Melrick

9614

If he's from Brazil then there's just no way on earth he'd be prepared to call it soccer. But that would be a good reason to have some minor conflict in the story - others keep calling it soccer, and he reminds them occasionally that it's called football, not soccer. If not then just adding a note to the story to explain it would be fine. One way you could have the Brazilian character talk about the food is have an American ask him about it, that would give him an excuse to go into some detail about it. If that's not appropriate then you could either not worry about it at all, or just leave a note explaining what exactly is in the meal if you feel it's important. Oh, I just realised, exactly where is your Brazilian character? Still in Brazil or in America? If he's actually in Brazil then the above things probably won't work, unless you could introduce a foreign character. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit That link will help you with info regarding the Inuit. It also has external links down the bottom for further research. As far as the last question is concerned, that very much depends on the style of the story. There's no right or wrong way to go about it. Look at the old Columbo TV series, with Peter Falk. The start of each episode showed who gets murdered and who did it. The rest of the show is about how Columbo finds out for himself who the killer is. And it works, primarily because of the Columbo character. Both of the options you suggested would work, how well depends on the story itself, and you're probably in the best position to decide which way might work best. I hope at least some of that helps.

9611

Turn Me Loose ~ Loverboy

9608

9606

Yeah well some people see Mary Sue's when there simply aren't any to see. You can safely ignore people who say it's a Mary Sue.

Ah I see, thanks.

On my profile thingy, to the left, under the blue "Member" button, I have 5 little black (or possibly dark grey) squares. Erm... is that a good thing or a bad thing?

9603

Well to truly know if it's a Mary Sue or not, I'd have to know you much better than I do - which is not at all - but unless you weigh 475 pounds and have detachable legs, I'd have to say it doesn't sound terribly Mary Sue-ish to me.

9601

9684

Okie dokie, I'll give that a try, thanks.

Is it normal to have to log in sometimes several times a day, even though I have it selected to remember me? I didn't have this problem with the old forum, so I'm wondering if settings have been changed regarding that or if it's just me for some odd reason.

9545

9543

I have a whole range of name generating websites bookmarked to help out. I even have a couple of suburb name generators, which have come in handy.

I agree with the previous two people. I don't mind editing at all, and I find it an integral part of the writing process itself, and is really no different at all. No matter how carefully I write, I always find errors when I proofread my story. And it's not just errors, I ALWAYS find better words and phrases to use, and even whole paragraphs, things that only make my story better. One technique many writers use is to just get the story down, and then refine it in proofreading. Professional authors will proofread their entire novel multiple times, from start to finish, before it's submitted to the publisher, even highly successful authors. So proofreading shouldn't be seen as a chore, but as a great chance to improve on your story.

