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So you want to be an author?
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EducationalMusings & MumblingsSITE ADMINSoloTutorialWriting - General
In the roleplay world, there are generally three types of roleplayers.
♦ The Trolls
♦ The Hobbyists
♦ The Professionals
Now, the trolls aren't really important. These aren't really roleplayers, they're looking for cybersex and to pretend they're with the hot person in the profile picture. We're going to discard them for this, as they're unimportant. Hobbyists write to relax, and to just have a good time. Roleplay is just something fun they do to pass the time, or because it makes them smile and forges friendships. Most roleplayers fall into this category. It's a hobby like crafts or knitting, and is treated as such.
Then we have the professionals. To them, roleplay is akin to a job. They are roleplaying to perfect their skills and keep their writing sharp, because they are making a career out of it. Many authors use roleplay as a stepping stone to publishing their own work. I am one of them. If you would like to work towards this goal, there are a few things to keep in mind. Some are pleasant, some not so pleasant, but if you want to eventually see your work in print, they are things to bear in mind.
♦ The professionals are usually the "assholes".
I don't say this to be flippant or to downplay it, its simply the truth of how people see us at times. When authors are roleplaying, they are choosing to roleplay instead of working on writing that can eventually earn them money. This means, they generally don't have time to tutor or mentor a bad writer. They require potential writing partners to be literate, because the goal of roleplaying for them is to be improving their own writing. They can't do that if they're writing with someone that still needs a lot of work themselves. If you want to eventually work towards publishing, you need to learn to be selective as well. Try to work with writers that will challenge you so you're consistently improving your work.
As an addendum, this is not to say that all professional writers will be like this. Many of us are more than happy to try to work with everyone when we can. Usually, we're more selective when we're working on a book in progress, as we have to keep those skills sharp with all writing so we don't make too many mistakes in our daily writing or during the editing process.
During down times though, a lot of us find it almost a relief to relax and not worry about being so uptight over writing. It becomes almost like a vacation, if you will. If we're backed up on projects, we will generally tell you so and give you a timeline on when we next expect to be available for new plots. Respect this. When we're in self-edit demoralizing mode, pressuring us to write and respond on your schedule is not in your best interest, or ours.
♦ Learn to self-edit.
You should always be double and triple checking your work. Pre-write in a separate document to sort the first draft of spelling errors as you type. Use tools for spelling and grammar like Grammarly or ProWritingAid. Keep an online thesaurus open in another browser tab, if necessary, to ensure you aren't overusing certain words. When you move from roleplay to novels, editors will not work with your first draft, and shouldn't be expected to. You're paying quite a bit of money, which means you want to send them the best copy you can so they spend less time on it. Learning to self-edit and find your own mistakes in smaller posts will serve you well when writing longer works.
♦ Practice, practice, and more practice.
Always be writing. Whether it be a solo blog, a thread with partners, headcanons, biographies, or even a diary written by your character, write as often as you can. Authors don't have a partner who can add new ideas into the story. We don't have someone else's thoughts and actions to consider, we don't get to see different things through their eyes the way we do in a roleplay post. You need to practice writing as many different styles as you can, so you can learn to flesh out character reactions, thoughts, and actions by yourself. Learning to plot out a well-rounded storyline or thread will come in handy when you are looking at the prospect of fleshing out a novella or novel. Being able to sort out specific events and timelines will enable you to keep the story moving at a pace that readers will enjoy, and roleplaying helps with this as attention spans are much shorter. Learn to captivate your audience and keep them reading.
♦ Learn to take criticism.
Some of the best writers in the world could decorate their entire offices in rejection letters and bad reviews. It's a fact of life, no matter how nice or well-versed you are, some people are bound to be hateful just out of spite or jealousy. You cannot prevent this. Use roleplaying to develop a thicker skin. Rejection stings, being ignored or dropped as a writing partner sucks. Jealous people want what you have, but don't want to put the work in, so they will attack you and spread rumors as a way of "getting even".
Instead of wallowing in self-pity, use it. Look over the work you did, find ways to improve it. Figure out how to re-work it so it can be re-used. Do not blame the other person completely for an issue, always find something you can work on and adapt to avoid a similar issue in the future. Remember, you are the common denominator, and if the same issues are happening with multiple people, changing your approach to a situation will help. If people are jealous of you, understand that it has little to do with you and says more about them. You can't solve this, and shouldn't be expected to. Your body of work will speak for itself, let it.
Never post rants, ever. As a roleplayer, it gets you unfriended or blocked. As an author? It gets you blacklisted. Once that happens, it's nearly impossible to salvage your reputation as a writer. There are entire webpages and Facebook groups dedicated to "Authors Behaving Badly". You do not ever want to end up being showcased on one of these. Criticism comes with the territory of putting a part of yourself out into public view. Inoculate yourself against it by learning coping mechanisms through roleplay before the stakes get much higher.
♦ Read everything.
