Writing Marginalized Characters: A Ramble

     I grew up afraid to write minority characters.  For me this came from two primary places; the first was the idea pervasive to our culture that people who aren't white, cis, heterosexual, middle-class/wealthy, able-bodied, neurotypical males are "other" to such an extent that they're often seen as not fully human, or maybe human but in a different way.  Society insists that those who don't fit inside the rigid little sector it's blocked off as "normal" aren't really people in the same sense that those who do fit into the sector are.

     Obviously, I'm not all of the above; however, society's belittling of marginalized groups is so pervasive that it's not uncommon for marginalized people to marginalize themselves (see: internalized sexism, racism, ableism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, intra ableism, intra racism, biracialism, etc.).

     Growing up a tomboy in a primarily masculine household, I came to see women as lesser, and later fell prey to the many ailments inherited by young girls--the conflicting standards, the fear of being seen as inferior, the apologies, the feeling of being a burden, etc, etc, etc.  Unlearning these things was (is) a long process I won't talk about now, but I guess my point is that when I started writing novels at the ripe old age of nine, the only reason I felt comfortable writing girl characters was because I was a girl, and even still I had a lot of trouble at first with writing female characters that weren't either based off of real people or stereotypes.

     The other thing that caused this fear was my limited experiential resources.

     I grew up in two towns, one of them full of rich white people and the other full of not-rich white people.  In the town I usually say I'm "from," I had exactly one black classmate, and the only black classmate I had in the town I "grew up in" moved away after first grade.

     I never thought of people who were different than me as really different.  They were people just the same as I was, and I recognized them as such, as I'm sure many people do when they meet "othered" people face to face, especially in their youth.  Even with my internalized sexism, I still judged every girl on her own merits once I met her--I generalized groups, not individuals.

     But when writing, and trying to be socially conscious in our writing, we all have groups that we feel ishy writing about, not necessarily because we don't want to write them, but because we're scared to get it wrong.

     As a kid I was afraid to write people of color--a pretty common fear among white kids, because after they teach you about slavery and genocide and Jim Crow laws in first grade the last thing you want to do is exacerbate that White Guilt everybody's always talking about, and you certainly don't want anyone to think you're racist or, even worse, to find out that you are, in fact, a racist.

     The only way to keep yourself safe and cozy is not to bother, and say things like "I'll leave it to them to write themselves into a story."  As a little kid that feels very valid, especially when you grow up in an environment where racism isn't something you notice in your day-to-day life, and is instead subliminally flashed into your brain as you watch your all-white-with-maybe-a-token-PoC cartoons.

     Sadly, leaving it to a marginalized group doesn't always work--how often do you see black authors being lauded?  For a book that isn't exclusively about white people?  When was the last time a female author got big in something that wasn't YA or Romance?  Do you even know of any books written by someone with a disability?  I guarantee you it's not from lack of talent or trying--unfortunately, the system is still heavily weighted in such a way that it's exponentially more difficult for a marginalized individual to make it big--or make it at all--than for a white abled cishetero male of the same or lesser talents, and the exponent tends to multiply if the author-of-marginalized-origins writes about characters who are also not white cishetero males.

     Sometimes, when you're at a party and things are loud and crowded, the only way to get people to listen to the guest of honor is for the host to jump out with a microphone and shut 'em up.

     I didn't know all that when I was little.  I just knew I wanted to write about superheroes and dragons and magic and weird science.

     The funny thing is though, unlike a lot of people I've spoken to over the years, I wrote about people with higher melanin counts before I became afraid.  In part it was actually because I wrote about them that I became afraid.

     I should probably explain:  My uncle is very, very racist.  I hate him.  I don't just hate him because he's racist, I have a lot of reasons to hate him, but this has certainly always been a point of contention between us.  I didn't always hate him of course, because when I was younger I was small and naive and thought that shared blood meant shared love.  Probably should've realized sooner how bullshit that was.

     I was a creative little kid, and after finishing my second novel at age eleven, I wanted to tell everyone about it.  As I was going through the first edit, I stumbled upon something that didn't make sense and asked his opinion--in order to do this I had to explain the concept to him--four types of shape-shifters live on an island and fight amongst themselves, sort of Animorphs meets Warriors meets gorn-tastic political intrigue/adventure-fantasy.

