Although writing in your character journal is important, it is equally important to give your character a life outside of the CosmoJournal. You do this by writing out 3rd-person prose scenes as entries in the main comm that other RPers can see and jump in on if they’re tagged to do so, or if it logically makes sense for them to be in that scene. Make sure that the journal you're logged into is the appropriate journal for the character you're planning to write a scene for (i.e., if one of your characters is Ashtarth and you want to write a scene with him in it, make sure you're logged into his character account). If your scene requires that another RPer’s character be in it, you will write your initial scene up to the point where it’s time for that other character to jump in.
For example, if I were writing a scene entry for Bomberman, I would log into Bomberman's character account, and then write something like:
Bomberman was waiting anxiously for Lilith to arrive. He checked his watch every couple of seconds. After about five minutes, he finally heard the roar of a motorbike nearby, and he smiled. “You’re late,” he said.
(Note: It would be RLY RLY NICE if your initial scene entries were longer than this. They don’t have to be chapter-length things—though the Gods know that my own stuff tends to run that way—but please make an effort to write more than three sentences. A paragraph or two should be good enough to get things started. You don’t have to be a stellar writer, either; I just want to see that you’re at least trying to put something good out there.)
At this point, I would end the entry and post it to the main comm. When Lilith’s RPer reads this, she would continue the RP as a comment to that entry with something like:
Lilith laughed as she shut off her motorbike. “You’ve got no right to tell me I’m late when the last time we got together, you showed up three hours past the agreed meeting time.”
Then I would reply to that specific comment to continue the scene:
Bomberman blushed. “You can’t blame me! I had to feed Pommy! Do you have ANY idea what an ordeal that is?”
The scene usually ends as a result of a couple of things:
1. The other character(s) involved leave(s) the scene.
2. There is an abrupt location change.
3. Something big happens.
4. The course of the scene dictates that it should end at a particular point. I trust y'all to use your judgment here.
Now this is all well and good if there’s only two RPers involved in a scene. However, once we get a third person into the mix, things can quickly start to get messed up. If three or more individual RPers (not characters) are required for a scene, it would be advisable—probably even necessary—to get in touch with the other RPers involved so that the scene doesn’t become confusing or disjointed. It's also just a matter of respect to the other players: you shouldn't write a character currently being played by an RPer into your scene unless that RPer specifically gives you permission to do so.
You are free to toss around ideas for a group scene over IM, e-mail, or the OOC comm. Being willing to know and communicate with your fellow players is very important to contributing to the success of this RP. This is a collaborative effort, y’all—you’re gonna get out what you put into it. :) The more, the merrier, especially if you post a call for ideas on the OOC comm.
When writing your scene entries, please follow the format described below to make things easier in the long run.
Subject Header
Location - Quasi descriptive sentence about the scene.
The Actual Entry
Where:
Who:
When:
What:
Status:
[lj-cut text=”First line of the scene”]
SCENE
[/lj-cut]
Tags
names of the characters involved, location
Subject header: I.e, “Bomber Base - Bomberman meets a new girl at the base.”
Where: Where is this taking place? Yeah, I know you state it in the header, but it’s for the record. We at least need to know the planet it’s taking place on, if it actually takes place on a planet. If it takes place on a ship or something, write something like: “Misty’s ship.” There will be a list of existing places up sometime soon (hopefully), which will be added to as needed.
Who: Who’s supposed to be involved? This is sort of a way to “tag” other characters to join the RP. It’s also okay to write a self-contained scene by yourself—most of our entries are probably going to start out that way, since the characters won’t all be together at the beginning. Pay special attention to this—everyone can read the entries OOC, but IC, only the characters involved in that scene will know what has happened.
When: When is this scene taking place, in the context of what has come before? I’d prefer not having things happen in the past, but if the course of the RP requires it for some reason, then it will be allowed. Ask about it in the OOC comm, or e-mail me or Dante about it. This can be pretty general...or it can be as specific as you want or need it to be.
What: A brief description of what’s happening in the scene. It doesn’t have to be a complete synopsis from beginning to end, just long enough so that we get the gist of things.
Status: Either "in-progress" or "complete". If the entry is in-progress (meaning that you've got some RPers still going at it in the comments), please remember to go back and edit this part of the entry to read "complete" once the scene is done. This is for the sake of future reference for all players, regardless of whether or not they were involved in that scene.
Tags: Tag the entry with the location and the names of the characters involved. Please try to remember to do this, but if you don’t, either Dante or I will add the tags as maintainers of this community, as well as make sure the tags are consistent with each other.
And please, please, please LJ-cut the actual scene. It makes trying to find entries on the main community page and seeing the progression of events a lot easier. Yes, I am obsessive about keeping track of things and organizing them. STFU. 8D;;
