How To Do a Good RP Post

PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOU ROLE PLAY ONLY HARRYPOTTER CHARACTERS


Hey guys! I haven't read this over yet, I just finished writing it. If you notice some mistakes, don't be afraid to point them out. But no mistakes with the 'comma before and'... In Canada, we're allowed to do that, and I know it can be a pain if you aren't from Canada but I like it.I'm not trying to teach people to write in a literate or advanced style. I'm simply trying to show people how they can lengthen their posts.

Hey guys! I know I’m doing this project, and I might be asking things of all of you that you guys just aren’t accustomed to. I’m just realizing that if you’re always writing one liners, perhaps writing larger posts is going to be quite a challenge; thus here is my horrible, horrible guide!

To start things off, the most important thing that has to be in a post is something that someone else can work with to reply to. Meaning, you have to write something that another character can either find as engaging, or that another character can really work with.

If you were role-playing with someone and they did: “Nuka went to lay down.” That isn’t very engaging at all, and all you have is that character laying down. How is someone going to find something good to answer with? It just doesn’t work. A simple way to improve this post (which is horribly short) is to throw it into a context. What is happening around them for them to go lay down? For my example, I’m going to use it as a reason for fear, but there are plenty of other different ways to do this. “They were yelling; he could hear them. Slowly he felt his ears go back as he crept towards the wall, staying low to the ground. Once arrived, he allowed himself to rest gently upon the floor, eyes watching the others as they fought. He didn’t want to be a part of it.”

Okay! So which post seems easier to answer to? In the first one, you only get that he laid down upon the ground. In the second, you get the context, how he feels about it all (his body language would describe fear or discomfort). A character could now use that to make their post easier to write. They could bring their character in with the context that they were uncomfortable too, or that they were trying to soothe the other. There are plenty of others ways too! Just keep trying to think of how you would react in a situation, or how a person with your character’s personality would react in a situation to work things out. That should help you out!

Now that everyone knows that they need to give the other role-players something to work with, let’s work on making those posts longer! I know a lot of you have posts that are mostly made of dialogue. Well, dialogue is great in giving someone else something to write with, but it isn’t the only thing that can help your posts. Other things are: emotions, thoughts, the surroundings, etc. All these work together to give you a longer fleshed out post that is more realistic than you had before.

I’m going to show you how you can integrate these things into a post to make your own posts longer The post below is the one that I am going to be answering:
QUOTE
The man stared down at the woman, glaring at her as the rain fell down around them. His eyes were black as coal; his fingers clenched at his side. “Are you the thief that stole my wares, wretch,” Ceaid spat at the woman. There was no sense of warmth in his voice, not even a feel of kindness. The man was certain that she’d admit to her crimes; for if she didn’t, she would have to pay the price.

Now isn’t that a lovely little post? Well, now I’m going to show you the basic reply that most people would give to a post like that. The one-line reply. I am taking the point of view that my character is lying through her teeth. 8)

”I am not that thief,” Irazalis lied.

The first question I would ask to this is: what is Irazalis feeling? Also, depending on that emotion, how would she speak? And, how would that emotion affect her reaction? What happens when you feel a certain emotion? Think about how your body reactions and put that into the post. So let’s add emotion to that post.

”I am not that thief,” Irazalis spoke with as much confidence as she could muster. Her stomach was tying itself into knots, cold sweat running down her neck as fear settled deep within her chest. She forced her breathing to remain steady, and stared into his eyes with what she prayed was an innocent look.

Hey! Now we are talking, aren’t we? We went from a basic post, to adding in emotions, and how a character would react because of those emotions. That added in quite the amount of words there, and also improved the quality. Good job! Let’s add in a few of the character’s surroundings and how they are going to affect her. We can also add in how she might react to them.

Irazalis felt the rain combing through her hair and dripping down her face as she watched the man walk towards her. It was wet, and she felt miserable. The sound of his footsteps on the cobble stone echoed like war drums through the air. Her eyes flickered through the darkness to try and find a place to hide; yet there was nothing but an old box down the closed and deserted market street.

”I am not that thief,” Irazalis spoke with as much confidence as she could muster, sweeping her wet hair from her face with a flick of her wrist. Her stomach was tying itself into knots, cold sweat running down her neck as fear settled deep within her chest. She forced her breathing to remain steady, and stared into his eyes with what she prayed was an innocent look.

Whoohoo! Two paragraphs now and we still have a plethora of options available to us to integrate in our post. We’re on a roll! So, let’s now add the character’s thoughts, or even hints of it in the writing. This is a great way to personalize your writings and make them (hopefully) a bit more interesting. It also aids in character development which is what every role-player should thrive for.

I’m caught… She thought to herself as the man walked towards her. Doesn’t he look like the friendliest bloke alive, her train of thought continued. There was no way that she was getting out of this one alive! Of that she was most certain. However, that didn’t mean that she ready to simply give up. Irazalis felt the rain combing through her hair and dripping down her face as she watched the man walk towards her. It was wet, and she felt miserable. The sound of his footsteps on the cobble stone echoed like war drums through the air. Her eyes flickered through the darkness to try to find a place to hide; yet there was nothing but an old box down the closed and deserted market street. Just as the rain washed away the muck on the ground, Irazalis felt her hope trickle away.

”I am not that thief,” Irazalis spoke with as much confidence as she could muster, sweeping her wet hair from her face with a flick of her wrist. Yeah, because he’s really going to believe that one… Her stomach was tying itself into knots, cold sweat running down her neck as fear settled deep within her chest. She forced her breathing to remain steady, and stared into his eyes with what she prayed was an innocent look. She couldn’t let him see that she wasn’t telling the truth. If he found out about her, she was roast meat! Worst than roast, she would be like a sausage; an unknown mesh of things shoved into a small confined place! This was not good…

Hey hey hey! This is really turning in to be a long post! Now I don’t expect every one of you to be able to make it that long, especially not on your first try!

I’m going to stop this right here for now, but I’ll add more on to it in a later date. There are plenty of other ways in which you can make your posts longer. A few examples of these are: what is the other character doing? Does your characters have any quirks? If so, add them in there! If they are always running their hand through their hair when they are nervous, make sure to add that in. Your character’s appearance! That adds more if you describe your character. Adding in your own personalized style of writing, and writing just for fun will also help with this.

The important things to avoid are: powerplaying, godmoding, doing actions that another character can’t react to (or is forced to suffer), making your character too much of something (the prettiest, the clumsiest, the most annoying, the most powerful, the one with the most largest wings and that is bigger than all the rest, etc. people aren’t going to enjoy role-playing with something like that), saying that another character is feeling something when they aren’t, knowing that a character is a bad guy/good guy without that character previously showing it (I know some people have great intuition for that type of thing, but come on, it really ruins the fun), etc. I’ll touch some of these things in the later additions to the guide.

Until then, have fun writing!