The Skellingcorner

[writingwithcolor]

comradebritney-deactivated20191 asked:

In a fantasy setting, what level of cultural blending can be allowed? I have a number of Northeast Asian-coded settings, modelled after a specific culture of course, but on occasion I find myself blending influences from other East Asian cultures eg. the Japanese emperor's historical role in a Chinese-coded country. I usually internally justify this as some historical invasion that didn't happen in the rl country, but for the narrative's sake don't explain that in-text. Is this okay?

Cultural Blending/Echoing History

No, this is not OK, not because of the level of cultural blending, but because it echoes a very painful part of Chinese history (and, to be honest, Asian history) that is still considered very recent.

Japan did in fact invade China, and it’s something that still has repercussions to this day. Your omission of that historical invasion in your story is something I would find dismissive and callous, despite your countries being fictional.

I strongly suggest you reconsider this. Is there any reason why the emperor’s historical role has to originate from Japan, despite being in a Chinese-coded country? Especially if you’re not planning to explain this in your story? At best, this is going to look like you didn’t do your research. China had their own emperors, and a great cultural history behind them, so I would look at that instead.

–mod Jess

If you cannot explain a problematic set-up in your narrative, you do not do that problematic set-up. If you cannot explain it, you’re presenting it for your own personal enjoyment and potential monetary gain, and you’re also someone who wouldn’t be affected by that problematic set-up if it happened in the real world and thus don’t care about the repercussions about it being read and assimilated into the way people think or react to those situations.

-Mod Kaye

At WWC, we often resist answering “Is this okay?” with a simple “Yes” or “No” because we truly can’t rubber-stamp projects. We have no idea how this will actually play out in your work; we can only give you our perspective based on what you’ve told us. My instinct here, particularly with a Japanese emperor in a Chinese-coded country is “Absolutely not okay.”

First, I think you need to ask yourself why you feel the need to bring in influences from other cultures. I’m not saying cultures don’t evolve in real life, or that they are perfect the way they are, but a culture’s history can be immense, particularly in areas like East Asia or Northeast Asia. So, there are a lot of different things you can choose from that are still respectful to a culture. Remember, even if you’re pulling from a historical period of a specific country or culture, those people still exist today. Please keep in mind that part of writing diversity is to support the people you’re writing about.

Please don’t pull in influences from other cultures because it’s “easier” or “more interesting,” because that basically implies a lack of respect or understanding for the culture you’re writing about. Think about your motivations here.

As for a Japanese emperor in a Chinese-coded country, this is really, really problematic.

Japan’s current PM (Shinzo Abe) as well as the political right, still deny their actions during WWII, and the impact of Japanese Imperialism. They still refuse to admit to how Japanese imperialism brutalized and oppressed. Shinzo Abe recently made a speech about how the atrocities Japan committed were in the interest of keeping Asia safe from Western invaders. They invaded Korea, China, the Philippines and so on to “prevent” the Allies from “invading” Asia. Many politicians in Japan still refuse to own up to what Japan did.

Look up comfort women. Look up the Rape of Nanking. Look up the Annexation of Korea. Do you know how many countries Japan occupied during its regime?? Did you know that Japan still denies the existence of comfort women, and instead choose to point the finger at those women and say they were women of loose morals rather than rape and assault victims during a brutal regime?

I can’t speak for anyone else, particularly Chinese people and Chinese diaspora, but I can say that I’m descended from Koreans who resisted (and were severely punished) for their efforts in resisting Japanese occupation. That’s my history. Those are my ancestors. So if you wrote a story where there was a Japanese emperor of Korea, I would be more than just offended.

If you’re going to write about something that’s relevant and painful to people, side with the marginalized. Do it in support of those who were and are oppressed, in ways they find respectful and meaningful. That can be hard! Sometimes an author will think they’re being respectful or supportive only to find that they’ve been silencing or ignoring the voices of the very groups they say they’re speaking in support of.

If you don’t want to do that in your work, don’t write about things you don’t understand or don’t want to get into. It’s as simple as that. Whether you want to open that can of worms or not is solely up to you. If you’re going to do it, do it right. And finding ways that are respectful and supportive is something you’re going to have to struggle through as a writer. Find good betas, read more works or watch movies by Asian creators (not only Asian American but Asian) who write in fantasy settings in Asia.

