Membership Writing Skills

[Samantha 64]

@Elena, I don't know if I've ever done this, but there are a lot of times when I'm writing and I use the wrong word or something random like that and catch it later and have to fix it and I just hope no one saw it, lol. In regards to what we're talking about here, if you were on my site I don't think it would be an issue at all - the members would understand what you mean and just reply and not say anything about it. 

 

I swear I'm not a judgemental boogie man and no one on my site is. lmao <3

[Uaithne 543]

Most sites I've been a part of (or seen) have been pretty lenient to people who speak English as a second language, fortunately.  It would really narrow our member base if we got so particular.

[Morrigan 1,826]

Just a general reminder for those participating in this thread:

While we all have differing opinions and thoughts on the items discussed in this thread please be respectful and constructive in your disagreements so that we can all grow and understand each other more.

 

THANK YOU!

[Morrigan 1,826]

Okay... So because I've read this whole thread I'm going to chime in here and clarify quite a few points that I think some people either didn't understand or misinterpreted or even misspoke.

 

So the first thing is, writing as a whole, is a subjective art. While I know that there is a specific syntax etc to it (I'm sure @Zahhy would know all the doo-dads that go into it), it doesn't mean there is a formula or a preference that is technically correct if you are writing it as an art. By this I mean there are plenty of things that do require a formula to be written correctly (the first thing that comes to mind is an essay) however art writing depends on the person. This is why, as quite a few people have pointed out, we have so many different writers out there.

 

Each individual has a voice. How they express that voice is up to them. I don't necessarily think it's so much "writing skills" as much as finding a more defined voice in how and what you write. I've been told on many occasions, especially if you've ever voice chatted with me, that you can tell what I write is written from me. Be that my lack of commas, my switched up words, the way I word my sentences, the pace of what I write or whatever they seem to see in what I write as mine specifically, they read it so I know that my voice is clear. I work on always making it clearer but that's because if I do go back I can see where I could have added something there or taken out something there.

 

Writing skills to me is all about the voice.

 

As a side note, to clarify word counts vs no word counts and the terms of beginner, intermediate and advanced. These are all subjective terms to the person that chooses them. Whether someone believes 1 word is advanced or 1000 is this will always be that persons own choice in their roleplay endeavors. @anthrxmilkshake won't roleplay with someone that gives them less than a paragraph in response to their post I won't roleplay with someone that does't just reply to me in less than a paragraph when it's appropriate.

 

Every type of roleplay and roleplayer has it's place because we all have our own voice. How they choose to define what that means to them is their choice. Stigmas or not.

[Uaithne 543]

Kind of wiggling my way back into writing skills, I thought I'd give some examples of writing skills that RPers in general could focus on.  We've talked a lot about arbitrary things (word counts, for example), but I think we might need more concreteness so that we don't keep beating the same dead horse.

 

- Showing vs. telling (when to use which one)

- Appropriate dialogue

- Pacing

- Setting a scene

- Describing the setting

- Creating realistic characters

- Balancing action, narrative, and dialogue

- Too much vs. too little information

- Diction

- Consistency of point of view

- Character backstories

- Developing character goals

- Proofreading

- Using and avoiding cliches

 

These are the sort of things I had in mind when I created this topic.  While preferences and styles vary, we all can improve on these sorts of things.

 

Here are some interesting links.  I've scanned through them but haven't read everything in its entirety.

- Filter words

- Fiction-writing tips

- When your writing seems wooden

- POV shifts

 

For the most part, I think much of this could be shared and encouraged within the RP community as a whole to help people develop their writing.  Of course the links I have above (and pretty much every writing guide) is coming from the perspective of someone writing a solo work, not a collaborative writing forum.  Not everything will apply in RP that it does in fiction writing.

[Morrigan 1,826]

See to me.. all of that is voice and still subjective and not objective. What I find is good pacing you may find too quick. What I find important to describing the scene may not be important to you, to that point what's important to my character may not be important to yours.

