The Writer's Workshop [Guide/Help Thread, Q&A, All Techs]

by **New Azura** » Tue Oct 15, 2013 11:20 am

THEWRITER'SWORKSHOP
DEDICATEDTOHELPINGROLEPLAYERS

The Writer's Workshop is a special collaborative project designed with one goal in mind: to help writers improve their work, or to learn new tips and techniques for roleplaying and storytelling. Considered a spiritual companion to the various help threads pinned in International Incidents, this thread is not endorsed in any form or manner by Moderation or NationStates as a whole. It is not the definitive, be-all, end-all source on quality writing, nor should it be construed as an attempt to change the way people write, or impose on anyone a certain style of writing that older or more experience players find aesthetically pleasing. That's not the point of this thread at all; in fact, it's quite the opposite in fact. This thread is designed simply as a way for people to ask questions about writing, getting answers from people who love to write. This is a shared group and community, and as such, the members of this project feel that helping people improve as writers contributes to the experience that makes writing at NationStates so much fun. Without the community of the website, there would be no fun in writing here. Hence our desire to leave something positive behind for current and future roleplayers alike.

Qualifying ourselves as roleplayers and writers who simply want to share our knowledge and experiences with other writers, the Workshop is designed as a cooperative group designed to help players dealing with issues on the mechanics of roleplaying—developing dialogue, plot, and setting in addition to the more stylistic tenets such as formatting, titles, and themes. Everything is geared primarily towards helping with the mechanics of roleplaying, versus the more generalized discussion threads currently available here and here. This thread is a source of specialized guides detailing various aspects of roleplaying tenets, along with discussions between members of the community, sharing constructive criticism and ideas on all things roleplaying. This thread is not designed to help any one specific tech level, as members of the group are a part of multiple tech communities and writing groups. The discussions contained herein can apply across the technology spectrum, and can influence any type of writing, both on-site and off-site. More than anything though, it's a place where all roleplays can feel welcome when asking for help, without fear of being ostracized or made fun of for their inexperience or writing style.

RULES OF THE WORKSHOP

Into all life, a few rules must fall. The necessity of keeping a general framework of rules in place for the workshop comes from the delicate nature that can exist when getting one's work critiqued. This thread is designed to help people, and to provide a place where writers can gather and help one another without feeling as though they're being insulted or mocked. There's little that could ruin the experience here in NationStates faster than feeling as though people don't respect you or think of you as a roleplayer. Personally, quantifying good roleplaying is next to impossible—people may have more developed writing skill than others, but trying to turn roleplaying into a competition really isn't practical or useful. The community is at its best when people cooperate with one another, instead of trying to outdo one another. Here then are the unbreakable commandments which govern this thread...

►Rule #1: Thou shalt not flame, troll, or otherwise post with malicious intent.

This should go without saying. Members of the community are automatically bound to follow the rules of the website at all times anyways. However, Moderation cannot always be everywhere at all times, requiring some measure of self-policing to ensure that people don't ruin the thread for everyone else. Consider this the Planet Fitness of NationStates roleplaying guides: it's a judgment free zone! Aside from a prohibition on making comments that could be considered flames or trolling, posters are prohibited from posting any content that could easily be conceived as malicious. Saying "I don't like the way you do dialogue" is one thing; "your dialogue sucks" is something else entirely.

►Rule #2: Disagreements over comments should be taken away from the thread.

Though the purpose of this thread is to help people, we're dealing in an area that can be sensitive to people's feelings. Ostensibly, people searching out help here want honest critiquing, but this doesn't preclude times when we still may feel like our work is unfairly analyzed. Or, perhaps members of our staff have differing opinions on the quality of the writer seeking advice. If a disagreement arises over material published here, or over advice lauded, those disputes should be taken either to telegrams or on our IRC on the Esper server. Discussions or debates on the merits of certain writing topics are fine, but any discussion that could be construed to be 'getting heated' needs to be kept elsewhere for the sake of other people in the thread.

►Rule #3: Do not spam the thread with long guides or copied roleplay text.

This one may seem like the staff here exercising exclusivity to corner the market on guides, but there is a point behind the madness. Aside from keeping a close check on material published to help other players, frankly a lot of space for this thread will be devoted to discussions. Long guides, while practical in many ways, can clog up the thread if they're overdone. Concurrently, people who post huge blocks of text from their roleplays to this thread may also be inadvertently clogging up discussion space. If you need part of your roleplay critiqued, please provide a link to the post or posts in question. If you must post excerpts, use the ["spoiler"] tag whenever possible. If you have a guide that you want to have featured, telegram the link or the material to one of our staff. If it gets approved, then we'll add it to the list.

►Rule #4: No critical analysis or suggestions made here are binding.

Once again, we must stress that the most important aspect of this group is for people to feel welcome, no matter what experience level or tech focus they possess. The critiques and information here, at the end of the day, are the mental properties of those who submit them. If someone disagrees with advice issued, that is their prerogative. While combativeness or consistent rejection of advice in a perpetually impudent or aggressive manner will result in the offender being asked to leave, no one is obligated to adopt ideas posited here in the thread. This is a repository of information, not an academy that requires certain styles and accents for people to pass.

►Rule #5: Please attempt to use the format provided to help the OP and readers better access materials.

This rule applies more so to guide contributors than anything else, but it is a pertinent rule to abide by nonetheless. If you are posting a guide here that has been approved by the staff, please add the primary focus of your guide in parentheses in the subject line of your posting window. In other words, if your guide details help in creating a setting for a story, please use (Setting) in the subject line, even if you don't use any other title in that box. This will help us out immensely in organizing content so that people can readily find materials pertinent to their questions.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

This thread is ostensibly created as a fluid roleplaying guide and discussion thread on the mechanics of roleplaying and writing; other threads exist for more contextual questions such as roleplaying ideas and help understanding the ins and outs of the roleplaying community. If you have a guide that you wish to have listed here, please telegram one of the members listed below for more information. Otherwise, all nations are free to discuss topics broached in the thread, and to posit questions dealing with general writing themes or more specific inquiries about their own work. Roleplayers may request critiques of their work here, and may also talk about different writing genres, why llamas make plots better—any and everything to do with writing roleplays. Throughout the year, symposiums and special threads will be held for nations who want to get involved in a roleplaying environment that is designed to help writers improve. As more guides and discussion questions are posted, an index of topics will be added for ease of reading.

