Should I make more of these?

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Trainscanflytoo

Well-Known Member
====Prologue====

(This is actually a lot longer than I expected it to be, so I'm gonna divide it into multiple parts with different subject matters. The first one I'll post today, the next one next weekend, and so on and so forth.)

Let's face it, a lot of us (even me) aren't the best writers on here. We're not good. Some of us are good, some maybe even great. but most of us fall flat when it comes to words and simply pump out what we can just to contribute while the rest of the people in our threads grab a hold of the story and tug it along.

So I thought I'd try fixing that, for you and for me, by laying out on the table a set of tools to use for future endeavors.

I must start off by saying that there are no real rules for writing. There never have been. Never will be. You can write anything you want and how you want to and nobody will care otherwise.
But that's the thing: if you want to make people care about what you write - make it worth reading - you've got to make sure that your writing is good.
Now what's good IS a subjective thing, yes, but there are some ideas and concepts for writing that people tend to see as better writing traits than others.
So don't consider these rules. I'm not here to write rules. I don't have any authority to write rules.
These are guidelines. Tips and tricks. Means of sprucing up the dead bonsai tree. and hoping to make it look like it has been watered the past three years since you bought it.

Now a lot of these tips are derived from those meant for writing actual novels. And while one might not expect them to work efficiently considering all of the steps necessary for a novel (you've gotta write the first draft, establish characters via their actions yadda yadda), a lot can be major assets in your Roleplay writing toolbox. Because at the end of the day, roleplay is still writing and working to develop a story in conjunction with the rest of your friends. The bond comes from putting in time to develop something, making it all feel worthwhile.

====Part 1: Building a Tower out of Pebbles====

Roleplaying is an enjoyable hobby, we can all agree on that (Why else would we be here, after all?). We can also all agree that it's a challenging task, especially on sites such as Ayenee or, where I come from, Star Army, where the world must be developed and you must forge a character from thin air to toss into the ring with everybody else. (Side note: One could almost liken combat-oriented roleplay to dog-fighting in a way. Breeding the most powerful mutt you can to go into the ring and earn... whatever you earn. I'll admit, I never understood combat-oriented roleplay when there is minimal story involved).

Now story-based roleplaying is a separate breed all it's own. One that I like to liken more to gathering a team together to build a tower out of Pebbles. Or maybe stones. Or whatever you have on hand (a sand castle mayhaps?). No less, you all are striving to build something together, and at the hands of it all, the architect, is the GM. One who holds the blueprints to the plot on hand and is responsible to make sure what we're building is a tower and not the a hutch for the locals to dwell in - unless that's the goal in mind. But that's where an issue comes in:

What sort of structure you want to build should be communicated to everybody within the plot as it's going on. the Gm, the players, everyone to ensure that we maintain some degree of accuracy to the blueprint. But the blueprint isn't so much as a diagram as it is a series of lines on paper with the words "hell if I know." scribbled to the left of it. Though it does give us the dimensions and an idea of what we're building. We know if it's a tower or a hut or maybe a quaint little cottage. How it's built varies.

Here's the clincher: Once you start building one, see it through to the end without changing it midway through.
Or to be more direct: Keep the plot consistent to whatever theme or structure is developing.

One would definitely wonder why keep that as the case if all we're doing is for fun. If all RP is is just mindless typing away telling about mindless drones that we're placing over our skins and imitating them (we'll get to that in a later part. see Part II: Wearing Skin), then why should we care about what plot they're put in?
I suggest exchanging that question with "What's the purpose of doing this in the first place?" Personally (oh boy, dangerous opinion territory), if you're seeking to use RP as a means of escape (and please do, it's a great pastime), at least give it some meaning. Some worth. Some worthwhile result. I enjoy likening roleplaying to that of drawing a picture or, better yet, inventing a robot. You'd want to make sure that it works more than anything. Because at that point, you wouldn't be programming a robot, just making a metal and wire sculpture of one. Plus, too many features or even a separate feature than the intended initial purpose can make a machine faulty or even useless (and will most likely void your warranty).

