Well said!Okay, I've given a lot of thought to the wolf RP I was talking about, and I think I'm going to keep it wolves. Most other species of animals don't work for me, and while I thought coyotes were an interesting idea, I think people will see that and say "Seriously? We know you're desperately trying to convince us it's not a wolf RP."
So, without further ado, I'll work on that RP and present it when ready.
Now, I'm going to try every week from now on to put a piece of advice on this thread. Go ahead and ask for advice, and feel free to add to and argue with it. Here it is for this week:
Perfect Characters
Look, I know you love them. I know you want them to be the best character out there. I know, dear interns, and I understand. But making them perfection and giving them a tragic backstory really isn't the way to do it. So I am going to give you the cold truth:
By making your character perfect, everyone will most likely hate them. Or at least I certainly will.
The best characters have flaws, because flaws make them real. I know that you don't want to accept any flaws in your characters, but you must learn to love them for their flaws. (And don't worry, dear interns, you don't even need to think of them as flaws. As your characters, they'll always be perfect in your eyes.)
Perfect characters are not only unrealistic, they're annoying. Perfect character almost never make bad decisions, and when they do, the fix them and learn great lessons from them. Or they don't fix them, which adds to their tragic backstory and turns them into beautiful tortured angels, rife in guilt and the desire to make up for their mistake. Your characters need flaws. Everyone has flaws. I have them. You have them. We all have them. No one is perfect in real life, and no one is (or at least no one should be) perfect in RPs. They need to be well-rounded characters. They don't need great tragedy in their lives to be interesting – They are in a story, after all.
So, my interns, your character is not the best person/dog/cat/bird/singing mushroom with the face of a guinea pig (etc, etc,) in the world. That doesn't mean they're the worst. They are flawed, like all. The question is if they can rise above their flaws and fight against them, trying to be a good singing mushroom with the face of a guinea pig (or, you know, whatever it is). That's what we're all trying for, isn't it?
Surprisingly enough (or perhaps not surprisingly) , almost the same rules apply to villains. "Evil" does not sum up a personality. Do they lead from the front or pull the strings? Do they have a soft spot for anything or are they a sociopath? Are they manipulative? Are they good actors? Perhaps they have great leadership skills. They could be completely insane. They could be insane but be good at hiding it, keeping a mask of cool, calm sanity but when angered completely unhinge. Perhaps they are the ones with the tragic backstory. Did they start out with good intentions and end up corrupted? They might even think they're doing the right thing.
So interns, I hope you've learned a lesson today: Perfect characters aren't perfect. When you make a character, you're making a person (or singing mushroom with the face of a guinea pig or whatever). Their imperfections are wonderful things, because they make them real.
Ponder, dear interns.