As an author, you can absolutely find ways to allude to your setting’s history. Finding ways to put in what’s necessary (and what isn’t!) is part of the work of writing, right? I would say that making sure your work doesn’t continue to support past oppression is a pretty important thing to do. Hope that helps!

~mod Stella

Also I think there’s such a huge difference between a genuine cultural blending and just cherry picking. Like in my own (Asian-based) fantasy, my character’s region is genuinely at the intersect between multiple countries, namely my India-analogue (Hindu based), Persian/Arabic empire that’s recently conquered the place (Mughal, with Islam removed), a Mongolia-analogue, and a Tibet-analogue (the 1600s empire, so the region is much larger than modern day), therefore there is cultural sharing everywhere because that is what happens at borders (the region’s real life equivalent is the Kashmir valley). So my character does a Tibetan sand medallion to relax and her best friend is a Mongolian-Indian mixed warrior while her choice of clothing includes saris and the market has gods from regions miles away because the empire insists. This is literally me sitting down and going “okay, in this historical time period, here are where places intersected, and here are common trading partners, and here’s what is likely to be shared” along with “here is what I’ve had to modify to fit the fantasy world, how will that change things?”

Blending— where you think about what you’re doing— is alright. When you look at borders and power plays and diffusion. Taking each culture as its own unique whole and placing them beside each other to see what’s likely to cross over. Cherry picking, on the other hand, where you take roles and attitudes from different empires and merge them together haphazardly, is very much not.

–mod Lesya

[writingwithcolor]

East Asian-based Fantasy, Appropriation, and Fantasy Languages

@rosesrambling asked:

I’ve been trying to build up an East Asian-influenced fantasy culture for a story I’m working on. I have read through your tag and seen (and understand) the posts about how just mix-matching East Asian cultures can be pretty offensive. So, my question is, do you think it is possible to create a culture that comes off as “definitely not European, could exist in East Asia, but is not a real-world culture” instead of just mix-matching? How would you go about it to avoid appropriation?

Similar but not wholly related, how would you go about creating non-European fantasy languages? I am unfortunately not bilingual, so I can’t just rattle off words that sound vaguely linguistically connected in any language but English. I’m afraid that just looking up words to get a feel for sounds and just coming up with something is going to end me up in trouble with creating meanings that I had no intention of. (sorry if this is confusing btw and thank you for your wonderful blog)

East-Asian Based Fantasy

First things first: I think it is possible. You may want to look at Ken Liu’s book The Grace of Kings (first of a trilogy), where his world of Dara isn’t a real-world culture at all, but has very heavy East Asian influences. It’s the first book I’ve read where the world isn’t outright Chinese/East Asian, but still felt much more familiar to me, as a Chinese person, than the other fantasy worlds I’ve seen.

You may not be able to avoid appropriation altogether, but a good general rule is: do your research, and also try to integrate the customs in the way they’re supposed to be used (e.g. don’t take sacred rituals and make them into entertainment, etc., unless there’s a history of that already in the culture you’re researching).

~ Mod Jess

Fantasy Language

Creating a realistic fantasy language is an in-depth task that can be daunting.  You need to have some understanding of phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics, plus an in-depth background knowledge of the culture you’re creating languages for.  For a primer on language creation in general, I suggest David J. Peterson’s The Art of Language Creation.  Peterson’s created languages for Game of Thrones, Defiance, The 100, and other shows and he’s probably the most prominent conlanger active right now.  He’s also on Tumblr as @dedalvs.

“European” languages are a pretty broad category, but “non-European” is an even broader one.  For example, if you want your languages to sound “East Asian,” you have to understand that “East Asian” languages have yet more variety than “European” languages.  At least in Europe, 90% of the languages belong to the same family.  Even if you consider “East Asia” to be just China, Mongolia, the Koreas, and Japan, that’s four different language families for the modern-day official languages alone, all with distinct sound patterns and typology.  The way they sound and the way they put concepts together are drastically different from each other.  You don’t have to have your “East Asian” culture use an “East Asian” sounding language, but should you want to, start by looking at some of the phonologies some East Asian languages use (that is, what sounds they use and don’t use), and how they put words together (for example, Mandarin Chinese can’t end words in any consonant but “r,” “n” or “ng”—and these are really romanizations and only approximate the actual sounds used, just to add the confusion).  Regardless, sounds and how they can assemble are what give any language its “characteristic” sound, so if you want an invented language to superficially sound like a real-world language, use the same sounds that language uses but put them together in a different order.  In the actual language, they’re assembled into a finite set of words, and you can take the same sounds and assemble them into a different set of words.

