#( i hate feeling like i need to change the way i've approached rp but )

[vanillahub]

2, 3 & 17

@commandsir

Munday Asks: Salt Edition [Accepting]

2. What are your unpopular opinion(s) of the fandom you’re rping in?

// SW fans learn the difference between forcing something onto you, and someone just stating an opinion. You're not a bigger fan for preferring one version of the canon over another, and same thing goes to the lesser of a fan argument. And don't even get me started on the whole crusade about "morality in fiction". Nobody is more morally righteous for watching the latest shows, or not.

The holy grail that we call source material is nothing more than a, collection of answers to the questions you may have. Disney's SW and Legends' come with their own different sets of answers. Trying to intimidate someone from enjoying one thing, is such a low move. And to me it tells me that many people, likely feel SO insecure about their beliefs/HCs/takes. That they feel like they have to act this way, in an attempt to "protect" themselves.

As an adult that's approaching her 30s, I've been far more drawn towards the more mature version of SW. I haven't been getting the most satisfactory answers from the new canon, and as such, I'll keep turning to Legends. At the same time, I don't treat the old Legends stuff as the holy bible, it isn't. I don't like everything about it, in the same way I also enjoy some changes brought by the new canon.

3. What rp trends are you so over and can’t wait for it to die?

// Can we just go back to calling ourselves RP blogs? The whole shtick of 'This blog is a study of: X, Y, Z subjects that the RPer thinks it makes them look big brained for knowing uwu' doesn't look good, and imo it looks 1000x worse when the blog has little to no IC/character building done, and it is nothing but shitposts or generic aesthetics/musings.

It just makes the people behind those blogs come off as unnecessarily pompous. Especially when it is blatantly obvious, they don't know what they are talking about, because they are applying concepts/ideas wrongly in their fundamentals.

And I'm going to say it: anyone trying to pass that off as 'a joke' or how 'it wasn't meant to be taken seriously uwu' are just coping, because they likely realised how silly it all looks and sounds, but they convinced themselves this is better.

17. What are your opinions when someone makes negative posts constantly on their rp blog?

// I've had to deal with people like that many times in the past, and I've learned that it is best to just avoid those people. They are draining in every sense of the word, and my experience/time in communities has largerly improved, since I started filtering those people out.

To me, negativity can come in various forms.

There are obviously the people who are heavily tied to discourse, who are simply unable to drop a subject and move on, and they made hating a character/subject/part of a franchise's source material part of their personality. There are also people who overshare, every little bad thing that happened to them, and dump onto their mutuals/followers super personal shit that was never meant to be publicized. And they do that not out of malice in most cases, but because they are seeking out coddling and comfort in social media engagement (If anyone hits this point, they NEED to seek professional help.). And there are also people who are just unable to keep shit to themselves, or lack a circle of friends, to comment on every little thing others are doing. You know, the people who go 'oh ew. Imagine shipping/liking X Y stuff' or 'Oh what did I do? Why did I lose a follower? >:('. Now this is just vagueposting, which is targeting someone.

And before anyone tries to point fingers at me because, I support people doing whatever they want in their blogs. I also equally support people improving their online experience, and leave if they feel like they've had enough of something.

#[ rambles ] #thank you for the ask! #commandsir #this got long oops but aaaaaaaaa this was nice <3

[starswrit-archive]

update about how i’m going to be approaching rp and this blog from now on. it’s not imperative that you read it, but if you care, feel free.

i’ve taken a while to focus on writing for myself. i’ve encountered a lot of negativity and a propensity for cliques in the overall rpc in the last year, and it’s made me doubt not just whether i’m a person worth getting to know, but whether my writing/characters are even decent. 

i’m over that. i’m going to be a lot more selective from now on about who i follow and who i approach, because i need to make a safe space before i reach the point where i’m burned out on rp all together. i’m tired of feeling like i’m not good enough, like i’m being left out, like i’m only being included for brownie points with someone else, or like people would rather ship their muse with a literal rock than with one of mine. 

as far as writing, i feel rejuvenated. i haven’t felt this sort of inspiration in a long time, and i’d been allowing the atmosphere on tumblr to stifle it. i’m keeping certain aspects of my writing or my characters away from this blog for the moment, because i don’t want to lose it. i finally enjoy writing and creating headcanons and detailed narratives again.

i want that to be a part of this blog, but i don’t know if it can be. i hope so. i’m going to try to reach that place. 

if you ever feel alone or like no one wants to write with you or that no one will ever ship with you, please know you can talk to me. because no one deserves to feel that way, and if i can help someone else feel more happy/excited about their writing and rp, i’d love to do that.

hope everyone is well.

