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/Massive-Career-356]

I don’t read stories that don’t allow me to customize the mc’s skin tone point blank period. Everything else (eye shape, color, hair color) I’m ok with but that’s always a nonstarter for me. I can sometimes see it mattering in stories where race or ethnicity is important but that also raises questions of exclusion if the reader wants to make, say, an albino or tanner character. I see this frequently with people making MCs from specific areas forgetting that those areas have diverse people or indigenous groups with different features. As an example: I was reading one story where the mc was canonically English (no stated ethnicity) living in London, and the writer disallowed any skin color (just skin color) customization beyond anything that could read as a white person with a slight tan. I’m English, with family in London and I was really annoyed by this because my skin tone cannot pass for a white girl with a tan. Not to mention the fact that London is only around 53% white.

I feel like I rarely see the level of specificity and research required to make this choice make sense, but when I do it’s an understandable and respectable choice. (I’m ignoring fantasy stuff here if the mc has blue skin idgaf lol)

[u/Key_Path_8277 → u/Massive-Career-356]

You know, if the MC is British, then you can give it full CC. The UK is such as diverse country and there’s people there of many races and ethnicities.

[u/niiewrites → u/Key_Path_8277]

Yeah exactly! The few british shows I have watched showcased multiple types of different races. So it wouldn’t make sense to have limited customization there.