From there you can work on how words are put together from basic meaningful units (morphology), how sentences are put together from words (syntax), how meaning is composed from words and sentences (semantics).  I could write you an entire lecture on conlanging, but it’s probably better to read Peterson’s book.

If you use different real world influences each for your phonology, morphology, and syntax, you might come up with words that do mean something in a real language, but you’re unlikely to accidentally put together a sentence that means anything in a real world language.

~Mod Nikhil

[writingwithcolor]

Anonymous asked:

Lots of characters die over the course of my series-in-progress because there's a war going on. However I'm concerned that the first death may be problematic. The first char to die is a young girl of color, and someone told me that isn't okay--even though there are many, MANY other characters of color in the story, and just as many (if not more) white characters die as POC. The girl's death is mourned, and she is definitely not killed just because she isn't white. Do you think it's problematic?

Writing First Major Deaths of POC Characters Respectfully

The first major death is always significant and sets the tone for the rest of the story. This reminds me EXACTLY of The Hunger Games. A Black girl inspires Peeta and Katniss to unknowingly start a war where the causalities are among all races. There’s been tons of commentary about this.

~Mod Brei

When the first major character death has that much potency as in The Hunger Games, i’m a lot more “receptive” of said death as it doesn’t necessarily come off as the “Black Guy Always Dies First” trope. The girl Brei mentions, Rue, also isn’t the very first to die in the book’s main events ever, so it’s a slight but significant detail. 

She is the first character to die during the course of the book, though, that we’re meant to react to/care about. From the details you give, specifically there being many characters of color (any others of the race/identity of the girl who dies?) and a semi-balanced amount of white and PoC dying, it makes it seem less problematic and it may not be a notable instance of discrimination in the story. Still, there’s some things you should consider.

I can give a recent example of problematic use of the Black people die first trope where it almost feels like a farce. 

**Major spoilers from TV show Fear the Walking Dead below! You’ve been warned!**

In FTWD, a new spin-off from TWD universe, the first we see go (and aren’t really supposed to care about) is a Black drug dealer who tries to kill one of the main characters and ends up getting killed himself. This was the first episode.

The next death (or should I say doomed character) is the boyfriend of another main character. We hardly see any of him as we’re so early into the series, and though it’s shown he is mourned and important enough to the girlfriend to not abandon despite her family’s warnings, we don’t have enough time to actually mourn the character ourselves on a deeper level (or outside of the gaze of the white woman who loves him). You could actually say he was “Fridged” to add to the angst of said white woman.

The third death is a school principal, co-worker of one of the white female MCs. Though it’s “good representation” in that we move away from murderous drug dealers, he is still treated as a throwaway character who dies within episodes of the pilot. We learn little about him besides a few scenes and lines, and we do not see his struggle (aka how he became dead or rather “undead” as this is a zombie show).

The above to me is how one poorly handles Characters of Color dying first. To summarize how the TWD loses:

• Kills several Characters of Color back to back 
• Characters all happen to be same race (Black men, surprise surprise)
• Kills the characters swiftly within story
• Doesn’t develop the characters they’ve killed for us to build solid empathy (see third point)
• Kills character for the plot/pain of another
• Leaves the death vague and with unsolved questions
• With their death, we’re out of Black characters! 
• Not to mention there weren’t any Black women in show to begin with.
  

I can’t say the main TWD show does much better irt treatment of PoC, especially Black male deaths, but that’s another story.

If you could avoid those things not just within the first deaths but the majority of the deaths of your Characters of Color, you’re on the right track. 

While I don’t want to tell you is to not kill the Girl of Color first, for as we’ve seen in The Hunger Games where that death literally sparks a revolution and is treated with respect and importance, it’s not always in vain.. but do be thoughtful and sensitive to those who are hurt by this POC-are-disposable trope again and again.

~Mod Colette

[writingwithcolor]

Black Characterization, Fantasy Race Discrimination, and POC Deaths

I am going to be writing a lot here, so I thank anyone who takes the time to read this. I have an urban fantasy story set on a fictional world that borrows some cultural things from our world. 

