#rp tips

i often see writers sharing a sentiment of struggling with writing kiss scenes which honestly bleeds into other portrayals of physical intimacy. i see it a lot in modernized styles of writing popularized by the recent trend in publishing to encourage short, choppy sentences and few adverbs, even less descriptive language. this makes intimacy come across awkward, like someone writing a script or clumsy recounting of events rather than a beautiful paragraph of human connection.

or just plane horniness. but hey, horny doesn't have to be mutually exclusive with poetic or sensual.

shallow example: they kissed desperately, tongues swirling and she moaned. it made her feel warm inside.

in depth example: she reached for the other woman slowly and with a small measure of uncertainty. the moment her fingers brushed the sharp, soft jaw of her companion, eliza's hesitance slid away. the first kiss was gentle when she finally closed the distance between them. she pressed her lips lightly to gabriella's in silent exploration. a tender question. gabriella answered by meeting her kiss with a firmer one of her own. eliza felt the woman's fingers curling into her umber hair, fingernails scraping along her scalp. everything inside eliza relaxed and the nervousness uncoiled from her gut. a warm buzz of energy sunk through her flesh down to the very core of her soul. this was right. this was always where she needed to be.

the first complaint i see regards discomfort in writing a kiss, feeling like one is intruding on the characters. the only way to get around this is to practice. anything that makes you uncomfortable in writing is something you should explore. writing is at its best when we are pushing the envelope of our own comfort zones. if it feels cringy, if it feels too intimate, too weird, too intrusive, good. do it anyway! try different styles, practice it, think about which parts of it make you balk the most and then explore that, dissect it and dive into getting comfortable with the portrayal of human connection.

of course the biggest part comes to not knowing what to say other than "they kissed" or, of course, the tried and true "their lips crashed and their tongues battled for dominance" 😐. so this is my best advice: think beyond the mouth. okay, we know their mouths are mashing. but what are their hands doing? are they touching one another's hair? are they scratching or gripping desperately at one another? are they gliding their hands along each other's body or are they wrapping their arms tightly to hold each other close? do they sigh? do they groan? do they relax? do they tense? are they comfortable with each other or giddy and uncertain? is it a relief, or is it bringing more questions? is it building tension or finally breaking it?

get descriptive with the emotions. how is it making the main character/pov holder feel? how are they carrying those emotions in their body? how do they feel the desire in their body? desire is not just felt below the belt. it's in the gut, it's in the chest, it's in the flushing of cheeks, the chills beneath the skin, the goosebumps over the surface of the flesh. everyone has different pleasure zones. a kiss might not always lead desire for overtly sexual touches. a kiss might lead to the desire for an embrace. a kiss might lead to the impulse to bite or lick at other areas. a kiss could awaken desire to be caressed or caress the neck, the shoulder, the back, the arms etc. describe that desire, show those impulses of pleasure and affection.

of course there is the tactile. what does the love interest taste like? what do they smell like? how do they kiss? rough and greedy? slow and sensual? explorative and hesitant? expertly or clumsily? how does it feel to be kissed by them? how does it feel to kiss them?

It's not elitist to set boundaries and be selective with who you interact with.

There's zero reason to go on anonymous pestering someone on why they don't follow people back, or, arguably worse, vagueblogging about it. Guess what; roleplaying is a collaborative hobby. You need to cope with the fact that not everyone will be interested in writing with you.

Why? Who cares. I assure you that there will be someone out there who will be willing to write with you, but I can also assure you that obfuscating the term 'elitism' with 'someone who might just wanna roleplay with friends' and having an attitude towards people who don't engage with you isn't gonna make people crowd towards you. Maybe people can only handle having so many rp partners at a time. You don't know, and you don't need to know.

Using Chrome's profiles feature since @droplct introduced me to it has been such a game changer for my roleplaying experiance. Being able to be logged into all of my blogs at the same time in their own little browser tabs makes things so much faster and more efficient for muse hopping.

I used to use my browser, an incognito window, the app, and the mobile browser, and it was tedious and annoying. I highly recommend using the profiles feature instead. It's quick and easy to set up, and each profile can have its own Chrome extensions, too.

To set it up, you go to your browser settings and select Add New Profile, then in the popup select Add.

Another popup will open where you select continue without an account.

In the new window that opens, name your new profile [I used the names of my muses] and add an icon if you'd like to. Select Done and you're all set to log into the sites you need for that profile and add your extensions. I use XKit Rewritten, Outbox, Stylus, Stylish, and UBlock for all of my profiles.

I'll give you the best tips that I've got and if anyone would like to add on please do!

Firstly I highly recommend following this guide, it covers all of the basics in lots of detail and I only have a few addendums based off how things have changed since it was written.

Addendum 1. At this point, the vast vast majority of blogs use carrd or Google docs for their blog information instead of pages on their Tumblr blog. I've also seen Google sites and Notion used (in fact I use Notion). Searching #(platform) template is likely to find you something suitable for carrd and docs, other sites your luck will vary. Watch for paid for templates and carrd templates that require carrd premium if you're looking for something free to use.