MEMBERS OF THE WORKSHOP

Those players considered members of the Writer's Workshop are generally recognized as players/writers who have been around the NationStates roleplaying community long enough to have a good handle on the various aspects of the community, and are those players who have been fairly active for considerable lengths of time writing roleplay content here in the community. There is no specific experience requirement or 'minimum writing time' that defines a member of the group, but said players are generally considered writers that have been established and are relatively well-respected in the community, either for their style or for their helpfulness behind the scenes. Members of the group are chosen by the current staff, though players interested in becoming a group member can contact New Azura for more information on the process of formally joining up.

Workshop Member Profiles

by **New Azura** » Tue Oct 15, 2013 11:21 am

THEWRITER'SWORKSHOP
TOPICALINDEXOFINFORMATION

Characters
Tips for Creating Characters: An Open Guide

Dialogue
How to Write Dialogue: A Guide to the (Written) Spoken Word

Realism
Non-Realism in NationStates Roleplay: Where it Succeeds, Where it Fails and How to Resolve These Setbacks

by **New Azura** » Tue Oct 15, 2013 11:22 am

HOW TO WRITE DIALOGUE
A Guide to the (Written) Spoken Word

Why Write About Dialogue? || How to Make Dialogue Realistic || How to Make Dialogue Look Good || It's Easier Than it Looks
The Conversation ♦ The Inflection ♦ The Monologue ♦ The Thought ♦ Blocking or Spacing? ♦ Interjections and Interruptions ♦ Miscellaneous Bells and Whistles

Why Write About Dialogue?

When you set out to write a roleplay here in NationStates, you must always take stock in several different aspects of a given post. There's the setting, which gives a general idea of when and where your story is taking place. There's the characterization of your main figures of interest, or how and why they act the way that they do. Of course, you'll want to try and make sure that your grammar and spelling are proper and fine-tuned for the viewing public. But then there comes the one aspect of the roleplay that people seem to have the most trouble with, yet at the same time, love to do the most: dialogue. When it comes right down to it, having dialogue in a roleplay is often the key ingredient that takes your post to the next level. When you start to introduce characters, giving them speaking parts in your work, you're crossing a threshold between roleplaying and storytelling. It is quite the awesome task.

Dialogue can best be understood as a portion of your story where words typed are symbolic of the spoken words being uttered by your characters. In layman's terms, dialogue is people talking, plain and simple. Yet the art of fine-tuning dialogue in a story is anything but simplistic; it's a rich and vibrant process that can really help you explore the depth of your creative processes. Dialogue, more than any other aspect of writing a story in my opinion, represents an open door into the imagination of the writer. We can draw on our knowledge of real world locations and time periods for a setting, and we can utilize common literary archetypes and tropes for our characterization and plot direction. But when it comes time to put some dialogue into our stories, that's when our creative heart and soul comes alive. Dialogue is a literary window from the story to the writer themselves. Sounds kind of crazy, right?

This article was written specifically for people who want to improve their usage of dialogue in their roleplays. It should not be taken as the definitive word on dialogue, nor should it be considered a classical educational experience. This is merely one writer sharing some pointers that other writers have instilled in him, that have helped him become a more focused and inventive storyteller. Other people may have different ideas or concepts on how best to create dialogue in a story, and there's far from just one way to skin a cat, as it were. Nevertheless, this guide is meant as one general blueprint on ways that can help you to understand how best improve your dialogue in roleplay posts. There are two aspects that we want to look at here; how to make your dialogue better literary-wise, and how to make your dialogue better style-wise. Let's take a look first at how we can write better dialogue in our roleplay posts...

How to Make Dialogue Realistic

You have this awesome idea for a roleplay. It's so hot, it's sizzling up in your noodle. Undaunted by the fear of rejection, you set to work scratching out your opening post. With lightning speed, you begin to write of great and mighty battleships plowing through rough and turbulent seas, casting pale shadows across the choppy surf in the thunderous night! Cannons and cruise missiles soar into the night sky like fiery ramparts, arcing their way towards an unwitting foe. Alarms and sirens blare out all across your ship, as the commanding officer takes to the bridge, ready for anything! The executive officer then races towards a warning light that's flashing aboard one of the radar consoles. His expression goes from a cold, stony demeanor to one of exasperated shock—something has happened! The XO turns to the Captain, his face flush with tension, and says... um...

The Conversation
Without a doubt, the conversation between two or more characters is the most basic (and utilized) form of dialogue. It's what dialogue essentially means, when push comes to shove. And while we'll examine other aspects of dialogue momentarily, we want to start right here with what can often be the most challenging aspect. Understanding how to write good dialogue begins with understanding how to create good dialogue. Let me explain: people that have trouble with writing up conversations between their characters often have an inability to visualize in their mind what their characters would say. Still others have trouble making their dialogue feel 'authentic'—it carries the appearance of being wooden at best, or outright campy at worst. One of the best ways to fill your roleplay with good dialogue is to do a little roleplaying yourself. Don't just visualize your characters, but actually step out and get creative with it! Speak as if you were the character out in the open, transposing what you come up with. Sometimes, the free-flowing thought exercises produce even better results than those who sit down and plan each word meticulously. Getting into the spirit of things can help loosen you up, which is one of my biggest tips when you go to write dialogue. The biggest problem people have isn't that their dialogue is garbage; if anything, it's too cleaned up. Real conversations between people rarely look like the lines to a play, which is what a lot of people seem to base their primary model of dialogue off of now on the boards:

■ "Would you like to listen to some music, Mr. Adams?" "Why yes, I would like to listen to some music, Mr. Jones!"

You want to try and remember that the best dialogue often utilizes a tone that conveys informality. Sometimes, the situation causes for a more rigid form of dialogue, like when a speaker is addressing a large crowd, or politicians are engaging in a debate. Even then, though, you don't have to be stuck using this uptight, rigid dialogue structure. Try to loosen up and write as if you yourself were answering your characters when you write out the dialogue retort:

■ "Hey, Mr. Adams? Do you want me to put on some music?" "Actually, that would be pretty cool. Yeah, thanks!"