Characterization of Poor Hard-Working Black people

One of my main characters can be considered an African American man. Now his back story is that he is the second child out of three. One of my worries is that I have him grow up in poverty because his mother became very ill when he was a young child, and his father could not do enough to keep the family out of poverty, I am worried about this because i feel that POC might find this offensive. So what happens is every able bodied person in his family has to do their part in helping the financial situation. So when this main character’s older sister becomes an adult and finishes high school she has to get a job instead of being able to go to college. However this is not enough to help the family out of poverty, though it does help a bit, and the mother is still sick. I make this MC hide problems he has with stress and other things because he feels his problems are minuscule compared to what his house hold is going through, and he doesn’t what to make his family members worry about more things. Though because of this, it becomes a problem for him later on in life. So when he becomes an adult he chooses to become a soldier to help his family out of financial problems. This actually helps his family a lot, and when the story starts, his family being considered upper-lower class.

Despite him growing up in poverty i have him be kind of optimistic. Also i make it that as a soldier he is kind of serious, but does not have much of a problem with making a joke now and then or laughing when someone pokes fun at him. I show that he is in command of a group soldiers that have some people from races I made-up, another person who can be considered an African American (who kind of looks up to this main character), and his second in command is the equivalent of a British white woman (who is also one of the main characters). 

Fantasy Races, Skin Color, and Social issues

Now as a soldier in my world, this MC had to fight, alongside and against, and kill not just normal opponents, but also those with magical and elemental powers. So he is a little cautious around those with elemental or magical powers because of how they can fight (magic users are able to do teleporting in my world). So one of the other MC’s is a diplomat with elemental powers, who can be considered a darkly tanned Italian American, however they become friends quickly. Now as the story goes on and all the MC’s become better friends with each other, they all decide to go out to a restaurant together. So to cut to point for this, another MC can be considered an Indian female, who is also a Human, and a diplomat. So the thing is she has a boyfriend, who is of a race I made up. Now this race was one of the first in my world to come into power, and one of their countries (which no longer exists in the time of the story) was infamously known for their expansionism. However, her boyfriend is not from that country or it’s descendants, and does not agree with what it did. Also his race does not have human skin colors, and the skin colors that it has that can be considered human colors, would not be how we see it on humans, for example, if one person from this race is said to have gold skin, it would actually be similar to the color gold, actually this race falls under the trope known as “amazing technicolor population”. So anyway the point is, the African American equivalent MC notices that the other MC’s do not care that the Indian equivalent MC is in a romantic relationship with a person from another race. Enter worry number 2.

He decides to introduce his girlfriend that he has been keeping secret to the other MC’s. Now most of the others don’t care and our happy that he has romantic partner, but it is what she is that makes me worry. I think people might find her offensive. She comes from a race that I made up that have horns only on their head and don’t have hair, so they’re bald. They also don’t have traditional human skin colors, their colors are shades of: gray, green, white (like cloud or ice). Now i do not depict any person from her race as demons, relate them to demons, or say they are demons, because they are not. However some people in the world don’t really trust them or like them, because a few of their cultures and countries did some expansionism of their own, thus earning their race as a whole a negative reputation however this race is criticized (unofficially) more, because they did it in more recently recorded times (like 300-500 years before). So my African American equivalent MC also marries and has a baby with this woman near the end of the story, the other characters question why he would be doing these things so early, to which he reveals that they have been seeing each other for several years and have been planning on doing that for awhile. Their baby will have horns and hair, since it will be part human. Also his family is happy with it. Could this be offensive?

PoC Deaths and Living Characters “Choosing Between Them”

So the thing is, I have this African American equivalent character die near the end, he is not the first character to die. He does not sacrifice himself, one of the bad guys I have kills him. The bad guys also kill the Indian equivalent MC I have, she is also not the first character to die. Now not all of MC’s are white. I have 5 MC’s for this story: the Italian American equivalent, the British woman equivalent, a Hispanic male equivalent, and the Indian female equivalent (all of which are Humans). Also the non white MC’s are not the only non white MC’s, i have several side characters  that are Human, non white, and contribute to the story. In case you are worried that I have not cared at all about my Indian equivalent MC, I have not. I have made her charismatic, scared of what people think about her, and a better diplomat than the white male MC. I also have made her well educated, and easily stressed.

