rpanons | [D] Reading an actual book

[D] Reading an actual book

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ive been playing dave for about two years, one of those years really sucking at him. this probably sucks too, but i tried man, i tried. i'm just going to go over voice in general, unless anyone in particular wants me to talk about attitude/relationships/whatever.

voice

the first thing you have to know about dave is how similar his speech patterns are to rap. this is specifically noticeable when he gets in those rambling moods when he types (think frequent BACKSPACE KEY use) and is supported by the fact that one of his great interests/hobbies is rap (http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=005104 remember "rapping roof ninja" in reference to bro; ties in with his idolization of his guardian). keep in mind that dave does not always ramble like mad (he mostly does it when trying to play it cool). shit, a lot of his pesterlogs have him collected. just like rose is not such a threatening/icy-cold/imtryingtoavoidslurshere kind of person (especially evident with in-person logs), dave can tone it down. besides, youd be having to be insanely clever for every tag you make, and that is way too much work.

to analyze daves "hardcore" dialogue (the kind that people tend to look for to see if youve mastered the strider), youd also have to analyze rap, to an extent. there's obviously a lot of similarities between the two styles, like pop-culture references for one thing, and oddball diction (pubescent boy's naked spam porpoise) for another.

to reinforce what ive said, let's analyze my favorite "featuring TtC" song:

with the re-up's a helluva buzz
rick james said cocaine's a helluva drug

i don't know about you, but all i know about this lyric is that he's mentioning drugs, a'ight. re-up is a reference to pusha t's record label, as rapgenius has it, and the rick james part is referring to this quote that's apparently also a meme (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udNHsk57f24)?

now lets look at this pesterlog (http://mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=002999)

TG: you and me
TG: welcome to nam
TG: now grab my hand and shimmy your soggy ass off that muddy bank before charlie gets the fuckin drop

obviously he's alluding to vietnam, and if you look here (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120114115758AAkZrqN) Charlie was the "American slang for the Vietcong (the forces of North Vietnam)". now here's the connection: this is dave when he's typing. like back when i said "his speech pattern is similar to rap", you can see here that he's making a reference not every teenager will get (because... he's talking to teenagers man).

now here's the harder part, how do i do that? it's actually relatively easy. like that one famous dave strider blog on tumblr said once, just keep typing. when thoughts flow into your head, write them down. kind of like how one of those roxy advice givers said in one of the other threads, type faster then you normally would and don't backspace (although you're not making typos, here). also like that one rp blog said, when you have one word in your head, try thinking of a more complex yet related word to attach as an adjective or something.

adjectives are helpful. also prepositional phrases and shit (http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004672)

GC: 1M NOT SUR3 WH4T TH4T M34NS
GC: BUT 1 SUSP3CT 1T W4S SOM3TH1NG H1GHLY L4SC1V1OUS >:|
TG: the glittering civilization before you was built on angry apefuck power alone

bold = extra fluffers

note that dave also, yes im saying it, uses "big" words. the kind you miiiight have to bust out a thesaurus for. the fact that he has a large vocabulary just emphasizes how smart he really is.

dave has a foul mouth, let's face it! but try not to overdo it with the f-bomb. pretentious people tend to associate cursing with "low-class nobodies" and reiterating that last point, we all know he's smart! if you want to add extra words to his dialogue, especially when you're stuck and/or have a hunch it doesn't sound as dave-y as you want it to, bad words can fill the void. (if you must, try to use cursewords that are attached to another word, like dumbass, fuckwit, and shithole).

now here's a bonus: how to rap like dave strider

TG: armageddon's gettin waged on us
TG: but im-a gettin armed and dangerous
TG: sending men in space for savin us
TG: see which playa's more couragerous
TG: ben or bruce? dudes reach a truce
TG: put their blowchutes to use and up-suck it
TG: afflecks saclifice, i mean -crifice, would have to sufflice. aw fluck it
TG: bro be a stained-glass saint, up on a cross gettin hella christ-plagiarous
TG: bruce's like offa that cruciflix, nuff a this fuckin savior-fuss
TG: restrained his ass per mclane-redux while buscemi remained derangerous
TG: when a plan gone astray pays off a wasted craterous
TG: ash tray caterin to layers of matt maconnaheys vague remainder-dust

a few of the nouns he uses in this rap to john (http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=002187) sound like thesaurus-esque shit but are really just names of people/places/events like "buscemi" which connects to "bruce" whom can either be bruce willis or bruce banner, dont ask me.