The Inflection
One way to help improve your usage of dialogue isn't even apart of the actual dialogue itself; it's the descriptors you utilize to convey the inflection of the conversation, or more specifically what each character is thinking or feeling in that particular moment by way of the dialogue they're speaking. One of the biggest problems writers can run into is trying to adequately convey what they mean for the scene of a story to look like to an audience who cannot see inside the imagination of the writer. When dialogue is involved, it becomes doubly hard to get the true intent across. Dialogue, more than any other aspect of writing, can throw off readers by simply being misleading or difficult to understand. Let me give you an example; see if you can figure out this scene:

■ "I can't believe it!"

It's just a simple phrase, yet far too often writers will toss out phrases almost exactly like that one, with a surprisingly small amount of clarification as to what it means. That's the sad part about it; my out-of-place example isn't too far from a lot of people's norms. It can be corrected by using a bit of description to explain the context for that statement. Without the context, we may not get the true gist of the storyline: is the speaker flabbergasted by a lie? Are they shocked by an unexpected turn? Without the background, we don't know what's going on. But if I were to clarify the above with a bit of description—Julia's mouth dropped when Adam told her the news: "I can't believe it!"—things begin to make more sense. We now know that Julia (the speaker) is shocked at something that has happened. We can tell simply by the description that it must be something fairly shocking, which now whets the appetite of the reader to move on and see what has this character so disturbed. You can do that in all sorts of ways with your dialogue; don't be afraid to demonstrate how your characters feel. Get into their mindset a little bit; if the characters are nervous, describe them as being nervous before they speak. If they're angry, demonstrate that with some description. Whatever you want your characters to convey with their dialogue, write it out in your post!

■ Julia began nervously clutching at her chest, feeling the anxiety eat away at her. "Mrs. Cotter, I tried my very best to save your husband, but there was too much damage done to the heart, and I'm only a nurse. I'm sorry—"

"Sorry doesn't bring my husband back!" Mrs. Cotter screamed, wailing hysterically while fighting back streaming tears. "My husband is dead, and it's all your fault! Why couldn't you just do your job? Why is he dead? Why!?"

The Monologue
Not all dialogue takes place between multiple characters. Sometimes, you may have only one character speaking at a given time (whether he's by himself or in amongst a crowd is irrelevant). This is what's called a monologue, as it were; one person giving dialogue in the context of the larger story. This can be a tricky thing to master as well, because a lot of people use the one person speaking as an artistic license to get lazy and just cram a bunch of dialogue in there. Monologues are tricky beasts, because they go on a lot longer on average than conversations between characters do. Thus, you run the risk of losing your reader's attention if you're not careful. Inflection usage here is vital to creating a good monologue; I can't stress this enough. If you utilize descriptions not only regarding the mood of your speaker, but the mood of his listeners (if present), then your monologue will carry a whole new dramatic slant about it:

■ "Dear citizens of America, I appreciate you coming to my inaugural address this lovely day. It has been an important couple of weeks, but things are finally preparing to return to normal. In the difficult hours that lie ahead, I ask that every American work together to help create a greater country! Not just for ourselves, but for our children! And our children's children! [Notice how there's no context to go on here, other than the speaker welcoming people to the speech. Without that line, we'd have no way of knowing if this was a live speech, or if it's being broadcast over the radio, Fallout-style!]

■ The President waved to the adoring crowds, stepping up towards the microphone. He smiled broadly, speaking loudly: "Dear citizens of America, I appreciate you coming to my inaugural address this lovely day." A chorus of cheers and applause from the President's supporters in Washington stirred the crowd into a raucous frenzy yet again, prompting the President to grin broadly. When the noise quieted down a bit, he continued: "It has been an important couple of weeks, but things are finally preparing to return to normal. In the difficult hours that lie ahead, I ask that every American work together to help create a greater country! Not just for ourselves," the President exclaimed, speaking over another rising tide of excitement, "but for our children! And our children's children! [Notice how this particular example looks so much better on paper? It outclasses the first example in almost every way conceivable, yet a closer inspection reveals that the spoken monologue of the character remained exactly the same! Why does it look better? It's all about the inflection around it!]

The Thought
While not traditionally thought of as dialogue in the strictest sense, utilizing the thoughts of a character can be another great way to add inflection and depth to your dialogue. By adding the thoughts of your characters to a post, you're not only sprucing up the spoken words in a post, but you're also providing a deeper insight into the characters themselves. One of the best ways to distinguish between thoughts and spoken words in the context of a conversation is to utilize the italics tab. Placing thoughts in all italics while keeping actual conversation in regular text while surrounded by quotation marks ("[Spoken Text]") can make all the difference in the world. Take a look at this example, which shows you how to differentiate between speech and a thought:

■ John sighed, addressing Rebecca. "I really wish that she would notice me." [Speech]

■ John sighed as he stood beside Rebecca, staring off after Jill. I really wish that she would notice me... [Thought]

How to Make Dialogue Look Good

You sit back from the keyboard, triumphant in your victory over the roleplay! Surely, readers will want to read this harrowing tale of militant hijinks on the glorious sea lanes of battle! Scanning over your handiwork, you read through your character’s dialogue, practically imagining what it would be like to experience such a tense situation up close and personal. But something doesn’t seem quite… right with the roleplay still. The action scenes are brilliant, and the dialogue is good, but the roleplay isn’t crisp enough yet. Why isn’t this post working out like it should? Something isn’t setting right, but it’s not the actual dialogue itself. I wonder if there’s something I’m not thinking of here…

Blocking or Spacing?
When you write a roleplay, you have to take into consideration not only the material that you write, but how it’s presented. The structure of your narrative is very important, yes, but we want to focus on the more concrete meaning of the phrase. This is the concept of how the actual roleplay will look once you’re ready to hit the submit button. Formatting your post can be quite time consuming—almost as painfully irritating as writing the blamed thing. Fortunately, structuring your dialogue isn’t too painful, and should only take a few moments while you’re actually writing the post. There are two preferred methods on how to write dialogue in your posts, the both of which we will call blocking and spacing. Either way has positives and negative ramifications.

