How's My Driving | July 2013

[ironwood]

Three months have already passed since the last HMD? You betcha! This means that it's time to kick off the fourth quarterly gamewide HMD here in Tu Shanshu! Things are getting structured a little differently this time, so read on for details.

How's My Driving?
While each and every character must have an HMD page available, we offer a gamewide HMD once every calendar quarter. This is an opportunity to get together and discuss IC interpretations and portrayals in a respectful, beneficial fashion. In a nutshell, it's a chance to see how we're doing in the grand scheme of things.

There are a few ground rules to cover off before we can start:

• Participation in the quarterly HMD is 100% optional.
  
• Be respectful, anon or not. It's a lot easier to give and receive crit if all parties are making it a discussion of it rather than an argument.
  
• IP logging is off and anonymous commenting is on. You can offer crit signed-in if you like, but the option's there.
  
• New! We ask that each concrit provided consist of one positive and one constructive bit of feedback. Bring up something that you like about that player, and in the same comment provide something that you feel they could work on. This is to help round out the feedback and provide a better experience all around.
  

That's it, that's all!

And, to make things easier, here's a handy-dandy codeset:

<big><b><i>Player Name</i></b></big> <i>Character Name:</i> <i>Canon:</i> <i>User Name:</i> <I>Focus:</i> Optional. Do you have particular concerns about your portrayal that you'd like to be the focus of crit? You can link any threads you'd like a second opinion on here. If you're looking for structural feedback, or would prefer things like grammar not be mentioned, put it here.

Comments

Karin | Lord Henry and Una

[epigrammatical]

Karin

Character Name: Lord Henry Wotton
Canon: Picture / Confessions of Dorian Gray
User Name: epigrammatical

Character Name: Una Persson
Canon: Michael Moorcock Multiverse
User Name: una_persson

Focus: My concerns are not so much character-specific as just kind of a general RP flailing/malaise. I feel like I've been struggling with my threads and that my tags are stagnating, and as a result I've been getting very anxious about interacting with people and developing more relationships. I feel like tagging in to anyone else is imposing on them, and I feel like I'm boring people. This hasn't got anything to do with anything anyone has said or done; just a creeping sense of my own inadequacy. I want to build more stuff for my characters, but I can't work up the nerve to do it.

ETA: to echo something I said on plurk: I'm hoping some crit will help so I have a better sense of whether this anxiety is justified or in any way fact-based, or whether I'm just flagellating myself, as is my wont.

Bride of ETA: said plurk discussion also engendered the idea that maybe I need to do more activep plotting rather than just letting things happen to my characters. So any thoughts along those lines too would be helpful.

ETA Meets Abbott and Costello: Here's the plurk discussion; feel free to jump in there. And both Una and Harry have anon-enabled HMD posts on their journals.

[lostundercover]

♥: You know I adore writing with you. You have a gift for word choice and construction of description and ideas that is extremely rare and a delight to interact with. You are always open to plotting. I haven't threaded with Henry as much, but I know that Una is an extremely realistic and nuanced character to the point of being a fully fleshed out person. I believe that your inadequacies are primarily a result of overthinking things and that you are a far better player (not writer, but player) than you give yourself credit for. Because I know you know you're a good writer.

°: As has been suggested, I would consider trying to be more proactive in your plotting. Waiting for things to come to you is awesome when you're busy, but eventually it always stagnates and then it's important to put in the work (and it is work sometimes). Another thing that might help, to steal a page from Chel's playbook, is putting your characters in situations that are uncomfortable for them, to really explore more of their depths (which I know you love) and to encourage new CR.

Costigan+Mal=4lyfe♥

[epigrammatical]

Thanks for the feedback (and also for commenting so I can't keep editing the top comment, haha). The "uncomfortable situations" thing is a good idea; I haven't been doing that nearly as much as I usually do lately, and now that I look over most of my stuff, it's clear to me that both Harry and Una are way too much within their comfort zones right now. So I'll see what I can do to fix that.

(Harry's headed toward a canon update, which will shake him up a lot. What I do next with Una will depend on how the Malicant plot shakes out, I think.)

[lostundercover]

In rereading my initial comment, allow me to clarify that I didn't mean to suggest that you don't work for your CR. You're definitely one to always play with everyone and the like and I didn't mean to insinuate otherwise; I was trying to use my own experiences to relate in how sometimes it's possible to get too comfortable and forget to step it up a little.

I hope the canon update helps and I really look forward to seeing where you progress with these two! Please don't hesitate to let me know if there's any way I can help (like ratting out Henry to Evandau, haha).

[una_persson]

It's cool; no offence taken. By "comfort zone" I mostly meant that I haven't been going out of my way to make them miserable. XD (I think I've been more successful with Henry in this regard insofar as most of his relationships are fraught in one way or another?) And I've been distracted this last month by RL stuff, so. Yeah.

(And Henry should be ratted out eventually. Lemme think about how I want to handle that. It'd probably have to happen after his canon update, but hey, that would be a good way to heap Pelion upon Ossa for him.)

[lostundercover]

Got it. And being distracted is understandable! ♥

(Sounds good.)

[jirk]

I love your characters, the thought and depth you put into writing them. You're a fun, dynamic player and you have no problem reaching out or creating your own plots - on a broader scale or a one-on-one scale.

I do think that maybe that stagnation might have something to do with having a lot of slice-of-life threads on the go at once? I find I start side-eyeing my inbox when I have too many things that boil down to 'these characters sit around and chat' I start feeling that same malaise.

Maybe pull back a bit, and go at your threads with more of a defined purpose to the threads?


-- AND THEN I READ THE COMMENTS ABOUT THE PLURK DISCUSSION welp


carry on then.


I definitely think that maybe taking a more pro-active approach - with Una particularly, since Henry can be a little more passive overall - might help. Do you have a player plot you could throw at our mod page, or could she do something with the diary pages she has? (aha)

[epigrammatical]

Thanks for the feedback! And I think you're right—more threads with a definite goal would definitely help. I'll work on that.

For Una, I was thinking that after the current events concludes, I might try to have her attempt to get her time machine working. Possibly with unusual/hilarious results. I'll chew on that some more and get back to y'all.