So I started RP'ing when I was super young. Went to the chat boards on that site and discovered for the first time what play-by-post RP was and of course fell in love. Anyone else in the same boat?
Shoryu Magami 𝔊𝔲𝔞𝔯𝔡𝔦𝔞𝔫 𝔬𝔣 𝔄𝔰𝔠𝔢𝔫𝔰𝔦𝔬𝔫
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2 yrs ago
It was the complete opposite for me -- I only found out about Neopets because of play-by-post role-play.
Shortly after getting access to the internet, I joined my first play-by-post role-playing forum, and literally on the first night in the C-box someone mistook my username for being a reference to the Neopet 'Shoryu' (which I know nothing about and only know exists because this happened), despite my username actually having no connection to it whatsoever. A few other people've made that mistake since then too, and I keep having to correct people. It's funny when people jump to conclusions.
Shortly after getting access to the internet, I joined my first play-by-post role-playing forum, and literally on the first night in the C-box someone mistook my username for being a reference to the Neopet 'Shoryu' (which I know nothing about and only know exists because this happened), despite my username actually having no connection to it whatsoever. A few other people've made that mistake since then too, and I keep having to correct people. It's funny when people jump to conclusions.
Tsar Gatto African or European?
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6 mos ago
Heh, whilst it was not Neopets (though shit, I did play that like ten years ago or something... wow) but rather the members forums on Runescape, that got me interested.
I never realised Neopets had that going on too. Funny how you get into these things eh.
@Shoryu Magamiso how did you initially start Rping then?
I never realised Neopets had that going on too. Funny how you get into these things eh.
@Shoryu Magamiso how did you initially start Rping then?
Shoryu Magami 𝔊𝔲𝔞𝔯𝔡𝔦𝔞𝔫 𝔬𝔣 𝔄𝔰𝔠𝔢𝔫𝔰𝔦𝔬𝔫
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2 yrs ago
@Tsar Gatto
If we're talking strictly play-by-post role-playing like this, then I started by accidentally finding a Final Fantasy role-playing site a little over ten years ago (I'm thirty-three), while I was more or less just browsing the internet (I'd only started using a PC for the last few days) for Final Fantasy information/pictures/et cetera due to enjoying the series. I mistook the site for some sort of 'wiki' website until I quickly realized what people were doing, at which point I got intrigued and joined up. It was, ironically, an advanced role-playing site. My history with play-by-post since then has been... well, incredibly rocky, I suppose.
Assuming you're not strictly referring to play-by-post, I've technically been doing this since I was a child. Even now, I'm a writer before a role-player, which is why my main story project is my priority over role-playing here or anywhere else; however, even when I was a child I used to 'GM' role-playing games for my two younger siblings. Naturally, the stories were a lot more simple back then than they are now, but the characterization and plot twists were still surprisingly complex and creative back in those days too -- not to toot my own horn or anything. I honestly had no idea people did anything like this over text until I discovered it a little over ten years ago, as I mentioned previously.
I had very little experience (the closest I had was a short story I wrote for TAFE, which was received really well) with written-based storytelling up until that point, since most of my storytelling was done verbally (though the old stories I created as a child did sometimes include comics, character sheets, et cetera), but soon after getting into role-playing I committed to making my main story project a novel series -- prior to that I hadn't found my 'calling' if you will, so I wasn't sure what medium I'd use to tell my story once it was fleshed out.
How about yourself?
If we're talking strictly play-by-post role-playing like this, then I started by accidentally finding a Final Fantasy role-playing site a little over ten years ago (I'm thirty-three), while I was more or less just browsing the internet (I'd only started using a PC for the last few days) for Final Fantasy information/pictures/et cetera due to enjoying the series. I mistook the site for some sort of 'wiki' website until I quickly realized what people were doing, at which point I got intrigued and joined up. It was, ironically, an advanced role-playing site. My history with play-by-post since then has been... well, incredibly rocky, I suppose.
Assuming you're not strictly referring to play-by-post, I've technically been doing this since I was a child. Even now, I'm a writer before a role-player, which is why my main story project is my priority over role-playing here or anywhere else; however, even when I was a child I used to 'GM' role-playing games for my two younger siblings. Naturally, the stories were a lot more simple back then than they are now, but the characterization and plot twists were still surprisingly complex and creative back in those days too -- not to toot my own horn or anything. I honestly had no idea people did anything like this over text until I discovered it a little over ten years ago, as I mentioned previously.
