-Roleplaying and Writing Tips-
Advice for smooth roleplaying, interesting characters, and overall fun! These tips also work well for other writing projects, from the occasional short story to full-fledged novels and sagas.
Other Roleplay and Writing Tips:
General Tips
The basic knowledge and most desirable traits for writing posts.
Post Quality
Write detailed posts.
Note that I didn't say long posts! While long posts are all good and well, the most important thing is to cram as much detail into your posts as possible without making them slow, bothersome, daunting reads. (Yes, there is such a thing as too long of a post!) After all, a short, pithy post full of detail is much more valuable than a long, drawn-out ramble about one thing in particular.
Advanced roleplayers have a stigma against short posts (and especially the dreaded "one-liners") because it gives them nothing to work with for their own posts. However, most people who write short posts do so either because A: they have no idea on what to do next, or B: they didn't put enough information into the post, and end up with a small post. Both of these things are addressed on the Writer's Block page in the event that it's causing problems for you and your fellow roleplayers. Some advanced roleplayers don't care about small posts though, and in all honesty, the size isn't what's annoying about them: it's the lack of information. Imagine having to write a full-fledged post based upon one stagnant reaction someone's character gave you. Wouldn't it be difficult? Or if you do better with examples, consider this:
Player 1: "Jason simply shrugged, giving the stranger a cautious look. He didn't trust her already, especially with her dark attire and especially with her tattoo. What was with that thing? Who tattoos a dead cat on her arm?! Then pairing it with a skull necklace, and those weird pants with zippers in all of the wrong places... he was already suspicious, and his wary expression gave it away. He grabbed Casey's arm and backed off a bit, hoping her bulwark demeanor didn't get in the way and she ended up confronting the stranger instead, but at the same time he knew it was a hopeless effort."
Player 2: "'Who are you?' Casey asked."
How much does the person playing the stranger have to work off of? Sure, Player 2 asked a question, but one line of dialogue can answer any question. As a result, the third player's character is going to be noticing all of Player 1's character's body language, which detracts the focus from Casey, the one starting the conversation. This creates what I like to call "the sideways plot", where some characters are ignored even if the fault isn't in their design, place, or the manner of playing. People just find no reason to interact with them because they give no information in return. Should the examples above be continued, the sideways plot would become evident: the person playing the stranger might write a paragraph at most addressing Casey's question, but then have the rest of the post be focused on Jason's reactions because there are interesting tidbits to be used.
Also notice how lazy Player 2's post looks in comparison to Player 1's. It looks detached and indifferent, and people who have that impression with their fellow roleplayers tend to avoid interacting with them because there's nothing to gain from it. People roleplay to interact with other people's characters; one-liners and posts that hardly address anyone fly in the face of this and result in you roleplaying by yourself.
Writing detailed posts is a courtesy to your roleplayers. Everyone will have more fun knowing you will give them information to work with, maybe even slip in a few extra details here and there. This will keep the roleplay afloat and encourage more people to join, even if they don't care for the actual story all that much! They would just want to interact with you, which is healthy for the roleplay.
Note that I didn't say long posts! While long posts are all good and well, the most important thing is to cram as much detail into your posts as possible without making them slow, bothersome, daunting reads. (Yes, there is such a thing as too long of a post!) After all, a short, pithy post full of detail is much more valuable than a long, drawn-out ramble about one thing in particular.
Advanced roleplayers have a stigma against short posts (and especially the dreaded "one-liners") because it gives them nothing to work with for their own posts. However, most people who write short posts do so either because A: they have no idea on what to do next, or B: they didn't put enough information into the post, and end up with a small post. Both of these things are addressed on the Writer's Block page in the event that it's causing problems for you and your fellow roleplayers. Some advanced roleplayers don't care about small posts though, and in all honesty, the size isn't what's annoying about them: it's the lack of information. Imagine having to write a full-fledged post based upon one stagnant reaction someone's character gave you. Wouldn't it be difficult? Or if you do better with examples, consider this:
Player 1: "Jason simply shrugged, giving the stranger a cautious look. He didn't trust her already, especially with her dark attire and especially with her tattoo. What was with that thing? Who tattoos a dead cat on her arm?! Then pairing it with a skull necklace, and those weird pants with zippers in all of the wrong places... he was already suspicious, and his wary expression gave it away. He grabbed Casey's arm and backed off a bit, hoping her bulwark demeanor didn't get in the way and she ended up confronting the stranger instead, but at the same time he knew it was a hopeless effort."
Player 2: "'Who are you?' Casey asked."
How much does the person playing the stranger have to work off of? Sure, Player 2 asked a question, but one line of dialogue can answer any question. As a result, the third player's character is going to be noticing all of Player 1's character's body language, which detracts the focus from Casey, the one starting the conversation. This creates what I like to call "the sideways plot", where some characters are ignored even if the fault isn't in their design, place, or the manner of playing. People just find no reason to interact with them because they give no information in return. Should the examples above be continued, the sideways plot would become evident: the person playing the stranger might write a paragraph at most addressing Casey's question, but then have the rest of the post be focused on Jason's reactions because there are interesting tidbits to be used.
Also notice how lazy Player 2's post looks in comparison to Player 1's. It looks detached and indifferent, and people who have that impression with their fellow roleplayers tend to avoid interacting with them because there's nothing to gain from it. People roleplay to interact with other people's characters; one-liners and posts that hardly address anyone fly in the face of this and result in you roleplaying by yourself.
Writing detailed posts is a courtesy to your roleplayers. Everyone will have more fun knowing you will give them information to work with, maybe even slip in a few extra details here and there. This will keep the roleplay afloat and encourage more people to join, even if they don't care for the actual story all that much! They would just want to interact with you, which is healthy for the roleplay.
Don't make your posts "fluffy" or "flowery".
