APPLICATION WRITING FOR DUMMIES

Writing an application for a new RPG can often seem like a daunting task. There's a lot of work to be done, and when someone's going to evaluate your output at the end of it, you might feel a little discouraged. Don't be! Writing a decent application isn't rocket science, and everyone can do it, with a little time and effort. A lot of newbies look at the applications of experienced players and immediately think that they can't possibly write applications like that, but the thing is, you don't have to. Most players have their own personal style when it comes to writing applications, and one style isn't necessarily better than the other. The point of this guide is not to teach you how to write applications like mine, or anyone else's, but to help you improve the skills you've already got by giving you helpful tips and tricks. Also, you have to remember that not every part of this guide needs to be followed to a tee in order to write a great application.

NAMES

Choosing a name for your character may sound like the easiest thing in the world, and it certainly can be, but there is one thing that cannot be stressed enough: originality! Nothing screams 'uncreative' like using the name of a character from a famous book, TV show or movie. Of course, an application is in most cases not going to be turned down on the basis of a name, but I have to admit that I would roll my eyes at an 'original' character named Harry Potter, James T. Kirk, or something to that effect. Of course, you can come up with plausible reasons for the character to have the name, but the bottom line is that most role players are going to raise an eyebrow at a name choice like that, and a lot of them will even think it's downright stupid.
If you really like a name you've come across somewhere, and want to use it, why not switch it up a little? Most people wouldn't bat an eyelid at a character called Harry Kirk, for instance.
You would also do well to remember that most evaluators do not live in caves. They probably watch some of the same TV shows and read some of the same books as you do, so they are usually perfectly able to figure out where you got your inspiration from if your character is called Andrea Serena Waldorf, and the PB is Blake Lively.

And now I'm going to do a complete 180, and warn you against originality, or rather, too much of it. In the RPG world, you'll come across a lot of funny names. Greek gods, mythological creatures, foreign names that have no connections to the character's origin... it's all been done before, and it's usually a sure-fire way to make other players judge you right off the bat. The point is that, even though you should always strive for originality when writing an application, you shouldn't try too hard to achieve it. One of the most important things to remember is that everything should be plausible, and too original names are often not. For instance, how many oddly named people have you met in your life? And how many 'normally' named people? Real life parents (except possibly celebrities) usually aren't looking to get their children bullied by naming them Marmalade Begonia. And from that emerges a simple rule of thumb: don't give a character a name that you wouldn't consider giving your own children. Of course, this is only a rule of thumb, and there are a lot of exceptions to it. But remember: plausibility is key!

You should also be careful when giving your character a nickname. Again, plausibility is important. It's usually a good idea to go with nicknames that are related to the character's actual name. Also keep in mind that your character doesn't absolutely need to have a nickname. Many people are never called by anything other than their given name, and often, that will be more plausible than giving your character a "cool" nickname like Wolf or Shadow.

OCCUPATION

When choosing an occupation for your character, you need to consider what type of skills your character has. Make it believable, and remember to be careful when you state how good the character is at his or her profession. No one can simply say that their character is the best lawyer, the best doctor or the best whatever in the game. This would be very unfair to other players, who would probably also like their character to be the best. It's also perfectly possible to state that someone is great at their job, without ever mentioning how they compare to others.
Finally, when choosing your character's profession, please remember that not everyone is a model or a successful actor or anything else that puts them 'out there' in the spotlight. The world needs bus boys and cashiers as well!

APPEARANCE

Depending on what kind of application template has been provided by the game, the appearance section can be either very easy, or very tricky. Templates with short-answer questions about appearance, like the one Closer has, leaves very little room to go in the wrong direction. With applications like this, you don't get the opportunity to wax poetic about what your character looks like, but ultimately, how you see your character might clash with the way other players want their characters to see them, and therefore it's usually a good idea to be as objective as possible. When you think about it, saying that a character has beautiful eyes that just seem to bore right through you, is really a diluted form of power playing, because not every character is going to feel like that, and it should be up to the other player to decide whether their character is one of those who do or one of those who don't.
There is a loophole though: if you really need to comment on the desirability of a feature you are describing, word it so that it's clear that it's the character's own opinion. That way, you're still drawing attention to the feature, but without saying that every character should feel the way you're describing.