I had very little experience (the closest I had was a short story I wrote for TAFE, which was received really well) with written-based storytelling up until that point, since most of my storytelling was done verbally (though the old stories I created as a child did sometimes include comics, character sheets, et cetera), but soon after getting into role-playing I committed to making my main story project a novel series -- prior to that I hadn't found my 'calling' if you will, so I wasn't sure what medium I'd use to tell my story once it was fleshed out.
How about yourself?
shylarah the crazy one
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1 hr ago
@Denalz I did rp on Neopets, over a decade ago. I think my first was a Dragonriders of Pern thread, since I adored the books. I'd written before then, and done some in-person stuff (tabletop and collaborative storytelling), but forum-based rp was entirely new. Then again, Neopets was also my first real venture into the online world. I learned about it from my best friend. Up until that point I was primarily a bookworm. Didn't play video games, for the most part (there were some exceptions for certain computer games, but not very many, and certainly not many popular ones), and I watched a couple TV shows, but...that was pretty much it. Since then I've come to adore writing with other people online. I quite literally can't imagine going without.
@Shoryu Magami You didn't strike me as the type to play Neopets, though I would quickly fix my opinion if contradicting information was revealed. I can't remember if I was one of the ones that mentioned Neo to you. I was fairly certain your name is not related, as it's not spelled the same as the pet (shoyrus are my favorite!) Ironically, my username /does/ come from shoyrus~ I had this thing where I'd use the starting sound of the species to name the pet, and my shoyrus were shylarah and shylena. Shylena never developed beyond a very flat (and usually dead) character, but shylarah became a favorite for my solo writing, and when my family got internet at home, I used the name for my aol screenname. It's since become mine, enough so that I have no problems responding to it irl (though in most cases these people met me online first), and actually will use it interchangeably with my real name when talking to myself. ^.^ Funny how this sort of thing happens.
Nice new avatar, by the way.
@Tsar Gatto I follow you to a thread and I find someone else I know! *amused* Yeah, Neopets had a pretty big rp community, though of course the increasingly strict filters and oppressive rules have killed a lot of it off. I'm over on subeta now, which I lovingly describe as Neopets for adults. I actually heard about it...I think before I stopped using Neopets, but I didn't get into it until a couple years after. Eventually I got sick of going over my posts with a fine-toothed comb to find out which innocently-used word tripped their filters /this/ time around -- an even harder task back then because I knew far less of the...more risque slang, let's call it. And with the inability to move things to a different venue, I'd had enough. Far too much frustration, and not enough benefit. Jumped over to Subeta, and never looked back. We still get a lot of Neorefugees, including the occasional mass exodus. When the filter failed over one weekend...last year? two years ago? -- and the forums /imploded/, we got a huge wave. Oddly enough, their rp forums aren't too active (though there's a couple threads that pop up now and again, including some yearly ones) but it's really the community that keeps me there. <3
@Shoryu Magami You didn't strike me as the type to play Neopets, though I would quickly fix my opinion if contradicting information was revealed. I can't remember if I was one of the ones that mentioned Neo to you. I was fairly certain your name is not related, as it's not spelled the same as the pet (shoyrus are my favorite!) Ironically, my username /does/ come from shoyrus~ I had this thing where I'd use the starting sound of the species to name the pet, and my shoyrus were shylarah and shylena. Shylena never developed beyond a very flat (and usually dead) character, but shylarah became a favorite for my solo writing, and when my family got internet at home, I used the name for my aol screenname. It's since become mine, enough so that I have no problems responding to it irl (though in most cases these people met me online first), and actually will use it interchangeably with my real name when talking to myself. ^.^ Funny how this sort of thing happens.
Nice new avatar, by the way.
@Tsar Gatto I follow you to a thread and I find someone else I know! *amused* Yeah, Neopets had a pretty big rp community, though of course the increasingly strict filters and oppressive rules have killed a lot of it off. I'm over on subeta now, which I lovingly describe as Neopets for adults. I actually heard about it...I think before I stopped using Neopets, but I didn't get into it until a couple years after. Eventually I got sick of going over my posts with a fine-toothed comb to find out which innocently-used word tripped their filters /this/ time around -- an even harder task back then because I knew far less of the...more risque slang, let's call it. And with the inability to move things to a different venue, I'd had enough. Far too much frustration, and not enough benefit. Jumped over to Subeta, and never looked back. We still get a lot of Neorefugees, including the occasional mass exodus. When the filter failed over one weekend...last year? two years ago? -- and the forums /imploded/, we got a huge wave. Oddly enough, their rp forums aren't too active (though there's a couple threads that pop up now and again, including some yearly ones) but it's really the community that keeps me there. <3
Shoryu Magami 𝔊𝔲𝔞𝔯𝔡𝔦𝔞𝔫 𝔬𝔣 𝔄𝔰𝔠𝔢𝔫𝔰𝔦𝔬𝔫
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2 yrs ago
@shylarah
Yeah, I don't play things like Neopets. If the spelling isn't even right, I wonder why people keep making that misconception. I got the name by taking the name of a fighting game character I liked as a kid (whose name is 'Sho' or 'Shou', and I still think he's cool) and sticking 'Ryu' on the end of it because when I was younger I liked dragons (not that I don't still like dragons now, but I'm less hyped about them). A lot of people also mistake my name as being a reference to 'Shoryuken' (you sort of can't blame them for that one, since I'm a fighting game expert/enthusiast of sorts), but it's pretty much a coincidence. The surname was pretty much picked because 'Magami' means 'Truth of God'.
