The first-ever #CripLit Twitter Chat, for and about writers with disabilities, is happening this Saturday: July 23, 4 pm Pacific/7 pm Eastern (midnight in the UK, 7 am Sunday in Perth and 9 am in Sydney—if you’re a night owl or early bird, do join us!).

This first chat will be about fiction: writing characters with disabilities. Future chats will focus on different genres.

Here are the ten questions that we (your co-hosts, me and Alice Wong) will be setting this time out:

Q1 Please introduce yourself, your areas of interest as a writer, and any links to your work #CripLit

Q2 Do you identify as a disabled writer (or writer w/ a disability)? If so, why? Or do you prefer to be thought of as a writer, period? #CripLit

Q3 Among writers, what groups/communities do you have an affinity towards? Who supports you & your work? #CripLit

Q4 Do you connect with other disabled writers? If yes, why is that important? #CripLit

Q5 Are there disabled writers you love & want to highlight? Please describe and share your faves #CripLit

Q6 Who are some of your favourite disabled characters? Why? #CripLit

Q7 What is your process in developing a character, a disabled one in particular? Describe some disabled characters you created #CripLit

Q8 What tropes and stereotypes are you careful to avoid when constructing disabled stories & characters? #CripLit

Q9 What’s your advice to disabled & non-disabled writers who want to write believable & compelling stories about disabled ppl? #CripLit

Q10 What do you want most in terms of support? Better representation at conferences? (If so, which ones?) Something else? #CripLit

Hopefully this will give you lots of time to think about your responses. If you’d rather just chat off the cuff (probably what I’ll end up doing because, well, life) just show up and let rip. There will no doubt be other questions and other avenues to explore in the moment.

Anyway, when you respond to a question such as Q1, your tweet should follow this format: “A1 [your message] #CripLit”. Check out this explanation of how to participate in a chat by Ruti Regan. You might want to use a Twitter chat app like TweetChat but it’s not necessary. If you don’t use Twitter and want to follow along in real-time, check out the #CripLit live-stream.

For a fuller explanation of who, what, why, when, and how, read my previous post, #CripLit Twitter Chat.

See you there!