Welcome (back) to the Scarlet Quill Society!
In 2023 YeahWrite’s free workshop is going back to the basics with a focus on tropes, the sometimes imperceptible and often underrated building blocks of writing. Check out the bottom of this post (and every post) for a roadmap to the year. We’ll be updating it with links each month as the posts go live, so that you can navigate through easily. And don’t forget to check out the Writing Resources tab up **gestures vaguely upwards** there to find our previous workshop series on prompts and editing (not at the same time).
The biggest bonus of the Scarlet Quill Society is that there are actual club meetings. That’s right! Once a month we’ll get together with you and talk about that month’s subject, answer questions, and record the chat for posterity. So if you have an easier time taking in information that way, or if you’re left with lingering questions after a monthly topical post, you’ve got a chance to get the full picture! Check out the full description at the main Scarlet Quill Society page.
Like a Möthman to a Lämp
Sorry in advance for what this post is about to do to your browser history. Maybe use an incognito window or something. You were warned.
Chuck Tingle. Lora Leigh. Anne Rice. Destiel shippers. What do they all have in common? This month’s theme. See, it’s October and we thought we’d see how many ways we could write “monsterfuckers” without using the actual word “monsterfuckers.” Whether the monster in question is a human with a dark secret or a literal collection of eyes and connectors (timestamp you want is 1:28:54), someone out there is hot for it. And neither we nor our panel of horror writers this month is going to judge you for being hot for cryptkeeper. What we *are* going to do is talk a little bit about the history of the trope and some ways to handle it less problematically – while still keeping your fanged tentacle monsters hot.
The history of monsters – a very Disney story
In 1954, Dr. Frederic Wertham published the now-infamous book Seduction of the Innocent, and launched a new era of comic censorship. But he was neither alone nor really a pioneer: the Hays Code for movie productions had been in force for two decades. Among the forbidden topics were sexuality, drug use, “sympathy for criminals” and interracial relationships. Between the Comics Code and the Hays Code, media through the central part of the 20th century had to be very careful in how it approached or addressed many subjects.
Just one problem: representation matters. People look for themselves in comics and movies. And while miscegenation was disallowed, implicit sexual contact with monsters… didn’t count.
So if all the people like you are depicted as either being or banging monsters, eventually do you embrace that?
Guillermo Del Toro says: yes. Yes you do.
But that’s an oversimplification – the Hays Code was half a century away when Le Fanu was writing lesbian vampire erotica. Maybe it’s safe to say that as long as we’ve had monsters, we’ve had people who are kind of into monsters. By which I mean horny for. After all, Leda didn’t seem particularly worried about taking a swan as a lover.
So clearly we’re not about to tell you not to write monster-centric erotica. Or even nonerotic monster relationships. Heck, maybe your monster is ace or aro. It’s all good! Bad! Whatever! What we do want to talk about is the ethics of monsterfuckery.
Pounded in the Butt by My Own Sense of Ethics and Consent
It’s a Chuck Tingle reference folks. And we could all take a page out of Dr. Tingle’s book, to be quite honest – specifically this one. Now, let’s dive into ethical monsterbangin – with a quick side note.
The quick side note: This isn’t the place to get into dubcon/noncon and mind control and a/b/o dynamics (oh my gosh kids don’t google that) other than to note that the roots of a lot of these stories (with the exception of that one extraordinarily good Stucky clownfish fic, you know the one and if you don’t please go find it and thank me later) are in the same complex dynamic as classic cishet romances with a rapey moment or forced marriage. That is, it’s a quick and easy way around cultural shame programming about wanting and enjoying sex if you’re from a demographic that’s not normatively supposed to want or enjoy that. So if you can’t *help* it, you might as well *enjoy* it, and now it’s not your *fault.* We understand where you’re coming from but honestly some therapy with a sex-positive counselor would be a great thing for you to do before you write your next fic. Thank youuuuu and enjoy that clownfish thing, you’re welcome.
OKAY. With that out of the way, the important elements of ethical monstermackin are agency and consent.
Agency
In a very general sense, having agency is having the capacity to think and act on one’s own behalf. When we talk about having agency in a story, we’re talking about the ways in which the character’s goals and decisions drive them, letting them be active rather than reactive. One classic example of agency is the moment in the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy confronts the Wizard. Previously she has been purely reactive: the tornado moved her, she went where she was told, she even killed who she was told to kill, without really questioning the motive forces that surrounded her. But when she pulls back the curtain and starts making decisions about how to treat others and what she really wants and how she’ll get it, she grasps agency.
Some ways a character can lack agency: You’re not clear about their goals, they’re a child, other characters make all the decisions in the story.
If your character lacks agency, you’re going to be missing out on one of the great things about the monster mash: enthusiasm. Also reverse cowgirl. Writing erotica where one or more characters lacks agency is like making one of those boring “pornographic” images of mannequins in Blender. It’s just going to be lacking a certain je sais exactement quoi. See, it’s not just boinking the monster that’s the hot part – especially when you’re talking about a queercoded monster. It’s making the choice to boink the beast.
Consent
It’s 2023 and it’s kind of weird to be talking about consent? Are we still somehow confused about it? Yes, yes we are. Consent is both complex and not. Look, the thing that makes Tinglers tingle is consent. The hotness isn’t in the way the monster has more options for insertions, it’s about the human making the active and enthusiastic choice to engage in those insertions. It’s not “being monsterfucked” it’s “being a monsterfucker” and that right there is a big difference.