Actually, I respond to 'Shoryu' or 'Sho' (or 'Shor' for those who pronounce Shoryu as 'Shor-you') in real life. I've been using that name for so long that it's become indistinguishable from my own name.
Cheers -- it's meant to represent the character from the new role-play I'm starting up. Normally, I prefer to use the avatar of my OC that you're used to seeing me have for my avatar, but I figured this could be a cool change for the sake of that role-play and I really enjoy the anime this character's from.
Yeah, I don't play things like Neopets. If the spelling isn't even right, I wonder why people keep making that misconception. I got the name by taking the name of a fighting game character I liked as a kid (whose name is 'Sho' or 'Shou', and I still think he's cool) and sticking 'Ryu' on the end of it because when I was younger I liked dragons (not that I don't still like dragons now, but I'm less hyped about them). A lot of people also mistake my name as being a reference to 'Shoryuken' (you sort of can't blame them for that one, since I'm a fighting game expert/enthusiast of sorts), but it's pretty much a coincidence. The surname was pretty much picked because 'Magami' means 'Truth of God'.
Actually, I respond to 'Shoryu' or 'Sho' (or 'Shor' for those who pronounce Shoryu as 'Shor-you') in real life. I've been using that name for so long that it's become indistinguishable from my own name.
Cheers -- it's meant to represent the character from the new role-play I'm starting up. Normally, I prefer to use the avatar of my OC that you're used to seeing me have for my avatar, but I figured this could be a cool change for the sake of that role-play and I really enjoy the anime this character's from.
shylarah the crazy one
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1 hr ago
@Shoryu Magami I had to look twice before I realized it's not spelled the same. Actually, it took me several times before I stopped reading Shoryu as Shoyru. Many people's brains will automatically unscramble letters to create something that's expected. It's why many people can read words with their letters out of place, in typos or otherwise. Unfortunately this is counterproductive when the word is not anything we've encountered before.
...It is Sho-ryu, innit? X.x I should have seen that. Goodness knows I read enough manga. >.<;
He looks familiar. What's the anime?
...It is Sho-ryu, innit? X.x I should have seen that. Goodness knows I read enough manga. >.<;
He looks familiar. What's the anime?
Shoryu Magami 𝔊𝔲𝔞𝔯𝔡𝔦𝔞𝔫 𝔬𝔣 𝔄𝔰𝔠𝔢𝔫𝔰𝔦𝔬𝔫
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2 yrs ago
@shylarah
Yeah, I figured people might be making the mistake due to how people tend to 'fill in the blanks' with typos -- it's just how the mind works. Also, the number of people who've made this mistake isn't all that massive (it's only happened a few times). I don't think you were one of them. I don't recall who it was here, but it happened on C-box again ironically.
To the best of my knowledge, 'Sho-ryu' and 'Shor-you' are both accurate. There's only two instances I know of where a character had this name in an anime, and the dub of the one out of those that I've actually watched used the pronunciation of 'Shor-you'. There's a possibility it's an American thing, but I forget how the Japanese version said it. I'll usually respond to either. People call me 'Sho-ryu' (and subsequently 'Sho') more often, while I personally think 'Shor-you' sounds cooler. Perhaps someone with more knowledge of Japanese could confirm if there's a proper way of saying it, but I feel like it's mostly an accent thing.
Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo.
Yeah, I figured people might be making the mistake due to how people tend to 'fill in the blanks' with typos -- it's just how the mind works. Also, the number of people who've made this mistake isn't all that massive (it's only happened a few times). I don't think you were one of them. I don't recall who it was here, but it happened on C-box again ironically.
