Tag: personal writing

Random Writings

Yule Tide Short Story {RW}

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Yule Tide Short Story {RW}

The crisp air was scented in cinnamon and roasted chestnuts. The light flurry of falling snow, dusted surfaces that had been cleaned a few hours ago, silver metal becoming cooler to the touch with each passing second. It was the season of ice once more. Solstice had come and Midwinter was upon us. Today was the night that the feasting would begin, the sacrifices would begin, the celebrations would fester.

I breathed out deeply, trying to contain my excitement. My breath slipped out into the air, hot, visible, thick. Rubbing my hands together I let myself simmer in the upcoming festivities. The air stirred above us beckoning us to its grasp. The clouds were dark and spinning, the moon lighting the sky and peaking through when the clouds so wished.

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Random Writings

The Romeo and Juliet Murders {RW}

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The Romeo and Juliet Murders {RW}

Murder-Suicide. That was the official rumor as to how the Darlings of the city had died. A lavish love affair turned sordid, only no one knew who killed the other. It was one thing for the daughter of a CEO to die suddenly. It was another to be found a few days later dead by bleeding out. They had found her twice-dead, with the young upstart in the world of business and son of their rival company. Traces of poison were on her lips as well in the system of her lover. It was his knife in her heart, but he died from poison. This time, she was dead for sure.

Yet, no one knew who died when. Or why her cousin was dead as well. Or why… well, a lot of people died when connected to the two families. They weren’t exactly on the same side. They held the city in the palm of their hand like the territory they lived on were castles, and all the land they could see was their kingdom. Lots of people had died with connections to the two families in recent months. Some even said that the two had planned to fake their deaths and were killed by a third, making it a double homicide. All Jules knew was that it could not be this easy.

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Something of a Dream {RW}

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Something of a Dream {RW}

She awoke as she always did, naked and next to the body of some man who had been far more attractive when she was drunk than when she was sober. The room smelt thick of cigarettes and the memory of smoke that was etched into the walls and carpets from years of filling the room with smoke so thick one could not see. Plucking the glasses — sharp, cat eyed, and thick rimmed — from the bed side table, she slid her feet from the warmth of the body next to her and to the floor where her slippers lay waiting. 

From the covers she flew, discarding them in her wake, uncaring for the body of the man who had no more business remaining in her house. She took three steps before she was searching for her robe. Turning back to her bed, her side was neatly tucked into the bed and a silken robe lay atop it. Snatching it, she haphazardly threw it around her body and rounded the room divider of her studio loft. Her kitchenette was chilled and unused that morning, other than the steaming hot cup of coffee waiting for her in one of her favorite mugs. 

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Memory {RW}

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Memory {RW}

Memories. They come and go tickling the senses as they do. The smell of grass. An old book. Spring rain. Autumn wind. The feeling of summer’s heat, blue skies, or gray ones if you like. I know that when I hear the sound of bike bells I remember the years of riding our bikes and skate boards and scooters to the park. The baseball game would be going on and with our twenty dollars we could fill up our small bags with candy and sweets. But we had to be fast or else our parents would notice we left the neighborhood. All that candy we just bought? It needed to be scarfed down before we forced our stomachs to endure a healthy food shock that was dinner.

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Blog, Random Writings

About the {RW} Series

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About the {RW} Series

What is the {RW} series? It translates as Random Writings. It’s just a series where I let my brain state what my brain wants to state on random things. There is no real meaning to it. They may be large. They may be small works. In some ways they could be considered poetry, but I wouldn’t go that far.

They are random writings, my personal writings about things.

MM

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Collaborative Storytelling

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Collaborative Storytelling

Collaborative Storytelling or in another name Role Play (hereon written as RP). What is it?

When most people hear RP, their initial thought goes to D&D. Role a dice, you have your character, there is a plot, a story, and levels to attain. You act as your character, speaking (or writing) the lines they would speak. Saying (or writing) what they do and how they act.

This is not the only form of RP to me.

The form that I tend to cling to, is online forum based RP. This RP to me is story telling in the form of worlds created in forums or threads. You write with others, and develop your character by yourself, and plot with others. There does not have to be the rolling of a dice.  In fact, often there is little communication on plot in general, other than the general plot.

I started with this form of RP back when I had no business being on the internet and talking to strangers online. I started on a website called Crunchyroll. Now little do most people know, but Crunchyroll forums used to be filled with this. Groups for AVIs and GIFs, to talk about shows, and to do role playing. Not of characters from shows, but your own characters, in made up worlds. Most forums died very quickly, and I found myself on Mangafox Forums. It was here that my growth as a writer and storyteller blossomed.

On Mangafox  (hereon: MF) there were groups, and a group was dedicated to a plot. In the group there were threads, for locations, and character creation. I met many people on this site many of whom I am still friends with, and was involved in many stories. I learned fast how to change my dismal spelling and sentence structure. I grew.

The method of RP is this. One person writes a post with their character, and if you are involved in the scene, you reply. If not, you can continue on in another scene, on your own, in a different thread, you name it. At first I was a person who posted of what we call “one-liners.” Simple responses grew from that, due to stipulations of “5 sentences minimum per post” in some groups I joined. From there became paragraphs. From there became what is how I RP today. That has reflected in on my writing as well, although the method style varies greatly.

As MF forums died, and before it even, I became a part of OnexOne RPs. These are RPs where you play with only one other. They are less chaotic than group RPs. You also have control over almost everything. You get to world build, character build, bounce ideas off with your (typically singular) partner, and create. The only thing you don’t know, is how your partner will post, and what new plot points will jump up.

When MF died, I joined Role Play Nation (hereon: RPN). Currently I am a part of two OnexOnexOne RPs on RPN, with one of my MF friends. I also am working on an additional OnexOne with said friend that we will be posting elsewhere.

This is Collaborative Storytelling. Because for all intents and purposes, it is not really how others define RP. The way I “RP” is by building a world, characters, and a plot. We have plot points and a general guide of where we want to go with the story. We talk about details, and confirm on information before posts. Posts are always still a treat, because the true content is never known but there is a solid direction. There is a generalized end goal even if we don’t know how it will end for certain. We run ideas by each other, and talk for hours on plot points that may or may never happen. We are working to build a story together.

I have found many OnexOnes can be like this, in truth.

To say we are Role Players is to say writers are as well. We may be taking on a character, but we are still building the world. We still have “NPCs.” This is not “simplistic writing” and this is not D&D. We are writing stories. We are collaborating on stories. There may be different voices to the project, unlike books written by two or more authors, but it is one story. Novel writers take on the mask and history of their characters as well. They take the world of their story and their characters, but they have sole control. We do not.

Things that RP has taught me:

  • Spelling and spelling checks
  • Better base grammar (not always perfect but better)
  • Sentence structure
  • How to take criticism
  • How to take edits
  • How to take hate of my character
  • How to better build characters and worlds
  • How to communicate plot through writing
  • How to communicate history through writing
  • Continuity, historically and plot wise
  • Dialogue
  • Confidence in my writing

So yes I RP, but I like to think of it as Collaborative Storytelling. To me it is not much different than writing a book. I may not be published as a writer, but I have writing to show for myself.

But if Collaborative Storyteller is too pretentious for you, then call me an RPer. I’m cool with that, because it’s the truth as well. I just like to make the distinction.