Rules: Writing Rules

[Angela]

1. No writing other people's characters without their permission.

2. Characters can talk about other characters, as long as the particular reference is feasable. Example:

"I saw Aleksei at the mall today," Chris said to Mary.

Aleksei and the character who claims to have seen him at the mall MUST BOTH HAVE BEEN THERE. If Aleksei was not at the mall, then this is against this rule. The same applies for if the character was not at the mall yet he knows somehow about his actions without a character that does know about them telling him.

Of course, there CAN be exceptions. Lying about a character is acceptable if the character has alterior motives in doing this. If so, just be sure that this is EXPLAINED in the writing.

3. No real skaters. You may create fictional names for real skaters, but not use the skater's real name. Example:

Timothy Goebel - denied.
Timothy Gable - granted.

4. What happens in RP, STAYS in RP. Writers, do not let your personal feelings toward characters come between you and the writer of the character you don't like. A fight between writers because someone's character hurt another writer's character will not be tolerated. All writers are friends here.

[Angela]

Here, though things may get a little crazy at times, we strive mostly to keep at least a semi-realistic feel to things. Sci-fi, fantasy, horror, while entertaining, does not really have a place here.

Example: You can't have a character kidnapped by aliens then return only to be attacked by a vampire who's acting on behalf of a mad scientist somewhere.

However, there could be a serial killer on the loose, as is the case in the real world. Just NO KILLING OTHER WRITERS' CHARACTERS WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION BEFOREHAND.

Also, a character can't be acting contrary to real life sane people without reasonable explanation.

Example: Character runs about naked on top of their apartment rooftop for insanity reasons, because of underlying trauma that no one knows about.

Sure, that's believable. That happens in real life, crazy people do things like that.

Bad Example: Character runs about naked on rooftop as a result of the effects of cocaine abuse.

Drug addicts don't act like that in the real world.

[Angela]

It would be nice if writers would do extensive research about all aspects of a character's life, traditions, spiritual beliefs, customs, etc. and the various aspects of the country of origin of the characters. Search engines like yahoo can be certainly helpful, all you need do is type in "(country) customs." If you need help with creating Russian characters I can help provide links and sources. If you are writing Asian characters I can direct you to some Asians I know that would be happy to critique your work. Other than that, should you need more help I will still be willing to help you. But really there is no substitute for good old books. Pick up books at a library or purchase them in a store. Study the language, the history, the traditions, etc. You'd be surprised what you'd find.

[Angela]

All characters are copyright their respected author and may not be written by anyone else anyWHERE else unless given permission by the writer of the character you wish to steal. I use that word "steal" because really, if you didn't create it, yet use it, you've stolen it.

[Angela]

If your character is "psychic," can read the thoughts of characters she is with without the character telling them... well, if they're psychic, that's understandable. We already have one apparent psychic, I would really appreciate if we did not have any more.

Simply put, I frown upon "mind-reading." If a character thinks something, but does not say it, it's not good writing etiquette to have a character blurt out a response to the character's THOUGHTS. Spoken dialogue is another matter.

For example...

That dress that Julie is wearing is extremely ugly, Brandi thought.

In such a case, you can't have Julie replying by saying, "My dress is NOT ugly!"

Of course there is a way for Julie to find out Brandi's thoughts, IF it goes along something like this...

"That dress Julie is wearing is extremely ugly!" Brandi whispered to Jenn.

Jenn turned to Alex and said, "Brandi says that dress is ugly."

Alex sauntered over to Julie and blurted, "Brandi says your dress is ugly."

To which Julie may then reply, "My dress is not ugly, Brandi!"

Another example of misinformation is this...

In Cafe Mocha, Hae Young sat at one of the corner tables with her sister-in-law, Ji-Sook.

"What grade did you get on the history test?

Ji-Sook groaned, dreading showing her the test she had in her zipped backpack, marked with a red letter D.

Also in the restaurant, Max answered, "She got a D!"

Unless the character is within general talking range and knows Ji-Sook, there's no way for the character to know what grade the girl got on her history test. In fact, if the character Max is not within earshot of the two of them, he wouldn't even know what they were talking about!

Another rule: Your character cannot be in two places at once!

I was in a game in my early days, and I wrote that my character had gone to the movies. Another character was having a late-night practice and had hurt himself. A girl was there to help him, then all of a sudden, she turned up at the movies as well and participated in BOTH scenes while they were taking place at the same time. Think for a second, writers. Can you be in two places at once? No.

Since it's more organized this way, I decided to start threads on the first of the month for scenes that take place during that month. That doesn't mean that you have to stop posting in them once the month is up. Only if your scene takes place outside of that month do you post in another thread. For example, you can post in the October thread that a character goes shopping for Christmas presents, but you can't have the next day suddenly be Christmas and still post in the October thread, because Christmas is in December, not in October.

I'm just trying to get a head start on these circumstances before they show up, instead of after like I have in the past. I'm finally getting the hang of this management biz lol.

[Angela]

We do not create characters just for the sake of expressing political views. If a political issue arises, it is usually from a character that has a storyline that has something to do with that issue. Characters that "cameo" in scenes just to express political viewpoints will not be tolerated. Members who do this will receive 3 warnings, and upon the third, will be banned for life.

[Angela]

New Rule: Language

When writing a character we no doubt want to be as true to them as possible. I welcome everyone to research the languages your character speaks. It can be very fun to write characters speaking in their native tongues as well as foreign languages. Just be sure to put the English translation at the end of your post please!

For example:

"Zhenya, telephone!" Irina called to the kitchen. Evgeni took the phone.
"Allo?"
"Privyet, Zhenya, kak dela?"
"Ah, khorosho, Danilka, spasibo."

This would appear at the end of the post:

"Hi, Zhenya, how are you?"
"Ah, good, Danilka, thank you."

One thing though, if a character is speaking to another in one language, then turns to another character and speaks in a different language, even if it is written in English, the only way the other characters can understand is if they know the language. For example:

"Alex hit me last night," Emily said with a sigh.
"You should not have to put up with that," Irina replied.
"What's going on?" came a voice. Evgeni walked over to them.
"Not much, just gossiping, girl talk," Emily replied nonchalantly. Irina rolled her eyes.
"Her boyfriend hit her last night, but don't tell her I told you," she said to Evgeni in Russian.

Irina and Evgeni both know Russian, so Evgeni would have no trouble understanding what Irina was saying. However, unless Emily knows Russian as well, there's no way she'd know what Irina had just said.

Accents are okay to write as well. Lanie, for example, writes that Christian Dwight has a heavy Scottish accent, so her writing reflects that. It can be a lot of fun to write accents as well.

Another thing that has to do with language:

I don't normally write profanity, if I do it is to reflect on the character. However, while I allow profanity I ask that you place a warning before your scene saying that it contains profanity. We have some members here who are under 18 and I don't want to encourage disregard for them.