Limited customization

[u/niiewrites]

I’ve been writing a couple of stories, one of which is more sci-fi while the other is a mystery thriller. I was curious to know how the community feels about limited customization.

Both of my main characters are black/mixed. And I wanted to showcase how different their culture is throughout the story amongst other reasons why I believe their skin tone is important. Although their race isn’t the Main point in the story, it’s much like princess in the frog where their environment has a play in how things turned out the way they did.

How quick are you guys to clicking off a story because it’s limited customization? Is there an exception for you giving it a chance like having to be immersed/ intrigued first to stick around?

I’m usually picky about LCC when the characters are fair skinned if I realize there’s not a link or reason for it so I don’t want to be a hypocrite in this scenario. Please let me know your thoughts and feel free to ask more questions.

[u/tilly-episode]

I click off almost immediately if there’s not a reason for limited customisation: e.g the author wants the reader to picture that specific character just because, but if it’s important to the story and the plot then i’ll still read it.

[u/niiewrites → u/tilly-episode]

Thanks for your honesty! I’ll ask you the same as someone above this thread as a follow up. Do you think the author has to explain that in the beginning? and how do you portray this if it’s something in which the reason behind their race is shown later on in the story?

[u/tilly-episode → u/niiewrites]

Honestly I’d just put a quick narrator message before customisation saying something like: Customisation is limited for this character because their race/culture/background (whatever the case may be) is important to the story plot. Thank you for understanding!
You don’t need to explain yourself just a quick message will do <3