Do any of you roleplay alongside writing fanfic?

[DictionaryWrites]

I recently started a new blog in the independent roleplaying community on Tumblr that's compliant with a HP AU of mine, and it just got me wondering if many people writing on here are also roleplayers!

Those of you who do roleplay: do you think it helps with writing skills as a whole, or do you think it's more of a separate, similar hobby?

[scooterbug8515]

Oh!  I am a RPer through and through.  I think it has been a huge source of helping me as a writer.  It helps keep me in the habit of writing on a daily basis.  When I don't have an active story idea, I am doing something active in an RP community.  Most of my posts are 400-800 words long.  Not only does RPing help me keep writing daily, it is a way to exercise character-driven stories, and in many ways, it pushes you to think of dialogue in your writing as well or communicating actions beyond simple thoughts.  Also, it works conversely teaching you to include inner character thoughts to buffer your actions and dialogue.  

I know for me, RPing has helped me learn to be wordier as it were to give more depth to my writing - that came from being on a site that had a minimum word count.  Back in my early days of writing, my RP posts were 100-200 words and my short stories/chapters were maybe 1,000 words.  This isn't much in the craft of telling a story unless you are aiming for a drabble.  I joined an RP site that had a word count minimum of 400 words, and it taught me to slow down, think, stretch out my words so that I gave substance to my posts.  Before long 400 words became such a habit for me so that I don't think about it.  As a result, my chapters have doubled and tripled in length.  I also feel like 400 words for a post is short and weak.

Also in my RPing experience, I've had the fortune of working with people who have challenged me to think.  When you only control half the story, that is being played out in RP sometimes you will be surprised by the actions of another character.  You know that if you were writing both characters what the scenario would be and yet the other writer went in a different direction making you think of a new way to look at things.  Additionally, some of these others writers will ask your character difficult questions.  One person, I wrote with had a habit of asking my characters 'what are your dreams and aspirations' 'what is a silly story from your childhood' and other similar type questions. That writer made me stop and think - what is the driving force behind the character I have created - what of their past, what do they hope for the future?  It is an interesting stretch.

Now I will say, that despite lauding RP as a great developer of my skills it is a different writing style, which can be habit-forming and difficult to break. Most RP's are done in 3rd person limited, and you sometimes drop proper grammar rules for the sake of post formatting.  I know when I write I have to rethink the voice of the story and think beyond my singular character and even have to consider that there is more than one character I am controlling, and thus don't need to focus solely on one mind.  As for grammar rules, generally speaking, lines of dialogue are the start of a new paragraph this is less the case in most RP pots I have seen.  I will have dialogue exposition, dialogue exposition new paragraph.  This shatters general rule of thumb, but RP posts work better this way than following basic rules.  (Example below)

Quote

Cody then looked down at his shirt and laughed a little. "Flour child, I like to go against the grain with my artistry. You know that." Honestly bread puns were the easiest thing in the world. He set down his beer on the counter behind him as he leaned against it and started to try and brush the flour off of his bright blue. It was not an easy process. "Damn, I might have to change shirts." He frowned a little at that. It was a comfortable shirt but it was his habit to make a mess while cooking so why would it not also extend to his own person?

While I know, it would not have been hard to do a double return just before the second line of dialogue and been grammatically correct, that isn't how posts tend to roll.  Posts are better read in paragraph chunks rather than multiple lines, and I think part of this is derived from the fact that in RP it isn't a straight line for exchanged line.  A writer will offer four lines of dialogue to you, and you have to address them cohesively and yet keep the flow.  In short, it is a different writing style than most books and narratives.  (Also paragraphs are more based on ideas/topics than by proper grammar in a post.  Like in the example, that paragraph was everything to do with the mention of the flour on Cody's shirt, while the previous paragraph had to do with vinegar and its use.)

However, despite issues with RPing, I will always laud and praise it and it is seriously a passion of mine that I would recommend it to any writer who needs/wants a challenge in writing or a way to stretch themselves as writers. (Also RP can be an amazing idea factory where you can learn about your characters for your stories too.)

[GotNoJamsss]

I used to RP all the time, but have gotten away from it.  I found it to be an incredibly helpful writer’s tool. Not just were you fully embodying characters and really getting into their motives and fears and how would they react - but you’re playing off of someone else’s emotions which is so quintessentially human. Sometimes I actually think of my own writing like that - like I’m playing chess against myself and spinning the board back and forth to respond for each character.

It’s easy to get lost in plot or in the necessary dialogue a character needs to say and forget how that specific character would say it - you know what I mean? When you’re fully devoted to a character you know whether they use contractions, if they’re someone who asks a lot of questions or if they simply nod along in a conversation - writing a full story independently means you’re doing that for each character which can be a bit overwhelming at times.