Finally, what i feel is the most controversial. You see, I make the other surviving MC’s feel really sad, and mourn for their dead friends, and even though they lived, they still have problems that they must deal with. The Italian American equivalent MC must deal with a divorce, with a child involved. The Hispanic equivalent MC is sad because he finds out one of his friends, who is a Latinx, was one of the bad guys, and that person is still alive. The British white woman equivalent must deal with a position that will be hard for her to handle, which is something the African American equivalent MC would have been better suited for. Now the controversial thing is I have the surviving MC’s and several side characters have to choose whose funeral to attend. Since The Indian equivalent MC and African American MC are from different parts of the world (and 2 of the 3 surviving MC’s come from and live where the African American MC), that is why they have to choose. This is made hard for the British equivalent Female MC, since her and the Indian equivalent Female MC were best friends. In the end I have them choose to attend the African American equivalents funeral, and send their regards to the family of the Indian Female equivalent.

So if you have got to this point i thank you for taking the time. So here are my questions. Is their any thing here that is racist and/or offensive? Should I make the British equivalent female MC a woman of color (by the way, if I am able to turn this story into a series, she marries the Italian American equivalent MC)? Is their anything you think i should change? Should I not kill the two characters I have said would be dying? Anything I should add to be respectful of the deaths? Anything you would like just like to say?

So once again thank you.

[Bold and headings mine]

You’ve written a whole lot here, a lot that I don’t think was needed to ask your question, but i’ll give it a shot. Please keep in mind brevity and including only specific, necessary details next time around.

Characterization of Poor Hard-Working Black people

Yes, it’s okay to have Black-coded characters who are/were in poverty as it’s a reality, but I wouldn’t make them the only Black equivalents. Be careful of making “strong black x” characters as you talk about how hard they have to work. And while not in reference to Black people, I would like you to check out Mod Rodríguez’s excellent posts regarding Hard Working Mexican families and stereotypes. 

Read the following:

• Mexican Character Background and Struggles 
• The Poor And Hardworking Mexican 3: Straight To Video   
  

Note on coding: You refer to a race that is the equivalent to Black people as “African American.” Remember that Black/African Diaspora does not equal African American as not all Black people are even from America, if that’s what’s going on here, but I can’t be sure.

The Italian-American coding is confusing as well. Do you really mean someone specifically coded Italian-American? What does that entail and how would that inform your character(s) in this fictional world?

Fantasy Races, Skin Color, and Social Issues

Fantasy races are okay, but we don’t like the concept of oppressed fantasy race plot line being used as a replacement for racism. A lot of your concerns regarding your fantasy races have been discussed here in one way or another.

Read the following:

• Fantasy Race Tag
  
• Avoiding Racism Allegories
  
• Mixed with fantastical creatures
  
• Real & Fantasy Races Co-existing
  
• Half Human as Allegory for Mixed Race Struggles 

PoC Deaths and Characters Choosing Between Their Funerals

Regarding the character deaths and not being able to attend both funerals; it doesn’t have to be a slight if extreme impracticability or other factors as to why they can’t make it to both is shown clearly in the story. And to further illustrate that they do care for this passed away character perhaps they could have their own funeral ceremony or show their goodbyes in a significant way outside the official funeral. This would make it less of a “they chose between which friend is more important.“ issue. If graves are a thing in your world, visiting where they’re buried and honoring them after the fact or even visiting the family they’ve left behind is one way to show some respect for them even after they’ve passed on.

And this prove me the least best pick for answering a question regarding character deaths, but i’m just in the camp of using the plenty of other ways to give characters a rough time other than death. In ways, some things are more painful to see a character live through than simply killing them. But in any case, I am not a big fan of frequent character deaths, especially in regards to PoC, as we are always dying in stories and i’m just over it. We have a whole tag on handling character deaths respectfully, though, so to avoid rehashing anything, I encourage you to check it out here.

You’ll probably find these most helpful:

• Handling Character Deaths with a Diverse Cast
  
• Writing First Major Deaths of POC Characters Respectfully

~Mod Colette

[writingwithcolor]

Handling Character Deaths with a Diverse Cast

Anonymous said: So I want to include a lot of diversity in my story, but I also want to be an evil writer who kills off a ton of main characters. Unfortunately, the two seem to be mutually exclusive because I don’t want to kill off the Chinese lesbian or murder the black trans woman etc because wouldn’t that be bigoted? Please help. So far my solution is to make all the characters that need to be killed white straight cis dudes and kill fewer characters overall, but that seems like an imperfect solution. Help?

