The Fellows
The One Account to Rule Them All
RPN Monthly: JULY 2015
It's that time of the month again, RpNation: time for the Newsletter! With the summer months upon us, RpNation is in full swing. The Fellows have been hard at work to pull together another exciting issue of RpN monthly for you, and we hope you enjoy reading about all the new content, competitions, features, and more.
~ @Carter Jake Mason - Super friendly and one of the first to welcome new members in the Introduction threads, Carter Jake Mason is an exceedingly friendly face around the forums. He's always quick to answer questions in Site Questions & Information and will always point people in the right direction.
@Dusky - After showing the world her amazing BBCode skills by helping the "BBCode Shoppe," Dusky is always around the forums and the Shoutbox, answering as many questions as she can, especially those about BBCode. Got a problem with BBCode or beautifying your roleplay? She's your gal!
@JackSkellington does some beautiful and creative things with multiple medias of traditional art. From scratch board dragons to graphite villains, her work is wonderful and intriguing. Go check her out!
Visit JackSkellington's art @BeyondPoetry![/h]
And now some words from the MotM:
How long have you been roleplaying for?
Oh man, time to date myself. I’ve been forum roleplaying since I was fifteen, which is about eight years ago, after a friend of mine convinced me it was the cool thing to do. In general, I started writing when I was about seven years old after my older sister got published in the local newspaper. It was this little poem about winter and snowflakes, she was about ten at the time, and as the middle child I felt like I needed to compete. Don’t get me wrong, I wrote pretty mean rhyming poems about cats but it wasn’t until I was twelve that I got a big reality check. My teacher at the time, a stoic faced man who blamed his grey and thinning hair on “living too much life,” told me that I was a terrible writer who would never amount to anything. Ten years later, I sent him my first published poems with a new pair of glasses and a card that read, “Maybe your sight was going even back then, huh?” We keep in touch to this day.
What's the funniest experience you've ever had on the RPN?
I’m not sure how funny it is, but the first time I ever really had a moment on RPN where I could say, “wow, I’m not just the loser in the corner,” was when I finally got a nickname in the SB. Dusky started calling me Poe and it spiraled absolutely out of control to the point where I became a Frankenstein/Poe hybrid. It was nice though, to realize you're important enough for someone to name. Like, this is mine, I like it and I shall name it Poe. It’s a good feeling.
You are known on the site for posting and being helpful in the Prose and Poetry section; your name even has the word Poetry in it! With that in mind, do you have any poetry tips you'd like to share with us?
Read everything you can. I know that’s pretty generic advice, but it’s so important. When you start writing, there’s this belief that you hold as a writer that growth only comes from writing day in and day out. While practice is important, you’ve got to learn the rules and study the other teams. It seems a bit counterintuitive, to read someone else’s writing to find your own voice, but learning how to appreciate language is one of the most important skills any writer can gain. Even if it’s an author you dislike or subject area you dislike, it does not change the fact that you can pull something from anything. Once you learn how language works and can see how others are using it, you can really develop your own voice.
Which brings me to my second (and last) important piece of advice. Yes, rules and reading are important but the ultimate advice I can give is to realize language is a tool. No one wants to read another Sylvia Plath or e. e. cummings. The beauty of language is that it’s yours to manipulate. The best poetry you will ever write is when you stop trying to sound like a writer. Don’t go for the obvious, don’t go for what’s comfortable — use your language. Words are brilliant, you are brilliant, and when you learn how one can benefit the other — your poetry and prose will become brilliant.
What's your favourite thing you've ever written?
I’ve always used writing as a way of communicating in the sense that I’ve spent most of my life a bit emotionally distant from my family. Growing up it was really hard to find my own voice, let alone yell loud enough for anyone to hear me. While I guess I should say my published poems are my favorite, there was one poem I wrote at sixteen for my mother who had been diagnosed the previous year with a neurodegenerative genetic disorder. I never showed it to her and as the years went on she lost a lot of her ability to speak, walk, everything and she wasn’t supposed to really live past fifty. This past year she turned fifty-two and at her surprise birthday party, I gave her the poem and though it wasn’t my best writing and I wished with everything I had to edit it a bit, I left it untouched for her. It was the first time in years that she and I could exist together and understand each other entirely. To this day, she keeps the poem in her jewelry box.
