cw: Tony Stark

GREAT CO-CREATIVE PARTNERSHIP. this is a big one with a few underarching topics. but essentially this comes down to the awareness that you are not writing a fic by yourself, and rp is a co-creative process.

i love nothing more than being able to write with someone who excels at creative give and take both in dialogue and narratively.

in terms of dialogue, this looks like writing lines and dialogue that gives room for your partner to respond to. for example, if your muse is consistently shutting other muses down and giving dialogue that doesn't further the conversation and plot, it can take a lot on part of the other partner to progress the story forward. granted, sometimes, a one line or even a one word is incredibly powerful, but if this is a repeated pattern in the context of multipara replies, it positions the other person and muse to constantly be the running engine to advance the conversation.

this also happens on a narrative level. both parties should be equally contributing to shaping the narrative and what happens next. things reach a grinding halt when you're presented with a situation and one person is simply relying on the other to fill in the details about what's happening in the story.

with rp, there's always an element of 'yes, and...' : the concept from improv where you take what your partner gives you, you say yes, aaaaand then you add to it. it's the responsibility of each partner to feed energy and creativity into the narrative to keep things moving forward.

the exception to this is of course if your partner has something specific in mind, so of course, best practices here are to just be in communication with each other about the road ahead. i try to tell my partners when i've got a specific something i'm leading up to, once we reach that point, and when it's free game for them to pick up the plot baton and go ham with things.

to work on these skills:

read your replies and ask yourself if someone wrote this for you, would you have room to work with it?

don't just reply directly to what your partner last said; add contributing material that will progress the conversation.

for plot stuff: check with your partners if they're leading up to a specific plot point. if there isn't anything they're building up to, like with dialogue, don't just react to the situations that are presented in the former reply; add details and actions that inform the greater sense of the story.

BEING A TEAM PLAYER. this one falls into a similar vein as above. but this point includes being here to co-create with other people instead making the entire process about your muse and the kinds of situations you want to see them in. a lot of the rpc can be pretty selfish, quite frankly, where folks only focus on getting the ships, interactions, and attention they want.

however, having a mindset that's purely about extracting what you want from people, their creative expression, and muses will not only burn out your partners, but you also risk burning bridges. my approach to rp is very much how can we join forces ooc to toss the fictional barbies together and see them go through a variety of situations ( and, y'know, sometimes make them kiss or something lol ).

the best way to work on this one is through self-awareness. check in with yourself regularly about how much you may be pushing your agenda on other people. create space for your partners to share the types of dynamics and plots they'd like to see. be flexible about giving and taking in the interest of your common narrative goal vs. just making sure you get what you want to see from a plot. it's really all about give and take, give and take, give and take.

RESPECTING THE OTHER'S MUSE AND CREATIVE AUTONOMY. this one applies to ic and ooc interactions, frankly. if you're shooting the shit with someone ooc, try not to tell the other person how you expect their muse to respond or what they should be saying and how they should be reacting.

aim to allow the respective writers of their muses to tell you how their muse would contribute to a relationship, take care of their partners, react to a piece of dialogue, etc. telling the other partner how their character should reply can add a lot of pressure for the partner to write according to your idea of their portrayal vs. how they actually want to write.

THOUGHTFUL CROSSOVERS. ofc, if you're not familiar with the other body of media for the crossover, this one won't apply. but i personally love, love, love when both writers are familiar with each respective verse, and we're able to add specific details that enrich and enhance our world building as we blend these two together: things like this would be a perfect career for muse A in verse B or this is specific event that happened in canon is one where they'd definitely meet. there's a certain level of care and appreciation for the other muse and verse, and i thoroughly enjoy working out all these little details for seamless blending of different worlds.