I'm looking for help ((OOC thread))

[Jehova Eaven]

Esteemed Members of the Black Hand. I ask that you help me with my writing and roleplaying skills. If you have read my previous work you may have noticed a trend, my newer work is not very good compared to when I first started to roleplay at SWFans. In fact, my poor writing skills bothers me so much that in the middle of a post, I read it and think its crap so I end up deleting it and not posting at all. In the end I decided that if I can not get help here then I shall have to start putting "Please excuse the poor writing" in my signature and start writing with the :: action :: tags so people know what my character is doing. I personally find that to be in poor taste but should worse come to worse I'll have to start doing that.

Reading your work inspires me to write better, but unfortunately I can not without help. I enjoy each of your styles and ask that you give me some writing and roleplaying tips. Thank you and so long.

[Jeseth Cloak]

I honestly don't see anything wrong with your writing style... I suggest that if you've grown tired of your particular methods that you pick up a book by a favorite author and analyze his style. Try writting like him. I suggest these individual writers: Tim Burton, Ray Bradbury, Andrew Hayes... Hm. Well, you get the idea. We all have our writers block now and then. No big deal.

[Morgan Evanar]

Bradbury is probably a far better choice than Burton. I'd read "Something Wicked This Way Comes". Carl Hiassen is also a good read for style, but very few hold a candle to Bradbury.

[Kar'h'tzen Shaed]

True indeed... Bradbury rules.

I'll give pointers on writing, even though I have RPed very little for a long time. Just take the advice if you like it, though. And I have no idea how well you write, sorry... I might check out your stuff sometime later though.

MY OH SO GRAND ADVICE:

In general, I try to write posts that contain very few actions, but describe those actions in as great detail as I can without bogging down a story or fight or whatever's going on. This is partly to make the RP fair (if someone else is writing in it) and partly so I don't have to write huge essays as posts.

I like to mix up the length of posts, too. Sometimes very long, sometimes very short - I find this makes RPs easier and more interesting to read, personally.

Don't forget to take the audience inside your character's head. Don't always RP actions, create new paragraphs often when you write, show us your character's thoughts on what's going on and how the character grows or changes.

Be inventive whenever you can. This can be tricky, but try writing for other people's characters in an RP in your post, in their style. Make sure to get permission, though, and bang out the details of such a post with them. I always find it interesting to see a post by one person that contains information about another person's character, instead of all revealed information always being about their own character... eh... not sure how much sense I'm making. Sorry. Read my newest RP with De'Ville, though I'm sure you have already. Since we talk a lot OOC, it's fairly simple for us to exchange information and release it as we see fit for our characters as we RP. And we can do it with each others' characters. Maybe it's just me who thinks that's fun.

Check your spelling, reread your posts to make sure they say what you intended them to. It's always a good idea to make sure what you've written is desciptive, concise as possible, and interesting somehow.

Anyway, again: This is just what I try to do. And I have no idea if you do it already or not. :) The best way to learn how to write better is to learn from what you read... that's probably the best advice I can give you.

[Shawn]

Ideally, I would like for my writing to be somewhere between Dante Alligheri and Stephen King. I would like to develop it to the point where I can spin a novel, but I'm afraid that roleplaying gets you into the habit of centering far too much on a single character.

In the future, I'm going to be trying to make my writing more objective... if that's possible.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

It's actually not hard. You just need to keep a few questions in mind when you sit down to write a post.

1.) What am I going to do in this post?

2.) Do I want to accomplish anything other than my character's stated actions?

3.) Can I imagine this happening?

4.) Is this realistic to my character?

These are pretty simple guidelines. You do need to know all the purposes for which you are writing. A particular post might be more than just part of a fight- you may also want to demonstrate a character's growth in power or in ways of thinking. Once you know why you're writing, you just have to keep it short enough to be descriptive, but still descriptive enough so that you get the idea of what you're doing, and you have to make sure it is true to the way your character would be.

That's my small contribution.

[Jehova Eaven]

Thank you, but what I really want is someone to read my posts before I actually put them up and evaluate it. Basicly read it, tell me what you think, should anyhting be changed and how. I also have a problem staying in my characters mind while I write, especially Jehova because he is so complicated. If someone could remind me what he should be like... wait now I'm asking too much, nevermind. I know how I want him to be but its hard to portray him.... at least in words. I could always think of how he would act and what he would say in my head, like a movie.

Ugh now I'm rambling... if you'll excuse me.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

*excuses him*

i'm too tired to put together another coherent thought. *passes out*

[Gabran Darkysa]

What a trooper...

Anyone have smelling salts or EP.II movie tickets?

[Kar'h'tzen Shaed]

I have a lightsaber...

...Hey, just trying to be helpful. :p

[Ryu Warusa]

Yay I found a theme song for Jehova to actually get me back into character with him. Yayoi Yuda - Messiah.