     Instead of helping, my uncle, being as uncouth as he is, decided to ask me which group were the "n" words--I was repulsed by the language, but was all at once struck by the realization that not only could the division between the shifter-types be construed allegorically as a division between the races, but that I had written people of color into my story--I hadn't thought about it as I wrote, I just sort of correlated fur color to human skin color, so shapeshifters with darker fur ended up with darker skin, and shapeshifters with lighter fur had lighter skin; it wasn't like any group was composed all of one human race or another, they were completely mixed-color societies, but I was still afraid.

     I didn't go back and white-wash my draft, what was done was done, but I wouldn't write people of color into my drafts for a long time afterward because I was afraid of doing it wrong.  I don't exactly know now what I thought the "right" way was, but that was the only way I wanted it done; I was a conscientious child and didn't want to offend anyone, and since I was only just getting the hang of the internet I had no idea that there were places where writers gathered in bulk to discuss such things.

     My resolve to write only about white cishetero abled rich men and women--or, even better, aliens and robots and monsters, oh my!--lasted until I discovered Tumblr as a thirteen-year-old.

     I know, I know, Tumblr has a mixed bag of a reputation among the liberal crowd, but for a white girl in a town of 1,000 people, 98% of whom are white, and most of whom are also hetero and cissexual, middle-ish class, able-bodied, and neurotypical, Tumblr was the best place for me to break into a world that was, up to then, largely unavailable to me.  Today it's known as a toxic wasteland, and some parts are, but it was an important part of my development as both a writer and a liberal (in case you couldn't already tell which way I lean).

     Within a year I was writing stories with "othered" individuals again--people of color, people with disabilities, people of a multitude of genders, sexualities, religions, you name it.  Through Tumblr, and the many websites it introduced me to, I'd found out there were tons of resources on how to write this group and that group and the other group, and I learned that it was okay to trust my own real-life experiences and those of my family and friends; every experience was valid.  And though there are going to be different characterizations and complications with each new type of character you create, it was freeing to find out that everything truly boiled down to something I'd known all along--people are people.  Nothing more, nothing less.

     That's what it all comes down to.  People are people--we all have wants, needs, feelings, we all have things we care about, we are all our own.  What makes me different from someone of a different race has less to do with race itself than with upbringing and societal pressure and our personal likes and dislikes.

     Fear can be good--I think, in my case, fear was good, because it drove (and still drives) me to seek out the information I need to avoid creating a caricature or a stereotype in place of a human being; fear led me to ask questions and make sure that I did (and do) everything in my power to not just keep from offending people, but to keep myself from harming myself and others with poor portrayals of certain out-groups, and to make sure that I use my privilege as a white person not for accolades and the like but to assist and teach, to encourage others to hear the voices of those whose voices aren't being heard, and to normalize what should already be, but is not yet seen as, normal.

     Fear can also stop us in our tracks--and if you write marginalized characters, you're going to end up being criticized for it, even if you are yourself part of the group you're writing about!  But you can't please everyone; every time I write a sensitive male character, someone tells me he's not realistic even though I know for a fact that everything the character does is nothing I haven't seen my brothers and my male friends do, and every time I write a female character I risk being called out on her promiscuity or her aloofness or her hatred of babies because no matter how hard you work to go against a stereotype or humanize someone, even yourself, someone is always going to get pissy about it; that's how life works.

     So yes, it's important for people without privilege to speak up and have their stories heard, and their voices are going to ring the most true and should hold more weight.

     A story written by someone with absolutely every privilege there is probably won't be authentic, of course, but it's important for people with privilege to speak up as well--not to drown out the voices of your downtrodden kin (as some are, unfortunately, wont to do), but to help raise awareness and compassion and facilitate love and understanding and conversation in ways that some, through the horrors of a discriminatory society, are unable to do.

   So write.  Whoever you are, whatever you want to write, write it; try to include marginalized characters when you can, because the sad truth is that there's not a lot out there, and even less of it is well-written.  Be careful, don't be too afraid--just don't be a dick, either.

