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Uther · **05-14-2013, 08:36 AM**

Hey everyone, I've been looking to start a journal for Abodo Po.

The idea is to ICly cover his conflict over whether or not to return to Ul'dah while he's sitting around in Gridania doing odd jobs. OOCly the idea is to give me something to do while waiting to play this game, with which I can keep focused on my character and further develop his personality. If I enjoy writing it and feel like it's a useful RP tool, I'll continue it through launch.

Here's the problem, I have no idea where to start. I don't know what site to use, or even what my options are. I'm looking for some honest feedback from those of you who have journals for your characters, how did you get started and are you enjoying it?

Eva · **05-14-2013, 09:39 AM**

I think you can really use any sort of blogging/journaling source for storing your character's journals. Â I use our LS forums which should keep journals public for anyone who may want to read them. Â I think others may use things like blogger, tumblr, or the lodestone blogs. Â When we began Eva's journals it was on the forums of the LS that we belonged to at that time. Â Since then Eva has been a part of five different LS's and most had a specific forum dedicated just to threads for characters to use for their journals. Â And we also keep a backup on a text file on our computer, and a dropbox backup for safekeeping as well.

The important thing - at least for us - is the journaling itself. Â It really helps you get into the character's brain and makes it a lot easier to figure out what she's thinking so that when we do get to the RP her decisions and the motivations beneath them are much clearer. Â Just pick a blogging site and if you want to publicize it add a link to your sig here on the RPC and/or on your character wiki page. Â Thumbsup

Good luck though! Â I can only imagine it's challenging to write a journal during this time when there's very little RP going on, but it's also greatly rewarding. Â Being one of the time-jumpers I'm not really able to keep a journal going, but it is one of those things I'm really, really looking forward to picking back up once Eva steps out of the rift!

Magellan · **05-14-2013, 09:41 AM**

In the past I have used wordpress for journal entries. Its pretty easy to use, free, and has a lot of layout styles to choose from.

I am curious; how do people who have not played the game know so much about their characters already? I read Abodo's profile and I was really impressed. But me personally, I feel I need to see the character move, breathe, and act a little bit (not to mention see how they look) before I can decide on their personality and story. I also need to get a feel for the world they inhabit, so that I do not unintentionally lorebreak.

Anyway, I really enjoyed your profile and I vote yea on the journals Smile

Hope to read them soon!

Deirdre · **05-14-2013, 10:29 AM**

Journals are SOFUNNNNN!

Currently we have no real system of organizing for them, some of us have opted for using a thread (Which can get messy on forum issues/moves) and some of us have opted for WordPress (which can be harder to set up).

Here is my WordPress journal for Deirdre, which includes every post from 1.0!

When I first started Deir's journal it was super hard to do. Admittedly, the first posts might come out a bit roughly, especially if you're not actively RPing the character. Try to get as deep inside of your characters head as you can, and just let it flow. Don't really think about the entry, let your character write it. If they go out on a tangent or start writing crazy gibberish, so be it.

I know it sounds super silly, but try it Smile

I look forward to reading it!

Vareal · **05-14-2013, 01:53 PM**

Perhaps I should do this... There's a lot of Isaac to tell that I haven't found a suitable outlet for and I'm not involved in any active RP's with him either. I recently figured out, mostly, what he's been doing in the 5 years since the fall of Dalamud. *plots*

Uther · **05-14-2013, 05:03 PM**

Thanks everyone! I was so surprised to see all these helpful replies when I got home from work.Â

I think I will go for WordPress, or at least give it a trial run. I was also thinking about what both Eva and Deirdre said about getting into the mind of my character and just letting the words flow. You're both absolutely right. The other day I got jealous of everyone's journals (I've been stalking your journals...) and opened up Microsoft Word and just started writing as if I were Abodo and I was part of a caravan headed to Ul'dah. I didn't try to make it a narrative as much as a realistic rambling of thoughts running through the character's head, every so often breaking from my train of thought to say something like "I would guess we're about three malms from the city gate now" or "It's hot, even for this place." and then continuing on with it, as if I was actually there. I read it again an hour later, and was proud of myself but also kind of astonished at how similar to a real journal it seemed once I put myself in Abodo's head. I'm really excited to get started.Â