 

Unfortunately "skills" are too close to style to me in that descriptor that the line is too blurry to me to say "lets give people ways to improve".

[Uaithne 543]

This is true.  But at the same time, one can give advice on, say, pacing without telling people how to pace their posts but what they should keep in mind when they're working on pacing.  Like "If you're doing [this sort of scene], slower pacing allows you to build tension.  If you decide to use a faster pace, you may lose the tension, but you could utilize [something else]."  Or whatever.  Rather than just saying that you need to pace a specific way in order for the writing to be good.

[Morrigan 1,826]

I think things like "Different ways to pace your posts" Not necessarily an "improvement guide" but a different way to see pacing and ideas that people can use in posts. That's more like what this sounds like and I think guides are perfect for it. You don't have to be the best of the best writer to have ideas to provide to people about posts.

[Uaithne 543]

Yes, that's more of what I was going for rather than a "Be all and end all of writing skills" sort of thing.

 

For example, I've seen guides for RPers (and writers in general) talking about how important it is to not use the word "said."  But I disagree.  Same with "show verse tell."  All the guides talk about how you should always show.  But that's not true - there are times in which it is important to tell.

 

Once people start dealing with absolutes, in some ways their credibility decreases.

[Morrigan 1,826]

I think if that's the style that they like than that's right for them but it doesn't have to be the only article on the subject either. Just because there is an article out there doesn't mean that this article is the authority on writing that particular thing or on that particular subject.

 

I think in the Initiative Guides we have an article on how to write a villain and one on how to write a canon. Do I think these are the end all be all? No. Do I think another one can be written and just as valid but completely different point of view? Absolutely.

[Guest BETA BLUE]

It's Rp, it's supposed to be fun, you are supposed to be learning from other writers by reading their work and each writer has their own style of writing.  Whether or not you are a good writer or not it up to interpretation. You might be awesome to me but you might not be to another person.  We may have chemistry. We may not have Chemistry.  Being a good writer is learning how to adapt to other writers in this format.  So what, you can't string words into sonnets. Don't cut yourself short. I'm sure you are awesome.  If you want to get better, the more power to you.  But I would use online material and work into your writing. A site like the one you are describing sounds terrifying.  

[Bass 26]

The most I hope for is reading comprehension and the ability to give me something to reply to. I am far less frustrated with people that use the wrong form of your in a sentence than the people who give me 300+ words of inner dialogue and three words of audible. I think that threads have a natural ebb and flow that means one post can be 800 and the next can be 200. I would much rather have someone get to the point than spend three paragraphs talking about a childhood memory to fill space in the middle of a conversation. But in the end, so long as they are actually responding to what I posted and continuing the scene beyond just being an observer of it, I'm golden.

[Sadrienne 242]

There is only one real way to improve your writing: write.

 

Other things that help: reading. From better writers and worse, you learn what works and what doesn't.

 

One of the reasons I like the RP community is that it focuses on doing rather than perfecting. I can be a good writer---I can be a horrible writer. I don't spend hours on posts and I sure don't go back and edit them unless there's something in there that I find immediately problematic. I like that I don't need to be hung up on every structure and flow. The RP community can be incredibly freeing, and it allows me to experiment with so much more than I would otherwise.

 

A quantity of posts will turn into quality posts for someone who consciously wants to write better. And if people don't really care much about getting better---is that really so bad? I played the clarinet for years, and I'm still terrible because I never practiced outside of band. But it was fun, and I loved being part of the music. I never wanted it to be work, I just wanted to enjoy what I was doing. I have a lot of respect for people who feel the same way about RP.

 

Good writing will always be subjective. You can't really teach it. You can encourage a person to find their voice, but that's about it. Spelling and grammar are fine things to be good at, but they're not the key. Truly good writing will make your brain overlook any structural errors, and take you to another place entirely. It will make you feel. It will make you hallucinate so vividly you forget you're actually looking at pixels on a screen.

 

The fact that as roleplayers, we aim for storytelling at that level rather than the nuts and bolts level of spelling and grammar that we're taught in school... I think that's beautiful.