email subscribers for your blog or want to continue that service/expand on it (get more subscribers). Otherwise, no worries.

      Thank you, Victoria!

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  17. Thanks for the helpful writing tips! I tried following you, but for some reason it didn't go through. I'll check back again in a few days.

    Julie

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    1. Thanks for trying to follow! I know when you submit an email, a confirmation email is sent, which may end up in your spam folder. I just checked the process with my mom’s email, and everything worked, so hopefully it will for you, too. :)

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  18. I've read about writing diverse characters and I think it's good to keep adding to the conversation. I live in a diverse community with a diverse friend and faith community, so I work on writing in a way that reflects my reality. I find it weird to meet people who only have friends from the same ethnicity or culture.

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    1. I also thinks it's important to continue adding to the conversation and to bring awareness. I love that the community you live in and have built around yourself is so diverse and welcoming of all people, no matter their faith or race or ethnicity. That's how it should be. <3 And I definitely see that reflected in your stories, like with Liftoff and Nexus. So many great characters who are all different from one another.

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  19. I'm playing catch-up and am pretty sure I'm still following in some way to get your content via email, so I'm good.
    Thanks for sharing the vlog. Good stuff.

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    1. Hey, Toi! I did see you on the list of subscribers when I had to upload them. Thank you so much for be a subscriber!

      Thank you!

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