whispered_tales
Virgin
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2009
- Posts
- 5
I have an idea that’s either brilliant or just stupid. You tell me which.
Here’s a little background for you:
Every so often, my craziest friends and I get together at a coffeehouse, a public swimming pool or beach, an outdoor fair, etc., for a day of hilarity. More hilarity, even, than usual, because when we arrive, we’re never quite sure who it is we’ll spend the day with.
Some of us will go all-out and wear wigs, temporary hair dye, and/or costumes. Others of us just adopt a foreign accent or new habits and a new gait. Sometimes someone chooses someone famous, like a historical person or a character from a book, play, or film. Usually, we start with a basic idea that grows more elaborate as we go along.
Then we spend the entire day improvising and playing off everyone else, tailoring our reactions to suit our characters. Often we do so well that strangers automatically accept that we really are all Swedish missionaries, partners in the wealthy Belgian firm Le Parfum de la Mouffette, or Cockney bums stranded outside of the City.
It’s great fun, and it improves our acting skills admirably, not to mention giving brilliant ideas to those of us who write fiction or scripts. More characters than many would guess have originated from these crazy days of fun.
Okay, so now you know where I got the idea.
The idea itself is this:
People lie online. It’s wrong, it sucks, but it’s a fact of life. ORP is a way for the liars among us to satisfy that urge without hurting anyone, AND a way to enjoy exploring new characters for those of us who are honest actors and writers.
My idea is a spin-off of ORP: a more freestyle engagement that may appeal to people without the time or attention span to write long posts, or to people still getting their feet wet in the ORP arena, as well as more experienced posters interested in trying a new format.
What if we all (that is, anyone who would be interested in doing this) agreed to be truthful about age, sex, and relationship status, and make the rest up from there? I mean, we could play characters of a different age/sex/RS, but those three details would give everyone a baseline on who’s playing the character.
In theory most things would have to be believable in a real-world context, so those of us who wanted to be space aliens or whatnot would have the challenge of skilfully revealing these identities in a way that makes us want to believe them. No one would be a vampire or a pixie or a river-god in a fairy-tale setting, so those characters would have to find away to fit into the real world, the way many science-fiction/fantasy writers have their characters do.
It would be like an ORP, except far more free-formed. No plotline, no story except whatever develops of our interactions with each other. The details we shared would come up in conversation rather than through organised story-writing. We could do this en masse here on Lit forums or private chat rooms/multiple-contact IM’s, or individually through PM’s or IM’s. Whatever works.
What do you lot think? Who would be interested in participating? If we did it here, of course people could use alts if they wanted. I think it’d be fun, too, guessing which posters might be regular ORPers using a psuedonym, wondering how much of what anyone says is part of the story and how much reflects their true selves. Even when people lie or write fiction, part of their real personality shines through…
Please weigh in! I’m terribly curious!
Here’s a little background for you:
Every so often, my craziest friends and I get together at a coffeehouse, a public swimming pool or beach, an outdoor fair, etc., for a day of hilarity. More hilarity, even, than usual, because when we arrive, we’re never quite sure who it is we’ll spend the day with.
Some of us will go all-out and wear wigs, temporary hair dye, and/or costumes. Others of us just adopt a foreign accent or new habits and a new gait. Sometimes someone chooses someone famous, like a historical person or a character from a book, play, or film. Usually, we start with a basic idea that grows more elaborate as we go along.
Then we spend the entire day improvising and playing off everyone else, tailoring our reactions to suit our characters. Often we do so well that strangers automatically accept that we really are all Swedish missionaries, partners in the wealthy Belgian firm Le Parfum de la Mouffette, or Cockney bums stranded outside of the City.
It’s great fun, and it improves our acting skills admirably, not to mention giving brilliant ideas to those of us who write fiction or scripts. More characters than many would guess have originated from these crazy days of fun.
Okay, so now you know where I got the idea.
The idea itself is this:
People lie online. It’s wrong, it sucks, but it’s a fact of life. ORP is a way for the liars among us to satisfy that urge without hurting anyone, AND a way to enjoy exploring new characters for those of us who are honest actors and writers.
My idea is a spin-off of ORP: a more freestyle engagement that may appeal to people without the time or attention span to write long posts, or to people still getting their feet wet in the ORP arena, as well as more experienced posters interested in trying a new format.
What if we all (that is, anyone who would be interested in doing this) agreed to be truthful about age, sex, and relationship status, and make the rest up from there? I mean, we could play characters of a different age/sex/RS, but those three details would give everyone a baseline on who’s playing the character.
In theory most things would have to be believable in a real-world context, so those of us who wanted to be space aliens or whatnot would have the challenge of skilfully revealing these identities in a way that makes us want to believe them. No one would be a vampire or a pixie or a river-god in a fairy-tale setting, so those characters would have to find away to fit into the real world, the way many science-fiction/fantasy writers have their characters do.
It would be like an ORP, except far more free-formed. No plotline, no story except whatever develops of our interactions with each other. The details we shared would come up in conversation rather than through organised story-writing. We could do this en masse here on Lit forums or private chat rooms/multiple-contact IM’s, or individually through PM’s or IM’s. Whatever works.
What do you lot think? Who would be interested in participating? If we did it here, of course people could use alts if they wanted. I think it’d be fun, too, guessing which posters might be regular ORPers using a psuedonym, wondering how much of what anyone says is part of the story and how much reflects their true selves. Even when people lie or write fiction, part of their real personality shines through…
Please weigh in! I’m terribly curious!