#( just a tiny update ) #( it's not necessarily important but ) #( i wanted to put it out there ) #( i hate feeling like i need to change the way i've approached rp but ) #( i need to for my own sanity ) #ooc┊▸ re: post

[itmightbeneb]

Having more C!Dream sympathetic characters is a good thing actually

/dsmp/rp

Ok so I want to prefice this by saying that this argument works even if you believe dream to be pure evil and entirely unsympathetic/irredeemable/whatever.

I, personally, do not believe this, but that doesn't matter. I'm just trying to offer an argument for the people who do believe this. I'm not gonna change your mind on the nature of one character, but I dislike how *some* of yall are treating the newer members of the server when they ask why dream is in prison/say more sympathetic things about him.

Ok so let's think of storytelling. We all want more lore streams, right? I'm going to assume yall want stuff™ to actually happen on the server, and with the way the server is at the moment, the majority of stuff happens in lore streams.

Lore streams themselves are a progression of the plot, they're used to move the plot of the roleplay further.

But what is plot? Basically, when writers/roleplayers create plot they're creating conflict, they're creating people with opposing opinions or internal conflicts. No good plot happens without some kind of conflict. Your favourite romance? Should I tell him I like him or not? Can we be together if our families hate each other? Feel good family movie? The kid feels down and feels out of place, that's a form of conflict!

Back to DSMP. Now the Dream SMP has much bigger conflicts than "should I tell him I like him" but, like all good plots, it is made from these conflicts (I've written that word so much it doesn't sound like a real word anymore, it's that important in storytelling!).

If we have some characters who are more sympathetic to Dream, even if he is the irredeemable bastard who some people say he is, then that will create conflict because there are people on the server who don't want the new members to feel this way. There are characters who believe that he should stay in prison forever, and that the new guys shouldn't be asking all these questions about him. Now if these new guys decide to go with the sympathetic to Dream approach, then they're going to have conflict with Sam and Quackity (for example). Where there's conflict there's plot, and an excuse for a lore stream. We can see people questioning the prison and its consequences, we get streams and content!

(also in my opinion its boring if everyone agrees instantly that dream is evil and bad, if someone starts sympathetic to him and then turns against him that's more plot for me to enjoy)

tldr: if we want lore streams we can't have every character agrees with the status quo, we need disagreement and conflict for plot and therefore lore streams.

#dsmp #mcyt #dream smp #dreamwastaken #dreblr #NebWrites

[thesaltminesrph]

😳 lately I've seen a lot of people get really aggressive over critique they asked for and it makes me really hesitant to offer any even if they reblogged a meme or made a post asking for it. I don't want to if you're going to bite my head off, it's something you asked for. How do you approach this?

Sorry, you’ll have to forgive me- I’m getting flashbacks to when a I witnessed a blog that had received multiple feedback messages and answered anything that was remotely in disagreement (while being super polite and offering other options) as “being yelled at”, “negative”, “hateful”, etc. and just all sorts of temper tantrum over requested feedback and I needed to stop so I didn’t murder anyone before I wrote this up. Because that shit is SO fucking rude.

If you have requested feedback, and you are receiving legitimate concrit- as in you’re getting feedback you asked for, it’s framed in a way that makes it clear you’re just taking issue with certain points and what could possibly be done to fix them, then my guy, you have exactly -2 legs to stand on. Take your shit attitude, pack it up, and never ask for feedback ever fucking again because clearly you were not made to handle the slightest criticism. Grow some skin, you appear to be waltzing around in just exposed nerves and muscles everywhere. Then come back to the internet and join the rest of us adults. And if you can’t do that, continue to touch grass and stay the hell away, there’s enough jerks around here.

