Article 01: Post Deconstruction.

**Brovo** · 04-27-2013

Article 01: Post Deconstruction

What is it that goes into a post? A great deal of things. What are the number of ways one can screw up a post? A great number of ways.

Actually, come to think of it, what is a post?!

Well, a post in a role playing sense is a contribution of information to the story. Be that information helpful or a hindrance. It typically contains the following: Actions, Reactions, Thoughts, Emotions/Motivations, Descriptions, and Identification. (It can be a combination thereof and contain more elements than these depending on the individual.)

So what is a good post? What is a bad post? How can one consistently construct good posts? Why does this matter?

Well, lets find out, and separate it into parts to make it easier to digest.

Part One: Why does this matter?

A good post contributes to a story. When you have a series of good posts one after another, they will continually feed each other information and form a chain that leads in a specific direction of thought. It is, essentially, part of the backbone of role playing. If one cannot construct a good post, they cannot contribute helpful or constructive information, which places more weight upon the shoulders of the next post to carry. Eventually the weight becomes overwhelming and crushes the lungs of the role play, causing a catastrophic systems failure.

So I would humbly propose that this is likely an important skill set to develop over time. Otherwise a great many role plays will end up with crushed lungs. Not a pleasant image.

Part Two: What is a good post? What is a bad post? How can one consistently construct good posts?

Well, lets deconstruct an example post to learn what goes into a post, what we can keep and what we can throw away.

Now, to deconstruct it in the order of most important pieces to least important. I will explain why each piece is more or less important as I deconstruct it.

Actions: These are the main contribution to a post for other players. Actions further the story in a physical manner that all other parts of the post do not. They depict characters doing things. These form the first part of the Action-Reaction wheel, which is what allows role plays to move forward. Actions are absolutely the most important part of any post. If you do not have actions, your character does literally nothing of any remote interest to the story aside from comment on everything he could be doing himself. A post without actions, in essence, contributes nothing and adds weight upon the shoulders of the next post to pick up the slack.

Reactions: These are confirmations of the actions of previous events, from characters, npc's, the environment, and more. These help form the action-reaction wheel. Reactions confirm the actions of previous posters, thus, when combined with actions tailored and adjusted by reactions, they help to create a steady and natural flow of events. These are necessary to posts to keep your characters coherent. If they simply act on instinct and never acknowledge the actions of others, they will be unable to properly interact with others as they will essentially ignore the behaviours and activities displayed by other players.

Motivations/Emotions: Part of the Holy Trinity of Narration, these depict why a person does something. They don't technically contribute in the manner of being usable by other players, but they contribute in showing your character's reasoning behind their actions and reactions. These justify actions.

Descriptions: These are general descriptions of things the character can see, such as the complexion of someone's skin or the location one is located in. Descriptions help form the Holy Trinity of narration. Descriptions help identify where an entity is, what an entity is, and how far an entity is in relation to another entity.

Thoughts: This is aimless thinking that has no particular emotional or motivational connotation, and helps form the Holy Trinity of narration. These are unnecessary in their entirety and can be added simply to spice up one's posts, but should be added last and should be kept down to a reasonable degree to avoid purple prose. Things like flashbacks and dreams also fall under thoughts; they're simply subconscious thoughts. The Holy Trinity of narration often bleeds into itself; motivations are often thoughts (ie: "he would have to save her") and emotions are often used as descriptors (ie: "beautiful blue hair"). When the three come together they form the three primary elements of narration. Thoughts are used to flavour posts, nothing more.

Identification: Technically just a part of descriptions, but important enough to list on its own. These identify who is doing what. (IE: She went to the store. He watched her go.) These assist in keeping a post coherent by stating ownership over an action.

This post is a healthy post. It contributes a few actions which Sally and the Wolf can react to, which in turn furthers the story. It reacts to Sally, the environment, and the Wolf, showing part of the reasoning behind his actions. It has a sufficient level of emotional and motivational drives from Bob towards Sally and the Wolf, which shows additional reasoning behind his actions. It has a few descriptors here and there to answer the questions of who, what, and where. It had a single thought to spice up the post, though it could have more if the author wished it. It properly identifies who is doing what.

This is as functional a post as one can have before adding any additional layers of narration. This post is also, coincidentally, almost as much as is needed to go into advanced. Add another paragraph of extra thought and reasoning and narration and other tools, and poof. You're in advanced. With a post that will further the story, interact with others, and keep a role play alive.

So, to summarize!
Actions and reactions are required to further a story in a coherent manner and thus are necessary for healthy posts. The more you have without forcing actions on others, the healthier the post.
Emotions/Motivations resolve the question of why someone is doing what they are doing, or why someone reacted the way they did, and thus are one step below actions and reactions as they don't further the story, but they DO justify and make sense of a character's behaviour which is what furthers the story.
Descriptions fall one step lower as they merely illustrate what a character is seeing (and thus it is often repeated ad naseum in other people's posts) and can be used with thoughts to personalize one's post, but aren't generally necessary except in the most basic of manners, primarily in Identification.
Thoughts are the lowest step as they add nothing of any value aside from personal touch.

There. Detailed guide done. Hope it was helpful!

