Now, you may be wondering what to write about when the current part of the storyline seems to be passing your character over.
The most common reason people stop posting is because they become bored. They claim "there is nothing to do." Many simmers expect GMs to spoon feed them. This is, of course, not a very good thing, since no one wants to lead someone else around by the hand. (After all, they're GMs, not babysitters!)
The less active positions (primarily helm, tactical, ops, and sometimes science) generally have a high turnover rate. Despite including the positions heavily in sims, often even waiting a week praying the science officer will post this week to move the plot along, more often than not these players just up and leave after a month. The main problem with Ops/Tactical/Helm (and to some extent, Science) is that for each of those positions on the bridge, there's only one person on duty at a time, which means that the other PC characters in those departments are sitting around, twittling their thumbs, waiting for all of the characters who outrank them in the deparment to go somewhere so they can take over.
A discussion once came up on the Staff of the Allied Electronic Simulations (AES) on how to help such individuals have something to write about when their character seems to wind up outside of the current main plot. The following list has been assembled some of the good ideas here for you to use if ever you're having one of 'those' times.
Originally, this list was planned with the idea of providing a list of ideas specifically for Conn and Conn-related positions, but as work was started on this, it was realized that the ideas really could (and should) be written for all positions.
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In one or more posts, you can write about:
(1) telling what your character does in his/her/its off-duty hours.
This allows for joint posts (which practically every GM loves). I, along with three others in the a sim I'm a player on, wrote a 4 person joint post that ended up being something like 14K. This not only allowed for better interaction among some of the crew, but has stemmed quite a few other posts, both before the post was sent out (describing our characters getting ready for a double date) and after it was sent out (describing what we thought of the date). (And my charater was an ensign in security, which shows that these ideas really can be used for any department!)
Of course, the great thing about this idea is that it doesnt't have to be a date (or even a joint post) in order to work. You can:
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(2) the character could be reflecting on his/her/its past ("The situation reminded Bob of when..."). I know some people groan and roll their eyes over the "character building episode", but such subplots allow for better character development, and allows the other simmers to understand your character better.
For this, the posts could be practically endless. Describing what happened when your character grew up, telling about being in Starfleet Academy (for commissioned officers) (or your fleet's respective fleet school, for those who play non-Starfleet officers), Tech school (for enlisted personnel), or Marine boot camp/officer training (for Starfleet Marines). I once had one of my characters write about what happened when he took the Kobyashi Maru, which all people who graduate from Starfleet Academy have to take (which means at least one post for every officer of yours who has graduated from the Academy).
There's also the "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" book series for younger Trek fans. Each book focuses on diferent crewmembers from each series and tells about the adventures they had while at Starfleet Academy (this is, in fact, where author Peter David introduced several of the "Final Frontier" characters).
Also, it's quite O.K. to have your character write about how they feel about the current mission, or the incident that's occuring at that moment ("Knowing that the Romulan Warbird's weapons were aimed at the ship made Bob afraid. He hoped that the captain could get them out alive..."), just as long as you don't go into overkill.
And of course, whomever is not on duty on the bridge in the Ops/Tactical/Helm departments can be assigned elsewhere. Tactical could be assigned to security duty, or mantinence for phasers and torpedo launchers. Helmsmen can be in the shuttlebay or, along with Ops personnel, can be helping engineering. Ops, since they deal with sensors and reporting to the CO what is being detected, could also be helping out in a science lab. And all those who play characters in Starfleet, whether enlisted or commissioned, could be assigned to instruct the fourth year cadets or lower ranking officers/enlisted men.
Again, the list is practically endless, and is limited only by your imagination.
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(3) Some ideas can come from an episode or novel. However, I wouldn't recommend taking something too close to an episode or novel, at least not on a regular basis. If you do it too consistently, some players who have read the novel or seen the episode may get bored, and stop reading your posts (which would pretty much defeat the purpose of even being in a role-playing game with others). It would be a good idea to grab elements, but not big chunks.
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(4) I imagine that Starfleet Academy would be much like colleges/universities, requiring a major and a minor. Establish what your character's other course of study was, and see if you can get him/her/it involved in that area.
Also, if the storyline involves sending an away team to study something that your character is qualified to study, offer to go along on. You might get to lead the team yourself; or if the away team is a large group that gets divided up into smaller teams for more eficiency, you might get to lead one of the smaller teams.
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(5) Remember, you don't always have to make your post elaborate in order to make it good. As Tech Sergeant Chen said in Galaxy Quest, "It's the simple things in life you treasure."
Sure, sometimes some simmers preach "longer is better" when writing posts, but don't confuse quantity with quality. I've read long posts which have often nearly bored me to tears (on those occasions when I could actually read through the entire post; I've never cared much for the 'epic' post (over about 12K in length)) while I've read posts only a few paragraphs in lenght that have left me sitting there going "Wow!!"
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(6) Never be afraid to ask for help! If you have any questions, are not sure where the plot is going or where your character should be in it, or would like to ask if anyone would like to write a joint post with you, always feel that you can approach the the other simmers in the sim.
If you don't want to send out a message over the mailing list, you can contact the GM, AGM, or other senior member of the sim in an OOC message. Most will be more than happy to help out.
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And remember, everyone has "one of those weeks", where you just can't seem to get out moure than a few lines, even following the suggestions mentioned here. Practically all GMs understand this, and are willing to allow for less than "ideal" posts. (After all, we're only human!)
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Written by Gregory Griffiths, originally for the AES Helm Guild; used by permission.