     And when you think you're finished with that manuscript; stop, wait a minute, fill that cup put some liquor in it--now pour it out, take a deep breath, and go look for some critique partners and beta readers that know what's what in whatever subject you've chosen, because no matter how well you think you know something, if you're writing from a place of privilege you're bound to make mistakes

     The fewer mistakes make it out into the real world, the better it'll be for everybody.

     And even if you're writing from a point of diminished privilege yourself, it never hurts to have extra eyes on the ground.  No two experiences are ever exactly alike, and you may not be as enlightened as you think--I like to think of myself as having cleansed myself of my internalized sexism, but on occasion I still catch myself mentally criticizing a woman for doing something I wouldn't think twice about a man doing, or using the phrase "like a little girl" in a derogatory fashion.

     When we write only from our own experiences, we're also at risk of making every character's experience practically the same, which serves to homogenize the group and sometimes creates a new stereotype.  I don't think we need any more stereotypes than we already have.
   

TL;DR:  Don't be afraid to write marginalized characters, no matter how privileged you are; just remember to treat everyone as human beings, do your research, ask questions, and seek out the opinions of people with first hand experience before you go tell the world about how great you are (for writing something that may actually be offensive).

On A Quest For Critique Partners: The Casual Ties of War and After The End (There Is No End)

    Howdy everyone!  It's Maggie again, your spideriest writeriest nerd dork, back on a quest for CPs.  After going over The Casual Ties of War three dozen times over the last year, I'd still like to get another few sets of eyes on it.  Plus I have a newer project, a screenplay by the title After The End (There Is No End), which I'd like to get some input on.

     The description of each project is below, so if you're at all interested in trading manuscripts, let me know!  Your project doesn't have to be a stage or screenplay, either--if you have a novel or a collection of poems or short stories you'd like a critique partner for, I'm down for that too.

     If you'd like to get in touch after reading the blurbs below, send me an email at TheSpiderWriter@gmail.com with a summary of the work you'd like critique on, and we can talk shop.  I hope to hear from you soon!


   

The Casual Ties of War:  A ~13k dramedy of errors about love, duty, and the costs of war.

     Delial does not fall in love with her superiors!  ... Except maybe just this once.  But Soro is so sweet and kind, and better with a blade than anyone Delial's ever met!  And, technically she's not Delial's superior, just a superior.  She's not even older than Delilal, she's younger by two years and then some.  So it's not as bad as when her sister or best friend do it.

     ... Unless Delial mistook Soro for someone she's not, and Soro lied about who she really is in order to feel like she was someone's equal for once.  I mean, that could be so dangerous!  Especially if Delial wasn't who Soro thought, either--and if the mission Delial's on is meant to culminate in the death of someone that Soro's pretending she isn't....

     In the long-running war between Terra and Forma, tundra kingdoms of the frozen north, there's a lot that's been lost, but these young women will soon find out that even in a time of perpetual war, in a place of perpetual frost, there's a lot still left to lose.

After The End (There Is No End):  A ~21k urban fantasy about reincarnation, intertwined fates, and promises long since broken.

     When a struggling voice actor shows up at new president-elect Noel Estavez's celebratory party, famous screenwriter Cassandra Spell recognizes him instantly as her brother from a past life.  The one that killed himself before they saw their mission through to the end.

     That mission?  To kill the White Witch, the enchantress that stole them from the heavens and placed them in human bodies, now going by the name Noel Estavez.

     Constellations-made-flesh Cassandra and Barnabas fall back into step as they track down Andrew and Celeste, the former Andromeda and Cetus constellations, and resume their efforts to destroy the White Witch and her new Starchildren before they manage to overrun the world.

    But the lies Cassandra's been telling to protect her siblings-cum-lovers (and her habit of tipping the bottle) have to catch up with her sometime.  Eventually their war can't be fought in the dark any longer.  In time, all stars must die.

     The question is, can they take the Witch with them?  Or will they be extinguished before their timer runs down?