As for what you can do? You’re not going to like my suggestion. Or maybe you will and you just needed to feel like it was a valid take, what do I know. Never interact with them again. Unfollow, block, etc. This already sounds like someone that will just take issue with the slightest perceived affront, so honestly, this is one of the few times I say just block and don’t even go into why. This is a person too far stuck with their head in the sand to notice that you saying why you’re unfollowing is for them to know why and maybe change their behavior for the better. They will instead label you as a “hater” and victimize themself, if not take more drastic measures like start a callout over their butthurt. Please, do yourself a favor, unfollow, and find nicer rp partners. You truly deserve better than getting chewed out for offering help that was asked for.

#moderate your salt: mod post #high sodium content: major salt post #pass the salt please: ask post #anonymous

[ironforgedrp]

Hi! I'm a (hopefully) first time admin and I've got everything ready to go and set up but I'm really nervous that it won't get off the ground, and you guys have been open for so long do you have any tips for me how to make my RP be as successful as yours? It looks like such a good place, I hope it's not weird to ask this

        hi there friend,  thank-you so much for your compliments, and don’t stress… i’m happy to offer some advice, i’m no expert whatsoever but i’ve run a few roleplays over the past decade or so.    the key note firstly is to think of your RP as your kind of group ersatz family, as the admin you’re the head of that family.   you keep everyone on course, you’re the gatekeeper and it’s your standards that set the tone for what happens in your family’s house.  and i first want to tell you honestly that it is a little bit of a responsibility; you have to be willing to sort out problems, make decisions, mediate, diffuse and sometimes be on the receiving end of anon hate or the occasional jaded RPer, you have to be motivated and encouraging and dedicated -  but if you are, the people who you write and create with will give it back to you tenfold & it will never become a drag.    i hope this helps you a bit!

decide if you want a co-admin or you think you can handle it yourself - i personally have done solo-adminning, lead admin with moderators & co-adminned with up to four people. though i’ve found that, if you want to work with a team of mods/admins, having an odd number can be really helpful as you’re never tied.  also, if you decide to bring in a co-admin or moderator, have a clear idea of how you want to operate as a roleplay and what you expect of them as admins, and whether or not they have an equal say as you, the creator of the roleplay.  if they do, make that clear and if they don’t, make it clear what things you need to have a look over and what things they are able to handle alone (i.e. asks, applications, major plot changes).   honestly, the worst thing that can happen is if you’re not on the same page because it confuses you, them and your muns.

don’t jump the gun, patience is key.  if you’re hoping to have a long running roleplay then i would expect at least a month of work to be put into it before it’s trotted out, but it sounds like you’re already ready to go. make sure, before you open for activity, you have enough muns & characters to get the roleplay off to a healthy start and have the dash reasonably active.

set rules that are clear, but don’t be a dictator - make sure you have expressed clearly what your rules of conduct are (such as dash conduct, mun age restrictions [if any], activity standards, god-modding, banned/acceptable faceclaims, etc.)

set up an ads blog, and queue ads to post semi-regularly with varied but relevant tags and an eye-catching graphic &/or summary of your roleplay

set up a discord server or another way for your muns to communicate and plot OOC, it really helps muse and communication and also can be a fantastic way to build plots with existing characters and muns.  and, lets be honest, it’s nice to be able to chat with the folks you’re writing with.

check in with everyone! make sure your muns are comfortable and happy and no one is falling by the wayside or being left out. also, it’s nice to make sure that your muns are alright personally - by no means pry, but be an open ear if someone needs to talk. you’d be surprised how many in the RPC are often too shy or anxious to admit to an admin that they need time for their mental health, work, study, etc. but if you make it clear from the beginning that you actually do care and are willing to help work with people it makes all the difference.