To the best of my knowledge, 'Sho-ryu' and 'Shor-you' are both accurate. There's only two instances I know of where a character had this name in an anime, and the dub of the one out of those that I've actually watched used the pronunciation of 'Shor-you'. There's a possibility it's an American thing, but I forget how the Japanese version said it. I'll usually respond to either. People call me 'Sho-ryu' (and subsequently 'Sho') more often, while I personally think 'Shor-you' sounds cooler. Perhaps someone with more knowledge of Japanese could confirm if there's a proper way of saying it, but I feel like it's mostly an accent thing.
Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo.
Tsar Gatto African or European?
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6 mos ago
@Shoryu Magami
Wow, sounds very impressive and strikes a few chords with my 'origins' into this world I suppose.
I too have always loved to write and that's probably how I first got interested, like I said saw the forums on Runescape and what folks were doing - I suppose a basic version of this but in the RS world. If I recall my first one was called 'A Noob and his Dog' and their quest for the vastly powerful copper dagger. I bet that was pretty bad...
But aside from that I too 'GMed' a kind of story with two of my friends, initially we drew a fantasy map together and called it 'The Map'. Then me and one of the two continued for about five years, lost the map and just basically ran a RP in our heads talking. Did that from like 14-17 - cuz we were super cool guys.
But I've always loved to write too, constantly throughout the years tried to write something longer than a short story. Only succeeded once or twice, but I get distracted waaay to easily. That's why I like RPing on here, other people keep me interested and I'm less likely to go do something else suddenly if other people are counting on me to keep a story going. Plus I really struggle to find anyone in real life that wants to read anything I write - my friends are uncultured plebs I guess. My other half tries but has a very busy life. In a perfect world I'd be a writer, but I just don't think I've got the discipline to actually write something lengthy.
Along those lines I'd love to have a gander at anything you've done though.
@shylarah
I shall have to have a looksee at this subeta you speak of. Not heard of such a place. Though an adult version of neopets fills my mind with slightly disturbing images, but I'm assuming/hoping its not quite like that.
I'm not quite sure how I first found this place. It was pre-guildfall, and boy was that sad times. I used to use this site as a notepad to store almost everything I wrote. I lost a lot when this place went down... Now I back everything up... hmm... actually I'm still using a PM to myself to keep lots of things I haven't backed up. You think I'd learn.
Wow, sounds very impressive and strikes a few chords with my 'origins' into this world I suppose.
I too have always loved to write and that's probably how I first got interested, like I said saw the forums on Runescape and what folks were doing - I suppose a basic version of this but in the RS world. If I recall my first one was called 'A Noob and his Dog' and their quest for the vastly powerful copper dagger. I bet that was pretty bad...
But aside from that I too 'GMed' a kind of story with two of my friends, initially we drew a fantasy map together and called it 'The Map'. Then me and one of the two continued for about five years, lost the map and just basically ran a RP in our heads talking. Did that from like 14-17 - cuz we were super cool guys.
But I've always loved to write too, constantly throughout the years tried to write something longer than a short story. Only succeeded once or twice, but I get distracted waaay to easily. That's why I like RPing on here, other people keep me interested and I'm less likely to go do something else suddenly if other people are counting on me to keep a story going. Plus I really struggle to find anyone in real life that wants to read anything I write - my friends are uncultured plebs I guess. My other half tries but has a very busy life. In a perfect world I'd be a writer, but I just don't think I've got the discipline to actually write something lengthy.
Along those lines I'd love to have a gander at anything you've done though.
@shylarah
I shall have to have a looksee at this subeta you speak of. Not heard of such a place. Though an adult version of neopets fills my mind with slightly disturbing images, but I'm assuming/hoping its not quite like that.
I'm not quite sure how I first found this place. It was pre-guildfall, and boy was that sad times. I used to use this site as a notepad to store almost everything I wrote. I lost a lot when this place went down... Now I back everything up... hmm... actually I'm still using a PM to myself to keep lots of things I haven't backed up. You think I'd learn.
shylarah the crazy one
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1 hr ago
@Tsar Gatto OH GOSH NO. No, it's pg13. But you can swear, and both penises and breasts are mentioned, though actual sex stuff is not allowed. And the shoutbox has a boob obsession...and the other day we ended up discussing whale penises, then some site that sells sex toys, then it got a bit too R-rated and we went to mpreg and then seahorse babies, and ended up on animals that eat their babies under certain conditions? ...Then again, the SB can be /extremely/ strange. ^.^;; And because while you can't promote other sites, linking to them (or going to IM or discord or something) is completely permissible, even the rule precluding smut is not a serious problem if that's /really/ what you want -- provided you can find a partner.
@Shoryu Magami I know ryu is a Japanese word, and I know it tends to split after vowels, so I'm /guessing/ sho-ryu, if you want Japanese pronunciation. But I"m no expert. I need to read the original story, at some point, for Count of Monte Christo.
