#guide:mine

[lewistan]

Writing a Compelling Villain aka Villian 101:

Disclaimer: Listen, I’m not saying I’m a pro at writing villains. I’m not even saying that I’m a good writer. I’m just saying that I enjoy writing morally ambiguous characters and if I can lend some info that may help other people feel more comfortable doing the same, then I’ll attempt to do that.

Before we begin, I must note that I will be operating within the dichotomy of hero vs villain. I fully understand that morality may be a spectrum, i.e. there are grey moral characters, but for the sake of this piece, let’s pretend that morality is as simple as good vs evil. 

Let’s begin, shall we?

What is a villain:

Writing a villain is no different than writing any other characters. Crafting a villain requires care as the villain is just as important to the plot’s progression as the protagonist. Without a worthy opponent, the protagonist runs the risk of appearing lackluster. When crafting a villain, it is important to keep in mind that villains, like every other character, have to be believable. They cannot simply be evil geniuses who laugh maniacally while twirling around in their capes. Villains have things they love, things they hate, things that motivate them. They have families and histories. They have traumas and things that set fire to their souls. So, then, what separates an antagonist from a protagonist or a villain from a hero?

At the end of the day, villainhood is an expression of morality or the lack thereof. Villains are immoral, meaning that they recognize what society has deemed as good and what society has deemed as evil and actively choose to do something despite it being evil. In contrast, a character that is amoral is one who exists outside of society’s moral code. They do not know that the evil thing they’ve done is wrong. So, the villain who laughs maniacally while laying out their evil plan is immoral, not amoral. 

Villains are not bound by the conventions of law, rules, contracts, or any other kind of societal boundary. They understand that these boundaries exist, but they make the decision to step outside of them. Compelling villains are not simply characters who flaunt rules because they can. Compelling villains flaunt societal rules because they have convinced themselves that they are better than the rules, they know more, or are doing the world a service by committing an atrocity. 

Qualities of villains: 

Villains often think that they are doing a “good” thing. Let’s consider a rather well known villain in pop culture: Thanos. If you’re not aware of him, Thanos is a villain within the Marvel Universe who thought he was doing the world a service by murdering half of the Earth’s population. The rub is that Thanos fully understands that this is a bad thing that he is doing. He knows that this act will require sacrifice, and the likelihood that that sacrifice will come at a great cost, is high; as we continue, we watch as Thanos makes the decision to sacrifice the person he loves most (yes, I know that there are plenty of commentaries out there that question the genuineness of this act, but please stay with me) in order to gain one of the stones that will allow him to commit genocide. Thanos, and villains at large, weigh the cost of their action and view their end goal as being worth the price. 

The villain is set up as the opposite of the hero. This is the definition of the villain -- someone who stands in opposition to the protagonist. Not all stories require a “villain” or “antagonist” character, but all stories do need some sort of conflict at their center. Villains, by their nature, become the face of conflict in the story. Whether they challenge the hero in a fundamental way, or they present a threat, villains serve to drive the plot forward. They are tied to the hero in some way and make the hero heroic. A villain cannot be weak and easily defeated because where’s the fun in that, but neither can they be all powerful so that their defeat comes as random chance. This being said, it is not enough to simply give a villainous character negative qualities in the same way that it isn’t enough to give a hero solely positive qualities. A villain who is only villainous is a villain that is flat. Villains, like any other character, should be dynamic which means that they should be more than the sum of their villainous actions. 

The villain exists outside of society’s rules. I’ll go more in depth on motivation in a bit, but let’s keep that word in mind for now. Society works because a group of people have agreed upon a set of rules. The hero is typically the character who upholds those rules. The villain, on the other hand, goes outside of those rules. The villain understands the rules but chooses not to abide by them. They do things that the reader fundamentally hates, but they do it in such a way, that the reader has no choice but to understand and sometimes, even admire.

