āŗ: Do you prefer memes, or plots?
//I know it might not be the best answer. I feel kind of guilty, but Iāve always preferred memes. ^^; I donāt know why. Whenever Iām given a plot thatās too specific, I get nervous about doing anything that wasnāt previously discussed and am too much of a shy muffin to ask about it most of the time. And I feel that the more planned out a plot is, the more it restricts my writing or creative process -- I promise Iām not shaming anyone else who prefers planned-out plots. Besides, I know that other people flourish more when they do so, so feel free! Everyone should do what flows best with them.
And itās not that Iāve never successfully written something more planned out, Iāve just always preferred memes. To me it feels like they allow the most freedom to go wherever you want with a story and Iāve always enjoyed improvising. I feel like it helps a lot with my storytelling and character development.
ā»: Which genres do you find the easiest to play? (angst, fluff, smut, etc.)
//That would depend on the character! Generally for all things I RP, though, I have noted I do angst the most often so I suppose Iām getting better at it. The issue is that if I write or portray too much angst at one time, it begins impacting me personally and I begin to feel emotionally and mentally exhausted.
With Ashley here, I have done a lot of angst. Itās understandable. She has undergone great pain before and has built very strong walls as a result. Sheās a no-nonsense girl that isnāt afraid to say she doesnāt like you (even if her reasons for such feelings arenāt the most rational at times), and there are a lot of others who wonāt put up with being insulted and confronted so harshly, so sheāll clash with a lot of people. I knew that when I made her she was going to face a lot of conflict. Sheās stubborn to the end and also hates it if she doesnāt get the last word.
However, this has made quite a few of her threads conflict and angst-based -- thatās not to say I donāt understand why, however, the more aggressive encounters can tire me out if I canāt find her a friend or something more easygoing in the meantime to balance out all the aggressiveness and, in some cases, terror.
Other characters, Iāve done a lot more light and fun stuff with -- which is a lot of fun to do as well! Again, it really depends on who Iām portraying.
ā¼: Which tropes do you find overused/boring?
//This one, Iām having a bit of trouble thinking of. I try to be very open and receptive to all things in stories.
Iāll try to be very careful with how I explain this, though: the angsty backstory trope. I donāt know if thereās a specific name for this. I donāt mean literally every character with a tragic backstory is abusing the trope, I promise, a lot of my characters (like Ashley) have tragic pasts. But it needs to be done and incorporated correctly. The subjects brought up in these pasts need to be handled carefully, and written well in order to work. You canāt under-do it, as in never showing any indication of why a character is acting a certain way and never even showing hints of their reasoning, but at the same time you canāt over-do it and have the character loudly announcing to literally every stranger they meet their entire lifeās story off the bat before running off in slow-motion toĀ āHello darkness my old friiiiend...ā
Tl;dr: Make your tragic backstory important for your character, but donāt make it everything. Donāt make it an open book. I dunno -- thatās the best way I can word it...