Addendum 2. You specifically want to look at #fandom rp promo and not just #fandom promo

Addendum 3. Tumblr themes beyond the dash one are less popular due to Tumblr by default making blogs dash-only + last time I checked you now have to email Tumblr to be able to use Javascript in your Tumblr theme on your blog

If you're not running an ask blog type of blog yourself, use either new xkit or Tumblr's own content blocking to block out: #fandom ask blog, #ask blog. Unfortunately these types of blogs have spammed tags.

You also may want to block: #x reader, #x you, and variations. These types of posts have been spamming various tags including celebrity, fandom, and character ones.

Also, here's a few other blogs I'd recommend to get a sense of how things are, find masterlists to put your blog on, and find resources. These are all active circa July 2025:

If you are reading this right now: GO RE-READ YOUR RP PARTNERS' RULES & CHARACTER PAGES!

Even if you've been following them for ages, you most likely only ever read them when you first followed and/or if they explicitly stated they updated things. Now is a wonderful time to refresh now that you know the mun/muse better!

READ, DO NOT SKIM! Make sure that you know exactly what your RP partner needs and remind yourself of any fun character quirks or story beats that you can use in the future.

How I Personally Create an OC (Original Character)

I usually try to write my OC first and only then search for a faceclaim or picture.

1. Start with Personality

The first thing I like to figure out is whether they are an introvert, extrovert, or ambivert. Once you determine that, you can polish their personality around it.

For example, introverts will usually prefer quieter or solo hobbies (of course there are exceptions, but it gives you a solid base).

Then ask yourself:

Are they good, evil, or morally grey?

2. Consider the World They Exist In

If you’re creating an OC for a specific fandom, you need to think about how they exist in that world.

Do they have previous ties? Family?

Are they famous there, or anonymous?

3. Build the Backstory

Once you have that information, you can start creating their backstory.

For example, if your OC is morally grey, ask yourself:

Were they always like this, or were they shaped by their life?

Sometimes I come up with the backstory first, but I think the outline above is the easier approach.

4. Add the Details

After that, you can add the smaller details:

Likes, dislikes, hobbies, habits, fears, goals, favorite things, etc.

5. Define Their Appearance and Vibe

When it’s time to think about looks, don’t just describe them physically, like “a 5’10” princess.”

Ask yourself what vibe they give.

Is she intimidating and has a domineering aura because of her height?

Does she look elegant and aristocratic?

Is she lanky and a bit awkward, as if uncomfortable with her own body?

Is she tall for the setting she’s in, or is that average where she’s from?

6. Visualize Them

Once you have all of this, make a small concept art collage.

Include two or three colors that define their outfit, possible faceclaims, and a few objects or scenery that match their vibe.

You can add a face claim or art here, but I prefer to keep it abstract at first, like a mood board. In fact, searching for a face claim/art is the last thing I do.

7. Choose a Theme Song

Finally, choose a theme song.

I largely prefer and feel more comfortable with interactions and threads that happen on a fairly consistent timeline. Some people like to just do a billion little self-contained one-shot RPs, but I prefer to build actual lasting dynamics between characters that evolve over time. Part of that is limiting threads and making those threads actually carry meaning, but part of that is also not doing a lot of interactions "out of order" or starting a lot of "dead-end" threads that lead to nowhere or fizzle out halfway through, just to drop and start new things without seeing any prior developments through to some kind of conclusion.

So many times I've had multiple interactions with people that felt disjointed from one another and clumsy, where a development of character or relationship would happen in one thread that's supposed to be earlier in time than events in another, but the events of that "past" timeline thread would have drastically shifted the way my muse responded and behaved in a "future" timeline thread. Or alternatively, another "past" thread was heading towards certain developments, but the conclusion of those developments was never reached, left hanging in limbo.

And listen, I get it. Inspiration fluctuates sometimes where you just have muse for one interaction and not another. Some people don't care about building an ongoing storyline with certain muses and are fine with a million little threads that all feel like little self-contained AUs of each other. There's nothing wrong with that, and this isn't about guilting people when they'd like to continue a certain interaction but the inspiration just ran dry. To each their own style of play.

Its just not for me.

I like my threads to be building blocks of each other, where what happens in them actually matters and can be referenced back to in future interactions in some way.

I like to be able to write interactions where I can point and say "due to developments that happened with this specific version of that particular interpretation of a muse, this is how things would uniquely play out in this thread, these are the unique doors that are opened up because of those past interactions", because that's how actual organic interactions between people work. Different events that happen between people shapes how they interact.

It feels awkward and immersion-breaking having a bunch of disjointed timelines where the events happening in each thread have no impact on each other, or I'm suddenly having to scramble to shoehorn in an important and behavior-altering event that only recently happened in one thread, but is supposed to be in the "past" of another thread, where my muse is acting differently as if they have total amnesia of these events.

This doesn't mean never doing threads out of a particular order, or never dropping threads if they're just not really vibing, or never retconning certain things when they don't feel comfortable or meaningful, or that you can't ever discuss or play out certain "past" interactions that would change things after it should have been important.

It just means being a little more selective and thoughtful about the interactions that do happen, not just starting a million-and-one threads that never get finished, and using those interactions as a spring-board to build off of each other as you keep throwing specific characters together.