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[guide] tips and tricks for writing applications
TIPS AND TRICKS FOR WRITING APPLICATIONS
If you’re reading this article, you’re probably looking to join a new roleplaying game and need some help regarding your application. Maybe you’re new to the roleplaying scene and don’t know where to start. Maybe you’re looking for ways to improve your own app writing skills. Maybe you’re just bored and want to see someone else’s perspective on app writing. If any of these apply to you, you’re in the right place!
After realizing that there weren't any articles or entries out there to help people write RP applications, I decided to make my own! In this article, I've laid out a few tips, tricks, and other guidelines about writing character information/history, constructing a personality section, and dealing with revisions. Filling out RP applications may seem intimidating at first, but with experience, you’ll be able to tackle any application with ease.
DISCLAIMER: This article does not claim to be a definitive guide, nor am I guaranteeing that you will be accepted to a game if you follow this advice. I'm just one person compiling my own tips as well as any advice my friends have given me in the past! This is simply an article for those who may need a bit of help when it comes to writing RP applications.
i. basic tips and tricks
ii. character information/history
iii. character personality
iv. revisions
BASIC TIPS AND TRICKS
Almost every application will require a character history section and a personality section, which is what we'll be focusing on for most of this guide. However, before you start writing that app, we’ll go over a few basic tips about the application process.
First, consider the premise of the game you’re applying to. When writing an application for a particular game, it may help to write about aspects of the character that may be highlighted during their time there. For example, a horror game or short-term murdergame may focus on how a character might deal with stress--something you might want to touch upon in your application. However, in a Slice of Life (SoL) game, this is probably not something that is heavily emphasized.
Next, it may also help to read previous applications or app samples on the game’s page, if available. Reading previous applications can help give you a sense as to what other people have written for their characters and what expectations the mods might have. When it comes to writing tone, applications sit between a formal academic essay and a friendly chat with your friends. Mods obviously aren’t expecting you to pump out a thesis paper in a week, but you want to make sure that you’re still writing complete sentences and proper grammar. Most mods will appreciate a little bit of humor in your writing, but make sure you keep your goal in mind.
If you ever get stuck during the writing process, just put down what you can before going back and expanding upon it. One of the things that I do when I don't know where to even start is making a bulleted list about things I want to cover about my character. Just getting a few words down on the paper can help get your brain juices flowing, and soon, you'll have a complete application.
Last but not least, if there’s anything that I want you to take away from this guide, it’s the following:
Many mistakes made during the application process can be easily fixed with a little proofreading. Now, I’m not saying to comb through your app like a high school English teacher looking for any sign of failure, but proofreading can help you catch small things like:
- Not filling out all the fields on your application
- Not finishing a section you told yourself that you were going to expand upon
- Grammatical/spelling errors
- Cleaning up some sentences that don’t make sense
- ...And so on and so forth
If you have a willing friend, you can send them your application to look over everything before you submit it. Having an extra pair of eyes on your app never hurts! If your friend isn’t familiar with the canon, that’s even better--they can let you know if certain parts aren’t clear to them that you might want to expand upon.
Alternatively, if you're not comfortable with sharing your work with other people, then another tip is to read your application out loud. I'm serious--as dumb as it sounds, it's a trick I use all the time, and it helps me catch any mistakes I make. Reading your app out loud can help you focus on the flow of your writing and realize if they are any places that need to be edited or rewritten.
Even if you don’t get it completely right the first time around, don’t worry--you’re human just like everyone else, and mods recognize that. It’s why revisions exist in the first place. It’s okay to not be perfect, because it is from our mistakes that we are able to grow. There is a later section in this article that covers how to write revisions, so you can look there for more advice.
CHARACTER INFORMATION / HISTORY
[src: artursadlos]
As exciting as it is to tell someone every detail about your character’s canon and history, it’s important to try and just focus on what’s relevant to the character’s journey. After all, the character’s context shapes the way they are as a person. In many applications, the character information/history section tends to suffer from having too much information, which is both tedious for the applicant to write and tedious for the mod team to read. It's important to know what to cut down on and what to expand upon. For example, it’s not particularly important to know the nitty gritty details about Muppet biology in order to understand Kermit the Frog’s journey to Hollywood and his eventual rise to fame in “The Muppet Movie”. However, for characters such Nightcrawler from X-Men, it might be important to include some historical background regarding the mutant/human conflict to understand why he and his team are fighting Magneto.