the most important to me: build rapport!!!   the best thing for your roleplay, as an admin, is to do your absolute best to be approachable and have a relationship with your muns. you obviously don’t have to be best friends with everyone and talk every day, but believe me, what makes a roleplay last is the community you build behind it. i love having made such talented and varied friends in ironforged - we have voice chats and some of us facetime and/or text, we watch tv shows together and even help each other out with anything from personal problems to university assignments.  our community is  what helps us withstand all the trials and tribulations, and it’s what has given our roleplay such fantastic plot drops and progressions.  the main point is, from the get-go, make sure your muns know that your DMs are always open if they have questions, queries, rants, concerns, ideas… all of the above.

trigger warnings, which obviously depends on the genre you’re in but, i personally would suggest to offer your muns the ability to tell you what their triggers are privately and list them somewhere on the main blog for the other members to see.

embrace being an admin, and don’t get walked over. don’t forget that this is your roleplay, you created it and put the work in and no one (anon or not) can tell you how to run it. don’t be scared to call out people for breaking the rules, don’t be scared to issue warnings, don’t be scared to reject people if they haven’t read the rules or aren’t the right fit for your roleplay or make you uncomfortable, don’t be scared to say no.  it’s okay!

have open eyes, ears and mind; listen to feedback and concerns, hear out grievances and be willing to be polite even if people are being rude but don’t entertain pointless anon hate. speaking of anon hate… don’t turn off the anon ask option unless you honestly feel like it is the right route for you - it shuts off the ability for people to contact you whilst maintaining some anonymity and privacy, which can be discouraging.

crucial to any roleplay is the world-building, have a page with some key locations that are applicable to your roleplay (such as cafes, taverns, gyms, shops, housing locations), also i’ve honestly found that it helps setting the scene. consider where your roleplay is located (real place/fictional place) and make those details clear. paint the picture, immersion is a fantastic thing and it’s something both you and your muns can work on and collaborate on in the future. we have an inspo blog, pinterest boards, spotify playlists, youtube playlist, ambiance playlists, regional locations and business…. and a very colourful NPC list that has been collaborated and expanded upon throughout the life of ironforged.

have clear direction and at minimum a loose idea of where you want to go with your roleplay.  even if you don’t want to have a very plot driven roleplay (like ours is with plot drops, random events, character/mun interwoven plots - which requires a long-form type of roleplaying) and would rather have it open world (you set the scene, and everyone just goes with the flow - which can be both long or short form types of writing) - it is so important to have some tricks and surprises in your bag. the best and easiest is having a few muse-boosting tasks lined up, perhaps a group event to bring people together (a party, a fight, a ball, a wedding, etc.) otherwise, 8.5 times out of 10, you’ll find muse flatlining.  ask your muns! ask other rps! make a poll! hit up the RPC tags and roleplay helper blogs!

the finer details; pick a timezone to mark the roleplay with (eg; here i post in AEST on the roleplay because i am australian and it’s easy for me to queue and schedule things) but it’s crucial to ensure you include the timezone equivalent for other people in other timezones to be able to quickly understand (eg; AEST = GMT+10). you can always link an external timezone converter page if you’re unsure!

and, of course, be organised. make sure you have your pages set up and linked properly. the main that come to my mind to start off with are; navigation, plot, taken FCs, IC & OOC rules, a masterlist, blogroll/follow list, application/application page, application counts, ask & submit are open and an ooc page.

         and LASTLY,  this is my personal advice from one admin to another; if you really want a roleplay to work and you really want it to last for (hopefully) years, then you have to put some heart into it.  our roleplay, as a group, has seen some bad times and good times galore. we’ve had people become seriously ill, we’ve had engagements and weddings, graduations, a fair few birthdays, hospital trips/emergencies, international internships, personal problems, personal triumphs…  our communication as a roleplay isn’t always perfect, but we continue to do our best - and working on our communication is what allows us to keep going on through everything.

         also, as an admin, do your best to make sure you are not the most powerful character and not center of all the roleplays controversy, drama and plot drops (if applicable), it’s become a kiss of death cliche, and also can alienate potential muns because they feel like background players to your show.    but seriously, involve everyone and give a shout out for peoples interest, and the ideas that come flowing back from your muns will amaze you, trust me!

       best of luck!    admin tee.

