Roleplay Gold @rpgold - Tumblr Blog

A List of Things Muns Are Not

Their characters.

As a reminder, the people behind the keyboards are real people. They have lives, and feelings and emotions. They care deeply about personal things, and deal with tiny problems and joys all day just like you. They do not always share opinions of characters (certainly not when we torture our beloved muses with nasty plotlines). They do not have all the free time in the world, and sometimes real life happens. They have moods, and sometimes they just don’t want to do something. This is not against any rule, anywhere. They can play anything in this wide, wide world, and their imagination is the limit; your imagination and opinion does not limit theirs. So take time to remember your partner behind the mask, be thankful they play with you, and give them time and patience for anything that comes up in their life. Don’t attack them for things only their characters do, or what only their character says or believes. Do not attack anyways, offer change, and if you can’t come to a point of acceptance take your own paths and leave it alone. Accept and compartmentalize, the mun and the muse are different people. Take care of both as best you can, and if you don’t get along, set them free to find people they can get along with. This has been a PSA.

#Roleplaying #Mun maintenence #queue

desertgourd

Throw Out Your Thesaurus: 7 Writing Tips from Stephen King

Get to the point. Don’t waste your reader’s time with too much back-story, long intros or longer anecdotes. Reduce the noise. And if you remove all the excess garbage and discover you can’t find the point, tear up what you wrote and start all over again … or try something new.

Write a draft. Then let it rest. This enables you to get out of the mindset you had when you wrote the draft and get a more detached and clear perspective on the text. It then becomes easier to edit, add and cut. The result is most often a better text.

Cut down your text. Remove all the superfluous words and sentences. Removing will declutter your text and often get your message through with more clarity and a bigger emotional punch.

Be relatable and honest. Readers want characters they can relate to with all of their faults, passions, fears, weaknesses and good moments. Keep it simple and use language that isn’t unnecessarily complicated. Using the words that first come to mind.

Don’t care too much what others may think. If you listen too much to your critics, you won’t get much done. Your writing will probably become worse and less fun.

Throw out your thesaurus. The only things creepier than a thesaurus are those little paperbacks college students too lazy to read the assigned novels buy around exam time. Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.

Read and write a lot. When you read you always pick up things. There are almost always lessons you can learn. Just as importantly, to become a better writer you probably – and not so surprisingly – need to write more. Write more often than you think you need to, and push through your writer’s block when it comes. Just getting it going, your emotions change a lot of the time and any initial resistance becomes fun and enthusiasm instead.

— Stephen King

#Writing tips #flow and presentation #queue

Describing Small Males

It's easy to get hung up on descriptive terms, especially when it's for a character who is a little bit in the middle! Here is a great series of tips for ways to describe small male body-types, and how to put imagery behind the many ways to build a smaller male, be he scrawny or effeminate.

http://obsidianbookshelf.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-to-describe-small-male-body-type.html

#Writer tips #Descriptions #How to present your character #queue

fictionwritingtips

5 Ways to Build Your Character

When you’ve been writing for a long time, even seasoned writers run the risk of having their characters feel the same. If you’ve been relying on one type of character in all your novels, now is the time to switch it up. It helps to try different approaches when building characters and see what happens. Here are 5 unique ways to develop your characters:

Ask them questions

Interview your character. Imagine that they’ve been kidnapped by a group of people who want to stop them. What would your protagonist be asked? How would they react? Would they be calm? Angry? Figuring out this stuff will help you mold your character’s personality. How well they do under pressure is important. It helps to make sure the questions they’re asked fit into the world you’ve created and they remain canon, which is why I suggested the kidnapping scenario. That will help you put them in every situation.

Build on a common archetype

You often use character archetypes without even realizing it because they’re almost impossible to avoid. When structuring your character, try to build on a new archetype you’ve never explored before. If you’re always writing the strong male hero, try something else. You can get super creative if you allow yourself to explore outside of your comfort zone. Look up a list of general archetypes and go from there.

Develop their motivations/goals

Before you even think about what your character looks like or how they act, think about the goals you want your protagonist to have. What is the endgame of your novel? What do you want your protagonist to accomplish and/or how do you want them to grow. This allows you to look at character development from a unique perspective. Motivations and goals are one of the most important aspects of any character, so try approaching character building from that angle first.

