[Sayana] Notes, Organization, and the Lost and Found

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[Sayana] Notes, Organization, and the Lost and Found

Postby Sayana on September 18th, 2016, 1:48 pm

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Parallels Between Lindy Hop Social Dancing and Mizahar Roleplaying:

1) Every written thread is like a song that I dance to. Each thread I might have a different writing partner and each song I might have a different dance partner.

2) People come primarily to enjoy the activity, writing/dancing, and any additional socialization outside the activity is just supplementary.

3) Lindy Hop dancing and roleplaying draws people from many walks of life and all kinds of age groups. I will write with people of any age and I will dance with people of any age.

4) Sometimes dancers and roleplayers will leave and never return, while others might leave for an extended period of time only to return a lot later and pick up the writing/dancing again. There is also usually a core group of regulars that can usually be counted on to be there on a steady basis who welcome people in and out of the community.

5) Each song might have many dance moves that are familiar but sometimes there are surprises or mistakes that turn into moves that make for a pleasant surprise. In roleplaying, some of it can be planned out, but sometimes the unexpected can arise and the story might go in an entirely different direction.

6) People who are new or are beginners, are sometimes shy to ask veterans to dance/roleplay with them. Veterans are sometimes cautious about asking beginners out of fear of committing to a poor dance/thread.

7) Different dance venues bring out different dancers. On Mizahar, different cities have different PCs. Sometimes dancers cross venues or PCs cross to between different cities. But each venue/city has its own unique core group of people who are regulars there. Whenever visiting a completely new venue/city, sometimes it’s overwhelming with all the new faces, but usually they just all want to try you out and enjoy the fun you bring to the new place.

8 ) Dancing and roleplaying can be a very interactive experience and few people know the true joys of it. So it’s hard to get others to relate when you’re chatting about it to friends.

9) Sometimes dancers and roleplayers just stick to their circle of friends or regular dance/thread partners. They aren’t trying to be excluding to other people, but they know these people and know that they have a fun time with these people so they don’t always branch out to new people or those outside their circle.

10) Someone almost always has to ask the other person if they would like to thread/dance. If you’re shy, you might not get as many dances in or as many threads written. Fortunately, people are usually flattered or happy to accept a dance or thread from someone who asks.

11) Dancing or threading with a very skilled partner can greatly improve your own skill. A good dancer can make a novice look fabulous on the dance floor, and a good roleplayer can make a beginner shine and have a lot of fun as plots roll off the page.

12) Sometimes dancer cross over to other styles of dance like Ballroom, Latin dances, and West Coast Swing. For those dancing Lindy Hop, we might be curious about the other dances but we don’t really know what to think about them and their community. In roleplaying, there are those who visit other forums or try different genres of writing. We can appreciate that they are flexible and diverse in their writing, but we’re not exactly sure what to think about them because they aren’t as hard core with Mizahar as we are.

13) While most people come primarily to do the dancing/writing, a few people primarily come to socialize. I find it odd to see dancers who are mostly just chatting with friends or grabbing a drink or simply not dancing at a dance. Similarly, I find it strange when there are writers who primarily hang out on Chat and post in the OOC forums like in scrapbooks instead of writing out their stories.

14) When dancing or roleplaying, there’s no actual need to communicate other than through the actual medium of the activity, except to start/end the song or thread. In dancing, everything is communicated through movement and the physical contact between dancers. In roleplaying, it’s all communicated through the IC story. This can be incredibly attractive for people who are less comfortable in social situations because the bulk of the activity does not require it (or at least not in the traditional form of socializing).

15) Sometimes it’s just as wonderful to watch a beautifully executed dance or read a beautifully written thread, as it is to actually do the dancing/writing. It can be great inspiration too.

16) Both communities can be very protective of its members. In Lindy Hop, there is very little tolerance to people who solely come to pick people up, who are creepy or uncomfortable in any way, who are particularly unfriendly, or who dance in aggressive and potentially dangerous ways. On Mizahar, people who abuse the site or make things uncomfortable and no longer fun for other players, are often asked to leave.

17) There are dance crushes and there are writing crushes. Neither are romantic or sexual.