@Shoryu Magami I know ryu is a Japanese word, and I know it tends to split after vowels, so I'm /guessing/ sho-ryu, if you want Japanese pronunciation. But I"m no expert. I need to read the original story, at some point, for Count of Monte Christo.
Shoryu Magami 𝔊𝔲𝔞𝔯𝔡𝔦𝔞𝔫 𝔬𝔣 𝔄𝔰𝔠𝔢𝔫𝔰𝔦𝔬𝔫
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2 yrs ago
@Tsar Gatto
Interesting.
From what I can tell, my first instances of play-by-post role-playing on that Final Fantasy forum I mentioned weren't too bad, mostly because - as previously mentioned - it was an advanced-only forum and the standards were pretty high so I more or less had to learn very quickly.
The quality of my posts back then is definitely inferior to me now though, both because I was in a very bad state of mind and place in my life when I joined that forum, and also because my punctuation and grammar were nothing compared to what they are now. Due to my past, I'm almost entirely self-taught due to - more or less - not having a proper education. Even my use of punctuation that you're seeing right now is more or less something I taught myself in the last month or so, pretty much because I just logged on here one day and said to myself 'you know what, I need to make my writing look more professional' and then within a day I was writing like this -- the style of writing I'm using right now's subject to change again if I decide I'm doing something 'wrong'. I'm still experimenting all around the site to find my ideal writing style, so I might be inconsistent at times.
It's always cool to meet other people who've shared story projects or 'GMed' ideas with their friends prior to actually becoming a proper role-player on a site like this. I actually relate to you in the sense that a lot of people don't really want to know about my project, mostly because my work is very complex and - in all honestly - too serious for more 'normal' (whatever that word means) people. If you're familiar with the term 'literary fiction' (as opposed to 'genre fiction'), then that's usually what those in my circle view my work as, because my main story project is heavily rooted in my own experiences, philosophy, life, observations, and beliefs/values. There's a lot of social commentary in my work and a large focus on the human condition.
Most of the fictional elements are just a creative metaphor and symbology to make my story more fun, but ultimately I'm a philosopher at heart and I consider giving people a message and expressing my experiences and views to be at least - indeed more - important than actually telling a story (though I'll obviously still make sure to tell a good story -- I just won't sabotage my philosophy for the sake of the plot). I also tend to heavily root my characterization in realism, so you don't find a lot of escapism in my story despite it being 'fantastical' in other ways. So I guess you could say my project is too 'serious' for a lot of people. I've been called preachy and self-righteous on more than one occasion -- not that I make a habit of giving a damn what other people think. People've often also referred to me throughout my life as being on a different 'wavelength' to other people, so sometimes my ideas are difficult to explain to others.
On my end, I don't find that I get 'distracted' so much as I'm very 'disorganized'. I've got a problem where I'm basically incapable of switching my mind off, so I'm constantly being flooded by so many ideas that my body literally can't keep up with it. I go plenty of nights without sleep due to this, constantly getting up to write ideas down. Even as I'm typing this, I have to keep track of ideas coming to me by putting them into a notepad on my PC. My stream of consciousness is very difficult to filter, which is one of the reasons people on this site frequently get walls of text from me -- I have so much going on in my mind that I don't know how to summarize it without feeling like the depth and weight of my ideas are being lost.
My difficulties with my story project are similar, because I have legitimately thousands of notepads on this PC, on USBs, and on paper notes, and I need to organize all of them before I can properly sit down and write my story without my perfectionist nature believing I'm missing a detail, which is why it'll be a while before I can show my work to people, assuming I manage to get on top of all my notes at all. Also, technology constantly messes with me -- I've got infamously bad luck with PCs and I've had hundreds of notepads, alongside important tabs, histories, et cetera, deleted and lost due to technology screwing up.
Actually, the reason I joined this site at all is because I've been on a bit of a 'break' of sorts from my work after the most recent technology failure caused me to lose a large portion of my work and sent me into a depression. I've been unable to write or even role-play for a good few years now due to how hectic my workload has gotten, so I joined this site in an attempt to get my morale back. Unfortunately, it's well and truly time I get back into my project before my workload gets any larger, but I'm now letting this site distract me too much. I've met some decent people here, so I don't want to just leave the site completely, but I really do need to find a way to manage myself better so I can get back into my project.
While I do enjoy writing, my passion for my writing is almost entirely rooted in this one story, so I can't see myself putting it aside to write some other project. It's my life's work, basically.
