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Tips for writing good RP's

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Tips for writing good RP's Empty Tips for writing good RP's

Post by Guest Tue Aug 25, 2009 5:15 am

((This topic is subject to changes done by Thalia.))

These tips have been taken from another Roleplaying site I frequent. These are really great and have helped me a lot. So please pay attention to them people. We all want the Roleplays to get better, don’t we?

Remember the golden rule for roleplaying, quality over quantity [within reason. It's hard to make a quality one liner, I can tell you that! And it's hard to respond to only a few sentences.]

RP Tips:

First I would like to say that roleplaying is a skill one cannot master in a day, a month, or maybe even a year. It takes time and practice as well as an active imagination. Don't feel intimidated by good roleplayers. Read their posts and learn from mistakes you have made in yours that they do not. Each writer has their own style. You simply cannot copy the style of another writer and expect to have success because that wouldn't be you.

Rule #1
The very first rule of writing is probably the most important one: grammar! You must use correct grammar and spelling throughout all of your writing. When people misspell many words or don't use the proper punctuation or capitalization nobody is going to want to read it. www.dictionary.com is a gift from God for this purpose. While writing a roleplay, it's good to keep two windows of your browser open at the same time with one of them on that website. You can quickly look up words you think you might have misspelled. If you are just plain terrible at spelling, you might want to copy and paste your roleplay into a microsoft word document before posting it, and have that correct the spelling errors for you with spell check. Make sure to read through your roleplay as sometimes spell check might not make the wisest choices. There are words that might look similiar to the one you were trying to write but mean a totally different thing.

Spelling is just one part of the grammar rule. Using the right forms of such things as ‘their’, ‘they're’ and ‘there’ or ‘where’, ‘were’ and ‘wear’ are also very important.
‘They're’ means they are as in : “They're going to the.”
‘Their’ shows ownership of something as in "Their store is neat."
‘There’ refers to a place as in "I am going there."

The site I referred you to above has another function that is equally important in a persons writing as the dictionary, the thesaurus. The thesaurus can be used often when you feel you have become repetitive saying the same word over and over but you must do it. You must be careful using a thesaurus, however. You do not want to use words that you don't even know the meaning to and you want to avoid being over-elaborate. Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready, and able. In this, as in so many matters pertaining to your style of writing, one's ear must be one's guide: gut is a lustier noun than intestine, but the two words are not interchangeable, because gut is often inappropriate, being too coarse for the context. Never call a stomach a tummy without good reason.

For basic and advanced techniques in learning the proper grammar I highly recommend the book “The Elements of Style: 4th Edition” by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. I have found this book to exponentially improve my writing style and actually helped me find mine. If you can't find it or can't afford this $7.95 book, I urge you to ask your English teacher if you can borrow a book similar to it.

Rule #2
The second rule pertains to the use of dialogue with roleplays. Throughout your writing someone will inevitably speak. You must make sure that the reader knows who is speaking at all times. Dialogue is useless if the reader doesn't know who's talking. They may become lost and want to re-read things to solve the mystery of who spoke those fateful words. You want to make sure your descriptive words such as "he said" or "John said", do not awkwardly interrupt a spoken sentence. Place them where a break would come naturally in speech-that is, where the speaker would pause for a breath. The best test for placing an attributive is to speak the sentence. For example:

["What's more, they would never,"she added, "consent to the plan."]

Is incorrect as compared to:

["What's more," she added,"they would never consent to the plan." ]

A nifty trick I have recently learned in roleplaying is that it is useful to color dialogue using the color text feature. Make your character talk in one color and anybody else he or she runs into in another, more bland, color. Make them colors that are easy on the eye and readers can easily make the transition from the normal text to that. You don't want a rainbow, either. Be sure to use the same color for each of the strangers and a different one for your main character.

While on the subject of dialogue, I'd like to add a mistake I have found in many roleplays, even ones by experienced roleplayers. Do not end your dialogue in a period if you have a descriptive phrase like "he said" after it. The dialogue ends in a comma.

["That is probably for the best." said Tom. ]

Is incorrect as compared to:

["That is probably for the best," said Tom. ]

Rule #3
Don't use dialect unless you are a devoted student of the tongue you hope to reproduce. If you use dialect, you must be consistent. The reader will become impatient or confused upon finding two or more versions of the same word or expression. In dialect, it is necessary to spell phonetically to capture the unusual inflections. If you aren't fluent in speaking that way in real life, don't write that way. You will end up just writing mumbo-jumbo that your reader is going to have to try to decipher. They are supposed to be reading a story, not wasting time thinking about what a character said.

