I do love finding lyrics that fit my characters! I also post a lot of fanarts pr aesthetics (if my guy doesnt have many fanarts.)

And memes. I just spam memes.

I used to do more detailed dev stuff, like you know in fanfics where the author talks to their characters? Yeah. I did that. No shame embrace the cringe. It was fun. I did that persobality stuff too, zodiac and like. Not even just copypasting desc i would use my own words to analyze and explain why. Now i just use random bday generators lol

I still love tarot themes and interpretations though. I also enjoy dev prompts and answering them and i hope to have more of that. Like one dev prompt i love were meals my characters can make and i took a lot of joy in answering my innocent looking aesthetic beautiful king specializes in blood stews and puddings. Which - funny aside - happens to make sense bc of his hometown! So was fun and useful

man i LOVE dev activity in general, i find it an easy way to think about my characters when my brain isn’t rlly up to the task of writing and/or plotting proper. but if i had to list my personal favorite dev activities, it’d probably be like…

1) playlists — i almost exclusively blame being part of the youtube amv community once upon a time, and being a musical theatre girlie, but making playlists are almost mandatory for me when i make characters and/or character dynamics (romantic, platonic, familial, antagonistic, etc). i love thinking of songs and imagining how it would look with the character in an edit or in a musical sequence animatic (on god if i had more time to learn how to draw proper and make good animatics, i would have SO many of them by now), and more often than not find that it helps me a lot in navigating where i want a character to go. there’s a reason my spotify wrapped said i made so many gd playlists last year LOL

2) metas and retrospectives — real talk im probably pretentious for this. but similar to the above but just,,,, talking about characters in an authorial level (whether it be decisions made with them in the plot; ideas they’re meant to represent; w/e else) spark a lot of joy for me. i have a lot of dev threads that include long 1k+ metas about characters, decisions, or dynamics since it rlly helps me put into words the things i want to do with them, potential direction, or just make sense of a lot of ideas in my head that may or may not have a solid anchor yet. its like doing character study but from the writer’s POV rather than the character’s, imo, and that helps a lot for me in fleshing concepts out even better 

3) memes. just memes. — i’m talking pinterest boards full of text post memes, poetry passages, alignment charts, video edits, what have you. i have one specific tradition when i join a site and/or make multiple characters in a new setting, where at some point i always must edit the characters to the misery x cpr x reeses puffs meme. it’s completely stupid and i adore doing it. it’s having fun with the characters and being able to view them outside the non-pretentious light / strip them to their bare character without the bells and whistles and like, yeah, thats a good time

4) hypothetical passages / future snippets / writings that will never see the light of day — yeah. sometimes. there are specific lines or scenes i’d love to do involving my characters, so i write them ahead of where they’re at currently (i have at least two scenes for my characters written in my personal server and notes app that, should they even happen, would be like. literally maybe more than 6+ months from rn LOL). it gives me direction, something to be hyped about, and just more dev to think of

character playlists >>>

Gotta agree with playlists. They help me to really flesh out my characters and I find it easier to then write their posts, so it's a win/win situation!

i wondeer why you've been doing that... fufufuu

in all seriousness, i do enjoy the music compilations a lot. even though my music tastes are basically the same circle of stuff (aka vocaloid, poets of the fall, etc) it's fun putting together a playlist and finding the Vibes tm because i findthat can be something people relate to easier. i don't have much of an eye for aesthetics and moodboards, esp layout-wise, so it's not necessarily something i think about as much.

i do enjoy dev bits that actively interact w the world. i don't mind the organisational stuff (timelines etc) but they do get to be a slog if you try and dedicate urself to updating them. but letters to other characters and stuff.... yeah, that's the good stuff.

Making a playlist is always a vibe, but since many have already mention it I'm gonna say writing drabbles/one-shots. I think it's fun to just word dump inner monologues and what not, especially since some rp partners frown upon it in threads. Like watch me write a 500+ moment of why so n' so is 'pissed they got looked over for a job while externally having to put on a smile'.

It's the little things that make a character enjoyable to read/write. Which goes into my other fave thing to do which is having bullet points of headcanons or writing down verses of a character in different settings. It's all fun and dandy to know about the important keys points of a character, but every once and a while knowing that a character has quirks like 'they only eat fish' or 'if they were some space pirate they be..' make writing fun.

Playlists and moodboards never did much for me honestly, probably because I'm not a very "aesthetic" person irl.

I love answering short headcanon prompts, including the meta ones like "how did you come up with your character's name?"

Drabbles can be fun when I'm in a headspace to write them.

Organizational charts, relationship webs, and timelines are also fun, and help me keep very involved backstories straight.

If I could get away with making Tvtropes pages for my OCs...

Me. All of this is me. Nothing gives me greater joy than outlining a stupidly Wikipedia-level explanation of my character, her history, her motivations, and her psychological profile. I will gladly sink a stupid amount of time into this, and enjoy updating this with relationship trackers, arc trackers, etc.

I also really, really, really enjoy solo thread opportunities to explore 'what ifs,' flashbacks, or introspective scenes. I have to be in the mood, but when I'm in the zone, I'm gone.

Making playlists is great, too. Sometimes I have entire playlists for different character moods or relationships. Often, I find I have a song for a thread as I write, because I spam it on repeat as I 'm writing.

My favorite Dev challenges have got to be: 


1. This or thats - You're given a scenario where you have to choose one or the other and no in between. It makes it really fun dividing my characters

2. Aesthetics - I live for aesthetics. They help visualize a character's vibe for me, whether its just typing up those aesthetics or doing moodboards for them. 

3. Lyrics - LYRICS THAT FIT MY CHARACTER, But not necessarily the full song !! 

4. Outfit shares - Finding fanart or creating outfits for your character that aren't necessarily their "normal" outfits are really fun.