Young Writers Society

Benji has never liked interacting with other people. Anyone who doesn't know him well (which is many people) would be surprised to discover that he's one of The Skeptic's leading reporters. But Benji's happy to work from the comfort of his home, explaining away conspiracy theories with cold, hard facts. It makes the world feel right.

Success, however, comes at a price. Benji is given an assignment that involves actually going somewhere: Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Point Pleasant is gearing up for its annual Mothman Festival and The Skeptic wants the scoop from one of its favorites. Considering that the festival is the town's busiest time of the year, it's an absolute nightmare for an introvert.

Things only get worse when he arrives. Tourists and reluctant reporters aren't the only people interested in Mothman Festival. Recent Mothman sightings have attracted a darker side of the cryptozoology: cryptid hunters, who are more intent on claiming Mothman as a trophy than proving its existence. The worst of them is all is Daniel Leeds, a hunter who's known in secretive circles for catching the Jersey Devil and putting it on display in his forest mansion.

Benji just wants to stick to reporting the festival, but Daniel refuses to let him do his job in peace. Benji's secrets—and the reason he left Point Pleasant years ago—are on the line.

And he's not sure he can keep them under wraps for much longer.

I'll probably do some of the PlanMo activities here in the near-ish future, but here's a rough character list in the meantime!


His full name is Benjamin, but he goes by Benji for short. He’s a writer and reporter for The Skeptic, which is basically a rip-off of Buzzfeed if they only had Buzzfeed Unsolved. He’s been working there for the past few years, but doesn’t really have any friends because he has a deep, dark secret: he has magic.

Benji's tall. He's a little bit muscular, but it's not by much. His black hair is on the shorter side. It's also neatly styled, but he has a tendency to make it messy when he's stressed by running his fingers through it.

His eyes are a rich, dark brown. In some lights, they come across as a dark red or maroon—almost like when a camera catches the light weird when taking a photo. He's on the paler side, and his skin is free of any noticeable blemishes. His outfits usually involve jeans, a necklace he keeps tucked underneath his shirt at all times, sneakers and oversized hoodies with the occasional scarf for him to hide his face behind. His outfits give off the vibe that he doesn't want to be noticed.

He grew up in Point Pleasant, and makes it very clear that he doesn’t want to be going back.


One of the world’s best cryptid hunters, even though he’s only caught one cryptid. It's a tough career choice. He supposedly keeps the stuffed Jersey Devil on display at his secretive manor in the woods. He’s ridiculously wealthy, but also keeps most of that wealth hidden from the public eye.

He has the gritty sort of vibe you get from a post-apocalyptic/Supernatural character. The vibe doesn't extend to his personality, but it's a good way to describe his appearance. He's pretty tall. He's not enormous, but he definitely is taller than most people by at least an inch. He's also lean; he has muscles, but they're well-hidden.

He has somewhat long brown hair that he almost always keeps in a ponytail, and a pair of silver eyes that are so light that they look white in some lights.

His outfits almost always include his brown leather jacket, black combat boots, silver ring, and jeans. The designs on the t-shirts he wears vary; sometimes they're plain, and other times they're not.

Other notable things about him are his New Jersey accent, how much of a disaster gay he is, and how badly this poor guy wants a found family to call his own.


A cryptid hunter that idolizes Daniel but also totally dissed him the first time they met in person. She’s your basic, run-of-the-mill cryptid hunter. She thinks cryptids can be dangerous and also thinks hunting them is a good way to study them. She comes off as rough and villainous, but I love her very much despite her showing up only once in an abandoned podcast script I made for this.


Marsha’s...friend???? Lover??? I’m leaning towards lover. She’s the one who actually recognizes Daniel when they first run into him, and also serves as someone to pick Marsha up after Daniel dismisses the two of them for Benji. She’s more observant, so she's likely going to be the first person (besides maybe Daniel) to realize Benji has a deep, dark secret. Like Marsha's, she's a secondary character.


A cryptid hunter from Ohio that Daniel and a few other cryptid hunters are staying with during the Mothman Festival. He seems like a pretty chill guy. I don’t think Daniel and him are super close; Rob is just offering his big place up as somewhere for all the hunters to hang. Definitely a secondary character.

Okay if you need a beta reader after you finish this, hit me up <3

I would love that, @Carlito! Thank you so much. 🥺

If all goes well, I should have the first draft down when NaNo ends! But we'll see if I go past the 50,000 words. <3

Since I keep forgetting cryptids aren’t common knowledge and are just a thing I got weirdly obsessed with back in my senior year of high school, I realized that it might be a good idea to actually explain what they are before starting The Cryptid Hunters this November.

So hi! Here’s a quick explanation of what exactly cryptids are.

According to Merriam-Webster, cryptids are “an animal that has been claimed to exist but never proven to exist” and don’t necessarily have to be supernatural. Theoretically, if you discovered a brand new kind of frog in your backyard, but tragically weren’t able to get any evidence on the frog actually existing, then the frog would count as a cryptid. To make things a little more confusing, some aliens can also be considered cryptids, but might not be described that way in most conversations.

Popular examples of cryptids (also courtesy of Merriam-Webster) are Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. More niche ones that are popular in the online cryptid community (or at least on Tumblr) are Mothman, the Jersey Devil, and the Flatwoods monster. Mothman is especially popular—Buzzfeed Unsolved even searched for Mothman in one of their Supernatural episodes, which also goes over how Point Pleasant, the place Mothman was first sighted in, has incorporated Mothman into its local culture.

To end this guide, here’s a photo of one of the most entertaining cryptids I’ve ever heard of! It’s called the Fresno Nightcrawler and looks like a pair of walking pants.

Time for a good old NaNo/WIP tradition! After going years with only Daniel being drawn once, Benji and Daniel finally have some Picrews to call their own. I used this Picrew to make the two of them.

(I also may or may not have a secret second one for Benji.)

Benji is up top, while Daniel is down below!