So You Want To Write...

[A Murder Of Corviknight]

Thank you this was super helpful

 

[Reigeckt]

You brought up alot of good points and gave me some more stuff to think about as far as how I use vampires, thanks!

 

[Grey]

If anyone is interested in supporting what I do here for as a little as a dollar a month, now you can.

 

[SkyGinge]

Was just catching up on this series now, most helpful stuff! I'm working on developing a post-apocalyptic world myself where said apocalypse is more of a social apocalypse than anything else. Wherein, media and culture and whatnot slowly evolve to turn society into this individualistic, selfish community which leads to people just doing whatever the hell they want as soon as things start to go wrong with resources and whatnot. And so the central theme is Integrity. What are people truly like? Is normal human nature right or wrong? And other such moral explorations. So you end up basically with three. The science facility made before the world went haywire, in which scientists are desperately searching for some kind of solution whilst also sheltering all the victims of the nearby villages within a gypsy-camp-like village within their security perimeters. The clergy, some who are corrupt, some who are not. And then the anarchists, who basically believe you should do whatever you want no matter what the limits in order to satisfy yourself and make yourself happy.


Aside from this I guess I was having a little trouble working out sub-themes and sub-plots other than 'protagonist goes to sucha place, has such background, ect.' So this will definitely help with thinking about other themes and such! This is a very handy guide, thanks, especially for thematic stuff, so muchos gracias for compiling it!


Also, this:

Everyone gets to write ‘white twentysomething struggling author grappling with relationships and adulthood’ once, but then you learn your lessons and move on to something worthwhile.

 

[InfiniteOtaku]

This is really awesome and will definitely help me out with writing things. Thank you for releasing this!

 

[Grey]

Sorry for the delays on the new entry folks. Life, you know how it is.


Religion entry this weekend. In the meantime, perhaps you'll enjoy my other work.

 

[Snowy Halation]

This is so good! Great help !

 

[Bone2pick]

Religion entry this weekend...

I'll certainly give that entry a good once over. I'm wondering just how far you'll try and reach with such a huge topic.


I'm roleplaying playing a monk atm who, in my estimation, is borderline religious. Her order doesn't worship a deity and they don't claim to have knowledge of an afterlife, but they have beliefs about how mankind should act. And they make claims about humanity's true nature.


Do you plan on covering beliefs on that side of the scale (less fantastical and divine)?

 

[Grey]

I'll certainly give that entry a good once over. I'm wondering just how far you'll try and reach with such a huge topic.
I'm roleplaying playing a monk atm who, in my estimation, is borderline religious. Her order doesn't worship a deity and they don't claim to have knowledge of an afterlife, but they have beliefs about how mankind should act. And they make claims about humanity's true nature.


Do you plan on covering beliefs on that side of the scale (less fantastical and divine)?

I mostly plan on covering the more mechanistic uses of religion - the ways in which it can be a useful narrative or world-building tool, rather than the different types of religion, but I see no reason not to add a section on non-specific spiritualist beliefs like a monastic order like that. That kind of monk is a bit of a roleplaying staple, after all, since D&D.

 

[Zenobia]

Thanks for the info, you're a rainbow around my never-ending thundercloud xD


...please mind the cheesiness

 

[Toivoajarakkaus]

This will help with a Vampire Roleplay I want to write. Thanks Grey! :wizardHappy:

 

[Grey]

New entry up. I am sorry it took so despicably long and is pretty mediocre. Next week will be better and then hopefully we'll be back on schedule.


I may also write a tutorial on the basics of system design over Xmas, since I see a lot of people trying to build their own lately.

 

[Grey]

Surprise entry on School RPs is up. Definitely the weakest of the lot. Sorry folks - maybe I'll add to it later.

 

[Aru]

These are all really helpful, thank you for taking your time to write them!

 

[Grey]

New entry up because I can't just sit staring at it wanting it to be perfect.


It isn't perfect, but I think it's one of the better ones and I spent a fair amount of research on it.

 

[Cirno]

On Demons:

I won’t talk too much about animist beliefs here - Japanese Shinto, the various beliefs of pre-colonial America of which I am wholly ignorant, pre-Christian Irish myth or the Slavic domovoi, the Dreamtime of Australia or the Celestial Bureaucracy, and no doubt more...

Definitely interested in these as well!

Efforts are made to classify the hierarchies of Heaven and Hell because the church in the West has a big stake in education and nerds will...

Yus.

This is the origin of goetia, the invocation of demons (and sometimes angels) to work magic.

Lightbulb moment of understanding. I've no religious background but would be interested in studying it as one might study the spread and classification of fairy tales. This was very parseable for someone like me, who only read a portion of the Bible for English Lit.
Holy shit, how much research went into this? Thank you, Grey!

 

[Grey]

You're welcome, Cirno.


Less than you might think, honestly. It became apparent I could probably squeeze a book out of the topic so I decided to limit it a bit for readability.


You may have noticed religious topics fascinate me, considering I've given two entries over to it now.

 

[Deadkool]

*begins to have an aneurysm trying to fit all of these themes into a single roleplay*

 

[Deadkool]

Any chance of getting a "So you want to write....Government." ?. I'd be interested in how you think the best way to deal with different aspects is. As a friend, enemy, employer, god, etc.

 

[Grey]

Any chance of getting a "So you want to write....Government." ?. I'd be interested in how you think the best way to deal with different aspects is. As a friend, enemy, employer, god, etc.

I'll add it to the list.

 

[Alexandra]

I really like the tl;dr for Gnosticism, and would love to see an expanded one ~

Demons with more nuance, on the other hand, tend to feature in stories of inner struggle for freedom, identity, and self-improvement. Perhaps these demons must do evil things, but don’t like them. Perhaps they cleave to a value system that we perceive as evil, but since they’re not human, why should human ethics and morals apply to them?

Yesssssss. Demons as The Other.

 

[Absinthe]

How to write romance with a villain or evil character? Or how to make a villain/evil character a hero in the story?

 

[Dusky]

How to write romance with a villain or evil character? Or how to make a villain/evil character a hero in the story?

How specific! You may find the "Antagonists" entry useful. c:

 

[Sibelle Grey]

Thanks for the details, this is really helpful

 

[DonBre]

Thanks a lot for the post!