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+--- Thread: A Message To Those Thinking About Switching Characters (/showthread.php?tid=5233)
A Message To Those Thinking About Switching Characters - Omni - 09-26-2016
There will ALWAYS be a newer, more exciting character who is cooler, funnier, with better powers, and so much easier to write as.
The more you switch, the worse it gets. Because the only thing that will ever make a character feel yours is when you invest a lot of time into them. When the history is there. Like a relationship, it changes. Maybe you're not posting every single day. But the posts you do make matter more. They have the context of all those stories that came before.
And of course writing becomes a challenge. You have to keep that history in mind at all times. The relationships they've made - both player and non. With a new character, you get to be free of that history - everything is open and nothing is off limits. I get it.
But if you continually switch you will never push past that plateau of the veteran character, and you will never grow as a writer.
Like a relationship, sometimes a character is just wrong for you. But unlike a relationship,YOU picked the character and crafted them for yourself. And if you took the time to do that, then you must have been in love with them at some point. You must have imagined the potential and history, what it would be like when they hit Tier 3. So when people say "I've run out of ideas, I can't write as this character anymore", what I hear is:
"I've hit a wall. It's become harder to write as this character."
A lot of people genuinely think that they're doing the right thing when they switch. That's why I'm writing this. On a site like this where you can be literally any character, the temptation to switch is huge. Every time a new show comes out, or you see a new movie or a new game where the character is badass, it's natural to think "they'd be cool as a character". But switching is harmful to the site as well. The more you switch, the less history and intrigue there is among the player characters. When you join a site and you see that #1 power-player, that's fascinating. How did they get there? How was the character changed over time? They are part of the story now. That is one of the coolest facets to a PbP RPG, IMO.
And there's one thing all the very top players have in common: they didn't switch.
My advice as a very long-term roleplayer who's switched away from Samus and decided she was too hard to write several times before the Omniverse: Make it work. You'll be fine.
... Unless the character you picked was a gimmick novelty choice to begin with, like the character of a webcomic. Then you should fucking switch and put more thought into your new character this time. :pac:
Amaterasu's Guide to Keeping your Character
RE: A Message To Those Thinking About Switching Characters - Thaal Sinestro - 09-26-2016
One of the best things about the Omniverse is that it's totally uncharted ground. You can forge forward, taking the parts of the character that you like, and leave the rest behind. People, and characters, grow and change when their life changes. What's a bigger change than the Omniverse?
There're a million catalysts for major change in the Omniverse. You can run into ideas, tools, technologies, or people that can complete change the way your character sees the world. Maybe Harley Quinn gets addicted to MEga Mushrooms from Super Mario, digging through the lower levels of Corruscant for their next fix. Who helps get them out of that hole? Who digs it deeper? How is her relationship with the (now absent) Joker playing into this? WHAT'S THE NEXT PAGE IN THIS CRAZY WORLD!?!
To be a good character writer, you gotta dig into the meat of that character and mix stuff up. Move it around. Get messy. I'm still working on long-term character changes for Sinestro. There's always more guts to play with.
RE: A Message To Those Thinking About Switching Characters - Trixie - 09-27-2016
I support this. Take the time to create a backstory and a full fledged personality for your character and just go forward. Build something from the ground up either by writing aforementioned history or just starting in the Nexus and making lore as you go. Having a character that you've spent years on is the best feeling in the world. To this day I miss writing Vad. However for now he is on the shelf with my saved roleplays and collaborations with my friends, because my current brain child is Trixie. I spend so much time in the mind-theatre hashing out Trixie as a person and imagining stories and missions during the time line I've established for her history.
Stick it out. It's worth it.
RE: A Message To Those Thinking About Switching Characters - Asriel Dreemurr - 09-27-2016
I'm totally with ya, Omni! I love writing as Glory a lot more than I did Sackboy or Shrek but a part of me senses missed opportunity with those two.
The only way I would ever, ever switch again is if I hit level 20 with my characters.
RE: A Message To Those Thinking About Switching Characters - Blink - 09-27-2016
I completely agree with what Greg is saying here, but I just want to note that sometimes switching characters is good. You should put a LOT of thought into it before you pull the trigger, and you should give your current character multiple chances. Use the character switch carefully, but don't be afraid of it.
RE: A Message To Those Thinking About Switching Characters - 2B - 09-27-2016
Quote:But if you continually switch you will never push past that plateau of the veteran character, and you will never grow as a writer.
While I agree with the majority of the post, I also feel that the above statement is not necessarily true, for sticking with a character is hardly the one and single way to grow as a writer. What it does mean however, is that the characters won't grow, if you keep swapping them away.
You, as a writer, however?
You can grow a lot from simply swapping characters.
As someone who has made multiple swaps and has contemplated more swaps than one could possibly even imagine, I can say this:
You can learn a lot from swapping, and/or contemplating swaps. You can grow from them. And you can grow more than just as a writer; You can learn a lot about yourself along with it.
Across my swaps, I have learned a lot about myself as a writer, and grown with each discovery.
For example; when I was swapping away Arturia, and went through dozens of options for characters for swapping; I eventually reached the despair of "Maybe there is just no fitting character for me."
But at that dark hour, I made a decision; I would not give up, if I learned something from each character draft.
Once I would stop learning something from each draft of character? Then, then I would give up.
Then it would be pointless to continue, for there was nothing learned, and my time was wasted.
And with each draft, I learned more about myself especially as a writer. And it was only through those discoveries that I made the breakthrough of finding a character for me; Ahri.
So, in my opinion, the statement that you will never grow as a writer if you do not stick with a character, is blatantly wrong, even if a lot of the post is agreeable.
RE: A Message To Those Thinking About Switching Characters - Omni - 09-27-2016
Take any time I say "never" or "always" with a spoonful of hyperbole