18 ) The majority of people who come to a dance/forum will arrive alone, interact with many people, and then leave alone. Occasionally people come to a dance/writing forum with a friend, and the odd time they come with their romantic partner. But during the course of the writing/dancing they are expected to mingle with other people besides the one they came with.

19) Sometimes threads/songs are short, sometimes they are long. Sometimes they are too long and you can’t wait for them to finish up. And sometimes you get a tiny taste of writing/dancing with someone but you never manage to get a second shot at it.

20) People sometimes judge by appearance and first impression. Those that dress well or have pretty boxcodes are sometimes thought to be good dancers/writers before even interacting with them. Those with more plain clothing or default coding might have to be seen (proving their skill) before people actively seek them out. But those with sweaty shirts, poor hygiene, hard to read fonts, or centered text are subtly avoided.

21) When dancing or threading with a new partner, sometimes it takes a little while to find your groove. Each person is just a little different and sometimes you don’t hit it off immediately.

22) Each dancer and roleplayer has their own style and preferences to the content they write/dance. If it’s a fast song, I have specific dancers who I target to dance with because I know they love and are good at fast songs. If I want to write about a certain theme, there are certain writers who I know are great at writing that kind of content, and I actively seek them out.

23) Sometimes on the dance floor you bump into people. Sometimes when writing you accidentally do the same event or write on the same day or otherwise ‘bump into people’ unintentionally. In both scenarios we try to avoid this.

24) There is a dynamic mix of the known, the planned, the unexpected, and the ‘What the hell just happened? Let’s do it again!’ Sometimes you can capture those moments, sometimes you really just can’t, but it was worth it all the same.

25) I love my many dance partners and thread partners. I don’t necessarily interact with them much in a traditional sense, like verbally in a social way, but there is an unspoken connection with them that leaves my soul feeling incredibly satisfied.
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[Sayana] Notes, Organization, and the Lost and Found

Postby Gossamer on September 18th, 2016, 3:11 pm

Very insightful. I got a good chuckle out of this!
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[Sayana] Notes, Organization, and the Lost and Found

Postby Sayana on September 18th, 2016, 7:21 pm

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Thanks =) I'm glad you liked it. For better or for worse, there's a lot of truth to each of those points.
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[Sayana] Notes, Organization, and the Lost and Found

Postby Sayana on May 5th, 2017, 3:54 am

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We may be writers, but at the core we are roleplayers.

So before anyone picks apart my broad generalizations, I’m going to say that I generalize the people who come to this site as ‘roleplayers’ primarily because it is a roleplaying site rather than a writer’s group or something specifically for aspiring novelists.

In my time on Miz, I’ve tried my hand a couple times at developing but I find it hard or at least harder than I would expect. There are two main differences I see between roleplaying and developing. Developing needs a certain degree of polish by the end, and editing or at least proofreading is required. With roleplaying, posts shouldn’t be riddled with typos but all in all, they only last a short while and only a limited number of people will read them. For development, a greater care is needed and often I find myself judging the quality of my work or lingering too long on it so that it is ‘just right’. With roleplaying I’ll put up a post without even looking it over just because I want it done, put up, and ready for the other player to respond.

The second main difference, is indeed this response. Although we tell a story, we are also readers and we get excited to see what happens next. The story is not necessarily fully planned and the response of the other roleplayer might change the situation drastically. There is also that constant feedback – mostly affirmative – in the sense that we see the other character and player responding to our writing. One of the best ways to tell that a roleplayer likes what you write is the speed or quality of their responses back, since they are continuing to engage with you instead of letting things sit due to boredom. Of course, there may be other reasons why they are unable to reply quickly at a given moment, but quick replies certainly indicate interest.

Another aspect of the response, is you get feedback on your writing. If you do something funny, the other character might laugh. If you do something stupid… the other character might also laugh. There’s a sense of realism and a means to check your work in terms of overall feasibility. Now back to developing, there isn’t always that dynamic interaction between people. You can create it, and ask for feedback, and that’s what the review process helps with, but you don’t get that wonderful reward of a post that engages you and rewards you with additional storylines.