Blocking is the practice of utilizing multiple characters speaking in the span of a single paragraph. Utilizing this format, there could be as many as few as two people speaking in a given paragraph, or there could be as many as five or six; it’s really up to the writer to decide how they want to proceed. Stylistically, blocking your dialogue into fewer paragraphs helps give your post a more full appearance; each paragraph will have a lot more body to, and is typically easier to format. The downside to blocking is that it makes it much more difficult to differentiate between the various characters speaking, and blocking can be aesthetically unappealing to the reader. Here's an example of what blocking looks like when used for dialogue between two characters:

■ "Captain Smith! We have an enemy submarine bearing two-one-zero, mark six degrees down!" The executive officer was nervously pacing back and forth, wringing his hands. "Captain, what do we do here?" The captain simply smiled at his young colleague, patting him on the shoulder: "Try not to worry so much, Mr. Avery! This ship has a fine crew here; we can overcome any adversity if we keep our wits about us now, is that understood?"

Spacing on the other hand is the method in which a writer will utilize a second paragraph for a new person speaking. Unlike blocking where everything gets paired up together, spacing utilizes exactly what the name implies—space—to spread out the dialogue, and give each speaking part its own little focus of attention in a given moment. Stylistically, spacing your dialogue can lead to some very slender paragraphs, if not one-line entries. Not everyone likes the look of these "skinny paragraphs". On the other hand, spacing is a much more aesthetically pleasing way to structure your dialogue, as it makes it much easier for the reader to follow, and is generally considered proper etiquette in most literary circles. An example of spacing would look something like this:

■ "Captain Smith! We have an enemy submarine bearing two-one-zero, mark six degrees down!" The executive officer was nervously pacing back and forth, wringing his hands. "Captain, what do we do here?"

The captain simply smiled at his young colleague, patting him on the shoulder: "Try not to worry so much, Mr. Avery! This ship has a fine crew here; we can overcome any adversity if we keep our wits about us now, is that understood?"

Interjections and Interruptions
One trick to the trade that you might want to consider is utilizing interjections or interruptions in your dialogue. In real life, a conversation between two people is rarely "one person speaks, then another person speaks only when the first is finished". Even in civil conversations, there can be some interaction within a conversation, where one person may finish the thought of another, or bring up a prudent point that needs answering. In roleplays, you could especially benefit from interjections and interruptions when your dialogue is focused on a tense situation. When things are getting feisty, real people wouldn't care so much about etiquette, would they? Try cutting your character's off by stopping one character's sentence short with ellipses points or a dash:

■ Johnny was furious. "Listen to me, you smug little—"

"Keep your mouth shut," Ralph angrily replied, "before I shut it for you!"

■ "You know what I'm saying, right? The roaches check in..."

Eddie shook his head, laughing: "— But they don't check out. Right."

Miscellaneous Bells & Whistles
When you're preparing to make the final edit to your paper, you can always add neat little trinkets into your work to help give it a little bit of spice. One concept that people utilize is the dialogue equivalent to onomatopoeia: writing noises. If your characters are frustrated, you always symbolize this by having them audibly mutter "Ugh," or "Bah,"—just random sound effects that adds a bit of realism and depth to your characters. When they're scared, they could go "Gah!" for the shock value. Just neat little tricks like that. Sometimes, you can utilize the italics and bold tags in your browser to indicate when someone's being sarcastic—"Geez, Big Mike, I would have never guessed you liked hot dogs, no sir,"—or when someone's angry—"Give me the map, now!" Finally, there's always ways that you can mix in a character's dialogue with a character's thoughts; it just requires the right touch to pull it off successfully:

■ John sighed, speaking as Elizabeth began to walk away in disgust. "I don't care what you think of me, Liz," he snarled, then put his hands on the back of his head as she shook her head: You never would have accepted me, anyways.

It's Easier Than It Looks

Writing dialogue in a roleplay isn't something that should hold your progression back as a writer. Once you learn a few tricks to the trade, dialogue will not only become one of the easiest parts to writing a story, but it'll also become the most fun and exhilarating aspect of your work. More than anything else, dialogue in a roleplay or story provides quirky little insights into the composition of that character (and, by default, the writers themselves). Our characters are extensions of our own personalities and thoughts in a strange sort of way; the people we admire, the people we loathe, and the people that we find too interesting not to think about. These nuances find their way into the written work, spreading out from post to post. It's life within your characters; that artistic spark that inspires curiosity and wonder, heartbreak and triumph. Whether you write to entertain, write to have fun, or write to try and touch people emotionally, dialogue can help pave the way to writing success. All it takes is the right mindset and a little elbow grease, and viola: you've done it!

At the end of the day, that's what roleplaying is: just a nice, drawn out conversation between you and a wide open world.

Lovingly Crafted by New Azura
Saturday, February 4th, 2012

by **Kylarnatia** » Tue Oct 15, 2013 12:18 pm

Non-Realism in NationStates Roleplay
Where it Succeeds, Where it Fails and How to Resolve These Setbacks

Introduction

“Cynical realism is the intelligent man's best excuse for doing nothing in an intolerable situation.”

-Aldous Huxley

In my usual fashion, I’ve chosen to write about something that perplexes me, let alone the people I’m trying to address on the topic. Alas, as I sit here now and write this lecture for you all, I’m confident that something good will come out of it. If it makes you feel any better, I am clear with myself on what I’m trying to achieve, so I’m not walking aimlessly off into the distance with no idea of where I’m going.

Realism in general fiction writing is a hot topic for many critics (although I strongly advise not to listen to their opinions, because they’re paid to write it) and readers. It can see the writer’s work being slated, or praised. Shot down, or carried high. Hated, or loved. It’s something that has conflicted with people for years – to some, Non-Realism is a stupid and overall time-wasting thought that only daydreamers go on to think about. To others, those ‘daydreamers’, Non-Realism is merely an expression of wanted exploration, of a bird wanting to fly from its nest so to speak. The fact that it may or may not be real is irrelevant: the idea that the human mind is being so vivid with its images shows that they are looking forward and have high hopes for man’s creative explorations.

