Well, I’m Ghanian and Nigerian. I live in New York, and plus I don’t look like it.
Thats so cool, I want to travel around the world and go to all the states. Gtg sorry! Ttyl!
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okay ttyl hon
Ooo
Yeah.
There are a lot of amazing African-American stories by black authors that deserve more recognition, and that don’t include customization. Adding CC in stories where the character’s race, ethnicity, or culture is relevant to the story or their personality doesn’t make too much sense. My story takes place in Mexico, and the main characters are Mexican, so I did not include CC. However, in the new story I’m working on, the female MC is Mexican and the male MC is Mexican and Chinese, but I decided to include CC just because I don’t want the readers who do like CC to give up on my story if there’s no CC. However, you can still play as the default character if you want.
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my story doesn’t allow cc because my character needs to always be the way she is supposed to be. i did allow cc at first but then someone sent me a screenshot of my story where the main character was white with blonde hair and it made me cringe so i took out cc
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Episode featured my story on Thriller last week. The MC is mixed race and I don’t allow CC.
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Wow I had no idea so many people would be interested in this thread.
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Its a good topic to talk about. You can learn a lot.
I see.
I can see what you mean but maybe you should call it something else because it’s actually only a
fourth part of people that think so.
I know that is still a lot of people but us there ain’t is a much bigger procent part of society then a fourth part
So maybe you can call them something else
I’ll put my two pence in now.
I understand wanting diversity, but when we get into more specific things like African Muslim, it’s gonna get harder and harder to find stories. I mean, I don’t find any stories about an Indian-Jamaican Catholic Bisexual girl, haha. I understand that being African-American and Muslim is more common than being like me, but my point is that a lot of people don’t bring up religion at all and they forget about the more specific types of diversity, which is fair enough since it’s pretty specific.
I think that if we’re really keen on seeing characters like ourselves, we should write stories with characters like us! Maybe if we get the ball rolling, other people will join in. 
I mean, a lot of writers write main characters who look like themselves or look like what they’re used to around them. At the moment, most of the writers on here are white or surrounded by white people, so it’s difficult for them to think of adding in a POC as a main character or feel like they relate to POC enough to try it if they think of it. So they end up sticking the POC in the background to fill diversity quotas and make their story about white people.
If we start writing stories of our own, people will realise that your skin colour doesn’t make you drastically different! They will feel more comfortable writing stories about POC and relating to them. It will also be more likely to occur to them to add in POC because they’re used to seeing POC in stories.
I also have read a TON of stories with African American characters. I have yet to read any with non American POC. I’m just saying. I understand that there aren’t as many African American stories out there, but I feel like America can get a little bit one-track-minded and insular when they think of diversity… or a lot of things. Not an insult, but I feel like maybe we should be educating people about other countries in the world because, from my experience in America and with Americans, the education system there is pretty selfish when teaching kids about current affairs. They focus almost solely on America! I mean, in England, we learn History. That means learning about America, France, Russia, England, Scotland, Ireland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia… lots of places with interesting and useful modern history. When I went to America, they were learning about only America and calling it “History” and then there was a separate class called “World History”. Again, not an insult, but people seriously need to open their eyes to the rest of the world!
That’s probably why a lot of people get countries like France and England so wrong when they try it. I mean, take Tangled Love: no, France doesn’t run on the same grade system in schools that America does. Yes, you actually need to know French to survive. No, not everyone knows how to speak English everywhere. Yes, the process of getting into University (not College) is different in France than in America. There are also not scholarships in the same right in France as in America. I mean, in most of Europe, tuition fees for university are funded by the government… because we actually want more poor kids to do well, instead of relying on individual universities to provide financial help. The most you’re gonna pay in France is €650 a year for engineering school! But people don’t do research about the places they write about and end up just making another America in everything but name.
Or take Georgia: their trip to London looked nothing like London and he speaks nothing like someone from England.
That’s why I’m so keen on writing my own stories. I want to correct these wrongs and change the way people see other countries. I want to provide the diversity that I feel is missing in the community and make a difference. Hopefully people will follow suit afterwards.
In terms of CC, I quite like it. Someone once tried to argue that it just means that “you’re making a white girl with brown skin” because the character will still “act” like a white girl. To that I ask: is there a certain way that people are supposed to act according to their race? No.
