Royal Fletcher
Widely Known
Roleplay posts: 1,339
Age: 19
Physical Description: Royal is a pale boy with dark bags under his bluish eyes, an unfortunate result of too many days spent staring at books indoors by candlelight. He's thin, of slightly below average height, and has white hair.
Clothes and Equipment: Roy carries around an enchanted parasol at all times, which floats above him and shields him from the sunlight. He also has a sword, a gift from his cousin Roxanne. His pockets are always filled with an unreasonable amount of chocolate, and he usually has some sort of cake or other baked goods on his person.
Allegiances: The Fletcher Family
Player's online availability : Unreasonably often
Registered: Jun 3, 2015 19:45:42 GMT -8
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Post by Royal Fletcher on Oct 16, 2015 21:40:40 GMT -8
Hey, I've noticed that all my posts are short and insignificant compared to other peoples'. Can anyone give me some tips on how I can bulk out my writing?
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Jun of the Celadine
Widely Known
Roleplay posts: 1,410
Age: 28
Physical Description: Jun is a human adult, standing 5’4”. She is wiry and fit at approximately 120 lbs. She has olive skin, dark brown hair ending just above her shoulders, and slight epicanthic folds over her dark almond eyes. Her face is squarish with a small chin. Her skin is dotted with battle scars, and her left arm is heavily bandaged due to an unknown affliction.
Clothes and Equipment: Jun possesses a vast collection of seeds, herbs, insects, and scrolls hidden in various pouches in her armor. These serve as reagents for her multitude of spells. Her armor consists of a customized, long-coat style gambeson that is stuffed with a matrix of seeds and plant fibers. Fitted on top is a set of brass-like, enchanted half armor (chest piece, pauldrons, and tassets) which gives off a warm aura. She has an open-faced, burgonet style helmet and coif of the same materials.
Her most notable "weapons" are Blackbean and Resonance. Blackbean is an elephant-sized demon crow which has served with Jun for many years as a mount and as a bodyguard. A minor enchantment allows him to disguise himself as a regular crow. Resonance is an azure blue longsword with a mind of his own. He can intercept minor attacks and can teleport to his owner. He can also use a personal reserve of magic to aid in the casting of a single spell.
Allegiances: Isra
Player's online availability : Frequently
Registered: Mar 27, 2015 22:57:52 GMT -8
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Post by Jun of the Celadine on Oct 16, 2015 22:50:59 GMT -8
Well, let's get one thing clear. Just because a post is short doesn't mean it's bad. You're mostly here to have fun. It's a hobby. You don't get paid by word count.
I write a lot because I like writing and I'm also kinda competitive. But you don't have to be that way. There's nothing wrong with keeping things short and sweet. In fact, a lot of people here try really hard, and it gets tiresome sometimes.
You should only write a lot if you feel like there's more that needs to be said about your characters, or if you want your characters to actually do a lot.
There are two types of details you can talk about: what a character is thinking and feeling, and what is happening around the character. It's like introspection vs. the environment. You wanna maintain a good balance. For example, if you're writing a romance scene, you can talk about how your pulse is beating faster and your palms are sweating and how the girl/guy reminds you of this or that or whatever. But at some point your character actually needs to do something, like speak or gesticulate or suddenly go for a kiss. And of course people will want details that help bring those actions to life...
But remember, the person you're trying to make the most happy is ultimately you. Write details that you yourself revel in. If you prefer to keep it simple, keep it simple.
I happen to like Renalt Fletcher's writing style, which is brief and humorous. Going through your posts, you don't seem like a particularly bad writer either. Don't be intimidated by people who just happen to take pleasure in being verbose.
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Kate Green
Dedicated
Assessing the damage w/ Naoki
Roleplay posts: 309
Age: 19
Physical Description: Kate is built slenderly, but working in her gardens and on the field has defined her muscles. Her eyes shine with an amber hue and her silvery hair never seems to get dirty from the work she still insists on doing herself.
(Full Sized image: http://imgur.com/bJTWavF)
Clothes and Equipment: She wears a pink apron on her that has a simple square pattern. Underneath, brownish green pants and a black tube top. Many tools, such as a flower shovel, a small rake and a spray bottle, fit inside her pockets. A large red ribbon complements her hair.
When she was working at the Midnight Sun, she replaced her red ribbon with a black one she was gifted when she first joined. She also had a green dress, gifted to her by Naoki.
After being gone away for a long time, she has since expanded her wardrobe, and tends not to think about her clothes too much and follows whatever trends Naoki says are popular now.