#rpc #rph #rpa #rpcha #admin help #;; geajhdsb pEOple wanna know my opINON???? im touched but im trash water u doin here folks #Anonymous

[rpbetter]

Hi Vespertine. Can you offer some advice on how to RP a character that a lot of people think I shouldn't be RPing? I've wanted to RP Hans Landa for years, I like how cunning he is and how he could react to other ideals, how he could grow, especially in modern settings where he would stick out a lot. But I'm afraid because of how people react to muses like him. How do I build up confidence? How do I keep RPing if people bother or threaten to report me? Would people even RP with me? Thank you.

Alright, first thing, I've apologized on the blog already, apologized to people before you, but like I keep saying: it's really important to specifically apologize to individuals when we do something lame like I have. I did not intend to leave the blog unattended for months, but I did. This is an important question, it's right up the alley of why I created this blog, and I left you hanging. I'm deeply sorry, and I hope that my serious delay did not cause you any further worries or to give up on your character/RP!

Okay, we can proceed now!

I'll confess, I seriously spaced on who Hans Landa was for a moment there, but quickly remembered upon Googling! He was an interesting character, and I love that movie! However, I definitely see why you're worried, Anon.

Up until the last decade, taking up a character who was villainous, yes, even a Nazi, was a mark of creative gumption. Almost everyone had a verse for their muse that today would get them anon hate, callouts, reported, and so on. You know what? We had far less drama then. So, I'm not at all in the camp of demonizing your choices, or anyone else's. I saw what worked for a more peaceful RPC for decades and I've seen what is a total nightmare on tumblr.

Unfortunately, it is a total nightmare. So, let's see what you might be looking at, what your options are.

Firstly, you have the right idea; this is a character that appeals to you creatively, and that's really all that should matter. You've got ideas, you want to see your muse grow and change through interactions, and that's very much what the whole RPC needs to be a little more interested in.

I think, based on that alone, you would find people who wanted to write with you. There are quite a few muns out there dying for more interesting interactions with muses who have been taken up because the other mun really wants to write and develop them. Especially in the multi-para and novella communities. It's a bit of bane over there, the way the majority of muses are picked purely to satisfy a fleeting interest in a fandom. They don't come across as the characters they are in canon, are never given the opportunity to develop uniquely, they just exist to fulfill the mun's intense interest that will be gone soon. That works wonderfully and happily for some, but there really are a lot of muns out there who are interested in different approaches.

I will also say that most longer multi-para and novella RPers are less supportive of callout culture and content policing. When the very way that you enjoy RP is easily considered problematic on the grounds that you take it too seriously because you're invested in it, you tend to be against labeling others and giving them a hard time. That portion of the RPC, additionally, tends to be made up of older adults. The RPC kind of despises anyone over 25 who is still RPing, and I think a decent part of that is...this. We don't usually go in on equating fiction to reality, thinking that muse=mun, or that "problematic" material needs to be driven into the darkest void for communal safety. A great deal of that is because we lived through multiple fandom experiences being obliterated by these sorts of ideas, we know this is all detrimental to the community, and are more interested in a live and let live mentality even if we are disturbed by someone's muse or writing topics.

You may wish to specifically seek out RPers who are serious veterans (around for 10+ years), multi-para to novella writers, and/or have things in their rules that imply toleration and support for dark topics, villain muses, etc. (I know I have it in my rules that minors shouldn't interact with this blog due both its content and my age, but I can't exactly verify that with an anonymous message! So, Anon, please be aware I am giving this advice as though you are legally an adult.) Seek out muns who have muses that could also be considered "problematic" or who interact with muses who could be.

Remain away from anyone participating in or supportive of callout culture and purity policing. I know that can be difficult and limiting, and it is also not a 100% safe bet that you will be avoiding problems, but at least you'll know right off that these are not your people. That includes the ever-present callouts that claim the poster "never does this," that the mun being called out is just that much of a danger, and/or those dealing in the major callout-laden muns in your corner of the community. You might agree that one or two of those muns is a legitimate problem, but it's too likely that these people are going to feel like you are too.

