Why on earth?

[Zale]

I suppose I'm a hopeless romantic when I feel that if someone is taking the time to RP with me, they're...you know, actually reading my post. If they didn't enjoy reading what I'm writing, then why are they RPing with me in the first place?

I was talking about if you decide to describe each and every little grain of sand and blade of grass.

Otherwise, you should be good.

[Elation]

I think a post should be as long as it is needed to be. Whether that means 5 sentences or 10 paragraphs is all a context thing. I don't think someone should set a maximum or minimum on posts as long as it has a logical length for what it is describing.

[Dudel]

1) "with as little words as possible."
Sounds pretty minimal to me.

Technicality: The point is, and always will be "Do less before you do more."

Once people learn the ways of the minimal, they can appropriate adding in more and know how to do it much better.

Walk before you run, etc.

2) It wasn't necessarily because it was long. Rather, it just told a very strange story that essentially was some crazy old immortal man putting a downer on people's weddings just because he could with some weird pseudo-environmentalist message over it through a tale likely inspired by copious amounts of illegal drugs while in the middle of nowhere AKA the South Pole?

Certain writers/RPers work the same. The problem is that RPing is about connecting to those within your RP so if you do end up losing them things like "RP Death" happen due to inactivity.

Edit: I guess the beauty of it was something akin to classic rock-'n-roll lyrical mysticism; the messasge is unclear at first or it's just a bit stuffy initially, but after a while, you simply learn to really love it as you decipher and understand it. Same with large scale posting; yes, it's long, it will take time to read, but sometimes, I just want to read a damn well written, beautifully descriptive, big, fat, juicy post.

Don't compare RPing to anything one might actually consider artistic. There isn't anything in RPing but playing to the escapist, for one, and even the novelist archetype of RPer isn't there to actually do much more than flush out their own ideals. There isn't anything to get a taste for outside of eating other peoples er... attempt at prose.

If you want "a damn well written, beautifully descriptive, big, fat, juicy [attempt at a story excerpt]" find some actually published authors and read some of those. OR, go to the Gallery and read the things that were intended as stories, if you want to help your fellow peers. The Contests, for example. (Not that those aren't still riddled with the same problems, as bad writing habits don't tend to stop at RPing, but at least then we are on common ground.)

I disagree to a certain degree, but I'm relatively sure you and I have similar thoughts on the matter.

It appears that way, yes.

Personally I don't think that Literature and Rping work the same way. But what I interpret from your post pretty much goes along the same thoughts that I have.

RPing and writing-writing, as I call it, are vastly different. However I am not concerned with writing-writing on an RP board... unless people insist that RPing makes them better storytellers, or some other such nonsense.

When roleplaying, it's ok to convey internal thoughts for your character.

No it isn't. Doing this wastes space, prevents actual character interaction, requires a clear line between IC and OOC information (what is and is not allowed to 'be used' by other RPers) as well as directly sets up the user adding character thought to be inconvenienced.

It's okay to describe an area and contribute to the story.

Provided it wasn't described once already. There isn't a need to do that multiple times via several different RPers. That just gets annoying.

It's okay to help collaborate and build on whatever world you're playing in.

That is always acceptable, provided what is being added is important to the RP.

With that being said everything just needs to be done tastefully.

Even if I agreed with all your statements, there in does lie the problem. The issue is that few people have sufficient taste, I'm not so sorry to say.

For example. It's my personal preference in my favorite authors that they do go that extra mile to describe the environment and not just leave things to be assumed. Anne Rice's description of Heaven in Memnoch the Devil made me tear up the first time I read it, however she did so in maybe a full page. Which is where I tend to agree and disagree with the first quote with Dudel, as I felt a little bit was missing from it. Yes, if you can add to the story with as little words as possible, however sometimes as little words as possible to really create the ambiance could be up to 1000 words and sometimes it could be 500, it really depends.

Some might argue that a better writer could have left the same impression with half a page- I'm going to disagree. Anything lacking from the description of the passage I read that literally provoked emotion from me just with words, I don't think it would have had the same, lasting effect.

As long as things are written well, it really doesn't matter how long they actually are. The issue is that the more you type, the worse you have a chance of being. As we are all novices, we should be practicing the basics first.
Think of it like adding paint to a canvas. You want a shade of green, but the green you have is too light so you add a bit of blue, then a bit more blue, then a bit more blue, then a bit more blue, and eventually you end up with brown.