What makes a post "fluffy", you ask? Two things: over-exaggeration and extensive attention to details (i.e. making things poetic, especially descriptions of things), and making things theatrical to the point that it's annoying. While having an interesting narrative or writing style is fine, going overboard with it will cause other players to find your posts annoying to read, which results in the skimming of posts; something that is bad in both that it encourages under-detailed and inaccurate posts. Consider these two descriptions:
"Being more mountainous, the forest was more blue than green, though the whistling of the wind through the conifers was relaxing. Where it wasn't a thicket the canopy broke into an open meadow, covered more in clover than of grass. The air was cool and refreshing, clearing my mind of the disaster from before."
Pretty easy read, huh? Though granted, you wouldn't want to spend too much time on descriptions, as it can stagnate your posts. Imagine if you had to read through this in someone's post:
"Being in the soaring, majestic mountains that reached for the sky, the lush evergreen forest had a soft, blue-green tint to its foliage, like the twilight before dawn, and the wind sung a sorrowful tune through the many towering conifers, which had soft needles that were gentle on the hands. Where the forest wasn't a dense, thorny thicket, populated by brambles, low-reaching branches, and threatening weeds sapping the strength of nearby plants, it opened into a beautiful meadow, carpeted by dreamy clover, surreal wildflowers, and plush moss, dotted by the occasional granite boulder sprouting lichen in its crevices, as if it dropped straight from Heaven. The air was sweet and cold like the winter's kiss, and had a refreshing scent of pine sap and blooming flowers, clearing my troubled mind from that horrible, gut-wrenching disaster that had occurred just before."
That's just one area. Imagine if that same person did this each time he found something to describe!
Adding in subtle details is fine, but don't make it too detailed, especially if it's not the sole element of your post. Especially avoid iterating on things that the reader would already have in his head thanks to implications. For example, the description of the conifers in the forest. If you don't need to explain the image in your head to yourself, don't do it for other people either unless they ask for it. It will remove a lot of redundancies in your writing and improve its flow!
What makes a post "fluffy", you ask? Two things: over-exaggeration and extensive attention to details (i.e. making things poetic, especially descriptions of things), and making things theatrical to the point that it's annoying. While having an interesting narrative or writing style is fine, going overboard with it will cause other players to find your posts annoying to read, which results in the skimming of posts; something that is bad in both that it encourages under-detailed and inaccurate posts. Consider these two descriptions:
"Being more mountainous, the forest was more blue than green, though the whistling of the wind through the conifers was relaxing. Where it wasn't a thicket the canopy broke into an open meadow, covered more in clover than of grass. The air was cool and refreshing, clearing my mind of the disaster from before."
Pretty easy read, huh? Though granted, you wouldn't want to spend too much time on descriptions, as it can stagnate your posts. Imagine if you had to read through this in someone's post:
"Being in the soaring, majestic mountains that reached for the sky, the lush evergreen forest had a soft, blue-green tint to its foliage, like the twilight before dawn, and the wind sung a sorrowful tune through the many towering conifers, which had soft needles that were gentle on the hands. Where the forest wasn't a dense, thorny thicket, populated by brambles, low-reaching branches, and threatening weeds sapping the strength of nearby plants, it opened into a beautiful meadow, carpeted by dreamy clover, surreal wildflowers, and plush moss, dotted by the occasional granite boulder sprouting lichen in its crevices, as if it dropped straight from Heaven. The air was sweet and cold like the winter's kiss, and had a refreshing scent of pine sap and blooming flowers, clearing my troubled mind from that horrible, gut-wrenching disaster that had occurred just before."
That's just one area. Imagine if that same person did this each time he found something to describe!
Adding in subtle details is fine, but don't make it too detailed, especially if it's not the sole element of your post. Especially avoid iterating on things that the reader would already have in his head thanks to implications. For example, the description of the conifers in the forest. If you don't need to explain the image in your head to yourself, don't do it for other people either unless they ask for it. It will remove a lot of redundancies in your writing and improve its flow!
Pace your posts.
This is something that requires more skill. Reading good classics like the Narnia series show this well, and heck, even I still have trouble with pacing! It's not a deal-breaker if you can't keep your pacing consistent, but it will make your posts read a lot better.
What is pacing? Well, consider what you're reading right now. How fast are you reading it? Are you reading faster now? Is it because of these short sentences? Is it making things a little more intense? Or is it slowing down now, because I'm lengthening the sentence and keeping the flow, while at the same time breaking it up with punctuation to drag it out a little further and maybe even add some more details relevant to the topic?
See what I did there?
Pacing is the strategic writing of sentences in order to apply a "mood" to the words. This is possible due to how we learn to read. If you see a comma, semi-colon, or a hyphen, you pause for a moment. If you see a period, question mark, or an exclamation point, you know that it's the end of that sentence and immediately jump to the next one. So even though both punctuation sets make you pause, one gives you more hesitation than the other. Using this to your advantage can make your writing dramatic like a movie, and will excite your readers almost regardless of the content. Really good writers will also use this in order to "level out" the flow.
Consider reading a description of something - say, an ocean - and then read a snippet of a battle scene. Which one excites you more? Which one keeps your mind at ease? Which one makes your eyes run across the page, and which one makes you slow down, as though you're studying the words themselves? This is what I call "natural pacing", which occurs no matter what due to our associations between what's on the page and what it's related to in real life. By using purposeful pacing by heeding the structure of your sentences, you can level out this natural pacing a bit so the reader isn't dragged down by a long description or accidentally skipping important information due to reading so fast.
Another way to think of it is like driving a car: sometimes you need to go fast, and sometimes you need to go slow, but sometimes you want to change your speed in an area that won't allow it. As a result, you pay more attention to other things so it doesn't seem like such a crawl from Point A to Point B. Smart city planning specifically lowers the speed limits in areas where you need to pay more attention to your surroundings and not just the road, such as around construction sites, in detours, and near schools. Similarly, a writer can use pacing in order to make the reader slow down enough to catch an important detail, or speed up enough that the scene seems real, intense, and just downright awesome.