Try role-playing

Role-playing with an OC is a great way to test them out or get unique story ideas. You’ll know right away if they haven’t been developed enough or their personalities are lacking. Role-playing allows you to know your characters inside and out and puts them in situations they’ve never been in before. You’ll also be able to bounce ideas off of other writers and see what works and what doesn’t.

Learn from their enemies

The best way to learn about a character’s flaws is by asking their enemy. The antagonist of your story will know a lot more about your main character than you even realized. Why does the antagonist want to stop the protagonist? What does their enemy have to gain or lose? Observing the different perspectives people might have of your main character will help you come up with unique situations and allow you to further develop your character.

-Kris Noel

#Character development #queue

fictionwritingtips

I Want to Care About Your Protagonist

The number one reason I stop reading a story is because I just don’t care. I don’t care if your protagonist lives or dies. I don’t care about the stakes. I don’t even really understand who they are. I’m sure a lot of readers are like me in that way. They want to feel emotionally connected to the characters in some way. They want a reason to keep reading.

If you’re finding your protagonist isn’t that interesting or you don’t know how to improve the way you’re writing them, try these tips:

Start Right Away

Don’t make your readers wait to find something to care about. Get your message across as quickly as possible. Who is your protagonist? What do they want? What’s threatening what they want? There are subtle ways to let readers in on your protagonist’s life without giving away everything at once, so don’t info-dump. Most people will stop reading if there’s nothing something interesting happening within the first chapter. This doesn’t mean there needs to be tons of explosions and death—we just need to understand what the deal is.

Make the Stakes Reasonable

The stakes can’t be too low or too high. I know this sounds confusing, but it needs to be something the reader can fully grasp. The stakes should directly impact the protagonist in some way. In other words, readers aren’t going to care too much about your protagonist being 5 minutes late to work. They’re also going to have trouble caring about a fictional planet light-years away being destroyed. You need to give us a reason to care and have the stakes match the tone of the story.

Give us a Reason to Like Them

Protagonists need to be likeable in some way. I’m sure some writers would argue with me on that, but I need a reason to root for the main character. Sure, there’s such thing as an anti-hero, but they usually have some redeeming qualities. Let your readers know why your protagonist is a decent person. Do they have family they care about? Are they protecting something? Why should we like them? Take some time to focus on these questions.

But Don’t Make Them Too Good

Flaws are very important if you want readers to care about your protagonist. A “too perfect” protagonist is very annoying and won’t feel real. Give them some flaws that explain their sometimes less-than-perfect reactions to situations. Are they too quick to act? Are they sometimes a little selfish? Do they crave power in some way? No one in this world is flawless, so your characters shouldn’t be either.

-Kris Noel

#Character development #Noteworthy #Queue

fictionwritingtips

Why Less is Sometimes More

Often I see writers striving to reach a certain word count instead of worrying about by type of content they’ll be producing. I also often see writers attempting to stretch a scene out instead of simply sharing the bare necessities. I’m not saying that you can’t be detailed in your writing, but realize that some things are better without excessive detail.

Here are a few reasons why less is sometimes more:

Too much detail can cause your readers to lose interest

If you go on and on about a character’s appearance or about how a room looks, your readers will eventually feel bored by it. Not only that, but they’ll feel like you’re holding their hand too tightly. Leave some stuff up to the reader’s imagination because they’ll never picture it exactly how you intended.

You don’t need to explain everything

Not everything needs to be explained or sorted out or tied up. As I mentioned before, readers can figure it out themselves as long as you drop enough information. You don’t have to have a character enter a room and describe every little thing they see. Most people don’t think like that in real life.

More can sometimes lead to info-dumping

You don’t want to info-dump. Too much exposition can ruin a novel. You need to trust your readers to discover certain information on their own or find a way to seamlessly add it to your story. Give it some time to naturally occur!

It’s more important to show

We’ve all heard show, don’t tell a million times, but it really means something. Don’t say your character is tall, dark, and handsome. Show us through the way they act. Reveal through the interactions with other characters. Don’t flat out tell us information, show us through the narrative.

-Kris Noel

#How to write the details #queue

roleplayerscoffeeshop

The worst thing is to be bored and have a ton of replies you owe but just not feeling in the proper mood to write.

#Ugh!#Ain't it the truth?

#Character Building #Tips and thoughts #Writer tips

fictionwritingtips

What Should Your Characters Do?

So, you’ve got your characters. You have your plot. You’ve done some outlining, so you know where your story is going.

Now how do you make it all connect?

