Creating Good Canon Apps - request by Sniggle.

I have been asked by the staff of the site to come here and teach everyone what makes a good canon application. We have been accepting Canon Applications since July 31st 2011. That is more than a year ago yet we still only have a mere handful of around 30 people playing canons. This is because some of you don't want to apply or don't know what goes into making a good canon application. First you must choose which canon you want to have. There is a list which can be found here with all available and taken Canons.

Second, you must have the basic application form shown here below:

Character you're applying for:
Brief description of the character:
Sample Roleplay:
Why do you deserve to roleplay this character?:

Now that you have your canon chosen and your application form, you can start creating your character. I suggest you make your character in Word. This way you can save whatever progress you make and you don't lose it easily. I have heard people nearly crying because they accidentally clicked away the screen where they were making their characters. In addition to that, you can't just post the application on the forum, you need to PM it to one of the blue admins. This means, you can't just post a Work In Progress canon application randomly somewhere on the board.

Lets fill the form in from the top. First thing you state if the canon you're applying for. Lets use this beautiful example over on the left, made by Skye, as our example throughout this whole tutorial. So, first off we state the name next to where is says 'Character you're applying for:' in the form. Here we'll write 'Thalia Grace'. That is the first step finished. Over and done with!

Second comes your description, this you have to split in two different sections. Personality and Appearance. Usually, when creating my personalities for characters, I pick about 4 - 5 basic words that suit my character. Just deviating from the example, for Thalia we would pick words like stubborn, affectionate, leader and rash (This is only an example, you can change these words up). When you have those words chosen, I like going to word and putting them down one under the other and making them bigger like so:

Stubborn

Affectionate

Leader

Rash

After this, I elaborate each point making the simple words into a complete paragraph using historic events you know about from the books, or if you have a bit of a hazy character that isn't one of the main characters that you make up yourself. This way you get a very detailed character without necessarily trying to write loads. Some people think that the bigger your post is the better. This isn't true. I have read RPs between people where two people were posting more than a thousand words each time, and the others barely a hundred and I found that the ones writing the least weren't competitive, posted more frequently and had more muse instead of the other two. So here the old saying is really true; Quality over Quantity.

Now, lets elaborate. The first personality trait is Stubborn. You can start your paragraph by saying 'Thalia has been a very stubborn girl throughout her whole life because...' which is where you would add in a reason as to why Thalia had been stubborn all her life. Then you get your second trait, but remember, you don't want all your paragraphs to start the same so this time as an example you could say 'Even though Thalia acts really macho and is very stubborn, she has a secret, hidden side to her that is affectionate towards ... because ...' and again here you would elaborate. Then you do this as well with the other two traits that you have thought of.

Now you have finished the personality of your canon, you get to do the Physical Appearance. Now this means you have to describe what your canon looks like in your eyes. You can go a completely different way than other people with some canons. Not all, like Percy and Annabeth, but the ones that you can I feel are the most fun. Again we're going to do it like we did the personality but this time the list is a bit different:

Eye colour:
Hair: (length, colour)
Height:
Weight: (underweight/average/slightly fat/obese)
Body-type:
Style: (clothing)

This time I'm just to make it easy create an entire appearance showing you step by step as I do them. I'm going to show you how I created (from my own characters) Christian's appearance. Now, the finished product looks like this;
Christian is average height for his age at around 6'1". He is a lean boy, though he eats a tremendous amount – he simply never puts on weight. His bright, bleached hair is almost always well-kept and contrasts shockingly with his distinctively blue eyes. His skin is incredibly, a nice golden tanned colour. His movements are supple and graceful, so much so that he could almost pass for an acrobat.
Chris is fresh-faced and does look relatively young; this he does not mind, it gives him a look of innocence that he does not deserve. There’s something mysterious about it, he believes. Truthfully, he just looks like he is out to cause trouble. He dresses in smart-casual clothing. Christian likes to appear dressed down when really he has spent a lot of time dressing up. He wears clean sneakers at all times – his grandfather always said you could tell a lot about someone by their shoes.

Step 1; the list

Eye colour: Blue, distinctive
Hair: Blonde, long-ish
Height: 6'1''
Weight: Average
Body-type: lean but developed
Style: Smart-casual, polo shirts, jeans, khakis, shorts.

Step 2; creating the general paragraph

Christian is about 6'1'' with an average weight. He is tall with a lean but developed body. He has distinctive blue eyes and blonde hair that is well-kept and sometimes fall in front of his eyes. Christian enjoys wearing smart-casual clothing like Polo T-shirts, jeans, khakis and sometimes in between during the summer some shorts.

Step 3; elaborate on your paragraph, decide what to keep, add, take away and change

Christian is average height for his age at around 6'1". He is a lean boy, though he eats a tremendous amount – he simply never puts on weight. His bright, bleached hair is almost always well-kept and contrasts shockingly with his distinctively blue eyes. His skin is incredibly, a nice golden tanned colour. His movements are supple and graceful, so much so that he could almost pass for an acrobat.
Chris is fresh-faced and does look relatively young; this he does not mind, it gives him a look of innocence that he does not deserve. There’s something mysterious about it, he believes. Truthfully, he just looks like he is out to cause trouble. He dresses in smart-casual clothing. Christian likes to appear dressed down when really he has spent a lot of time dressing up. He wears clean sneakers at all times – his grandfather always said you could tell a lot about someone by their shoes.

TADAAAAA :D You're done!

Now is probably the most fun part! You get to create a RP post! Here I can't really help you, I shouldn't anyway, because this is your part, as is the next part. In your Sample Post, you are allowed to use other characters write using them. For example with Skye's application she wrote a post using Percy, Annabeth, Grover and so on. Once you have created a nice RP post, (I suggest a minimum of 150 words, but its not mandatory), you have to write about why you deserve and/or want this character. Here you explain to the admins why you should be the one to get this specific Canon. There will be other people who have applied but why do you think you should be the one out of all those applications to get the character?

After you have done all this, you send it to one of the current admins, either Skye, Sniggle, Zan (Chrome Lion) or Kat.