sometimes rappers do this thing (i forgot what its called in literature) where the consonant of an initial word repeats itself, but not in the same word. if that doesnt make sense look at "afflecks saclifice, i mean -crifice, would have to sufflice" its suppose to be a rhyme scheme in one line, and the "aw fluck it" is that one part where the rapper says something more aimed at himself than the audience, as a way to end that lyric.

in this particular verse-thingy, dave keeps rhyming with that "-ous" sound at the end (last five lines). typically you can choose to follow certain variations of patterns of AbAbAb, or just go crazy and do thirds or something (in this rap dave did -us, -it and -ous).

now, back to the future

with all of this shit in mind, remember that hes not actually all that cool, and gets especially awkward in person. i would go more in detail but this is getting kind of long, haha

That was the most beautiful too long I ever did read, anon. I'm saving it for future ref, thanks a bunch!

Shit this is great, Anon. It actually helped me tons on a few key points I'd been struggling with. The tidbit about cursing is especially great; Dave has a foul mouth but tends to be more, idk I guess WHIMSICAL about it to whereas Dirk is more PC but tosses out the f-bomb hella casually. It's a fun difference to keep in mind.

"Just keep typing" is pretty great advice. Something I've noticed for me personally and may help other RPers is that I feel as though I sound the most like Dave when I'm really, really tired or suffering from insomnia. Mind you, I don't suggest depriving yourself of sleep just to RP, but I think there's a sort of feeling you have in that state where you just allow your head to make connections and don't think much of it. It's very follow-the-breadcrumbs-stream-of-conscious. Jotting funny thoughts you have while you're in a rambling mood like that and adding them to an arsenal for later use has helped me. I have a locked entry on Dave's journal where I stash things just like that, and it's helped me out quite a few times.

just a note, that rap's about the movie armageddon. ben or bruce refers to ben affleck and bruce willis.

The word you're thinking of with the consonant repetition is alliteration. (Let's look lively!) You may also wish to employ assonance, which is the repetition of vowel sounds. (Two blew through.) That one's pretty much inherent in rhyming, though.

Rap has a traditional acceptance of near-rhymes where two sounds aren't quite the same, but close enough to sound good, and a liking of multi-syllable rhymes. We can see this in Dave's work in the example you gave: he's not just rhyming -ous, but the syllables leading up to it.

waged on us
dangerous
savin us

Note that the middle syllable doesn't have to follow a pattern; it's unstressed, and vocally would be glossed over. You've gotta keep in mind that this stuff is meant to be said out loud. Note also that most lines fitting this rhyme also have the g sound, but not all. And that playing around with language is also encouraged, as per the next line, couragerous, which is not a word!

The overall gist is basically do whatever it takes to repeat sounds as much as possible. Andrew Hussie is really good at writing raps and personally I find it a bit intimidating. Read up on the principles of poetry and the conventions of rap if you're getting confused, and definitely, whatever else you do, read And It Don't Stop.

i think better than just studying up on this you should listen to actual rap

hearing it makes it infinitely less "intimidating" especially if you're listening to great artists

any favourites to rec, anon?

beastie boys, jurassic 5, wu-tang clan, cypress hill, notorious b.i.g., tupac

to name a few

For the type of wordplay Dave employs, I would also suggest Ludacris, Outkast, and Busta Rhymes. (The former two have a more whimsical, lyrical, and notably southern flow)

with his rhyme scheme it always makes me think of kanye west, particularly his verse in run this town with rihanna and jay-z

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[D] Reading an actual book

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