Know that you will, inevitably, be called worse than just a "villain apologist." I write a muse that I wanted to write for years as well, and refrained from writing for so long because of the fandom's ideas about them. However, I have never been so happy with any muse choice, it's worth it to me to have some random hatefulness sometimes. I know I'm not a horrible person, the people who matter to me on and offline know that I am not, it doesn't actually matter what someone on tumblr thinks. It doesn't matter what they think about you either, they don't know you and won't give you the opportunity to be known, so pfft to them!

It can still be a little disheartening to hear some of the especially hateful things. While my muse isn't like Hans, the comparison to that is often made. There are a lot of assumptions about my personal character, race, gender, political affiliation, and so on. I'm just going to say it: if you don't think you can handle someone randomly attacking you and labeling you as "actually a Nazi," a genocide supporter, school shooter, "white cishet republican," and so on, do not subject yourself to this. Just write with friends you know are on your side or write some fic where there is some distance and control.

I do not believe, after reviewing them again, that you would be violating tumblr's TOS by writing this muse. You would not be promoting racism, harm to others, or misleading information. Nor would you be harassing anyone. Does that mean no one will try to report you? No, unfortunately. I've gotten reported for politely disagreeing on a post and asking a question! The important thing is that nothing will happen.

I would still make it very clear that this character might be offensive to some. Seriously, I would say, "In the interest of sensitivity, please note that this muse might be offensive to some - do not interact if imagery or topics associated with historical Nazis will be triggering for you. Hans Landa is from the film 2009 Quentin Tarantino film Inglourious Basterds." Pop that into the top of a pinned post, your rules, and your blog's header statement.

Because even if tumblr wasn't a mess, it's still the most responsible thing to do to treat this sensitively. It is a sensitive matter! People should have every opportunity to be aware and make the best choice for them to interact or not.

People almost certainly will threaten to report and block. Particularly when you are still looking for writing partners and having to expose yourself to more of the community in order to do so. It'll get so much better when you start finding them, though, I promise! Once you find a good mun or two, you've kind of unlocked a pocket of potential. Those people who are more accepting, reasonable, and interested in writing and characters are naturally going to be interacting with other like-minded muns.

Finding a good base of partners might take you some time, but the good news is, the whole process will help you build up the confidence to keep writing. It helps you get in touch with both writing and the muse, what is really important to you as an RPer, and is what isn't. It feels shitty at the time, but in the end, it builds a lot of confidence in yourself, and when you pull confidence from within you, you're never totally without it again!

When you're looking for those people (I'd additionally suggest historical RPers, if there is any existent community for the movie still, and branching out to fandoms that have "problematic" characters in them that you could do crossovers with in modern settings etc.), you can still be writing and developing your muse. Write up headcanons, fleshout the character's backstory, make multiple verses so that you have many options ready to go, do some one-shots.

A great way to do that is to find memes or traditional writing questions specifically for character development, but don't wait for someone to ask you! Go down the meme/list, pick some questions that spark your interest, and base your HC posts on them. Answer questions you immediately have answers to, answer the really hard ones you have no clue about. You don't know until you develop it, after all!

It helps with confidence so much to feel confident about your writing and comfortable with the character. It'll also help non-judgemental RPers who come across your blog or want to follow you back to see your writing and interest in the muse. I know that there are muses I was not interested in from their canon, but seeing the mun's love for them and how they had uniquely developed them, I had to interact!

When you do receive the almost inevitable anon hate, I'm going to suggest something a bit radical here; the idea of not feeding the trolls doesn't always work. That's predicated upon people not already receiving a reward for sending that hate to you. You can't starve what has already eaten lunch! I've found that demonstrating that they're not getting to you is more effective, in all, incredibly controversial honesty.

