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The Introduction

by Merciless Medic

Merciless Medic A little help with making an introduction, whether it be to a roleplay or making your story? You should probably check this out!
Have you had problems or writer's block trying to find a way to begin a story or a roleplay? Has this been a recurring thing and you find yourself wondering why this is so difficult sometimes? Have the creative juices been absent?

Well, I got good news for you. I can help you with writing a beginning post. Here's how you can:

An optimal beginning post describes what the character is doing and leaves a hook at the end, but sometimes a bit of fluff and set up of the setting in the beginning can help with making a post or make the introduction to your story. The best thing you could do is to think about what your character's home life is or what their life situation is at the moment. And then think about how they act in their life situation and how their life situation reacts and then how they react to that reaction. Repeat as many times as you want, but you would have to move onto the tracks of plot in a bit. When you are done building up your character's introduction, build a way off of your character’s reactions to their home life and their personality and get them to go towards the plot. Once you are done, create a hook or a build-out point (for a story) once you have gotten your character settled. Now, your first post or your character introduction is done!

For example, here is my character Shade. The plot I want her to go on requires her to go on her journey. She will be at the age of 11 and going on her Kanto journey after she graduated from her public school early (due to keeping aligned with her backstory). Her home life consists of a ranch that is north of Mt. Moon and she has a very friendly and sweet personality, but can be a ditz sometimes due to her lack of sleep. Here is the example (I will color code certain sentences that show what reaction is what and transitions):

Key: Red = Setting up the Setting; Green = Home Life and Reaction of Home Life; Blue = Character's personality and reaction to everything; Dark Grey = Setting up for the Plot

It was a crisp, cool early morning in the northern parts of Kanto. The Hoothoots were hooting and the moonlight was flowing through the window of a young girl's room, who was making quite a bit of racket from sleeplessness. Tossing and turning in her sleep, a young girl's active brain woke her up in the middle of the early morning. She looked over at her digital alarm clock and it read 3:13 AM. Sighing, she rolled over again and groaned with frustration. Turning over again and staring straight at her ceiling, she looked out the window at the beautiful night sky above her.

The rays from the moon and stars filled her room with soft light, and she looked at the walls of her room at the light to help calm her down. Her walls in the dark looked like they were absorbing the darkness and reflecting the light, making them seem brighter where the moonlight hit them and darker where the shadows caressed it. Shadows on the wall from the wooden beams of the window created a plus over a picture of a creepy purple, almost black in the dark, Pokemon with bright red eyes and gleaming, sharp teeth. The Pokemon, Gengar, had to be positioned away from Shade's bed, as it would have caused her to sleep even less than she did now, even though she personally liked the species. Her room looked quite neat, with the carpeted floor showing indents from the day before from
her experiments with boxes and tables for a box fort she had made for her and her partner, who is sleeping next to her head on another, smaller pillow, curled up into a little yellow ball of adorable fluff. The Pichu could be heard squeaking in her sleep while the wind outside gently stroked the house's walls, the sound of which sent shivers down Shade's body, as it was a calming effect. After a bit of time, she finally dozed off and curled up underneath her black blankets.

A sudden shock of electricity coursed through her body and woke her up with a start. Standing up straight due to the shock, she darted her head over to her night stand to see it was 5:04 AM, and her alarm was practically screaming at her with shrill beeps to wake up. A slap silenced it before looking over to the small electrical mouse in front of her, sitting on her lap with a smile on the mouse's face. Chuckling, the young girl patted her Pichu's head before stretching, yawning, and getting up.

After getting her morning routine done and eating her cereal after going downstairs for the grub, she left to find that most of the chores have already been done by her siblings. Grateful, but a little sad that she didn't get to help due to her sleeping in a little, she thanked them before going back to her room to find clothes she wanted to wear. Her trench coat, a black t-shirt, and some dark blue jeans seemed to work well. Her signature combat boots shouldn't be forgotten either. After putting them on and throwing her pajamas over to the hamper - and missing - she got her backpack, made sure it was filled with all of her survival essentials, and then left her room to go back downstairs.

As she hit the ground floor, she looked up to see her flaming haired brother standing next to a Pidgeot already saddled up for her in the middle of the living room. Her Pichu sat on the Pidgeot's head and smiled at her. Smiling at the young boy, she gave him a hug and thanked him. After he helped her up on the bird, he watched as the bird ran out of the living room through the large doors and flew off and away towards the other side of Mt. Moon. Sighing and happy to get her journey started, she let the worries and anxieties leave her via the wind that flew through her.

She thought to herself: Pallet Town, here I come!

(End of example)

If you are still having problems with making a post or doing the story, find some songs or music that will help. Some people (like myself) will use the energy from a song to make a post, and different energy leads to my mind leading me to different posts. Sad songs make me want to make my character sad. Upbeat songs fill me with adventure and fun and then my characters and my descriptive words become more filled with happiness and excitement. Other songs, like some Eminem songs, is good for one of my characters because of how the song relates to them.

Experiment on what makes your juices flowing and there we go. :)

I will write/type more about how to make stories and RP posts and even how to refine your character. Auf weidersehen! ♡

EDIT #1 (4/24/2019): I edited in a few more descriptive setting setters in the example, since it does need more description of the place. Usually, you'd put more in something like this and explain what their room and home look like, but I was rushing when I made this. ^^''' Whoops. I also made the red a little brighter.

EDIT #2 (10/16/2019): I fixed up the story a bit, changed a few colors since I realized some errors, and broadened it outward a bit to include some fine details I missed earlier about her room and what it currently looked like while still leaving the imagination to others about where items are placed and what other unsaid items I had left out. Sometimes, it is a good idea to omit details in favor of letting the reader's mind wander and fill the empty space themselves instead of trying to say everything in great detail, which can bog down the story by quite a bit and makes reading your introduction feel like you are trudging through molasses. It is difficult to tell if your introduction is too much, especially if you feel like it explains your character (and others may disagree), but it comes with time and experience (and sometimes an upgrade to your vocabulary).
  1. Merciless Medic
    Merciless Medic
    @TheWanderer, @PlayfulFox47, and @PrincessPika~chan, I have edited it with a second edit. There is now a bigger red paragraph of description and have explained something at the bottom.

    Thank you for taking the time to read and like my work. I shall make more helpful tips in the future.
    Oct 16, 2019
    PrincessPika~chan likes this.
  2. Merciless Medic
    Merciless Medic
    Apr 25, 2019
    PrincessPika likes this.
  3. Merciless Medic
    Merciless Medic
    Okay, thank you :)
    Apr 25, 2019
  4. ThePlayfulFox
    ThePlayfulFox
    No prob! I'm actually an (on and off) author (of stories that were never released to the public) and RPs are not only for fun, they are also a way of improving my writing! And a good way to end writer's block. Introduction posts have always been my weak point. What I'm good at is describing moves. I might lend a hand in that (if you are going to continue this).
    Apr 24, 2019
    Merciless Medic likes this.
  5. Merciless Medic
    Merciless Medic
    Oh thank you so much! I need to edit it though and add a bit more XD but thank you so much. I'll tag you when I finish the edit.

    @PlayfulShinx47
    Apr 24, 2019
  6. ThePlayfulFox
    ThePlayfulFox
    Oh, my word! I've been needing this! How come I've never seen this before! Thanks a lot! Really, I am serious! I've always been unable to make something interesting (except for Avator, which basically barely has my character in the introduction until the end). I'm definitely going to read the rest of this series. Might help me be a better writer in general. (would definitely help the WA)
    Apr 24, 2019
    Merciless Medic likes this.