In short, small, snappy sentences increase the reading speed, while longer, drawn-out sentences lower the reading speed. Using this technique to your advantage, you can breathe a lot of life into your writing.
This is something that requires more skill. Reading good classics like the Narnia series show this well, and heck, even I still have trouble with pacing! It's not a deal-breaker if you can't keep your pacing consistent, but it will make your posts read a lot better.
What is pacing? Well, consider what you're reading right now. How fast are you reading it? Are you reading faster now? Is it because of these short sentences? Is it making things a little more intense? Or is it slowing down now, because I'm lengthening the sentence and keeping the flow, while at the same time breaking it up with punctuation to drag it out a little further and maybe even add some more details relevant to the topic?
See what I did there?
Pacing is the strategic writing of sentences in order to apply a "mood" to the words. This is possible due to how we learn to read. If you see a comma, semi-colon, or a hyphen, you pause for a moment. If you see a period, question mark, or an exclamation point, you know that it's the end of that sentence and immediately jump to the next one. So even though both punctuation sets make you pause, one gives you more hesitation than the other. Using this to your advantage can make your writing dramatic like a movie, and will excite your readers almost regardless of the content. Really good writers will also use this in order to "level out" the flow.
Consider reading a description of something - say, an ocean - and then read a snippet of a battle scene. Which one excites you more? Which one keeps your mind at ease? Which one makes your eyes run across the page, and which one makes you slow down, as though you're studying the words themselves? This is what I call "natural pacing", which occurs no matter what due to our associations between what's on the page and what it's related to in real life. By using purposeful pacing by heeding the structure of your sentences, you can level out this natural pacing a bit so the reader isn't dragged down by a long description or accidentally skipping important information due to reading so fast.
Another way to think of it is like driving a car: sometimes you need to go fast, and sometimes you need to go slow, but sometimes you want to change your speed in an area that won't allow it. As a result, you pay more attention to other things so it doesn't seem like such a crawl from Point A to Point B. Smart city planning specifically lowers the speed limits in areas where you need to pay more attention to your surroundings and not just the road, such as around construction sites, in detours, and near schools. Similarly, a writer can use pacing in order to make the reader slow down enough to catch an important detail, or speed up enough that the scene seems real, intense, and just downright awesome.
In short, small, snappy sentences increase the reading speed, while longer, drawn-out sentences lower the reading speed. Using this technique to your advantage, you can breathe a lot of life into your writing.
Utilize word associations.
Like pacing your posts, it's not a big deal if you can't pull this off well, or even at all, but it's one of those writing techniques that will make people love your writing.
What do I mean by word associations? Well, let's take some similar words and analyze them. How about dog, canine, and coyote?
Dog is a broad word describing an animal that has four legs, a muzzle, a tail and other distinct, dog-like features, such as the big grin revealed when panting, whining when distressed, and a desire for companionship and pack hierarchy. When you see the word dog, you immediately think of these things.
On the other hand, canine has a different tone for it, so to speak, so while it means the same thing as dog it can procure a more amorphous image of a dog, as it just means "dog-like" or "like a dog" and nothing else. In fiction it is also often used to refer to wolf-like monsters, so canine can come across as less loving and more wild.
Now let's look at coyote. A coyote is a specific kind of wild canine that can live in forests, plains, and even wastelands like the desert. Like a dog, it is opportunistic, although it is also mainly carnivorous, and its wild behavior makes it difficult to tame and it can even be a nuisance to livestock farmers by preying on domesticated animals. However, it will form packs with a hierarchy, and it can bark, sleep, jump, and track animals, just like a dog.
Now let's take what we have and compare them. A dog is a dog, the tame animal we all know. A canine is something that is like a dog in behavior or appearance. A coyote is a specific type of wild dog (or conversely you could say that a dog is the docile version of a coyote) that tends to live in warmer areas. How can you use this as a writer?
Easy! By using specific words in your sentences you can apply a desired effect to that sentence, more clearly portraying what you see in your head within more concise writing. For example, saying something is acting like a dog makes that thing seem friendly, even up to a fault, whereas saying something is acting like a coyote makes it seem more wild and untamed, though not as much as a wolf. Each word also means that the thing's behavior resembles a canine. So while your main motive is to explain that the thing is acting like a canine, you can add a "hint" or an implication that the thing's behavior more closely resembles a dog or a coyote, which changes the reader's overall impression of the thing in question.
Nifty, huh? Obviously you don't have to do this in order to get a whole message across. If I say "Jack grinned like a dog", and "Jack grinned like a coyote", you still get the message that he's exhibiting a canine grin, as the meaning of the sentence hasn't changed. It's the added subtlety of word association that makes the first grin seem more playful than the second one, which comes across as more devious or predatory. Using these associations and understanding the definitions of words can really add some extra flair to your posts!
Like pacing your posts, it's not a big deal if you can't pull this off well, or even at all, but it's one of those writing techniques that will make people love your writing.
What do I mean by word associations? Well, let's take some similar words and analyze them. How about dog, canine, and coyote?
Dog is a broad word describing an animal that has four legs, a muzzle, a tail and other distinct, dog-like features, such as the big grin revealed when panting, whining when distressed, and a desire for companionship and pack hierarchy. When you see the word dog, you immediately think of these things.
On the other hand, canine has a different tone for it, so to speak, so while it means the same thing as dog it can procure a more amorphous image of a dog, as it just means "dog-like" or "like a dog" and nothing else. In fiction it is also often used to refer to wolf-like monsters, so canine can come across as less loving and more wild.