POLL.
Character Deconstruction: Hard and lengthy. I would likely give the basics of how characters function and how to create or modify based on a simple, broad archetype. This will likely bleed into Relationships Deconstruction.
Plot Deconstruction: Hard and lengthy. I would likely give the basics of how a plot functions to a story and how to create or modify a simple Hero's Journey plot.
Relationships Deconstruction: Moderate and not all that lengthy. I would likely give the basics of healthy relationships between characters and how to create and manage them to form natural, cohesive groups. This will likely bleed into Character Deconstruction.
Stereotypes, Tropes, and Mary Sues Deconstruction: Simple and not all that lengthy. I would go into detail about what stereotypes and tropes are, and how to use them properly. I would also deconstruct the legendary Mary Sue mythos as my example for the usage of tropes and stereotypes gone wrong.
Other: You have another question for me to deconstruct. If it gains sufficient support I will do it. (Or I will add it to the next poll.) Please post in the thread otherwise I won't know what you want me to deconstruct.

Don't Do Another: I did a bad thing and you don't want me to make another. If so, I apologize. Please inform me as to how I have err'd, I am quite curious.

**Tytus** · 04-27-2013

I love this. It goes over the basics that even some veteran writers forget, even over different forums. Mostly, a stellar post consists of all of these things, rather than one or two pieces. You can't not use them all. Even something as simple as a Free roleplay needs to use these as cornerstones with its posts: even they need to further the story. Everyone must listen to this.

I think you should do "Stereotypes, Tropes, and Mary Sues Deconstruction" next, as it can bleed into both a deconstruction of the plot, or a deconstruction of characters.

**Crazy Scion** · 04-28-2013

This is really good. I really love this and it is a much needed addition. I also vote for Stereotypes, Tropes, and Mary Sues Deconstruction. Sine I have a lot of trouble with this field.

**Brovo** · 04-28-2013

Originally Posted by Tytus

I love this. It goes over the basics that even some veteran writers forget, even over different forums. Mostly, a stellar post consists of all of these things, rather than one or two pieces. You can't not use them all. Even something as simple as a Free roleplay needs to use these as cornerstones with its posts: even they need to further the story. Everyone must listen to this.

I think you should do "Stereotypes, Tropes, and Mary Sues Deconstruction" next, as it can bleed into both a deconstruction of the plot, or a deconstruction of characters.

Thanks! I hope future ones are written as good.

I'll do ST&MS if the community votes me in that direction.

Originally Posted by Crazy Scion

This is really good. I really love this and it is a much needed addition. I also vote for Stereotypes, Tropes, and Mary Sues Deconstruction. Sine I have a lot of trouble with this field.

I'll see what I can do to alleviate that confusion when the time comes.

For those wondering: In the event of a tie, I'll flip a coin/roll some dice as a tie breaker.

**Wayward** · 04-28-2013

I'd personally be interested in a character and relationship deconstruction; particularly because I tend to have to play out distinct relations between two or more of my own characters.

**Stryder** · 04-28-2013

I personally think that character deconstruction AND plot deconstruction will be the most useful of the entire list. Not because I need it personally but more so the fact that it will be helpful to new/inexperienced GMs and would help a lot more RPs survive. I also suggest an article on "RP 101," which will help newer RPers, and an article on "combat deconstruction," since a lot of RPs include some form of combat.

**Brovo** · 04-28-2013

Originally Posted by Wayward

I'd personally be interested in a character and relationship deconstruction; particularly because I tend to have to play out distinct relations between two or more of my own characters.

Can certainly be done. I intend to do all of these at some point, I'm just doing them in the order the community would like to see them done.

Originally Posted by Stryder

I personally think that character deconstruction AND plot deconstruction will be the most useful of the entire list. Not because I need it personally but more so the fact that it will be helpful to new/inexperienced GMs and would help a lot more RPs survive. I also suggest an article on "RP 101," which will help newer RPers, and an article on "combat deconstruction," since a lot of RPs include some form of combat.

"Useful" is a subjective term. For example: Stereotypes & Tropes & Mary Sues are equally helpful towards character production but in a different manner. Hrm. How to illustrate the difference.

Character Deconstruction: Gives the basic step by step layout of how to deconstruct, analyze, and put together a basic, functional character using an archetype.
Stereotypes & Tropes & Mary Sues: Further explains stereotypes and tropes (both for plots and characters), giving a range of basic archetypes for players to utilize beyond the 1-3 that will show up in CD, as well as how to customize them.
Relationships Deconstruction: A major part of a character is how they work with a group dynamic, be that "group" a 1x1 partner or a large party of adventurers, ranging from rivalries to romances. It also illustrates the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships.

I have an RP 101 article for GM's which I wrote months ago. It's inadequate. It gives all the information necessary but it does so in a rather chaotic manner--I'm hoping that by tackling the monolithic subject in pieces, that I can better describe each part which is helpful and/or necessary in bite sized pieces. Both for GM's and for Players.

I can certainly address combat in role playing! I'll probably add it to the next poll.

**NatsumeHack** · 05-01-2013

I would love to see Stereotypes, Tropes, and Mary Sues Deconstruction done. Thank you for making this thread.

**Brovo** · 05-01-2013

Originally Posted by NatsumeHack

I would love to see Stereotypes, Tropes, and Mary Sues Deconstruction done. Thank you for making this thread.

Your welcome I guess.

ST&MS will get done in time. We'll see if it gets done next, actually.

**Tytus** · 05-01-2013

A combat deconstruction is a very good idea~

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