Post by Astraia on Sept 30, 2006 20:11:28 GMT -5
Hello all and welcome to Jelly's Roleplaying Guidelines! [aka jelly's totally awesome mad-skillz-improving tips] This is where I give you tricks and tips to make your posts better than ever!
And always remember the roleplayer's bible : THESAURUS.COM
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1 - Always use correct grammar. 'Them' goes before 'Me', 'She/He/It' before 'I', everybody else before yourself. Also things like paragraphing correctly, no run-on sentences or fragments, etc. In your posts, you need to do everything you would do if you were writing a formal paper for your language arts class!
2 - Spell correctly. Doo eye eevehn hayve two elayborayte ohn this? Also don't type using apostrophes, like so : 'e walk'd 'pon the land and neigh'd to 'er for 'e wan'd to 'mpress m'lady. Our horses do not speak old English. You do not either. Horses that speak another language [eg, i have a french-speaking character] are free to speak that language, but you shouldn't put it into your post. Alternative spellings are okay, as long as they are widely accepted.
3 - Don't try to look good by using nonsense words. Examples : femme is the french word for wife, not a word for female. Same goes for brujo, the spanish word for man or something like that. The words fae, brainpan, peltry, chassis, inscserie, tympanums, curvature, caudul, and many others do not exist! ( atleast in the context many try to use them) If you are questioning a word, use dictionary.com to find it's real meaning. If you can not find a good word to use, look at thesaurus.com for real synonyms.
4 - Use words in context. Horses hooves are not sharp, therefore they are not flints, talons, claws, daggers, or anything that implies to something sharp. Horse’s eyes are not lanterns, headlights, lamps, or pools. They can be described as such but those words can not be used as metaphors, only similes. A horse's head is not it's zenith, apex, etc. because that is the highest point of something. Horses drop their heads. Do not swear in posts at all, unless it is in speech, and even then lightly, because your horse is not a female dog or anything like that. Bodice means corset, and a carcass is dead, so neither can be used for a horse's body. Your horse is not made of ash/onyx/obsidian/flames/porcelain/vermilion/ivory/amber/mahogany/talc and such. They are -insert word here- coloured/tinted/hued/whatever.
5 - Use variety in your word choices. Do not say 'she/he/her/his' over and over, vary with words like 'the mare/the stallion/your horses name here'. Do not say 'pretty' or 'skinny' or 'white'. Say, 'elegant' or 'lithe' or 'alabaster'. Use thesaurus.com to find synonyms for commonplace words, that are real and not mad-up 'terms'.
6 - Go for eloquence, not length. Sure, there are people who can draw out a post for thousands of words, but most of that time they are just gabbling! Don't consider someone a good roleplayer just because their posts are long. This is one of the Deadly Sins of Roleplaying. And our 500 word minimum shouldn't push you. That's about 8 to 15 lines, 20 tops. The thing to remember is your vocabulary, as stated before. A roleplayer shouldn't be judged by the length of their posts, although most of us do judge by that (we are, in unfourtunate reality, very shallow people). A roleplayer should be judged by their ability to make words flow together, not how they can draw out the presence of nothing. If this is hard for you, then try one of these techniques :
7 - How to win a fight : Horses do not have exceptional fighting abilities. They cannot grasp things, they often cannot ram into things and knock them over. Horses hooves are not sharp and do not draw blood, simply bruise very severely or scrape. They can not grasp things with their teeth, even stallions with wolf teeth. 'Grasping' is mostly confined to short nips and bites. The best way to win a fight is NOT by powerplaying or godmoding, but by being creative in your moves. Don't go for the jugular vein with teeth, not only is it very unrealistic it's an impossible way to kill! Instead, take a swipe at the withers or rump, even the haunches. All of those points are pressure points, and they're creative moves that'll earn you points in most fights.
8 - Entrance posts always have been and always will be hard to write. These are the ones that you have to set the stage, ergo, explain everything eloquently, but if you ramble, no one will actually ever be able to read it. On the other hand, you can't write just ten lines consisting of "The stallion walked in to the land. It was raining. He reared. Then he left." (This is overdramatizaton, natuarally, but is pretty close to the real thing). Entrance posts are great places for character development, though, because usually your horse is alone for most if not all of it, and you will have the space and context to describe it.
9 - Having trouble? Just chock out of muse and can't seem to make anything work? Try the techniques above, under Tip 6. Or, think of each post as a chapter in a book. MAKE PEOPLE WANT TO READ. Develop your character. If you can think of nothing else, put a short little spiel in relating the situation to something in the character's past, or develop them more. When I'm completely museless, I just start writing up (or reading) my character's complete history, and after you get the ball rolling, it's easy to figure out what he/she would do. I've written character ref. sheets, which contain everything from basic stats to history and in depth descriptions of personality and physical characteristics. Or, if you're really stuck, and all else has failed, read a random wild horse book or watch a random wild horse movie - 'Cloud: Wild Stallion of the Rockies,' a PBS documentary about a wild horse herd, is what I watch when I can't seem to grasp the concept of horses, but even the animated movie Spirt will work if you're really stuck. Alternatively, just save your post and come back later! Most people understand lack of muse, and as long as you don't draw it out too long, will wait for you!