That’s the thing: writing has the ability to be something beautiful to read, but there are times where it’s just as beautiful to feel.
What was your favourite RPing moment and why?
Probably when I found Traceless. I’d been on this site for about five months and had yet to find faith that someone would be able to write with. I was timid, scared and my anxiety often exacerbates the problem. She was the first person who message me and was like, “Let’s build this together from the ground up. It’s going to be fantastic.” And it was — still is, really, almost nine months later. She’s my longest running partner and it was the first 1x1 that really gave me the confidence to explore the interest checks for others and not to give up.
Oh man, time to date myself. I’ve been forum roleplaying since I was fifteen, which is about eight years ago, after a friend of mine convinced me it was the cool thing to do. In general, I started writing when I was about seven years old after my older sister got published in the local newspaper. It was this little poem about winter and snowflakes, she was about ten at the time, and as the middle child I felt like I needed to compete. Don’t get me wrong, I wrote pretty mean rhyming poems about cats but it wasn’t until I was twelve that I got a big reality check. My teacher at the time, a stoic faced man who blamed his grey and thinning hair on “living too much life,” told me that I was a terrible writer who would never amount to anything. Ten years later, I sent him my first published poems with a new pair of glasses and a card that read, “Maybe your sight was going even back then, huh?” We keep in touch to this day.
What's the funniest experience you've ever had on the RPN?
I’m not sure how funny it is, but the first time I ever really had a moment on RPN where I could say, “wow, I’m not just the loser in the corner,” was when I finally got a nickname in the SB. Dusky started calling me Poe and it spiraled absolutely out of control to the point where I became a Frankenstein/Poe hybrid. It was nice though, to realize you're important enough for someone to name. Like, this is mine, I like it and I shall name it Poe. It’s a good feeling.
You are known on the site for posting and being helpful in the Prose and Poetry section; your name even has the word Poetry in it! With that in mind, do you have any poetry tips you'd like to share with us?
Read everything you can. I know that’s pretty generic advice, but it’s so important. When you start writing, there’s this belief that you hold as a writer that growth only comes from writing day in and day out. While practice is important, you’ve got to learn the rules and study the other teams. It seems a bit counterintuitive, to read someone else’s writing to find your own voice, but learning how to appreciate language is one of the most important skills any writer can gain. Even if it’s an author you dislike or subject area you dislike, it does not change the fact that you can pull something from anything. Once you learn how language works and can see how others are using it, you can really develop your own voice.
Which brings me to my second (and last) important piece of advice. Yes, rules and reading are important but the ultimate advice I can give is to realize language is a tool. No one wants to read another Sylvia Plath or e. e. cummings. The beauty of language is that it’s yours to manipulate. The best poetry you will ever write is when you stop trying to sound like a writer. Don’t go for the obvious, don’t go for what’s comfortable — use your language. Words are brilliant, you are brilliant, and when you learn how one can benefit the other — your poetry and prose will become brilliant.
What's your favourite thing you've ever written?
I’ve always used writing as a way of communicating in the sense that I’ve spent most of my life a bit emotionally distant from my family. Growing up it was really hard to find my own voice, let alone yell loud enough for anyone to hear me. While I guess I should say my published poems are my favorite, there was one poem I wrote at sixteen for my mother who had been diagnosed the previous year with a neurodegenerative genetic disorder. I never showed it to her and as the years went on she lost a lot of her ability to speak, walk, everything and she wasn’t supposed to really live past fifty. This past year she turned fifty-two and at her surprise birthday party, I gave her the poem and though it wasn’t my best writing and I wished with everything I had to edit it a bit, I left it untouched for her. It was the first time in years that she and I could exist together and understand each other entirely. To this day, she keeps the poem in her jewelry box.
That’s the thing: writing has the ability to be something beautiful to read, but there are times where it’s just as beautiful to feel.
What was your favourite RPing moment and why?
Probably when I found Traceless. I’d been on this site for about five months and had yet to find faith that someone would be able to write with. I was timid, scared and my anxiety often exacerbates the problem. She was the first person who message me and was like, “Let’s build this together from the ground up. It’s going to be fantastic.” And it was — still is, really, almost nine months later. She’s my longest running partner and it was the first 1x1 that really gave me the confidence to explore the interest checks for others and not to give up.
Outside of writing, what are some of your other hobbies and interests?
I suppose the two big ones are theatre and improv comedy. I’ve been doing theatre almost my entire life. I played one hell of a Benjamin Franklin in a fourth grade play about the revolutionary war and since then it just kind of took off. I did a lot of Shakespeare growing up, more notably playing Ophelia in Hamlet and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, and Marc Antony in an all female production of Julius Caesar. When I hit the high school, I began to transition into musical theatre and was nominated for a few fancy awards, which was cool — in particular for playing Sally Bowles in Cabaret. I also the founded a comedy improv troupe that competes nationally (if you don’t know what improv is, think Whose Line Is It Anyway? — Youtube it, you’ll fall in love).
If you had a time/space machine and you could go back in time to any place at any moment, where would you go and why?
Easy. Either Wembley Arena for Live Aid ’85 to see Queen perform one of the greatest rock performances of all time OR duet with Freddie Mercury on “Somebody To Love” during their Montreal concert in ’81. Either one would literally blow all other achievements out of the water.
Describe your favourite three course meal.
I was born and raised in Boston, so this is an easy question. Clam chowder to start, lobster for the main and you top it all off with a Boston Cream Pie for dessert. Or a cannoli. Oh man, cannolis. Both, definitely both.
Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, or PC?
Can’t we all just get along?! Really, though, I don’t know. I sold my soul for my PS4, though I enjoy my Xbox, too. I just throw my money at things and make grabby hands. E3 this year made me want literally everything. Video Games > Paying Rent (just kidding, guys. Pay your rent. Angry landlords are a kind of evil that can never be captured in writing).
You're chillin' at home, relaxing, when suddenly, you hear a knock at the door. You open it and are faced by your favourite character that you've ever created. What do you do? Do the pair of you get on?
Oh, absolutely. Her name was Haley and was this chain smoking, heavy drinking, demon slayer (loosely based off Buffy and mostly based off Constantine) with a hell of a left hook. We would totally take the town by storm and raise some hell. Probably blow up a car or two, introduce a little anarchy, and then settle down with a bottle of whiskey between us and like two large pizzas to marathon Tarantino movies. Man, I wish I was as cool as she was.
You're chillin' at home, when suddenly, Professor Zap stumbles into the room and exclaims: 'By ziggity, I've finally completed my Warpulator 420, the machine which can transport you into a fictional world! And you are to be my guinea pig!' Which fictional world do you travel to, why, and how do you find it?
I’m really boring and would really just like to go to Hogwarts and be a witch. I know there are way more interesting and creative answers to this question but I waited so long for my letter and I never got it. I deserve to be a witch, damn it, and I’d be the brightest witch of my time. Like, I think I would actually be inclined to do schoolwork if it was wizardry related. I would be a Ravenclaw with Gryffindor envy and I’d play the hell out of Quidditch — I was in softball long enough to be one mean beater. I’d just be really cool, okay?
You're chillin' at home, for the third time, rather hoping that nothing else ridiculous and highly coincidental interrupts your sweet, sweet chillin', when suddenly, you realise that actually, this isn't even your house! Instead, you've accidentally raided the house of Angry Dave, your redneck neighbor! You hear his thunderous rapping on the door. What do you do to escape a grizzly fate as the filling of a knuckle sandwich?
I feel like I should be offended that we assume I spend this much time at home…but let’s face it, I’m basically made up of couch cushions and pizza. Luckily, I just recently moved to the South so I am well versed in redneck confrontation — that and I used to do mixed martial arts. I’d probably just block, throw a right hook to take him down, steal whatever twelve pack of terrible light beer he has in the fridge and ride off on the horse he has tied up outside the house.
Interviews conducted by @Dusky. Please follow RpNation on Twitter and/or Facebook for even more up-to-date news! We look forward to seeing you all for the next Newsletter in August! [/justify]
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