In the wonderful community that is NationStates, the theory is the same. There are those who think it contributes little to the game, and those who believe that it’s what the game is all about. Though the theories are quite different, or at the very least more expansive as to the reasons why. This lecture aims to set out where Non-Realism ‘succeeds’ in the game, where it ‘fails’, and how these ‘setbacks’ can be resolved. This is, undoubtedly, very difficult to discuss because there are far too many views to discuss, and I’m one who likes to sit on the fence. Let us make some form of start by defining ‘Realism’:

re•al•ism [ree-uh-liz-uhm] (Noun):
Interest in or concern for the actual or real, as distinguished from the abstract, speculative, etc.

From this, I think Non-Realism can be easily defined as the abstract, or the unreal. Yet at the same time you could take that concepts are non-realist, although they are believed to be a possible future material (in other words, physical object or plausible theory/reality). This in itself is the conundrum of the discussion and what is particularly difficult to address. Where’s the line on this debate? On what is an acceptable concept and what isn’t? Well, this is something that could, and probably should, be left to another lecture which I’d love to venture into in the future. But we already have a task to complete (or at least I do), and that is discussing Non-Realism in NationStates Roleplay.

Where it Succeeds

In my personal opinion, although I try to keep an open view on things, NationStates in itself is a non-realistic game. It seems to me that Max Barry, in all his awesomeness, created NationStates for that reason. It was a chance for people to come along and create a fantasy nation as their chance to put a middle finger up to the political system of the modern world at large: Things were likely to be over exaggerated for humorous reasons, or to make serious points that were closer to the truth then people felt or even believed. Roleplaying has been one of the ways players have been able to express themselves, either serious or not, and I believe that is one of the most basic successes of Non-Realism in NationStates in general: It completes the basic purpose of the game.

Looking at how the game has grown into a greater mechanism, however, there is a lot more to discuss then just that. Roleplaying in itself has taken a far more centre role in the game, next to raiding and defending (which can and on an occasional basis features roleplaying elements), and when we look at the statistics the game provides (population, as a basic example) players are only trying to keep the game centric – the planet that Max Barry and the millions of players have created is one that houses over billions, and I mean billions, of citizens. Non-Realism in roleplay succeeds in keeping the roleplaying side of the game close to its actual mechanism.

I also think this is useful for new players, because the allowance of Non-Realism allows them to get to basic grips with roleplaying when they’re first focused on the game and will later go on to realise the full expansion of the customisation options available to them when roleplaying as aside to the games statistics (i.e. being able to set a population to roleplay by, being able to choose a variety of figures that suit them).

Another success I find from Non-Realism in NationStates Roleplay is the unexpectedness of it all. Now this doesn’t have to be massive and brutal warfare (which we’ll actually discuss as one of the failures) but I’m just talking about the little things. Things that generally have little weight in terms of ‘competing’ in the game, though to be honest there is no competition, it’s just story-telling. It’s up to you if you exclude NS Sports from that opinion. I’m talking about things like having ridiculously tall people, or a rather strange national animal (hell, a dodo if you want to use that as an example) – they’re humorous quirks that the players can throw in amongst themselves for a bit of a laugh or just to make themselves unique in some form or another, even if it is just as small as a dodo.

If we try and think of another observational success of Non-Realism in NationStates Roleplay one thing that comes to my mind is how it gives easy answers to overly complicated questions. If we’re honest, the core age group of the game is around fourteen-sixteen years of age, and although you’d expect them to have some prior knowledge of politics, economics, warfare or whatever – can you honestly expect them to be spending their time working out all the fiddly sums such as the amount of oil they have per cubic kilometre? Or how much fuel a plane would need to travel the vast expanse of the NationStates world? We all know some who can and do, but I think the finite answer is No.

Non-Realism in NationStates Roleplay is one of the most appealing parts of the game itself, from what I can understand: The core age group of players who come to this game generally are just beginning to grow an interest in politics, and are excited by the idea of running their own nation and even waging war (though war is without a doubt a horrible thing, but some would argue necessary). They don’t come here to do the ‘nitty-gritty’, but they’ll learn it as they go: Non-Realism almost educates them in the early stages about how the game is played and how players interact with one another, and as they continue to play they learn more.

To round this up, the successes of Non-Realism in NationStates roleplay are more influential of player participation, interaction, and understanding of the game, more than the core standard of roleplaying, which is where it fails.

Where it Fails

Non-Realism in NationStates Roleplay undoubtedly fails in its application, rather than its influence on player’s choices and uncodified flexibility. There is no bar, or line, in Non-Realism. It can go as high as the stars above us and beyond, and there is very little to stop that except the One Stop Rules Shop, that cannot always be the answer to everything because it is not trying to install a totalitarian rule over the game and just gives a general idea of interacting with other players. Now this, in all honesty, has very little impact when it’s among a group of friends who know what the general idea is – but when somebody comes along and says they’re prepared to fire nukes off at the entire world and there’s nothing nobody can do, there’s a problem.

Player interaction in Non-Realism during roleplaying is its ultimate downfall: What’s there to say? Yes, there are moments when you can point out that they’re being unfair (though to be honest, the same can happen in ‘Realist’ roleplays) but I mean when a player follows the game philosophy that there is unlimited resources, while you don’t, how do you combat that if it influences your roleplay? Neither of you have to stand down on your positions, nor is it not doubtable that anyone is ever willing to, and they can’t be blamed for that. It’s the simple fact that there are no restrictions, which even when played right, do more harm than good in terms of the progress of a story, and its overall quality.

And then, of course, you do just have the fact that in Non-Realism, very few things count for anything. National debt means nothing. Losses in war mean nothing. They’re easily excused and nobody can really, truthfully, hold them to account for that. Yes you can of course complain about it, but that’s not stopping the roleplayer in question from doing what he is doing, and as long it is not directly affecting yours or anyone else’s contribution, it can only be considering a breaking of ‘unwritten’ rules, which are never the easiest to enforce and if we’re honest the last thing we need are an International Incidents Police Force.

