about writing multiple characters

[Charlie]

i'm always impressed by how well alex takes everything that's said to him? he's so patient. it kills me.

This. I almost think the character of Alex deserves it's own appreciation thread. He's so well played that many people assume he's not playing it.

I once read Jason Issacs was in England for the first screening of The Patriot, and when he stood up in the theatre in the end, all the people were booing him angrily because of how he presented his English character. He said it was the biggest compliment ever, because he knew he played the villain perfectly.

Also, the guy who played Wayne on the Wonder Years was once at a bar. Some guy walked up to him and said, "I had a brother just like you growing up" and punched him in the face. He too, thought it was the greatest compliment.

i'm about to get terribly off-topic here, so i'm making a new thread just in case it veers.

i have the same problem with a few of my characters, especially the more contentious ones. i have so many characters who are nice and pleasant and get along with people, but i'm known for my villains or my anti-heroes or my no-goods. that's totally fine and it is a great, great compliment: i appreciate that people think that i'm actually the way my characters are. the problem is, i'm not.

stephen king writes both pennywise and all those kids on those bicycles, but there seems to be a stigma in the rp community about writing multiple characters or writing two of your own characters together. somebody once commented oocly in chats that watching two characters being written by the same person was pathetic, and i just really never got over that.

i'm not sure if this stigma has changed with the maturity of the community, but it used to be there, and it's just made me very uncomfortable fessing up to who i am and am not writing.

it's like if i tell somebody that i'm writing a character, they're suddenly not up to snuff for people to write with, anymore?

i try my damnedest to write characters who can involve other characters be it negatively or positively.

i just want to go out on a limb here: I AM NOT MY CHARACTERS AND MY CHARACTERS ARE NOT SHAMELESS SELF-INSERTS.

Um. Appreciate the fuck out of this. I had to run to the bathroom at work to finish reading I was laughing so hard!


And you two are way too kind. My heart legit fluttered reading your comments.

i'm so glad that you laughed / enjoyed it. i've always loved the back-and-forth between her characters and my characters. most of the time, i'm left rolling.

i try not to give compliments that i don't mean. i don't think they're helpful, at all. they're a lie and that seems more mean to me (letting somebody live in the dark) than the slight pain of a harsh truth that can change a person for the better.

[Ember]

I have the same problem with a few of my characters, especially the more contentious ones. i have so many characters who are nice and pleasant and get along with people, but i'm known for my villains or my anti-heroes or my no-goods. that's totally fine and it is a great, great compliment: i appreciate that people think that i'm actually the way my characters are. the problem is, i'm not.

stephen king writes both pennywise and all those kids on those bicycles, but there seems to be a stigma in the rp community about writing multiple characters or writing two of your own characters together. somebody once commented oocly in chats that watching two characters being written by the same person was pathetic, and i just really never got over that.

i'm not sure if this stigma has changed with the maturity of the community, but it used to be there, and it's just made me very uncomfortable fessing up to who i am and am not writing.

it's like if i tell somebody that i'm writing a character, they're suddenly not up to snuff for people to write with, anymore?

i try my damnedest to write characters who can involve other characters be it negatively or positively.

i just want to go out on a limb here: I AM NOT MY CHARACTERS AND MY CHARACTERS ARE NOT SHAMELESS SELF-INSERTS.

ALL OF THIS.

Admission: once upon a time (when I was still not mature), I used to be afraid of reaching out to people on an OOC level, because their characters were mean or ruthless and I equated that to their general personality. It's really not the case, and I've figured that out as I've gotten older, had time to change and reflect on things (12 years is a long time to be roleplaying, and naturally there's a big difference between the teenagerdom of 17 and an adult mindset of almost 30).

I've said this before, Harv is saying it here, and I'll say it again because it needs repeating: people are NOT their characters. When crazy shit happens in a storyline and things fall apart and don't go your way, or a character is mean to yours, cheats on yours, stabs yours in the back, whatever it may be, you can't be offended! You CANNOT villianize the person behind the character for doing what a character is going to do. Separation, it's a thing. Do it. Honestly, I think that's a huge pitfall for this community. That and lack of communication, which, for all intents and purposes doesn't happen because people have so many issues with each other already. I really don't care if you have issues with this person or that person because you feel slighted by them, and I know it sounds harsh and cruel, but I feel like all of the spreading of people's OOC issues with one another is why we are where we are in the first place. I come here to write, and if I'm writing with you, I'm writing with you. If I'm writing with someone you dislike, well, I'm going to write with them anyways. It's my prerogative to do so, and if it irritates you, that's your issue, not mine.

Now, on to the stigma of writing multiples. The stigma of writing multiple characters together being a negative, is completely (pardon my French) bullshit in my opinion. Most people know I write Ember as well as Shine and I've had several cases where their stories slightly intertwined because it called for it. Not just because they were mine and I had nothing better to do, but because that's where the story fell. Do they have any contact now? None whatsoever, because that's what their individual stories call for. Whoever said that writing with yourself is pathetic (you know who you are and you are being called out for it) needs to have a serious reevaluation of how they view things. Not only is the comment cruel and mean, but it's completely uncalled for. If they think RP only involves their one character and other people's characters, then they are missing the point of RP entirely. RP involves multiple characters, some of which are actually crafted families by the same person, that have a story to tell if people are watching and keeping up.