Consent is, of course, inextricably intertwined with agency. If you don’t have agency, you can’t meaningfully consent. So mind control? No consent. Child? Ew, no. Your planet is being held hostage and the only way to save it is… STILL NO. And making the beast with two (or three? Or more?) backs with one monster once doesn’t mean that your character consents to every monster ever, or even that monster every time. There’s a big difference between a troll and Cthulhu!
And it’s not enough to be able to say yes. You have to know what you’re saying yes to. This means some uncomfortable (or uncomfortably sexy) moments of disclosure for your monster. Got a monster with a weird dick? Disclose it. Ovipositor situation? Disclose it. Then have fun with it.
Also, look, consent doesn’t rule out the good old-fashioned hatefuck. It just means that your character should know and choose what they’re getting themself into. Or what they’re getting into themself.
Ok cool I know how to #$%*& a monster but what’s a monster anyway?
We’re so glad you asked. Because there is a whole spectrum of monsters out there, from most human-shaped to least. Essentially a “monster” is something with enough nonhuman characteristics that a US police officer would shoot it on sight. That’s right – did you forget a lot of this was about miscegenation and Blackness? We didn’t. The rest of it is about racism, antiqueerness, and transphobia. But let’s leave that topic for our qualified panel and just discuss some examples in pop culture. You may disagree about these sorting mechanisms, and that’s fine! The important thing is, it’s a monster, and it @#$#s.
Most human. These guys are primarily human-shaped, with mostly human limitations (in and out of bed). Usually they have a distinctive add-on feature like wings or fangs or pointy ears or green skin. The probability that they could cross-breed with humans is pretty high.
- Santa
- Vampires
- Elves
- Dwarves
- Amano Jyaku
- Trolls
- Ogres
- Angels (non-biblical)
- The guy with a hook for a hand
- Catra from She-Ra
- Cyclops
Getting less human. These monsters still have things in common with humans like at least half their body or the ability to be mistaken for a human in poor lighting.
- Werewolves
- Mermaids
- Bigfoot
- Mothman
- Gritty
- The Loveland Frog
- Centaurs
- Yeti
- Skunkape
- Gorgons
Not very human at all. Look, we’re not judging. But you’re going to have to get creative with these guys.
- Pokemon
- Digimon
- Nessie
- Mokele-mbembe
- El Chupacabra
- Muppets
- Jersey Devil
What the del Toro is that? We admire your ambition.
- Angels (biblical)
- Abstract concepts
- Shai-hulud
- The Mongolian Death Worm
- Cthulhu
- Also Digimon
In conclusion…
If you can imagine it, you can do it. And that goes double for “doing” monsters. Supernatural erotica doesn’t have different relationship rules than standardized cis het romance books. It just has different rules of physics and biology. Stick around for our panel discussion this month and we’ll talk more about why than how. But maybe a little about how, too! Happy Halloween Season!
THIS MONTH’S SPECIAL GUESTS
Shannon Barber
Shannon Barber is a horror writer and poet from the Pacific Northwest. They live with one partner, several elderly computers and a lot of creepy knickknacks. Their fiction and poetry has been seen in Shotgun Honey, Gorgon Poetics and Flash Fiction Magazine, and their nonfiction has been published in The Establishment and Nailed Magazine, among others. You can support their work at: https://www.patreon.com/shannonwrites
Marianne Kirby
A speculative southern goth/soft horrorist, Marianne Kirby writes about bodies both real and imagined. She plays with the liminal space between vanishing and visibility. She authored Dust Bath Revival and its sequel Hogtown Market; she co-authored Lessons from the Fatosphere: Quit Dieting and Declare a Truce with Your Body. A long-time writer, editor, and activist, Marianne has also contributed to women’s interest publications, news outlets, and tv shows that require people to have opinions. You can find her at: https://mariannekirby.com
Your turn!
Got questions? Let’s continue this conversation in the Coffeehouse on Facebook or Discord. And keep an eye out for the next face-to-face (face-to-Zoom?) meeting of the Scarlet Quill Society.
Join the Scarlet Quill Society!
Live Scarlet Quill Society meetings take place once a month. This month’s meeting will take place on Monday, October 16, at 5pm Eastern. Yes, we checked that five times. Don’t worry; we’ll send out a reminder! (Not on our mailing list? Sign up here!) Future dates and times TBD based on member and guest availability, but we’ll try to accommodate as many folks as possible. (Yeah. We know. It’s best to have a fixed time. But we think it’s even better than best to be able to accommodate a diverse slate of exciting and qualified panelists, and we hope you’ll agree.)
You can also sign up for a monthly membership! Each month, paid Society members will receive an email with a link to the Zoom meeting. If not every topic interests you, you can also purchase one-time access passes to each month’s meeting via Ko-Fi. If you can’t make it to the meeting, or you don’t like to speak on camera, you are welcome to submit questions before the meeting that our editors will answer in the meeting.
- $5 one-time access to this month’s Zoom session. (The January meeting is free, but please use this link to RSVP!)
- $5 monthly subscription (Pen level): Access to all the live meetings and recordings as soon as they’re uploaded, as well as a private Discord channel where we can discuss tropes in more detail, and your topical questions will be answered by YeahWrite editors! Pen level members can also suggest tropes for future live discussions – our goal is to give you what you want and need!
- $3 monthly subscription (Pencil level): Access to the meeting recordings as soon as they’re uploaded and to the private Discord channel!
A week after the meeting, recordings will become available to all at no cost, but if you find them useful we encourage you to leave a tip in our tip jar—it helps keep the lights on over here and allows us to keep bringing you the high-quality workshop content you’ve come to expect from us, as well as acquire some exciting guest panelists. You can also sign up for a $1/month Paper level membership just to show us you love us.
