remember that this is always a slow time for the rpc. as we get deeper into the holiday season, remember that people are finishing classes and taking big tests. they're slammed at work or taking on extra jobs to pay the bills. people are stressed about money or family, figuring out flights or trips, dreading the colder weather, struggling to put food on the table. some people are experiencing more dark outside than light, which might mess their schedule up a bit. some deal with seasonal depression during these months.

when your dash is slower and quieter this time of year, and when less people are liking your posts or sending memes, it doesn't mean the community is dying or we're all headed for the end times. i understand that less interactions or less support might be discouraging, especially when some of us are already dealing with the doom and gloom of darker, colder months and the stress of the holiday season... but please don't turn around and scold people for their inactivity or their lack of enthusiasm. don't get fatalistic about the fate of this community and declare it prematurely dead. this period of time always happens every year. now is not the time for unfair expectations. now is the time for kindness, generosity, understanding, encouragement, and love. now is the time for "take your time with replies," and "talk to me if you need anything. i'm here for you."

do you have any rp tips and tricks ?? I've tried roleplaying with friends before but I feel like it never has direction and fizzles out pretty quickly

It depends on the kind of RP that entices you! If its more with a goal in mind, ie something like DnD or a world of ocs and a narrative overall versus a script style chatroom! Or a mix. Etc! Regardless everything is collaborative and it takes the efforts, input, and interest of everyone involved to build a functional or longer-running Rp.

Chatroomverse, for instance, is probably the longest running RP I've been in that's private and it's only just a year old. But it has definitely stuck because everyone has stories for their characters and Aus to be told or changed by the course of the chatroom. Theres no overarching storyline, but everyone being interested in their own stories and each other's I think motivates and perpetuates it.

Even then! Rps have slow periods! And sometimes massive ones just die due to this :(

Slow periods you can always introduce new things to gain back interest or just engage as you'd like with whoever is still sticking around!

And Rps also tend to change as they go on! People join or leave or dynamics alter over time! So even if the vibe feels a little different, so long as everyone is enjoying themselves and it is in general still for fun, no biggie!

Hope that all makes sense?

And def being communicative and honest about like. Personal schedule stuff too! If you have low motive etc!

why are ppl rping with bots instead of writing fanfic??? like isn't the primary reason folks are using the bot bc they are socially intimidated by rp groups? (no judgment there ik how nerve-wracking it can be)

but like instead of talking to a cold machine someone COULD be growing their writing skills by... just Writing the whatever, the OC x canon scenario, the silly lil au, the smut etc etc. doesn't have to be grand literature, can just be a script fic even

and then after a while a person might have a piece of Art (generated by their very own meat computer) that they may want to show others??

folks, we can only win here. we can only lose talking to robots!

