What? Me, obsessed?
Mar. 17th, 2002 08:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deathpixieI seem to be spending a lot of time on the second Reality Strikes RR at The House of Strange Dimensions (or in this case, The House Of Student Domiciles). And yesterday a large slab of the conversation with Mel was about various things we could do with this one. Ideas keep popping into my head for things to play with, like having Shai find the Secret Service men (on a perimeter check, as she is bound to do) and getting all fangirly and gushy over them. Kinda "I've always thought you guys were so cool!" thing. That and she'd have a thing for dangerous men in sunglasses and dark suits with guns. ;) So I'm wondering if I'm just getting a tad too much into this.
Mind you, it's a good feeling. Kinda like the old rush SCRRs used to give me before politics and bad writing got in the way. And it's always fun when the other participants are writing well - between![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lyssie, fionny and kymscrazy's recent posts, I've been giggling away madly to myself. Hex in the closet, bwahahahaha.
So, with RRs on my mind, I feel like a little pontificating...
Rossi's Rules... Well, Not So Much Rules But Guidelines To Stop Driving Me Insane... For Round Robins.
Actually, there aren't that many. I agree with Dex, a certain amount of anarchy is necessary to avoid stifling the RR. The problem I've found with a lot of the closed RRs (which almost invariably die before they're even begun), is that people spend so much time talking about and planning them that when it comes time to write, they don't have the impetus any more. It's like when I talk about stories I'm writing - if I talk about them too much, I lose interest. But there are a couple of things that you need to keep in mind when indulging in round robins, especially with the folks of the House.
1) Read every post. Carefully. I know it's difficult when the RR's moving fast (and the major ones do tend to), but I can't begin to say how important it is to know what's going on. Nothing is so irritating to spend ages writing a post, setting up various characters in various places, only to find that the next poster has ignored everything you've written and places those same characters elsewhere entirely. Often without making any sense. And reading the posts done by your friends doesn't count, either. My belief is that if you want to play, you need to set the time aside to do it properly. Besides, I'm compiling and editing the House RRs as they're written and I keep up, despite having to adjust dozens of pages before I even get to the new stuff.
2)Write other characters. This isn't a vanity-fuelled ploy to get more people writing my characters, or to pump up my own ego (*cough* last post was written without my own character in it *coughgrin*). There are a couple of reasons why this keeps turning up in discussions of RR writing. The first is that RRs are a joint thing. The whole purpose of them is to interact with other writers. Now, if you write only your own characters, what's the point in being in the RR in the first place? You may as well be writing stand-alone stories based on the RR (which have been done, and sometimes done well). The other reason is that it irritates the other writers if you insist on running your own show - it makes them feel that they could stop writing altogether and you'd still go your own merry way, which again raises the question of what's the point any way.
A lot of people, when I raise the importance of writing other characters in RRs, tell me that they stick to their own because they don't know how to write anyone else. Which always confuses me, because fanfic writers, by our very nature, write other people's cahracters. And you'll note I keep saying characters, instead of people. To me, characters in an RR are strictly that, chacters, be they avatar or RL counterpart or muse or whatever. They're a fiction, although sometimes that fiction may be based fairly heavily on fact. So there's no difference to me between writing John Constantine in character and writing Matt Nute in character, based on the information I have access to, which in the case of RRs, are the posts Matt has made himself, establishing his character, and any meta character notes that might be floating around. And if there's still doubt, I check with the person - "Would your character be seen in pink frilly underwear with a lampshade on their head after too much tequila?" And just as I expect to picked up in my fanfic when I get someone out of character, I expect the same to happen in RRs if I don't pay attention to the information available.
It's just a matter of careful reading. :)
3)Grammar/Spellcheck: Just as important as when you're writing fic, folks. Mainly because it saves on the nervous breakdown the compiler has after correcting line upon line of misplaced apostrophes (Apostrophes do not denote plurals!) and really bad spelling. I'm not too sure on the etiquette of RR betaing during compilation - my personal rule is to leave culturally-specific spellings and fix up the obvious typos and grammatical sticking points - but it makes the whole thing read a lot better for both the participants and the audience (and yes, there is one, especially for the Reality Strikes RRs) if it's had at least a rough going-over. Also, if you notice someone having a recurring problem, a gentle pointer via email would be far more productive than endless griping.
4)Leave the personal politics at the door. Nothing screws up an RR faster than people taking potshots at each other over non-related (and related) crap. I admit, I'm not immune to this (*remembers the Great Twink War on a previous THOSD RR*), but it's something I'm trying to curb. If you can't write with someone, fine, no worries, write someone else and avoid direct confrontations - there's usually at least a dozen people in any major-ish RR to play with. If the problem you have run deeper than that, tell the person via email or contact the moderator - that's what we're there for - but don't start killing off the person's characters. On the other hand, whinging constantly in an RR about how no-one is playing with your characters/situations isn't going to win you friends and influence people either, not with this crowd. ;) See the points above for why things might not be going as smoothly as you hoped. The other thing is, you can't force people to accept your characters or your writing - in RRs as in RL (and yes, Mel, I know you hate the RL distinction, but you know my RR/RL distinction), it is possible to try too hard. If you're not fitting in, relax, read for a while, and try jumping in again someplace else. It can be difficult - some of the RR people have been writing together a long, long time and aren't exactly welcoming to newcomers - but it's a matter of learning how things are done. And thrusting your wonderful Mary Sue Twink Cahracter (TM) is not the way to gain respect around here.
