the sun and its shade is weird 

Great question! Mari from MynameisMarines has some great videos on this, I'll link one below, but a resource she recommends is writingwithcolor.tumblr.com/post/96830966357/words-for-skin-tone-how-to-describe-skin-color Mari's tiktok on this: www.tiktok.com/@mynameismarines/video/7208342594303036718?lang=en Hope this helps!

Hey, I also don't write about human characters. I think that there are certain tropes that you obviously want to avoid (like all the antagonist characters having dark skin and the protagonists having light skin) but otherwise... They're not human, y'know? They exist only in your head. So if in your mind their skin looks like tapioca pudding, curried potato or beef jerky then you should say that. I think when it comes to non human characters the issue is are we uncritically replicating real world systems of bigotry, not would this description be offensive if I applied it to a real world race. The two questions are somewhat intertwined, but not to the point where it should interfere with you expressing your imagination as accurately as you can.

@camillagilmore1547, and @trianenopenottrian9108, too, in case you people are interested. It's not just a description. It's easier to focus on the literal than the overall demeanour, worldview, and treatment of certain characters. I'll give you an example from a recent RPG experience, where I was the only immigrant at the table, also the only one who would be considered from the "unwanted" country. So, even though there was another person who had lived abroad for a time his experience and mine would not compare. (recognised how we have for instance Philippino "immigrants" but French "expats"?) It was when a second wildling joined our party that especially the dwarf started asking questions that were increasingly alarming for me. For instance, asking the two wildlings (of different races) if they were lost brothers or cousins for the tenth time, or asking them to explain themselves and not bother to remember and ask the same question again later, asking private questions one after another while he was quite private about his backstory. I was the only one who not only understood what this behaviour was. When confronted - while I explained that in the game I did not care because the dwarf character could as well be racist - accusations of different kinds followed and I was left to think that maybe it wasn't the dwarf after all and my friend who was the racist. So, single words themselves might be well thought but the content still a problem. That's why we need sensitivity readers... or at least open ears for those who will tell us of their experience.

Avoid food I think. Just be like blunt. Pale. Tanned complexion. etc.

i think a big no-no is using foods , even worse if u use different foods that arent similar in colour throughout the prose, an example i saw online being dark chocolate and cappuccino in the same book to describe the same person

Damn. That's good

holy shit. ⭐️ for you

BaBUM-tish

Wow, just wow that’s an impressive burn.

honestly such a missed opportunity to spotlight dark skinned south asian women but no we had to go with barely brown woman #1000000000

I feel like Nox was originally meant to be very dark skinned. But once she got back lash from the whipping she switched to lighter skin to “lessen” the damage.

There are folks with naturally pitch black skin out there

@@jaginaiaelectrizs6341 Didn’t catch that before, thanks for clearing it up

I’ve noticed when I’m reading something by a white author and they describe someone’s skin as brown that can mean anything from dark skinned to white with a tan. 🤦🏾‍♀️ 🤷🏾‍♀️

That's honestly kinda depressing... Like. I wanted sapphic stuff. Not. Guys? Like if I wanted to read relationships with men I would just read a Sarah J Maas book

But also now that you put it that way, it's kinda of funny because it's almost baiting in a way. Like it's trying to market itself to people who are like yes finally, a wlw story that's kinda cool and that Sarah J Maas style of book. And it's basically just a slow revelation of oh it's bi that's dope who's that guy who's that guy why are they. I thought the two girls were endgame? she's only shown up like twice in the whole book... ... ... Like there's such a distinct lack of wlw literature that it almost feels kinda mean. And you really can't bitch about it without sounding biphobic because yeah, if they actually spent time with the two girls it would be fine. But like...

i think my problem with this is that it's marketed as wlw. nox & amaris having one kiss in the first book without ever even developing an attraction that isnt tell not show is ridiculous. their relationships with men is far more developed and (somewhat) fleshed out than the supposed relationship nox and amaris are to have. i understand having two bi mcs but at least show some attraction to the other, even when theyre in relationships with men. idk i just think the writing is lazy & just trying to appeal to sapphic people while simultaneously mainly focusing on heterosexual romance

This is exactly my problem with these books and thank you for putting it into words. There is so much heterosexual fiction love stories out there, like can we have a liiiittle more of a connection between the sapphic characters? This book leaves so much to be desired on that front and it's like, fine, write whatever you want, but don't tell me this is a bisexual fantasy/lovestory if there's no actual love story here. The way both characters are so overly sexualized too... its just really gross and honestly, I wish this author just hadn't even bothered.

