KK, I noticed that some people are having a little bit of trouble meeting the new word count, so I decided to provide some ideas that have helped me in the past.
Forget about how many words you're posting!I know, sounds dumb right? But it really helps. Personally, I'm not big on word counts; I'm way more about giving people something to react to. Really, that's what RP is all about.
Instead of worrying about how much you write, try worrying about whether the person replying to you will have anything to reply to instead. If your post is all about what your character was thinking, or how they felt, the person who replies won't be able to write much because, well, where's the interaction?
If you write some dialogue or describe their movements, or even how their expression shows their emotions (too many people write characters who bottle up everything up, in my opinon), that will give the person replying way more to work with. It also makes for way more interesting character development and you'll be more excited to get online and see what's going to happen next.
It's called role playing for a reason!And that reason is because you're supposed to put yourself in the role of your character. It's one thing to write what's happening TO your character. It's a completely other thing to sympathise with your character, to put yourself in their shoes and really feel what it would be like to go through what they're going through.
If you really love your character, you'll probably write more just in an effort to show the most important things about them in your RPs.
Describe, Describe, Describe!Don't forget the rest of the world. Your character lives in an environment. Not an ordinary environment, either. They live in a neo-medieval environment where the things we take for granted, like electricity and technology often don't work.
And that doesn't effect only the things your character sees, either. Think about Hogwarts, a huge stone castle. In modern buildings, sounds are dampened by small rooms and soft furnishings. In a castle, everything is open and even the smallest sounds echo (if you don't have access to a real castle, it's much the same as a cathedral).
When your character plays quidditch, or when they go to the greenhouses, they aren't going to come back to the castle smelling like roses.
Add some interest by being realistic...My pet peeve. I'm half English so I hate when people get things wrong (*sigh* this is when we need Jemma).
It doesn't snow every winter. It's more likely to rain. Your character will be better acquainted with frost than snow.
It's really not that sunny in the UK. Particularly if you're from a place that is actually warm (like Queensland or California). However, people do wear short sleeves if the sun so much as comes out, regardless of the actual temperature. They sunbake in places like Hyde Park, too, because their beaches are pretty rubbish.
Old mansions (like the ones purebloods presumably own) aren't the same as the McMansions you're probably used to seeing. Big houses built back in ye olden dayes had a lot more and smaller rooms (I know 'cause I used to work at a school that had been renovated from one). Think of the manor houses you see in the BBC adaptations of Jane Austen novels.
Hogwarts students wear a school uniform. Whether you describe the one in the movies or the one in the books, it's still a uniform. Most school kids don't
like their uniform, either.
by Caelani Bittel Mon Jul 12, 2010 11:48 pm