Villains are motivated by something and are working towards a goal. Remember how I said that villains are no different than any other character? This is the crux of the matter. A villain shouldn’t simply be a villain because they are evil. An evil person doing evil things just isn’t compelling enough. It’s flat. Put yourself in the shoes of the villain (yes, yes, we all want to be the hero of the story but go with me). What motivates your villain? What are they working towards? What is the thing that they love the most in the world and what would they do to protect it, to avenge it? To a lesser degree, we’re all villains. Think about when you’re driving and someone cuts you off or when you’ve worked hard on a project and someone else takes credit for it or when someone you love and trust looks you in the eyes and lies to you. Chances are that you don’t go out and commit a heinous act as a result -- probably because society has taught us to fear punishment for the breaking of rules -- but think about that first moment. We’ve all imagined keying someone’s car or cursing someone out. It’s that part of us that isn’t bound to society’s rules. This is the aspect of being human that villains most utilize.

The villain has experienced some sort of deep seated trauma. Let’s consider another well known villainous character: Darth Vader. Darth Vader’s origin story is not one that is unique or even special; rather, it’s one that we’ve seen in a lot of villains -- a person experiences a profound sense of loss and retaliates in order to avenge that loss. In Vader’s case, he turned to the dark side after believing that his wife had been killed. As we know, Anakin had long been built up as the one who could tip the scales in the fight between good and evil. He is a likeable but flawed character. He has a desire to be loved (as most people do), and we see that desire used against him. So, when he thinks his wife to be dead, Anakin proceeds to murder a bunch of children. Cue the rise of the villain. Going through life, the chances of experiencing a profound loss are high, but how a character responds to that loss determines whether that character is a villain or hero. For example: Batman. Yes, I know that he blurs the line, but remember we talked about morality being a spectrum… Anyway, Batman (Bruce Wayne) witnesses the murder of his parents at a young age. That single act propels him into becoming the defender of his city. Had Bruce not had Alfred to guide him along the path of goodness, he could have easily become a villain. And therein lies the truth: any character can become a villain if the circumstance calls for it.

A few qualities to incorporate into your villain: 

Believes that they’re the hero.

Has likeable qualities.

Can be very persuasive. 

People are naturally drawn to them.

Is not afraid to break the rules and do something traditionally considered to be evil. 

Is merciless even to innocents. 

Has experienced some sort of trauma and blames everyone for it.

Will stop at nothing to accomplish the goal. 

Allows the reader to see moments of vulnerability which serves to make the villain more relatable and almost endearing. 

[finchrp]

Hello there! Could you please explain me how jcink roleplays works? I appreaciate your help. x

ok!  first things first , thank you for coming to me for help with this, I’m always happy to put people on the track to forum rp c:

if anyone has any other questions, please feel free to ask; i’ll add the answers to this guide!

before i get to the real meat of this guide, here are a few things you should know

as with any rp, the first thing you should do is read through the rules, the plot, and any other information the admins have provided.  those threads will tell you just about anything you need to know before joining, and if you still have questions...

don’t be afraid to ask them in the cbox!  people (admins and members alike) will be more than happy to answer your questions.

forum rp may look daunting at first, but it’s actually incredibly easy once you start!

Getting started:

know your site

read through the rules, plot, setting, and any other site information threads FIRST.  these will always be found in the first forum on the site (usually it’s titled “welcome” or some other title that lets you know that this is where you start).  make sure you know the rules inside and out, know how to name your account (uppercase, lowercase, normal casing?), whether or not you should have an ooc account, the site’s word count (if any), character limits, etc, etc

start chatting in the cbox!  i always like to do this when i’m thinking of joining a site, because it give me a good feel for how the members treat people.  if you’re still just considering joining, a lot of put “guest” (or some variation on that) as their name while you ask your questions and chat, once you’re sure about joining you can change it to your actual alias

look over the application and the claims.  (i also like to look at already accepted apps, but that’s just me) i’ll tell you more about both of these in a later section!

optional (but recommended) is to look at a few of the threads people have going.  It’s good to get a feel for how other members write so you can figure out how well you’ll fit.  there’s no shame in not joining a site if you don’t feel like your writing style fits!

character creation

so you’re sure you want to join the site; now you need a character.

forum rps are almost always original character rps (in fact...outside of fandom rps i have yet to meet one that wasn’t!).  discounting non-au fandom rps, which i really don’t have experience with, site canons are usually limited to a generalized idea of a character important to the site plot.

for example, on one of the sites i’m on, the president of the local motorcycle charter is a canon, and the canon information about him is as simple as his surname, age, job, and family members.