Now let's look at coyote. A coyote is a specific kind of wild canine that can live in forests, plains, and even wastelands like the desert. Like a dog, it is opportunistic, although it is also mainly carnivorous, and its wild behavior makes it difficult to tame and it can even be a nuisance to livestock farmers by preying on domesticated animals. However, it will form packs with a hierarchy, and it can bark, sleep, jump, and track animals, just like a dog.
Now let's take what we have and compare them. A dog is a dog, the tame animal we all know. A canine is something that is like a dog in behavior or appearance. A coyote is a specific type of wild dog (or conversely you could say that a dog is the docile version of a coyote) that tends to live in warmer areas. How can you use this as a writer?
Easy! By using specific words in your sentences you can apply a desired effect to that sentence, more clearly portraying what you see in your head within more concise writing. For example, saying something is acting like a dog makes that thing seem friendly, even up to a fault, whereas saying something is acting like a coyote makes it seem more wild and untamed, though not as much as a wolf. Each word also means that the thing's behavior resembles a canine. So while your main motive is to explain that the thing is acting like a canine, you can add a "hint" or an implication that the thing's behavior more closely resembles a dog or a coyote, which changes the reader's overall impression of the thing in question.
Nifty, huh? Obviously you don't have to do this in order to get a whole message across. If I say "Jack grinned like a dog", and "Jack grinned like a coyote", you still get the message that he's exhibiting a canine grin, as the meaning of the sentence hasn't changed. It's the added subtlety of word association that makes the first grin seem more playful than the second one, which comes across as more devious or predatory. Using these associations and understanding the definitions of words can really add some extra flair to your posts!
Distinguish narration, dialogue, and monologue.
Posts can be hard to read if they're all plain text smashed up together in one big chunk! While the post size will be smaller if you do that, all of that text at once is intimidating to look at, and you may end up with your fellow roleplayers only skimming your posts. Don't be afraid to break things up into paragraphs!
Another way to help with this is to distinguish the text very well. Only the dialogue is noticeable because of the quotation marks, but even then it can be buried within a paragraph. Try to distinguish your narration (When he walked over to the pool, it seemed to shimmer slightly), your dialogue ("So now he's playing hero and going to meet her himself!" he spat), and your monologue (I guess it wouldn't hurt to give it a shot, right? she wondered). Typically when I'm writing, I will separate out dialogue from a chunk of text by giving it its own line, if the speaker is different from the previous one (if it's the same speaker, I'll keep the dialogue in the same paragraph). Same with monologue (character thoughts), but instead of quoting the words I will italicize them. I'll also use single-quotation marks ( ' ) for quotes in an already-quoted sentence, like dialog, instead of double ( " ). So as opposed to a chunk of text looking like this:
She paused to think at the edge of the pool, staring down inside of it. “This doesn't make any sense...” she murmured. But it does, once you realize what he did, her thoughts countered.
It would instead look like this:
She paused to think at the edge of the pool, staring down inside of it.
“This doesn't make any sense...” she murmured.
But it does, once you realize what he did, her thoughts countered.
Easier to read, huh? You can also color the dialogue, or give it a different font, to further separate it from the rest of the text. This can help your fellow roleplayers if they're searching for a quote. Whenever I make longer posts I will also separate out chunks of text, usually no bigger than ten to fifteen lines down (if it has a lot of dialogue, I'll go as far as twenty lines), so that the post consists of separate paragraphs rather than giant, intimidating chunks.
It can also be helpful to distinguish between different types of dialogue such as telepathy versus speech. In the Animorphs series, telepathy is distinguished from speech by encasing the sentences in <these brackets> instead of double-quotes. This helps the reading flow and makes it easier to know who's saying what, without requiring the author to put "he said" or "she said" (or variations thereof) after every sentence.
Another example, showing how I nest quotes: "I don't know, she said something about a 'mechanical bird'? I think she's nuts," he said with a shrug.
Posts can be hard to read if they're all plain text smashed up together in one big chunk! While the post size will be smaller if you do that, all of that text at once is intimidating to look at, and you may end up with your fellow roleplayers only skimming your posts. Don't be afraid to break things up into paragraphs!
Another way to help with this is to distinguish the text very well. Only the dialogue is noticeable because of the quotation marks, but even then it can be buried within a paragraph. Try to distinguish your narration (When he walked over to the pool, it seemed to shimmer slightly), your dialogue ("So now he's playing hero and going to meet her himself!" he spat), and your monologue (I guess it wouldn't hurt to give it a shot, right? she wondered). Typically when I'm writing, I will separate out dialogue from a chunk of text by giving it its own line, if the speaker is different from the previous one (if it's the same speaker, I'll keep the dialogue in the same paragraph). Same with monologue (character thoughts), but instead of quoting the words I will italicize them. I'll also use single-quotation marks ( ' ) for quotes in an already-quoted sentence, like dialog, instead of double ( " ). So as opposed to a chunk of text looking like this:
She paused to think at the edge of the pool, staring down inside of it. “This doesn't make any sense...” she murmured. But it does, once you realize what he did, her thoughts countered.
It would instead look like this:
She paused to think at the edge of the pool, staring down inside of it.
“This doesn't make any sense...” she murmured.
But it does, once you realize what he did, her thoughts countered.
Easier to read, huh? You can also color the dialogue, or give it a different font, to further separate it from the rest of the text. This can help your fellow roleplayers if they're searching for a quote. Whenever I make longer posts I will also separate out chunks of text, usually no bigger than ten to fifteen lines down (if it has a lot of dialogue, I'll go as far as twenty lines), so that the post consists of separate paragraphs rather than giant, intimidating chunks.
It can also be helpful to distinguish between different types of dialogue such as telepathy versus speech. In the Animorphs series, telepathy is distinguished from speech by encasing the sentences in <these brackets> instead of double-quotes. This helps the reading flow and makes it easier to know who's saying what, without requiring the author to put "he said" or "she said" (or variations thereof) after every sentence.