A Less Obvious Toxic RPer: The Overaplogizer

I see a lot of RP resource blogs that talk about toxic RP partners in the cases of people who are overtly controlling, aggressive, demanding, and/or cruel, but rarely if ever do I see posts about a different sort of toxicity: The over-apologizer. These RPers don’t get defensive or aggressive, they get so submissive and self-hating and apologetic over the SLIGHTEST criticism or even suggestion. It’s not a problem of “not saying sorry” it’s a problem of TOO MUCH sorry. Here are some examples: Sally: “Hey there, I know we planned for our muses to end up together eventually, but some of your recent asks seem to suggest they’re already a close  couple. I was hoping for a longer slow-burn sort of thing, moving in too fast will definitely scare my muse off. Could we dial it back a bit?” Bill: “I’m so sorry, I completely fucked up! Please don’t hate me ! I should never have started RPing! Let’s just drop the whole thing I’m sorry I wasted your time!” Sally: “Hey, so in your last reply, you had a whole bunch of spiders come out of the walls. I probably should have mentioned this before, but spiders are kind of a trigger of mine. Could we change that to something else?” Bill: “OMG I’m so sorry I’m such an asshole! I should delete my blog, I’m so terrible at this! This is why nobody likes me!” Sally: “Hey, I really love our threads, but our last three have all focused on my muse saving and comforting yours, and the new plot you just suggested seems the same. I like writing with you, but I was wondering if this time around, your muse could help mine instead?” Bill: “I hate myself, I’m such a selfish prick. I push everyone off, why did I think this would be different?” Sally: “I love talking to you OOC, but could you stop messaging me about New Show? I’m just not really interested in that.” Bill: “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to annoy you, I’ll just shut up now. I’m sorry I’m such a loser.” So, why is this bad? Well, for one thing, insulting yourself isn’t what someone’s aim is when they ask you to change something or cease a behavior. It makes the Sally in this situation feel bad, like they’ve just bullied you, when all they’ve done is politely communicate a reasonable request. It changes the topic of the conversation from Sally communicating a need about RP, to Sally having to personally reassure Bill that she doesn’t hate him, he isn’t a terrible RPer, etc. This is really, really uncomfortable for the Sally, and usually, in my experience as a Sally, ends up taking a lot of time and emotional labor all focused on Sally comforting Bill and apologizing a lot herself simply for speaking up about something bothering her. All of this combines to making Sally more and more unlikely to voice any further concerns or requests to Bill, because she doesn’t want to go through this again and again. Which means Sally either suffers through threads that bother her in some way and aren’t fun for her. . .or she gets tired of that and just ghosts. This sucks for both Sally and Bill. Now, I don’t think most people are trying to be deliberately manipulative when they act like Bill. Some certainly are and I hate them, but it can also be that they’re genuinely extremely insecure, anxious people who think they have to over-correct due to either mental issues, trauma/abuse in the past, or both. So I genuinely try to be patient and kind, but I won’t lie, it is still manipulative and it gets my hackles up. It leaves me conflicted between wanting to comfort the person and reassure them, and at the same time being pissed at them. It’s definitely a frustrating experience. And honestly? I still don’t actually know how to handle this when I’m in the Sally position. So I tried to do the next best thing, and write this for the Bills out there, who might not REALIZE this is toxic behavior or why. Bills, you’re not a bad person, and I know this behavior can be hard to rein in, especially when it’s a trauma response, but please do what you can to try! I wish I had advice for how, but I don’t. All I can do is point out that this behavior, while it may have helped you survive a bad situation in the past, is actually really shitty to others now. And if someone WANTS this behavior from you? If someone WANTS you to scrape and grovel and insult yourself when they point out the slightest thing wrong? Get the hell away from them, because that’s toxic as hell too.

Writing smut for rp

Well someone over on tattler was asking for advice so I guess I'll oblige.

Get over it

This has never been a problem for me but it might be for you. If you feel guilt about sex or feel cringe about writing it, you gotta let that go. You've made the decision so jump right in.

It's nothing special

There's no special secret recipe to writing smut. It's exactly the same as writing any other thread, you're just writing about a different topic. However, just like with any other topic, you can equip yourself.

Know your subject matter

Many of us are writing outside our gender or our sexualities. Get ye to Scarleteen and make sure you know how your character can have sex. And from there, decide how they prefer to have sex, and what their hard limits are.

Likewise, make sure you understand their anatomy. Even if you plan to ignore certain realities, it's best to know they exist.

Know your partner/s

What are their squicks? What are their no-gos? Are they cool with surprises or do you need to run ideas past them first? Make sure you're on the same page.

What kind of relationship is this?

Writing a smut thread involving romance is different from writing a one-night-stand. Writing an established relationship is different from writing a first encounter.

What kind of emotions are involved?

How does your character feel about their partner? AND how do they feel about their partner as compared to themself? What do they want to get out of this thread, or what do they want their partner to get out of it? A lot of smut threads are less about the sex than about the intense emotions involved so indulge yourself.

Pleasure

Sex is for pleasure, guys.

I often read smut threads by people other than myself and they do not touch on this. There is a lot about what is physically happening between two people, and what each character is thinking or wanting but very little about the pleasure they feel as a result of the interaction.

Don't forget the foreplay

I have seen people jump straight into the tab A into slot B part of a smut thread and like, how? When I write smut 95% of my thread is the foreplay.

Foreplay is also the part where you put most of the talking, and your smut threads should have talking. I think smut threads are a really good opportunity for character development, just through what sort of things your character talks about during sex.

Word Choice

In your typical smut thread you're going to be writing about parts of the anatomy that you usually wouldn't. Personally, I like to approach this using the words my character would use. I'm also partial to a nice allusion.

Some people will tell you never to use the phrase "throbbing member" or "flower" but honestly I think these could be effective if they were from the perspective of a particularly repressed character.

Consent

It is actually really sexy to roleplay the consent part of a smut thread.

However, there are some times when it's essential, such as if your characters are kinky, or if one of them is using mobility/accessibility aids. In these situations, if you leave out the consent part, your character will come across as inconsiderate at best and abusive at worst.