you know who else has a folklore/mythology degree? ...JKR

Wtf is a folklore degree

Terry Pratchett is rolling in his grave 😩dunno if he had one, but he sure as hell had a deep understanding of folklore... gonna be centuries before we see another author like him tho

Diploma these days doesn't mean anything

As another South Asian person who hasn't read this book (and has no plans to) I agree with you completely. This is a further conversation that needs to happen because there is nuance in representation and how white people chose to do so. As a kid, I was ashamed of having food with loud flavors. I was scared of my culture because I'd never seen anyone who didn't look like me appreciating and kindly responding to South Asian culture. I love the way you worded your comment, looking forward to more of your input. ❤

@@nicoverma2477 Same here. As a Nigerian girl growing up in the U.S. who had a packed lunch throughout elementary and middle school, I was embarrassed to come with traditional foods because of how I knew people would talk about the smell and the way it looked. But going to Nigerian parties, (where half the point of them is to eat food lol) I was able to get that appreciation for my culture and see it as a point of pride to be from a country in Africa rather than ashamed, no matter what insensitive questions my teachers and peers asked.

@@joyc.e.7511 fellow Nigerian here, relate completely. It’s crazy to think of all our shared experiences. We need to write more of our own stories, so more people feel empowered, instead of having half-assed, high-key racist and colorist stories like these attempting to “represent” poc.

That’s exactly what I thought, too.

i love that word lol, i go out of my way to slip it in when i can 😂

My thought as well. It's also a much more beautfiul and poetic sounding word. In general the author vocabulary seems rather narrow for someone who wants to emulate a very flowery writing style.

I was about to say the same thing 😂

There is a writer's workshop dictionary/thesaurus, I think it's 20 dollars USD that provides entries with periods used, etymology, points out other entries to be used and explanations. I always presumed writers took months on chapters, weaving their story. Someone explain to me how she has a masters in folklore but her research amounts to so little than paltry duplication of an anthology of myths in a barnes and nobles?

Oh thanks!! My patrons requested "galaxy" so that was the makeup look of the day

@Reads with Rachel It suits you so perfectly! Then again you rock any eyeshadow look!

Yes!!!! Best look yet! I might need a tutorial.....just saying. 😘

Hair. It's the hair for me. Damn good hair. (but yes, the eyeshadow is awesome too)

Fierce AF! 🤩

even the dragon proverb is just a famous proverb about an elephant with a fantasy skin.

Came to write the same thing. She’s just taking pieces of famous pop culture and spinning into a book.

Hell even their backstory is just Bronya and Seele.

Also when I heard of the pocket watch that immediately points to your desires I thought "...like a compass?" Not quite The Golden Compass, that's a bit different, but still.

@@beeaggro2593 Was not expecting this reference, but yeah, it basically is a very watered-down and much weaker version of their story.

Chris 😜

......fuck you're right.

A little bit golden compass too. Not a very new idea for sure

I’m so glad someone also thought this 😂😂

Exactly what I thought too.

WHAAAAT?! How does one write a book within nine days?!

badly!

I can barely wrote more than 2 drafts in a day 😅

I’ve spent more time than that on a single chapter of fanfiction

ALSO u can’t tell cognitive function by looking at someone’s pupils?????

Yes! This bothers me so much because, while veterinary medicine is very old, we weren't always called veterinarians. One of the first descriptions a man who could be called a veterinarian today was from 3000 BC and was "an expert in healing animals”. In ancient China, they had what were called Horse Priests who practiced traditional medicine like acupuncture on horses. Basically, whatever your fantasy world version of a doctor is (usually healer or maybe magister), there'd be a similar term for the animal version. Usually they'd also only treat livestock or horses, but occasionally pets would be treated, or birds. Depending on how highly those animals were valued in the society (in ancient Egypt, for example, it was more common for animal healers to tend to cats and dogs because of how much Egyptians valued them as pets). (Sorry for the massive paragraph about veterinary medicine history. It's one of my special interests because I'm going into the profession).

​​@@Hyuchii I wouldn't describe it as "cognitive function," but how your pupils react to light can be an indicator of a concussion or other brain injury. Basically it's another example of Piper using a weird and off description of an actual thing

@@ava_marie_v that’s exactly it! it’s like she used modern terms as placeholders but then never got around to actually changing them to something more internally logical lmao

I have one but I never remember to update there. I need to start!

