Forums » RP Discussion » Does anyone else get frustrated writing profiles?

Whenever I try to craft a profile for one of my characters, or even MYSELF sometimes, I lose it a bit. My thought process is probably:
"Okay, make it verbose, but not too much." "It has to be concise." "Make sure you cut out the cringy and unfunny stuff." "If I don't fill this out and do it well, no one will RP with me..." "Too many, or too little pages? Is this too daunting to read at all?" "Ouch, it's midnight already?"

And that's why I have my main profiles here and on F-List open nearly 24/7 and in triplicate.

Does anyone else here have this problem..?

Edit: Forget it

My characters' profiles are an ongoing project of sorts, because they grow and develop and their descriptions have to reflect that. That being said, their profiles are largely outdated because I find the process tedious.

I'm pretty opposite! Sometimes it gets suuper tedious but I love talking abt myself and my ocs honestly
THAT BEING SAID, this might help you out? I haven't had a chance to use it myself but I've been keeping it around!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_Pus_x_263yMkF3ckhPRlY2UTQ/view

That list looks really helpful! I've found this character sheet which is cool but also really, really long.

The thing about profiles is that I have a love-hate relationship with writing. I find writing in general to be difficult. It's the communication aspect I think, of turning ideas into clear words, that's hard for me.

Thank you for the pdf, Koroni :o
Hahaha I have that 390+ Question character sheet for my main characters, but oh jesus. I only touch them when I'm bored and should be working

I don't even have personalities written down, because I get frustrated trying to put words to what I'm thinking, AND I'm pickier about my RP partners' initial description so I'm admittedly a hypocrite @~@
Actually, this checklist would probably help with NEW or undeveloped characters, but there's very little wording in it, so I'd have to rack my brain for vocabulary... (i wonder if it's because I've been sleeping late/oversleeping)

Considering how much I edit and make profiles for my characters, I can help you with this by giving you a few tips.

It doesn't matter if your character's profile has to be concise. If you feel as though it needs to be put into the profile, go for it. Just remember to space your paragraphs and check your phrasing and you'll be fine! Usually, people just want to see what your character looks like, so it's a good idea to place what they look like near the top. Don't use shorties in any bit of info on your character profile. It can give people vibes that you're inexperienced as a roleplayer and you don't really want that. It is an incredibly good idea to give detail in every ability, item, or weapon your character might have. If your character is adept in fire magic, make sure to put it down. Tell how advanced they are in it, as well as any other talents or things they might have regarding it. Stuff like that will do wonders when trying to get into an RP or just making a character profile by itself.

Kray Beach and Yizkavesh are good examples of what i'm talking about. You can learn a lot from simply looking at a character profile's layout.

Thanks for the advice, Draken. Quick question: what are "shorties"?

All of my character profiles are works in progress, and even though I actually have all of my characters mapped out, and that I've worked on them for years(few exceptions), I can't get myself to properly fill out their profiles. I rarely have the time to work on them, and when I do I often feel like I don't know what to write, how much such be visible for everyone, how much to keep a secret and so on.

In truth, I'm often worried that I scare potential RP partners away, because some prefer really detailed character profiles.

Edit: Forget it

boy, oh boy, I'm grotesquely biased I admit because I spend my spare time creating resources for people across the site. to me your profiles are courting the people reading them; it's a sort of seduction, it's there to cajole, to entice, to intrigue and attract the right minds. so I'm going to share with you guys the most important thing that my professor taught me:

show. don't tell.

Divulge only the secrets of your better and fallen angels to those you wish to entice to make them feel like they are in a secret club with you.

(and carry across this same technique to your writing; when I play the bad guy for instance, I don't allow the readers to peek inside his mind, I don't tell them when he's lying, I never indicate it in the narrative unless it's essential that they know. Flirt with the narrative, try and take the reader's heart by the hand and lead them down ivory and nacre winding, spiral staircases and through the Serra-built labyrinth of narratives, tropes and twists. Their trepidation and intrigue and awe will thank you for it.)

That's exactly how I feel! I never know if keeping things secret will be interesting or "too vague" :S

Well, to be fair, there are tags to prevent this kinda thing (though, I'm not sure if they're very prominent, or if people pay attention to them)

I feel like a moron for not knowing what any of these words mean qxq
Took me a while to realize you meant good and bad secrets, but to clarify, you mean telling them through PMs? or while actually roleplaying..? Plus, does that ever actually work? I know some people as well as myself only roleplay with a person because they're interested in uncovering something about the person or the world around that person

I might be an outlier but when looking at other people's characters, I prefer straightforward information rather than long narratives more suited to actual roleplay. Highly detailed profiles that don't 'get to the point' or force a reader to slog through for information quickly lose my attention. Overly superfluous language bordering on iamverysmart territory is a big no-no.

To me, the purpose of a characters' profile is to tell rather than show, and in roleplay it is the reverse, although a good balance of both is certainly important.

Not saying that one way of giving information is necessarily superior to the other, just that different people have different tastes. As Pomkeki mentioned before, your profiles will attract like-minded people. Fiebs and I would likely be wildly incompatible, and that's ok!

