just need to get a little vent about this out i think because i am stuck - not for lack of ideas but for frustration of medium expectation and editing

alan is a complicated character when it comes to doing network tags

because there's such an idea that network tags are much easier to bang out than action/log tags due to the fact that it just revolves around writing out what your character would write or say

alan is a character that is burdened by many thoughts and feelings, and there is a process to processing all of that in order to find the way to what he'd ultimately say in response to something sometimes

especially when it is a conversational flow or topic that ends up playing into his messy feelings

his frustration at himself for being bristly or fatalistic but also the hatred of being fake, performative, etc. he's not the kind of person who will be nice for the sake of being nice and so he refuses to say something just because it's the right or proper or kind thing to say

he won't say it unless he believes in it

but also

with network posts...

there's sort of an expectation to not say or show too much background thought around the writing the character actually does or says or posts

so in this way, in this expectation for keeping things neat and tidy and edited

it makes my ability to write and work through the writing more inefficient

and also...

if i don't justify the path that led there, which sometimes involves writing out his first draft, looking at how he'd feel about that being the wrong thing so say, and writing something else, deleting that, writing something else

until eventually writing what he sends?

it feels... like a leap that makes him seem out of character

because it makes it feel or seem like that's the first and only thing he ever wrote or said

which is wrong

so yeah, anyway, i know that for most people the idea of network posts being quick and easier to boomerang is a pretty widespread and common experience, and for some other characters i play(ed)? it is

but for alan? nope

sometimes network tags are harder because of this actually

i wouldn't say it's an expectation, though. It's dependent on the character for sure. Vicious, for example, almost always has waaay deeper tags in network posts, and if you look Trish's are pretty meaty too

there's just a lot of head-empty ass characters in this game

it will always affect how fast you tag/people tag with you, but no one's like, mad that some characters have deeper network tags

it's cool to read! folks are just going to take longer with 'em cos they usually feel like they gotta give back that same amount of effort to you

i suppose that's true but i've also seen people say they don't like it when people write network tags that have too many "behind the scenes" thoughts that don't show up in what the character has actually written

i don't expect people to give back the same in return ever, especially with alan. sometimes things are neat and tidy with him, but sometimes - a lot of times - they're not

i've often felt a measure of guilt about this

i try to keep the behind less than the actual writing, but most of the "behind" is for myself, to keep track of what the char was feeling in that moment, thinking off, what prompted him to react like that

there are things about the experience of writing him that, to me, feel necessary, even if they aren't necessary to people on the other side

would it be possible for you to only allude to the drafts? a strike-throughed sentence trailing off, a mention that it was there, without writing it all out?

i could do something like that. i just dunno if it'd be weird for people

if its IC and not taking away from the actual written part, it shouldnt be weird

also there's just some characters that are weird and different. we even have characters that have a whole different formatting style than most

like Harry's reflects canon and doesn't use brackets. Luffy doesn't use brackets either

it's weird but it works for them because weird isn't bad

i thought that harry and luffy's stuff was just player writing style, since stan also used the same formatting for cal as well

anyway, i've spent the past four hours staring at one network tag over this problem

that's the unfortunate reality

I personally love seeing the thought that goes into what characters choose to say, and I love getting strikethrough-ed versions of their first attempts

my own network tags vary between short and concise and showing more introspection/thought process, depending on the context of the thread and the character writing it, but I love them all

personally, I think RP is the most fun for me if I know my partners are also having fun, so write the way you wanna write

delayed response but ty for chiming in

i mean player writing style is just as fine as changing it up for the character

that's what i'm saying man neither of those things is bad or wrong even if it's weird

i often also get stuck on ~needing permission~ to do things and the reality is waiting for permission to do weird or new or 'bold' stuff just prevents you from having fun

it's hard but sometimes you have to give yourself permission to just... do things. you gotta sit there and fight with yourself and tell yourself it's okay to do it becuase you WANT to do it and when you want to do something it gets done.

yeah, that is true

alan wake 2 is so deeply in my brain, i just keep thinking about how people are praising it for its weirdness and style so i should be less afraid and stop restricting myself as Sam Lake would not want this for me

yes see!!! SAM LAKE WOULD NOT WANT THIS FOR ME

YOU

OR ANYONE ELSE