However, in The Queen of Freaks, I gave people complete control over their characters and I definitely regret it. Vince was supposed to have green eyes and tan skin and The Princess was supposed to be called Evanna and be BROWN. Yes, brown royalty in England… with a backstory to explain it. She was supposed to look like this:
(Photo by @ChaoticDeluge )
I actually regretted it almost immediately: my flatmate played the story and she’s Slovak. She made the character blond haired and blue eyed and when I asked her why, she said because that’s how princesses look! 
-___-
There are princesses in Africa. In Asia… but oh well. That’s what I get for giving so much control to my readers.
So with my most recent story, Fantastical: The Good Witch, I decided to give people CC, but limit it like mad. You can only choose certain skin colours, for one. I don’t want people making her pale when she’s from “THE LAND OF SUMMER”!!!
But long story short, be the change you want to see.
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That’s it. I’m a fan. I’m re-downloading the app just to read your story and I’ll be checking out your blog right away 
I also feel like the way the US teaches its youth is very insular, as you’ve pointed out, and that seems to translate into most of the entertainment industry in their country, but not only. The world doesn’t resemble the US in every way and I wish their “History” was, by default, about “World History” like in many countries so students could learn more about countries in each continent on this planet and also be encouraged to see it for themselves if at all possible.
Sadly, France has recently made drastic changes to the process of admissions in universities (with Parcoursup) and it is less opportunistic than it used to be. A lot of students are struggling to be admitted in any university, especially if their high school path was at all different from the typical French high school system. But the education system remains completely different in most countries in Europe compared to most English-speaking countries and a student absolutely has to speak French to survive in a French school unless they go to an IB school. I remember reading Tangled Love a long time ago and cringing like I often do when authors try to portray a country or a person from a country I’ve been to, without much knowledge of them. I think I even remember seeing a story where the MC moved to the south of France and the author decided to use a background where you could clearly see the Eiffel tower 
Being someone with a rather specific background, I also don’t expect to be closely represented in the media. But I still fully enjoy a story for what it is, so I often feel out of place in these kinds of debates where people (often from the US) demand to see more representation. I understand asking for better representation, because stereotypes are often all but genuinely positive, but to see more representation, at least on Episode, I think is in the hands of the people who can write those stories and represent themselves and their people accurately.
To say “be the change you want to see” is generally tough, because not all backgrounds are considered equal in a lot of countries’ entertainment industry. But that’s why that phrase applies so well to platforms like Episode, where anyone can write and publish their story for free and for everyone to see without their ideas having to go through a whole team’s approval.
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People tend to write what they KNOW. And if a majority of the authors are American then they will write a story set in America because they know that lifestyle best. Authors from the UK tend to set their stories there and so on. Not many will take the time to research what it’s like anywhere else because 1. It takes a lot of time and 2. They don’t want to mess up and get it wrong and then they get hate mail.
Write the stories that you want to see for yourself and write about what you know or take the time to research, don’t rely on others to do it for you. That’s what my goal is.
Though I haven’t written a story about a mixed girl like me mostly because I have no interest in putting myself in stories, I like to incorporate a little bit of me in aspects of what I write. That’s why a lot of my characters are mixed, but not the exact same mixture as I am. And when I read stories that have full CC and naming, I create a whole new character that’s not me at all. I don’t feel the need to be in a story.
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That is one of the best things anyone could spend their time on. It helps elevate yourself and your work in ways that can only be deeply appreciated. But I do agree that authors can’t always be expected to write about something they don’t know and need to research about and not all authors write with the thought of continuously improving their work in mind. Some just write for simple pleasure and relaxation. So on Episode, it’s really up to us to write about what we want to see in terms of diversity.
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Exactly. My newest story has a lot of research involved and I’ve loved the fanmail saying how I did a good job with my research into Voodoo and Wicca and that I’ve portrayed them both in a positive and respectful way. I also knew this stuff since I was 13 though as I was a practicing Wiccan for several years with an interest in Voodoo. I’m still researching as I write to make sure it continues to be accurate even though some of it purposely isn’t because it’s a low fantasy story 
My other story is based on Celtic mythology another thing I’ve researched but decided to put my own spin on it.
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I like this thread.
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Cools… I’m a Ghanian-American bisexual Muslim girl… sigh
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I myself, don’t have a religion so my main character doesn’t either. i assume that if someone is christian for example and i put a muslim character and suddenly start talking about their beliefs then the christian will get annoyed because it’s not the same as their belief? not that i care, i’m going to write religious characters anyway
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