Instructions for New Room

[The Late Mitchell Warren]

SUBVERSIFY THEATRE

This is the newest feature of Subversify. It is an interactive workshop room for character development. Here, your fictitious characters will meet and react to each other in a chosen setting. The setting will be determined by the thread, and by the first poster. You have to use your imagination in determining what unfolds next. Think back to your writing workshop classes.

Remember first the basic rules to collaborative fiction:

You cannot manipulate the plot (such as suddenly a "train drives through the scene, killing everyone") nor can you manipulate a character that is not your own. You only have power over your character. You can do something drastic, provided it is in your character's nature, but both authors must be in agreement as to the outcome. If there is a stand still between two authors then the writing experiment ends in stalemate, which is rather anticlimactic, no?

Now let's consider some basic rules of the room.

1. Each character statement, preceded and followed by a pause, will be counted as one message post. Therefore, a conversation taking place between two or more characters will be one thread, and a collection of various posts or "statements."

2. You do not post as yourself. Rather, you create a new member for each of your characters and assign an avatar to it. Only FICTIONAL member posts will be allowed in this room. This adds to the anonymity and excitement of the experiment. Any accidental posts breaking the fourth wall will probably be deleted. Any critical reviews or commentary on what takes place must be posted in the regular Subversify rooms, not in the theatre room.

3. As much as possible, try and avoid long descriptive sentences and instead post pictures of what you are trying to show. For example, instead of writing about how beautiful a museum painting is, post a picture of something like it. Characters respond accordingly.

4. You can create as many characters as you want and they can enter the scene whenever appropriate. Just try not to use a new character as an excuse to weasel out of a conversation.

5. Threads (or story lines) will end by their own volition.

6. You can be anybody, from real life people or historical figures to characters of your own creation. Remember you are not writing messages to each other (unless that is dictated by the setting) but are speaking to each other in a scene.

7. Please change the "Display Name" to one or two words, not just an online ID. It makes it look more like a script and less like a cyber-chat.

8. Please create a new member profile for each of your characters and then upload a fitting avatar that conveys his/her physical appearance. In order to do this, adjust your member profile and post the DIRECT link in the avatar URL. (A direct link consists of the entire web address starting with HTTP: ) You can make it bigger by adjusting the size of the avatar, up to 99 x 99.


MORE TO COME IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS...

[karlsie]

I love that theater emblem. There is nothing like the image of theater to set the mind toward improvisation and character building. Script writing has its own delicious rewards and is most keenly dependent on character presentation. Many of us have set our fiction writing on hold, waiting for inspiration. Inspiration is kindled by feedback. This can often be retained from our surroundings, the interactions of our daily lives, but with the computer enhanced busyness of communications, there often isn't much time to consider the development of individual personalities and the effects of situations. The anonymous identities will give us a chance to explore the effects our familiar characters would have on others, teach us how to create worthy adversaries for our heroes, and maybe even kindle some fuel for plots.

[spaceeagle]

Would you review this and see if this set of characters fits your criteria?

viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=76686263&albumID=1929421&imageID=26393836#a=1929421&i=26393790

[karlsie]

I wasn't able to read the script to your cartoon characters, but the only true criteria is either a) you have characters you want to develop and interacting them with others will give you more of a feel for what they say and do, or b) one of the scripts already in place gives you an idea for a character who can interact within the pre-existing conditions.

It's an exercise i feel would be wise for all writers to participate in as building a variety of strong characters takes a lot of practice. It also helps you in becoming more aware of the personality traits you've built into your characters. In single perspective narratives, you might feel this isn't necessary, but in script writing, you need more than one strong character. The readers/ audience are focused on dialog and learn to anticipate the exchange between the various personalities. This is why shows like *MASH*, All in the Family and Star Trek were so enormously popular. All the characters were strong ones and everyone had a personal favorite.

If you'd like to try the theater out with a new script, just search for an image you can use as the introductory background, create your initial characters as "members" and fill in their opening dialog. If the script appeals to other members, they will create their own characters, or use the ones they have on hand to inner act with yours. I encourage script writing as i believe in the very near future, the search for good scripts will be very much in demand.

[The Late Mitchell Warren]

Need a little help with your WIP? Feel free to introduce your fictional characters to our universe (under an assumed name, if you wish) and have them interact with others in a new Subversify Theatre thread. It helps flesh out characters and is loads of fun!