Maggie C's 7 Commandments For Writing Diversity

     White cisheteronormative wealthy able-bodied, neurotypical males; we all know how to write 'em and they're not hard.  They're literally the most vanilla character to write and read about, and yet we keep cranking 'em out like they're Mountain Dew and we're Bros and/or emotional teenagers dealing with their problems by self-medicating with sugary beverages in an effort to not completely destroy themselves while they self-destruct.
     And I get it.  Writing diverse characters is a scary prospect.  It's not as difficult as we make it seem when we talk about it--it's work, yes, but it's not like you're driving screw drivers into your eyeballs in an effort to excise your spleen.  You're writing about a person.  And writing about people is kind of your job, friend.
     I don't pretend to have all the answers.  I'm an eighteen-year-old with no current profession pursuing an education and career in the arts.  What I have to offer are my own life experiences, the research I've done, and fifteen or so years of experience writing fiction.  I'm not perfect, and I can only do so much.
     But diversity in fiction is important to me.  It's supposed to be the goal of an artist to reflect real life, to, as Shakespeare hath proclaimed, "hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure."
     Modern art doesn't even reflect half of the human experience.  It's white-washed and full of narratives about the wealthy and/or middle class, usually about men trying to succeed and/or get their dicks wet.  When women are included, it's usually as props, or as thin paper creatures that don't really know what they want until a man comes and tells her; when LGBTQ characters are involved, it's usually G, sometimes L, and the entire narrative typically revolves around how difficult it is to be queer, or else they become a stereotypical gag; when a person of color is included, they usually have few speaking lines, or are also stereotypes; when a person with disabilities is included, it's either a cure narrative or an acceptance narrative or a pity-me narrative, and they're usually a stereotype.  By and large, diverse fiction these days is largely made up of stereotypes people pass off as characters to try and reach some sort of quota, and it's not good enough.
     I've been writing fiction featuring diverse protagonists since I was eleven.  I've learned a lot, I've unlearned a lot, I've done a lot of research, I've done a lot of research that negated that research, I've done a lot of researched that negated the negation of that research--and I've come to develop a personal code to write by, compiled here for the first time ever.
     Maggie's Laws of Fiction Diversification:

6.  Thou Shalt Never Assume That You Know Everything: Do Your Research

     Never assume that you're qualified to write a story about someone or something you don't fully understand.  Even if you think you understand it, do some research; trust me, you'll benefit.  Find some surveys, get books out at the library, read articles online, binge relevant tv shows on Netflix, spend hours scanning relevant pages on Wikipedia and eye-guzzling related tropes on tvtropes; the more you can take in, the better equipped you'll be, and the closer to the source these things are, the better.
     Read articles straight people write about the gay experience, sure, that'll help you write relationships between gay and straight people, but always give more credence to first-person reports, because in the end, no one knows something as well as the one who's lived it.  Abled people can totally understand and sympathize with disabled experiences--they just usually don't, and they'll never be as intimately familiar with the teeter-totter of acceptance and resentment, or societal stigma, or the physical/emotional sensations as someone who's lived it.  Any source is valuable, if only because it gives you some idea of how different people see the issue in question, but some are more credible than others.
     And no, that stuff you learned in school about the Civil Rights movement is not enough; I could go on forever about subpar nature of the public school system, but suffice it to say you have an internet, so use it.

5.  Thou Shall Ask Questions; Get Involved

     Routinely ask yourself questions as you write; is this respectful?  Is this accurate?  Does my research support this?  What do other people think?  Is this portrayal stereotypical?  Is this stereotype justifiable, or would people take offense?  Don't be afraid to reach out to people who know what they're talking about and ask questions or contribute to discussion; follow @WeNeedDiverseBooks on Twitter, or keep an eye out for the #DisChat tag, follow authors that frequently discuss life as a marginalized person, and don't be afraid to DM someone from an advice blog or an advocate who welcomes questions (such as myself).