Not only should you be writing various genres and styles yourself, but you should be reading as many posts as you have time for. Everyone writes differently. If you give 20 writers the same basic plot idea, you will always get 20 different posts back. Writers infuse their own personality into their work, and analyzing what others do can help you to find your own unique voice. There are thousands of authors writing the same genre you are at any given moment. Knowing what angles are most popular is very important, but so is finding a way to make those angles your own.
In roleplay, you have a unique opportunity that most aspiring authors don't have. Here, you can see what seems to get more readers, what people follow along with. You can work on finding things that will make you unique by reading and observing your peers, then tweaking and fleshing out your storyline in various AU's and plots until you find one that suits you best and that readers enjoy the most. It's far easier to do this in roleplay before putting all your effort into a full length novel only to realize it wasn't a good angle for you.
♦ Work on basic photo manips.
At first glance, this doesn't seem all that important. However, as an author, you need photos. Teasers for upcoming books, logos, cover/profile images, takeover posts, giveaway posts, swag items... people respond better to photos as they catch attention faster on Facebook and Twitter, where most authors advertise. If you can't do your own, you are paying out of pocket for each edit you need. Those costs can add up quickly. At a minimum, you should be able to adjust colors, textures, and add text to photos. Playing with photos for your roleplaying characters can be a fun way to experiment with this, and learning to work with specific types of editing will come in handy when you need to throw together quick images for takeovers and giveaways that have to be customized from generic stock photos.
♦ Be approachable, and make friends everywhere.
As indie authors, we don't have a massive marketing team at our disposal. We don't have people watching analytics and adjusting algorithms to best amplify our organic reach. We don't usually have the money for a personal assistant straight from the start, or even know what the heck we're doing when we start out. We're essentially on our own. Except... not really. Indie authors are a welcoming bunch. We've all been at that starting line, ready to click "Publish" on our debut novel. Waiting with nerves causing us to tremble like a leaf as our first book release party is getting ready to start. We are a community and, much like the roleplay community, we take pride in helping each other.
To this end, make friends. Don't clean your friends list of people that are in different genres/groups and aren't able to write with you. Understand that some people are there to read your writing, and that is the highest honor someone can pay you. Even if you can't find a way to write with someone, appreciate that they want to read your writing, and be willing to read theirs as well.
These contacts that you make now, these roleplaying friends, they will be among your first fans. They will be the ones telling others "I knew her/him when they started! I watched this character take shape! I remember when so-and-so had this character doing this, but I like this final idea so much better!" All authors rely on the fact that people want to read their work. Be respectful, courteous, and cultivate these friendships whenever and wherever you can. When it comes time to share news of your first release, those friends will be the first to congratulate you, the first to buy, and the first to share your posts and announcements. They will be your tribe, and we could all use a little bit more positivity in this world, both in roleplay and in writing at large.
♦ The Trolls
♦ The Hobbyists
♦ The Professionals
Now, the trolls aren't really important. These aren't really roleplayers, they're looking for cybersex and to pretend they're with the hot person in the profile picture. We're going to discard them for this, as they're unimportant. Hobbyists write to relax, and to just have a good time. Roleplay is just something fun they do to pass the time, or because it makes them smile and forges friendships. Most roleplayers fall into this category. It's a hobby like crafts or knitting, and is treated as such.
Then we have the professionals. To them, roleplay is akin to a job. They are roleplaying to perfect their skills and keep their writing sharp, because they are making a career out of it. Many authors use roleplay as a stepping stone to publishing their own work. I am one of them. If you would like to work towards this goal, there are a few things to keep in mind. Some are pleasant, some not so pleasant, but if you want to eventually see your work in print, they are things to bear in mind.
♦ The professionals are usually the "assholes".
I don't say this to be flippant or to downplay it, its simply the truth of how people see us at times. When authors are roleplaying, they are choosing to roleplay instead of working on writing that can eventually earn them money. This means, they generally don't have time to tutor or mentor a bad writer. They require potential writing partners to be literate, because the goal of roleplaying for them is to be improving their own writing. They can't do that if they're writing with someone that still needs a lot of work themselves. If you want to eventually work towards publishing, you need to learn to be selective as well. Try to work with writers that will challenge you so you're consistently improving your work.
As an addendum, this is not to say that all professional writers will be like this. Many of us are more than happy to try to work with everyone when we can. Usually, we're more selective when we're working on a book in progress, as we have to keep those skills sharp with all writing so we don't make too many mistakes in our daily writing or during the editing process.
During down times though, a lot of us find it almost a relief to relax and not worry about being so uptight over writing. It becomes almost like a vacation, if you will. If we're backed up on projects, we will generally tell you so and give you a timeline on when we next expect to be available for new plots. Respect this. When we're in self-edit demoralizing mode, pressuring us to write and respond on your schedule is not in your best interest, or ours.
♦ Learn to self-edit.
You should always be double and triple checking your work. Pre-write in a separate document to sort the first draft of spelling errors as you type. Use tools for spelling and grammar like Grammarly or ProWritingAid. Keep an online thesaurus open in another browser tab, if necessary, to ensure you aren't overusing certain words. When you move from roleplay to novels, editors will not work with your first draft, and shouldn't be expected to. You're paying quite a bit of money, which means you want to send them the best copy you can so they spend less time on it. Learning to self-edit and find your own mistakes in smaller posts will serve you well when writing longer works.