This advice also applies to characters with unusual canons or live in strange worlds other than Earth. A brief overview of the world and how people live is fine, but your app is mostly about the character and how they react to the circumstances around them. Most of the relevant information about the world will naturally make its way into the history section you write. A character living in a supernatural world will probably be affected by magic in some way, but it’s not always necessary to get into the details as to how that magic works.
Think as if you’re trying to describe your character's history/canon to someone who knows nothing about it. Not all mods are familiar with your character’s canon, and approaching it from this angle will help your application be more clear and concise. It might help to ask a friend who isn’t familiar with the canon to read over this section of your app--that way, they can give some feedback if it’s difficult to follow or if you’re missing certain key information.
Let’s go back to Kermit the Frog. The following paragraph describes Kermit's journey in "The Muppet Movie":
Kermit lived in Mississippi all his life until a man approached him about an acting job in Hollywood. While being chased by Doc Hopper across the country, Kermit managed to make his way to Hollywood and became a movie star with all his friends.
It’s not a bad paragraph--it just could be better. Notice that there’s little emphasis on how this affected Kermit personally or what the journey entailed. Also, notice that there isn’t any explanation as to who Doc Hopper is and why he is important to Kermit. The next paragraph adds some more detail to this.
Kermit lived in a Mississippi swamp all his life until an agent approached him about an acting job in Hollywood. Although initially unsure about the idea, Kermit decided to go on a cross-country trip to California, meeting new friends along the way and getting into various mishaps and misadventures. All the while, a man named Doc Hopper chased after Kermit, intending to kidnap the frog and use him as an actor in his fried frog leg commercials. Eventually, Kermit put his foot down and stood up against Doc Hopper with his friends. Upon reaching Hollywood, Kermit realized that he had found a new, weird, wonderful family with everyone he had met along the way, and his journey to Hollywood and fame wouldn’t have been possible without them.
This paragraph expands upon the previous example’s ideas by including details about Kermit’s development and explaining some aspects of the canon that people may not be familiar with. It might not be important to detail all the mishaps and adventures that occur during the movie, as long as we know the impact they have on Kermit--in this case, realizing that his weird friends have become his weird family.
If you’re having trouble determining what to include, you can always write a bulleted list of important events in the character’s life before going through the list again and deciding what information is the most relevant. You can also later expand upon those bullet points to make them more detailed. In fact, some history sections don’t have to be written in paragraph form--most games will accept an expanded upon bullet list. Please check with the game mods about this format before submitting your app like this.
As you continue to write your application, you may find that some aspects of your character’s history will end up intertwining with the personality section. That’s okay! A character’s history tends to influence their current personality. You can always go back through your app and clean up anything that’s too redundant. Try not to spend too much time agonizing over this section of your application--remember, you just need enough to show that you know the character well and you understand the context in which they have come from.
CHARACTER PERSONALITY
Sometimes, tackling the personality section of an app can feel quite daunting, but breaking it down into smaller steps can make the process easier and streamline your writing. A good way to start off the personality section is to write a list of traits that your character has. You don’t have to restrict yourself to singular words--in fact, you can write out simple sentences if you feel it describes your character better. Make sure to include both your character’s strengths and weaknesses in your list. Not only does this give the mods a more well-rounded picture of your character, it demonstrates that you really understand your character.
As an example, let’s pretend that we’re writing a simple personality section for Kermit the Frog. What personality traits does Kermit have? He’s kind, friendly, accepting towards everyone, but he tends to fret over the chaos caused by the Muppets. He also isn’t immune to bursts of anger or frustration when things get out of hand.
Now that we have a starting point for our personality section, we can expand upon these traits by providing examples of the character’s behavior in canon. Different games may require differing amounts of detail for their app’s personality section, but generally, describing a character’s traits and providing a few canon examples can help solidify your writing. Think of it like writing a casual essay--you start with your thesis statement (the sentence stating what trait your character has) and provide evidence to support that statement (canon examples demonstrating the character displaying this trait).
