#rpc commentary

I wasn’t gonna be salty, but enough of my fellow OC writers [especially female OC writers] are talking about side-eyeing the OC love posts and are actively avoiding their dash because we don’t wanna be reminded of hypocrisy, that. well. 

Imma be that bitch. 

[Partially because I don’t give enough fucks and don’t mind clearing out some followers. Cuz that’s what’s going to happen because I’m being “”bitchy””.]

Let’s start with this: I’ve been RPing for nearly 20 years now. Online written, tabletop, LARP, online tabletop, email exchanges. I’ve been there. Done it. [Except LiveJournal, amusingly.] The vast majority of my experience has been OC-only and OC-majority. 

It wasn’t until I came to tumblr that I had to really worry about people not interacting because of RPing an OC. Much less a female OC. And I started in the Supernatural fandom. Which is notorious for being bad to female characters. 

I do pretty well with interactions on my OCs. Most of the time. When I’m the one actively reaching out, talking to people OOC, spamming people with memes, loving on other people’s shit. I got busy and stopped meme spamming and my interactions dipped HARD. 

To the point that I debated giving up. 

And I have 400+ followers. 

I was gonna talk about my personal experience on RPing, but I decided instead to talk about what I see. [And this is over time, not just now. Cuz I’ve been here for 5+ years.]

I see OCs posting OOC about how they want more interactions.

I see OCs talking about how they don’t feel like people actually like their muse. 

I see OCs whose interactions die with other muses if it doesn’t fit into a narrow little window. 

I see female OCs have to dance a narrow line between not being too ship-happy and not avoiding ships. Because fall out of that space and you won’t get interactions.

I see female OCs get hate for shipping with canon. Or writing smut. And I see a lot of them turning to wlw heavy because other female OC writers are the most likely to be welcoming. 

I see those “LOVE FEMALE OCS!” posts. From people I’ve seen interact with maybe two female OCs. Or have consistently been seen NERFing OCs because their muse is canon and therefore definitely 100% always is better. [Even if the muse is weak in their canon.]

You love OCs? 

Actually fucking show it.

Go and love an OC you haven’t show any to. Someone who isn’t popular and gets showered with love all the time. Who isn’t “”RPC APPROVED””. Love on the female OCs, who don’t ever get that shit unless it’s from their active RP/ship partners.

Don’t tell me you love OCs if you only love them in theory. Especially female OCs.

the only difference is that they’ve been published.

because let’s be honest. some canon characters are so fucking terrible and you basically have to make them into an OC [in all but name] to make them bearable. 

[just like there are terrible OCs!]

SB: I love OCS! Female OCs! POC OCs! Disabled OCs! Trans OCs!

Me: 

I wish I had a good answer for this, nonnie.  I kind of think it probably varies depending on the person who’s dropping the threads?  

short attention span

lack of confidence in their own writing

inability to keep up with/remember all their drafts

realizing they don’t mesh with their partner

moving to a different fandom/losing interest in the one they’re writing in

etc.

This isn’t something I do to my partners, so all I can really offer is conjectures. 

In my case specifically, I tend to lose partners who aren’t willing to wait for me.  I’m not blaming them, of course!  Not everyone is willing to wait 4-6 months for a reply, and I 100% understand that, but it’s definitely why I lose people.  They realize I wasn’t joking about my reply time in my Guidelines, and decide they don’t want to wait around.  So I get one or two replies from them and then they vanish/stop replying to me.

I know it’s frustrating, but here are a few things I try to keep in mind:

You can always reuse plot ideas and/or starters.

Once you find someone who replies to you consistently, the dropped RPs won’t matter nearly as much as they feel like they do now.

It’s usually not personal; it’s a ‘them’ issue, not a ‘you’ issue.

Sometimes even an unfinished RP can offer you insights into your muse/s that you didn’t have before.

(Part 2 same anon) Ever since then I worked hard to draw the character I'm writing and the other cast members. My fanarts have improved these pass few months. I even went ahead and brought a Ipad Pro and downloaded procreate. Digital had really brought out the characters looks and body. I guess what I'm trying to say purpledragon and I apologize for the grammar error. Is to focus on those who really enjoys writing with me not force myself to do something in order to have more interactions.

I think the perceived notion that you should be able to draw for RP often rests heavily on the fandom you happen to be in.  I’ve seen what you’re describing happen most often in animated fandoms, OP.  Maybe because it can be so hard to find animated faceclaims (for OCs) that aren’t associated with specific fandoms already?  In the ‘live action’ fandoms, being an artist is nice and will probably get you more followers, but it’s not common or expected for interaction.

As an artist myself (I graduated with a BA in Art), I think it’s awesome that you’re teaching yourself to create your characters!  However, I 100% agree that you should never feel obligated to do things in the RPC just because you think it’s expected.  Do them because you want to.  Do them because they bring you joy.  But don’t force yourself to do anything that doesn’t make you happy.  The second you start doing that is when things will stop being fun and start to become a chore.  Once you’re on that slippery slope of ‘dislike’ it can be hard to regain your footing.

I've heard of people using their blogs that way, yeah. Though I'm not sure I've ever run across someone who actually does it. Which... probably isn't saying much since I haven't made the attempt to branch out in awhile. ^_^;

A lot of my blogs look 'inactive,' too. But I prefer to think of them as 'dormant.' I don't actively seek out new partners very often, so as my older partners move on to other fandoms/hobbies/etc. my blogs tend to look less and less active. I'm still there, and still willing to write that muse, but if no one's asking, then I'm not writing. Which is fine - I'm not complaining about it. If I wanted more RPs that bad, I'd go get some. But for now I'm content to let my blogs be what they are. :)

Personally, I'm not a fan of writing on any type of instant messaging service. I've done Skype, GoogleDocs, and Discord - but they were all so hard for me to keep track of. >.< I did my best, but when RP Thread Tracker can't track things for me, I have a hard time keeping up. Then there was some drama regarding private RPing that I had to deal with (which I've talked about in another post) and that REALLY turned me off to it.

I do get the appeal, though - especially if you're writing in what you feel is a toxic fandom. Writing privately keeps others from pestering you about WHAT you're writing. You and your partner can do what you want without the fear of being harassed for it.

In reply to this post.

Reading your message, Anon, I went back and re-read the original post and realized I’d made an very assumptive statement with my reply.  Something I regret.  :(  

I think, because the OP was posting on CoaR and seemed upset about others (partners?) venting to them about a lack of motivation, I just automatically assumed that they currently RP themselves.  For that reason, I leaped to the assumption that their pain was a come-and-go sort of situation, where sometimes they can write and sometimes they can’t.  I probably also assumed this because it was easy to connect their words to my own situation.  

Re: This Post

Hey there! If it matters, that's almost exactly what I read from your original post. :) I used your submission as an example in my reply to the other submission to indicate that no one had really said they 'hated' mutuals-only blogs. Yours was the only one that even came close... and it wasn't that close at all. :) I probably should've been a little more clear about that in my reply, so my apologies. >.<

And hey, venting is what that blog is for. And it's not like you were trash-talking mutuals-only blogs, you were just explaining why your experiences had made you wary of them.