Another example, showing how I nest quotes: "I don't know, she said something about a 'mechanical bird'? I think she's nuts," he said with a shrug.
Additional Formatting Tips.
Here's a more complex chunk of text for you to study. Try and figure out why I marked each section I did before reading on:
"On the contrary, ambassador", she hissed slowly, "I think your kind are just waiting for the right opportunity."
(1) "Well..." (2) The man's smile faded, and his pacing slowed, as he tried to figure out how to bargain with (3) this... thing. (4) It - she - is an AI, so everything she believed in was rigid, defined by lines of code. At the same time though, she had (5) "relative understanding", or however the scientists had put it. He just needed to think of her like a customer, like another person, even though she wasn't.
(6) After some internal debate, his smile returned, (7) and he offered instead, "What about an island, somewhere? You can manufacture in peace, with your own little country, and the UN will recognize you as a separate entity." He recovered his demeanor, pacing again. (8) "All the resources on that island will be yours."
The above shows:
Here's a more complex chunk of text for you to study. Try and figure out why I marked each section I did before reading on:
"On the contrary, ambassador", she hissed slowly, "I think your kind are just waiting for the right opportunity."
(1) "Well..." (2) The man's smile faded, and his pacing slowed, as he tried to figure out how to bargain with (3) this... thing. (4) It - she - is an AI, so everything she believed in was rigid, defined by lines of code. At the same time though, she had (5) "relative understanding", or however the scientists had put it. He just needed to think of her like a customer, like another person, even though she wasn't.
(6) After some internal debate, his smile returned, (7) and he offered instead, "What about an island, somewhere? You can manufacture in peace, with your own little country, and the UN will recognize you as a separate entity." He recovered his demeanor, pacing again. (8) "All the resources on that island will be yours."
The above shows:
- (1) - When to add a line break for dialogue (the speaker had changed),
- (2) - When a sentence should be capitalized and "stand alone" from the dialogue related to it (the dialogue wasn't directly connected to the man changing his demeanor),
- (3) - How I used an ellipsis (...) to add the appropriate amount of pause in the man's train of thought,
- (4) - How I used hyphens to demonstrate the man's train of thought correcting itself, without breaking the sentence's flow,
- (5) - How to define quotes that aren't spoken out-loud, but are still relevant to the topic (the man was recalling something someone else said),
- (6) - An appropriate place to add a line break, to emphasize the next event,
- (7) - How to link narration and dialogue to keep the reading flow consistent, with narration before instead of after dialogue,
- (8) - That I keep dialogue in the same paragraph when the speaker hasn't changed.
Maintain your perspective/ point of view.
There are several ways to write sentences:
You have a lot of perspectives to work with! However, if you pick one, you must stick to it! It's very awkward to read through posts that change perspective all the time. Most people write in first or third person, but it's fine to experiment with other types. For example, second person is common in Choose Your Own Adventure roleplays, as the person running the roleplay refers to his players as “you”. In a roleplay where you as a person has been cursed though, it may be best to roleplay in first person, so that it feels more personal and you become more connected with your character. Most roleplays are in first person simply due to their nature (you're pretending to be something else in another place, time, or universe), but some specifically ask for third person because they're aiming for more of a story-written feel.
There are several ways to write sentences:
- First Person: Subject tells the story, like a biography. “I went fishing today.”
- Second Person: Story treats you as the subject. “You could have left, but you didn't.”
- Third Person: Someone who knows the subject is telling the story. “She failed her dancing lessons.”
- Third Person Omnipresent: Storyteller knows and shares all knowledge relevant to the subject. “Despite his best efforts, his nemesis had other plans, and ordered for the beast to be released.”
- Third Person Limited: Storyteller's scope of knowledge is limited to the subject. “He could see in her eyes that she was overwhelmed by emotions, but he didn't know what she was thinking. Should he be worried?”
You have a lot of perspectives to work with! However, if you pick one, you must stick to it! It's very awkward to read through posts that change perspective all the time. Most people write in first or third person, but it's fine to experiment with other types. For example, second person is common in Choose Your Own Adventure roleplays, as the person running the roleplay refers to his players as “you”. In a roleplay where you as a person has been cursed though, it may be best to roleplay in first person, so that it feels more personal and you become more connected with your character. Most roleplays are in first person simply due to their nature (you're pretending to be something else in another place, time, or universe), but some specifically ask for third person because they're aiming for more of a story-written feel.
Don't just be responsive. Use your character's brain!
Even the most elaborate post can end up bland if all one's character does is respond to other characters. Do you always and only respond to outside stimuli? Only when someone talks to you, or when something happens? Of course not! You're always out doing your own things, even if you're just laying around thinking to yourself. Your character shouldn't be much different. If you write like it's a person, with its own actions, reactions, and thought processes, it will read a lot more realistically. Living things aren't just reactive, they're proactive. Your character should be too.
Imagine if your favorite protagonist only spoke when it was spoken to, or only moved whenever the antagonist did something, but when nothing was going on it just sat around doing nothing. Wouldn't reading about it be boring? I would rather read about the antagonist, or even an NPC at that point! If you're having trouble, review who your character is in your head. Does it muse aloud to itself? Mutter? Does it react casually in certain situations, or is it always uptight? Use these features to your advantage in order to really flesh out your posts during roleplaying. If you're just responsive your character will lose the flourish you tried to give it upon creation, and you will become dependent on the posts of your fellow roleplayers, which not a good thing when - not if! - you're not given enough things to react to.
Even the most elaborate post can end up bland if all one's character does is respond to other characters. Do you always and only respond to outside stimuli? Only when someone talks to you, or when something happens? Of course not! You're always out doing your own things, even if you're just laying around thinking to yourself. Your character shouldn't be much different. If you write like it's a person, with its own actions, reactions, and thought processes, it will read a lot more realistically. Living things aren't just reactive, they're proactive. Your character should be too.
Imagine if your favorite protagonist only spoke when it was spoken to, or only moved whenever the antagonist did something, but when nothing was going on it just sat around doing nothing. Wouldn't reading about it be boring? I would rather read about the antagonist, or even an NPC at that point! If you're having trouble, review who your character is in your head. Does it muse aloud to itself? Mutter? Does it react casually in certain situations, or is it always uptight? Use these features to your advantage in order to really flesh out your posts during roleplaying. If you're just responsive your character will lose the flourish you tried to give it upon creation, and you will become dependent on the posts of your fellow roleplayers, which not a good thing when - not if! - you're not given enough things to react to.
Avoid Deus ex Machina moments.
This is more applicable to people who make roleplays than those who participate in them, but either way, this is important.
Deus ex Machina means "Machine of God" or "God's Machine". This term refers to unrealistic or improbable "miracle" events that manage to save characters from bad situations, such as a friend suddenly swooping in to save the day, an earthquake managing to shake the table just right so that the cure falls into the protagonist's hand, or, as the name came from, the hand of God coming in to magically fix everything. While Deus ex Machinas have their place, using too many will make your posts too hard to take seriously, and it will make them more comedic than anything else. Alternatively, using too few will make the story boringly realistic, so sprinkling some in doesn't hurt. Should you be forced to use one however, and you don't want to, temper these events with logic deducted from the situation the character is in. Maybe instead of his friend saving him, the protagonist has a burst of desperate vigor that manages to shake off his foe, or instead of an earthquake shaking that table, maybe the protagonist has just enough strength to move his hand and shake its leg so the cure falls. You will retain the miracle of the event while not making it so absurd that everyone just laughs.
This is more applicable to people who make roleplays than those who participate in them, but either way, this is important.
Deus ex Machina means "Machine of God" or "God's Machine". This term refers to unrealistic or improbable "miracle" events that manage to save characters from bad situations, such as a friend suddenly swooping in to save the day, an earthquake managing to shake the table just right so that the cure falls into the protagonist's hand, or, as the name came from, the hand of God coming in to magically fix everything. While Deus ex Machinas have their place, using too many will make your posts too hard to take seriously, and it will make them more comedic than anything else. Alternatively, using too few will make the story boringly realistic, so sprinkling some in doesn't hurt. Should you be forced to use one however, and you don't want to, temper these events with logic deducted from the situation the character is in. Maybe instead of his friend saving him, the protagonist has a burst of desperate vigor that manages to shake off his foe, or instead of an earthquake shaking that table, maybe the protagonist has just enough strength to move his hand and shake its leg so the cure falls. You will retain the miracle of the event while not making it so absurd that everyone just laughs.
Posting Etiquette
Try to address every post relevant to your characters as you can, unless the situation doesn't call for it.
This is more of a common-sense thing, since the whole point of roleplaying is to collaborate with others in order to create a story, but sometimes posts are accidentally ignored. If this happens, just edit your post or, if whatever platform you're using doesn't allow edits, amend it with an additional post. The reason you want to acknowledge every character you can (within the boundaries of what your character(s) would do, of course) is because it's a good way to flesh out your posts, and including other characters facilitates interaction.
However, a bigger problem I've noticed is when people have their characters notice other characters when they shouldn't have, due to reading the posts of players who have their characters in the area but haven't started interactions yet. For example, Character A stalking Characters B, C, and D. If the person playing Character A never writes anything that would cause Characters B, C, or D to notice him, and if said characters don't have anything that would allow them to notice him, then how would they know he's there? Characters B, C, and D shouldn't have anything relating or hinting at Character A's presence in their posts unless the players have worked something out over OOC. Yet, sometimes people have their characters notice these things when they shouldn't have, and it can cause other players to feel indignant or treated unfairly because of it. Be mindful of the logic in your posts!
This is more of a common-sense thing, since the whole point of roleplaying is to collaborate with others in order to create a story, but sometimes posts are accidentally ignored. If this happens, just edit your post or, if whatever platform you're using doesn't allow edits, amend it with an additional post. The reason you want to acknowledge every character you can (within the boundaries of what your character(s) would do, of course) is because it's a good way to flesh out your posts, and including other characters facilitates interaction.
However, a bigger problem I've noticed is when people have their characters notice other characters when they shouldn't have, due to reading the posts of players who have their characters in the area but haven't started interactions yet. For example, Character A stalking Characters B, C, and D. If the person playing Character A never writes anything that would cause Characters B, C, or D to notice him, and if said characters don't have anything that would allow them to notice him, then how would they know he's there? Characters B, C, and D shouldn't have anything relating or hinting at Character A's presence in their posts unless the players have worked something out over OOC. Yet, sometimes people have their characters notice these things when they shouldn't have, and it can cause other players to feel indignant or treated unfairly because of it. Be mindful of the logic in your posts!
Try not to rush things.
A lot of people just want to plow ahead and get things over with, but a good story is one that moves at its own pace. It's rather unrealistic and uninteresting for something to just happen with nothing in between Point A and Point B. It's also unrealistic to simply "summon" something to help you move the plot along or to empower your character's actions, such as finding a key to a door almost right away, or having an NPC show up to help you in a fight. Rushing ahead results in a roleplay moving along too fast, which makes it more difficult to enjoy, especially over time. Conversely, if you take too long on something, people will end up leaving in boredom. Find your natural pacing and follow it. If you find yourself bored because things are moving too slowly, consider discussing more interesting plot routes with other players, or try and create a subplot yourself in order to breathe some life into things.
A lot of people just want to plow ahead and get things over with, but a good story is one that moves at its own pace. It's rather unrealistic and uninteresting for something to just happen with nothing in between Point A and Point B. It's also unrealistic to simply "summon" something to help you move the plot along or to empower your character's actions, such as finding a key to a door almost right away, or having an NPC show up to help you in a fight. Rushing ahead results in a roleplay moving along too fast, which makes it more difficult to enjoy, especially over time. Conversely, if you take too long on something, people will end up leaving in boredom. Find your natural pacing and follow it. If you find yourself bored because things are moving too slowly, consider discussing more interesting plot routes with other players, or try and create a subplot yourself in order to breathe some life into things.
Don't hog the spotlight.
Or, as another way to put it, don't always find ways to make your character more special than the others and include it in everything. It's okay to be unique, entertaining, or have your character's existence or actions explain certain things, and sometimes people will like your character enough to include it in more interactions, but forcing it constantly can derail the roleplay and make people cynical of you, which lowers posting morale and consequently slows the roleplay down. Also try to avoid anything that directly makes your character seem special, heroic, or "the best", such as having sunlight shine dramatically upon it during certain scenes, having it always be available to rescue someone, or quickly defeat every foe that approaches it. These gimmicks will make your roleplayers groan out loud, and they will want to post less often. It's perfectly okay to be normal for a while!
Or, as another way to put it, don't always find ways to make your character more special than the others and include it in everything. It's okay to be unique, entertaining, or have your character's existence or actions explain certain things, and sometimes people will like your character enough to include it in more interactions, but forcing it constantly can derail the roleplay and make people cynical of you, which lowers posting morale and consequently slows the roleplay down. Also try to avoid anything that directly makes your character seem special, heroic, or "the best", such as having sunlight shine dramatically upon it during certain scenes, having it always be available to rescue someone, or quickly defeat every foe that approaches it. These gimmicks will make your roleplayers groan out loud, and they will want to post less often. It's perfectly okay to be normal for a while!
Don't post pictures unless you feel it is necessary, or if it's something you want to share out-of-character that is relevant to the roleplay.
Many roleplays have OOC (Out-of-Character) threads or chatrooms, where players can post normally on the forum without having to narrate as if they're other things. Most roleplays ask that you only post information relevant to the roleplay in question in the OOC thread, but some of them don't mind the simple sharing and bonding that can go on, like in a chatroom where you just talk about the things you like with other people. In roleplays that don't have those, OOC discussion is separate from the rest of a post and designated to prevent people from being confused (for example, I put my OOC snippets in ((double parentheses)), but you can also use [brackets], {braces}, and (singular parentheses).
Because of OOC discussion, it is considered unprofessional to use things like images in your posts unless you're doing something entirely relevant to the roleplay, and more specifically, the current scene. For example, drawing a diagram to show where you think everyone is, making a map that can then be used for the entire roleplay, or drawing portraits of your characters. Anything that is meant to aid your roleplay post or otherwise share unrelated information in IC (In-Character) should be avoided.
Note: the only things I would exempt from this would be unobtrusive post banners, which some people like to add at the top of each post, or only to one post to designate the importance of an event going on. By "unobtrusive" I mean small, short, static images, like a silhouette or some pixel art. You don't want anything too flashy, distracting, or animated, because it pulls the focus away from your post and people trying to read the post will be annoyed and distracted by the image.
Many roleplays have OOC (Out-of-Character) threads or chatrooms, where players can post normally on the forum without having to narrate as if they're other things. Most roleplays ask that you only post information relevant to the roleplay in question in the OOC thread, but some of them don't mind the simple sharing and bonding that can go on, like in a chatroom where you just talk about the things you like with other people. In roleplays that don't have those, OOC discussion is separate from the rest of a post and designated to prevent people from being confused (for example, I put my OOC snippets in ((double parentheses)), but you can also use [brackets], {braces}, and (singular parentheses).
Because of OOC discussion, it is considered unprofessional to use things like images in your posts unless you're doing something entirely relevant to the roleplay, and more specifically, the current scene. For example, drawing a diagram to show where you think everyone is, making a map that can then be used for the entire roleplay, or drawing portraits of your characters. Anything that is meant to aid your roleplay post or otherwise share unrelated information in IC (In-Character) should be avoided.
Note: the only things I would exempt from this would be unobtrusive post banners, which some people like to add at the top of each post, or only to one post to designate the importance of an event going on. By "unobtrusive" I mean small, short, static images, like a silhouette or some pixel art. You don't want anything too flashy, distracting, or animated, because it pulls the focus away from your post and people trying to read the post will be annoyed and distracted by the image.
Avoid giving out repetitive information to "remind" people of interactions.
I've noticed that some inexperienced roleplayers will do something odd with each post: they take all of their characters, and repeat their posts for each character unless that character is interacted with, in which case it will be new information. So if someone has Characters A, B, and C, and Character A is interacted with, but not B or C, he will write a new post for Character A, then import his old posts for Characters B and C as well, resulting in a large post with repeated information. It's a bizarre tactic to remind people to post and what your previous posts were. I advise against it because it not only looks messy, but annoys fellow roleplayers, especially if you're using it as a prompt to make someone interact with one of your characters but all of the roleplayers that are able post to are either preoccupied or inactive.
Most of all, the repetition is very confusing. Let's say our player's Character B is in an area with an event, and the reason Character B has an old post is because he wasn't interacted with directly, and yet new things are happening in the area the character is in. As a result, it looks like Character B is reacting in the same, old, stagnant way to completely new events, even though that wasn't the intention! Definitely avoid doing this, because the only thing you're gaining out of it is post clutter. If you need to prompt a fellow roleplayer to interact with you, just say something in OOC!