In the context of a normal story, plot is what keeps a reader following along and makes them wish to read it. It draws us in and makes us want to see the next part. At that point, we suspend our disbelief and are sucked into whatever world is being laid out.

the difference between novels and roleplaying is that you bring in the next part of the story. While that kind of experience is a gratifying one - you must remember that you're still working with a plot being laid out by the rest of your partners. Sure, you may want to place a doorway out on the third floor of your tower, or ask the GM if you can start building a windmill instead of a battlement (and sometimes the GM may say yes). But you're still obligated to go with the current flow in such a way that the others can follow along and work with smoothly. Otherwise, it can be a real cluster of everybody trying to scramble and figure out what is going on for what reason and why it's happening wherever the protagonists are.

How do you develop a plot properly?
Well first you need to know what "plot" is. Of course you've heard your teachers tell you that a plot features an exposition, a rising action, climax, falling action and resolution. I'll admit that while I'm not a big fan of the model, it's certainly a good one to serve as a backbone of your plot, and is something that a lot of simple stories feature. My only gripe really has to do with how the structure is visualized, what with it being a short exposition followed by a long, steady rising action with a single climax and resolution - when in reality, any conflict and any occurrence in a story is its own version of that. You have an action being done for a reason by somebody to accomplish a certain goal that may or may not be reached as the action is resolved.

I feel when we back off from that sort of structure that we find the best description of a plot lies. Aristotle described a story as having "A beginning, a middle, and an end." but we can add onto that. We need to have a character go through some sort of struggle to reach a goal. Whether or not that goal is achieved varies. And what sort of struggle we witness changes according to what sort of plot you're aiming for. But I must reiterate, the overall sort of plot for each thread must stick to one.

You can have multiple perspectives, yes (that's what roleplay grants us). But you want to make sure that a central goal is established and is common among the participants regardless of how mundane it may be. In the words of Kurt Vonnegut: “Make your characters want something right away even if it's only a glass of water." But at the same time, a person seeking out a glass of water may not take the time to go and fight a knight that bumped into her - unless that knight did, of course, take her glass of water.

On note of the knight taking her water, you must make sure that the plot has a form of struggle. Nobody wants to read about a happy life where everything is given to somebody and everyone is doing fine and all is happy in Peace City. There's nothing there to talk about. Peace and a lack of much drama to go on is boring. Nobody would care about that. There's no need to give pity to somebody well off.

On the flip side, you want to make sure that everything negative that happens to your character happens for a reason and contributes to the story in a way. Say we're playing the role of a Mother of two named Catherine who explores the dungeons to make sure she gets food for her family since her husband died. Right there we have a struggle. Right there we have a purpose. Can we include that her son - let's call him "Hector" - has tuberculosis? Sure. Or that her five-year-old daughter Anessa was born with a gimp leg? Of course. But how much does it contribute to the story? At the end of the day, she'd still be doing the same thing, just with twice the amount of work - and we still wouldn't be able to tell how much work it would be in comparison to just taking care of two starving children and feeding them the basilisks you pull from the dungeons.

True, in real life, things don't always happen for a clear-cut reason. But you'll find that when things are clearer and have an explanation that makes sense - or that a detail is left out for the reader to decide upon. Descriptions are a two-way street. I often hear writing being called "Painting a picture." I liken it more to relaying a picture to somebody who then paints it. You take the image and describe it to the best of your abilities while the reader grabs a palette and creates the painting a la Bob Ross while making sure that the amount of information that the reader receives is relevant enough for them to care about it. (He always said "make some happy trees. I don't remember him saying "Make three and only three trees" though if the number of trees plays a significant role, make sure that's established).

I'd like to also address something that might shock a lot of people and might be send odd looks my way:
Don't make use of suspense.
Suspense doesn't exist here. None. Don't leave out key details that would leave your reader scrambling to figure out what to do next. It should be clear what doors are laid out in front of a player to send his character through. Trust me when I say that big reveals are one of the worst things you can do. I'm not saying "be predictable" I'm saying to think through if anyone else can respond off of that (I too have had instances where I've had to be asked "where do I go from here". It's a common mistake). Suspense makes things all the worse for the players, not the character. We're more intrigued when what we see makes us ask questions, but not forces us to do so. Make sure that the answers we obtain are for the questions we're given, but also opens up doors for more questions.

<=To Be Continued===
 
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