♦ Practice, practice, and more practice.
Always be writing. Whether it be a solo blog, a thread with partners, headcanons, biographies, or even a diary written by your character, write as often as you can. Authors don't have a partner who can add new ideas into the story. We don't have someone else's thoughts and actions to consider, we don't get to see different things through their eyes the way we do in a roleplay post. You need to practice writing as many different styles as you can, so you can learn to flesh out character reactions, thoughts, and actions by yourself. Learning to plot out a well-rounded storyline or thread will come in handy when you are looking at the prospect of fleshing out a novella or novel. Being able to sort out specific events and timelines will enable you to keep the story moving at a pace that readers will enjoy, and roleplaying helps with this as attention spans are much shorter. Learn to captivate your audience and keep them reading.
♦ Learn to take criticism.
Some of the best writers in the world could decorate their entire offices in rejection letters and bad reviews. It's a fact of life, no matter how nice or well-versed you are, some people are bound to be hateful just out of spite or jealousy. You cannot prevent this. Use roleplaying to develop a thicker skin. Rejection stings, being ignored or dropped as a writing partner sucks. Jealous people want what you have, but don't want to put the work in, so they will attack you and spread rumors as a way of "getting even".
Instead of wallowing in self-pity, use it. Look over the work you did, find ways to improve it. Figure out how to re-work it so it can be re-used. Do not blame the other person completely for an issue, always find something you can work on and adapt to avoid a similar issue in the future. Remember, you are the common denominator, and if the same issues are happening with multiple people, changing your approach to a situation will help. If people are jealous of you, understand that it has little to do with you and says more about them. You can't solve this, and shouldn't be expected to. Your body of work will speak for itself, let it.
Never post rants, ever. As a roleplayer, it gets you unfriended or blocked. As an author? It gets you blacklisted. Once that happens, it's nearly impossible to salvage your reputation as a writer. There are entire webpages and Facebook groups dedicated to "Authors Behaving Badly". You do not ever want to end up being showcased on one of these. Criticism comes with the territory of putting a part of yourself out into public view. Inoculate yourself against it by learning coping mechanisms through roleplay before the stakes get much higher.
♦ Read everything.
Not only should you be writing various genres and styles yourself, but you should be reading as many posts as you have time for. Everyone writes differently. If you give 20 writers the same basic plot idea, you will always get 20 different posts back. Writers infuse their own personality into their work, and analyzing what others do can help you to find your own unique voice. There are thousands of authors writing the same genre you are at any given moment. Knowing what angles are most popular is very important, but so is finding a way to make those angles your own.
In roleplay, you have a unique opportunity that most aspiring authors don't have. Here, you can see what seems to get more readers, what people follow along with. You can work on finding things that will make you unique by reading and observing your peers, then tweaking and fleshing out your storyline in various AU's and plots until you find one that suits you best and that readers enjoy the most. It's far easier to do this in roleplay before putting all your effort into a full length novel only to realize it wasn't a good angle for you.
♦ Work on basic photo manips.
At first glance, this doesn't seem all that important. However, as an author, you need photos. Teasers for upcoming books, logos, cover/profile images, takeover posts, giveaway posts, swag items... people respond better to photos as they catch attention faster on Facebook and Twitter, where most authors advertise. If you can't do your own, you are paying out of pocket for each edit you need. Those costs can add up quickly. At a minimum, you should be able to adjust colors, textures, and add text to photos. Playing with photos for your roleplaying characters can be a fun way to experiment with this, and learning to work with specific types of editing will come in handy when you need to throw together quick images for takeovers and giveaways that have to be customized from generic stock photos.
♦ Be approachable, and make friends everywhere.
As indie authors, we don't have a massive marketing team at our disposal. We don't have people watching analytics and adjusting algorithms to best amplify our organic reach. We don't usually have the money for a personal assistant straight from the start, or even know what the heck we're doing when we start out. We're essentially on our own. Except... not really. Indie authors are a welcoming bunch. We've all been at that starting line, ready to click "Publish" on our debut novel. Waiting with nerves causing us to tremble like a leaf as our first book release party is getting ready to start. We are a community and, much like the roleplay community, we take pride in helping each other.
To this end, make friends. Don't clean your friends list of people that are in different genres/groups and aren't able to write with you. Understand that some people are there to read your writing, and that is the highest honor someone can pay you. Even if you can't find a way to write with someone, appreciate that they want to read your writing, and be willing to read theirs as well.
These contacts that you make now, these roleplaying friends, they will be among your first fans. They will be the ones telling others "I knew her/him when they started! I watched this character take shape! I remember when so-and-so had this character doing this, but I like this final idea so much better!" All authors rely on the fact that people want to read their work. Be respectful, courteous, and cultivate these friendships whenever and wherever you can. When it comes time to share news of your first release, those friends will be the first to congratulate you, the first to buy, and the first to share your posts and announcements. They will be your tribe, and we could all use a little bit more positivity in this world, both in roleplay and in writing at large.