Regarding seeing a sample of my work -- I don't have any of the content of my main story readily available yet (due to the reasons listed above), so the best I could offer as an example of my writing would be the two IC threads I'm currently part of here (both in my signature), but I don't consider them my best work since I'm mostly just getting rid of the rust a bit if you will. I'll certainly let you know when I've got content from my work to show, especially since there's a good few people on this site (and in my personal circle, some of who've joined the site now) who want to see this project I keep referencing or talking about. I'm hoping to at least create a sample sometime in the near future for you all, but I need to pick the spot in the story that I show people carefully. There's actually a very major spoiler/plot twist that happens within the first few chapters that completely changes the rest of the story, so I think it's important that this sample be in the very early part before that twist happens.
Once I've got my new PC (this current one is terrible), I also plan to start up a 'discussion channel' of sorts for people involving my project. Anyway, I'll let you know when something's in a readable state.
First Edit: Heh, this reply came out way longer than I planned. Oh well. I need to rest now, but it's good meeting you.
Second Edit: Ah, you're reading it now, before I caught some of my typos (I'm a perfectionist, but I have a tendency to never proofread due to having so much going on in my head).
@shylarah
Yeah, given how the language works that's pretty likely.
Interesting.
From what I can tell, my first instances of play-by-post role-playing on that Final Fantasy forum I mentioned weren't too bad, mostly because - as previously mentioned - it was an advanced-only forum and the standards were pretty high so I more or less had to learn very quickly.
The quality of my posts back then is definitely inferior to me now though, both because I was in a very bad state of mind and place in my life when I joined that forum, and also because my punctuation and grammar were nothing compared to what they are now. Due to my past, I'm almost entirely self-taught due to - more or less - not having a proper education. Even my use of punctuation that you're seeing right now is more or less something I taught myself in the last month or so, pretty much because I just logged on here one day and said to myself 'you know what, I need to make my writing look more professional' and then within a day I was writing like this -- the style of writing I'm using right now's subject to change again if I decide I'm doing something 'wrong'. I'm still experimenting all around the site to find my ideal writing style, so I might be inconsistent at times.
It's always cool to meet other people who've shared story projects or 'GMed' ideas with their friends prior to actually becoming a proper role-player on a site like this. I actually relate to you in the sense that a lot of people don't really want to know about my project, mostly because my work is very complex and - in all honestly - too serious for more 'normal' (whatever that word means) people. If you're familiar with the term 'literary fiction' (as opposed to 'genre fiction'), then that's usually what those in my circle view my work as, because my main story project is heavily rooted in my own experiences, philosophy, life, observations, and beliefs/values. There's a lot of social commentary in my work and a large focus on the human condition.
Most of the fictional elements are just a creative metaphor and symbology to make my story more fun, but ultimately I'm a philosopher at heart and I consider giving people a message and expressing my experiences and views to be at least - indeed more - important than actually telling a story (though I'll obviously still make sure to tell a good story -- I just won't sabotage my philosophy for the sake of the plot). I also tend to heavily root my characterization in realism, so you don't find a lot of escapism in my story despite it being 'fantastical' in other ways. So I guess you could say my project is too 'serious' for a lot of people. I've been called preachy and self-righteous on more than one occasion -- not that I make a habit of giving a damn what other people think. People've often also referred to me throughout my life as being on a different 'wavelength' to other people, so sometimes my ideas are difficult to explain to others.
On my end, I don't find that I get 'distracted' so much as I'm very 'disorganized'. I've got a problem where I'm basically incapable of switching my mind off, so I'm constantly being flooded by so many ideas that my body literally can't keep up with it. I go plenty of nights without sleep due to this, constantly getting up to write ideas down. Even as I'm typing this, I have to keep track of ideas coming to me by putting them into a notepad on my PC. My stream of consciousness is very difficult to filter, which is one of the reasons people on this site frequently get walls of text from me -- I have so much going on in my mind that I don't know how to summarize it without feeling like the depth and weight of my ideas are being lost.
My difficulties with my story project are similar, because I have legitimately thousands of notepads on this PC, on USBs, and on paper notes, and I need to organize all of them before I can properly sit down and write my story without my perfectionist nature believing I'm missing a detail, which is why it'll be a while before I can show my work to people, assuming I manage to get on top of all my notes at all. Also, technology constantly messes with me -- I've got infamously bad luck with PCs and I've had hundreds of notepads, alongside important tabs, histories, et cetera, deleted and lost due to technology screwing up.