Yeah, I think I feel the same ^^ Thank all of ya for the advice!

Don't be silly lovely beb, there was a time I didn't know what they meant either.

It doesn't matter how you tell them I think. You don't have to tell them everything, just enough to entertain them further.
I tried a roleplay today with a character that has no RPR.
It works for me.

I love writing profiles! My profiles range from 'You wanted useful information? Good Luck with that!' all the way through to 'wordswordswords'. (That second profile is about half the length it used to be!)

Really, you don't need a LOT of information. When is the last time you sat down and actually read a 2000 word profile?

I personally like knowing the characters appearance, their personality, and the basics of their backstory. I want to know whether your character is a 16-year-old student or a 33-year-old twice-convicted criminal. You can't get that information across simply by listing their height, eye and hair colour, and summarising their personality as "firey".

You can show off that information any way you want - whether it be with art, with design elements or just plain words. You need not tell the whole story. Just enough for people to know what they're getting involved with.

I'm one of those people that really enjoys writing for my characters and has fun filling out my character profiles.

To be honest? I do it for me more than I do it to attract anyone. I'm gonna be that person that says: "I use this website more to keep my characters in order more than I come here to role play." -- so while I do enjoy role playing and do seek it out at times, my characters are mine, and I enjoy having all their information written down and there mostly for my own access. Documents, excel sheets, the RPR profiles, tabletop sheets for any potential games. If something happens, it's nice to know there are copies and backups of stuff I worked on at least somewhere out there.

But... I do know that not everyone wants to read walls of text that I put up. That's why a lot of my stuff is segmented the way it is for each of my characters. If you view my characters, you will see that all of them do follow a pattern (or do their best to -- my Team AMBR profile does it to the best of its ability, though will be rectified once I have the proper pages added to that profile to make it follow a formula).

Basic information comes first -- the stuff that is straight to the point of what a character is, what their basic appearance follows, and all that jazz. Personality is the next segment -- get to know my character a bit through whatever I have up for them. Back Story -- always optional, always my longest segment concerning the character till their current age. Abilities -- maybe they have powers, so here's some detail for them. Other -- anything that I feel might not fit the other categories. Art -- hey, look! Visual references for my characters! Guest Area -- for the people that wish to leave guestbook comments and kudos ♥.

Personally, I, want to know how my character works, or how I feel they would work by thinking about them and getting all my thoughts down. If things are vague or don't lead up to something when creating them, then I, as a creator, sometimes feel lost when attempting to make up things on the fly when RPing with someone else. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. That's why I like having this formula to follow when it comes to making my characters and getting things written down.

This is especially true of me if I have a character who is a certain age and is supposed to act a certain way. I want to figure out details, for myself, as to why they might be that way. What caused them to start seeing things like that? It doesn't always have to be logical in some respects, because not everything even is, to be fair.

I'm always of the belief of: "do what you feel is right for you". If you want to talk about your character and get something down that makes you feel good, I say go for it. If you want to leave them a mystery, and would rather allow your character to develop among others that want to role play with you, that's fine, too!

I'm basically of the same mind as Jay here: first and foremost, I just need somewhere to place my brain babies and hash out their world in an easy to use and user-friendly format. If it attracts other people who want to be a part of that or want to see how these characters click outside their multiverse through RP? Great, that means people like my stories! Do I actively seek out RP so I can see how my characters would fare far from their usual standards? Yes, it helps me see their limitations via RP.

Ultimately, I write my profiles for me and my giant as fail project, thus I tend to add a lot of detail so I don't end up forgetting it when I do need it. Like, "Okay, Maxwell hates chocolate and cherries, good idea to list that so I don't forget it and have him eat something made of chocolate or cherry-flavored by accident." I feel like I'm not doing my characters justice if I don't add that kind of stuff. My character profiles also follow a sort of pattern, usually right down to the templates I use; it helps me "color-code" them into what part of a story arc I have planned for them to feature in.

Now does this frustrate me to put in the extra work, even on minor characters? Yes. Do I still love to do it? Oho, yes. At times I feel like my mind is telling me the most amazing stories/backstories about these guys, and I'm missing out on an epic tale if I don't write down what I learn through brainstorming or random thoughts. Even the trivial stuff matter, like the fact that one of my characters hates chocolate. But why does he hate it? Did a traumatic event occur that involved it? Did a death of someone he cared about involve them eating poisoned chocolate and he's hated it ever since? Maybe he just doesn't like the taste? That's also a part of the reason; when I write seemingly trivial stuff like that down, I always ask why it happens and want to brainstorm to elaborate.

Yeah, there are those who don't appreciate or like all the extra information, and there are those who want even what your character's first memory was as a baby. But like everyone else has said, it's ultimately up to your preference and what you want. Do you enjoy putting detail into your characters so people know what to expect? Great! Want to just keep it simple and have others find out via RP? Awesome! You'll attract like minds regardless because you put a lot of thought and heart into your characters, and it's bound to show no matter what the media: via profiles or the RP itself.