Put in your rules that anon hate will be addressed only with something like...a gif of a rabbit, a random fact, or a link to a song you recommend. Then, you do exactly that. You get a message calling you derogatory things, but instead of deleting it or going off about it in a way they can just use, you respond with a picture of a bunny cleaning its ears. Block the anon after.

This, again, in all honesty, is a confidence booster. Sometimes, building confidence is about projecting it first. You are projecting an aura of non-hostile confidence that you're not any of those negative things in reality, nor is your life ruined by people who haven't anything better to do with their own lives than bother you as performative "activism" online. It's alright if it really does bother you at first! Eventually, it won't. Eventually, you'll be left in peace with the reasonable muns you've found.

You will find them! There are still muns out there who feel like the most important factors in RP are engaging muses and writing, and how the mun is truly conducting themselves. If that mun is a genuinely decent person who isn't starting problems, harassing people, forcing anything on anyone, that's what matters! Just put your muse out there in a thoughtful way around people who are interested in writing. Be respectful of the sensitive nature of the subject, tag liberally and correctly.

No matter what tumblr's RPC says, you do have the right to write any muse or topic you so desire. People also have the right to not interact, of course, but since you're concerned about it (and truly, the person who is most likely to be made uncomfortable on here), I highly doubt you'll be trying to force interactions or anything.

Unfortunately, when you write any, even vaguely, problematic muse here, you are held to higher standards. You are obliged to be ten times nicer in the face of hatefulness, to be more aware of tagging and other warnings, and so on. It's kind of a practice in acceptance, and it can be frustrating. Again, if the muse is worth it to you, it'll be fine. Just know that you'll need to not be reactive to nastiness, very responsible in how you present yourself in all ways, and that it still won't be enough for some people. And know that's alright as well! They're making a choice to be hostile without knowing you or employing the adult maturity to just not interact with you, not you.

I know it's very easy to say "don't let people get to you." Perhaps especially from someone who will openly say in the tumblr RPC in 2021 that it's 100% fine to write a Nazi muse lol but please know that my confidence was not naturally occurring. It was developed across years of nonsense, and much of it offline, in person. So, I'm not flippantly advising you to have a level of fortitude out of nowhere! I'm honestly telling you that it is a process, but I think that if you want something bad enough to stick to it through the hardest part of it, you kind of expedite that process. It makes it a bit easier if you're still enjoying yourself!

So, on that note, my additional advice is to have another muse or other hobby you can enjoy during the difficult patches, or even slow times before you establish a good group of writing partners. Do things that will keep you feeling positive and motivated to write. That looks different for everyone, but I'm certain you have something. If that does happen to be another muse, or muses, I would strongly suggest you keep it to yourself that you are the mun of this one until you get rolling. While you have exactly nothing to be ashamed of, don't tempt ruining your fun on the other blog(s) until you are established on the new one and confident about it.

If you ever need to vent or further advice, I'm not going to vanish or anything again! Drop by any time you need to, Anon. Sometimes it goes a long way knowing that even a single person out there supports you!

I hope this helped a little, and I do support you! I think you've got this!

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[avoresmith]

Alright, so I've scrolled back and still can't figure out what it stands for... so what is FFAK? I have a need to know.

!!!! Feast for a King! Which you can find at @feastforaking

I realize I’ve never done a proper advertisement post for this comic yet, just blathered about it excitably, so let me do that now.

REASONS YOU SHOULD READ FFAK

Because you are a good person and you deserve nice things in your life

Because it has a shitload of trans, NB, queer, gay, etc et every possible iteration of ‘not cishet’ you can possibly think of, some you probably haven’t ever thought of.

Seriously have you ever been like ‘it sure would be nice if there was a canon where all of the characters were as casually queer as people are casually cishet in literally every other canon ever’? GOOD NEWS. GO READ FFAK.

That said, FFAK isn’t set in our universe, so you have a number of different races! Each of which address gender, sexuality, power dynamics, birth, children, death, and many other things in very different ways!

Seriously have you ever been like ‘it’s kind of annoying that in fantasy/sci-fi all non-human races function on heteronormativity and gender binary?’ GOOD NEWS. GO READ FFAK.