And Magellan, first of all, thank you for that compliment. To hear someone say they were impressed with my character is a great feeling. I love reading and hearing about other people's characters, so it means a lot when someone says they liked reading about mine. But to answer your question, I'm in the thing-we're-not-supposed-to-talk-about-because-it's-against-SE's-rules and I played FFXI for eight years (which helped get to know the races a little bit, even though there are drastic cultural differences in the two games), plus I've looked into the lore as much as I could. With that I feel like I know enough to make a new character and back story. Though it is difficult for me to really get a grasp on Abodo, since I haven't played a Lalafell and I have to base his appearance on a mix of appearances I've seen from dozens of other Lalafell. I admit, it's taken a lot of effort, especially on the lore part, but I've enjoyed the journey so far... Also I used to write short stories, so that kind of helps.

I hope I can get my journal up and running for all of you to read soon, and I'm even more excited to actually RP with you all at launch now.

Aysun · **05-14-2013, 05:18 PM**

Oh man. Wordpress all the way. Lots of fun features that are free. I used to host my journal on the Lodestone but with the changes to it/limitations on length of posts, I'm all for Wordpress. Plus the disadvantage of not having it in your OWN place means.. if you leave a LS and had the journal on their forum.. ffff moving the entries sucks!

Looking forward to seeing your journal. I stalk the crap out of them myself. Loads of fun to read and write. It's something I miss almost as much as RP itself during this downtime..

Uther · **05-14-2013, 06:15 PM**

Made a wordpress account... No idea how to use it thoughÂ Huh

Aysun · **05-14-2013, 06:19 PM**

Go to "My Blogs" and make one!

It's pretty simple. You can customize the appearance with a premade template. Just play around with it~

Desphiria · **06-21-2013, 12:51 AM**

I have a question about this, how does someone who hasn't played this version of the game yet and stopped playing the first version, start a journal to begin with? Making a journal could be fun but, I dunno if it's a good idea since I haven't played this version of the game yet, plus I don't know how I want my character to look yet.

Curtis West · **06-21-2013, 01:05 AM**

I wouldn't even know where to start with journals... or if to start at all. I had no idea people did that, I didn't see journals posted here before on these forums. I kind of want to try, at some point after I flesh out my character a little more but... he's probably really going suck at writing. It may be a few lines here and there, if anything. Yeah... wow just surprised!

Eva · **06-21-2013, 10:28 AM**

Not all characters are literate. And there's nothing to say that a journal couldn't also be just a collection of sketches, for those more artistically inclined. I think Gerik and Selene have done something like this (though I think both are also able to write so it's not necessarily done to replace literacy).

To address the question of what sort of reasons one could have for starting a journal in-character, there could be many! Perhaps some event took place in his or her recent past that was significant enough that it evoked a need to chronicle it and the feelings and thoughts formed as a result of that. Perhaps the character was just bored and didn't have anything else to do. Perhaps it started as a shopping list and they got creative. Think of reasons why you might start keeping a journal. Maybe someone in-character suggested it would be a good idea to get your thoughts down in writing. I've seen a lot of journals where the first entry was, "I hate writing journals but XYZ said they thought it would help with <whatever>," and that's as great a way to start one as any!

But I'll reiterate that the experience itself I think is one of the most rewarding aspects of RP for me. And I know a handful of folks have surprised me with compliments about it and such. I tend to assume that nobody ever reads it because I don't write it with any sort of audience in mind. So that always baffled me a little, but I'm glad that others are able to derive enjoyment from the process as well, and not just me. ^_^

Uther · **06-21-2013, 03:09 PM**

I forgot all about making this thread. I decided to put Uther's journal on hold until the game launches. Glad this thread is helping others though!

Starting a Journal, Need Help.

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes