A Spiritual Guide Through the World of Online Roleplay Writing

The common misconception I get when I tell people I am part of an online roleplaying community is that this is a sex thing. Though topics of sex and violence are prevalent in my writing with the occasional smut post or epic battle sequence this is not in fact a sex thing. It has taken me years to describe what it is I am doing.

Roleplay, or RP for short, is a group of online writers coming together to tell a story.

How does that work? Well, I was lucky enough to be introduced to this form of writing by someone who was already familiar with the concept. I had a roommate in college who was very much more of a Harry Potter nerd than I was. As in she had ties of every household to share for impromptu photoshoots and would describe herself as a Slytherin when meeting new people kind of nerd. As a rather open-minded Hufflepuff myself, we bonded over this and she showed me this website she wrote Harry Potter stories on.

At the time, I did not really question the legality of taking a copyrighted world and making your own stories from it. The website gave credit to JK Rowling as being the original creator of the Harry Potter series and world so there was never any deception there. I was fond of reading fanfiction then (let's be real, I still am) so this seemed more like a collective way for people to honor the stories they loved.

The concept was a simple one: you would start off as an original character first year student who could have whatever history you wanted. Once accepted and placed into your house, you would do "lessons" to pass the year and continue on till your character graduated. The site had been up and running for years before I joined and they had already played out the concepts of the post-Harry Potter era characters like Albus Severus Potter and the like.

In truth, I had no interest in writing the story of a canon character. I made my own little first year and found that writing childish things like an eleven year old awkward boy learning to make friends while simultaneously learning to do magic brought me joy. I had dabbled in fanfiction in the past, even managing to write a multi chapter Harry Potter fanfiction of a fabled Voldermort granddaughter that of course in hindsight makes me want to gag but at the time felt very good to explore.

In the world of fanfiction, however, you are left on your own to write a story. That is not the case in the world of roleplay.

I had a little group of writers that made up the friends my character was making on the site. We would discuss over skype what shenanigans our characters would get into, how they could discover each other's secrets, how they would help each other pass their "lessons". It is important to note that before this I did not know these people. They lived in complete opposite sides of the world from me, were of different ages, were living completely different lives than I was.

Yet we were brought together by the desire to develop our little first year characters. These were my first group of online writing friends. Though our characters barely made it passed their first year because we all moved on from that site to different stories I still cherish the lessons they gave me in terms of writing online.

When writing on your own you have all the time in the world to develop your story. Yet when writing with other people you learn to be courteous as to not keep them waiting forever for a reply to their post. Though my writing cluster, if you will, was made up of chill human beings new to the RP world we quickly came to understand the dramatics of other writers online.

The anonymity of the internet has always given others this sense of entitlement when it comes to basic courtesy. I can't tell you how many people hurt my feelings over the dumbest things like the attention I gave to another writer versus the attention they believed they deserved from me. Though there are many online dramas I could divulge into the most important lesson for me was learning how to develop my writing voice.

There is a RP etiquette out there! The image above goes into a few of the pet peeves writers have developed over the course of writing with each other. Then there are the more unspoken needs that writers develop when working on an online platform.

Though most of this writing is taking place in an unreal world we carry our real-world prejudices with us. Over the ten years I have done RP I have noticed the shift of being more sensitive to topics of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and other types of discriminations. There is still plenty of work to be done to expand on the subjects and RP is by no means some perfect world free of these issues.

Individual aesthetics also come into play. People want to write on a website that feels lived in and active. Abilities to spend time (and sometimes even money) making a website look a certain way with coding are highly sought after. More on this later.

When I say that we moved on to different stories I mean that, through one of the many resource sites that link online writers to already developed or developing online writing sites, I discovered that this RP stuff went beyond Harry Potter.

I started on fandom sites. I went from Harry Potter to Supernatural to The Walking Dead roleplaying sites. I learned to write canon characters as well as original characters. I got bored quickly with stories that just repeated what was already done in a story I admired. I liked to explore something different within the context of already established lores. Sometimes sites I was on would shut down because of bad administrating or simply not enough people giving it the attention needed. I had to learn to be quick to move on.

I later on dipped my toe into original sites. These were sites with their own lore not based on any pre-established fandom that online writers developed. I was always one to stick to themes of supernatural or high fantasy but there were original sites for just about any topic. When I was about three years into writing online I actually started sites of my own. There was a Supernatural site, an original fantasy site and then I fell back into writing Alternative Universe stories based on a fandom.

It is not always easy to deal with the dramas online writing partners can stir up. People can get very high and mighty when they can hide behind the internet. I have learned to avoid people that are constantly in a state of causing issues for others. It is not always easy for me. I am an empathetic person that wants to see the best in people. Yet when the focus veers off the writing and into personal issues, I have learned it is best to walk away from an instigator than to engage in their vindictive narrative.

Some of my closest friends now are people I met online in these writing sites. We have met in real life, which is always awkward at first but gets better with time, we have even vacationed together. My friends and family have always found this awkward as I spent a good amount of my time messaging these online friends back and forth on my phone whether it is about a story idea or a funny meme I saw on the internet which I wanted to share with them.

It is hard to explain when you meet people that you have a writing affinity with. It is not always instant, sometimes it takes writing together a while to get into the rhythm, but my writing buddies stir emotion in me. Our characters, whether they are a family group, lovers, enemies, etc., come together and have literally made me cry due to how epic the story has turned out.

The world of RP writing has definitely inspired a lot of the stories I am currently working into making proper books out of.

With the online writing I was able to explore dynamics in relationships between characters that I never in my wildest dreams would have been able to develop on my own. Combining my creativity with others has been illuminating for me as a writer.

I have also gained an understanding of what it takes to code a site so it looks and feels the way you want it to. I AM BY NO MEANS SOME CODING EXPERT. Honestly, if I ever have to code a site on my own again I will yeet myself off a cliff. Yet there is a community of coders online that are willing to not only teach you how to make a site your own they can develop coding for you to use to implement your vision.

At the end of the day though the draw of RP is to be able to write stories not make a site pretty. Below I have listed several resource sites for RP in case as a reader you are curious to explore this online writing world. I have also linked a discord server I have made for those that are curious but would like a more guided approach into this strange new world.

The world of RP can be tumultuous at times but I often credit it for the muse I have for writing. Your little niche world could be out there just waiting for you to come by and discover it.

Thank you for reading! I would appreciate a like if this guide was helpful or a tip if you are able to spare.

Resources:

RPG DIRECTORY

Caution to the Wind

The Roleplay Network

forumroleplay.com

RPG Adverts

New to RP Discord Server