Solo role playing

[Ravenok Kinnes]

How does it work here? I just simply role play with myself, basically? Make a thread, respond to it myself, then again and again? I am just making sure, before I make one.

[Letho]

Yes, you just play with yourself.

Basically, only you tell the story. You can always create NPCs to accompany you and enrich the story though. I personally always found solos rather boring. I mean, Althanas is all about interaction and writing with other people and sharing the experience with them. But sometimes you just can't do that I guess.

[Ravenok Kinnes]

Well, I just wanted to do something on my own, mainly because I have a lot of time on my hands right now, and I am forced to wait due to all the people that I am role playing with not being here. I'll probably just see how this one goes, and if it's good I might do another.

[MaxBlade]

I personally always found solos rather boring.

So true, sometimes though you have to, if you want to have an advancement in your level. For Seremela I have to do a solo for a while until she post in there, I believe it's challenging me, pulling me out of my usual style.

[Ravenok Kinnes]

Hmm... Well I decided to try it. Check it out if you want, link is in my signature. I don't think it's going that well, but, I leave those decisions to the readers.

I am just doing it because all the other threads I am in are progressing rather slow, I am a person who is on a lot, so I have a lot of free time while on here.

[Rajani Aishwara]

Solo Questing is alright. I kind of like to use it as a showcase of my writing talent. Might I suggest writing the entire thing first, then after the initial post advertising it to fellow players. This way the entire thing will be ready to go when everyone demands more.

I know it's kind of petty. In fact it's really petty, but it allows people to get accustomed to you your writing style, and it shows that you're dependable.

[Atzar]

Personally, I usually prefer to write solos over group quests. That way, I can write whenever the motivation takes me - I don't have to wait for somebody else. I've noticed that having to wait for somebody else to post can really kill the momentum of a quest.

Besides, writing solos seems more pure to me - the story is completely under my control, and it's entirely up to me how things get done.

If it's with people that keep up with me, however, collaborative work is still a lot of fun and it's exciting to see how things turn out.

[Letho]

Personally, I usually prefer to write solos over group quests. That way, I can write whenever the motivation takes me - I don't have to wait for somebody else. I've noticed that having to wait for somebody else to post can really kill the momentum of a quest.

Besides, writing solos seems more pure to me - the story is completely under my control, and it's entirely up to me how things get done.

If it's with people that keep up with me, however, collaborative work is still a lot of fun and it's exciting to see how things turn out.

I guess it's all down to personal preference. I personally see no point in participating in a community such as Althanas if I'm going to write by myself. If I wanted to do that, I would write stuff in Word. Yes, you get feeback from the judge, but that's an opinon of a single person. When you write with other people, you are facing a number of different opinons. Besides, most people around here have a tendency not to read the stuff they are not in anyways (not a good thing, but still very present). With others, I not only share the experience, but I get the chance to learn something new every day, observing different styles and different characters. Judgments are a good overwiev of what's good and what's not in your writing, but I learned even more from my fellow rpers, reading their posts before I reply to them.

But to each his own.

[Doppelganger]

I don't see one method or the other as being superior. Letho, you raise a good point in mentioning that it seems silly to join a writing community (especially one with as much talent as Althanas) and then keep things all to yourself.

But it's also worth noting that some types of stories, particularly ones that may be very central to your character's development, are better suited to solo quests, since it allows the author total control over all aspects of the story.

Other times, you have a more generalized outline of what you want to happen, in which case having others participate will help to flesh out that story, and more than likely will make it more interesting than what it would have been if you wrote it alone.

I don't think you should stick to one or the other (solo or group), but rather try both occasionally, because it makes you think and write in different ways. Solo quests give you more control, but that also means it's more work for you to do; you have to come up with everything that happens, everything that's said, and make it all interesting enough for someone else to read without collapsing from boredom. Group quests take some of the pressure off you, but in that case you have to gauge the actions and reactions of others, and act in a way that allows others to progress. Depending on who you're writing with, that can be very easy or very difficult.

I just started a solo quest because this character is kind of experimental, I've never tried anything quite like it... So before I start to interact with other people's characters, I want to get a feel for how I'm going to present my own.

[Letho]

But it's also worth noting that some types of stories, particularly ones that may be very central to your character's development, are better suited to solo quests, since it allows the author total control over all aspects of the story.

Other times, you have a more generalized outline of what you want to happen, in which case having others participate will help to flesh out that story, and more than likely will make it more interesting than what it would have been if you wrote it alone.

I agree to a certain extent - that's why I mentioned in my first post that sometimes you can't make a group quest. However, I would like to say that including other characters into the development of your own can have awesome benefits. I personally have a character (Jared) whose development was completely linked to one of The Valkyrie. And it worked wonders for us both, getting us two JCs and leading us through five great quests.

My point is, yes, sometimes the story requires you to do it on your own. But if you manage to incorporate others people into such a story, you can enhance the interaction to a whole new level. Of course, it can also backfire at you sometimes. I guess there's always a certain amount of risk involved.

I don't think you should stick to one or the other (solo or group), but rather try both occasionally, because it makes you think and write in different ways. Solo quests give you more control, but that also means it's more work for you to do; you have to come up with everything that happens, everything that's said, and make it all interesting enough for someone else to read without collapsing from boredom. Group quests take some of the pressure off you, but in that case you have to gauge the actions and reactions of others, and act in a way that allows others to progress. Depending on who you're writing with, that can be very easy or very difficult.

You see, I tend to disagree on the pressure issue. I always feel more pressure when I write with other people, especially if I'm leading the quest. The feeling of letting somebody down by writing a bad post or neglecting to post at all, it's a constant voice in my head that reminds me to give it all I got. And that's the drive that makes me excel more often then not. I like that kind of pressure.

I do agree that nobody should stick with either one or the other though. A person should strive to achieve some sort of balance. Of course, in a community with so many great writers, it's hard to resist the temptation of writing with all of them.