Many writers have no problems working on all the different parts, but they have trouble putting it all together. If you’re unsure about what you should do next, keep this list in mind:

Make sure your character’s actions drive the story forward

Whatever your characters decide to do, it should tie into the plot somehow. If actions don’t have any repercussions or it does nothing to drive the story forward, your readers will feel cheated. Know the tone of your story and what you’re trying to say to your audience. If your protagonist is a superhero and they accidentally kill an innocent person, this will change them in some way. You need to understand your characters in order to build a coherent and relatable story.

Emotion will bind your story and characters together

Readers want to feel a connection to your characters. They want to know when your character feels sadness, happiness, loneliness, etc. A character can be closed off or cold, but readers need to feel an emotional connection in some way or another. Most characters undergo an inner transformation that the readers follow throughout the story. The plot will be driven forward if you focus on your character’s journey.

Always know character motivation

Your story will not go anywhere if your character doesn’t have any understandable motivation. Think about what your character wants and how they’re going to attempt to get it. Motivation is the key to figuring out what your story will be. Get to know your character and what is driving them forward. Understanding character motivation will make it much easier to write a great novel.

-Kris Noel

#Character development #Important things!

fictionwritingtips

Character Types that should be Used More Often

As a post request, someone asked me what character types should be used more often. While I think diversity is severely lacking in YA fiction, I decided to focus more on character types that can fit all different characters—regardless of their gender, sex, ethnicity, sexuality, etc. It always helps to think about your character in a variety of different ways before you make any final decisions. I like to ask myself “what if this character did this” or “what if I changed this about my character”. Thinking about your character in different number of ways will help you pin down what makes them interesting and will compel you switch it up a bit.

Here are a few character types I’d like to see more often:

Silent, but assertive

A strong female protagonist, or any protagonist really, is often associated only with physical strength. Many writers believe that making a female character more masculine is all you have to do to build a good protagonist. This is something I’d like to see changed. In Pacific Rim, Mako Mori proves that your silence can make you stronger. Not every hero needs to be an extrovert; introverts can be just as powerful.

While Mako is also physically strong, she is obedient and puts others before her own happiness. Her silence actually strengthens her because when she does act it makes her that much more powerful. She understands that she can learn from those who came before her and doesn’t feel the need to be the loudest and most powerful in the room.

Enthusiastic dreamer

We often associate strong protagonists will their ability to understand how dark the world can be, but there’s something so refreshing about the Leslie Knopes in fiction. There’s no reason a strong female character can’t be an enthusiastic dreamer and still be able to stand on her own two feet.

Sure, there are times when characters like Leslie Knope get sad about things and realize there’s a time and a place to give up on certain dreams and ideas, but her enthusiasm inspires those around her. Her friends rally with her and give her the support she needs. I’d like to see more of these characters and let readers know that it’s okay to feel strongly about something and to be a bit of a nerd about it.

Mary Sues with depth

I know a lot of people don’t like the term Mary Sue anymore because there’s so much more to it than just creating a perfect character. I think it’s bad when anyone creates any sort of flawless character because it makes them boring and we don’t get to see them struggle in any way. I think it’s a problem when the protagonist is overshadowed by the supporting characters that do all the work.

I have no problem with Mary Sues with depth. If a character is a perfectionist, there’s nothing wrong with that. If they’re good at what they do, there’s nothing wrong with that either. I do think, however, it’s important to add more to that character. They need to have flaws, they need to fail sometimes, AND they need to solve problems on their own.

Antagonists that can succeed

I often find myself bored by antagonists that aren’t strong enough. I think it’s important for writers to realize that antagonists are only threatening when the audience really believes they can succeed. We need to see them win from time to time. We need to see them startle our heroes and actually make them think about what would happen if the antagonist won.

When an antagonist is weak and underdeveloped, you’ll immediately have a weak story. Think about what they want and remember that most antagonists think they’re the hero. Not many people are evil for the sake of being evil. Develop them just as much as you’d develop your antagonist. Think of them as different sides of a coin.

This is just my list of what I’d want to see, not something you need to agree with. Feel free to add your own and I can build a bigger post!

-Kris Noel

#Character development #Noteworthy

howtofightwrite

Kinetic Force, A Fight Scene Must

Kinetic force is a must in every fight scene. You need to get a sense of motion going, so the audience feels it. There’s weight to hand to hand strikes, the generation of cause and effect between the force of motion and the reaction to being hit. Whether your character is using soft or light techniques, movement is going to be involved and as an author you need to get a sense for it. Once you have that, you need to be able to both incorporate it into your story and communicate it clearly to your audience.