It updates a LOT, usually a few pages every day

It really isn’t here to educate you, which I think is kind of novel and rare to see in a lot of work that still has a lot to SAY about many issues we care about. It’s much more an exploration of many different things, from unrepentant taboo kinks to race dynamics to gender fluidity. I’m not sure there ARE any purely good people in this canon, just a lot of people of various degrees of selfish, empathic, try hard, manipulative, etc navigating their complex universe and equally complex personhoods.

If you care at all about story construction/how web comics are put together in terms of direction and narrative and pacing and such, it is just a FANTASTIC study, because it throws so much conventional wisdom out the window and works far more often than it does not. If you are like me and have spent days or MONTHS trying to figure out ‘the best way to do comics’ you fucking need to read FFAK just to see something else challenging the conventional perspective.

SHIT YOU SHOULD KNOW GOING INTO FFAK

FFAK does ‘suffer’ from what I sort of consider like, epic story starter syndrome, where the initial thrust of the story can be kind of difficult to get through. There are a LOT of manga that I love where I found the first four volumes the least enjoyable part of the story on my first read through, but when I am familiar with the canon I like them a LOT because there was a lot of interesting leads about characters and plot and world building in there that I am eager to pick up once I’m invested. 

But anyway, the first four chapters stay mostly with two characters for a very long time and I think if you are going to try it and decide it’s not for you, it will be in this part because these two characters don’t personally excite you a lot. GO THRU ANYWAY. IF YOU STOP BEFORE YOU GET TO CRIMSON YOU WILL HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU’RE GIVING UP ON. (By the time you get to crimson you’ll have also met two or three more delightful characters. *I* kept going because someone told me I’d love Fork, they were right).

Each page is done very quickly, so at the start of the comic the art is very messy. I found the first 20 or so pages kind of difficult to read but then you adjust to the style and also things get a lot cleaner, after that I really didn’t have any trouble with it. The artist does pages quickly but takes a lot of time with emotion and expression and action so I feel like in FFAK you get so much more from each character than most web comics will give you.

When I say ‘throws conventional wisdom to the wind’ part of what i mean there is ‘may have 9 one panel pages on a single joke’ and ‘may put 9 panels of a character slowly changing expression on one page’. I honestly think it works really well because you click through quickly, most pages ‘read’ very easily. But yea there are like THOUSANDS of pages in this comic. I think a couple hundred new pages at least are produced every month.

It has a lot of unapologetic sexual exploration, of everything from humiliation power play to crazy alien superviolence sexy to period sex. So while the sex is not what I would consider objectifying/exploitative, you are gonna see breasts, dicks, vaginas, and fucking. Some of that fucking is going to involve um. open wounds. 

I kind of feel like the context of the sex is such that I’m not really sure how to warn for it because like look i’ve SEEN VIOLENCE HENTAI and this isn’t… that? But there is undeniably a combination of both sex and severe bodily injury so. Go in wary! if that bothers you!

I FUCKING LOVE FFAK.

It is straight up, non-hyperbolically, one of the best things about 2k16 for me. It’s helped me completely rethink how I approach story and web comics and I just think it’s such a GOOD THING without being ‘pure’. It represents a complicated and ugly world full of characters who you can at once empathize with and recognize them for being truly terrible. It approaches webcomic writing the way I approach fanfic and RP, by being utterly ready to slow down and appreciate what it is most excited about; the characters and their personal complexities, their relationship dynamics, and how they also interact with their place the larger universe. You can tell the author isn’t wasting her time with anything he doesn’t care about because I am also only being shown things that are exciting and relevant. Even if we spend 100 pages on that.

Also FFAK made me realize I’m agender and I hate pronouns =D Which was neat, ngl.And if YOU dear reader decide you like Feast for a King, might I suggest supporting the author on Patreon? (=

#asks #av responds #ffak #feast for a king #you should also reblog this #so OTHER people read ffak #i don't actually know if this post is effective at what i am trying to do #i tend to mostly get people into my canons by wearing them down #crashing against them as the ocean does the cliffs #my salesman skills are minimal #Anonymous