Ugh...help...?

[Tempero]

I have been role playing for two years now, I think, and I've been with 100m since about the beginning, but not quite.

However, in all this time, I have not seen a single improvement in my writing. At the same time, I seem to be having a hard time getting Chris' character concept across...or the concept's just bad, I don't know which. In any case, while I can see improvements in my stories, I cannot see it in Role Play, for an odd reason.

The point of all this is simple: I need help in improving my RP skills. I would greatly appreciate any input/help/comments/thoughts on this, as well as suggestions on how to improve.

Thank you in advance.

[Bobby Drake]

hm.

that's an interesting request, and I'm not at all sure how to address it.

I guess the best suggestion I can make is to tackle the problem from the other direction -- look at RP logs that you think are good, and try to find things about the writing in them that you think contribute to that, and try adopting those things.

[Jack Russell]

Read, read, read, read, read, read. ..and then read some more. That's helped me a lot.

And, if you're having some problems with your character's concept, as you say, I would suggest maybe some one-shots with more internal monolgue. That's just what helps me when I'm having issues with trying to focus on the essence of my character.

With the whole act of RPing as a whole, I can't really tell you how to improve other than practice. Eventually, you hammer out your own style and it's pretty hard to go beyond that without trodding on someone else's toes. Simply, just make sure you look at everything, and don't focus only on your own posts. Ask yourself,'does this work? does this fit?', because you have to remember you're interacting with other people and their characters.

Hope that helps! (:

[Tempero]

@ Bobby

Well that's the problem- I am generally dissatisfied with everything I write, story or RP, better than earlier or not... but I'll see what I can do...maybe I actually dig something out, eh?

Jack Russell ('cause it's the one in the thread and all, lol)

Reading almost got me an F in a class last year...it took priority to World History, hah.

*will have to look up one-shots on the site to see how they're done*

Just pick a topic and make the character completely engulfed by it, or something?

And I'll try with the looking at everything, although I'm pretty sure I've mostly been doing it...*will look*

Tanks guys!

[Bobby Drake]

I'll second Jack's comment about one-shots. When I'm having trouble figuring out what drives a character, I'll sometimes take some time to work through a scene where they have to make a decision that seems important to them (like future!bob, a little while ago), and it seems to help.

Actually, as I think about it, I think that's good advice in general -- have a clear sense of what your character wants in any given thread.

I don't mean generalizations about their overall personality and what they want out of life.

I mean, right here, right now, what do they want? Often it's trivial: lunch. New shoes. To clear the high score on Minesweeper. But if you do enough of this even the trivial stuff starts to form a pattern and you get a sense of character continuity.

Bobby, for example, almost always wants to stop thinking about whatever he's thinking about, and generally wants everyone to like him.

Warren almost always wants to communicate with someone, but beyond that I don't really know what he wants, which makes him more difficult to write outside of those sorts of scenes. When I don't have another PC to bounce him off of he ends up having intense conversations with NPCs. * points to his meeting Rasputin at the movies, by far the most extreme example *

Rahne generally wants to join in in whatever's going on; I still don't know what she wants when she's alone... and I never write her alone, in consequence. I still find her difficult to write; she's still more of a schtick than a character for me.

Wanda never wanted much of anything except, initially, information; I found her impossible to write once she'd gotten that information.

Two other things come along with this, for me.

The first is, if my char doesn't think s/he can get what s/he wants from the other characters posting on the thread, there's a problem... I won't be interacting, I'll just be in the same room doing something else. (This can actually be kinda fun, if the thread itself is otherwise active. But it will usually kill a 2- or 3-person thread.) I need to come up with SOME reason for my character to think "This person can give me what I want" or "This person is in the way of my getting what I want," however absurd that reason may be, or I'm just not going to engage.

The second thing is, I need to make sure my character doesn't actually get what they want... because once they do, I'm in the same position as the above. If they do, they either leave the thread, or have to want something else.

Dunno if any of this helps, but I'd never really thought about it explicitly before, so it was interesting to write.

Oh, and also: when I said look at logs that you like and borrow stuff, I didn't just mean yours. Take a look at what other people are doing that you think is good, and try to find things in it that you aren't doing, and borrow it. The result will probably be clumsy at first, but it will get you thinking outside your usual box. (As an example: I'm very fond of Toni's complete inanity, and I started borrowing it for Bobby from time to time. * points to the gym conversation with Laurie, what with the Frank Sinatra and the goldfish and such * The result was not at all like Toni, but it gave Bobby a new dimension I am fond of.)

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

I definitely agree with goal-directed behavior being important, like Bob said above. I also think that the character evolving somehow is important, otherwise your idea gets stagnant. For example, I've found the Laurie/Sean story unfolding slowly to be really interesting. I also have enjoyed the changing faces of Bobby we've seen, and as for me, the Josh/Warren relationship has been really satisfying to see develop.

Sometimes, I notice, your characters tend to close themselves off to others within a thread. Sometimes that's appropriate, but maybe that's where you're having difficulty? RPing, after all, is a give and take process.

Just my ideas...