Essence has never met her father, but her mother has constantly pushed on her the fact that she's not "normal" she's "unnatural" until she's accepted that as her identity.
Dominic has lived with his parents obviously treating him and his siblings differently because of their complexions among SO many other factors.
So far the conversation in chapter 2 has been one of my favorite scenes to write. Scarlet is just so weird she makes everything fun. Also someone help Avis, she is trying her very best to keep chaos from ensuing.
The funniest chapter released so far is for sure "The Woman of No Delicacy." Scarlet, Tiffany, and 'Monica' keep the office chaotic.
There are no romantic scenes released yet, and Essence's whole life is pretty sad, but I think there are some more fun, even if not inherently funnier, chapters coming up later in the story with Dominic and his sisters, and there are definitely some sadder and more romantic chapters. One takes place in Dominic's home office, and one takes place in Essence's room. There are going to be a lot of not so fun emotions, and some very strong feelings in this novel when...spoilers start to happen.
for sure Scarlet writes herself. the first line that came to me for the story in relation to her was "Scarlet loves everything! you could throw Scarlet in a tank full of sharks and she would love it." And from there, Scarlet was born and continues to be herself.
Dominic's complexion got much darker, and he also got much buffer as I continued imagining him through the process of outlining the novel and getting to work on it. He was originally going to be lighter skinned like his parents and brother, and only his sisters suffered from being mistreated for their complexions. Now the family is kind of divided in half by that color difference.