Forums » RP Discussion » Winter's Writing Tips

Wow this thread is a treasure :o

Thank you! Sorry I didn't respond till now. I use a browser that doesn't work, any longer if it ever did, with Push Notifications.

I can't speak for other people, but I've kept tabs on this thread for a while. It's really helped me

Good links as usual!

Seriously though: I do my best. ^-^

Thank you for this forum❤❤

You are most welcome. ^-^

This may be a bit of a different vein on ‘WritingTips’ in that i would like to bring up the presentation of what is written. I think it is very important to be mindful of the way one's writing is structured. It can really make a difference in the story's readability. A story/fanfic/RP can be wonderfully written, but if it’s presentation is bad, it can be unreadable to many and simply passed by. I’ve seen many stories on Archives Of Our Own (AO3) fall down not due to content, but their presentation..

Let’s take the case of an RP written out in RPR Forum or PM format as an example. Since the media is text-based, how something is written (typed) can make or break an RP no matter how good the content of the writing is.

Since I am reading what the story/RP writer has written either on a computer monitor or a mobile device, readability is important to me. If I have a story or a post that is a wall of continuous text without capitalisation, full stops (periods), and a space after the periods and a line break between paragraph breaks, it is quite hard to read and motivation to continue reading the story of keep RP'ng is diminished. I guess this is what is mistakenly referred to in a lot of LFRP threads as 'literate'.

I'm not advocating perfect sentence structure, punctuation, and syntax, but some attempt should be made to make a story or RP post as presentable as possible to the reader on electronic screens and made easier to read.

Shadow makes a valid point.

I'd like to just add that if you have a lot to put into a post, or into a fic as example, try to figure out if things are really needed.

If you put in too much information about something happening, well before your character comes into contact with your writing partner's character, then you are adding unimportant (and possibly useless) information.

Example: Back on Anirp, I had one person who wanted to rp with my shadow dragon Lord, who I fit into the Sengoku era of Japan. And his OC was from modern times but he figured out a way to put his OC back in time with mine. His error was that he spent so much time, effort, and what not, typing up a whole scenario that happened before their OC went back in time. Out of the roughly (best guessing, it's been some years now) nine paragraphs, he only had two that were relevant for me to respond to. I only responded to what was relevant.

My writing partner then turned around and told me, in short: Well if you can't keep up with me, then I'm sorry but I'm no longer writing with you.

This person had no concept what so ever, about what was relevant to his response to my starter. Because he's had people who see him post novel, and suddenly people respond to him with novel. Therefore with my lack of responding to him with novel, and not typing up a ton of nonsense that I couldn't respond to anyways as my OC was not even aware of what went on, the writer decided to end the whole thing.

Seriously folks. Think things out to the best of your ability. And if you really think you have a lot to post, send half of it and save the last half for another post. Because even if you don't make a wall of text, not everyone is going to be able to keep up with you nor will they most likely feel comfortable.

I can do novel myself. However. It's not often and I really need to set my mind on it. My friend Cassi is one of the rare people who can have me do novel with her in rp if it comes to it. But I make certain that I respond to what she has posted, I put in what is necessary. A little bit of unnecessary is okay! But don't make it excessive to the point that you get mad that someone is only going to respond to a small amount of your post. Because it isn't always going to be your writing partner's fault, it most likely is your own fault.

So please. Be mindful of your posts, and don't get high and mighty at your writing partner's just because they aren't doing what you expect based off what others end up doing. It's why I have rules for my writing. It's why lots of people have rules for writing. I might make an acceptation now and then, like with Cassi and novel posting as example.

Such useful information am sharing it my community

Thanks for all the links! I am going to have to go through these to build up my new characters.

Not a problem!