[Pain's Scrapbook] Evolution

[Elhaym]

Brevity and You We've all done. You're new to a city, or you're just plan bored... before you know it, you're clicking reply to a topic with that infamous tag. [Open]. Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with open threads, in fact they are of immeasurable importance to Mizahar. They are a meet and greet for characters, a way to recruit others into your story without spending days organizing it, and above all another place to sit down and write some stories. For me the problem arises in an open post usually on the 2nd or 3rd page. You're reading or role playing in this thing, and you realize "Damn, this just isn't going anywhere. What is the point of this thread, anyway?". To me, this is when you should stop. Having a conversation one line of dialog at a time for another 5 pages or going to the Rearing Stallion so you can get wasted shouldn't be viable options. When a thread is going nowhere, end it. Your threadmates will appreciate it, your storyteller will appreciate it, and you will appreciate it for the follow reason.You have met another character and their puppeteer... so make something new and exciting out of it, don't try to drag an open thread through the mud until everyone just disappears. What I mean is, PM them. Say, "Hey dude, you role play well! Let's make another thread, just you and me. We can meet up as i'm delivering a sack of rice to my crazy aunt sallie, and when we get there find her missing with a shadowy figure escaping out the window!". Boom. Create a story. Probably not utilizing Aunt Sallie, but you get the idea. This brings me to my next point... Self Modding. You can do it. Not everything requires a colored name to be cool. In fact, my very first RP here was an adventure that I inadvertently modded for myself and another PC as a player. I contacted my DS, ran the idea by them and asked them if I did this, this and this if it would be okay. She said yes, bam. I ran with it. You can create a storyline and throw danger and challenges to other PCs yourself, rather than asking for a mod every time you want to step foot outside your city, draw your sword, or rescue aunt sallie. Self Modding can't always take the place of a real modded thread, but it does make for some damned interesting RP. To all the new people, try it out. I have seen a rise in the amount of people who ask for modded threads (and at times, it's not even asking... it's more like telling an AS/DS they need this modded. Now.). A lot of these threads aren't even necessary! If you are having trouble figuring out an idea for a thread, and thats your reasoning for wanting it to be modded... talk it over in chat! We all love to write here, i'm sure someone can give you advice or ideas. You could even ask an AS or DS their opinion. Oh, and one other thing. You ever made an open thread, and on the second page after you've established a groove with your current peeps... someone else jumps in? Hey, it's not their fault. Thread said [Open]. What I do is once the thread has an acceptable number of PCs and the gears have started turning, I edit the title of the thread. [Closed] or the names of your thread-mates in brackets will show that you are now engaged in the role play. Anyways, just sort of a mini-rant.

[Elhaym]

Pain Other PCs Thread w/ Noya Thread w/ Sesha Finish Thread w/ Aselia Keep track of post w/ Una and Ennis Modded Alvadas Quest Part 2 Keran Lynt Solo Write and finish the epilogue of the eighty first day Ataraxia Finish Syliras Threads Keep track of Stitch&Co's Thread Keep track of Siiri's stripes thread Onyx Check CS Forum Daily And all the other stuff I forgot... which is why i made the list in the first place.

[Elhaym]

I've been humbled I'm not a pro writer. I know this, you know this. I sometimes think I can weave a pretty good tale, and i'd like to think that my characters are pretty interesting. We'll ignore the fact that Pain started off as a trope, i'm slowly correcting that. As most of the people who will read this know, I love to write solo posts. When i'm in total control of the story, I really feel at home. That's not to say that I don't enjoy threading with other people, I certainly do. There's just something about creating a story my way that appeals to me, and that's why I have so many stories that are nothing but me spamming the AS/DS who will eventually grade it. I always try to make them interesting though, even if it's just a training thread. I never want to just say "Pain does 50 pushups, and then 50 situps, and then runs 5 miles... XP Please!". That's boring to write, and even more boring to read... so where am I going with this? Recently I wrote a solo post, and was struggling with a way to end it. I wanted the ending to be cool, like "whoa, awesome!". I wanted to top myself, to make a solo thread that people would really think "Wow, did that happen!? Too cool!". So I did, I wrote the ending that I dreamed up while slowly lifting heavy boxes out of a ridiculously hot truck at work. It was fantastical, it was unexpected, it was... stupid. It didn't fit the story at all, it made no sense. It was inserted so poorly into the thread that it just came across as awkward. As I proudly displayed my totally awesome ending to a few friends, the general consensus was "... huh?". I began to fret. Was I not clear? Quickly, I edited my post to make things more obvious, but lo' and behold it simply became weirder and even more forced. With much sadness in my heart, I scrapped the whole ending and re wrote it into something more suitable, albeit mundane. You know, when I read it over it just seemed better. It wasn't what I wanted for the thread ending, but it was enough. Sometimes I think I can craft a good story, but I also have to remember that I am a total novice in the art of the word. That weird ending made the entire thread shaky, and I my impulsive desire to make everyone go "WOW!" blinded me into writing something that made little to no sense at all. So what have I learned? Well, i'm not sure. I certainly was humbled by this experience. I'm not going to stop trying out crazy or cool endings, but I definitely need to think things through before I hit the post button. Just because everything is reasonable and explained in my mind doesn't mean the person reading my jumbled script full of dotdotdot's will understand (Seriously... i'm trying to stop! ). I wonder if any of you have ever written something, only to realize later on that your creative vision may have gotten a little out of hand. I know mine did. In fact, I think it launched itself out of my hand, broke the sound barrier and may or may not be traveling at terminal velocity towards the sun.

