Avatar of Proxi
  • Last Seen: 8 yrs ago
  • Joined: 8 yrs ago
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    1. Proxi 8 yrs ago

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8 yrs ago
Current New avatar drawn! Hehe. I may need to get a brighter light next time, but for now that'll have to do.
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8 yrs ago
Hai. I'm not going to be active for a day or two due to personal reasons. Just thought I'd let people know so they wouldn't think I'm ghosting on them.
8 yrs ago
All my recent posts have been on ArenaSnow's Halloween RP thing. Tomorrow it won't be Halloween anymore, which I suppose means I need to get a life by branching out the rps I post in! :D
8 yrs ago
Tomorrow is a busy day for me. I might not do any writing until the afternoon. I apologize for any inconvenience, but I'm ready behind on things as it is.
8 yrs ago
3 Things not pleasant to talk about and can even ruin friendships: Religion, Politics, and whether or not Overwatch is better than Team Fortress 2.
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Banned for not giving a proper ban reason.
Okay I know I just responded to another one of your interest checks, but this one looks really cool as well. I would definitely join.
I would be interested in a RP about that. I've read the books of the series so I'd have some idea about the plot and stuff.
I'm interested. It sounds pretty fun. By the whole Minecraft bit, do you mean we'll all be playing together on a server or is it you putting images up in your posts? Because I'm fairly certain it's the latter, but I want to be sure.
I'm interested. This sounds like a pretty creative idea. The chip idea has been used before, but it was always about just making humans into mindless slaves or whatever.
@CrossfireOkay, I will remember that for next time. Thank you.
<Snipped quote by Proxi>

Where would the middle-ground be? Not being difficult, I'm legitimately asking, because I think that is probably going to be the answer to OP's question.

I always felt it would be awkward to focus too much on referencing physical differences ("She felt the weight of her breasts as she jogged") for the same reason it would be awkward to overuse male differences ("The jungle was so humid his testicles stuck to his legs"). Actually, this reminds me that there is a women who writes historical fiction short stories from the perspective of a gay military officer in the 18th century (I forget her name or the name of the stories), and when reading one of those I was pulled out of the story when she used a line sorta like "As he climbed on the horse for battle, the fear made his scrotum pull tight". It was weird because, though I've been scared of shit plenty of times in my life, I don't think i've every consciously thought about what my scrotum was doing while I was afraid. I feel like it was one of those things she wrote because, as a woman, the idea seems like it would be pretty noticeable and worthy of mentioning, but for men it's sort of a tertiary thing. Likewise I always figured over-focusing on female physical traits can end up distracting.

And I also think too that the line for femininity is kind of complex. There is a line that I figure we all kind of know, but it's difficult for me to try and put into words, so it is difficult to know when I've breached it. I've also, like the OP, been told before that my female characters didn't seem very female (by a woman as it turns out), but she couldn't tell me why, and I can't exactly pin point it either.

For OP, I agree with everyone that a sample would help.


I don't think there is any strict line. I'm just saying she should act like a human instead of just 100% femininity and female stereotypes. The middle ground is to write a woman the way an actual woman acts. She can be girly or a tomboy, but making a character that is nothing but pure girly-ness or so tomboy that there's absolutely nothing female in her behavior are simply unrealistic characters to play as. The same pretty much applies to male characters as well.

The middle ground is simple and fairly large: any character that has focus beyond just its gender. Like you said, focusing too hard on the body parts of the character's gender ruins some of the effect. (although that has more to do with the narrative then the characters themselves) Don't base the personality solely on the gender. Take the personality and apply the gender to it. If that is done, then there's likely to be nothing to worry about. Don't be afraid to make a girl act girlish or a guy act macho. Just make sure that they are still represented as people and that their personalities are more then just whatever matches their genitals.

I really doubt the OP really messed up all that badly to be honest, sounds like the critic was more angry about something else or simply had a different opinion on the "right" way to play as a female character.

As complex as the line is, one thing that is a hard and fast rule is that both genders of humans are people and should should behave like such.

Including one or two REAL stereotypical behaviors (that are actually common behaviors that do happen from time to time) doesn't automatically make them bad, as long as that isn't all the character is. But if you include unrealistic stereotypes that are mostly fictional and designed to insult the opposite gender, then what you've created is not a normal character but instead a mockery of whatever that character's gender is.