And always remember the roleplayer's bible : THESAURUS.COM
----
1 - Always use correct grammar. 'Them' goes before 'Me', 'She/He/It' before 'I', everybody else before yourself. Also things like paragraphing correctly, no run-on sentences or fragments, etc. In your posts, you need to do everything you would do if you were writing a formal paper for your language arts class!
2 - Spell correctly. Doo eye eevehn hayve two elayborayte ohn this? Also don't type using apostrophes, like so : 'e walk'd 'pon the land and neigh'd to 'er for 'e wan'd to 'mpress m'lady. Our horses do not speak old English. You do not either. Horses that speak another language [eg, i have a french-speaking character] are free to speak that language, but you shouldn't put it into your post. Alternative spellings are okay, as long as they are widely accepted.
3 - Don't try to look good by using nonsense words. Examples : femme is the french word for wife, not a word for female. Same goes for brujo, the spanish word for man or something like that. The words fae, brainpan, peltry, chassis, inscserie, tympanums, curvature, caudul, and many others do not exist! ( atleast in the context many try to use them) If you are questioning a word, use dictionary.com to find it's real meaning. If you can not find a good word to use, look at thesaurus.com for real synonyms.
4 - Use words in context. Horses hooves are not sharp, therefore they are not flints, talons, claws, daggers, or anything that implies to something sharp. Horse’s eyes are not lanterns, headlights, lamps, or pools. They can be described as such but those words can not be used as metaphors, only similes. A horse's head is not it's zenith, apex, etc. because that is the highest point of something. Horses drop their heads. Do not swear in posts at all, unless it is in speech, and even then lightly, because your horse is not a female dog or anything like that. Bodice means corset, and a carcass is dead, so neither can be used for a horse's body. Your horse is not made of ash/onyx/obsidian/flames/porcelain/vermilion/ivory/amber/mahogany/talc and such. They are -insert word here- coloured/tinted/hued/whatever.
5 - Use variety in your word choices. Do not say 'she/he/her/his' over and over, vary with words like 'the mare/the stallion/your horses name here'. Do not say 'pretty' or 'skinny' or 'white'. Say, 'elegant' or 'lithe' or 'alabaster'. Use thesaurus.com to find synonyms for commonplace words, that are real and not mad-up 'terms'.
6 - Go for eloquence, not length. Sure, there are people who can draw out a post for thousands of words, but most of that time they are just gabbling! Don't consider someone a good roleplayer just because their posts are long. This is one of the Deadly Sins of Roleplaying. And our 500 word minimum shouldn't push you. That's about 8 to 15 lines, 20 tops. The thing to remember is your vocabulary, as stated before. A roleplayer shouldn't be judged by the length of their posts, although most of us do judge by that (we are, in unfourtunate reality, very shallow people). A roleplayer should be judged by their ability to make words flow together, not how they can draw out the presence of nothing. If this is hard for you, then try one of these techniques :
- Pretend you are writing a novel. Just a small part of it, for now. It's going to get published, and you want people to like it. They shouldn't get bored with it, and they should be able to understand it. If the words you are using don't make sense, or you are going on and on and on for an entire paragraph just about how shiny the horse's coat is, they're going to put it down, or just skim through it. This is bad. Very very bad. So don't!
- Pretend that you are writing about a person. Yes, you heard correctly, a PERSON. This will force you to use real words, that exist and actually work.
7 - How to win a fight : Horses do not have exceptional fighting abilities. They cannot grasp things, they often cannot ram into things and knock them over. Horses hooves are not sharp and do not draw blood, simply bruise very severely or scrape. They can not grasp things with their teeth, even stallions with wolf teeth. 'Grasping' is mostly confined to short nips and bites. The best way to win a fight is NOT by powerplaying or godmoding, but by being creative in your moves. Don't go for the jugular vein with teeth, not only is it very unrealistic it's an impossible way to kill! Instead, take a swipe at the withers or rump, even the haunches. All of those points are pressure points, and they're creative moves that'll earn you points in most fights.
8 - Entrance posts always have been and always will be hard to write. These are the ones that you have to set the stage, ergo, explain everything eloquently, but if you ramble, no one will actually ever be able to read it. On the other hand, you can't write just ten lines consisting of "The stallion walked in to the land. It was raining. He reared. Then he left." (This is overdramatizaton, natuarally, but is pretty close to the real thing). Entrance posts are great places for character development, though, because usually your horse is alone for most if not all of it, and you will have the space and context to describe it.
9 - Having trouble? Just chock out of muse and can't seem to make anything work? Try the techniques above, under Tip 6. Or, think of each post as a chapter in a book. MAKE PEOPLE WANT TO READ. Develop your character. If you can think of nothing else, put a short little spiel in relating the situation to something in the character's past, or develop them more. When I'm completely museless, I just start writing up (or reading) my character's complete history, and after you get the ball rolling, it's easy to figure out what he/she would do. I've written character ref. sheets, which contain everything from basic stats to history and in depth descriptions of personality and physical characteristics. Or, if you're really stuck, and all else has failed, read a random wild horse book or watch a random wild horse movie - 'Cloud: Wild Stallion of the Rockies,' a PBS documentary about a wild horse herd, is what I watch when I can't seem to grasp the concept of horses, but even the animated movie Spirt will work if you're really stuck. Alternatively, just save your post and come back later! Most people understand lack of muse, and as long as you don't draw it out too long, will wait for you!