To round this up, the failure of Non-Realism in NationStates Roleplay is simply that it has no boundaries, and although there are certain rules to maintain player response and dignity, there is very little that can actually be done because no official rules are being broken. Communication is also very poor, it seems to me at least, because of this uncertainty on what to say and what not to say, and sometimes when thing are said it doesn’t always go to plan and can spark unnecessary arguments. Non-Realism has, undoubtedly, created a lot of friction within the NationStates roleplaying area.

How to resolve these Setbacks

In a discussion with Lamoni (a fellow II Roleplay Mentor) and Temujinn (an experienced player) on the #NSMentors IRC Channel, we discussed how the problems presented by Non-Realism in NationStates Roelplay could possibly be resolved.

I was rather taken aback, to say the least, upon the suggestion on Arbitrators and Judges. Although Temujinn was merely making a point, and although some would see it as a viable solution, I don’t believe in it. I don’t believe that the problems I hope I’ve presented clearly and fairly in this lecture should be sorted by some form of military tribunal (that may be being slightly over-exaggerating). I think there’s a much more simple solution, and you may think that it’s stupid, but I’m going to say it anyway.

We need to get people to be more confident in debating with each other, instead of arguing.

It seems to me that whenever people try and address the issues raised by Non-Realism, they’re not confident in doing so on the grounds that they can easily become the target for the displeasure of the other player – which is the ongoing confrontation with ‘Realists’. They’re not people who are trying to spoil the game, or trying to tell them that their way of playing is better, they’re just trying to show the other side. But it always breaks out into an argument. I think there should be some distinction to people, a guide of sorts, on what is the best way on trying to deal with people they’re unsatisfied with. Actually, to expand from that – I think it’d be better to give guidance to people on why these things happen and what is the best way to avoid these confrontations, which I hope this lecture is the start of.

I also think, as a fellow II Mentor, greater confidence in contacting the II Mentors for assistance is also advisable. Although we’re by no means a ‘police’ of the International Incidents or other roleplaying forums, I believe our talents go far beyond ‘teaching people’ in how to roleplay, but also how to roleplay with others respectfully and so on. Communication is key to everything in this matter.

That, and I believe that defining the ‘unwritten’ rules of NationStates would do little harm, though emphasising the point that they’re ‘unwritten’ is necessary.

Conclusion

I wish to apologise immediately for the poor construction of this piece. Between schoolwork and everything else, this kind of got my second-rate effort, though I've tried all I can in the spare time I've had. I also apologise for the lack of written examples and sources, for although I intended to collate them, I didn't have as much time as I wished to do this.

Addendum: Its been almost a year since I wrote this 'lecture' for the 2012 NS World Fair, and I'm still pretty confident in it. I'm also still convinced that the best solution for these problems is to promote greater cooperation between players, and I intend to touch upon that issue in a future 'lecture', of sorts, regarding players OOC and IC Conduct.

I hope you've enjoyed this piece, and has been worth your time.

- Kylarnatia [Kyle]
II Mentor and fellow NationStates Roleplayer
[Written November 12th, 2012]

by **New Azura** » Tue Oct 15, 2013 1:21 pm

Tips for Creating Characters

This guide is meant as a tool to help both young and experienced roleplayers alike with problems they may be having developing characters for their stories. This guide is meant only as a tool to help players, and is not meant to be a definitive source on the proper way to create characters. Rather, it's a set of tools that have helped myself and other players out over the years, and is information that may be of help to some players. If you have comments, concerns, or questions, please feel free to post them directly to this thread, and I or others present will respond as soon as possible. All I ask is that you refrain from making fun of posters asking questions here in the thread. Many thanks!

A.) Why Are Characters Important?

In a very real sense, the characters you create will be the lifeblood of your roleplays. Without successful characters that keep you interested in writing about them and people interested in reading about them or participating with you, you are more likely to flame out and wind up in some other area of the community, if not gone from NationStates entirely. So many people have wonderfully diverse, eclectic ideas on how to organize the cultural ethos and nomenclature of their created societies, but fall short in exemplifying those ideals through the characters that serve as the mechanism by which plots pertaining to their countries move forward. Without successful characters dotting your work, you'll have a hard time growing in the community.

What constitutes a 'successful' character? Any character that drives you to write more about them could be considered successful, just as quickly as a character that becomes popular with your friends or others reading your work. As with other forms of literature, the characters of your roleplays can take on a variety of roles. Your main characters will almost always be the most fleshed out, while ancillary characters fill important supporting roles in your roleplay series and your standalone short stories. The trick with creating characters is to figure out what you want your characters to represent. Anyone can pick a name and describe their general appearance for a one-off; to create a character that has depth to them however, you have to be aware of what that character will represent.

For national leaders, characters often will represent the idealized versions of the cultural mores that define your nation. Villainous antagonists often serve the opposite role, exemplifying the traits that your society stands in opposition against. Secondary or support characters may come to exemplify specific emotional responses, often finding their calling in specific scenarios with your main characters. In any event, understanding what you want to achieve in writing a specific character is part of the joy that goes into creating them. Far from being a paper-thin caricature that most people resort to, bonafide characters that writers create can represent more than a token expression on the part of the author. Successful characters can spawn a wealth of opportunities in the greater roleplaying community, and can open up new experiences that will help you grow as a member of the community.

B.) Designing a Lasting Contribution for Your Mythos

Characters have various roles in our roleplays. Some characters are designed for stand-alone roleplays or short stories, while others are intended to stretch beyond any one roleplay series in order to become as much apart of your national mythos as your flag or country name is. Some people in the roleplaying are so adept at creating characters for their stories that they become known as much for their characters as they do anything else. Some people have an implicit passion for 'nation-building', and spend much of their time writing factbooks for their countries. Often however, younger players just starting out will try to focus their entire energy all at once on building their nation without really looking into the character elements that will drive their roleplays.