That's pretty much it. This isn't aimed at anyone specifically, although there were certain incidents/people in my mind when I thought about it. And like anything, this is just my opinion. To be taken with as much salt as you like. I could be talking out my arse for all I know. ;)
Mind you, it's a good feeling. Kinda like the old rush SCRRs used to give me before politics and bad writing got in the way. And it's always fun when the other participants are writing well - between
lyssie, fionny and kymscrazy's recent posts, I've been giggling away madly to myself. Hex in the closet, bwahahahaha. So, with RRs on my mind, I feel like a little pontificating...
Rossi's Rules... Well, Not So Much Rules But Guidelines To Stop Driving Me Insane... For Round Robins.
Actually, there aren't that many. I agree with Dex, a certain amount of anarchy is necessary to avoid stifling the RR. The problem I've found with a lot of the closed RRs (which almost invariably die before they're even begun), is that people spend so much time talking about and planning them that when it comes time to write, they don't have the impetus any more. It's like when I talk about stories I'm writing - if I talk about them too much, I lose interest. But there are a couple of things that you need to keep in mind when indulging in round robins, especially with the folks of the House.
1) Read every post. Carefully. I know it's difficult when the RR's moving fast (and the major ones do tend to), but I can't begin to say how important it is to know what's going on. Nothing is so irritating to spend ages writing a post, setting up various characters in various places, only to find that the next poster has ignored everything you've written and places those same characters elsewhere entirely. Often without making any sense. And reading the posts done by your friends doesn't count, either. My belief is that if you want to play, you need to set the time aside to do it properly. Besides, I'm compiling and editing the House RRs as they're written and I keep up, despite having to adjust dozens of pages before I even get to the new stuff.
2)Write other characters. This isn't a vanity-fuelled ploy to get more people writing my characters, or to pump up my own ego (*cough* last post was written without my own character in it *coughgrin*). There are a couple of reasons why this keeps turning up in discussions of RR writing. The first is that RRs are a joint thing. The whole purpose of them is to interact with other writers. Now, if you write only your own characters, what's the point in being in the RR in the first place? You may as well be writing stand-alone stories based on the RR (which have been done, and sometimes done well). The other reason is that it irritates the other writers if you insist on running your own show - it makes them feel that they could stop writing altogether and you'd still go your own merry way, which again raises the question of what's the point any way.
A lot of people, when I raise the importance of writing other characters in RRs, tell me that they stick to their own because they don't know how to write anyone else. Which always confuses me, because fanfic writers, by our very nature, write other people's cahracters. And you'll note I keep saying characters, instead of people. To me, characters in an RR are strictly that, chacters, be they avatar or RL counterpart or muse or whatever. They're a fiction, although sometimes that fiction may be based fairly heavily on fact. So there's no difference to me between writing John Constantine in character and writing Matt Nute in character, based on the information I have access to, which in the case of RRs, are the posts Matt has made himself, establishing his character, and any meta character notes that might be floating around. And if there's still doubt, I check with the person - "Would your character be seen in pink frilly underwear with a lampshade on their head after too much tequila?" And just as I expect to picked up in my fanfic when I get someone out of character, I expect the same to happen in RRs if I don't pay attention to the information available.
It's just a matter of careful reading. :)
3)Grammar/Spellcheck: Just as important as when you're writing fic, folks. Mainly because it saves on the nervous breakdown the compiler has after correcting line upon line of misplaced apostrophes (Apostrophes do not denote plurals!) and really bad spelling. I'm not too sure on the etiquette of RR betaing during compilation - my personal rule is to leave culturally-specific spellings and fix up the obvious typos and grammatical sticking points - but it makes the whole thing read a lot better for both the participants and the audience (and yes, there is one, especially for the Reality Strikes RRs) if it's had at least a rough going-over. Also, if you notice someone having a recurring problem, a gentle pointer via email would be far more productive than endless griping.
4)Leave the personal politics at the door. Nothing screws up an RR faster than people taking potshots at each other over non-related (and related) crap. I admit, I'm not immune to this (*remembers the Great Twink War on a previous THOSD RR*), but it's something I'm trying to curb. If you can't write with someone, fine, no worries, write someone else and avoid direct confrontations - there's usually at least a dozen people in any major-ish RR to play with. If the problem you have run deeper than that, tell the person via email or contact the moderator - that's what we're there for - but don't start killing off the person's characters. On the other hand, whinging constantly in an RR about how no-one is playing with your characters/situations isn't going to win you friends and influence people either, not with this crowd. ;) See the points above for why things might not be going as smoothly as you hoped. The other thing is, you can't force people to accept your characters or your writing - in RRs as in RL (and yes, Mel, I know you hate the RL distinction, but you know my RR/RL distinction), it is possible to try too hard. If you're not fitting in, relax, read for a while, and try jumping in again someplace else. It can be difficult - some of the RR people have been writing together a long, long time and aren't exactly welcoming to newcomers - but it's a matter of learning how things are done. And thrusting your wonderful Mary Sue Twink Cahracter (TM) is not the way to gain respect around here.
That's pretty much it. This isn't aimed at anyone specifically, although there were certain incidents/people in my mind when I thought about it. And like anything, this is just my opinion. To be taken with as much salt as you like. I could be talking out my arse for all I know. ;)
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no subject
Grammar Girl strikes
Oh, and can we also strike a blow for people understanding the difference between losing and loosing. That really bugs me.
A (in my superhero persona as Grammar Girl - defender of correct punctuation everywhere!)
Re: Grammar Girl strikes
Date: 2002-03-17 03:52 am (UTC)Thanks mate. :)
*snickerfit*