The X Factor

[Carter]

This is another tips and advise thread for roleplaying, but I wanted to talk about something that truly improved my game. There are alot of things I have learned here whether it be from the people here or just from writting, but this tip I have did the most for my writting.

Are you and your character going along for the ride?
Or, are you creating the ride for your character?

I use to think that being good here meant knowing your character inside and out, character development was what I should focus on. This is absolutley true, however in order to have great character development you should NOT focus on your character!

What do I mean? Instead of making a list of what your character is and does, favorite foods, colors, ect.. you should instead focus on the events that will happen to your character. In all seriousness you cant know who your character is until something has happened to them. Its how they responde to the events that make your character who truey are. The more plot twists, hardships, and uncomfortable situations you can throw at your character the better.

I know this is simple, but for a long time I was missing this and just autopiloiting through my posts. Changing my focus from my character to the story has done wonders for me and it could probably help alot of people to just refocus!

Tell us what improved your game the most!

[Kaden]

For the most part, I completely agree with the opening post. What people need to careful about with this, though, is that the two methods (character-focus vs event-focus) are absolutely not mutually exclusive. In fact, they're symbiotic.

If you don't have a good grasp on your character, then it doesn't matter what events you throw at them, because if you don't know your character, neither does your reader. Their reactions to a plot or storyline will seem random. Not only is this not beneficial, but can be quite damaging. People will create archetypes for your character if you haven't outlined who your character is and actions that go against that archetype will disconnect the reader from who they thought the character was. Now of course this can be done intentionally, but that's not what I'm talking about here.

On the other end of the spectrum, though, if you have someone who's very well defined just going through stories and events without changing at all then they're not a character anymore, they're just a caricature. Before the reset, that's basically what Raditzu was. I won't try to hide it. He stopped evolving as a character. His reactions to a given situation only seemed reasonable because he was so overblown a character. There were lots of layers to Raditzu: his insecurities, his need for external validation, his inability to let himself be codependent, his blatant racism, his hatred for authority figures, and his unwillingness to look beyond what was directly in front of him. There was a lot that I wanted to do, eventually, but just didn't. Now there are plenty of reasons/excuses for why I never got around to all of that, but they're pretty much meaningless; the fact of the matter was simply that I became content with what Raditzu had become.

So... what's my point? It's important to know who your character is and it is important to know who your character can/will become. There's a balance to be struck. Don't focus on one of those aspects at the expense of the other.

[Vad]

Once again I have been taught by THE KRAKEN!

[Alexander Trafford]

Reading helped me a lot, I guess.

I came into this thread seeking help, though. I know I recently said my goodbye, but I have time until law school and I'm feeling the urge to write, at least I think that's what it is (poor timing, i know.) But I'm having the same problem that Kaden had with Raditzu, and I need some advice on how to move Trafford further. I've kind of been stuck in the same shtick for a while.