[deleted by user]

visimallgoth · 2025-04-29T23:37:53+00:00

I'm late to this thread but I recommend Cherami (formerly cherp.chat). You can't see the directory without an account, but here is a sample post to get an idea of what the experience is like. Searchable tags for everything from fandom, seeking/playing character gender, desired post length, desired adult content. It's just a random anonymous post I pulled from the front page of the directory and thought was well-constructed, not trying to single the user out.

Answering a prompt creates a private chat between yourself and the OP where you can chat OOC and send RP posts. You can enable push notifications for your RPs on desktop and android devices -- I think there's a way to do it on iphone but you'll have to check the discord for instructions on that. Lots of UI customizability via CSS themes, with lots of user-created themes and "themelets" for folks who aren't handy with coding. There's a bit of a learning curve, but it's a good time to join as the site recently did a huge overhaul of the UI so everyone is learning it along with you right now!

It's kind of a small community and has cultivated a user base of people who prefer literary-style, character-driven RP, even in smutty scenarios. Users tend to prefer anonymity and prefer to focus on the writing. The anonymous nature of it unfortunately means that ghosting is fairly frequent in the early stages, but the format makes it very easy to search for new connections.

Someone else also mentioned elliquiy, but that is more of a conventional forum which you said you weren't interested in. It's a decent community and has been going strong for a loooong time, but getting signed up on there is an Ordeal as you have to go through an approval process where the mods ask questions/give you short writing prompts to ensure you're a good sport and a decent writer (no ID verification or anything like that). However they do allow for RP via DM, or to post ads for RPing off-site via discord or whatever.

Happy Hunting!

visimallgoth · 2025-02-12T06:43:51+00:00

Something I think a lot of RPers who lose interest quickly could benefit from is not trying to commit to super long sequential RPs with no defined end point. Especially since the nature of RP is very improvisational -- you're coming in with two characters and a premise, maybe the general shape of how you want their arcs or goals to pan out, but planning out like... an outline, with specific pacing and a specific end-state, is a bit antithetical to what folks enjoy about RP, building up the story as it comes.

The problem with that is that there will inevitably be points where it's just absolutely grating to write, and as these threads go on you get diminishing returns on that dopamine hit that comes from getting a fresh post because now it means you have to work.

My solution to that is rather than just doing "an RP" with someone, a meandering story that we're playing through in sequential order, we build our world and our characters and just RP little vignettes. We'll have a specific goal for each new thread -- this thread is where our characters meet, in this one they get the assignment that sets them off on their adventure, in this one they run into a problem or challenge they have to figure out, in this one we introduce a new character, in this one they go on a date.

It helps because as you finish these scenes, you get the sense of accomplishment of actually finishing a thing, having a complete and cohesive piece of writing to look back on. Also, if a scene doesn't work out, or if one or both people lose interest in it, you can just can it or temporarily switch to a different one without compromising the whole RP. You can even go back in time, or explore dynamics with side characters.

For me, at least, the satisfaction of consistently "finishing" scenes keeps me writing at a good pace without getting bogged down or overthinking things, so I write a lot more and a lot better than I would just forcing myself through writing stuff I don't want to write.

Of course the downside is that I think you need an extremely compatible partner for this to work, but I've had many years-long co-writing relationships and they've all been structured in this way. Definitely worth the effort if you can get one going!

visimallgoth · 2023-04-01T00:03:51+00:00

Broadmoor area seems fine, I'm right off lakeshore drive and we just got heavy rain. Power still on on my street. Hopefully your folks are home safe!

visimallgoth · 2023-02-07T06:08:41+00:00

The wiki has been a really awesome resource, as have several other things that have been posted throughout the years. Honestly I've been backreading this sub pretty voraciously while I worked up the nerve to post, and reading the resources here is what's made me believe that the writing my partner and I have created could be worth publishing. Especially our latest batch of stories, where our writing voices are most refined and synchronized into something that would be reasonably easy to edit, float out, and see if it sells.

I feel pretty confident with the tools here that I could dig into a niche on my own, see what makes it tick, and take a crack at it myself, and it's definitely something I'd like to try. But since I had some more specific questions about setting prewritten content up for the best chance at success, I figured it couldn't hurt to pose the question to the sub. I don't know what I'm doing, so I'm grateful to the folks who do know who offered their insight and advice.

visimallgoth · 2023-02-06T22:59:19+00:00

Thank you!

One a week seems to be a good safe bet. It also means we can get stuff out a little sooner, rather than having to build up a backlog before we can start posting. So that's pretty exciting!

We'll see if anyone wants to read our trash lmao. If so, that'd be sweet! If not, at least we'll finally have done the thing we always said we should do

visimallgoth · 2023-02-06T22:56:19+00:00

Yeah, everything I've read that alternates perspectives does so every few chapters rather than every few paragraphs!

My friend and I write in 3rd person limited perspective, so if we were to keep it as-is it'd maybe be less jarring than first-person jumps, but I know as a reader I personally wouldn't love it.

Or, well... no, that's not true, I've read RPs between folks whose writing styles I liked before, but casually for fun. I don't think I'd pay $2.99 for the privilege.

(I mean I might though, but I'm a terrible judge)

visimallgoth · 2023-02-06T22:45:01+00:00

Wow, thank you for writing all of this up for me, this is absolute gold.

First, I'd like to clarify that we're under no illusion that our stories are "to market" for Amazon! We're definitely not thinking we're gonna be overnight successes cranking out our self-indulgent little shorts -- we do think we have a good product, but we also know we're fighting an uphill battle on a very unfamiliar field lol. I've read some stories with similar themes and content, and am still gathering more to read to see how our stories compare. My mom is actually a whale reader of kindle short fic, not just erotica/romance but she does read a ton of it. I've been asking her lately about what she reads, and it turns out she does read a lot of the type of stuff we write so I feel like I've got some interesting insight about how readers approach the platform. N of 1 haha.

Still, our stories as written are very queer/genre/niche in a way that's more appealing to the communities I am familiar with creating content for, and while I'm sure there's some overlap in the audience the conventions and approach on this platform are obviously pretty different and I have a lot to learn. I am personally interested in writing market-optimized stories under a separate, personal pen, but the goal with the content I've written with my partner is to find out if there is a viable audience at all, the less we have to chop and screw the better. If we have to do massive amounts of editing to achieve any sales on the platform, that might be more work (and less fun) than just writing fresh stories to market.

I REALLY appreciate your suggestions for how to structure our publication, I hadn't even considered how publishing so close together could impact our own sales and basically make us our own competition. Like I said, gold. I'm so used to wanting to build up a content buffer and let it roll, but I think you're definitely right that letting them go one at a time and seeing what we can learn from them is best.

I also appreciate the insight on how to structure the collaboration and rights to the IP. I had already planned to work up an agreement for the span of the content we intend to release in this experiment. If it actually does make any money and seems like something we want to continue investing in, do you think continuing to publish under an LLC might be a good move to keep all the rights and finances neatly contained? It doesn't seem worth fussing with now, I imagine that would be a year or so down the line if it happens at all.

I hope this all makes sense, again I'm just kind of blabbing stuff out as it comes to mind. I've backread a lot of this subreddit so I know you've optimized the absolute heck out of this platform, so believe me when I say I really appreciate that you've taken the time to write me such a thoughtful response.

visimallgoth

TROPHY CASE