#plotdev

[megiverse]

unless this is like post MMG V.1: Bisexual FMC and SuperCute Black Lesbian Vampire Hunter (Jessica)

Maybe yes, and then I will send Jessica and deal with how obsessively she tries to live up the Penny standard because like Penny is her hero and now she's on a team with her rn!

but the team is still TOO SMALL

[the-hardyest-critic]

Sidebar Plot Tip

Want to draw interest? Intrigue? Here's a tip--

When writing your sidebar, do your best to be very specific. Being vague does not work in your favor, here. I'm not saying reveal all the gritty details of your main plot; but, just like the hook, line, and sinker of the opening sentence to a novel, this also must grab the attention of your reader. It's absolutely vital. If you start off your book with,

Humans once resided in turmoil and stress, but now live in peace. No longer fighting amongst themselves, the world has flourished.

That doesn't give very much information, does it? Not only do I not know what incidents happened beforehand to humanity as a whole, but what brought about this moment of tranquility. Why did they even fight amongst themselves in the first place? In essence, what's happening in my mind reading through what I just wrote is a flurry of questions being raised and not in a good way. As opposed to me being curious, I'm instead frustrated by the lack of information and question this plot's legitimacy. And by consequence I'm much more willing to turn away from it and scratch it off as unimportant. 

Why? Because the author has given no reason for me to be invested in their story. They haven't made me care, they're only telling me I should care. And there is a severe difference between showing and telling. Specificity is always in your favor.

A trick that might help is to pay attention to movie's loglines. A logline is a one-sentence summary of an entire movie script, and is supposed to capture the interest of many in just one sentence. I once spent an entire day writing and re-writing a logline alone because I couldn't afford to be vague. I had to summarize my entire concept in one-sentence in order to even begin to pitch it, and I had to entice those I wanted sold on the idea. Every word counts.

Inception has a great example of what I believe to be a successfully-written loglline. It's,

A skilled extractor is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible.

See how specific it is? It's not just any person, it's an extractor. Furthermore you're pulled in because not only are you left curious about this extractor's past (What's his old life he's trying to regain? Why?), but you are also more importantly so, curious about the underlined "impossible task". 

This is the sort of summary that draws interest, and raises the good sort of questions in the reader's mind. Now they want to know more not because the condensed plot is confusing, but because their curiosity is piqued.

See where I'm going with this? Try it. It may help.

-- Hardyest

[the-hardyest-critic]

RP plots you'd like to see happen?

I honestly stared at this question for a good while thinking I could come back to it eventually with an answer and I’ve got nothing. These sort of questions are hard to respond to. I mean sure, there are plots that are intriguing or maybe were I to see it happen I’d be like ‘That’s neat’, etc. but…

They’re very specific to my tastes. That’s why I don’t necessarily know that a plot I suggest is any good. I’m very much into crime verse, and that is kind of where my heart lies in terms of interest. But perhaps something akin to say period RPs would be intriguing. Not many of those. A Twenties role-play. Or a role-play based historically such as say around the Vietnam War or World War II. I think those sort of plots while requiring more research are something that would be nice to see more of.

[the-hardyest-critic]

A short but thorough description of plotting, and how to do it?

I’m going to make this as a disclaimer that this is solely my advice and by no means something you have to follow. This is just me speaking from experience.

You’re going to find this advice extremely unhelpful, but the truth is the best plotting is the plotting you don’t do. It just happens. I can tell you that almost 90% of plots I tried to create for my one character Mason almost A. Never came to fruition or I found that B. Wasn’t the direction my character was going in at all.

The best plots, the ABSOLUTE best plots were the ones that happened unintentionally. They were the ones where in the midst of the gif convo, somewhere about halfway through the thread all of a sudden the two of you are going at it and role-playing something out you never would’ve imagined. If not that, it was one that happened when not laying out the specifics— the details. Instead of deciding every step of the way what route each character will take in a plot, don’t. Leave some suspense. Leave some room for the character to grow by leaving things open-ended. 

For example, you and your partner could start off with a general idea— say, they decide to do something like oh…I don’t know, reconciling their differences. That being the theme or the general route you two decide to take, from there just decide where this initial interaction will take place. In a car? An apartment? In the grocery store? Setting matters. I won’t say it doesn’t because setting holds the gravity and the weight of what’s actually going on. Setting holds further backstory of what the chances were of these two individuals meeting in the place they did, and why at that particular moment in time they decided to come to terms with each other. You’re snatching a moment from a history of moments, and you’re focusing to narrow down on one and play it out into specifics. Ideally, this moment that you’re going to highlight has already been built-up through months of development— that being, the two characters first tried to kill each other, then in passing they would insult each other constantly, then by month 3 or 4, something pivotal happens that slowly starts to push them in another direction, and by month 5 your character though they don’t get along completely, can at least manage a passing grunt and nod in the other’s direction.

