niankhsekhmet

Since this topic has come up among a few of my friends, I thought I would comment. It seems that it has gone on for a little while. Rather than sit on my hands, I am just going to let things fall where they will. Please note that nothing in this post is about anyone specifically, it is just a general commentary and needs to be iterated.

Many of you know that I have been writing and roleplaying for many years. I cut my teeth on the now-defuct site, Ancient Sites, which has evolved into Ancient Worlds. Now, before Ancient Worlds came into being, all those people who were without a home needed a place to be. This led my writing partners, Dan Rice, Sydney Longfellow, Ki Longfellow and I start Pan Historia. Pan Historia has a sister site, Pan Erotica. The latter is not a porn site. And, like it's elder-sister site, Pan Historia, it is focused mainly on writing and roleplay.PE is just more writing and roleplay that goes in a more mature direction. It is writing focused, RP is just part of what happens because in either of them, the format is toward "novels". Communication is absolutely key. And you have to have alot of good communication to make that sort of thing work. If you don't you're screwed. Suffice it to say I've been doing all of this stuff for a very long time.

Many of you also know that I am the mun (writer) for

fannyfae, who has been in the LJ community

theatrical_muse, amongst others. Fanny has been a character of mine since back at the very inception of Pan Historia - since 1999. That is a long time to be writing any character. Over time she has evolved.

No character, unless they are a Sue or are incredibly boring can go through their literary life and not change some. I will be rewriting and reformatting a great deal of material for Fanny for NaNoWriMo. This muse wants to be a book and by God, she is going to be! She has roleplayed with many. She isnt the only character I do roleplay by any stretch of the imagination. I think last count over on the Pan sites, I have in excess of about 28 characters which are all active in about a dozen novels. Unfortunately, due to real life events this past month has seen me get behind not only on the groups on LJ, but also on Pan Historia. That just isn't a way to run a business. I know that. I also have a straight gig (job) and a son, a priesthood in a temple that I am very dedicated to, herbal clients that I serve and a home. In short, I have a life outside of writing and roleplay. Sometimes those things will take precedence. It isn't an excuse, it's a fact.

Re: Roleplay

Unless you are actively roleplaying with another person, I fail to see the need to ask other people how they roleplay. There are no needs for polls, or lengthy discussions about it. Who gives a flying goddamn what anyone else's opinion is if you have worked it out with your writing partners? And if you have not worked it out with your writing partners, and you don't communicate with them you have got absolutely NO ONE to blame but yourself for any issues that arise. Before you even write one joint-post, storyline, RP or etc. with that person, talk about whether they are plot-centric or character-centric in their writing. Ask them if they do use AIM or any other chat client such as IRC, or email, etc what their preferences are about description, action, whether or not they are comfortable with writing smut together and how they feel about story elements. Is plot open ended? Or is even what is discussed in AIM chat, for example, which most people will consider "meta" or OOC (Out of Character) and not set in stone as an absolute. If you think it is an absolute and get your panties in a twist, then talk to your writing partner. If you don't, again, it is *your stuff* so you are just gonna have to deal. If you are slow with threads, for crying out loud, tell your writing partner. Don't let them find out later that you have life issues going on or they may think you have the attention span of a gnat. Who needs that on either side of the equation?

Muses and their writers are free to change their minds. We have all had characters go silent or extremely noisy on us, or freak out about things that would't have made we the writer ever think twice. Those characters (and writers) who were once just passing friends, can develop very intense and prolific friendships where the muses just go nuts over each other and then those things can later cool. It isn't personal. It's just the nature of writing. As a writer, I can change a story element a dozen times or more. When I write for my character or muse, I really don't consider too much what anyone else is doing. Why should I? My creative outlet has absolutely nothing to do with anyone other than my character(s) and their story. Does that mean that they are less valuable, especially as an OC (original character) or should be taken less seriously? Well, if that were true, there sure as hell would be very little available in the bookstores. There would be pretty abysmal offerings in the fiction sections of the world if that were true. Frankly, again, my characters are mine and no one but me is going to decide what is canon. Period. Point. End of discussion.

Bottom line, I am a writer. I will write my character and their storylines as I see fit. I won't be taking polls, I won't be belabouring the point with anyone about what I choose to do with my storylines or my characters. I don't goddamn care and there isn't a writer on the planet who is serious about writing that says that I have to. I won't pay the slighest bit of attention to any of that, unless of course, I have a writing partner or partners, and we have sort of gone back in forth in email, for example, about what we might like to do with our characters in a shared storyline. If one or the others of us disagrees on how to handle something, we usually speak up and then negotiations continue. It isn't rocket science, it isn't an exercise in intense international negotiations - although some of the writers I write with are in other countries, btw. Sometimes misunderstandings can be as much cultural as they are anything else. The key, again is communication.

Hey, sometimes I screw up. I fully confess that. Sometimes I am Captain Oblivious and what I do might offend or squick or just make someone uneasy. When that happens it needs I need to be told. I would like to thank especially some people who have been absolutely wonderful in the RP department. First of all Dan Rice, my business partner over at Pan Historia. He writes a very wonderful King Nuada over there, along with Red King and Wyatt Earp, and we have been having a lot of fun as of late with Midnight People and Tombstone. :) That particular bit of fun has been going on literally for years. I would also like to thank

jessierarr, the writer of

allfor_one (Athos) and

ursa_mater who writes for

all_forme (Rochefort).

bella_louve's and

captainbarbossa's amasing mun,

wiccabuffy who writes for

immortalmcleod and Milady deWinter,

nicolaskokoris, and of course,

civ_barbarian (Hsu Danmei). You all have helped me push the envelope about what good writing is, and I haven't a single complaint about anything, other than we never get enough time to write together it seems like. :)

Anyway, that is my rant and I am sticking to it. /rant mode off.