A short tutorial on how to make your roleplays ✨not cringe✨

Making yourself not sound like a ten year old kid when roleplaying is fairly easy. But it seems that some people tend to have the most gag-inducing rps ever anyway. So imma show you how to rp correctly without making me want to leave.

The most common mistake: voice lines mixed with actions in the same line.

I see this happening quite a lot. People kind of put the action and dialogue together in a very weird way.

Here's an example on what NOT to do:

Character: Hello! *waves at you*

As you can see, this just looks weird. Here's an example of what to do:

Character: Hello!

(Character waves exitedly at Y/N)

See? Much better this way. Well, that's all from me, I just wanted to get this off me. Buh-bye!

So, You Want to Try RolePlaying.

I’ve been doing RP and co-op writing for years, but have only about a month of experience doing it with complete strangers. So, here’s my advice, some warnings, and probably some random jokes.

First, who are you doing this with? Your friends? Strangers you want to get to know/write with? Your internet acquaintances? Because that’s gonna affect things.

My first and most important warning is this: don’t expect full control, especially not with strangers/people you don’t know personally.

Don’t expect anything, really. You’re taking a risk, and you may end up having to deal with discomfort. Morals, ethics, beliefs, preferences, triggers, even basic likes and dislikes may be very different between you and those you are writing with, so be prepared for that. My best example of this is that I tend to curse much less than those I RP with on tumblr.

My advice? Don’t be surprised, don’t get offended. If you’re uncomfortable, maybe just remove yourself from that scene. You cannot, and should absolutely not, try to control these things. If you’re very very uncomfortable, and it’s an objective thing, that’s when you should ask for changes. For example, if this isn’t supposed to be NSFW/Suggestive, and someone’s really pushing/has crossed that line, going against explicitly stated and agreed upon guidelines and rules, THAT’S when you say something/explicitly ask for them to stop. Exercise basic respect to everyone, agreement with you or not.

I’m an absolute control freak sometimes, so I honestly struggle with “I don’t like this plot” discomfort sometimes, to the point of occasionally feeling physically sickened when something feels out of control. A recent bout of this problem is what made me want to write this. My personal way of dealing with this is making my characters OCs FIRST. Dusk, Northeast, even Kit are all from their own original thing somewhere, that this all isn’t really canon to. While they were made for this specifically, that doesn’t mean they still aren’t my characters and I cannot have them also canonically exist in their own bubble where I have control. It’s strange, but it’s my own personal tactic. If you want, I could probably tell you about this “oc AU”, but most people are probably just here for advice. So onward.

Secondly? Don’t be confusing unless you know you can get away with it hoo boy here we go

I accidentally maybe introduced Puella Magi Madoka Magica into a TADC RP I’m in, and while it did end up crossover-ing decently well, it was really rocky, especially because nobody else had heard of Madoka and if you know anything about PMMM it’s that the lore is freaking WILD. So if you want to try something like that, be slow about it. It was about the only thing I got right.

I mentioned the mechanics, then made a character show up who uses those mechanics, then I introduced Kyubey, a way to spread those mechanics, and then and only then did other characters get to use the full potential of these mechanics/lore. Like I mentioned, it was incredibly rocky, but it worked. So do better than me, I beg.

Third of all. Try to figure out the overall tone before writing. If this is a serious piece of literature where things need to be set up properly, ACT LIKE IT! PLAN! SCHEME!

If this is a no-logic insanity mess where everything is surrealist metaphor, ACT. LIKE. IT. PLAN METAPHORS! BLAST PERTINENT MUSIC! HECK YEAH!

If this is 8-15 teenagers writing a TADC AU full of comedy, drama, ocs, and “whatever seems fun”, FREAKING GO FOR IT, BE DRAMATIC, JUST KEEP THINGS BASICALLY LOGICAL AND MAKE SENSE AND YOU’RE GOOD!

…

…Yeah that’s it for now see y’all

The Stanley Parable Worldbuilding

How do you worldbuild for your TSP blog? Remember that these are all just guidelines NOT rules. You can change anything, twist things around, delete or add stuff to your heart's content!

Important Note: You do not have to know all of these things immediately. Take your time discovering who your muse is and the world around them, answers might come to you hours, days, weeks or months after you started roleplaying!

Let's start with the basics. There's

The Protagonist (usually but not always Stanley)

The Narrator

The Story (add/change it as you wish, more endings, less endings, make it spooky, silly, romantic, weird)

The Office (feel free to add, delete or change as many rooms as you like)

Who is your protagonist? If it's not Stanley, did they replace him or has Stanley ever existed to begin with? How did they end up here? How much do they know?