The feature that is usually the most problematic to write about without it coming across as Mary Sue is probably the eyes. Personally, I have two big pet peeves when it comes to describing eyes, and I know I share them with a lot of other players. The first one is the 'magnetic eyes' that seem to draw you in and render you unable to look away. Have you ever met a person that had eyes that you simply couldn't draw your own eyes away from? I certainly haven't. And really, should you be making this decision for other players? It's about their characters, not yours.

The second pet peeve is the 'moody eyes', also known as the 'color-changing eyes'. Yes, I've heard that some people's eyes do change color, but I've yet to see it for myself, and despite trying t research the phenomenon on several occasions, I have not been able to find one single scientific article that supports its existence. Does the phenomenon exist? Possibly. Do I want to see it in an application? No. Quite frankly, it's one of the biggest Mary Sue alerts in the book, both due to the very large cliché factor, and the undeniable uncertainty surrounding the phenomenon's existence. So, for the sake of your application, eyes can only change color with age, or because of illness, or they can appear to change color because of lighting or clothing.

A second tricky area regarding appearance is the height and build of your character, I would recommend that you check out this handy height and weight chart to avoid making the mistake that a vast amount of the role playing population makes: creating character who should most probably be in a hospital being treated for eating disorders. This especially goes for the women!
And, just for the record, the average height for males in the United States is 5'10.2", whereas the average height for a female is 5'4".

PERSONALITY

In my opinion, this is absolutely the hardest section to write. There is no perfect recipe that can tell you how to write a personality section. There are, however, a few minimums that you need to reach.

First, everything should be plausible, and everything should be thought through. No, you don't have to write a thesis about why the character is this way or that way, but the more thought through your application is, the more plausible the character is going to turn out.

The most important thing to remember is that our genes and our environments are very important factors in deciding who we turn into. Consider the environment your character grew up in, and base his or her traits on this. Also, think of who the parents of your character are. The statement about acorns not falling far from the tree is actually very accurate in a lot of cases. I'm certainly not saying that every character must be a carbon copy of their parents, far from it, but I'd definitely question it if your character grew up in a reasonably stable family, and still somehow turned out to be wildly different from his or her parents and siblings. Sure, it can happen, but you need to explain why it happened. Personally, I like to write the history section before I write the personality section, so that I can base the personality on the history. But, of course, history and personality are quite interdependent on one another, so you should have at least some idea of what kind of person you want your character to be before writing the history.

When it comes to personality, elaboration is your friend. It goes hand in hand with the point about reasoning, but it cannot be stressed enough. Traits shouldn't be thrown into the personality willy-nilly. If you think something is worth mentioning at all, you should take the time to explain it properly. You're much better off with three or four well explained traits, than with ten to twenty traits that were all barely mentioned.

It's also good to think about whether you are commenting on the desirability of a trait when it comes to personality. The same topic was touched in relation to appearance, but it is perhaps even more important when it comes to personality. Try not to assume too much about what other characters will think, because, ultimately, that's not up to you, it's up to the respective players of those characters. For instance, don't make the mistake of saying that 'everyone will love this character', because that's just unrealistic. There will always be someone who doesn't like him or her. Instead, say that the character is someone who tries not to step on too many toes, or something to that effect. Leave room for other players to decide things that are related to how their characters will react.


PERSONALITY FLAWS

In order to avoid the dreaded state of Mary Sue-ism, every character needs flaws, and these can be very tricky, but remember that you are fully in charge of your character's personality, meaning that your imagination and your willingness to make a character that is not perfect are the only limits. What is a personality flaw? Basically, it's anything negative. What you need to be careful with though, is the 'buts'. A lot of people tend to follow up a flaw with something that redeems the character. Some would say that the redeeming quality cancels out the flaw, but it usually depends on the flaw itself. If the flaw is nasty enough, very little can cancel it out. However, redeeming qualities do make any flaw lesser than a flaw with no redeeming qualities!

THE LISTS

Writing lists for applications is probably one of the easiest things about the whole process, in addition to being the one that's complained about the most. Some might think that these lists of likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses are entirely useless. The truth is, they can be, but only if you let them. Personally, I've always found it very useful to be made to think of these nitty gritty details about my character, and then later, hold him or her to it. If it's in the lists that the character is ten minutes late for everything, make the character ten minutes late for everything.