My point in describing that was the plotting comes from development. And the plots that were constructed what seems out of nowhere comes from the discoveries that also happen during the development phase— and my suggestion for you? Gif conversations, para’s. Oftentimes I find that people will sometimes write off gif conversations as unimportant to a group and only focus on paragraphs— however, I actually prefer the snap conversational method that happens back and forth on Tumblr RP at times because it speeds up the development process. Now, before I go off and write gif conversations as commendable in every right, you should read my guide on them here. Instead of role-playing one instance however in time, you’re free to talk on as many events and instance in the two character’s lives as you so please. Consider it like taking quick glimpses and sending and receiving information for the sole purpose of finding the chemistry, and finding what works and what doesn’t. A lot of it is touch-and-go, but by doing that you can try and discover what plots are suddenly available to you with that one character. 

I think I’m going off several tangents here and may have contradicted myself at one point, but what I’m trying to say is, at its base, is just write. As much as a cop-out answer that may seem like I’m giving you, it’s not. You need to write with as many people as possible and make sure to place into your character a varying personality that is apt for development. I have a guide on how to know your character for development purposes here.

The best I can tell you is the more you develop your character and write for them, the more the plots will generate themselves. 

You can spend hours brain-storming with your partner on what plot to do, you can try and envision all the possibilities, but simply writing and having your character speak on their beliefs, on family, on friendship, on the people they like, the people they don’t like, on career, on anything at all and sharing their introspections with others will build a time and place for those interactions to occur.

I don’t know if this was helpful, but this has been my experience that planning with plots never tends to work out. What works is just allowing the character to be.

[the-hardyest-critic]

Love, I'm thinking on making a rpg, I have this idea that came from the phrase ''I'm the danger'' from breaking bad, I kind of want to base it into gangs, but more like teenagers instead of mafias, in a big city, something like the video of Our Deal by Best Coast. I'm just making an outline, do you think people would de interested?

Why do I keep thinking West Side Story? Heh. I think people would be interested. However I don’t have more contribution to add to your plot as I guess my mind keeps going to the gutter on this one. But I enjoy the idea of the role-play, truly, I do. It certainly intrigues me more and if you use well-known face-claims like One Direction, Justin Bieber, Teen Wolf—

point is, this is one of those plots I certainly wouldn’t care what sort of face-claims are attached to it, because there’s so much potential for beautiful character development in the works. And of course it doesn’t have to be a complete knockoff of West Side Story or even that music video you mentioned— but even if it was more or less that, I’d still find it very appealing. You can always up the ante for it but I believe I could give a better suggestion if you can submit to me a basic plot written up. 

Give me a setting, a basic edge/conflict, and I would recommend— don’t base it around the fact that there are two rival gangs or the like. It’s overused— they’ll be a conflict within the piece sure, but make it something bigger. You could  take it the comedic route or a more serious one. You could have them involved in more of a very violent plot line in which these kids are made to be more brutal than most, or they could be very innocent at best, a bunch of street thugs with no credibility. The plot could then revolve around one gang member accidently killing another of their rival, and an entire story unfolds in which now they must learn to survive as the innocence is lost.

[the-hardyest-critic]

What kind of plot ideas would you like to see more of?

I’m personally more partial to Crime Verse RP and plots within that genre, but that is just me personally. As a whole, however? I’ll go ahead and recommend plots from movies/books that could work in the RP realm (or I believe they could) however I’ll try to give as well a bit of a variation that could happen so the intrigue isn’t lost. I’ll state the movie/book next to the plot for each so you understand the inspiration, behind the plot idea.

My best advice with any plot no matter what it is, no matter what the idea is that it must be open and allow its players to determine where to go with it. I believe the more specific a plot is can take away from the creative collective as a whole and limit its members (as in if you limit the plot’s setting to say, one location).

Another recommendation is to be fearless— don’t be afraid to construct a plot that touches on very controversial subjects with racism, politics, history— you would just need to make sure only the most mature writers are involved. Also, it doesn’t matter what plot it falls under or if its of a same genre as long as it brings a new twist to what’s is already currently established.

However, onwards.

Plot Idea 1

Through the 1600s to the 1800s the mentally ill have been treated inhumanely through isolation and other means. It is now the early 1900s and a call for reform is being made. Inhumane treatment is still wide-spread, and those from the common man to the rich have yet to understand how to properly handle the institutionalized. Now patients have been admitted into a newly-constructed institution promising for reform from the horrors it expels upon them— but the question remains, is reform truly in order?