outside of site canons, which aren’t actually all that common anyway, you have two options for character creation: create one from scratch, or fill a want ad

if you already have an idea for a character, fantastic! you can skip this next bit (or don’t idc)

filling a want ad is a great way to get started on a character; it automatically gives you plots, relationships, and an idea for you to build off of.  want ads are requests from site members for characters that they would like to see on the site, usually for specific relationships with their characters

an example would actually be my character Leon; i made him to fill an ad for another character’s future boyfriend.  the ad i filled included some basic info on the nature of the relationship, an age range, an fc, and some requests and requirements for the character’s personality and past.  want ads aren’t bios!  they only tell you basics of how the requester wants the character to be!

if you do decide to fill a want ad, it’s always a nice idea to talk with the requester about what you’re thinking of doing with the character, and what they would like.  

alright, now that you have your character, it’s time to apply

the dreaded application

start off - obviously - with creating your character’s account (and if the site requires it, an ooc account as well) if the site requires an ooc account, make that first, and then, once you’ve also created your character’s account, go into the settings of the ooc account, and find the “sub-accounts” tab to link your character’s account to your ooc.  that way, you can switch between the two easily, and if you end up having more than one character, you can link all of them to your ooc and have an easy time going from one to the other.

once you’ve done that, you’ll want to fill out the profile and add an avatar

applying for a forum rp is a lot different than applying for a tumblr rp, and in my humble onion, it’s a lot better

firstly, apps rarely, if ever, get outright denied.  if you app isn’t accepted, the admin will pend it and pm you things you should fix.  it’s easy, and takes out a lot of the worry and frustration i see surrounding applying to tumblr rps

as for the application itself, it usually comes in one of three forms: structured, freestyle, and shipper

structured apps are your usual character questionnaire, with general information about your character (such as stats, fc, etc), and sections for history and personality.  they’re easy to fill out, and probably what people know best

shipper apps include the usual character information, a short background of the character, and three (or more) sections in which you talk about how the character acts towards friends, enemies, lovers, and/or anything else the shipper includes.

freestyle is my favorite type of app, because it allows you to write in any way you want to tell us about your character’s history and personality.  as always, it includes a section for general information, but where you would usually find sections for personality and history, a freestyle app just has a space for that.  common ways to fill out a freestyle app are with a plain old written history (oddly, often written in second person?  idk, i like it that way), an interview (think of questions that make sense within the world of the rp, and in regards to the character.  i’ve seen this done for a character that was in jail with the questions of the kind you’d see in a trial), a journal (i’ve done this!  it was a lot of fun to write, and you really get a feel for your character’s voice), or anything else your heart desires, so long as it shows the character’s history and personality.

often, freestyle apps also have a shipper section as well.

once your app is finished, you post it in a new thread in whatever section of the forum is meant for that.  it’ll be obvious which one lmao. make sure the title and description is done correctly, and then...you’re finished!  now you just have to wait for an admin to come and accept of pend it

admins accept whenever they see your app, so it’s done quickly.  if your app is pended, just fix whatever needs fixing and notify (usually just by posting in your app thread that you’ve finished) the admin

after you’re accepted, don’t forget to fill out all of the claims!  they’ll be in a separate part of the forum, and there will be instructions

RPing

plotting

unless there is a separate shipper you need to make, a lot of your plotting will be done in your application thread!  the admin will have moved your app to a different part of the forum once you’re accepted, so once there, people will post in your app (people usually call it a shipper, or a plotter at this point), and you can post in other people’s shippers with plot ideas!

you can also plot in the cbox, over pm, or over aim.  honestly, just start talking to people, and you’ll start getting plots

threading

threading involves posting a starter in a new thread, and going back and forth replying. (not sure what else you expected from it, but hey!)

usually you’ll be doing threads after plotting with someone, but you can also post open starters! those are fun :>

you might want to have a thread tracker, which you can post in a specific forum, usually the character development forum, or there might be a thread tracker forum

MISC

templates

most sites nowadays have dohtml enabled, and some even provide thread templates for their members to use!  make sure you check to see if they’re mandatory or not

if template aren’t provided, you can either make you own (which requires knowledge of html) or use templates made by others.  you can find those (as well as tutorials for making your own!) at places like wecode, caution, shine, rpg-d, and others. always remember to follow the creators rules, of course!