Player's online availability : Consistently inconsistent
Registered: Sept 4, 2015 15:04:46 GMT -8
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Post by Kate Green on Oct 17, 2015 5:37:21 GMT -8
I'm by no means expert, but I've noticed that there are two things that really help making your writing better:
1. Read a lot. Anything, really. Books, blogs, scientific texts, comics, whatever you like. When you expose yourself to many kinds of writing, you have more to draw from when you are writing yourself.
2. Keep RP:ing. This is kind of obvious, but its still extremely important to keep interacting with the other players. You'll eventually see how people react to your character's actions, and by studying how other players express their characters, you'll become better at it yourself. This should happen naturally, if you just keep at it!
Also, just like Jun said, there is nothing wrong with short and to-the-point posts. Its much easier to get a rally going with the other person if you are able to condense what you want to say. However, there is nothing stopping you from writing verbosely, if you really want to. Try to imagine how your character is feeling, and convey that through their look, motions, or inner monologue. Even if its in your comfort zone to write condensely, It might be good to try something different now and then.
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Jill
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 397
Age: 17
Physical Description: Dark brown hair and pigtails, small and faded blue tribal tattoo on her right upper arm.
Clothes and Equipment: Tribal gear of a deep purple hue, with lightly guarded forearms. Her belt hoists a small brown pack, a curled up whip, and two thin, ornate scimitars.
Player's online availability : Some during week days, and most nights 8pm+. Pacific time.
Registered: Apr 1, 2015 20:40:31 GMT -8
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Post by Jill on Oct 17, 2015 12:48:57 GMT -8
The number one thing that helps me most is remembering this:
Because we are roleplaying we may get into a pattern where we write third person on what our characters do, a basic explanation of "they do this." This is fine because its the definition of roleplay. But it might not be the definition of great writing. If the aspect of writing is what you'd like to improve, its important to break out of the bland "my character does this" pattern.
The problem that arises in a scene where everyone is engaged in basic "my character does this" writing, is that our minds then struggle somewhat to figure out what we're supposed to feel. You see, the objective of great fiction writing is immersion. That is, you want to make the reader feel like they're there. Its not enough to just lay down the facts of a characters actions if you want to be a good writer. You have to take some creative liberty in describing what emotions or vibes a characters expression has, the emotional nuances of a setting (how does this setting make one feel? How does it accomplish this?), etc. Also try to expand your vocabulary by studying the posts of better writers. Good writing is more than "just a bunch of big words." The English language has tons of different ways to say the same idea, and while that frustrates some people, it actually allows us to express similar ideas in different shades of meaning. So start with that - with detail comes immersion, and only with immersion does a post become truly good.
Also forgot to mention but equally important, I can't stress enough how much of my writing was developed just by watching others. Identify and study players who are good at immersion. The players I personally think are the best so far when it comes to immersion writing is Zephidel, Misty Woods, and the Mulleres.
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Malinda
New
Even the night terrors should have something to fear.
Roleplay posts: 9
Physical Description: Malinda's true form is a fully mature, adult female dragon. She measures nearly four hundred feet from the tip of her tail to her maw, and a hundred feet tall from claw to spine when on all fours. Her scales are a flat black, reflecting little light even at the height of noon. With a wingspan twice her length, and with webbing so thin as to be translucent, she appears to be a sleek and slender, clawed, flying death machine. The apex predator.
While her true form is quite a sight to behold, she prefers to deal with the lesser races in other forms. Though dragons can shape-shift at will, she often prefers a human or elven guise, hair and eyes always of the darkest, inky black one could imagine.
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Clothes and Equipment: As a dragon, she needs no physical equipment.
In humanoid form, she can often be found in an elegantly cut dress of dragonscale or leather, sometimes caped and hooded.
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Registered: Oct 27, 2015 21:51:01 GMT -8
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Post by Malinda on Oct 29, 2015 4:27:45 GMT -8
I mostly agree with what those above me wrote, though I would like to touch a bit more on something Jill said. You see, the objective of great fiction writing is immersion. That is, you want to make the reader feel like they're there. Immersing yourself in your character while posting is perhaps the greatest tool you have at your disposal. It is your character, so you must know how he/she thinks, behaves, responds, etc. Instead of describing your character as he/she is doing these things, put yourself in your character's shoes, think like your character, behave like your character, respond like your character, and use your character's voice to describe it. The post will feel like your character wrote it him/herself. It will have personality.
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