Discussion Need to Shelve some Characters - Advice Needed

[Kitter Bitters]

So I am at a place where I have 8 active characters and honestly it’s too many. In the past I had deleted them when I didn’t want to write them anymore but then inevitably I want to bring them back.

So I guess I’m asking what should I do with the ones I do not want to play right now? Can they just kind of hang out in my sub accounts until I need them again?

At what point do you decide to delete old characters? How do you handle losing muse for one? How do you handle cycling through them?

For reference I am thinking the following characters need a break:
Katarine Ryiah
Holly Starstorm
Kuhbee
Alison Sky
Daxium Ryiah

It’s not that I never want to write them again. My muse is just more strongly vibing my other characters.

So how to you go about handling this? I welcome advice!

 

[Laphisto]

i say shelv them till a story comes up that they fit for! or untill you find muse to write there story! a character still has its moment specially if its helped develop story aspects for another character!

 

[Balun Dashiell]

I used to struggle with this, almost like an OCD-type habit, where I felt I couldn't keep too many characters at once. It felt like too much pressure having characters just sitting there unused.

Over time, though, I've learned to let that go and keep them anyway, because I so often end up wanting to bring them back later.

My advice is to keep them. If you do bring them back, you need to repost their biography and find all their art, etc. It's easier to keep them and just strike up a reason for their absence, eg. A blog post about them going away somewhere for an undisclosed amount of time. That way, if you do write them again, there are no holes in their story.

 

[Aether Verd]

99% of the time I just wrap up whatever stories I have on those subaccounts and don't use them again until the muse strikes.

That's it.

 

[Drego Ruus]

I've got a ton of characters I don't use. Drego is a great example of them, and I understand the ADHD problem of wanting to run 16 characters at once.

The solution I came with is finding a character that's your main, then flicking characters in where you need them. Jonyna will probably always be my main, but right now I'm trying to keep Nir and Anthony really active. Then I have my characters that fill niches more than they have actual arcs. Gress, Zoro, Ashley, these are all characters I use for warposting rather than actual character stories.

Drego is an example of a character I keep on the shelf for whenever my muse strikes. Honestly thinking about having him leave the ME and go off on his own just because he doesn't find sticking to his own vode fulfilling anymore, and wants to return to the days of being a bounty hunter.

I have a few characters that serve no purpose anymore, but there's no limit on character accounts, so why delete them when I can keep them in my back pocket for when the day comes they have a place?

 

[Arcadian]

Pain felt. I have 40+ alts now. I only delete the ones who never take off, though. The rest sit in my subaccounts until the day the muse strikes, or a cool faction takes off, or some site event fits their narrative perfectly—then, instead of having to remember the details of a deleted alt or waste time agonizing over a new alt's bio/div/avatar combo (as I always do), I just whip out these hella based alts from the shelf and give em some love until the muse well runs dry once again.

To date, I've only ever deleted and brought back one alt ( Jun Chiyo ), and that was a lesson learned: if I think I'd write an alt again, and not as an NPC, don't delete them.

If it's the long-ass list of alts in your account window that's the stressor, you might consider putting "zzz" or something in front of their names so that they go to the bottom of the list and are still visible, but also visibly "asleep" with the "zzz" - aka, inactive, on the shelf, but not permanently deleted from the site.

Or pull a Credit Wizard and rename the same dude a buncha times. Headcanon being a shapeshifter

 

[Credit Wizard]

Pain felt. I have 40+ alts now. I only delete the ones who never take off, though. The rest sit in my subaccounts until the day the muse strikes, or a cool faction takes off, or some site event fits their narrative perfectly—then, instead of having to remember the details of a deleted alt or waste time agonizing over a new alt's bio/div/avatar combo (as I always do), I just whip out these hella based alts from the shelf and give em some love until the muse well runs dry once again.

To date, I've only ever deleted and brought back one alt ( Jun Chiyo ), and that was a lesson learned: if I think I'd write an alt again, and not as an NPC, don't delete them.

If it's the long-ass list of alts in your account window that's the stressor, you might consider putting "zzz" or something in front of their names so that they go to the bottom of the list and are still visible, but also visibly "asleep" with the "zzz" - aka, inactive, on the shelf, but not permanently deleted from the site.

Or pull a Credit Wizard and rename the same dude a buncha times. Headcanon being a shapeshifter

I can neither confirm nor deny this statement

 

[Connel Vanagor]

:-o

 

[Kitter Bitters]

Thank you so much everyone! You have given me some really good tips.

I definitely do not want to delete any of them, it’s just stressing me out what to do with them. It’s nice to know I am not alone in feeling this.

I think renaming or somehow marking them as inactive is a great idea and I also think making a blog post to describe where they have been is an awesome idea too!

 

[Arcadian]

I think renaming or somehow marking them as inactive is a great idea and I also think making a blog post to describe where they have been is an awesome idea too!

This is a good idea for sure, but don't feel like you have to justify a character's shelving by explaining what they've been doing during their absence. That can end up just stressing you out of writing them again, having to come up with weeks, months, or even years of history depending on how long you took a break from the character.

Guess what I'm getting at is, time is fluid on Chaos. I tend to treat the last thing of note my alts did as the last thing they did and leave them in limbo until they wake up and rock on. This also helps preserve plots that would otherwise just die off if I'm forcing myself to adhere to an IC chronology.

 

[Kitter Bitters]

That is a good point. I might just let them sit and assume they are just doing things but not have to account for it really. Just like "where our story left off" next time I do an adventure.

 

[Fenn Stag]

I rotate characters in and out of style all the time.

Thal, Wedge, Tracyn, outside of my dead characters I rotate them a lot. There will come a point where I'll reach a good point with Fenn's story and then put him on a shelf for a while, write someone else, write Wedge again, etc etc.

Or just have them do what I do with Nej-

They just are off doing random adventures or things.