I just read patriarchy as patricide… I listen to way too much true crime.

Just wanted to clarify how I treat characters as people. Even if they do not have agency outside of forum, to me, they have agency in any thread they are in. Therefore, if a character has a massive overarching goal for example, I probably won't turn around and say "No character, you cannot do that cause I or X wants Y." But as said, I am a bit biased since I find the improvising and surprises fun on all fronts. Even with wanted ads. I love when people come up to me and go "Hey... So based on this history point, I wanted to do a resentment thing, is that okay?" Love that, love when people surprise me cause for me I want to inspire someone to create a character from a wanted they would wish to play elsewhere. ^-^ It's beautiful to me in a way, hence my flexibility with things.

I think a better solution to the above is clear communication as Feral is mentioning. There is a line of improvising in role-play since, similar to people, characters are complicated. They have layers and I am not sure about anyone else, but those layers are where the intrigue is for me. As long as someone communicates to me something may need changing because X character's feelings, motives, recent happenings, mood, etc, then yeah, change the plot.

Call me old-fashioned if you want, but characters do have opinions, thoughts, moods, motives, feelings, happenings, etc and that is apart of what gives role-play an intriguing complexity. There is a lack of a script because sometimes I can sit there and tell someone "You know... I don't know how Y character will respond, so we can see what happens." It is part of the fun and is why I try to be upfront to begin with the fact I will not be forcing my characters to do anything. As I have said before, I will flex a situation, not a character. If I can make you a situation to give you what you like, sure. If I can't, I will communicate that to you.

So to put it simply, I view my characters as people. They are not tools, playtoys, dress-up dolls, etc. They are people who I have created to write a story and at least to me as a writer, a forcing of character is not fun. It would, if anything for myself, beg the question of why bother with character variety if I'm going to just mould them to do whatever I or another person wants? Overall, that is how I see it. Thus, I think communicating or situation bending would be a good solution over character bending every time.

Sometimes I wonder how recognizable people become via the characters they play. I have mostly been wondering since I have a few consistent characters.

Being able to do site testing via posting is the best life.

I don't like the sick. I wanna write. *fusses*

It time to wr-wr-wr-write!

I have just had the epiphany that since I have been using lyrics from songs in my application profiles that I can credit them in the credits section. Don't ask me how it took me so long to come to this realization, I am not impressed with myself.

Character progress is best progress... at least right now.

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