[mimirph]

Tips on how to play a bi-sexual male role?

Alright so before I start I’m just going to make one thing clear, if you play a character, it doesn’t matter what their sexuality is, what you really need to focus on is the character’s personality. 

I’ve seen a lot of characters that aren’t heterosexual played terribly because the player has chosen to stick to stereotypes or an overly exaggerated character that they’ve seen in the media. Don’t do that. Your character is not his sexuality, it’s a part of him yes, but it shouldn’t be the only aspect to him. You should play your character as you normally would any character, the only difference is, he’d be attracted to both males and females. 

A common misconception that I’ve seen just about everywhere, is the belief that bisexuals will run after just about anyone. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Just like anybody else, bisexuals have their own preferences and types of people that they’re attracted to. 

Say your character is a flirt; that won’t necessarily mean that he’ll chase after everybody. Just as if it were a flirty heterosexual male instead; he won’t flirt with just about every female near him, he’ll only go after the ones that he’s attracted to. The same thing applies to those who are bisexual. We all have our types and our preferences, no matter what gender or sex that we prefer. 

I’m really not sure what else to add because there’s really not that much to it. Sexuality doesn’t define a character; it’s only one aspect of them. Don’t make the mistake of solely focusing on your character’s sexuality, play him as you would any other character because sexuality does not change who we are at all. It just affects who we choose to be with in an intimate relationship.

[thecloneshelp]

How to be a Bad Roleplayer (Part One)

So you want to be a bad roleplayer? You want to get on everyone's nerves and have your admins on edge constantly? Well, I know just you need to do!

Ask for a reserve, then never turn in your application! You know what this does? It gets your admins all excited. They're waiting 24 hours or 48 and on the final hour they're forced to admit your application....isn't going to be found in their inbox. Well, just because you changed your mind so quickly isn't your fault, right?

Hey, you're not even going to bother reserving because you're sending in your app so soon, I'll see your app in ___ hour/hours. HOORAY. I've spent weeks and weeks on biographies, waiting for days and days to get ONE application to encourage me to continue on. One hour goes by....two...I'm still up incredibly excited for your application and....nothing. Ouch. Well, that was mean of you but clearly that's what you wanted to do, right? That's what I think anyway.

Oh, you was accepted. Eh. You won't bother sending in a link. So, you've sent me the most beautiful application. You have headcanons for the character....you hit them on the nail....all this kinda thing and I'm delighted....but you haven't sent in your link. A bit of a slap in the face, really. Thanks for that, bud.

Your starter got replies but you have no more interest in this roleplay. You think you'll abandon it. I'm thinking, oh wonderful, this new member likes my roleplay! They've posted a starter! Everyone's interacting! YIPEEEE. ...Wait...it's been four days? Where did that roleplayer go? ....Oh. Not cool.

Activity is slow. You should repeatedly say something to the admin, just in case they didn't know or didn't get your last message. I'm an admin. I've put my blood, sweat and tears into this roleplay. I didn't enjoy putting it together from scratch. Do you honestly think telling me constantly that activity is rubbish is going to make me like you? At all?

You post starters like, 'how is everyone' or 'hi' and a gif of your faceclaim smiling or waving. This is a really good way to avoid interaction so definitely do bland and boring starters like this to be a bad roleplayer. Extra points go with this one because you're not helping your skills as a writer at all!

[finchrp]

just a tip for making a forum rp: limit your rping subforums to like...3-4 per area, at least in the beginning.  

What I mean by that is this.  Say your rp takes place in Burlington and is based around college life at UVM.  When you first start your forum, after you've created forums for the ooc stuff (rules, announcements, info, ooc, etc) you'll need places to actually do all your rping.  You do that by creating forums for the main areas (in this case, the university and the city/surrounding area), and then adding subforums to those.  When you first start your rp, you don't want too many subforums for rping, it can be confusing, messy, and - most importantly - it'll make your rp look a lot less active than it actually it!  

Take the hypothetical UVM rp for example:  If I were to start a forum rp like this, I'd create forums for the university and the city/surrounding area, and subforums for the dorms, central campus, and athletic complex within the college forum, and the city proper, the waterfront, neighboring towns, and the mountains within the city forum.  This will make the rp seem active, even if you're just starting out, and there's only a few threads up!  