I can think of NO ONE on-site that knows when to stop adding blue to their green. If they can, GREAT! But the better issue is to just use the green you have OR mix it with just a little black instead.

Another method of doing so tastefully is done by Salvatore (Legend of Drizzt). When he describes Menzoberranzan, he does it gradually. About half a page if I recall in the beginning. Instead of overwhelming the reader with ten pages of endless descriptions on every little area within the city, he gives a brief general landscape overview and as each area is visited, he painted a picture that added on to the original description until you could almost see the city and it's layout in your mind. I enjoy that.

That manner is always a success and it is what most would tell you to do, until you know what is and isn't important.

That or pull the city apart from the actual story and only describe it as the character sees it. This way it paints better.

In painting, it would be simply using green, then adding a little bit of blue way way later after you see the whole picture and decide it really does need just a dash of something.

Auel on the other hand (Clan of the Cavebear), while I loved the story, she literally drove me insane describing every single rock, tree and flower everytime the main character took a damned step. I had a tendency to skip over multiple paragraphs at a time, as they were simply just filled with crap I didn't care about.

This is an all too common problem in RPs, and one that people will openly encourage in others because they view it as proper and good writing. Removing the whole "RPing isn't writing" aspect for a couple seconds, you'd be hard pressed to find any (and I do mean any) publisher or fellow fiction author who finds a fuck-ton of information dump is a good thing.

Tastefully done, you can convey what you'd like. Inner thoughts- while it may be irrelevant to the direct story line, I enjoy them because I feel like I'm getting to know who the character is.

If it is irrelevant, it doesn't belong in the RP.

http://roleplayerguild.com/f9/read-a...forcement-769/

Significance is a key point in Advance RPing. RP irrelevancies are not significant at all, they are superfluous.

If the characters are empty husks of people, they're not relatable, and I usually write them off as insignificant.

There is also not a need to relate to your fellow RPers characters. You'll typically only relate to your own characters, or characters that seem like ones you'd RP as anyway.

Not to mention you shouldn't relate with most RP characters as none of them have been given proper time to evolve. Unless an RP has lasted to the point where characters are forced to make choices that may result in death (which is a rarity in RPing as is) or a firm moral choice (which typically reflect the RPer, rather than the character) you don't get any character evolution.

RPing simply doesn't allow, usually, for what you are talking about here. Writing-writing, I'd have to agree... but RPing is a different beast.

What I agree with though, is when a character goes off on a monologue about all of their woes, it makes me feel like I did with Fenris in DA2. I wanted to smack him. Repeatedly.

Another typical problem that plagues RPers. Unless, of course, we are talking the evil-for-the-sake-of-evil monologue and, in that stance, it should be done in a humorous taste and be an attempt at satire.

---------- Post added at 07:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:18 PM ----------

I think a post should be as long as it is needed to be. Whether that means 5 sentences or 10 paragraphs is all a context thing. I don't think someone should set a maximum or minimum on posts as long as it has a logical length for what it is describing.

I agree!

[♥Cordi♥]

Reading that in the context of writing-writing and rping, it kind of made sense to me. I do tend to mix what I enjoy reading in novels into what I enjoy seeing in rps. I suppose that's just my preference, but I will take what you've mentioned here under advisement, for my own edification in the future if nothing else.

The one thing I will have to disagree fully with you on is relating to characters though, I enjoy relating to not only my own, but my partners as well. Just my particular cup of tea I suppose.

[GrenvelRivenmas]

Some people take "literacy" way too far. It's one thing to ask someone to have a good grasp on grammar, but it's a whole 'nother story to ask someone for at least a thousand words in every post. They obviously cannot grasp the concept of quality over quantity. If I only have two hundred words worth of introspection and two hundred words worth of action -- don't ask me to bullshit another six hundred.

I mean, really. I've written two thousand word posts before, but those are rare and honestly -- I wouldn't want to read a post more than a thousand words every single time.

What do you think?

With some cases in RP quantity can be upsetting if the writing and key points are not detailed, and spread out. For some styles of free form it is difficult for someone who can put more detail and substance into a post to make a longer post because their shorter posts can be equally effective with less words and paragraphs.

It depends on the style of the writer and what they can put that would be considered affective as their post. I do find that a good substance can come from at least 5 paragraphs and it leaves room to keep working, and have an idea of your next post in mind.

Just stick with what you prefer in threads that seem to work well for you, and you shouldn't encounter any problems unless someone is being unreasonable then just ignore them.