***Stare's Guide to Starting New Threads

Starting threads. We’ve all had to do it at some point or another, and let’s be honest - we all have a tendency to dread it, as demonstrated by the unavoidable “so do you want to start it, or should I?” It isn’t that we aren’t looking forward to the thread - we are! It’s just that starting a thread means we’re the ones who have to set the entire story in action. We make the setting, we decide where to start from. We could be the reason the thread succeeds. We could also be the reason it fails.

But no pressure, right?

The Options

What? There’s more than one way? Actually, yes. Lucky for you, there are several!

Join an open thread. Yes, you can actually thread with a new character without having to actually start the thread. Exciting, right? If you scroll through the different districts, you might be lucky enough to stumble upon a thread labeled “open”. This means that the person who started it is willing to thread with anyone. You don’t even have to worry about setting anything up - they’ve already done it all for you!

Start an open thread. So maybe you’re shy, or maybe you want to try your hand at spontaneity, or maybe you’re just too lazy to try to get in touch with someone about threading. That’s fine! You can simply write up a post vague enough for anyone to join, then post it with the “open” label yourself. If you’re worried no one will join, try popping into the c-box with a quick, “Hey guys, I started an open thread in [location] if anyone wants to join ^^”

Start a thread with a specific person/people. Probably the most popular method of threading is when you specifically let someone know that you want to thread with them and their character. You then are tasked with setting up a thread that sounds interesting to both parties. (While this is often the most rewarding kind of thread, it can also be the most difficult to set up.)

How To Ask

If you don’t have a specific person in mind, you can simply do a quick shout-out in the c-box asking if anyone wants to thread. You could also post in the Character Plots board asking if anyone wants to thread with [character(s)] in [district(s)]. Otherwise, you could ask a specific person.

There are dozens of different ways to ask someone to thread with them. If you spot them in the c-box, ask if they’re open to new threads. If you see they’ve posted in the Character Plots board asking for some threads, reply! Try shooting them a PM talking about how much you love their writing and asking if they would be willing to plot something out between characters with you. It’s especially appealing if you already have ideas.

I Have A Person… Now What?

There are two ways you could go from here. The first is just to decide on what characters you want to thread with each other and go from there (also known as pantsing ^^). These threads are very low stress, but it puts more pressure on you as the starter of the thread. You have to decide on the setting and circumstances. They're also more likely to end prematurely. The other option is to plot out what you want to happen in your thread. This is a bit more labor intensive, but it also tends to fairly rewarding ^^

Plotting Your Character's Doom Thread

Plotting can be hard. Sometimes, you're not really sure how you want your characters connect. Guess what? That's totally normal!

When plotting, it's important to keep in mind that you want to make the thread interesting. It should excite you, make you eager to post and practically beg for replies. In general, having your characters simply run into each other on the street isn't going to cut it (besides which, it's used so often that I think we can officially call Panem the clumsiest post apocalyptic world ever known).

A good way to start is to decide what kind of relationship you want your characters to have. Do you want them to be friends? Enemies? Love interests? Unlikely partners in crime? The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. Determining what kind of relationship you want your characters to have will reduce stress and make it easier to sort out the rest of the thread.

Another good thing to do is determine how they'll meet. Maybe they run into each other at an old pub. Maybe one finds the other in an awkward or dire situation. Maybe they're making some kind of shady business deal. Maybe they get stuck working on something together. There a dozen different ways you could approach it, and by figuring out how they meet, you'll find that starting the thread is infinitely easier.

Setting is another important thing to consider when plotting. The setting will often set the mood and add extra interest. They could meet on the rooftops, in an antique shop, out in a blizzard, in the alleyways of the district, between the shelves of an old book store.

Are you seeing a pattern here? The possibilities are endless. The hard part is probably going to be choosing from them rather than coming up with them.

Beyond that, you can decide how much detail you want to go into as far as what will happen in the thread. In general, you probably don't want to decide play by play - part of the fun of RPing is the fact that it's relatively spontaneous.

In Conclusion

Remember that in the end, we thread to have fun, not to stress ourselves out. You can put as much or as little effort as you'd like into plotting. As long as you enjoy yourself, the thread is destined to be absolutely fantastic.