Viewpoint What do you want to write about (and why)?

[WINCE]

Because I never know myself.

 

[Tove]

It really depends on what I am in the mood for. As of late, I'm not in the mood to write anything on my own or with anyone else. Hopefully that will change. When I was writing, I had a whole variety of things I wanted to do. Science Fiction, Fantasy, Action and Adventure. I enjoyed putting characters in different worlds, having different types of characters, and stories. I don't speak for anyone else but I write to get better, that's one of the why reasons.
It's fun, yeah, but I want to make it something more one day. Whatever that is remains to be seen.

 

[WINCE]

As of late, I'm not in the mood to write anything on my own or with anyone else.

For me, it's easier to write when it's a collaborative effort. When it comes to what genre, setting or narrative to pick, I don't feel for any single one enough to... well, choose. If that makes sense. I just need to have that advice from others or I'll end up with no clear direction, or vigor. Would you say, personally, that writing on your own is better?

When I was writing, I had a whole variety of things I wanted to do. Science Fiction, Fantasy, Action and Adventure. I enjoyed putting characters in different worlds, having different types of characters, and stories.

It's good to diversify your kit like that, as well as have an open-mind.

It's fun, yeah, but I want to make it something more one day. Whatever that is remains to be seen.

Totally! I'll be rooting for your success.

 

[ashwynne]

Mmmm it depends! Generally, I would say something involving complicated relationships, taboo/difficult subjects, political drama and just generally complex interactions between the setting/world and characters.

I use roleplaying to keep the writing flowing for when I need a break from working on my own projects. It's really fun to get to share the burden of telling a story with someone else, it makes it easier to keep up the muse and excitement! Getting to play around with these sorts of difficult ideas with another person also adds perspective to it and helps me improve in my own writing/view of the world. Plus I get to be inspired by all the talented writers here

 

[Melpomene]

Alright, so I LOVE writing about very tense relationships. I like a good romance, but I also love friendships, parental and sibling relationships to write about. It is why I don't like having cookie cutter relationships between characters, or cookie cutter characters for that matter.

I like having those rough relationships. As someone who is familiar with my writing would know, I like writing strained familial relationships, specifically between child and parent, I like writing close sibling relationships (not incest, most of the time at least), and friendships that some think are romantic but truthfully the "I love you, man" is totally platonic and damn it should be able to be said between male friends and in female/male friendships more haha.

As one of my friends might point out, in a novel series I am writing, one of the most prominent relationships is one of an abusive father against his daughter, both coming to terms with the fact that what has been done is abuse and it was wrong, leading to some very emotional shit that I love for writing haha.

I also love political drama and dark fantasy.

I find dark fantasy is a hard thing to perfect as it is more than adding adult and dark scenes to a fantasy setting, but putting realistic characters and events into this setting as well that are impactful, like GoT or The Witcher. The Witcher I like because it uses the Elves to explore the xenophobia in our own world as well as the whole "they took our land" aspect. Truly I live for writing things like that.

 

[WINCE]

Mmmm it depends! Generally, I would say something involving complicated relationships, taboo/difficult subjects, political drama and just generally complex interactions between the setting/world and characters.

It's hard to explore those kind of thoughts from our minds without writing them down, so I can see why there are plenty of people who share this answer.

I use roleplaying to keep the writing flowing for when I need a break from working on my own projects.

Yeah! There's something more unrestrained and casual about it. What's your go-to kind of role-play?

It's really fun to get to share the burden of telling a story with someone else, it makes it easier to keep up the muse and excitement! Getting to play around with these sorts of difficult ideas with another person also adds perspective to it and helps me improve in my own writing/view of the world. Plus I get to be inspired by all the talented writers here

I all around agree with this.

 

[WINCE]

I like having those rough relationships. As someone who is familiar with my writing would know, I like writing strained familial relationships, specifically between child and parent, I like writing close sibling relationships (not incest, most of the time at least), and friendships that some think are romantic but truthfully the "I love you, man" is totally platonic and damn it should be able to be said between male friends and in female/male friendships more haha.

Yess. Exploring the more unconventional types of love... Although they shouldn't be, as platonic relationships are just as good as any other.

I find dark fantasy is a hard thing to perfect as it is more than adding adult and dark scenes to a fantasy setting, but putting realistic characters and events into this setting as well that are impactful, like GoT or The Witcher. The Witcher I like because it uses the Elves to explore the xenophobia in our own world as well as the whole "they took our land" aspect. Truly I live for writing things like that.

Oh, that sounds pretty cool actually. Have you ever wrote/considered to write your own novel on that?

 

[Melpomene]

Yess. Exploring the more unconventional types of love... Although they shouldn't be, as platonic relationships are just as a good any other.

Right?! Platonic relationships are so underrated!! They can be just as impactful as an romantic relationship (though I still love a well-written romance haha)

Oh, that sounds pretty cool actually. Have you ever wrote/considered to write your own novel on that?

I actually currently am ^-^ it is coming slower than I would like but my novel series is supposed to be this dark fantasy type.

 

[FoolsErin]

(not incest, most of the time at least)

 

[Melpomene]

 

[WINCE]

 

[Idea]

Narrative Elements

Plots
I love plots light and dark, the tragedy and the comedy, though I generally prefer comedy and more light-hearted content. I like smiling and I like laughing, and I like being able to introduce cool ideas without someone going pedantic or just taking things way too seriously in general. A darker story is still worth it for me, but it takes more of a impact to make it so, nitty and gritty isn't enough, my partner needs to know where to hold back, where to put their weight, how to build up and pay off. It takes a certain...patience.

Moving on though, I am generally more of a fan of plots that have a more cooperative approach over those where player characters are more antagonistic towards one another.

I feel like there is more to say, but unfortunately I just can't think of anything else universal enough to what I like to write to say in this point... maybe cause I'm tired...

Characters
The kinds of characters I like to play tend to come and go in waves and cravings, but my absolute favorite type of character to play is definitely the child character. I love the unique challenges and perspective a character like this can have (their age creates natural obstacles to overcome physically and mentally, and the innocent and limited perspective of a child is very fun to work with), not to mention they have a way of bringing out sides of other characters one wouldn't normally see, and their naivete is a great catalyst to get them to do things other characters wouldn't, such as maybe engage with that one loner no one else seems to be paying attention to. And of course... cuteness is justice!!!.

Beyond this, I would I love writing about the bizarre and exotic. I like to write from perspectives that seem alien, and to follow paths after double-checking I'm stepping into a treaded one at least within that group.

Settings
As a passionate worldbuilder, I absolutely love to write about all these unnusual fantastical places one can create through exploring the societies, geographies, magic, people of these worlds. A good world can really make a story shine, even if the premise is a bit subpar.

I have found a growing interest I have in more systematized settings, however. Tabletop RPGs rank among them, but VRMMORPG type settings also have a knack for attracting my eye, even if ultimately my strict requirements for myself and others end up throwing it away.

Naturally, one thing I am absolutely delighted to get to do is share my own creations when it comes to settings. One I'm particularly proud of is Euphorium, my main fantasy world, which was originally a collection of random ideas I had which I put together into one cohesive unit with an expansive world history. Through a sudden influx of attention, my "generic isekai" type world has also been growing in depth lately, as I attempted to standardize the information a bit with world anvil. And of course, there's that one VRMMO setting I've been working on in and out for years now ...

Themes
Guilt and regret are two feelings that deeply resonate with me. I find that one thing I almost always do with my characters is make them guilty, if they are victims then they are victims of their own karma, they bring about their own downfall. The feelings of wanting to fix the past one can never go back to, the weight of knowing that yes, it IS your fault, the careful balance in the judgement when someone is in fact guilty, there's a whole world to explore around these themes, and they connect so well with me due to my own life experiences that they are always something I want to go into.