Hello there, evil writer ;) So you want to go kill off all your sweethearts, but feel a bit iffy about killing of your diversity? I understand your fear, and don’t worry. We’ll give you some pointers. You’ll do your research, use our tips (or not, or someone elses) and have a bunch of great beta readers who know about diversity read your story. If you mess up, listen to your critics and learn. Your next story will be better :)

Like said in a post before, I’d say don’t make a PoC your first kill, since that’s a problematic trope in horror. And try not to kill off your queer couple if they’re the only queer couple, but those are the only ones I know of.

Personally, I think killing only the white people, and since you’re kind of a serial killer writer, it’ll be a bit awkward (although the opposite has happened too many times, so hey, that could be a reason not to care and leave it like that).

Oh, and don’t just kill them of for you know.. cause you like deeeeaaaathh.. make it mean something and don’t treat the people who die like a plot device or anything. They’re actual people you are creating in your novel. Honor them and don’t just introduce them to die. Love them, else you’d not be killing those darlings. You’d be killing those - I don’t know but I saw clara this once and she was kinda nice and all and uhh she has an aunt.. ohh she’s dead.. bummer - characters. Make us weep! and not seething with fridged damsels in distress.

~ Mod Alice

Also, examine how you handle the deaths of your Characters of Colors vs. the White characters:

• Do the PoC have harsher, more grotesque deaths?
  
• Do the surviving White characters outnumber the PoC in the end?
• Is there a balanced level of importance and emphasis placed on the White characters’ deaths vs. the Characters of Color?
  

These aspects make a major difference and it will go noticed, if say characters spend 3 chapters lamenting over a white woman’s death but the Black man who died pages before gets a paragraph of mourning.

Of course character importance will vary as will how much the death impacts the reader for that very reason, but if there’s a trend of the white deaths just happening to be a bit more emotional for the reader…then we’ve got something to work on.

~Mod Colette

[writingwithcolor]

Fantasy Cultures: Mass Answer

Reinventing Culturally Inspired Myths and Monsters

anonymous asked: A lot of fantasy, especially urban fantasy, plays with the “rules” of magic/monsters set down by the actual historical source draw from ie: the vast number of different interpretations of vampires around today. However, an author, especially a white author, playing so loosely or being “inspired” by a more marginalized culture’s myths seems like it has problems. Do you have suggestions of how to “reinvent” a monster or magic without erasing the culture or giving the impression of “fixing” it?

anonymous asked: I want to write a story that heavily features African mythology and black urban myths. Part of me is scared of perpetuating cultural appropriation though. I don’t have any close family that know about the myths and I’m the type of black person that would get called an Oreo. I want to use the stories like how Percy Jackson uses Greek and Roman myths or how Guardian of the Dead uses Maori mythology. How far can you change a story till it becomes too disrespectful to the people?

I don’t have this problem with other urban legends. I can imagine a good story with Asian or European mythology like it’s nothing, but when I start thinking of my own race’s stories, I check out or keep second guessing myself. A huge chunk of this is probably me having internalized racism problems, but I would like to hear a second opinion. I feel more strained with the liberties I can take on black myths than I do with others.

Why reinvent something that isn’t wrong? You shouldn’t play loosely with anything from a culture that isn’t yours. There are some myths and legends that are so sacred to their respective cultures that to alter them in anyway would be disrespectful. There are so many myths that are perfect the way they are.  

Perhaps you change the setting or the time period. African Gods in the 1920’s? Native American myths and legends in the Wild West? Sign me up! These stories don’t need to be reinvented. They can be reimagined or retold without changing the fundamental characters and themes of the stories. Disney does it all the time. However, the problem with Disney is that they erase the culture of fundamental players of their stories. They are getting better to a certain extent, but for you, my advice is not to go reinventing the wheel but rather enhance the story by putting in a different time period or setting, infuse the story with its respective culture, and do your research.

I combined these two asks because they address the same question. Another way to put this question is: How far can you change a story to the point that it isn’t the same story anymore? I think you can change a story’s setting, update the characters to fit your setting, and perhaps put something that adds a little twist to the story (i.e. the characters in the Briar Rabbit story are actually shapeshifters living in the Jim Crow South). The amount a story needs to change or actually changes is dependent on the author. There’s no threshold. That being said, consider whether your story has so many changes that it might as well be an original story or whether you are doing justice to the original story (i.e. if you decide to have characters based on a specific African culture, but have no characters from that culture). If you are unsure, run your plot idea with a beta reader and do some more research.