Rule #4
Don't fancy up your writing with adverbs. Do not write adverbs such as tangledly. Nobody says tangledly. Words that are not used orally are seldom ones to use in a roleplay. Do not dress up words by adding -ly to them. Also, be sparing in the use of adverbs after "he said," "she replied," and the like. Writing "he said excitedly" "she replied grumblingly" is annoying and cluttered. Let the conversation itself disclose the speakers manner of condition. Inexperienced writers not only overwork their adverbs but load their attributives with explanatory verbs: "he consoled," "she congratulated." They do this, apparently, in the belief the word said is always in need of support, or because they have been told to by bad writers. On a final note, don't think saying "he said" or "she said" repeatedly is a bad thing. There's no reason people should be intentionally avoiding the word "said" as a descriptive word.

Rule #5
Revise and rewrite your work. Revising is part of writing. Few writers are so great that they can create what they are after on the first try. Usually by re-reading something you have written you will find that someone should have said something different or you forgot to add a scene or cut one that would allow the piece to better flow. Almost 100% of the time, there are grammatical errors you will find and correct after reading and re-writing. Once you post your roleplay, you should take the time to re-read it immediately. Good writers will often find themselves clicking the edit button at least once and sometimes even more to make anything from minor to major changes. You will seldom find a roleplay by me without seeing the words "Last Edited:" at the bottom i.e in other RP sites. Edit option isn’t available in HalfBloodhillrpg.com of course.

Rule #6
Write in a way that comes easily to you, using words that come readily to hand. Don't use complicated words when smaller ones can get the job done just as easily. The use of language begins with imitation. Though you should never imitate consciously, do not worry about being an imitator; try instead to admire good writing. This goes along the lines of what I said in the beginning of this page of "You cannot copy another's style". This is not because it is wrong to steal but because it will make it harder for you to write. Then when you write in a way that comes naturally, you will find it easier to write longer roleplays.

Rule#7
Write roleplays in the past tense and in the 3rd person narrative. I have found this rule out the hard way and have learned it is a critical ingredient to good roleplaying. While there are many good novels and stories written in the 1st person, roleplays are not one of them.

["Tom runs down the hallway. He hopes to find his way out of the maze that he is trapped in." ]

Is incorrect as compared to:

["Tom ran down the hallway. He hoped to find his way out of the maze he was trapped in." ]

Think of your roleplay as a story being told. Roleplays that are not written in the past tense can annoy the reader and they might be tempted not to read it at all.

Rule #8
Paragraph formatting is just as important in writing as grammar and spelling. When a new person talks, a new action is done, or a description of a new setting is written, you would normally create a new paragraph and indent it. In roleplaying, indenting is not used but instead you leave one blank line between paragraphs. This makes the roleplays easier to read and also serves to separate the paragraphs as indenting would.

Rule #9
Always continue the story with your posts. I've seen it over and over of people. These to peoples’ roleplays as if they are taking steps. In the beginning they might write what they did during the beginning of someone else’s post. In the middle they might reply to a question or sentence someone else’s character said in the middle of their post. The problem with this is that it does not progress the story at all because it's just rehashing a story we've already read. The most you should ever re-cap is the last sentence or two of the last persons post before creating original content to contribute to the story.

~*~

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Post by Guest Tue Aug 25, 2009 6:27 pm

I definitely think that my role-plays could be improved. I read the whole thing and found it very helpful. Such as learning that you need to end dialogue with a comma and not a period meaning that your dialogue and whatever you put after it (If anything) is one sentence. Thanks for sharing this with us! ^^

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Post by Guest Thu Aug 27, 2009 5:48 pm

Me too. Even for an average teenager, I have found that yy conventions were not what they used to be, and another memorization of the textbook wouldn't go too wrongly!
Corona, you are stunningly skilled within the expertise of roleplaying, and it proves that your English grades must flourish. I can say that I am wholly impressed! Thank you.

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Post by Guest Thu Aug 27, 2009 5:49 pm

Well she said that she had lots of help from Moli and Thalia

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Post by Guest Thu Aug 27, 2009 6:00 pm

I must have missed rule two....

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Post by Guest Thu Aug 27, 2009 6:17 pm

Plus, new paragraph when a new character speaks! Remember that with the ferret Laura!

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Post by Guest Thu Aug 27, 2009 6:21 pm

I know that! I'll be as good as Moli ^^
Ok so that's exahgerating (sp?)

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Post by Guest Thu Aug 27, 2009 6:24 pm

It's exagerating. Well I think anyway. And if Laura gets a ferret I want a falcon. -crosses arms-

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Post by Guest Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:11 am

I don't think anyone could be as good as Moli, only problem, THEY ARE SOOOOOO LONG!


Last edited by Molione Timoleon on Tue Sep 01, 2009 1:00 pm; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : The "OO"s were ridiculous.)