Right off the bat, the number of things that you're required to come up with might sound a little off-putting. The trick is to not make the lists too general. The more personal the lists are, the better. Use your other sections to get ideas, and look for inspiration in yourself and people you know. Anything can be used, really. It can also be an idea to check out what other people wrote for their lists, though you should always be careful when doing that. Don't copy every item, and don't take the most unique points, because people will most likely notice that, and while it's not exactly plagiarism, it comes awfully close.

HISTORY

Of all the sections, the history is probably the easiest to write, and it doesn't take much of an effort. Open with a paragraph saying when and under which circumstances your character was born, maybe add a bit about the parents, then talk about early childhood, before moving onto starting school and the characters academic career. It doesn't need to be super elaborate, or anything: as long as you stick to the important events of a character's life, you should be fine.

Always remember to fit the history to the character. A lot of the time, a gang member will have had a more turbulent past than an accountant, and the history needs to reflect this. Likewise, older characters need longer histories that corresponds with the time they have lived. Still, you'll always be safe as long as you mention all the things that make a difference in a life, like education, first job, marriage, divorce, deaths in close family, death of friends, etc.

OTHER THINGS WORTH MENTIONING

One of the most important mistakes to look out for when writing an application, is contradictions. We've all been guilty of it at some point or another, and these pesky things can easily sneak into your application if you're not careful. If you write your application over the course of a few days, it might help to read through everything you've got so far before you start again. That way, you'll freshen up your memory of what you've already got, and you'll avoid mindless mistakes.

A popular question when writing an application for a new game is 'how long does it need to be?' The answer is 'anywhere over the minimum word requirement' for the site you're joining. Some players have difficulties distinguishing between applications and novels, but don't pay any attention to them. The best games always value quality over quantity, though there is certainly nothing wrong with putting forth both quantity and quality.

That being said, you should always be careful with the amount of fluff you add to your application. How much of the application actually tells me something about the character? It's fairly easy to spot when people are writing just to write. It can look impressive, and it can even read beautifully, but in the end, it's a waste of time. Don't take that the wrong way, I'm not telling you to limit yourself - just think about how each sentence relates to your character. Does it serve to tell me something new about him or her? If you're just waxing on about something you've said adequately before - lose it! Don't worry too much about how long the final application is: like I said, mere length does not impress, but quality does.

The most common mistake that people make when they write their application, is that they use a very poetic language. It might sound pretty and all, but often what is written in flowery terms comes across as Mary Sue-ish. It's therefore a good idea to keep the wording simple, and strictly descriptive. Feel free to use big words, but make sure you know what they mean before you employ them, so you know exactly what you're saying about your character.

WHEN YOUR APPLICATION IS DONE

Once you've got your application done and ready to be looked at, there's nothing you can do but wait. Sure, everyone wants to be accepted instantly so they can get around to playing, but you don't want to be badgering anyone about it. Most admins have lives outside of their games, and they don't always have time to log on. We try to do the evaluation as quickly as possible, so that no one will have to wait too long before getting to the posting goodness, but please, give us time. We aim to look at every application within 24 hours of your posting the finished version. We're usually even faster than that, but unforeseen things do happen, and you're not really achieving anything by badgering.

Please remember that nothing that is said in the evaluation is intended to hurt your feelings. We try our best to give you constructive criticism, so that you can develop your character. A well written character will help you in getting plots with other people, and we really do want you to have the best possible start. Yes, having a character picked apart can be hard, but do try to be a good sport about it, and if you feel that a comment was uncalled for, make sure you have something to back up your claim. No evaluator is going to change his or her mind just because you want them to. I'm certainly not saying that you should never argue with an evaluation, but do take some time and think about whether there is a possibility that the evaluator might be right.
That being said, I'm a pretty reasonable person, so if you explain your reasoning to me, I'm more than willing to look at your application again. I can't promise that I'll change my mind, but I'm willing to keep it open.

When it comes to evaluations, there is one thing that is an absolute taboo, and that is attacking the evaluator. He or she does not have anything against you or your character, and is, in fact, only trying to help you out. If you've got something to say, there's no reason to be nasty about it, and bad behavior is certainly not going to change anyone's mind.