Do you have any advice on how to write plural characters?
I would say one of the biggest things that probably gets people caught up about adding plural characters to their stories is how complicated the plural experience can be, so one of the biggest pieces of advice I’d give would be: I’d honestly be happy with simple, casual representation. Got a character with other people in their head? Are those headmates reduced to deranged and evil maniacal mass murderers in the name of warning the audience of the “dangers” of a split mind and to be “wary” of the “violent” mentally ill? No? Then you’re set! You can play it simple, it’s okay. Honestly just that alone would be pretty fun to explore as a writer.
Keep in mind the sheer crazy amount of diversity that plurality can present as. There’s plural folks who have severe amnesia, and plural folks with zero amnesia. Levels of amnesia & amnesia barriers can also vary from alter to alter. There’s people with an incredibly vivid and elaborate entire universe for a headspace, and there’s many folks with zero headspace at all. There’s people with rich and dynamic internal communication, and there’s people who don’t have any internal communication at all, and often times level of internal communication will wax and wane naturally with time. Ours certainly waxed and waned a lot over the years, we have incredible internal communication right now, but that could totally change in the future, and just a year ago we had nearly zero internal communication save for literally only one singular alter, the only alter who was allowed communication access by our gatekeeper. Some people use roles, others don’t at all. Some use medical terminology, some don’t at all. There’s a wide range of headcounts, from well over thousands upon thousands of members, to only two. There’s median systems, facets, seeds, alters who are fully developed and separated individuals, and folks who are just different variations upon the same person. So on and so forth, there’s a million and one different ways to be plural, and all of them are just as valid to represent as the last. Feel free to pick any combo for your characters, anything is good! Have fun exploring all the different varieties! If you wanna have multiple different plural characters so you can explore different kinds of plurality all in one story, that works too!
Plurality can SUCK ASS to experience, but it can also be a pretty lovely and happy and positive thing, too. I’d love both stories that represent plurality in a happy, positive, uplifting lens, AND stories that explore the hardships and struggles of being plural in a way that’s clearly invested in seeing these characters as people, not stereotypes or caricatures or boxes. I’d also love stories that do a bit of both! You can go in any direction, as long as you’re respectful about everyone being treated like people and not caricatures. I’d genuinely enjoy all three approaches, all of them are good.
Read lots of plural comics! They’re perfect for studying depictions of what it’s like straight from the horse’s mouth. There’s hundreds of plural comics out there, read a bunch of em!! Read lots !! This will also help you get a good grasp of the sheer variety of differing experiences!
Don’t be afraid to explore in-sys relationships. They can be platonic, they can be familial, they can be romantic, they can be sexual, they can be spouses, they can be enemies, they can be rivals, they can be unrequited, they can be wholesome, they can be dark as hell, they can be toxic, they can be queerplatonic, and generally there’s a certain degree of automatic intimacy in a completely unique and special, indescribable way that occurs when you’re sharing a body and mind with someone. There’s honestly no words in the English language that can describe it. It’s hardly even queerplatonic, it’s just… something unique to sharing a body with someone. They feel everything you feel, they share the same life you do, they went through the same things you did, they can share your thoughts, you can understand each other on a level that no one else can reach, and yet also know nothing about each other at all. “Soulmates” isn’t even a good enough word for it. But also, you can literally have a normal regular ass romantic relationship with someone in-sys and skip all that stuff. Pretty much any relationship dynamic that can exist between people outside of a system can occur inside the system. This is something I see people explore the least, so I’d personally like to see more of it (especially exploration of romantic, queerplatonic, and sexual in-sys dynamics, no one ever talks about the sexual dynamics) but I also won’t think you’re bad person or smth if you don’t go in-depth into this or don’t end up exploring it much in your writing. It’s just an opinion of something I would personally recommend. If I were to write a plural comic, I would make the in-sys relationships one of my central focuses, just because that’s what’s the most interesting and relevant to my life as a walking polycule lmao.
Don’t forget about the introjects! In-source memories are just as valid and can be just as impactful psychologically as “real world” memories. Introjects can also be factives, and can be introjects of abusers. Systems can consist entirely of introjects or have mostly introjects, or only have one, or have none at all.
A good example webcomic that I follow that’s about plurality is Pipe Up! on ComicFury. We really like it so far!
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