This mentality manifests itself because the drive to create thoughtful characters seem to be ancillary in importance to writing up a national history or building ORBATs for military roleplays. Ironically, one of the main constants throughout your contributions to the NationStates roleplaying community are your characters themselves! If you are a new player who is just getting started in the community, consider looking at the possibility of creating a group of characters who will come to represent various aspects of your society. Finding the right character can make a world of difference, motivating you to go beyond the mundane and really stretch yourself as a writer. Plus, some of the best fun you can have writing takes place in the characters we create—looking at our fantasy world through their eyes, painting visceral imagery in the words we use to describe them. If you lack expertise in economics, military strategies or technology or science fiction conventions, the one tried-and-true way to integrate into an otherwise impenetrable community is through meaningful characters.

C.) Using Character Motivation as a Key to Tone

One of the inherent joys for a roleplay writer is to develop characters that can help accentuate the tone of the stories we want to write. The NationStates Roleplaying Community is a wonderfully diverse place where any number of tropes are on display at a given time. Roleplays set in the distant past, sleek visions of the present and the most creative glimpses into the very distant future are just some of the various settings that roleplay writers create here. Some people dig on writing dramatic posts laced with suspense and romance; some like to paint the thread walls with red in gritty war stories, while others like to try and make readers feel mentally disturbed with the ickiest of horror themes. A trick that veteran players learn to taking advantage of this wide breadth of opportunity is to allow your characters to become driving forces in the roleplays themselves.

One mistake people make is trying to tailor their characters to a specific plot, shoehorning a created character into a preset role and writing the characters around the story. Creatively speaking, a much easier way to write intelligent, entertaining stories is to design your characters first, and allow the plot of your story to flow as an extension of the characterizations you create. Let's say that you want to write a roleplay dealing with war—after all, it is nigh an unwritten requirement that all players must have at least one war story while they write here. Instead of creating a general plot on how the war will be fought and how it will end, develop characters with emotional depth that can give you a variety of options. If you build from the characters out, you may discover different ways to advance your story, giving you better options in abundance that can really give your roleplay some quality depth.

D.) Using Internal Conflict as a Key to Storytelling

Another common problem that people run into when creating characters is that they stop at the 'second dimension' of their creations, not bothering to go beyond the external layers of the character. In other words, people will pick a name and a general appearance for their character, but wont take the time to figure out how their characters would act, or what motivating forces drive them to do whatever it is that you want them to do. The difference between paper-thin characters and meaty creations is evident in the realm of cinema: watch any Oscar-winning film that has a heavy emphasis on powerful, moving characters. Compare those actors to the people who star in 'B-movie' knockoffs; the quality in the acting skill is coupled with a dramatic drop-off in the depth of the character, thus lessening the dramatic impact the movies have on the viewer.

The same thing holds true when you create characters for your roleplays. If you create a character for a war roleplay—let's say a General who will command your forces in battle—and stop at his appearance, then you're handicapping your ability to write compelling posts moving forward. After awhile, you will have exhausted the character by having to post the same general story points every single time. On the other hand, take that same General character and give him some backstory, and it helps extend your ability to evolve your stories. Perhaps our General character lost a loved one or friend in an earlier war with the enemy he now faces, creating a strong desire for revenge in him. Maybe he is an idealist that thinks war is implicitly evil, yet his country's survival depends on his ability to fight. Maybe he's a sadomasochist who wants to inflict great pain on the enemy population. By adding a general background to your characters as you go along, you can not only make your characters more entertaining, but you open up a variety of different avenues with which to take your roleplays, extending their lifespan further.

Another trick to making characters more real is to portray their internal conflicts. In a war roleplay, we know that our general will be facing an external threat in the form of his enemy, or perhaps the struggle he or she faces with keeping his own personnel in line—these points are a given. To add some meat on the bones though, we can also portray the conflict that our general will face within themselves. Perhaps our general is afraid of failure, and it taints their actions. Maybe our general has so much hatred in his or her heart that it clouds their judgment, putting their troops in harm's way. Again, once you explore the possibilities with internal conflict, you have once again opened a bevy of new opportunities for your story, which helps make it more fun to write about.

E.) How to Avoid Creating Either One Dimensional or 'Mary Sue' Characters

Unfortunately, sometimes characters don't always work out. Whether they cease to be interesting to write about, or whether they don't really fit in the stories that you're writing, characters can sometimes outlive their usefulness. One of the things writers both young and old want to avoid when creating characters however is designing characters that are meant to fail from the beginning. One of the riskiest types of characters to create are 'Mary Sues'—characters who serve as little more than wish-fulfillment for the authors. If NationStates is an outlet for you to imagine yourself in grand situations, then more power to you—it is certainly within your right to do so. If you write roleplays for the artistic merit however, creating a Mary Sue character (either accidentally or intentionally) can represent the death of your story's credibility with readers. Luckily, one of the easiest ways to prevent creating a Mary Sue is to simply add depth to your characters.

Allow me to explain: whether you are creating protagonists or antagonists (or characters that are ripe with shades of gray), everything you create will be special to you. After all, you're putting time and energy into creating these characters, so they definitely hold some value to you. Sometimes, when we latch onto characters that we really like, we can become extraordinarily protective of them, preserving them in a position of strength almost like we do with our nations sometimes. The problem with this comes when we protect our characters so much that we're left with nowhere else to go with them. Running into a dead end with a beloved character can be the kiss of death to roleplay writing, because it leaves you with no desire to really evolve as a writer. The trick to avoiding both one-dimensional characters and 'Mary Sues' is to 'humanize' your characters as best you can.

In short, no one is going to be perfect—even the best characters in classic stories have moments where they goof up or run into a spot of trouble that they cannot immediately overcome. Some of the best characters from all of literature are not stoic supermen who overcome the odds no matter what they face—it's the characters that face a world of challenges that require personal sacrifice, either physically or existentially. Characters that take losses every once in awhile, who either bounce back or go down trying. Letting your character walk through Hell and get charred around the edges is a great way to keep your creative streak on its toes, helping to really flesh out your characters and given them motivation to evolve within the constructs you create for them.