Who is your Narrator? Why do they narrate? Do they have a choice? Did they write the Parable? Are they the only Narrator? What is their relationship to the Protagonist?

What is your Story like? Is it the same Story as the Game? Is it a Game, a Story, a TV Show, a dream, a pocket reality? Does it have more or less endings than the original? Is it about Stanley? Is there a Story at all or did the Narrator stop telling it?

What is your Office like? Is it a normal Office? Does it restart people who have died? Does it wipe memories from its inhabitants? Does it have a Line™? Is it sentient? Does it open doors on its own or does the Narrator control everything? Is it like a video game or like a haunted house? Does the exit work? Can people leave whenever they want?

If you want, you can also go into more details such as

Do you have a second Narrator (female or otherwise)?

Is there someone controlling the Parable and the Narrator(s)?

If it's a game, are there developers? Players? An audience?

What happened to Employee 432?

What happened to the Protagonist's coworkers?

What is the driving force behind the Parable, if there is one at all? Does it demand to be told?

Does your world crossover with any other fandoms or ocs?

More worldbuilding help

So, OFMD is my all time favorite show and I am in love with every single character and have been wanting to try and join the fandom as Stede Bonnet, but I am SO nervous. Only because you, and several others, are just so incredible and I am intimidated but ahhh, I want to do badly write as my pirate princess. Any advice? Or just go for it? I’ve been writing for years, but graphics/theme making are not my forte.

Hey, friend!! Thanks for the kind words!!

I would just GO for it, with the understanding that there's a learning curve to the "rp etiquette" of Tumblr (and some users, as is the way with social media, will be more forgiving and flexible with "mistakes" than others). I would introduce yourself, as you have done here, to people who seem fun and chill, and express your interest in interacting with them IC. 1) Tell them you would be writing Stede. 2) Read their rules page (usually there is a pinned post at the top of a writer's blog offering a mobile-friendly link to their rules, which is basically how they prefer to interact with other writers, how often, in what format, what the writer's or "mun's" triggers are, etc) and tell them that you have: this seems to be a real sign of good faith around here. 3) Collect a small list of people (maybe 4 or 5) to start with, and follow them. If your rp blog is a "sideblog" to a main account, also let them know that, so that when a non-rp blog (you) follows them, they know who the heck it is! I cannot underscore enough how important it is to find people with whom you jive ooc, as yourselves. It simply will not be fun if you don't. So take your time with this part! 4) Make your blog. Customize your theme as much or little as you like, but a good rule of thumb is to at least make an "About the Muse" page (muse's story), a "Rules" (do's and don't's of interacting with you) page, and a "Verses" (discrete story timelines, usually grouped by how much you adhere to canon or by romantic "ships") page. Your muse is a "canon" muse: that is, a muse that already exists in the official fandom universe. 5) If you don't have it already, GET XKIT REWRITTEN (a browser extension that lets you alter Tumblr's increasingly perplexing and user-unfriendly interface, lol. There are versions for both Chrome and Firefox. 6) Start writing. You rp on Tumblr by reblogging a person's IC (in-character) post to your blog, and adding a text reply. They then reblog you. And so on and so forth. Here is where you consult their rules page to know things like: are they okay if I trim posts? Are they okay with me dm'ing them to ask for replies? What's the most courteous way to use tags in order to easily find past writing or filter my blog? How explicit can writing with this partner get re violence or s*xual themes? Etc. Everyone is different.

Re making your blog fancy: You do NOT need to be well-versed in Photoshop, themes and coding in order to run a blog. A lot of people now rp on Tumblr Mobile, where theme graphics don't show up anyway. Those who still use graphics vary, but most of us really don't care if our writing partners use them as long as we can continue to do so.

However, if you're still anxious, I've got a couple graphics and rpg sources right off the bat that can help you tremendously:

@poohsources (your one stop shop for EVERYTHING theme, icon, rp etiquette, formatting, etc related. A very kind soul) @octomoosey (best free blog theme coder on Tumblr!)

and if you're willing to pay for codes and graphics, I can also recommend a few good friends.