4.  Thou Shall Get Betas

     Okay, so you did a great job, you used your research, you asked questions, that's wonderful; now get Betas that belong to the groups you've casted your characters into.  You protagonist is a black paraplegic?  You should have both black and disabled CPs/Betas, paraplegic if at all possible.  You may not be able to find a beta or CP for every demographic you cover, but the closer you can get, the better--and absolutely do not assume that you don't need this step.  You can do all the research, avoid stereotypes like the plague, and still make a mistake--it could be something simple and stupid, a mistranslation of a language you don't really speak, you used the name of the wrong tribe, you used a term or grammatical structure that only seems offensive to the people to whom it would actually refer.
     There are a lot of things you can get wrong and never realize, and a lot of other people might not realize either--which is why it's important to fix them before your MS goes anywhere near print.  Just because most people won't notice doesn't mean it's okay not to fix it.
     Make sure the right people are betaing your work.

3.  You Will Get It Wrong

     It's inevitable.  No matter how much you rake over that MS with a fine-toothed comb, you're gonna fuck it up somewhere along the line.  It's inevitable.  That's why we have CPs and Betas and Editors and Agents and more Editors and Publishers and more Editors; humans err.  That's kind of our thing, and it's to be expected.
     You're gonna fuck up.  Just like I fucked up the 10 Commandments theme right here right now.  That's life.  Sometimes you screw the pooch.
     Don't let it get to you.  Don't let it scare you.  Every mistake is something to learn from, a lesson you needed but just got a little late, and it's okay.  As long as you don't close yourself off and insist that you're infallible, things will be okay; you'll figure out where you went wrong, apologize to whoever you offended, and get it right the next time.
     Also:  If you've done the research and you did your best, anyone who screams at you for making a mistake isn't worth your time.  Listen to the people who critique your work, but don't bother trying to please everybody because

2.  Someone Will Always Be Offended

     There was that "Trans-Ginger" episode of South Park a while back that stirred up quite a controversy; I knew a lot of trans people who were really pissed off about it, but I also knew some who were really pleased with the way it turned out.  Likewise, I'm sure there were people who were offended by the South Park episode featuring Tourette's, but I personally have found it to be the most accurate depiction on television I've ever seen.
     I've also seen a number of cases where people were offended by someone's story only for it to come out that the experiences of the marginalized character were based off of the experiences of the like-marginalized author.  Actually, that one's not uncommon--I can't tell you how many times I've seen long, drawn-out arguments on Twitter break out because so many people don't want to hear autistic stories written by autistic authors.
     Point is: there's always going to be someone who likes what you write, no matter how terrible, and no matter how factually and emotionally accurate, there will always be someone who takes offense.  You can't let it get to you.  Consider the reactions of your audience, take them into consideration, ask yourself if you could have done better, but if you honestly wouldn't change a thing?  Don't sweat it.
     I, for one, fully expect people to be offended by the way I write characters based off myself.  I certainly won't like it, but I expect it.  That's how the internet often works these days.

1.  Everyone is human

     As I see it, this is the most important thing to remember when writing diversity--no matter who they are, no matter what they look like, no matter where they come from or what their motivations or limitations are, this character you've chosen to create is a human being.  They have thoughts and feelings and hopes and dreams; they are three dimensional, with hobbies and passions and friends and complex relationships with those friends or families and hopes and dreams; they're the best at something, they're the worst at something, they're decent at some stuff, they're bad at other stuff, they have things they do for profit and things they do for others and things they do just because it makes them happy, they have virtues and vices, talking points and flaws.
     Your characters are not just what makes them diverse, and forming their entire arc around that one (or those multiple) thing(s) is a failure on your part as a writer to impart life into your character.
     Before anything and everything else, I make sure that my characters are three dimensional; the rest will follow.  People are people are people are people, and that's what it all comes down to.  You might get things wrong--your research might be from the wrong sources, you might have conflated two groups on accident, you might have played into stereotypes without realizing it, and if that's so, you fix it--if you can--and apologize and learn from that mistake; you make better decisions next time.  But at least you'll know that you created something real.  Maybe not perfect, maybe not fully accurate, maybe not what everyone wanted!  But you didn't steal away anyone's humanity in the process.