~Mod Najela

Fantasy Cultures and Erasure

smallerthanthesockofaman asked: I’m working on a project at the moment that’s based in a fantasy South America. I had already done some work on fictional cultures with no deliberately-chosen basis when I decided on the setting. Would it be erasure to continue as I was? Or should I base the societies in this world on actual South American cultures?

Is the story that is coded to be set in South America? If so, South America is a vast continent with many countries, cultures, and subcultures within. There really isn’t enough here to make a determination whether this would be an erasure or not. If would only really be erasure if you do not have any South American coded characters in your story. However, that could mean anything really. South America is not a monolith (I feel like this phrase has become the WWC slogan or catchphrase), so if you want to have your story set and coded as a specific country and/or culture, then you need to research and choose one specific culture. The decision is up to you. Check out our worldbuilding tag if you want more ideas.  

~Mod Najela

Fantasy Culture without Real World References

anonymous asked: You have several posts on how to represent real world cultures in fantasy already, but what if you want to specifically avoid referencing any real world culture? I want none of my cultures to appear metaphorical for any specific real world culture, but at the same time I want them to be diverse and feel familiar enough to be appreciated as human cultures. Any tips?

excitedandpirates asked: Hi! First I just want to commend you on a quality blog. You have made me re-examine my writing in so many ways and I am so much more aware of writing diverse and respectful characters. Second, a question: I am writing a fantasy story in which I am creating new cultures for the countries that I have. I would rather not base them strictly on existing cultures that we know, but I also don’t want to risk cultural appropriation. Any advice? Thanks!

You might want to read these questions and start from the ground up. There isn’t really a way to avoid having a culture not resemble another culture in a story, because world building is not done in a vacuum. As you’re answering the questions on the worldbuilding website, you’ll find yourself drawing inspiration from somewhere whether it be a video game or a movie or TV show. There is really nothing you can do about that, other than making sure that your sources are respectful and well-researched. If you populate your world with diverse characters, you can somewhat avoid making references to real cultures. 

For instance, readers may be more likely to see all white characters as being a European inspired fantasy. Adding diversity will make it less likely, but overall, you can’t really force readers what to think or how they perceive your world. You can’t make it too subtle, but you can’t be them over the head with it either.

Try to draw inspiration from multiple unique and well researched sources. Try to give your world some interesting possibilities and rules to make it stand out. If you try to make a world without a little influence of the real world, you may end up with a generic worldbuilding setting that may be perceived as being less diverse than you originally intended.

More Reading: Creating Cultures

~Mod Najela

Poc Cultures, some real some fictional

anonymous asked: I have a (fantasy) story that involves a lot of traveling across its world- is it okay for some of the cultures/characters to be based off of real world ones and others to be completely made up? (For example, I have cultures/characters based off of/from western civilization, Japan, China, and some countries in Africa (among others) - but then also scattered, made up ones) I want to have a lot of diversity, but is it okay to include (some) PoC with imagined customs rather than RL equivalents?

Since this is a fantasy story, you can draw inspiration for your cultures from different countries, but what’s going to be unique is determining what you want to create from scratch. It’s been said before, but worldbuilding isn’t created in a vaccuum and you are invariably going to have some cultures that resemble real world cultures, even if you draw your inspiration from a fantasy world. I love using the Avatar: The Last Airbender as an example if somewhat imperfect, (see Inserting Real Cultures in Fantasy and further commentary Representation in Avatar the last Airbender) because it obviously draws its inspiration from diverse Asian and Inuit cultures. 

If you used the world of A:TLA to draw inspiration, you are drawing from Asian cultures because that world draws it’s inspiration from that culture, even if the cultures within that world have their own specific customs and beliefs.

It might be more unique for a fantasy story to have Characters of Color and civilizations with their own customs, regardless of whether they are inspired by real world equivalents. In fantasy stories, it would be okay to have a mixture of some cultures that were inspired by real world equivalents. My suggestion would be to have a specific culture that you draw inspiration from because countries and cultures are not a monolith. For example, you might want to draw inspiration from Igbo culture instead of just saying Nigerian. Don’t mix and match these customs either. Each fantasy culture needs to be grounded in either one specific real world inspiration or needs to be firmly rooted in the customs and cultures you create on your own. Check out the world building tag to find more inspiration.

