Serious question for anyone who has an answer: I’m writing a story that’s a little longer rn & is a love story between two people. I tend, as a writer, not to describe the physical features of my characters too much, because I like to let readers create their own visions 1/x

of what those characters look like in their eyes, to them. Maybe it’s lazy or idk. It just feels personal to me. I’m there to describe the story and how it feels, not get caught in what people look like, because in the things I write, I don’t want that to be the focus. 2/x

Anyhow, this story I’m writing is about love through life. It’s not finished yet, by any means, but I hope to finish a first draft soon. One of the characters, in my head, is a Black girl, who becomes a woman through the story. She and another girl are the main characters. 3/x

I purposely have excluded the presence of homophobia in this world, bc I want it to be beautiful & difficult for its own reasons, not because of some fucking bullshit. I also have not included any racism, nor do I want to. Not that I have lofty goals or have such an ego, but 4/x

On the very off chance that this story ever becomes anything beyond me and the small number of people who read it, I don’t want to pull a JK, in terms of adding things to a beloved character after the fact, cheapening the whole thing with “wokeness”. But I also don’t want to 5/x

Deprive this character I already love of any authenticity by not specifically putting it in the text now. I’m thinking I will put something in about her being Black when I go back for first edits. I want hers to be a character that gets to be in love and loved and happy. 6/x

I think she deserves that. I’m sorry this got long, but my question is, should I put something in the text explicitly stating her Blackness, when I normally don’t do so, or is that too corny and strange? Am I overthinking it?
Also, fuck JK, she can rot.
7/7

Actually, final thought: I guess my turmoil is just in the weird media impulse for Black women & Black people to always be subject to oppression and not, instead, the subjects of their own love stories? I don’t want to include anything that hurts her like that. She deserves more.

This is the truth: if I put in explicitly that she is Black, you will not be hearing a PEEP about her being faced with microaggressions from anyone. No, ma’am. This is my world, and I say she gets to love and be in love and doesn’t have to deal with that shit.

I’m sorry this was long. As I’m reading this back I can already see these tweets being screenshotted to laugh at me later so probably I’ll end up deleting this thread eventually. I am genuinely asking for help tho bc it’s not good for me to just live in my own mind circuit.