@@ReadswithRachel you should link your story graph! If you haven’t already. I just also wanted to say your video helped me recover from a root canal, especially when I took the wrong medication when I was in a daze. My body threw up hydrocodone (supposed to have taken ibuprofen first and hydrocodone if ibuprofen didn’t work) and listening to your video helped me distracted from my extreme anxiety when it came to throwing up. Love your videos sorry that the harassment happens

Omg I’m so sorry you had a tough root canal! 💕

The problem is, from the author side of the website, GoodReads is incredibly encouraging for authors interacting with readers. They in fact present it as a selling point. I haven't interacted with any of my reviewers, because a friend of mine who was a fan of Rachel's talked to me about it and encouraged me to watch her videos. But as a new author, without that history, I absolutely would assume that interacting was the correct thing from all the information provided by GoodReads itself. I will also second Storygraph as an excellent platform. From the author side they do NOT have the same encouragement to interact with readers, and I really, really like their tagging and recommendation settings. It feels much more reader-centric in a lot of ways.

Only insecure authors care about how their book is reviewed. If an author put actual love and care into their writing then they wouldn't be worried about what people think.

The Tiffany problem!

it'd be cool if it was a hot n cold thing. like the clock was closer and closer to striking 12 the nearer you were to attaining your hearts desire

@@Saibellus that is such a cool idea

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who caught this reference.

She was also bisexual!

I mean what do you expect of basic girls?

*moves it up her tbr*

i know this comment is a few months old but I just wanted to say yessssss yes yes yes yes yes!!!!!!!!! TJT and TOS explore these topics and many more sooo so well, i absolutely adored them!!! AMAZING books my favorites of all time and i cannot wait for the final one to be released aaaahhhh!!!

SAME ON THE NINA ZENIK THING

​@Reads with Rachel truly a queen and an icon

This is the fact that I'm also sad about, I wanted to read the original because of the cover and the blurb but upon researching it I found out it sucks.

Also as someone who loves folklore and spritual studies, I can’t imagine why Piper herself wouldn’t have wanted to have a conversation on how those two often interact and overlap. If there were holes or questions, when they reunite they could’ve figured it out together. It would be cool if it circled back to their book of fairy tales that’s led to a big realization about the curse or their world.

​@squidlikestodie As a folklore enthusiast that sounds like exactly the book I'd want to read😭 I wish she'd gone for this angle because that's such fun world building through plot narrative

You know what… you’re right. I hadn’t thought about it but having her raised at the empire I think would’ve made for a better book.

@@ReadswithRachel Thank you for replying :) I just think it would have been interesting, even if they including the “witchers” later on she could be a healer/support and then discover her powers in a moment of desperation. I’m just so sad they didn’t explore the All Mother or the folklore aspects more 😭😭😭 There’s no overarching theme with these books, just shallow conversations…and it hurts a bit because the potential is there!!

@@squidlikestodie1570 yeah... the All Mother especially is very disappointing to me because she seems very poorly thought out, just a reactionary "i'm gonna make God a woman in my story!!", surface-level 'feminist' move

Yeah, it always weirds me out because it just seems strange to be paying that much attention to how someone smells unless it's a super specific perfume or something. It just puts in mind them weirdly sniffing each other.

@@whiteraven562 Tbf, I know one (1) person who can actually differentiate people by smell and I have one family member that definitely has a smell I can recognize... But for the vast majority of people, 'natural smell' is synonymous with unpleasant body odor lol

Yeah or if they have a specific scent for a reason that plays into characterization like a healer that smells of medicinal herbs because she's always at work.

Yes Pratchett does this so well! He even kind of lampshades it with the Tiffany Aching books, bc of the "Tiffany problem" which is that Tiffany sounds modern so people don't use it in historical media despite it being a common nickname for Theophania

It's really not a novel concept though, it's a pretty classic term for matriarchal societies or religions. If we wanna pin an origin it's probably norse mythology with Odin the All-Father and Freyja the All-Mother, which is the more likely source since Yggdrasil is also used in this book later on. Obviously we don't know where the author really got it from, my point is that using the term "All-Mother" is far from a yikes thing imho. Horizon shows up a lot because it's a very prominent and rather recent example.

