About Us

[Arrouiz]

Ok so i've been planning to do this for quite some time now and just haven't gotten around to it until now so here goes. This is a list of tips to use when posting to make your posts longer, more detailed, and all around better. If anyone has anything to add to this, go ahead and post it here.

1. Don't start your posts with dialogue. Start off by stating your character's reaction or thoughts about what the character of the person who posted before you just said or did.

2. Take your time. Use good vocabulary and if you need to, use a thesaurus site (Thesaurus.com) to replace simple words with better ones. (Ex: Replace stuff or things with items, objects, embellishments, etc.)

3. Use descriptive words. This adds length and detail to your posts and can make you sound smarter. (Ex: Before: He ran up the hill and saw the mare standing at the top. After: His ebony form raced up the steep mountainside to spot the angelic golden-hued mare standing before him, silouhetted against the sunset.)

4. Describe the landscape and your character's surroundings as well as actions. Don't just say what your character is doing, also describe what's going on around him with things such as weather, landscape, other creatures, sounds, smells, etc.

5. Take the mindset of your character. Not only should you say what he/she is doing and saying, but what he/she is thinking and feeling. Keep in mind that this is roleplaying, therefore you should take on the role of your characters. Put yourself in their place. How would you feel about what's going on? What would you do or say?

6. I cannot emphasize this point enough. SPELL CHECK!

7. If all else fails, babble. It might get you somewhere, or it might not. Sometimes you'll just start typing randomly from the point of view of your character and come up with an idea. Even if you don't your post will be longer, so it's always worth a shot.

8. Try to leave a spot open in the conversation for the other person to reply to. If you instantly come up with a solution, resolve a train of thought, or if you just sort of end the conversation, there won't be much for the other person to reply to. Go back and re-read your post when you're done to make sure it's something you could write a good reply to, and if not, try asking a question or starting a new thought, anything to help the people you roleplay with. Not only is it helpful, but it will make more people want to roleplay with your characters.

Overall, just use alot of description, and once again, SPELL CHECK! Once again, if you have any tips to add, go ahead and post them here.

[Bilby]

nice! I use no. 7 a lot! These are good! I can't add anything, so this is brilliant!

[swallowtail]

I'm horribly jealous of your picture, Arrouiz. Other than that, really helpful for new people and old. Use number 3! Really helpful.

[Bilby]

Must add: If your utterly museless, ask a question! That gives the other person something to reply to, even if your post is ^$*%*9though I'm sure non ewill be! )-kinda like no. 8. yeah.

Thats my two cents

[Becca]

I disagree with just adding stuff just to make your post longer - sure, if you babble and it gets you to something interesting in your post fair enough, and if the description is needed and adds realism fair enough, but I've read plenty of posts with too much of both things and they made me want to fall asleep! It's quality, not quantity.

[Storm]

I agree with becca. Of course, it can help to use more descriptive words, but if you just babble on and on, it'll look bad, and sloppy. As said, Quality over Quantity.

[Arrouiz]

Yes but by babbling you get new ideas to add and most people re-read their posts before they hit the post button and when you do that you can decide what to keep and what's worthless and should be taken out. This is just because it's annoying when you wait for a post in a thread you're really excited about and then the person only posts maybe 2 or 3 lines. Dissapointing when that happens and tends to make people loose interest, so i'd just say write enough to make it interesting and continue the actions in the thread but don't write random, repeditive, irrelevant junk. Ok?

[Stargazer]

Wow Arnica!! Those are really helpful! I'm positive im gonna use them in all my other posts!!!
Thank you so much! because of you im hopefully gonna improve!
*fingers crossed*

[Arnica]

lol, but this is arrowiz topic

[Ritakna]

Those tips are really good.

On the descriptive note - don't go overboard. Sometimes a simple sentence/paragraph does actually work better than a descriptive and flowery one.

If I find somebody(though I've not found anybody here who does this!) who does long flowery descriptions I tend to tune out and skip to the dialouge.

I found a great writing guide here;;CLICK
Although it is for a fanfiction writer - alot of it would still hold true in role-play.