InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "That'll never fit !!!"

a city of lost pets on the moon (nympholepsy) wrote in rp_tutorials,
@ 2012-11-04 00:44:00

so, i'm considering apping into a game that requires entry examples. it's one of those ~fancy~ games like you find all over ~rps and ~pbads, with the cute layouts and usernames and a thousand subcommunities, ones which appear to focus a lot on comment spam and ic journaling. i have a lot of examples of threading and aim scenes, but i have never played in a game before where characters kept an ic journal. i also don't journal like that myself - and i never really have - so i'm sort of... at a loss as to what to write. and all the games on ij are flocked, so i can't even peep the comm's flists and see what other people are writing for an idea of what i'm supposed to be doing.

suggestions? ideas? advice? what does a typical entry update look like in an ij game? how long should it be? what do people write about, how their day is going, philosophical thoughts, what? would anyone mind showing me their examples?

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ex_atmos773
2012-11-04 02:30 pm UTC (link)

A lot of times, it depends on the type of game. In the past, I've seen people in PB-based games write 500+ word journal entries about their day, thoughts about happenings IC, etc. In fandom games, I've seen as little as one or two sentences. Depending on the character and what they're doing at the time depends on what they've written.

I know for me, I've had long journal entries, but I've also had those one to two liner entries. I'll PM you some journals that have entries. I think, at this point, they're mostly fandom games (Harry Potter or Marvel/X-Men), but hopefully they'll be helpful. :)

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	nebari 2012-11-04 03:59 pm UTC (link)
	The trick to it is treating it like how you would keep a personal journal (livejournal and what else), but giving it your character's spin. I have characters who write just a few sentences, others who go well over the 500 words range, others who just post pictures and write in capslock ... (Reply to this) (Thread)

	nympholepsy 2012-11-04 06:32 pm UTC (link)
	i don't keep a personal journal, that's the problem, haha. i try to write something and am like "ugh who cares" and stop. (Reply to this) (Parent)

kapital_a
2012-11-04 04:05 pm UTC (link)

I'd second this - journal entries can pretty much be whatever you want them to be. I'm playing in a game at the moment that has them. You can check out various character journals for R R I here through the character list. As you'll see, some characters use them a lot, some hardly use them at all. The game also allows characters to send each other messages (which are done as though they are journal posts, but just private to one other character).

A good example of lots of different journal styles within the game can be found by looking at my character Kyle's journal, which goes over quite a few entries. His most detailed entry and most 'standard journal entry' type would probably be this one here.

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	nympholepsy 2012-11-04 06:35 pm UTC (link)
	thank you for the examples! (Reply to this) (Parent)

passion
2012-11-04 06:19 pm UTC (link)

generally when people want first-person entry examples, they're looking for examples that show a strong character voice. one or two sentences won't cut it for entry examples because how are the mods supposed to tell if it's you talking or your character talking, you know? i have journal entries that i've written that have got me into games on ~pbads and ~rps in the past so i can pm you some specific examples if you like.

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	nympholepsy 2012-11-04 06:35 pm UTC (link)
	that would be super helpful, thank you! yeah, i figured they'd need to be kinda lengthy, i just don't want to write a novel and have them be like "ugh dis wordy bitch" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	passion 2012-11-04 06:42 pm UTC (link)
	i ended up, er, choosing all my longerish examples, so i put them in a custom for you http://passion.insanejournal.com/2634.html they're all for celeb but they've gotten me into pbads games! if you want to keep talking or you have questions or something just let me know xo (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	nympholepsy 2012-11-05 11:15 am UTC (link)
	thank you so much! this helped a lot (Reply to this) (Parent)

	lovedyoumore 2012-11-13 04:30 am UTC (link)
	would you mind sharing them with me, as well? i finally feel comfortable with a character to apply at the community level (it's been a year or two since my last). thanks so much in advance! (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	passion 2012-11-17 12:23 am UTC (link)
	you should have access to the post now! (Reply to this) (Parent)

nacorcoran
2012-11-20 01:03 am UTC (link)

I see you got help about, but all of my journals are unlocked (i never lock them. Too much hassle), so you can feel free to check out any of mine. Some are short, some are long, some are meh, and some are amazing. Just depends, you know?

~wijennings
~jethomson
~aefisher
~rchatham
~drewstavros
~drsander
~bwmatthews
~mjvassler
~flwilliams
~gmlancaster
~hkocoglu
~jgdawson
~krgarrard
~tamaclean

Those are all the ones I can remember at the moment. >.> Like I said, some suck, some are great, some are long, and some are short, you know? Granted, some entries are "personal" (generally marked private), but some are just more like forum posts. That's how I treat them. Hope these help!

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