Also, if you have further questions, come to me. My anonynous ask option is usually on. <3

(Anyone reading this, feel free to add on your suggestions!)

i'm completely new to rping and i have like 0 experience in writing. i have two muses atm and both of them are from shows that aren't very well-known or popular. i'm worried that i'll be a bad writer or that no one will care. any help or advice?

oh of course! Everyone starts off somewhere; from daydreams, to school, and whatever you enjoy can be a big inspiration! The two things I can recommend Always;

Keep in mind that people will care, but it may take some time to find the people who can express that in a timely fashion (or not!) Honestly the best way to get a 'lot' of interactions is make a lot of tiny 'investments'; follows, a self promo post, sending asks/ims, and in a passive way, writing of your own to set an example and get people excited for your blorbo. Since your muse is obscure, you're gonna want crossover-friendly or fandomless blogs for sure. In the climate of tumblr though, it's often very give-and-take: you may be 'fighting' your followers anxiety. And their schedule/workweek, but I feel that it's best to give things a little time and set up for Later™. Check after 5 minutes, an hour or twelve, and for certain blogs it might say if they may take a week or month- Point being that a lot of it's not on purpose, but a good start is by showing a blog that you care- directly or indirectly.

As for writing skill, the only way to really grow is to fuck around and find out- experience, I mean! The best way to go about it is to try to have fun with it- you can always practice or draft things in a private manner- draft your post (tumblr autosaves to drafts now!) or a word doc or something. Personally, since I majored in English in school, I don't become very impressed with myself often and find more value in entertainment+attention+sharing my fun blorbo thoughts! How you format is truly up to you and can change with time; my own writing started in para, dipped down to scriptish on my tumblr debut, formalized a bit, before I met writing partners whose narration is a bit more casual and fun- I find scholarly narration a little dry personally and try to get somewhat into the character's head while still being thorough!

Right now my advice is to reach out first, and often, until you can build up your audience! Once you have some reliable actives you can relax a little and get to writing with each other! Try to stay on top of it to fit your needs as we all have bad days, quiet days! hell I've been quiet this month due to the heat alone 💦 hehe... I've gotten into entire fandoms through RP myself- excitement is contagious!!!

IF YOU USE GOOGLE DOCS / GOOGLE SLIDES / ETC. FOR ROLEPLAYING PURPOSES (i.e. rules pages, muse lists, etc), please be aware that people can find your email, your full legal name, and other info when you share the document or link it in your bio. if you put your name on your account when creating it, people can find it. INSTEAD, USE A BRAND NEW EMAIL WHEN MAKING YOUR DOCUMENTS, or create an account using your muse's name to protect your identity.

hi hi! my name is kiara, and i am running SUGARPLUMSRPH! this is a brand new rph blog dedicated to finding resources, giving advice and shoutouts for everyone, but my specific niche will be +18 or new adult rps* so if you have an rp that accepts people 18 and over and need a shoutout go ahead and drop it in my inbox! i would love to answer any questions anyone has. 💖

*new adult rps was coined by @soupcafe!!

I’ve been reading through your rp’s on your accounts and I noticed the narration is really good! Do you have any tips on how to make rp’s not seem stale? 🥲

Hiiiiii!!! Thank you for the ask sorry for the long wait💔. When it comes to roleplaying, I don’t really know how(or atleast I’m not as good at it compared to other people) but I’m particularly good at narration!

Simply just describing a scene would be good if your answer/response as a whole is long! However, I’m better at long descriptions.

Take this, for an example:

“It was night time.”

It’s a simple sentence/phrase. However! The thing about these simple sentences is that you can build off on them. Instead of saying simply that, try and build off on it. Ask yourself questions or imagine the scene in your head, maybe pull up Pinterest to have a better and more solid image in your head.

“It was night, the breeze was cold. There were crickets in the far distance which seemed to be close. The cold air felt light, yet sharp.”

Use your senses such as touch, smell, etc etc. all of these could be used for a good narration! :D

If you want, you can analyze the narration in roleplays on@askjohnwick !! :D

sometimes things may seem impossible. sometimes, you may look at a thread or an unfinished application and think you can’t tackle them. then, it piles up until you’re overwhelmed with replies from friends or deadlines to submit apps. we all have a tendency to shut down then, don’t we?

my advice for that is: just start writing. even if you hate what you put down, you can let your thoughts flow freely and go back and fix what you didn’t like.

there have been times that I haven’t been able to find a character’s voice, so I’ll keep writing lines until something speaks to me. it's kind of an annoying process at times, but the more you do it, the easier it’ll come to you.

and most of all: don’t worry about being perfect! there is beauty in imperfection. just get it out there; you’ll find your groove eventually.

love, your jcink fairy godmother

PSA

NO ONE has the right to "kick you" off of Tumblr, your safe space!

NO ONE can say enough times "get help" , "don't come back", that it will magically drop you into a therapy chair and force you to stay off of Tumblr.