F.) Purposing Your Characters for the Future

For new players who are just getting their feet wet in the roleplaying community, there's a special little trick that happens every so often when roleplayers set out to create characters for their stories. As is the case with most avenues in life, sometimes the unexpected gems in life are those that we least expect. Translated in roleplaying terms, sometimes we may find great characters in creations that were originally meant to be one-off characters. In my own personal writing, one of the characters I am best known for started out this way. I had created a general plot revolving around a transfer of power from my dead King to his lawful heir by way of the King's daughter, who has to keep the country together while various forces conspire to steal that authority away from her. The daughter of the King was created as a one-off transitional character, meant only to handover power at the end of my roleplay to the new king.

As I wrote this roleplay however, a few things became apparent to me. The more I wrote about this character, the more passionate I became about evolving her personal story and developing her further. At the same time, people who were providing me feedback on the roleplay I was writing kept harping on how much they enjoyed reading information on the character. About midway through the story, I realized that I had created a character in the daughter of the fallen King that was more compelling to write and read about than the main protagonist of the story. Thus, I altered the plot moving forward to refocus the story on her, making the character that was to be my new national leader and main protagonist into one of the main antagonists. By the end of the roleplay, that protagonist-turned-antagonist was dead and buried as a character, while the 'one-off' daughter became a fixture of multiple roleplays spread out across various groups within II. Ironic, considering the fact that the character was slated to die when she was first created.

This is the joy of creating characters in the roleplaying medium; writers have such freedom to adapt and evolve as their stories grow that you never know when you're going to touch upon a special character. The more characters you create, the more likely you are to stumble upon a creation that really stands out for you, and becomes something recognizable to other roleplayers and readers here in the community. You never know when you may happen across the future protagonist of your roleplay series.

G.) A Short Exercise to Help Create Layered Characters

Over the past three years of writing stories here on NationStates, I have come to discover several tricks that help me to create characters, and several tricks that utterly destroy the stories I set out to create. One of the best ways to create characters (or so I've learned) is to flesh out your characters beforehand, designing them from the inside out so that you can create that perfect character that will help accentuate your story. If you are stuck on trying to create a character, this exercise might help you get the creative juices flowing necessary to perfect that special creation.

Step 1: Who is your character?
The first thing you want to do is figure out who your character is, and what role they are going to play. Only the most basic of appearance information should be settled on here; namely, whether you're creating a man or a woman (if in PT, MT, PMT, human FT, etc.), and the general age of the character. You can also pinpoint general specifics about the character, such as whether you desire them to be a major or minor character, whether they have a special role in your country or whether they are intended for a role as a protagonist, antagonist, or somewhere in between. You can name your character at this point if you wish, though you could also wait until the very end as well; the name is really the least important part of the design process, outside of the importance of choosing a name that you like and can live with.
Step 2: What does your character act like?
Once you have the most basic of parameters set for your character, start to explore what the character would do on a regular basis. For instance, if you had to list five emotions that your character would feel most often in a given day, what would they be? Would your character be predisposed to emotions tied into anger, maybe? Maybe your characters spend much of the day being a cut-up or acting foolish. Perhaps your character has emotional extremes that send them going from happiness to sadness, to humorous to vengeful. List five or so emotions that you want to define your character—in a real sense, having a general outline of emotional capacity will help determine the possibilities for your character.
Step 3: What does your character do?
This can be a two-part design process, giving you a range of opportunities in which to seek out. Once you have set the basic parameters for your character and have developed an emotional pallet on which to work with, start figuring out some of your characters mannerisms. If your character is predisposed to anger or frustration, give them special tics that exemplify impatience or frustration. If they're predisposed to sadness or melancholy, have them be predisposed to isolated activities, or perhaps let them dwell often on their own internal thoughts. Externally, use this set-up to determine what type of activities your characters would engage in. If they are violent or angry characters, perhaps they enjoy hunting or fighting. Maybe the intellectuals like to give speeches or converse with their elders. Maybe your character likes to go fishing; it's all open game, and any number of activities could spawn story depth and plot ideas.
Step 4: What does your character look like?
This is the last step that you want to engage in, partly because by the time you've figured out the nuances of who your character is and how you want your character to act, your mind has already begun brainstorming ideas on what such a person would look like. Get as creative as you can when you decide how your character looks; play around with the age range you set earlier, depicting characteristics that fit well with children if your character is youthful, or the infirm if your character is an elderly figure. Focus on the most striking features like hair and eye color, the texture and appearance of their skin, and their physical build. If you want to give them distinguishing marks, such as scars or deformities, you can add those in here. Touch on their posture or countenance, and the type of clothes that they wear. Once this is done, you can go over a mental evaluation of how your character looks, and put the final touches on the creation process.
Step 5: Does your character pass the 'Checklist'?
At this point, you have created a pretty thorough character that is almost ready for usage in your story. Realistically, you could through them into your work and probably get by just fine with them. However, if you want to evaluate the character that you've created, you can run them through the 'Checklist'—a series of investigative questions designed to help you determine whether your characters are fleshed out enough, or if they're going to be dead ends for you once you put them in stories. The checklist is short and sweet; if your character causes you to answer 'no' to more than two of the five yes or no questions, you can go back through the steps and tinker with them until you settle on a character that is ready for your roleplays.

1.) Does my character look like he or she is invincible?
2.) Does my character look too perfect to be realistic?
3.) Does my character look too one dimensional?
4.) Does my character seem interesting to write about initially?
5.) Does my character have room to grow beyond their starting point here?

Figuring out where your character stands depends on what you answer to these questions. You may find that one 'no' answer to any one of the questions is enough to send you back to the drawing board. In general though, the best advice that I could give to you would be to be patient; don't rush through the creation process. Creating wonderful characters can be a deeply rewarding experience as a writer; the right characters can make all the difference in the stories you love to write. And in all things, never be afraid to ask for opinions. This thread is open if you have any questions whatsoever regarding character creation or critiquing.

— Lovingly Crafted by New Azura
Saturday, November 10th, 2012

The Writer's Workshop [Guide/Help Thread, Q&A, All Techs]

The Writer's Workshop [Guide/Help Thread, Q&A, All Techs]

Topical Index of Information

How to Write Dialogue (Guide - Dialogue)

Non-Realism in NationStates Roleplay (Lecture - Non-Realism)

Tips for Creating Characters (Guide - Characterization)

Who is online