Actually, the reason I joined this site at all is because I've been on a bit of a 'break' of sorts from my work after the most recent technology failure caused me to lose a large portion of my work and sent me into a depression. I've been unable to write or even role-play for a good few years now due to how hectic my workload has gotten, so I joined this site in an attempt to get my morale back. Unfortunately, it's well and truly time I get back into my project before my workload gets any larger, but I'm now letting this site distract me too much. I've met some decent people here, so I don't want to just leave the site completely, but I really do need to find a way to manage myself better so I can get back into my project.
While I do enjoy writing, my passion for my writing is almost entirely rooted in this one story, so I can't see myself putting it aside to write some other project. It's my life's work, basically.
Regarding seeing a sample of my work -- I don't have any of the content of my main story readily available yet (due to the reasons listed above), so the best I could offer as an example of my writing would be the two IC threads I'm currently part of here (both in my signature), but I don't consider them my best work since I'm mostly just getting rid of the rust a bit if you will. I'll certainly let you know when I've got content from my work to show, especially since there's a good few people on this site (and in my personal circle, some of who've joined the site now) who want to see this project I keep referencing or talking about. I'm hoping to at least create a sample sometime in the near future for you all, but I need to pick the spot in the story that I show people carefully. There's actually a very major spoiler/plot twist that happens within the first few chapters that completely changes the rest of the story, so I think it's important that this sample be in the very early part before that twist happens.
Once I've got my new PC (this current one is terrible), I also plan to start up a 'discussion channel' of sorts for people involving my project. Anyway, I'll let you know when something's in a readable state.
First Edit: Heh, this reply came out way longer than I planned. Oh well. I need to rest now, but it's good meeting you.
Second Edit: Ah, you're reading it now, before I caught some of my typos (I'm a perfectionist, but I have a tendency to never proofread due to having so much going on in my head).
@shylarah
Yeah, given how the language works that's pretty likely.
Tsar Gatto African or European?
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6 mos ago
@shylarah
Hah, well yes, certainly puts my mind at ease. If you're discussing peni then I always finds cats and ducks to be most interesting.
I always thought PG13 was funny. 13 year olds are generally filthy little creatures. At least I was.
@Shoryu Magami
Sounds impressive and interesting to say the least. I actually studied philosophy in college (and did terribly, turns out education never interested me until I was finished with it - go figure).
Literary fiction is great and is one of the strongest tools for getting real subjects through to those who might not otherwise be interested - something I think we desperately need today. I've always wanted to get into that, but again requires too much foresight and prior planning. I'm terrible at that. I never really plan anything I write, I just start and let it keep flowing until I'm done, then read back and re-write or add in anything I think would be good.
But yes, I would be most most interested. Generally people are far too shallow when it comes to philosophy and reflection of both the self and the rest of the world/humanity.
@shylarah @Shoryu Magami
And if you're talking about Japanese stuff, I love me some Japanese history and culture. The one barrier I find quite often though, is that I don't particularly enjoy anime stuff - despite trying a few times to get into it. Which is a shame because I get the impression that the vast majority of modern media or literature about Japan (historical or otherwise) falls into that. Same with some Rps... damn anime leaking into everything :p
Hah, well yes, certainly puts my mind at ease. If you're discussing peni then I always finds cats and ducks to be most interesting.
I always thought PG13 was funny. 13 year olds are generally filthy little creatures. At least I was.
@Shoryu Magami
Sounds impressive and interesting to say the least. I actually studied philosophy in college (and did terribly, turns out education never interested me until I was finished with it - go figure).
Literary fiction is great and is one of the strongest tools for getting real subjects through to those who might not otherwise be interested - something I think we desperately need today. I've always wanted to get into that, but again requires too much foresight and prior planning. I'm terrible at that. I never really plan anything I write, I just start and let it keep flowing until I'm done, then read back and re-write or add in anything I think would be good.
But yes, I would be most most interested. Generally people are far too shallow when it comes to philosophy and reflection of both the self and the rest of the world/humanity.
@shylarah @Shoryu Magami
And if you're talking about Japanese stuff, I love me some Japanese history and culture. The one barrier I find quite often though, is that I don't particularly enjoy anime stuff - despite trying a few times to get into it. Which is a shame because I get the impression that the vast majority of modern media or literature about Japan (historical or otherwise) falls into that. Same with some Rps... damn anime leaking into everything :p
Shoryu Magami 𝔊𝔲𝔞𝔯𝔡𝔦𝔞𝔫 𝔬𝔣 𝔄𝔰𝔠𝔢𝔫𝔰𝔦𝔬𝔫
Member
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2 yrs ago
@Tsar Gatto
I've had a fair few people suggest I go and formally study philosophy (as well as psychology, and a few other subjects) due to my natural affinity/proficiency, but - as I mentioned previously - my passions tend to be very specific and I want to do focus entirely on my main project. This is another reason why feeling like this site distracts me is frustrating. I wouldn't be sticking around if I hadn't met some decent people.
