rpanons | Okay

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Well first of all, I am so sorry they're making you fill out a history section. I am of the firm belief that history sections are a complete waste of time, not just for the applicant but for the app team to have to read through too. Unless it's a super obscure minor character, at which point they probably shouldn't be appable anyway. It's just lame, but you can power through it.

At any rate, I have gone through the suffering of a history section before so I know what most app teams are probably looking for and the only thing you want to focus on is your character in specific. You don't have to summarise the entire series, just your character's experience throughout the series' run. If there are sections where nothing happens to influence or affect them in any way, you should be okay to reference it offhand in a sort of "after Jim and Kate are off doing this, Bob starts his own adventure in underwater basketweaving" or something to that effect. You're writing about your character so don't worry about telling the life story of everyone else.

In the same vein, that means that you need to make sure you don't gloss over anything that is relevant to your character. This is how you get the most out of limited information. If a canon event changes the way your character looks at the world or influences their motivations, it doesn't matter if they were in that scene or not. Now it's important to them, and you'll want to make note of it. History sections are supposed to explain the growth of your character over the stretch of canon up to your canon-point (which is something I think you can do more effectively in the personality section, hence my apprehension of history sections). Regardless of how long or short the story arc is, if it affects your character's beliefs and motivations, it's worth talking about how and why this affects them.

The number one most important thing I want to see in an application is your character's thoughts and motivations. History does reflect that, as it can showcase examples of your character's decisions and the ways their motivations change, so to make the most of a history section, just be sure to talk about things that are significant to your character in specific. This shows us that you know your character's place and development within canon and that's all we really care about. I wouldn't look poorly on a player for glossing over things that are extraneous; I would thank them and give them a gold star on their app.

You sound like you've got a good head about it so just go with what you think is adequate enough and I'm sure you will be just fine. History sections are a pain but I know you can do it, anon!

Oh, yes, that makes a lot of sense. :3 Thanks, Sockermom~ (I feel bad because I read this and was all, "Oooooh, okay!" and ran off to write. And then I remembered today that I never thanked you for your advice.)

Yeah... I'm not too fond of history sections myself, because I tend to gloss history in my personality to explain why the character is how they are. It's hard for me to separate them out. But... this character I'd probably have typed a bit of history for anyways, since the wiki is inconsistent. It's just a lot more pressure when you have to do the whole thing, instead of linking to the wiki and expanding on the inconsistencies. : \

Lol! No worries. I'd rather you get your app done in time!

I think it's okay to weave a bit of personality into the history as well if you really ant help yourself. If nothing else, it'll give you some consistency when you go on to elaborate later on in the app. Just go it your own pace and you'll be aces!

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