I've done it in the past and refused to be shamed for it. Harv, you do a wonderful job of it too, don't ever let anyone tell you that you're lesser for involving writing with yourself.

Varied characters are part of life. As Harv has said, you don't hate people who write books when they write all the characters in those books, do you? Then why do it here?

[Eli Hartley]

can confirm that harv is Grin Sr.

[xxsacrificexx]

Generally agree with everything said up there. But I do feel the need to add here that I talk to a lot of people OOC lately and often discuss how brilliant some of these writers are.

To those of you dealing with people trying to invalidate your characters (like fucking twats), there really are just as many of us who applaud you. Your characters enrich the lives of other characters in the city.

I have had multiple discussions with players ooc just in the last few weeks about how impressive it is to watch characters that are played by the same person interact. I enjoy it immensely, and I'm not the only one. I have an alt I bring into chats so I can watch without being expected to interact because sometimes I just have to sit back and marvel at how magnificent it is.

In addition to that, I have been fucking INSPIRED on so many occasions because of how much contrast there is between two characters written by one person. I have been INSPIRED by their skill, imagination, commitment and fucking balls.

Because you know what? These guys keep doing it even though there is a stigma. They keep doing it, and they keep showing the rest of us that writing is fluid and magical and they look damn good while they do it, too.

Gotta go fan myself now, damn.

[ira]

can confirm that harv is Grin Sr.

also can confirm. this is definitely not harv.

[Mika]

I'll admit the stigma at first bothered me but.. I write 4 people in a pack and now a gang with conflicting families, and they all interact at various different times. Some are related, some not, but they have a rich history and backstory to how they all came to this city. And you can pry that out of my cold dead hands. I need to write the connections. I love writing my characters interact and the only thing I can say is if you like having your characters entwined? Be it romantically, platonically or whatever - do not stop writing. Not everyone will understand or like how you do but it doesn't matter, it's your stories and your worlds and if you can write three different personality types at once because you're confidant in yourself as a writer? That's amazing. Or even if you're just starting to work on it.. Good. It's difficult to do. It can be mentally taxing sometimes to put your all into a bunch of characters that mean everything to you is hard when you hear some petty or mean comments that make you feel like what you're doing is wrong. Yes, you're a roleplayer, that does mean interacting with other people yet you're also a writer. I feel like most people forget what that means sometimes and they crank out characters for the sake of reactions. I can't say for sure and I'd hope that isn't the case. Yet when they're wrote from the heart? Perfection. But just don't stop because of a few petty words, when you can separate your worth as a writer from some comments that is anything but criticism, then it has less impact and your world becomes more fun and bright again. Just write your multicharacters because it's what you enjoy, more often than not your passion shows through.

We see you. We appreciate you. We love watching how everything plays out.

[Alex Ayres]

I honestly think it might be healthier to play multiple characters. I know you can grow attached to all of them, but your attachment won't be the same as someone who put every fiber of their being in one character for 10+ years.

I think that's when the separation becomes difficult for people. I think everyone knows it's just a game and shit that happens to your character isn't happening to you...but tell someone not to get upset over finding out their best friend of 10 years was in a major car accident.

Having multiple characters I think better enables you to see that what you're doing is fiction, is a game, and none of the things that happen on the grid or in RPs, actually matter. They're fantasy.

At the end of the day, you turn off the computer, put your cell phone on silent and you're you and you have bills and family and friends and maybe a job.

I think that's harder for the "all in" people to see compared to the writing multiple characters people.


This all kind of makes me wonder how different this game would be if it went more like a DnD campaign where everyone wrote a character and played the game a certain way for x amount of time, and then everything was wiped and we all started from zero again and created new characters.

[Vetras]

In any other writing community, playing multiple characters is actually encouraged if not the norm instead of it being a stigma within the ranks. I dug through several semi-active boards via jcink where you could see a profile and it was able to link the main account to several secondary and create one massive master account. Instead of having seven or ten accounts you have to remember all the passwords to. Was kind of neat seeing a community like that.

[Saressa]

I have to really agree that I love seeing this being acknowledged and appreciated here. In the past, it was so negatively viewed, but it's something I've always been fond of - especially because I know it's not something done very easily. Kudos to those who can play them consistently (I have to take breaks because it gets a bit "crowded" muse wise) and not find themselves in a rut.

[melanctha]

I've run into this thread belatedly but I wanna say to those playing multiples: I see you and youre awesome. Don't let the haters get you down.

I also agree with everything being said about how having multiples helps explore different ideas and ways of writing. I think having characters in multiple crowds has helped me make friends with people/better empathize with from all stripes in our crowd, and I really like that (provided they arent black listing you based on who your 'main' is. Yes this has happened to me.).

I've been playing 2 mains (and have had 4 characters in total over the years) since December 2004 more or less and it was really NOT accepted back then and people have been hostile with me after they found out. I am not writing most of them actively presently due to my work schedule, though I really really miss my original character and want to revive her some. Seeing writing roulette be revived is helping me be inspired to pursue that in February when work stops being a complete turd.

@Alex player: as a major D&D/tabletop nerd. I definitely agree with that at least a little. I see multiples kinda like trying out a new class or a new build - gotta try multiple ideas to see what's your favorite.