0.  Do No Harm

     I don't do stereotypes; I don't half-ass my research; I don't pin "types" into certain categories, and I try my damnedest to make sure that I'm not accidentally demonizing diversity (and since I have a soft spot for writing objectively terrible, immoral, and amoral protagonists, I have my work cut out for me) or giving in to harmful tropes and plots.
     As writers, we have an obligation to be honest and hard-working, well-researched and goodwilled, because artists determine the fate of mankind.  That may seem a little overdramatic, and maybe it is, but who would you say has been most influential to you over the course of your life?  After your parents (for good or for ill) and possibly your siblings or extended kin, it's probably an artist--a writer, a movie-star, a photographer, a director, a comedian.  Artists have immense power in this world--we are the voices children are listening to, we are the modern philosophers.  Science teaches kids the how and the what; we deal with the whys.
     Doctors and psychologists take an oath to Do No Harm, and it's my firm belief that it's our job to do the same.  We can't promise we won't accidentally do harm, but we should strive, at all times, to make sure we aren't making life hard for ourselves, our kith, our kin.
     Art is exceedingly influential, and we should never use that influence for evil.

The Rajaqweet: Up and Kicking!

     As of last week, as promised, The Rajaqweet is up!  


















A proper banner will be crafted as soon as I can get to it, but in the meantime there's this.  As mentioned before, The Rajaqweet is a thrice-weekly-updating webcomic about immortal universe-hopping aliens, the species they've conquered, and what happens when those species revolt.
     The greater comic that is The Rajaqweet is composed of the three following arcs:

Hail To The Noose:  Updating Mondays, Hail To The Noose follows a Rajaqweet enforcer of the law of His Badass Glorification as she seeks to bring order to an unruly newly-conquered planet called Ceril, and to dispose of any traitorous scum she might come across while there.

Hiding Heinrik:  Updating Wednesdays, Hiding Heinrik is about Mav, Mave, Desna, Fera, and X, a bunch of queer kids (where 'kids' is a relative term, seeing as they're all in their twenties) who somehow find themselves harboring an alien refugee from both shady government agencies and the Rajaqweet  he was running from to begin with.  Hijinks ensue.

Shithouse Maggots:  Updating Fridays, Shithouse Maggots begins with Sklor, a Rajaqweet Conqueror, being put on a new assignment a little earlier than she expected, much to her distaste.  It's a crummy little planet called Earth, and it shouldn't take too long to grind it beneath her heel--except that her Enabler is the worst in the world, and he's making her infiltrate the planet from the ground up.  Oh yeah, and those little tiny humans, the ones that are squishy and don't have all their teeth yet?  She now has two.
     Thanks Fearlobe.

The Rajaqweet can be found on both Tumblr and on Tapastic.

"Love Is What You Make It" Is Live!!!

     A few days ago I promised that I would start updating a story about polyamorous soul mates on Wattpad every Tuesday and Thursday--and it's really late on a Tuesday night, but it's still Tuesday (even in New York!) and the first chapter is up and ready to be read!
     The cover page isn't up to the standards I'd like it to meet, so I'm planning to remodel it when I get a free minute, but for now that up there is what we've got, and I'll post the summary again below.
     If you read the first chapter and like it, I always welcome feedback, and if you didn't like it and you want to let me know why I'd be grateful--just like all of you out there, I too am an imperfect sack of bones and meat (shocking, I know), and am ever striving towards self-improvement.
     If, for whatever reason, you might want access to early chapters, and in particular if you happen to also be PoC, LGBTQIA+ (intersex/intergender in particular), polyamorous, Jewish, or Muslim, I'm open and eager to having Beta readers (or even critique partners if you've got a WIP you'd like to swap chapters of)!  If that's the case you can reach me in the comments, dm me on twitter, message me on tumblr, or email me at TheSpiderWriter@gmail.com.
     And, since I'm new to Wattpad, if you have any good story recs for me (fantasy/sci fi/horror are my favorites, but I like a little bit of everything) drop 'em in the comments and I'll check 'em out! :)

Love Is What You Make It Summary:

Everyone is born with a name on their wrist.  One name.  Everyone gets one, that is all.
     Jack is born with three.
     Growing up in a world that's been shaped by the concept of one person, one soul mate is difficult when whatever forces govern the creation of such bonds have decided that you're destined to be polyamorous--or maybe that your soulmates are destined to die, one-by-one, along the way?  Jack doesn't know.  Jack is terrified that he doesn't know.  Jack tries not to think about the things he doesn't know.
     But what he does know is that when he meets Thomas Gray, a damaged jerk with too many pairs of glasses, everything is easy, everything is hard, and nothing will ever be the same again. 
     It's difficult, trying to figure what destiny is with only six words to guide you, especially in a world where lifting your sleeve too high might get you killed in the wrong neighborhood--but it's still four more than most people get, and Jack is eager to find out what that means.

Upcoming Projects

     It's a Sunday, and I don't usually post on Sundays (anymore), but I had some exciting news that I wanted to share with everybody without taking away one of the normal blog spots.
     While I've been online a long time, my online presence in my "rl" persona is relatively new.  I don't have a lot of stories to my name, and this year I've decided to change that; coming soon to an internet near you are the following works by Meghan D. Coates aka Maggie C. aka TheSpiderWriter aka the walking encyclopedia aka the one with too many nicknames please just stop already we're so confused:

Bloody, Bold, Irresolute:

What It Is:  A podcast about superheroes, supervillains, government intervention, a lowkey dystopia, true AI, floating robots, a talking tiger, aliens, violence, and gray morality based off of a 951 page novel I wrote when I was twelve (no worries, it's being heavily rewritten).

Summary:   In which the first superhero ever is crude, inaffable, irreverent, and incondite--in other words, a total asshole who probably shouldn't be trusted with a weapon of any sort.
     Bedecked with robots, a talking tiger, shitty police networks, half-abandoned towns, and vigilantes and villains galore, Bloody, Bold, Irresolute follows the Green-Eyed Albino (known to herself and her Droids as Wintergreen) as she kicks ass, takes names, and maybe sorta tries to save the world a little bit.

   

When:  The first and third sundays of every month, starting on Sunday, 2/21/16.

Where:  Soundcloud.com/bloodyboldirresolute

Website:  BloodyBoldIrresolute.weebly.com

Love Is What You Make It:

What It Is:  A semi-episodic experimental/exploratory slice-of-life romance story about a world where one is born with their soul mate's name on their wrist, which changes colors when you meet for the first time.

Summary:  Everyone is born with a name on their wrist.  One name.  Everyone gets one, that is all.
     Jack is born with three.
     Growing up in a world that's been shaped by the concept of one person, one soul mate is difficult when whatever forces govern the creation of such bonds have decided that you're destined to be polyamorous--or maybe that your soulmates are destined to die, one-by-one, along the way?  Jack doesn't know.  Jack is terrified that he doesn't know.  Jack tries not to think about the things he doesn't know.
     But what he does know is that when he meets Thomas Gray, a damaged jerk with too many pairs of glasses, in his class mid-junior-year, everything is easy, everything is hard, and nothing will ever be the same again.
     It's hard, trying to figure what destiny is with only six words to guide you, especially in a world where lifting your sleeve too high might get you killed in the wrong neighborhood--but it's four more than most people get, and Jack is eager to find out what that means.

When:  Tuesdays and Thursdays (hopefully in the mornings, but it may vary because school) starting 2/16/16.

Where:  Wattpad.com/ispiderwriter

The Rajaqweet

What It Is:  A collection of three webcomics concerning a race of immortal universe-hopping aliens with the single-minded goal of conquering and ruling over everything, everyone, everywhere.

Summary:  

Hail To The Noose:  Dhalast is very young, very driven, very single-minded, very accomplished; at the juvenile age of five hundred years, she earns her first face-to-face meeting with His Badass Glorification, the primordial behemoth, ever-growing, never-evolving, that has ruled over The Rajaqweet almost since the birth of the universe.
     After being promoted to a stationary rank on a small green planet called Ceril, it becomes her duty to keep the local population under the keen blade of the law, with the help of a few locals that have been delegated to act as her legal cabinet.  With Dhalast's impressive wit and keen senses (and Zharresk's understanding of local custom) it should be simple enough, but when the descendant of the most infamous rebel in Rajaqweet history makes herself known, Dhalast may finally meet her match.

