What
is the definition of “the gray area?”
Loosely,
it’s the area in roleplay where in-character emotions and out-of-character
emotions are bound to mix together.
Where that clearly black paint drips over into that clearly white paint,
making the baby shade. It happens.
Despite
the wishes of those of us who have relatively sane thought processes and
intuitions where writing is concerned, there is a point for all of us when we
cannot clearly define what color is driving our inspirations. Sometimes, we can and we blatantly ignore
it. We do willingly cross the line and
mix the gray ourselves even though we know it’s wrong – we just don’t care. And then there are the others…the batshit
crazy ones who attempt to manipulate the gray with every move that they make.
To
those of you who fit that criteria ( and if you think you don’t, then you
probably do ) let me give you a few tips:
1)
All the drama that you bitch about
having in your lives? You cause the
majority of it yourselves. You turn every small thing, whether it be
in-character or out-of-character, into a massive showdown of wits. You piss and moan, bitch, complain and throw
a hissy-fit about everything. Everything
is a hit against you. Everything is
always bad. Life sucks. …get over yourself. The world is not about you. It does not revolve around you. Every time you whine about how fucked up your
life is, you are mixing the gray. Every
time you take something that happens, throw a hissy-fit about it in public, and
make public posts about it? You are
stirring the BIG black pot of gray that you mixed. Roleplay is about getting away from
reality. It’s a game that you use for
entertainment. If you can’t handle it;
if you can’t handle the people; if you can’t deal with the fact that your
character is not a God/Goddess walking on fucking water…delete your fucking
journals and get the hell gone. Nobody
will miss you.
2)
If you took two seconds and put some
thought into your characters, their backgrounds, their actions and why they are
the way you are…you’d be much happier as a writer. There would not be the need to constantly
change every fucking thing that every one of your characters does because you
are suddenly unhappy with it. Okay? People don’t change on a fucking whim. It takes time, patience and HARD WORK. Something that you are likely not capable of
doing to save your own fucking life. *whisper
voice* Realism is KEY! *end whisper voice* It’s there for the sake of fucking
sanity!
Okay,
now that I got that out of the way… Let’s go on to the list. The Non-Gray Area.
1)
Not everything that other characters
do (in-character) is a hit against you (out-of-character) or your character
(in-character.) Vice versa, not everything
that a player does (out-of-character OR in-character) is a hit against you
(out-of-character.) Now, to get pissed
off that either one of these is happening and reacting in a hostile manner or
having your character react in a hostile manner is NOT a gray area. It’s a fucking yin and yang where you have blatantly
crossed the in-character/out-of-character line. Don’t fucking do it. Period. End of statement.
2)
To hold grudges and blatantly attempt
to make a character or a writer’s life miserable because of said grudges is NOT
A GRAY AREA. Yin and yang, people.
3)
To do ANYTHING that is aimed at making
another character or writer do what YOU want them to do, versus what THEY want
to do it is not only a non-gray area, it’s un-fucking-acceptable. It DOES NOT matter whether you do it,
in-character, out-of-character or both… it’s unacceptable, demeaning, and you
should have your fucking fingers cut off for being a manipulative little
bastard. Don’t like it? TOUGH SHIT.
Like I said, the world of writing does not revolve around you or your
pathetic attempt at characters (because, generally, that’s what these
characters, for writer’s who don’t have a decent bone in their body, are. Pathetic.)
4)
IF YOU THINK IT BELONGS IN THE GRAY
AREA AND IT PISSES YOU OFF…HERE’S ANOTHER TIP - IT DOESN’T FUCKING BELONG IN
THE GRAY AREA. PERIOD.
Keep
the white in the white, the black in the black and stay far away from the
fucking gray. If you can’t figure out
what belongs in the white and what belongs in the black, delete your fucking
journals and move on because you don’t have an ounce of common sense in your fucking
brain.
Thank
you and Goodnight.