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Post by Molione Timoleon Tue Sep 01, 2009 1:00 pm

I see your point, Graham, but I'm getting rid of most of your "OO"s, as they could be considered spam. And Corona is better than I am, defiantly! Thalia is too, probably.
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Post by Guest Tue Sep 08, 2009 6:30 pm

Moli, I can see how they could have longer posts than you; however, you post more frequently. I know that Thalia does have some difficulty finding time to come on though...
But has anyone seen Coona in a while?

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Post by Guest Sun Sep 20, 2009 10:19 am

An excellent site for more tips is this one I stumbled upon:

http://www.freewebs.com/rpmaster/index.htm

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Post by Guest Sun Mar 14, 2010 9:07 am

You could try copying and pasting your threads onto microsoft word and then replying to them there for a word count/grammar help. Or if you don't feel like opening it up, and you'd rather just reply right away, you can try downloading google crome or mozilla firefox, they're faster and have built in spell checks. XD

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Post by Guest Thu Mar 25, 2010 1:13 pm

i would do that but... hehe.... i only have the trial version and it timed out, so i c ant use it

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Post by Guest Fri Apr 02, 2010 9:05 am

Oh, i never knew you ended dialouge with a comma.
You learn something new everyday.

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Post by Guest Sat Aug 07, 2010 9:59 am

Here is something that I wrote up for some real role playing newbies. Might add additional help if you want to use it.

"Role Play. . . is a game in which the participants assume the roles of fictional characters and collaboratively create stories. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines. Within the rules, they may improvise freely; their choices shape the direction and outcome of the games."
-- Wikipedia.


God Modding is where you seize control of not only your character but a character played by another person
Example:
Green= Ex Ample's post, Cyan= Lydia's post.

1.
'Ex Ample threw a knife at Lydia and killed her.'

2.
'Just as Ex Ample was feeling sorry for Lydia, she lifted the rock to discover real gold! She was no longer a poor .'
'ooc: HEY >:c I want my character to be poor, I have a particular plot in mind for her!.'

See how Ex Ample is not giving Lydia a chance? It's unfair and controlling. And worst of all, it's not fun.



Power Play is when you refuse to be damaged and are always right.

'Ex Ample threw a knife at Lydia hopping to kill her.'
'But once again Lydia dodged just in time.'*

*While it is ok to doge, it is not ok to never get hit. If you need a certain amount of times that you are allowed to dodge in a row to keep yourself in check, three is a good number. Also I have come across people who actually flip a coin to see if their character dodged or not.


Metagaming is when the player knows more information that the character does, and uses it to his advantage. This usually makes the character do something out of character.

For example-
Ex Ample writes in his post that his character poisoned the meal he gave to his starving friend.

Lydia becomes concerned because she does not want her character to die and replies with her character refusing the food.

See how if you were in Lydia's character's position, you would have no real reason not to accept the food. You are starving and you believe that the person giving you the food is a friend. If you honestly do not want your character to die, pm the player and see if you can find a reasonable way that your character will survive.

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Post by Guest Fri Nov 26, 2010 5:44 am

Thanks. That was definitely helpful.

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Post by Guest Thu Nov 24, 2011 5:14 am

Rule #9 confused me IMMENSELY. I have NO clue what you are on about... Would you please elaborate? :S
However, I did find Rule #4 helpful. I do believe I do this a lot. Then again, I think this is just my way or writing, as stated by you somewhere in your post. Not entirely sure which way it is, or if it is, in fact, both.

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Post by Guest Fri Nov 25, 2011 2:41 pm

As you can see, the last post was a year ago, and the user is no longer active ^_^"

But what it basically means is to keep the Role-Play thread a chain. Think of it like you're writing a story with the other participant. You have to carry the plot of that thread on, you can't just switch subjects with every post Smile

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Post by Guest Fri Nov 25, 2011 5:07 pm

Oh, I think I get you.
Thanks for clarifying that.

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Post by Guest Fri Nov 25, 2011 5:10 pm

You're welcome ^_^ I'm not very good at explaining XD

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Post by Guest Fri Nov 25, 2011 5:13 pm

Yea, but it helped that I'd already seen other people do it, so I got what you meant. XD

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Post by Guest Fri Nov 25, 2011 5:15 pm

Haha alright then, I'm glad XD

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Post by Guest Sun Sep 15, 2013 1:05 pm

Okay... cool!

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Post by Robyn Walsh Thu Jul 16, 2015 2:12 am

So, I know this thread hasn't been posted in for a long time, but I found a link to a masterpost on Tumblr that includes a ton of tips on writing and how to write specific characters and tips on grammar as well as tips in other subjects besides writing. I figured that this thread would be the best place to post this link. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE MASTERPOST! I definitely suggest you guys check it out, regardless of whether or not you need writing help!
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