If I were to make subforums for each area of the campus (in this case, central, athletic, trinity, redstone, l&l, mance, the davis center, fletcher allen...the list goes on), the rp will seem inactive (especially in the beginning, but also even after the rp has been well-established), because of how many subforums will have only a few, or even no, threads.

That's not to say you should never have more than 3-4 subforums!  Once your rp is well-established and you have a lot of threads, it might make sense to split a subforum into two, or even three subforums.

tl;dr: too many subforums in the beginning = messy, annoying to navigate, looks inactive

[thecloneshelp]

The Starks Guide on.... Researching

Disclaimer: In no way am I claiming to be an expert on this topic, I'm simply sharing some tips on how I research. A big thank you to this website for many useful resources.

Get yo' ass off of Tumblr

I'm sorry, but it's true. When researching, I believe it's time to finally click the log out button. Yes, RPCW research posts and guides are out there to help you, but you're looking for something specific, right? Chances are, they're guide/masterlist isn't going to have exactly what you need so it's time to stop reblogging pictures of cats and start being productive in finding what you want.

The Different Types of Research

There are three different types and it's really just about what your topic is. It's usually quite easy to decipher which type you should apply to when researching but sometimes there's a fine line. You can find more on the subject HERE.

Hard Research: much more of a scientific nature than the other two types. All hard research must be backed up with proven facts and statistics. The credibility of a hard research source must always be challenged, therefor you should avoid wikipedia whenever possible due to it being unreliable. An example of hard research would be researching the scientific and medical sides of cancer.

Soft Research: the complete opposite of Hard Research, Soft Research focuses on the personality aspics of a subject. With Soft Research, you would be looking at more blogs and forums for personal opinions on the subject, rather than the hard facts. For example, finding out the emotions a cancer patient feels outside of the hospital.

Combined Soft and Hard Research: also known as 'hybrid' research. This requires the most work. You have to consider both the personal and scientific matters on the subject and it can be hard to find the balance. An example would be the cancer patient's emotions during treatment.

Different Point of Views

My favourite part of researching is heading onto writers' forums and getting loads of different opinions on the matter. It's a great idea to hear what other authors on the topic. Check out a few different ones, make notes, make more notes. Decide what your opinion is. Do you think the topic typically isn't well written? How do you think it could improve? Join in on the forum if your able to. Share your thoughts. And when you get replies, BINGO. More notes to take down!

Phrasing

The first thing to consider is if you're wording correctly. For example, if you google 'rehab' and all you're getting is youtube links and websites with lyrics for a Rihanna song, it's probably time to go back to the search bar and try again. Try to avoid abbreviations; instead focus on what the entire word or name is. Like 'rehabilitation center' or 'rehabilitation process'. Expand on what you want to search for so you can get a wider variety of sources.

Bye Bye Google

Did you know, there are actually - DUN DUN DUN - other search engines apart from google? There are indeed! The thing about google is it won't show you invisible web (or deep web - click HERE for more information) pages. Get out of your comfort zone and try some other engines that could end up leading you to a goldmine of sources.

Scirus (for scientific searching)

Internet Archive  (to backwards-search past current events)

Advanced Clusty Searching  (meta searching specific parts of the Internet)

Surfwax (much more knowledge-focused and much less commerce-driven than our friend Google)

Weird Websites

Don't rule them out! Okay, it has horrible layouts and look tacky, but it could be extremely useful. For example, I managed to stumble across a website designed and created by a White Witch as she called herself, while I was doing my own research. I nearly exited the website almost immediately but found she was selling books on potion recipes and the like. I found myself reading and then rereading all the pages on the site because everything I read was extremely fascinating and useful.

Other Sources

B...ook? What is this book and library you speak of? Well, they're extremely useful and a great way to get you out of the house and get those inspirational juices flowing. While they may not have as much information as google, they certainly have much more traditional knowledge in the sense and may have exactly what you're looking for. Going to the library is also a social event, as surprising as that may seem. You can check out to see if there's any book club or writers club and you'll be guaranteed a faster response from other members of the club in person, then you will be in a forum.

There you go! Just a few little tidbits I find useful when researching. Thank you for taking the time to read this guide and I hope it helped you in some way.