[1x1 RPs] How much should a character do in a post?

[spiral origin]

I find myself unsure about how much my character should do in a single roleplay post (1x1 format). Should I do a small amount of stuff with greater detail or a larger amount of stuff with less detail? A balance?

Sometimes I find that if I do very little, it might not be enough to move the RP forward (and may also be a relatively shorter and/or less interesting post to respond to). But if I do a lot, it forces my partner to have to address and react to all the things I did, which can kind of mess with interactive flow, as well as turn into unintentionally controlling their character in that it may deny their ability to respond appropriately to one or more of my actions.

So how do I know how much my character should do and where a good "end point" to my post should be?

[Foster]

Short answer, do as much as reasonably possible with an "if [this] happens, my character would react this way" and chunk "events"/actions to paragraphs that can be retconned by your partner's next post if they don't like the way things are going.

But for that to work you should let them know beforehand that they are permitted to take a machete to your posts if they want to linger on a scene, or if they feel you forgot or skipped over something they really wanted to do.

If your posts getting slashed in a regular occurance, you may want to dial it back or take a minute OOCly to hash out where things will go and how fast.

[Pluck]

I always try to match my partner, but when that isn't viable I try no give enough to work off of. Many partnerships... are different. Sometimes people want it as a group RP between two people, others a complete collaboration, and so on.

[Nemaisare]

This answer entirely depends on the scene and your and your partners' preferences. If you find yourself hesitating how much to include or how far to move things along, ask them if they have a preference. That is, I think, one of the best things you can do because everyone has different preferences. Talking it out between you can ease up on that uncertainty far more readily than anything else can.

For 1x1s, I've noticed that as long as there is something for the other character to react with, most people can come up with a post. And even if there isn't something directly in the post, provided you both know where the events are heading, they still have a direction to push the character in. But, as with most things, if they're stuck, talking about it is a great solution. Offering to edit your post or add something in is probably always appreciated.

For me, I go by the rule of how slow and intimate do I want this scene to be (as in how much detail and character emotion and internal processes do I want to include)? And what is the scene's purpose? If you want to delve into those details, then you don't need to make a lot of stuff happen or even move things forward by more than a minute at a time. If you are writing in order to move things along or because it's fast action, then there's really no need to linger and you can roll on through the scene until your next slower moment. Unless your partner (or you) would prefer otherwise.

Another good rule of thumb to work with so that you can avoid that unintentional character control is that if you're writing and suddenly think that the other character(s) would definitely break in on the conversation or the action or just have a big enough reaction to whatever has been said or is going on that it might derail the rest of your post, that's usually a good spot to either pause and ask your partner what their character might do if your post feels toooooo short to post or just post it. As you write with someone and get to know their character(s), you'll more often be able to guess how they'd respond to various things you stick in your post, so this does get easier to judge between a casual reaction, like answering a simple question, or them suddenly throwing a tantrum because your character mentioned the wrong name... You've probably felt this already.

Also, if it just starts feeling like an infodump, feel free to stop at the next feasible point or go back and take some out before posting to save it for later, because information is good, but too much at once will have something being missed and your partner possibly going cross-eyed.

It's not a perfect science and most of us are probably at least a little concerned about this question no matter how long we've been writing. The key is to be sure that you are satisfied with the information you've conveyed, and that your partner is happy. If they're happy with the post, who cares if you think it was long or short or uninteresting or overly complicated? They liked it.

[Ruby]

Seems like a question better asked to your partners in 1x1 RPs than the whole Guild, tbh.

But...wildly depends on your personal writing style. Whatever works for you. Whatever keeps you writing.

[Penny]

That thing I always say.

People are so precious about their characters. It is stupid and pointless in a 1x1. Get some conversation going with your partner, outline your goals for a given scene, find out what their goals are and then write. The world wont collapse if you control their character a bit (with their permission) in order to keep the action flowing smoothly.

[AlteredTundra]

As someone who has done a fair amount of 1x1s himself, it's always been a post-to-post basis. Sometimes my posts have exceeded past 1k words and sometimes I barely passed a 300-word marker. Sometimes my posts were a single paragraph (not counting dialogue) and sometimes I wrote over 10. It all depends if what you're writing is a reactionary post or if you're setting the stage for some events.

For 1x1s, I always felt that each person controls a certain portion of events. So in short: they do as much as you feel they need to. Just make sure you and your partner understand this and all will be smooth like butter.

[Dinh AaronMk]

While not a 1x1 related answer: until a point where your partner has to respond, or act off of. There is conditions where a character realistically can't do much of anything about an action because they may not be in the same physical space or powerless or both writers may even understand this is what would happen otherwise.

I mostly write for Nation RP and in an RP environment with more characters or more people involved. But what I often tend to do if interacting with other people talk about the situation before hand and work out a general ground work so all parties involved know what each of us will be doing. For example I'm not going to "lead" someone to a hallway and then stop and let them write about being lead down the hallway or consenting to being lead down the hallway before being walked down the hallway is written. If both of us know that being at the end of the hallway is where the next major part of the scene is going to be; it'll be there. In this case there's also a notion of one of us being the "host" of that scene or post, where it's primarily my own but the other person is there to write the bits that must be dictated and acted on by the other player. To go off of the hallway bit: I might lead someone down the hallway but if at the end they will be commanded to kill someone then that is when the other character would be allowed their autonomy to refuse or accept the command, give their thought process and actions on how they do it or even arguments.

In the longest of terms both of us may know generally what we want at the very end of all of this.

[POOHEAD189]

As unhelpful as it is to say, it really depends on your partner. I wouldn't generally move someone else's character, but if my partner let's it happen then call me the puppet master.

[BangoSkank]

Exactly what Penny said.

Writing is collaborative so the more you work together and the more you know about each other's characters and intentions the better.

If you're doing a 1x1 with me and could write a post as my character, and I could write a post as your character, and the change would be neigh indecipherable we're probably going to be amazing partners.

Whether it's a one on one fight and we're deciding if it's going to be a Respectful Standstill that leads to Mutual Admiration or a You Just Barely Got Me With, I'll Be Watching Next Time that leads to a Friendly Rivalry or a Full Tilt Drag You Down and Stomp You Out grudge match that leads one to seek revenge on the other.

Or if it's a Romance but X has an unrequited love for Y. Or X wants Y and Y wants X but X can't leave W because Ws mom just woke from a 14 year coma and she's pretty sure Z, the pool boy, put Ws mom into the coma because Z is secretly Ws mom's illegitimate son from her brief dalliance with T the Brazilian Yoga instructor who was oh so flexible. Or X and Y are into each other but both are nervous/shy.

Ex:
I had a 1x1 planned with TyrannosaurusRex and we had talked out our characters backstory and doubts and fears and like character flaws. It helps a lot.
If you partner knows roughly what your character will want out of a scene, and you can clarify exactly what your character wants and how attached you are to that character getting it, you can really set each other up. Working at a shared goal rather than at cross purposes.