Introductions

I thought it might help build our community some if we introduce ourselves... this is for new, or old, members to tell us a little about themselves and what brought them here or what they hope to gain by participating here.

I'll start off with a little about myself... I'm an avid reader of Superhero Fiction and while surfing around one day I saw mention of the Whateley site (about 2 sites back at this time) and I soon found myself reading through the backlog and anything new that was added. Over time I've joined in helping behind the scenes and now I do quite a bit of different things to help keep it all running. Personally, I'm a Graphic Designer for, currently, a Game Company and in the recent past a Museum. I enjoy reading and watching movie and I'm horrible about talking about myself.

I'll support Dan's rampage... errr.. idea.. and post too.

I'm Kristin. I've been a canon author since the Fall of 2004, one of the first couple people added from the original invitation (of Sapphire's Place, a site no longer up let alone active) by the founders when they posted the first couple stories. While not as prolific as some, I have a few canon protagonist characters: Fling (gen1), Esoteric (gen1), Shieldwall and Tavi (gen2). I'm responsible for the Florida super group Baker's Dozen and the originator of the MMO game world Good and Evil (GEO).

In 2013 when Diane Castle moved on, I picked up admin responsibilities for the site, redesigning it and keeping things running until hackers brought down the original FUDforums when I established our current process of working in Joomla based sites. I have been behind bringing the Gen 2 authors and timeline into the mix and the new site redesign; which has gone exceptionally smoothly thanks to a lot of work on Dan's part.

Outside the WU, I've spent the last two decades in the nonprofit theatre industry... but am currently looking for work in other areas, thanks to the recent shutdown's impact on my industry and former company specifically. What I end up doing is yet to be seen. IT, writing, voiceovers, or theatre.... or something else entirely. Who knows?

Welcome!

To clarify for you, the only 'canon' stories are those written by authors who have been brought into the canon team. There is a possibility for the rare exceptional story to be made canon without the author becoming part of the team but it's far more likely that if you write something that we want to make canon, we'll talk to you about coming into the team.

That said... we avoid treating non-canon works as 'fan fic'. Sure, some of it is exactly that... while some of it is as fully realized, high quality, and coherently written (occasionally BETTER) than existing canon stories. That's why we call our non-canon stuff WhatIF... or Whateley Independent Fiction. WhatIF authors are given the ability to post stories in the forums AND in their own section of our site story releases. They have a private section of the forums (and the Discord server) where they can ask questions of the canon authors to get details that help improve their accuracy to canon mechanics and timelines without us needing to release 'hidden' stuff to the main body of readers (no one wants spoilers... well... mostly)... though we try to avoid revealing too much about what is in the future, where possible sticking to details that help without revealing unwritten stories.

Some authors thrive in the group / shared universe system. Others don't. A LOT of the process of becoming a canon author is learning what you CANNOT do. And whether or not you can or want to work with the personalities and challenges of the existing team. It's a very very different thing that being able to just create your own ideas and write your own stories. Some very good authors prefer not to write as part of the team and there's nothing wrong with that.

So, the bright side of this? You write what you want to write. You can spend as much effort or as little as you want to actually get things 'right' or keep from breaking continuity. We do ask that you remember that the main characters (protagonists) are author specific... you may use canon (and most non-canon) characters in your work, but we do prefer that you not write them 'differently' from how they've been presented... and that you do not write them as your protagonist. If you wish to do that, please talk to the author first. There is very little more frustrating to an author than a fast writing author writing a fan piece that furthers/resolves an ongoing plot line before the owning author does. The author is then either forced to change their original plans or look like they're copying the derivative piece.

You also don't have to deal with our crazy feedback/review process or the other authors telling you "sorry, this sixteen other things are happening in the plotline on that week... your idea won't work."

Down side? There is a 'little' less glory in writing non-canon. And you don't get to hang out in the author lounge where we keep the good scotch (not that the authors get any before the muses drink it all... but that's where its kept).

So for now... don't worry about canon. Get to know the U and the people. Just do some writing. If you want to pursue canon status down the line, we can chat.