Overall, literary fiction is the style of writing I've always worked with. This is one of the reasons why it took a long time to get my main project off the ground -- I couldn't properly flesh it all out until I'd worked my own philosophy and thoughts out entirely. While I've still got things to learn (everyone does), I do believe I'm at the point now where there's nothing I could learn that will actually be capable of compromising or making me doubt my ideas, so now I'm ready to move the project forward. I just need to sort through all the notes.
I'll keep in mind that you've mentioned wanting to see it, because - as you just said - yes, people are generally quite shallow and this is one of the aspects about society that my work heavily criticizes. I'm a very strong advocate of humanity awakening the potential within their mind and soul, and I can be pretty merciless against any ideology or attitude which I believe contributes to preventing that awakening.
I obviously (current avatar, and previous one which I drew) enjoy anime, but I'm very picky about the shows that I'll watch -- I won't just watch anything, though most of the media I do watch tends to fall into that sort of region, since I've given a lot of other media a pretty thorough try over the course of my life and found myself unable to really get into any of it.
In all honestly, I'm a very picky person about everything, with very extreme likes and dislikes. I've got extremely high standards with virtually everything and I'm unwilling to lower them. This creates a situation where I've got very specific tastes and I usually tend to avoid anything outside of my aesthetic. I don't like many visual forms of art, but anime is one of the few styles that actually 'clicks' for me in my head, which is why all my characters are drawn in a style that resembles it (I say resembles because I don't believe I replicate it completely). You're right that anime is a big part of all of Japan's literature and media, because it has very close roots to their culture as a whole and most people are unaware of just how many things were influenced by it, even outside of Japan. I had to bring this up in another thread recently here.
I've had a fair few people suggest I go and formally study philosophy (as well as psychology, and a few other subjects) due to my natural affinity/proficiency, but - as I mentioned previously - my passions tend to be very specific and I want to do focus entirely on my main project. This is another reason why feeling like this site distracts me is frustrating. I wouldn't be sticking around if I hadn't met some decent people.
Overall, literary fiction is the style of writing I've always worked with. This is one of the reasons why it took a long time to get my main project off the ground -- I couldn't properly flesh it all out until I'd worked my own philosophy and thoughts out entirely. While I've still got things to learn (everyone does), I do believe I'm at the point now where there's nothing I could learn that will actually be capable of compromising or making me doubt my ideas, so now I'm ready to move the project forward. I just need to sort through all the notes.
I'll keep in mind that you've mentioned wanting to see it, because - as you just said - yes, people are generally quite shallow and this is one of the aspects about society that my work heavily criticizes. I'm a very strong advocate of humanity awakening the potential within their mind and soul, and I can be pretty merciless against any ideology or attitude which I believe contributes to preventing that awakening.
I obviously (current avatar, and previous one which I drew) enjoy anime, but I'm very picky about the shows that I'll watch -- I won't just watch anything, though most of the media I do watch tends to fall into that sort of region, since I've given a lot of other media a pretty thorough try over the course of my life and found myself unable to really get into any of it.
In all honestly, I'm a very picky person about everything, with very extreme likes and dislikes. I've got extremely high standards with virtually everything and I'm unwilling to lower them. This creates a situation where I've got very specific tastes and I usually tend to avoid anything outside of my aesthetic. I don't like many visual forms of art, but anime is one of the few styles that actually 'clicks' for me in my head, which is why all my characters are drawn in a style that resembles it (I say resembles because I don't believe I replicate it completely). You're right that anime is a big part of all of Japan's literature and media, because it has very close roots to their culture as a whole and most people are unaware of just how many things were influenced by it, even outside of Japan. I had to bring this up in another thread recently here.
kiiblade how sad...
Member
Seen
9 mos ago
Yes! That is where I got my start. I was 12 when I first began to role play and I fell in love with it -- I've been addicted ever since. Thanks to Neopets and role playing, I learned to write and spell better than I may have normally.
Neopets was a great place for beginners. From what I remember, the people there were usually pretty laid-back and nice. Popular genres I remember were Teen Titans, Warriors, Gifted, Stranded on An Island, X-Men Evolution, High School, and Orphanage role plays. I seriously miss those days!
Neopets was a great place for beginners. From what I remember, the people there were usually pretty laid-back and nice. Popular genres I remember were Teen Titans, Warriors, Gifted, Stranded on An Island, X-Men Evolution, High School, and Orphanage role plays. I seriously miss those days!
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