[Cassandra Coven]

Fact of the matter is... I don't know how to end threads. Especially solos. Read any of what I've written and see for yourself. I think knowing how to end what you've started is already a feat in and of itself.

[Kamalia Timandre]

I guess I'm a little different. I'm finding it difficult writing an opening or my character's entrance to a thread. I always get the urge to write something grand, and then it turns into something long and flowery. I want to stop being flowery. I do like finishing threads, though, but I only have one solo thread anyway.

[Ophelia]

COERCION, I SAY! The 'wow' factor is certainly a motivating aspect of writing... I mean, why write if you're not going to wow? It's what we want to do - impress the audience. Often, it seems the best way to do that is by a big she-bang. But as you've said, bigger and grander is not always better. What can seem like huge and amazing and OMFGTHAT'SEPICDIDNOTSEETHATCOMING often isn't what works for us as a writer. It's quite difficult to admit that simple is best. Simple may not blow the audience away, but it's what is most realistic - and realism, more specifically, believability, is key. I have to say, though. Personally, I find it difficult to think of something big... my solos are the things you described above. I love talking. I love social threads. My PCs never do anything big or spectacular. Maybe that's good, maybe it isn't... I just need to find a middle ground now.

[Elhaym]

Hey everyone. I'm sure your worlds have all been torn asunder because I haven't been logged into Mizahar everyday for a bit now. What!? You didn't even notice!? Anyway, I just wanted to post here and say for certain that I have not quit or given up on writing.

I apologize profusely to those who were threading with me (Julian, Wrenmae, Kamalia, Aselia, Mao and Ophie with the modded threads) that I haven't been posting. I know from experience that it is frustrating when someone just doesn't post at all. At the same time, I'm not going to promise that I'll post today, or tomorrow, or next week.

I've invested way too much of myself into the creation of Pain/Elhaym to just let it go without some fitting end to her story, at least. I've written enough for her to fill the pages of a full sized novel when I think about it, which is no small feat.

Before this becomes tl;dr worthy, I'll just say that I'll be back at some point to write as normal, but for now I'm just trying to keep my shit together irl and get my grades where they should be, my personal life in order and myself out of trouble. That's all folks.

[Mycroft]

Too lazy to switch my Julian name, so posting as this one.

Take care of yourself, man. I know what it's like to feel absolutely burnt out, especially when real life beckons and you're just wrestling with like forty different guilty consciences. I'm a patient faux-man, and I'd feel much better if didn't feel like you had to feel guilty about your absence in Mizahar. Let it go, relax, take some time for yourself. I'm 100% supporting your good health. The writing can wait. I'm not going anywhere.

When you do come back though, I better get some points with Elhaym. If I can't get her to be unfaithful, I should at least make her heart flutter! I can't be a girly cellist cowboy if I don't leave a few emotional scars in my wake.

[Siiri]

So after having a sounds war with my neighbor (or maybe I just needed to drown out their horrible singing on the karaoke), I had this blasting out of my speakers and it reminded me of your PC:

I will now forever see Pain carrying Triple H's sledgehammer.

[Elhaym]

So I've been trying to read a thread that's not mine once every day. I tend to get tunnel vision and not pay attention to anything outside the city I'm in, and I know I'm missing out. While doing this though, I realized how differently everyone writes on this site. Some people focus on certain things and do it really well, while others just blow me away with everything. I'm going to try and keep track of some things I think I need to be doing here, as well as some things I have seen done really well that I want to try and emulate in my own writing. Include the weather in my role plays. Even if it's a rainstorm battering a window, it still adds to the feel of the thread. Sometimes little details like this are lost on me, and I've noticed how much they help make a scene more interesting to picture in your mind (and thus read). One of the threads I read did this to great effect... it brought the scene to life. It doesn't have to be a swordfight for sword XP... and what I mean is, I notice that my method for training skills is very, uh, direct. I have a new set of mods here and I don't want to wear them out, so in reading these threads I have seen a lot of people train their skills in unorthodox situations that really kind of worked. I need to work on doing this. What's wrong with Elhaym? Or, more accurately, why isn't there anything wrong with her? She has let go of the lust for vengeance for the murder of her brother and uncle, repaired her relationship with her father, and finally found it in herself to really give in to the idea that she has no one to impress in Lhavit but her new patron Goddess, Zintila. It has liberated her in, in a sense. I suppose with Kota gone, she would be unhappy about that. I haven't really explored it, but in the end I'm not sure I want to dwell on it. Should I just be happy that my character is relatively content, and go from there?