~Mod Najela

Cultural Mixing, Fantasy Worlds

anonymous asked: (1 of 2) So I understand the problem with mixing cultures in a way that might homogenise them and feed misconceptions about them (like the West and East Africa example you mentioned), but what about mixing totally different cultures for your fantasy worlds?

Say, a world that used to resemble 8th century Abbasid Caliphate, but suddenly cooled down drastically and is now looks (to us in the real world) like a mix of that culture and Viking culture. It doesn’t reinforce racist misconceptions, but would it be disrespectful to just smash separate cultures together like that?

To me it doesn’t make sense and almost feels like whitewashing and erasure. Mixing totally different cultures isn’t any different than homogenizing them. A basic search on Middle Eastern climate (again it would depend where you are in the Middle East) Shows some temperatures get to 32 F, which is pretty cold, and sometimes it can be 120 F in other parts of the Middle East which is very hot. It would make more sense that these characters in your story would adapt to the cold temperatures and use the resources around them. 

I would research ancient Middle Eastern clothes to determine what they would wear in cold temperatures. You might find some similarities between the clothing of Vikings, but cultures should be distinct and unique instead of just mixing and matching things because of climate change.

~Mod Najela

[delishytown]

Lemon Garlic & Herb Chicken with Lemony Carrots and Potatoes

Hi Tumblrs! Happy Friday! I hope you are all having a fine summer and enjoying the start of Fall. Summer has been going by so fast! I’m shocked that the kids are back in school already. Is that just a California thing? The days are getting shorter, and nights are getting cooler. Yay, I love it. I’m still cooking, gardening and writing as much as I can. I have about 3 to 5 vegetable gardens I’m working on, in various stages of growth, harvest, demise, replanting, re-seeding, watering, weeding, fertilizing, pest and critter control etc. Anyway, all that work makes me hungry.   

This is an easy dish to make if you have a busy schedule but still want some amazing home cooking. My husband and I always say “home food is best”. It’s true, not just because of price, going out to eat is expensive, but it’s way more cozy and relaxing at home. And you’ll always buy or grow better quality ingredients for yourself than a restaurant will, like free range organic chicken, the most flavorful olive oil, and organic vegetables. 

Here is an easy dish perfect for chilly nights when you worked your ass off all day long and just want to throw everything in the oven and watch some smellovsision. This dish is lemony, garlicky, and deliciously savory. It’s addictive. You will find yourself eating the lemon slices from the top of the dish, they come out like tangy candy.

This is easy, the whole dish cooks in one pan. Here’s how: Wash and dry cut up chicken pieces, add to a large baking or roasting pan. Wash, clean and cut 2 to 4 potatoes into large 2 inch -ish cubes. Same with 3 or 4 carrots. Peel 1 onion and slice into large wedges. Crush and mince 5 to 8 garlic cloves. Chop fresh parsley, basil, cilantro, tarragon, dill, whatever you have, or all of them. Add all of these to a large baking dish, drizzle with about 4 tbsp olive oil, kosher salt and pepper, and 1 tablespoon palm sugar or brown sugar, optional. Cut a large lemon in half, squeeze the lemon juice on, straining out the seeds. Slice another small lemon into rounds, try to remove as many seeds as possible. Toss to coat everything. Arrange the pan with the chicken pieces on top of the vegetables, and lemon slices on top of the chicken. Add another grind of fresh ground pepper and another small pinch of kosher salt. Bake at 375 for about 45 min to 1 hour until cooked through and amazing. Yum! Home cooking is the best. 

[30minutesorless]

Spicy BBQ Garlic Cauliflower “Wings”

1 head cauliflower, cleaned and chopped into bite-size piece 
½ cup dairy-free milk
½ cup water
1 cup flour
2 tsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp paprika, cumin, garlic powder
1 tsp minced garlic, sautéed
½ cup BBQ sauce
2 tbsp Frank’s Red Hot sauce


1) Preheat oven to 425F. In a bowl, mix milk, water, flour, and seasonings.
2) Coat cauliflower in batter, shake off excessive. 
3) Line a cookie sheet with tin foil and coat with oil. Place cauliflower on pan and put in oven for 20-25 minutes. Turn the cauliflower over halfway through.
4) Meanwhile, mix garlic, BBQ sauce, and hot sauce.
5) When cauliflower is done cooking (batter should be a medium brown), coat in the BBQ sauce mix.

[endurancechick]

[wanderingredleaves]

Seth Fitts