Worth and usefulness, the shift one's real and one's sense of self-respect, dignity and usefulness is something else I find that I really like exploring in my roleplays. Interestingly enough, not only is this a very interesting theme to explore, but true to itself it is also a very useful one. Being to use "exploring a feeling of uselessness" as a catalyst for a character arc when it becomes evident that the other players made some broken character is really quite useful. In immediate contrast, many of my characters tend to actively deceive themselves by inflating their own sense of self-worth, becoming arrogant and petty, or just overall way more prideful than what's good for them.

I absolutely agree with exploring platonic relationships and other forms of affection that not romantic. Especially when you consider most of my characters are young children, it really couldn't be any other way. Though, I don't mind romantic ones either, and always try to approach the subject matter from the point of view of how characters relate to one another as individuals, before caring about what sort of pair they might make.

Tropes

There are many tropes of genre, characters, and general story ideas that I just love to work with. To name a few, I love self-sacrifice stories, I love isekai, genderbend comedy and the 500 year old loli trope. (Boy that suddenly got very 'anime'. Then again, it's me speaking so that's to be expected ). I am a big fan of meta-playing, bouncing around with tropes for comedic purposes or for subversion, or even just to play them straight cause they are interesting, and building from what I know of the trope to make it as effective as I can.

A More Personal Approach
If I dive really, really deep into introspection here, that fundamentally I want to write about the things I want to share. Part of the point of writing for me is conveying and seeing how people receive (or not) those things, be my wild shower thoughts or a carefully crafted world over years, be it my experiences and perspective or just the fun and joy of a joke, or sadness of a loss, or my appreciation for the idea of another... It's not exactly a new idea

Furthermore, I also write to create. I want to therefore write about things which I feel confident I can create something of value out of.

The Future
I think besides realizing some of the plans and things I have been working on for a long time, there are many things I want to write about- unrequited love, a character on the other side of the win-lose spectrum I usually fall under, a tragic villain etc... - are pretty much bound to me finding the right players to coordenate it all with.


I guess I'll leave it at that. Looking back, I'm not entirely sure I answered your actual question...but I hope I did, and that you enjoyed the read at least

Happy RPing!

 

[rae2nerdy]

So I love worldbuilding and I’m on a huge mystery kick recently.

I love brainstorming multi chapter mysteries with my partners even if I rarely get to actually write them. I also find it fun to flesh out fantasy or fandom worlds whenever possible.

Here lately I have also been on a historical kick dealing with the early 1900s.

 

[WINCE]

So I love worldbuilding
I love brainstorming multi chapter mysteries with my partners even if I rarely get to actually write them. I also find it fun to flesh out fantasy or fandom worlds whenever possible.

Brainstorming, to me, is the toughest part, thus my most favorite to do collaboratively. It's nice to have that input on your own ideas, and also to just watch real-time how others interpret the genre, and go about thinking outside the box.

World-building adds an interesting depth to any story, and can be played around with in so many ways that I it too. Heck, it can even be it's own, stand-alone thing. The amount of thought and effort some writers put into it amazes me.

and I’m on a huge mystery kick recently.
Here lately I have also been on a historical kick dealing with the early 1900s.

Mystery and the early 1900s? You been reading about the intriguing unsolved-murder cases they had then? You should if you haven't.

 

[Jannah]

Realistic historical scenarios, usually revolving around war and tragedy. It's fascinating to explore how people at the centre of these events would have reacted to them themselves. I know, writing about real world genocides and such may be difficult for some and even come across as insensitive, but I think it can be done as long as one is respectful about it.

Aside from that, I usually love dystopian and low fantasy settings. I'll occasionally delve into the more heavy high fantasy stuff too.

 

[Crayons]

One thing I really enjoy is conflicts between people/ideologies where neither is "good" or "evil", just people with their own personalities and justifications, or societies with opposed political systems, butting up against each other and all the character development and drama that comes out of that. Could be on a large scale or very small. It's what I find most fascinating, especially if I get to play against my own personal values.