In this post, we’ll offer up an example (written by me) and discuss some ways in which you can start incorporating this into your writing.

#Writing references #Fight scenes

fictionwritingtips

Tell the Truth with Dialogue

I’ve been rereading Stephen King’s On Writing and there are a few tips about dialogue that I’d like to share with you. If you haven’t read his book on writing, I suggest you do. You don’t have to agree with everything, but he obviously does have some important information to share!

Here’s my summary of Stephen King’s advice to tell the truth with your dialogue:

Don’t censor for the sake of your audience

King mentions that once you start writing, people will have a lot of negative things to say about you. However, it’s important that you don’t try to change things to make your critics happy. If your character curses, let them curse. If you want to talk about sex, talk about sex. As long as it fits the nature of your story, don’t censor. Don’t write a story you aren’t willing to tell truthfully!

Let each character speak honestly

Each character you create has a specific voice. They each have a distinct personality. The moment you start to suppress these factors is the moment you start cheating your audience. There are things your characters would say and things your character wouldn’t (unless it’s part of your story and there’s a good reason for it). Just remember who your characters are and really get to know them and you’ll know how they speak. Let your characters tell the truth.

Stay true to your characters

Again, it’s really important to know your characters. You need to know them inside and out. Your characters can always surprise you, but how you build them will lead your story. Don’t make them act out-of-character (unless there’s a reason) and stay true to their personalities. If there’s someone you know in real life that’s similar to your characters, listen to how they talk and how they carry themselves. If you have trouble staying true to your characters (if your readers often say they don’t understand a character’s course of action or why they said something), try filling out character sheets. Spend more time on character development.

-Kris Noel

#Writer tips #I cannot express how important it is to stay true to the character!

legit-writing-tips

Legit Tip #157

We talk a lot about character growth, development, and change over time. Everybody knows that realistic characters do change over time. But how do they change, and what kind of growth and change is realistic?

To understand that, you have to understand that there is a heirarchy when it comes to people’s beliefs and feelings.

Opinions

Attitudes

Values

Core Beliefs

Self Image

The topmost level represents those aspects of a character that are most prone to change - the last level, self image, represents the least changeable aspect of a character.

To illustrate this, let’s create a character. Sir Bartok is a knight who has been engaged in a crusade against the people of a neighboring country. His people have a long-standing prejudice against the people of this country. Sir Bartok believes himself to be a good, noble person, but also believes that his country’s war against this nation is justified if it means protecting his own people. When Sir Bartok is wounded in battle, he is taken in by a young woman of this country and nursed back to health. So, let’s look at his hypothetical development:

1. Opinions: Sir Bartok has always believed the people of this country to be ill-mannered and dirty. However, when he is taken into this girl’s home he finds her to be very kind, and the house to be very clean. This forces him to reconsider those initial opinions.

2. Attitudes: However, despite this change in opinion, Sir Bartok remains prejudiced against the people of this country. These attitudes are not shaken until he learns the history of the conflict from this country’s perspective and begins to understand that they have been unfairly persecuted.

3. Values: Sir Bartok continues to value the lives of his own people above those of his newfound companions, until he ends up at the center of an attack and sees firsthand the cruelty being used against them. Sir Bartok’s values shift at this point as he realizes that the only way to end the conflict is by unveiling the truth about it to the people of his own country.

4. Core Beliefs: Sir Bartok gives up his warrior mentality and becomes a pacifist.

5. Self Image: A character’s self image doesn’t always change over the course of a narrative. In this case, Sir Bartok remains a character who firmly follows what he believes is right. However, he no longer identifies as a warrior and his loyalty to his country is now no longer a part of his identity.

Obviously, this is quite a dynamic character shift. Going from step 1 to step 5 would not have made sense - you need all the stuff in between for Sir Bartok’s progression to seem realistic. Not all characters will develop quite this far, nor will all characters need to. Also bear in mind that some characters develop at a different pace, or experience some or all of this development prior to their introduction into your story.

#Character development #values and beliefs

writeworld-blog

We are not stabbing anyone.

Writer’s Block

In one sentence is the spark of a story. Ignite. Mission: Write a story, a description, a poem, a metaphor, a commentary, or a memory about this sentence. Write something about this sentence. Be sure to tag writeworld in your block!

#writing prompt #Hahahaha!