To Blush or Not To Blush...That is the Question: The Struggle Describing Black Characters

So I felt the need to write this post based off of criticism myself and other authors have received. I am a black female and believe that my race of women are hands down, some of the most beautiful women in the world. But when it comes to describing characters, it is very difficult to articulate into words the nuances of our physical features without making every single heroine look exactly the same in every book.

Case in point

My character Lexi in my Damaged Souls Series, has green eyes. This is a rare occurrence, but it does happen in our race. The reason I gave her green eyes was to differentiate her from my other heroines in past and future novels. I have a relatively good grasp of what every heroine and hero is going to look like, even for my future books and I don't want them all to look alike.

Yes, I can have fun playing around with size, height, body type, skin tone and hair, but when it comes to our facial features, we've got limited descriptions. I.e. full lips, almond shaped dark brown eyes, high cheekbones, etc. Maybe next time around, I'll have to study some pictures and see if I can come up with other adjectives to describe my next characters. But aren't the eyes, the windows to the soul? Eyes are big descriptors when expressing emotions, and I don't want every single book I write to say, He looked deeply into her dark brown eyes. Her beautiful brown eyes filled with tears. Her light brown eyes widened with shock. Her chocolate brown eyes sparkled with joy. So on and so forth.

Now on to the subject of black characters blushing. First, I'd like to say that, if you are human, you can blush. EVERY single person on the planet can blush unless you have some medical issue. Now whether you can see the blush or not is another story. I am a medium dark skin color and I blush ALL the time. People have even pointed it out to me that they can see my cheeks turn pink. So when I describe a dark-skinned female that blushes, I am describing bashfulness, embarrassment, etc. Just the look on someone's face can tell you that they're blushing, even if you can't see it. But to my readers, I will try my best to find other ways to describe the feelings associated with blushing, on my darker skinned characters.

I can't speak for all of my fellow authors who write black characters, but I did want to give some insight into why I describe my characters the way I do. I hope this helps.

Til next time...