Theatrics Ruin Writing

A gust whistled through a broken window, the only sound in the abandoned flat besides the thrumming of the storm outside. Dragging his feet, defeated, a lone man limped across the floor, looking to his left and right frantically while wiping his bloody nose between haggard breaths. Punctuating the silence, a flash of lightning followed by an immediate peal of thunder shook the building, and the man yelped. He tried to spin on one foot, but his ruined leg was claimed his balance, and he collapsed in a tumble, biting off a curse in the process.

As if from nowhere, a figure emerged in front him, stepping out of the shadows, and then he really screamed. Whatever noise came out of his mouth, though, was swallowed by another peal of thunder, and the cracked window howled all the louder. A cloaked figure seemed to tower in front of him and, despite the obscured face, he recognized him.

“Y-you! You’re the guy who killed my brother. P-please, we didn’t mean—” His fumbling voice broke off into a low whine, though, as the figure raised handgun, brandishing death itself as it pulled its hood back.

“Tell him I said hello, yeah?” the voice responded, and he blinked in-spite of his own terror. It was a woman? His mouth tried to form confused words, but a gunshot chorused with the thundering storm outside, and the night grew darker.

…

…Not doing it for you? Yeah. Let’s talk about it.

Character Traits: Stubborn

Cooking up a character is relatively easy, not entirely dissimilar from cooking up a meal. Doing it well is another matter entirely. Too little spice and the food dries out—too much and it smolders in your mouth. Some flavors and textures complement each other, and others do not. Some are niche and some are staples. 

Writing a good character is hard enough as it is. It becomes harder, though, when people mix up the components into a hodge-podge and expect it to work on its own. Some people have an iron gut for characters—anything will do—but a balanced and believable character is hard to come by, and, when you do, it’s even harder to go back. Character traits are essential for breathing life into your character, but it’s important to know what you’re using, before you mix it into the bowl. I'd love to talk about a lot of them, but one at a time will do for now.

Standards of Roleplay

1. Believable characters make for more interesting roleplay, even in a fantastical setting.
   
   
2. A strong character is flawed on multiple levels. A true flaw is not a blessing in disguise and should pervasively hinder the character throughout the roleplay.
   
   
3. A character is made unique, individual, and interesting by how they interact with the world and by the choices they make. Power, talent, and ability are secondary at best.
   
   
4. Limited freedom is a powerful source for creativity. Restrictive roles in the setting do not hinder a character or story—they enhance them.
   
   
5. The knowledge, emotions, and values of a writer are separate and different from that writer’s character. This distinction must never be compromised or confused.
   
   
6. An excellent roleplayer must be both a strong writer and a talented storyteller. One without the other holds very little value.
   
   
7. Roleplay is, by definition, social. The best roleplayers pay meticulous attention to the other writer and rely on their responses to craft their own.
   
   
8. The most valuable roleplaying partner is an active one; joining a roleplay is a commitment never to be broken lightly.
   
   
9. Roleplay is active, dynamic, and character driven. A writer’s plan is useful but held loosely.
   
   
10. Roleplay is a chance to experience spontaneous interaction in a unique setting. Using it to fulfil a craving or escapist desire is a poor basis for writing and will easily undermine any item on this list. 

(Certain items from this list, while rewritten, draw heavily from another list masterfully written by a good friend of mine named Genavie. Her original work can be found: here) 

The Struggle: Strengths and Weaknesses

Every interesting character has their strengths and their weaknesses; the first enables them to compete in the storyline, and the second makes it difficult for them to succeed. Whether it’s their raw intelligence coupled with overweening pride, incredible strength paired against low wits, or tact and guile against callous character, each individual struggles and fights against things. These characteristics are, importantly, not external but rather internal, byproducts of the individual’s own character and not the events around them, though both will motivate the story. This balance between strength and weakness is of utmost importance to develop interesting, character-driven stories in all fiction, but it’s incredibly difficult to do well. Just the few examples I listed seem fairly trite, but executed properly they form the foundations for some of the most interesting characters you and I know. So how do they do it? Let’s look at it from a roleplaying perspective.

Write Real Characters, Not Rational Ones

One of the greatest blessings and curses of roleplaying is that every writer has an audience. Whether it’s posting the character sheet or responding to the roleplaying thread the character is in, each person expects what they’ve written to be read. On the one hand, this is great because it gives writers a real, living experience for their creations to live in. But on the other hand, this also means that even the people who really aren’t writers, at their cores, can still play creative fiction on their unsuspecting victims.

In practice, what you end up getting is a pretty steady demographic with roleplaying. Every roleplayer I’ve met has fancied themselves a fairly intelligent, rational person in their own minds. That may very well be the case, and there’s nothing particularly wrong with it, but it does have some serious implications for the sorts of characters you run into in your adventures. As we have already long since established, people are inherently drawn (usually unhelpfully) to write portions of themselves into characters. You should tread lightly.

When to Write a Short Post

Not too many posts ago, I discussed what I referred to as the “Disease of Long Posts” in roleplay, getting into what makes a so-called “Long Post” and why it’s really harmful to the roleplay. Today I want to look at it from the other perspective, though I suspect there will be a portion of overlap in it. Approaching your posts with an understanding of their length is absolutely crucial to your success as a roleplayer, and it should be an issue the writer is continually sensitive toward.

Ever been on a web-site that banned members for making a “short” post? Some places will classify them as spam, others will say it’s simply poor writing, but all around there’s a sense that fewer words mean diminished quality. Naturally, there’s a really important question we have to ask ourselves:

Does this make any sense at all?

Roleplayers Love Feedback

Roleplayers love feedback. It’s true! But I don’t mean critical feedback, where you go “I really liked what you did here, but this could use some work” I mean feedback in the communication sense. Presumably how this works, according to modern experts in communication, is that feedback is the response to a message sent by the sender. It’s a good thing we have armies of PhDs and experts to analyze our communications and decide that, indeed, effective communication requires a two-way path.

And yet, this may seem obvious, but so often we absolutely miss it, especially in roleplay. In fact, we miss it so much of the time that when a roleplayer actually gives another person “feedback” in a roleplay, it’s a huge deal. When I think of the greatest moments I’ve had in roleplay—or other people’s moments they’ve recounted to me—it never involves just one person. It’s always about the tradeoff, the exchange of information between two people that creates something memorable.

So if this is so powerful, so pleasant and so memorable, why does it seem so rare?