Hiding Heinrik:  In a cozy seven-room apartment in the city there lives a group of five very close, very weird, very queer friends.  There's Mav, the everyman, studying for med school, and Mave, his twin sister, who's studying fashion and likes to throw knives, their friend Fera, an eight-star chef (in a rating system by her own design) who loves just about every sport, the group's default mom/dad Desna, an artist as dedicated to her friends as she is to her pacifistic moral code, and of course, X, a dabbler in all things who can't be boxed in by traditional ... anything, really.
     So when X, Desna, and the girls save an alien refugee from a crashed space ship and make Mav patch it back together, they're not exactly surprised that it fits right into their life.  And they've seen a lot of movies, so those FBI agents knocking on the door, the alien they see out of the corner of their eyes every now and again that then vanishes like smoke in the wind--they're basically to be expected.  But seeing as half of them are at least pseudo-pacifists, Fera and X are the only ones who have been in a real fight before, and Mav and Mave's mother is part of the very same government they're trying to slip under the radar of, things might get tricky....

Shithouse Maggots:  Sklor is young but not extremely young; she's talented, but not extremely talented; she's loyal, but she doesn't treat her lord's word like holy doctrine.  Maybe that's why He throws this extra assignment at her the day she's supposed to start her vacation.  Or maybe her Enabler is every bit the fucknugget she always dreamed he would be.
     Whatever the reason for her most recent assignment is, she's gotta do it--Planet Earth, fleshy meat creatures, hyper-militaristic.  Get in, rise to power, get out, should only take about a week.
     Should.  It should only take about a week.  When you add in a human form, a total lack of any kind of job experience or references, two be-legged larvae she's meant to help raise, and an only half-downloaded Culture Chip, the timeline might increase a little--or a lot.
     Well, as long as she doesn't stick around long enough to get (*shudder*) attached to anything, she should be fine.  She'll just make sure her next vacation is twice as long as this one was supposed to be.

When:  
HttN:  Mondays
HH:  Wednesdays
SM:  Fridays
Starting Monday, 3/7/16

Where:  TBA

On A Quest For Critique Partners: The Casual Ties of War

     Hello, everyone!  Maggie here, your spideriest writeriest southern New Yorker schooling in LA.  I've been working hard on a number of projects since coming to AMDA this October, and one of those projects has been my attempt to whip one of my stage plays into shape!
     At this point, I've been through my manuscript about a dozen times with a myriad of pen colors, and I think I've reached the point where a vacuum is no longer useful; I need eyes on the ground.  So here I'm reaching out to anyone and everyone who might have need of a Critique Partner, and also has experience with plays.  It's not necessary that the piece you'd like critiqued right now be a play (though it would be cool if it were), but I do need CPs who know about play structure and what does and doesn't work on stage to help lash this bad boy into shape.
     If, after reading the blurb below, you think you might be interested, send me an email at TheSpiderWriter@gmail.com with a summary of the work you'd like critique on, and if it catches my eye, maybe we can talk shop!  Hope to hear from you soon!


The Casual Ties of War:  A ~13k dramedy of errors about love, duty, and the costs of war.

     Delial does not fall in love with her superiors!  ... Except maybe just this once.  But Soro is so sweet and kind, and better with a blade than anyone Delial's ever met!  And, technically she's not Delial's superior, just a superior.  She's not even older than Delilal, she's younger by two years and then some.  So it's not as bad as when her sister or best friend do it.
     ... Unless Delial mistook Soro for someone she's not, and Soro lied about who she really is in order to feel like she was someone's equal for once.  I mean, that could be so dangerous!  Especially if Delial wasn't who Soro thought, either--and if the mission Delial's on is meant to culminate in the death of someone that Soro's pretending she isn't.
     In the long-running war between Terra and Forma, tundra kingdoms of the frozen north, there's a lot that's been lost, but these young women will soon find out that even in a time of perpetual war, in a place of perpetual frost, there's a lot still left to lose.