I've noticed that some inexperienced roleplayers will do something odd with each post: they take all of their characters, and repeat their posts for each character unless that character is interacted with, in which case it will be new information. So if someone has Characters A, B, and C, and Character A is interacted with, but not B or C, he will write a new post for Character A, then import his old posts for Characters B and C as well, resulting in a large post with repeated information. It's a bizarre tactic to remind people to post and what your previous posts were. I advise against it because it not only looks messy, but annoys fellow roleplayers, especially if you're using it as a prompt to make someone interact with one of your characters but all of the roleplayers that are able post to are either preoccupied or inactive.
Most of all, the repetition is very confusing. Let's say our player's Character B is in an area with an event, and the reason Character B has an old post is because he wasn't interacted with directly, and yet new things are happening in the area the character is in. As a result, it looks like Character B is reacting in the same, old, stagnant way to completely new events, even though that wasn't the intention! Definitely avoid doing this, because the only thing you're gaining out of it is post clutter. If you need to prompt a fellow roleplayer to interact with you, just say something in OOC!
There's no point in tagging.
What is tagging? It's something that makes an IC post look more technical, for one, which detracts from the immersion of the roleplay, but for the most part tagging is presented by a snippet above or below each post a player makes, which designates either usernames, character names, or both. It's meant to act as an indicator to what people/characters this player is interacting with. Yet, if the IC makes it obvious who you're interacting with, whether directly or implied, then what's the point of tagging? People are going to read the IC anyway. If someone is truly confused about whether you're interacting with him, he should just ask about it.
I personally hate tagging, as it offends me to think that some people feel the need to repeatedly tell me - as if I didn't have the brainpower nor the attention span to figure it out myself - that they're interacting with <X> person and <Y> characters specifically, despite the fact that their characters' reactions are right there in the post that I'm reading anyway, but that's just my personal flame about it. Maybe some people use it to help them remember what's going on, especially in a cluttered, highly-active threads. I have yet to find a serious need for tagging though.
What is tagging? It's something that makes an IC post look more technical, for one, which detracts from the immersion of the roleplay, but for the most part tagging is presented by a snippet above or below each post a player makes, which designates either usernames, character names, or both. It's meant to act as an indicator to what people/characters this player is interacting with. Yet, if the IC makes it obvious who you're interacting with, whether directly or implied, then what's the point of tagging? People are going to read the IC anyway. If someone is truly confused about whether you're interacting with him, he should just ask about it.
I personally hate tagging, as it offends me to think that some people feel the need to repeatedly tell me - as if I didn't have the brainpower nor the attention span to figure it out myself - that they're interacting with <X> person and <Y> characters specifically, despite the fact that their characters' reactions are right there in the post that I'm reading anyway, but that's just my personal flame about it. Maybe some people use it to help them remember what's going on, especially in a cluttered, highly-active threads. I have yet to find a serious need for tagging though.
Don't wait to post!
The number one cause of roleplay death is people not posting, and because we're social creatures, if one person stops posting, we feel it's okay to not post right away, which tempts us to procrastinate on it. The result is no one posting it all!
Some people have legitimate reasons for not posting, such as the internet going out, having to work a job that just doesn't offer enough spare time, or a sudden life event such as a death or having to move that eats up a portion of time. These are fine, and as courtesy, you should give your players a head's-up if something happens that limits your ability to post (just don't be offended if they skip you now and then as a result, because they're not going to expect you to be around as often).
There's one inferior reason for not posting though that's a big culprit for roleplay death, next to writer's block: wanting the "perfect" post. If you're stalling because you're not happy with your post, rewrite it. If you're stalling because you want to add something to your post that isn't done yet, like a banner, just post anyway and save the addition for next time. If you're stalling because you want to post all your characters at once, don't! Just post the characters that you can.
It's important to keep the thread moving, especially if you're in multiple interactions. If you're in more than one interaction, but you're holding off on posting because you want all your characters in one post, and a few of those characters are waiting on another character, all those interactions you're in will hang, and no one will end up posting because they're all waiting on you, and you're waiting on one guy who might not have time to post! Don't bother with it; just post what you can, because for all you know, that person you're waiting on will eventually drop out and that interaction will die anyway. It's not worth sacrificing the entire roleplay for one interaction that might die regardless.
Bottom line: don't wait to post if you can. It's not a requirement to get everything done in one post, nor to have pretty posts. The only requirement is to post!
The number one cause of roleplay death is people not posting, and because we're social creatures, if one person stops posting, we feel it's okay to not post right away, which tempts us to procrastinate on it. The result is no one posting it all!
Some people have legitimate reasons for not posting, such as the internet going out, having to work a job that just doesn't offer enough spare time, or a sudden life event such as a death or having to move that eats up a portion of time. These are fine, and as courtesy, you should give your players a head's-up if something happens that limits your ability to post (just don't be offended if they skip you now and then as a result, because they're not going to expect you to be around as often).
There's one inferior reason for not posting though that's a big culprit for roleplay death, next to writer's block: wanting the "perfect" post. If you're stalling because you're not happy with your post, rewrite it. If you're stalling because you want to add something to your post that isn't done yet, like a banner, just post anyway and save the addition for next time. If you're stalling because you want to post all your characters at once, don't! Just post the characters that you can.
It's important to keep the thread moving, especially if you're in multiple interactions. If you're in more than one interaction, but you're holding off on posting because you want all your characters in one post, and a few of those characters are waiting on another character, all those interactions you're in will hang, and no one will end up posting because they're all waiting on you, and you're waiting on one guy who might not have time to post! Don't bother with it; just post what you can, because for all you know, that person you're waiting on will eventually drop out and that interaction will die anyway. It's not worth sacrificing the entire roleplay for one interaction that might die regardless.
Bottom line: don't wait to post if you can. It's not a requirement to get everything done in one post, nor to have pretty posts. The only requirement is to post!
All custom content displayed on this site is copyright of the creator. Before doing anything on this site, please review this page for distribution rights.