And about the last line about your characters not seeming very feminine, then perhaps it wouldn't hurt to think about what they are like to see if they are perhaps a bit too manly in some ways. I've had similar troubles back when I tried writing a male character, but to this day I'm uncertain on how to fix it. The problem comes from the fact that occasionally people compensate too hard to not make their character stereotypical at all. That often ends up blocking the gender aspects of said character. So keep that in mind.

"Jim walked down the street, it looked like it was about to rain. He sped up his pace, not wanting to get his new woolen sweater wet. He thought about what he was doing with his life, and got disappointed. Here he was, no wife or family. It looked like things weren't going too well for poor Jim. He picked up a comic book on his way home, and quickly arrived at his doorstep. Jim sat down on his couch and watched television. He was excited to see that there was a wrestling match on."

Jim likes wrestling, which is usually seen as a male stereotype. However, there is more to Jim then being a man. He wants to take care of his clothes and read comic books and raise kids. He doesn't like wrestling because he's a man, Jim likes wrestling because he thinks it is cool. That was an example if a character who has a gender, but it doesn't fully define the character. And yet at the same time, things males sometimes like to do aren't denied altogether. I'm not afraid to say Jim likes wrestling and thinks it is cool. Because that's not his defining character trait. And some men really do like watching wrestling on TV, so it's not an unrealistic or insulting stereotype. No mockery of men was made. That's how I crossgender RP. Whether or not it's the right way is based partly on interpretation.
Name: Taylor Cooperfield. (usually referred to as just Tay.)

Age/Gender: 27, female.

Nationality: British.

Appearance: Taylor is five foot six inches, but she has a stocky, muscular build. Her face is round-ish and smooth. Her skin is lightly tanned, hair is dark brown and eyes are light blue. Taylor's eyes are fairly large and set moderately apart and have long black eyelashes. Taylor's nose is fairly pointed and medium sized and her lips are medium and Taylor's mouth is small. Her expression is usually one of seriousness when doing her job, but she often has a mischievous or cheerful look about her when in a more casual situation. Her clothes include the ordinary camouflage military garb, but also including black gloves and boots. Overall she has a sturdy body and a feminine face with softer features.

Rank: Private (Specifically guardsman.)

Preferred Role: Bodyguard is her most preferred, but sniper, offensive infiltrator, or frontline trooper work for her as well.

Brief Background: Taylor originally grew up in London but her family moved to Leeds when she was 20 years old. There she learned of the threats to the allied nations. Although throughout her life she wasn't necessarily an unusually violent person, Taylor did have a knack for hand-to-hand combat and wasn't afraid to get into a fight if she felt threatened. And in high school she practiced martial arts. Used to strict discipline and tests, she was fully willing to take on the responsibility of joining the military forces in hopes of helping to defend the allied nations from the cruel threats of terrorist organizations. She joined the marines at the age of 21, and spent a large amount of time training in firearms, stealth, survival, cooperation and teamwork, and more. Now at the age of 27, Taylor is embarking on her way to the area where she and her comrades will be informed on their new orders. She's still relatively low rank (private, aka Guardsman) as shes been in only a few missions, but from her extra training (phases 1 & 2) Taylor is hardly an incapable soldier as she is skilled in a variety of different combat styles.

Notes: Despite being in a war, when not currently in or about to be in a mission, Taylor has a playful and mischievous side to her personality that normally doesn't show. She is a strong, brave, and loyal soldier on the outside. But on the inside, Taylor is paranoid of failure. Not just herself, but the thought of letting down her comrades and putting them in worse danger. Because of this Taylor has problems with Insomnia just before missions sometimes.

This is my first character sheet on this site. I hope it suffices. I wasn't intending it to be this long, but I didn't want to leave anything out.
@Proxi Depends on what nationality your character is because I believe there's some variation. I'm Canadian myself, yet the character I'm using is american, so this is the list I used http://www.militaryfactory.com/ranks/army_ranks.asp

@Banana Great! Hope to see a CS from you soon!


Okay, thank you. My character is British. I'll look up theirs real quick. I wasn't sure if we were using real ranks or your own.
Entirely depends on the character, and why they killed the person.

In complete self-defense, a brief mixture of guilt and triumph.

As an accident, large portions of worry at first, but then switching to guilt and fear.

In revenge, there would be some satisfaction at first, followed by a cold empty feeling.

In cold blood, very little would be felt other then some insane rantings within the mind. Perhaps some mild satisfaction as well.

In an uncontrolled rampage, extreme guilt.
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