Any advice to stay in character in rp?

[Dr.Flavio]

I would like to say although i'm not new to rp but basically the only time I've rp was when I was...12 (or 10 everything is blur when you hit college tbh) and long story short everything that you aren't supposed to do I did it (Godmodding,powerplaying,mary sue etc)


Hopefully I've grown with my writing and characters but I think I've nailed down my main problem. When I rp i I could barely stay in character or my characters were barely consistent. Is there a way I can improve on this?

also extra tips is deeply aprriacted!!

[AtlasHyperion]

Hey, Dr.Flavio.

As an avid writer, both in roleplaying and in writing books, I can say that this is something that everyone struggles with.

It is indeed difficult to write a character that you don't relate to that well. An example: I struggled a lot in writing a character in one of my books, a straight girl who happened to be both a werewolf and missing an arm. I'm not straight. I don't identify as female. I'm not missing an arm, and I'm certainly not a werewolf. It was very hard to write Hope, because I didn't relate to her that well.

So, with Hope, and with all my characters, I find something that connects us. With Hope, I shared her feelings of not belonging. She'd been banished from her werewolf pack for her missing limb, and couldn't socialize well with humans because of her canine tendencies. Granted, she felt like she didn't belong in either species, and I often feel like I don't belong when I'm in basically any situations with people, but it was a strong connection. I understood her pain, her reluctance to socialize.

It's always important to find a link between yourself and your characters. When you're roleplaying, it's more like real life than book world - you can only control your decisions. Thus, every character ends up making similar choices to what you would do in the given situation, except often more brave and bold ones.

If I were, for example, to roleplay as a super-masculine male character, I would have some trouble connecting with him. If I were to write a physically disabled character, I would have trouble connecting with them.

It's not the obvious traits that you need to connect with, it's the more subtle ones. Sure, your character is blonde and so are you. That doesn't create an instant link. But maybe you're very familiar with being catcalled just because of your hair color, and your character is also experiencing this. That's a good link. You understand your character's irritation and frustration.

The best links are when you feel the same emotions as your characters. I've found that when I'm writing, I often connect better to my villains than my heroes. I connect well to them because I understand having to make really important choices in a morally grey area. I understand how a character felt when they had to choose to put down a beloved pet, or take a loved one off of life support.

Not everyone has experienced all the same things as their characters, but the best piece of advice for staying in character is to find out what about them made you want to write them. Odds are, your character's best and worst traits are a reflection of what you see in yourself.

But if you want the short answer, find a way to connect to your character on a psychological level, where you're feeling or understanding the feeling of their emotions. And if you need a quick fix, summarize your character in a couple of adjectives and find out if they'd fight the scary monster or run away.

Hope this helped!

[Dr.Flavio]

Hey! thank you so much for the advice! I think i'll keep a save copy of it (if you don't mind).

It's also nice to know that its just not newbies that struggle with this but everyone in general, my old characters I just made them for the sake of drawing them which is completely fine on its own but when I use them to rp there was zero emotional connection between because I just like to draw them and didn't think of adding any traits that I can empathize to.

You actually helped a lot! Thank you so much

[AtlasHyperion]

No problem, and feel free to keep a copy. You'll all be my minions soon what?

[Dr.Flavio]

No problem, and feel free to keep a copy. You'll all be my minions soon what?

totally not worrisome lolololol

[arabella !!]

I always attempt to empathize my characters. You know, pretend you're in their shoes. If they are in a tricky situation, how do you think they'll react to it? Is it similar to how you would? You can compare and contrast like that.