Delays and Angst~

RIGHT RIGHT BLOG POSTS I'M NOT LAZY I SWEAR!

....Okay that's an outright lie, I am lazy and as such, forget to do things, or remember to do things and put them off for ages.

Probably should have just called this "Massive Procrastination".......Yeah I don't try to be funny much.

Ahh well, onto relevancy, or lack thereof.

I was discussing with my dear friend Harra earlier today about a character she was reading about which made her eyes roll in the manner of one who has just been told a sob story by a rich homeless man, and since my opinion is apparently worth something, (Supposedly, I still sincerely doubt this, but hey, you make enough characters as I have you sort of notice these things,) so while she was describing this characters incredibly angsty turn from a fairly normal character (well, normal as characters tend to get nowadays n_n;), I couldn't help but consider angst as a character and plot device, and how it's overused and abused.

First of all, I happen to quite like angst, when it's used well and appropriately, but much of the time it's generally rather... self indulgent to say the least, so for these purposes, I present to you My Rules for Creating, Playing and Interacting with Angsty Characters.

Creating:
1-Have a history for it: Simply, Don't have then gripe and moan about every little thing, just for the sake of it, Your Character needs an adequate reason to be angry and upset, so make sure they do.
2-Keep it simple: Now if you've ever been sad, you know it doesn't need to be a big deal to start with, and with your character, don't give them an overly dramatic past just for the sake of angst. If it's an incredibly important part of their history, then good, that's fine, but don't throw something in out of nowhere just for Bawws and Sympathy.
3-Make it Plot Relevant: Don't bring up your characters history just for the hell of it, make sure it's appropriate to the currant storyline, and otherwise, just make it subtle.

Playing:
1-Don't be an attention whore: Simple enough, Angst for effect, not for attention, understood?
2-Remain Impersonal: Don't use your character as a complete Author Insert, I hate to tell you, but no-one cares if YOU get dumped, or if YOU had a bad day or whatever, it's your characters story, NOT YOURS~
3-Don't be a dick: Again understandable enough, simply don't be a complete ass while your character is down, don't push people away or lash out at them for "NOT UNDERSTANDING HOW I FEEEEL!!!11!1" etc, etc, there is no faster way to become disliked.

Interacting:
1-Accept, Help, or Ignore: Now this is the first rule that has multiple incarnations, If someone is angsting in an RP with you, first of all, Try to accept that matter and roll with it, secondly, offer them, or even their RolePlayer some assistance if the need seems strong enough, and lastly, if they start to troll with their overdramatic angst, then simply ignore them, easy as that.
2-Never Angst Back: This is something I cannot stress enough, I've seen more than enough Angst wars, one person starts to whine, so starts another, they whine and Bawww at one another, and the whole narrative grinds to a screeching Halt. Sure you MAY be more Angsty and in need of help than that other character, but if you respond in kind, it's more likely they'll just complain back to you.


Now again, these are MY rules to the situations, and should be taken as a guideline, I trust that you, the reader, will have enough sense to make your own decisions.
Of course I'm probably wrong and overselling peoples common sense.

Good luck, Good Games, Good Stories to you all.

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Questions, Queries, QSuggestions (I couldn't think of another Q word...) send to here lordnathaniel@gmail.com

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