​@nalrya true enough. There was also a result that looked like a painting someone had done of the goddess Freya when I Googled the term, so I thought the same thing at first. "Oh, this just a Norse mythology concept that she inserted into her book", but I feel like the similarities between All-Mother Mountain as it exists in the Horizon Zero Dawn universe and "All-Mother Temple" as Piper has explained the concept in her book are just *too* alike to be ignored. I'm fully aware that Guerilla Games didn't invent the concept and they probably just drew *their* inspiration from historical and mythological concepts in a similar manner, but it still felt worth mentioning. Definitely could just be a me thing.

I was thinking this too! And tbh the whole "baby being born as a gift from the 'gods' in a matriarchal temple called the All-Mother" thing also echoes HZD even if it was a priestess giving birth and not the mountain itself. When enough things are pointed out to be derivative, I guess everything starts feeling derivative lol

you have got to be fucking kidding me right now… that’s literally the same shit Andrew tate did. ANDREW. TATE.

I was wondering if someone was going to point that out, and was very pleased to see it pinned😅

Also, I don’t know if anyone mentioned it and I haven’t finished your video yet but Yggdrasil, the tree? The mythological “world tree” in Norse mythology? Obviously a concept and not something I’m saying she’s ripping off, but when I heard it I was like-??? Norse myth is canon here now??

yes! I recognized it right away. was in one of my storybooks as a child

I can’t wait for your read along. I just know that right now it has checked off maybe four boxes of your bingo card. Also, I’m going to suggest again just for the Piper CJ videos adding a box that is “more words is good words.”

Blame GRR Martin and Bridgerton

@@beeaggro2593 im genuinely curious why g.r.r. martin?

Riverdale is just a telenovela. Once you have that understanding of it, it all makes perfect sense This is just a really deeply involved fanfic

.......fuck

That's exactly what I came here to say lmaoo, nope Rachel you can't even give her credit for that

@@melaniereine3378 goddamit

Yeah that kinda...pissed me off tbh. Like my friend offered it to me as an alternative for 'I find the Sarah J Maas stuff lacking (and honestly, generally most fiction lately) in the sapphic department.' aspect of my being. Like if you're just gonna token a girl, then just admit it's bait

another comment says it's clip art from canva 😭 nothing about these books is original

It is beautiful. That font isn’t Canva, I’m fairly certain. And the ability to put together graphical elements is a talent!

This analogy made my evening, thank you))

Yes!! I fucking loved Lost Girl! I thought that sounded familiar!

Omg yes I loved that show

And Malik gets sexy lamp! Again!

@@ReadswithRachel good old sexy lamp Malik!

ole reliable!

@@ReadswithRachel i screamed sexy lamp on my route when you talked about him 😂😂😂

Liz I did not know this, thank you for coming in with my new favorite random history fact

YES especially cause of the cover art and what I’m assuming as nox’s hand being pitch black thats what I imagined. So disappointing that the POC girl is barely olive when amaris is literally as white as a sheet in every way

@@RainbowAnimeCupcake Firstly, love your username lolz. But yeah. It’s giving very “anything that isn’t as pale as the driven snow is exotic and spicy” vibes and I don’t like it 😬😬

Okay thinking about it now, having it be a watch didn't make too much sense. Maybe if it worked like a clock that predicts the next time fortune comes or something but thats the best i got

That tracks. Every other day I learn that something I was taught in Christian school history class was bullshit. This is probably one of those things.

Get me the bbq sauce

I think they can add to a scene, but they have to be used sparingly. The metallic scent of blood, for example, could be used to build a sense of dread in a horror story. Like, a character smelling blood but not seeing anything wrong. But if every other scene has smells described, then it's just gonna take away from the story.

@@ava_marie_v that makes sense. Putting it that way I mentioned scent a small handful of times, mainly ocean water.

@@vvitch-mist20 Which totally makes sense! Some of these fantasy writers way overuse it, though, and I totally agree it can throw off the flow of the story. I don't need to know the bodywash of every character in a book😂

@@ava_marie_v This reminds me of when you write essays and need to hit a certain word count lol

Not to say it AGAIN but…. You know which fantasy book has guns? Furyborn by Claire Legrand 😏🤣

​@@ReadswithRachel Also Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett

Considering that the author brags about writing (and I think publishing) the first book in a week, I’m honestly not surprised if she starts putting these out like hot bread