There’s perhaps one thing you could expand on a little more with the Mary Sue explanation, and that’s about how almost all Mary Sue’s are basically the perfect version of the person themselves, so they tend to think and act how they themselves do, just more… perfectly. Characters that are flawed are always much more interesting to read, and to write, than those that are perfect. They allow you to explore new areas and interests, perhaps forcing you to do some research on new areas for your character, which will only expand your own personal knowledge. And if you’re writing about something you’re unfamiliar with, research really is necessary. Characters that are different from yourself certainly take more effort to write, that’s true. For instance, perhaps you’ve always been a very happy go lucky person that’s always positive, but your character is moody and gloomy, with a negative view on everything. Obviously that type of character would require the person to really delve into areas that they’re not familiar with, but the pleasure and satisfaction they would get from the end result is great. Your character WON’T know what other people are thinking. Far too often I’ve seen characters that amazingly know what someone else had only THOUGHT rather than said aloud. Read other people’s posts carefully, so you don’t misunderstand things. If you don’t understand something about the post, email that person your question. Explain that there are different types of simming. Simming is a word I’m personally more familiar with when it comes to role playing with a group. “Sim” is short for “simulation”. There’s live simming, where people gather somewhere, such as a private chat room or on IRC, and things happen pretty much in real time. And there’s email simming, where the people sign up on a email list server and when people write a post, they email it to the listserv and it automatically gets redistributed to everyone on the list. The different sims require very different styles of role play. When it comes to email simming, joint posts are a possibility. That’s where you approach another person on the sim to jointly write a post. You write a bit, email that to the person, they write a bit, send it back to you, etc, until you’re both satisfied with the post and then email that to the listserv. They’re a fun way to write, but don’t automatically assume a person wants to joint post with you, and don’t get offended if they choose not to. Role playing simulations are often headed by a game master of some kind. It’s usually this person’s job to push stories in certain directions, involve plot twists, adjudicate over conflicting posts or arguments, and generally keep things running smoothly. This is the person you really need to listen to and follow what they say. If you don’t like how they run the sim, find another one or start your own. Each sim is run differently, so it’s important to know the rules of that sim BEFORE you join up. Most sims don’t allow – or at the very least, hate it – when a person suddenly introduces a huge and unexpected plot twist that drastically changes the direction of the sim. Do NOT do that unless you’ve had permission of the game master first! Also, if people don’t have, and can’t afford, a word processing software then they can get a very good free word processor from www.openoffice.org. Their program is called “Writer”.

I do think it's very important that you find some gentle way to tell her that her role playing sucks donkey dick. Otherwise she's only going to do it over and over again, and nothing will ever change. She obviously gets some enjoyment out of role playing, but she needs to try and understand that if she plays it the right way then she'll get even more enjoyment out of it, and so will others role playing with her. Role playing really isn't something you can do for any length of time without rules. I've seen role playing groups (sim's) descend into chaos because too many people decided to just do their own thing, regardless of what others in the sim were doing, and the inevitable result is always for the sim to come to an ignominious end sooner rather than later. When I ran my own sim, I was strict in applying the rules, but not in an overbearing way, and the result was that the sim ran a lot smoother with most people being happy. But as far as your friend is concerned, I feel it's vital that she's made to understand that her style of role playing is basically wrong, and is not conducive to good role playing. And a little lesson would be good on why Mary Sue's are okay to start with when you're a beginning writer, but is something she really needs to move away from as soon as she can!

I'm 35, although I had to do some quick calculation to work that out.

I think the only way to go is with honesty. Try to do it with lies and they'll end up coming back to bite you on the arse. And assuming you still want to be friends with the person, that's not the way to go. I think the best thing you can do is to tell them in an honest, but friendly and diplomatic way, that you feel there's no real point in going on with it because she seems unable to fully understand the concepts of role playing. The only way an RP can successfully go for any length of time is when both (or all) people involved can fully understand and cooperate with things, to give and take, otherwise it's going to end in a shambles, or with people arguing, or usually both. And since you're clearly the more experienced role player out of the two, she should understand that the advice you've been giving her is out of experience, because you've been there and done that and know what should and shouldn't happen in RP's. Tell her gently that the role play you're doing now has effectively ground to a halt and there's very little point in continuing with it. Tell her that she really needs more experience, and to listen to the advice of experienced people, before you'll be able role play with her again, but you're looking forward to doing it again as soon as that happens. Some people will take offence whatever you do or say, so she may still be offended. If that's the case, and you know you haven't done or said anything out of spite or nastiness, then all you can do is shrug your shoulders. If she's sensible and mature then she'll understand and take your point. If not, then... It's sad that she seems unable or unwilling to listen to what you're saying, but maybe this will be the push she needs to understand that she really is going about it the wrong way and to change. Good luck.

If you don't have Microsoft Word and can't afford it then there's an excellent free alternative available. It's a part of the OpenOffice suite. They have various programs like in the Microsoft Office suite. Writer is a part of their suite and has most of the stuff that Word has, including spell checking. It might be worth checking out.

*Chuckles quietly to myself*