Good writing for online role play (Hint: It's not writing a novel)

I started my novel writing career by role playing every night with about eleven people. They are the ones who pointed me at my computer with orders to write novels. I found there's a vast difference in storytelling in novel writing when compared with online role play. There are also similarities. Both are organic--they evolve as they go, most of the time ending up in places you'd never thought they would. Both involve using the language in similar manner. Both novels and role play need characters drawn vividly with goals or plots to lead the story in a focused direction. That's about where the similarities end.

A character in role play is more like a person than a character in a novel. I'm not saying the character in a novel isn't as vivid or realistic when you read their story. What I mean is the character in your role play has the opportunity to live out the small details and dull/lull periods that a novelist would cut out of a manuscript. That makes role play a very different thing to writing a novel. There's more potential downtime for your character.

Role playing is about acting like another person or persons and making a story with other people. This means some of what you write is going to have to be something the other person can react to, either with dialog or action. I won't go into styles, because there are loads of ways to get your point across. But the actual job of me as a role player is to write a set up for the next post to come from the person I am role playing with. Now, how do you do that?

Start with why you are playing that particular RP. Decide what is the purpose of the scene. Does the C just want out? Which is perfectly acceptable if the character just needs to be out and about. People are guilty of doing that in real life. Is there a specific purpose to which the characters are playing? Why the characters are out really doesn't matter as long as you remember which purpose goes with the scene-in-play and emphasize that in your posts. Don't do descriptions that are so detailed they'd make Anne Rice barf. Give us the details of where the scene is quickly, and only dwell on what is important to your character.

Also, please note that your reason for the scene does not have to be the other character's or player's reason for being in the scene. Like people, each character and role player should have a different point of view--that creates melodrama and melodrama makes for excellent role play.

But Sandra! How do I know what's important when I don't even know why the C want's out?

Yeah, I know, this is a problem, and where one more similarity to novel writing appears: you are writing a first draft, warts, bad grammar, spelling, plotting and characterization and all. Remember the real golden rule here is this: you're not telling the story, this is your characters' story. Let them tell it. If they give you a weird detail, run with it, make it part of the scene, don't forget it or move it aside. Trust your character to know what needs to be done for their story. That's what I've always done and it has always served me well.

The bottom line is write to the purpose of the scene, even if it's just an everyday conversation about nothing in particular. Remember your characters can and will tell their own story--and may do it better than you--so trust them to tell it. Most of all, remember that role play writing is a give and take, the opportunity to make a story that is held in joint custody with other people, a living organism that should spell fun.

Next subject will be about long, medium and short posts and how most effectively to use them.

Good RP,
Sandra