Let’s see if we can describe Kermit’s kind and accepting nature.
Kermit the Frog is generally very accepting of everyone he meets--both human and Muppet. He’s always willing to show kindness towards others, even if “normal” society would consider them weird or even if they’ve been outright antagonistic to him. Kermit believes that there is goodness in everyone’s heart, and sometimes it takes an act of kindness to get through to even the toughest of people.
For a smaller, more casual game, this would probably be enough to describe those traits. Let’s see if we can make it even better by adding in a few canon examples.
Kermit the Frog is generally very accepting of everyone he meets--both human and Muppet. He’s always willing to show kindness towards others, even if “normal” society would consider them weird or even if they’ve been outright antagonistic to him. Gonzo is constantly going on about his next weird project, from eating tires to becoming a Bollywood movie star, but Kermit always supports him and his wacky ideas. Additionally, when Kermit finally confronts Doc Hopper, he first tries to appeal to Doc’s kindness and gives him a chance to leave, despite the fact that Doc has actively tried to kidnap and brainwash Kermit. Kermit believes that there is goodness in everyone’s heart, and sometimes it takes an act of kindness to get through to even the toughest of people.
Not only are we telling the reader how kind and accepting Kermit is, we're also showing it through examples. If we wanted to make this even stronger, we could add an additional sentence or two describing Kermit’s limits when it comes to being nice.
However, Kermit’s patience and kindness has its limits. He knows that sometimes, you just have to put your foot (ahem, flipper) down. When his friends antics get to be too much, Kermit has a tendency to blow up in frustration or anger.
Now, we can use this sentence to segway into talking about Kermit’s flaws and additional traits!
If you find that you can’t phrase your idea in a formal manner, you can use casual language to get your point across. As stated in the basic tips section, mods aren’t looking for you to write an academic essay. Just remember not to go overboard with the funny quips--after all, you still want to make sure that the mods get a sense for the character, not your brand of humor.
In addition to personality traits, if a character has a significant relationship with another character in canon, you might want to write briefly about this relationship and how it affects your character. Parents, siblings, lovers, and enemies all serve as great ways to demonstrate how your character may interact with others, and how those relationships might have shaped their personality.
A small example of an important relationship would be Kermit’s on-and-off relationship with Miss Piggy. If we were writing a personality section for him, we might talk briefly about how he deals with Miss Piggy’s advances and how, despite everything she does, he still loves her. A slightly more extreme example is the relationship between Caliborn and Calliope from Homestuck. Caliborn and Calliope are alien siblings that share a body--thus, it would be impossible to describe Calliope’s personality without at least mentioning Caliborn’s influence and impact on her life, and vice-versa.
Once you’ve completed your personality section, it might be worthwhile to proofread and see if the writing flows well. Shuffle around the paragraphs in ways that make it easier to read. It’s not entirely necessary to do this, but it helps to connect your writing together as one cohesive essay. For example, it would be easy to talk about Kermit’s patience and kindness towards others as well as his frustration and lack of patience in certain scenarios.
REVISIONS
Usually, getting revisions just means that you just need to clarify a few things in your application. The mods will send you a few notes about your app, and you’re given some time to write your revisions.
The good news with revisions is that you know exactly where to improve upon. First, consider the notes that the mods have given you. Do you need to add more details about a certain personality trait? Are some parts of the character information/history lacking in some way? Take the time to think about what you want to write without first looking at your application--giving yourself that distance will allow you to approach revisions from a different perspective and help solidify the ideas that you want to write about.
It may help to jot down some notes on what you want to write about. Once you’re ready to proceed with writing revisions, reread your app to see where you’re missing information. Expand upon your notes based on what you’re missing, and remember to address every point that the mods have given you!
If you’re still unsure of whether or not your revisions will be accepted or you still don’t know where to start, ask a friend to look over your writing. Your friend might be able to spot things that you weren’t able to see in your application, as well as help in offering constructive criticism.
Thanks for reading this guide! Do you have any writing tips you’d like to share? Is there anything you want me to add or clarify? Do you want to give feedback on this article? Feel free to comment below! Wishing you the best of luck on your future applications!