Should development be more engaging and interactive between two people? Probably not. It would likely result in some incoherent articles with different viewpoints and directions. However, I do want to acknowledge that it’s a different kind of writing and that we, as roleplayers, are used to getting that constant feedback and positive incentive.

Can we better encourage each other? Sure. Can we team up to help each other reach goals and timelines? Certainly. Can we do it all on our own through sheer will and determination? Yes, but only some of us might succeed. Some of us might be novelists here, but all of us are roleplayers.

You can always push for better, but sometimes it’s important to acknowledge the way things currently are.


All in all, I'm mostly just pondering what makes some things easier and why many of us gravitate to the roleplaying style of writing. Also what one might consider to improve their non-roleplay writing, which lacks certain incentives.
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[Sayana] Notes, Organization, and the Lost and Found

Postby Sayana on June 4th, 2017, 8:47 pm

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[Sayana] Notes, Organization, and the Lost and Found

Postby Sayana on June 19th, 2017, 11:28 am

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So I don't usually do this, but I wanted to let people know that I'll be on a partial hiatus for the next few weeks. So expect slow posting (although I'll try to keep up with the quests I'm in). I'll be more hesitant to start new threads, so if we've got something planned for Summer, then it might have to sit tight till later in July/August.

The reasoning being, partly that I'm just taking a mental break, and partly that I've gotten absorbed into a new and great book. In the past, I've hardly done much reading outside of reading roleplay posts, so it's been really enjoyable to just sink into a good book. This one happens to by the Lies of Loche Lamora (by Scott Lynch) and I'm certain that when I come back with full steam, I'll have oodles of ideas for Ravok - the main setting is in a city with canals and with thieving/scheming main characters.

I'll be around, but probably not posting as much. PM me if needed, I'll respond.
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[Sayana] Notes, Organization, and the Lost and Found

Postby Sayana on August 28th, 2017, 4:26 am

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Being Recruited

I'm not quite sure how I feel about someone trying to recruit me to another roleplay website. It's kind of a mix of being flattered, disappointment for not being able to play with their Miz character, and annoyance.

I really enjoy playing on Mizahar, and I love my character (perhaps too much). Various game mechanics on Miz tend to fit and 'work', whereas other sites seem unable to live up to certain mechanics (eg. the length of a season). In some ways it's flattering, that I have been labeled as a fun and good roleplayer. But at the same time, it feels underhanded to have someone try to recruit me via PM.

I've invested too much into Miz, and still I have plots coming out of my ears that I can't keep up with writing. So why would their site be any better? It could be just as original, just as dynamic, but it doesn't have all my long term plots nor my long term thread partners. I guess some roleplayers get bored and want a new world to explore. Or they end up with poor relationships with key staff members... I think I've been there, done that, and I sincerely hope that I have mended everything that I could have mended and that it will unlikely be a future concern.

Maybe I'm just brazenly loyal, maybe I'm deeply invested in the skill building system, maybe I just find various IC/OOC challenges as things to be overcome, or maybe I'm too lazy to learn a new world... But come on. Why would I leave Mizahar for a world I have not invested in, for players I have not threaded with, and something that has less than 10% of the depth in lore that Miz has?

Anyways, mini rant and self reflection over. I will have to start chugging out some posts if I'm going to keep up here :P
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[Sayana] Notes, Organization, and the Lost and Found

Postby Sayana on September 5th, 2017, 8:37 pm

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Update - Under the Weather

So I had originally planned that these last 5 days I would catch up on all sorts of replies since I had a 5-day weekend (after tacking on some vacation days). However, that didn't work out so well since I've been ill for almost the entire time with a lot of stomach and/or chest pain. It may have been food poisoning, salmonella... I'm not really sure. But I really hope I'm on the mend. I'm used to upset stomachs that end after all my stomach contents have left me. But these stomach pains persisted at reasonable levels days afterwards (fortunately without further vomiting).

Anyways, unpleasant stuff aside (and sorry if that was too much information), but expect replies to take just a bit longer. I probably have 6-8 posts to make that are on my list.
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