Initial Movie Inspiration: The King’s Speech

RPG Name: In Reform

Could fall under: Asylum RPs

How to make it a successful RP: Do not base it in the asylum. Base it as though it were for the general public, allow multiple characters and people to be involved by making the institution secondary to the general population and society at the time.

Types of characters possible:

Famous psychiatrists/Researchers in history during that time 

Royal Familes/The Rich (Consider how they would have their family members treated)

The Common Man (Regular individuals with illnesses at the time)

Government Officials/Politicians (How they react to the treatment of the patients/society’s politics at the time)

Advocates (Those that are the voice of change for reform)

Mental Institution Staff

I believe you get the idea. Hope this is a slight twist from regular asylum RPs that is of possible intrigue.

Plot Idea 2

Guns are being placed into the hands of children from all over. The mercy in humanity once found no longer exists in the name of greed. Trained from very young, a slave trade begins at the age of 5, children brutally snatched from the Mother’s and Father’s grasp . They’re forced into an exchange, and the parents? They’ll get their child back, alright; but not what they expected. The parents are told the RF, the Revolutionary Front, is a school of discipline instilling in their children from an early age the lessons to be learnt on how to be an upstanding member of society. Stolen from their beds just after barely learning to walk, they are returned to their families at the age of 11 and 12 shortly after hitting puberty— Soldiers. However, with no recollection of whom their parents are, the RF teaches them one thing and one thing only— if they manage to kill the people they are now left to house with within one month’s time discreetly, they will move up in the ranks. Will the children with little to no recollection of the families they have be able to pull the trigger at a loved one’s expense?

Initial Movie Inspiration: Blood Diamond

RPG Name: Revolutionary Front

Could fall under: Crime/Horror RPs

Types of Characters Possible:

Parents/Families 

The children involved

Revolutionary Front personnel

Government/State Officials 

Media Networks 

The Military

etc.

Sorry I wasn’t more general about this question but do you see where I’m going with this? I can’t say I’d necessarily like to see one thing over another, as all types of RPs have a potential to be good, they just need to be intriguing. Best way to do this? Draw from other sources, from movies, books, base it loosely off of it and simply add a bit of originality. 

It’s truly hard to state what I’d like to see more of— perhaps if you’d like to come to me with one plot idea in mind I can assist you with it.

[the-hardyest-critic]

Hello! I really admire you, and I was wondering if you would mind stating your opinion on my plot? It would mean a lot.

Is your navigation not set up? Unfortunately I can’t seem to find the full plot, but I did read the sidebar one. I found it delightful, to be honest. I enjoy the second-person narrative approach and find it to be very successful. And I must say while I’m getting a bit of an idea where this RP is headed, it’s very vague in the sidebar plot…of which I find I’m not perturbed by in the least! I’m actually intrigued about what you’ve set me up for, and am looking forward to finding out more via the full-length one. Well done, I think that it drew me in rather nicely. I’m charmed.

[the-hardyest-critic]

Hello :) Firstly, we'd like to tell you that the depth you go into in your responses and the fact that you take the time to explain everything said is quite frankly brilliant, and we're very glad to have found you in the rpc tag because you're one of the few rpcs that we've seen lately who are taking the time and effort to answer asks in depth like this. So, kudos on that (sorry for rambling!). Secondly, what would you suggest is a good length for a 'sidebar look,' at a plot? Thank you!

First, thank you, this was very, very kind of you and I can’t express that enough. Second, to answer your question I don’t think length so much matters as it does getting all your points across. Sure you’ve got an in-depth plot you will provide a link for later, but I believe the sidebar plot should be just enough to draw interest. Use a hook if you will, set an individual into an era, or a realm, or whatever it is you’re going for. Have them be drawn in, basically. Consider it if you will, something like a movie trailer voice over, where the language combined with the imagery is meant to capture that initial interest.

For example, you could say something along the lines of the following (and I am making this up from your current sidebar plot, so bear with me): 

On the brink of extinction exists a world, a realm only mentioned in ever-whimsical children’s stories; a world which relies on children as the last string of hope as proof the world exists. They are the last bridge between humans and faeries, and as an ominous war is written in the fates for Faeriedom, it is up to these magical beings to convince the human race that they too, are real. 

That was a quick snippet and wasn’t very well-written by me, I apologize, but I hope you’re getting my drift from reading it. It needs a hook, and however long the sidebar plot needs to be in order to draw interest is up to you. But often, it can be short and sweet you just need to be sure that each line an individual reads packs a punch, if it is.

Hope this helped.