rpanons | take that bootybotheration and turn it into bootydetermination

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So who has some tips on how to keep a character IC, how to tell when you're messing up, etc?

Because asking friends doesn't work since those people will always say they looove your character no matter what.

canon review regularly. even just watching one episode (or your medium's equivalent) can help you keep their voice. the rest is just making sure you keep in mind their motivations, growth etc.

Understanding motivations is big for me. When I canon review I focus a lot on why they're doing what they're doing, so I can take those motivations to anything I have them do in the future and see if they mesh. It also helps because that can grow with the character if you play them for a long time, whereas simple patterns of behavior from canon won't fit for very long if you try to impose them back on to get "back to IC."

After awhile you'll find objections to non-IC stuff popping up in your head before you even get the chance to write it, and if the only defense you can come up with is "but I waaaaaanna," that'll be your sure sign that it doesn't fit.

agreeing with the above anon that understanding the character's core motivations is essential. they act as guiding principles that help you realize how the character's going to react even to extremely unfamiliar circumstances.

know not just your character's behaviors, but how those behaviors serve their needs. if you understand your character's emotional needs and the ways they seek to fulfill them, you can keep them internally consistent even as they develop and grow. if something you want the character to do runs counter to how they manage their needs, such as by pursuing something they don't actually care about or acting in a way that would make them feel too exposed on some front, you know it's not a good fit and would be ooc.

character voice is best kept by regular canon review, even just small clips to hear/read/whatever them for a little to remember how they sound (or "sound" when written), the cadence of their speech, word choice, etc. if you can read a tag in their voice and it sounds natural, that's a good sign.

one thing i always keep an eye on is a character's negative traits. i know one of my particular weaknesses can be softening them just to make interactions smoother. i like to keep a clear list of their problems, and this is generally a major part of my personality section because understanding someone's dysfunctions generally means you've got a solid grasp of how those bad traits reflect the character's attempts to meet their needs, even if they're doing it in an ineffective or damaging way. on that note, sometimes i just reread my own personality section because it's like a mission statement for me playing that character.

This is all extremely good advice!

Adding on to it, one of the things I do is keep a collection of character moments (links to YT clips, specific manga pages/chapters, episode list, whatever) that really define how the character acts, how they view the world, what really defines them as a unique person. Going back and reviewing those is a great mini-canon review and can do a lot to help keep you clear on canon characterization.

yeah i do this too! it depends on what you're playing from, really. i hadn't thought to include it because i don't really do this in an organized way with bookmarks, but i definitely have go-tos i dig up.

I'll admit I do it from sheer self defense, since I play the main character from a hella long series. Trying to do a start to finish canon review would take months, so this is my shortcut

look back over your tags and try to decide objectively if they sound like they could have come from some other character entirely if you just changed the names. not every tag will need it, but if every tag feels generic there's probably not enough of the character going into them. pay attention to things like word choice in character dialogue and how they think about things. keep their backstory in mind when deciding how they react to things. again, you don't always need it, and tags don't need to be novel-length, but i feel like it really helps improve tags and individualize your character if instead of something like "character being generically nice to another character" you instead do "character being a bit nicer than they normally are to a younger character with a note in the narration that they have a soft spot for kids because of ___"

take that bootybotheration and turn it into bootydetermination

ICness

Re: ICness

Re: ICness

Re: ICness

Re: ICness

ayrt

ayrt

Re: ICness