In fact, these are the people who should probably take a step back from their electronic devices and evaluate themselves a little further.

YOU DO YOU, ANGEL. If Tumblr keeps you from doing more serious bad habits like c*tting yourself, drinking into a coma, overdosing, etc, THEN STAY.

NO ONE can keep you from blogging and venting out your stress the HEALTHY WAY.

These people are the first to spit out "go to therapy" / "you need serious help", etc. But these people don't know the first thing about therapy.

These people who scream at you that you need to go to a mental hospital have never been in one themselves. In the U.S., mental health carries a very bad stigma and the "mental hospitals" here are a JOKE. Take it from someone who's seen their friends come out worse then when they came in.

Therapy helps, of course, but don't let the tumblr asshat on the other side of the screen be the boss of you!

If you need to be on your blog to feel happy, DO IT.

Especially, do your thing on your blog and make those people mad out of spite!

They can't control you and they hate it. Don't let these abusers win!

LET THEM STAY MAD. YOU DO YOU, BABY! COPE THE HEALTHY WAY, journal and blog it out to your little heart's content!

do you have any tips on how to stop doing the same character in a different font or even like different characters but same font? i feel like i keep coming up with characters like this and it’s making me feel so uncreative and dumb :(

FIRST OF ALL!! you are not uncreative at all, rp is a hobby and as long as you enjoy playing your characters and you're not doing anything explicitly harmful, then keep living your best life! revamp old muses and change the font a little to your hearts content if that's what makes you happy.

with that said, if you want to try following my creative process, here's what i do when creating a character:

pick archetype(s) that you'd like to try writing (you can find inspo from tv tropes, labels/archetype masterlists, etc.)

develop a story for your character that relates to that archetype

pick a fc from a background that you haven't tried before (ie. a different ethnicity to what you usually play!)

develop their traits and personality to fit around the archetype, but don't lean too heavily into the archetype thing as you don't want them to be one dimensional

start playing them and remember to have fun with it!

beneath the cut i'll explain a little more on these points.

1 - pick an archetype that you'd like to try writing (you can find inspo from tv tropes, labels/archetype masterlists, etc.)

choosing archetypes/labels really helps me when creating a character that's different to the ones i usually play. i like to go through the tv tropes websites, or even just fandom wiki's to search for character types. labels masterlists can also be really helpful or if you love musings try looking through the character type tags from your favourite musing blog for inspo! this also helps because you can look through inspo on the blog. some of my favourite musing blogs here on tumblr are @uncommonmusing @museinspo @musepirations @muserhq @musefluence @musingco @musinghq

i normally try to start with one line about my character rather than like, just a single label. this adds depth in my opinion! some examples for where i started for some of my fave muses is below:

the bad boy who wants to be loved but doesn't know how

the disheartened muse who just lost it all

the reformed gangster who's trying their best

the softie skater muse that lives and breathes art

2 - develop a story for your character that relates to that archetype

okay so now you've chosen an end goal for your character, how did they get there? were they always like this? did something happen in their past to make them this way? were they born into a life they didn't choose or did they pick this for themselves? make their current scenario/archetype make sense for the muse by answering these questions as a backstory. here's an example in some bullet points for that bad boy muse who just wants to be loved.

his parents only ever paid attention to him when he got in trouble so he started acting out for that attention

had bad examples of love while growing up (parents were in a toxic relationship)

their relationships often end up toxic and hurting more than it helps

they got famous and get a lot of attention now from fans but never know when something is real or if people are just using them for money/fame

3 - pick a fc from a background that you haven't tried before (ie. a different ethnicity to what you usually play!)

check out my recommended fcs tag! (it's linked on my pinned post) this one is pretty self explanatory but it really helps take you out of your comfort zone and you should try it, for diversity reasons if nothing else.

4 - develop their traits and personality to fit around the archetype, but don't lean too heavily into the archetype thing as you don't want them to be one dimensional

pick a few key traits that correspond to their archetype but don't stick to this too much. let yourself get inspired! if you need inspiration try looking at things like zodiacs, mbti's, enneagrams, moral alignments, and using those as building blocks to give your character a bit more depth and personality. i also love doing aesthetics at this point, "isms", personality blurbs, etc. all of this really helps me get to know my muse. something i find especially helpful is thinking about what motivates my muse to get out of bed every day, this helps me give them direction!

start playing them <3

enjoy - and remember, this is all just for fun, don't be hard on yourself if your new character isn't the most unique one ever. they're still amazing and so are you