A Guide to Role-Playing!

[Casalynn Laymont]

Problems with writing a decent-sized post?

I'm sure everyone has had this problem in their RPing lifetimes! We all have our different ideas of what makes up a good post or not, and try to set a benchmark for each and every post (Or is that just me?) But this can often be hard to follow and we all want to impress whoever it is were RPing with! Writers block can often set in so in this post I hope to help you combat this and help with making bigger and better posts, but remember quantity isn't always everything, it's the quality that matters!

Include in your post what you character looks like?

The more detail that you include, the easier and better your RPing buddy will be able to reply! If they know what your character is wearing or looks like then they can comment on it and plus it can add more depth to your post. You could say what clothing their wearing, what their hair is like etc...

For example:

Casalynn’s shining chestnut brown hair reached low behind her back, dangling and swaying as she walked. She often liked to wear her hair in curls, but on her lazy days she would often leave it straight, but today she had kept it curly. Her hair had a certain neat and kempt look to it, but that was the way it always looked. Even if she hadn’t brushed it all day.

Cass was quite agile and petite, with a slight and slender look to her. She could hardly be called thin, but she wasn’t actually the bigger type of person; she just sat nicely in the middle. Casalynn had glowing skin and slightly rosy cheeks accompanied with quite a pale tone. Her eyes were sea green, sparkling and shimmering in the light. It was very easy to get lost in her eyes and could almost swallow you up in an instant.

Casalynn had always liked natural beauty, and liked to put nothing on her face. She hated the way some make up looked, and was a strong believer that you had to be ugly to cake your face in some chemical junk. Her skin remained completely natural, and was of an even tone. The only hint of make-up that she had on was lip gloss. Making her lips stand out and sparkle, reflecting all of the light that was in the room.

Her face radiated slight beauty and she always tried her best to uphold that look. Casalynn always wore a pendant in which she wore every hour of everyday. Without it, she felt almost naked. She had had it since she was very small, and would never be seen without it, she often viewed it as her good luck charm. Her mother wore the pendant round her neck before she did, and gave it to her right up until she died. The pendant had no real price value, but a higher sentimental value. Wearing the pendant close to her heart made her feel closer to her mother; however soppy that sounded it was what Casalynn strongly believed so as long as she was still living the Pendant stayed loosely wrapped round her neck.

Here are a few websites that may help you describe what your character looks like:
www.talkeasy.co.uk/link/materials/esl11.html
www.writeshop.com/article3.htm


What is your character feeling?

Depending on the situations in your thread, there are many emotions that your character can be feeling! It can be a great way to add description to your posts and can set the scene for the next RPer! They can be feeling scared, happy, frightened, angry etc... It's also a good idea to put why they are feeling this way, to help us understand their emotions! Here are a few words that you can include in your thread:

;DWords for Glad and happy ;D

alive, cheerful, delighted, ecstatic, elated, energized, excited, exuberant, happy, jubilant, thrilled, comfortable, content, enchanted, encouraged, exalted, gleeful, grateful, gratified, helpful, hilarious, hopeful, interested, jolly, jovial, lighthearted, overjoyed, peaceful, pleased, rapturous, spirited, vibrant, blithe, complacent, serene, tranquil, warm.

Words for feeling sad

beaten, bleak, blue, crestfallen, defeated, depressed, devastated, despondent, disconsolate, empty, grieving, grim, helpless, hopeless, humiliated, melancholy, mournful, numb, sorrowful, woebegone, dejected, discouraged, dismal, dispirited, down, downcast, forlorn, heavy, humbled, lonely, morose, moved, pessimistic, regretful, rejected, shareful, shamefulsolemn, sullen, woeful, worthless, ashamed, bored, bruised, cheerless, deflated, disappointed, distant, embarrassed, gloomy, hurt, let down, pained, resigned, somber, turned off, unfulfilled, unhappy, uninterested.

Words for being angry

aggravated, angry, antagonistic, bittern boiling,detestable, enraged, ruming, furious, hateful, hostile, infuriated, bothered, burned, disgusted, exasperated, frustrated, incensed, indignant, inflamed, vengeful, worked up, chafed, displeased, irate, irked, miffed, peeved, provoked, sore, teed off, vexed.

Words for being Scared

afraid, alarmed, distressed, fearful, frightened, intimidated, panicky, petrified, scared, shocked, terrified, threatened, tremulous, agitated, anxious, apprehensive, disoriented, fainthearted, inadequate, insecure, jittery, nervous, perturbed, pessimistic, shaky, startled, tense, troubled, uptight, worried, bothered, cautious, concerned, coy, diffident, disinclined, doubtful, edgy, fidgety, hesitant, reluctant, restless, timid, timorous, uneasy, unsettled, unsure, vulnerable.


Here are also a few websites that may help describing how your character is feeling:
marriage.about.com/cs/dialogue/a/descrfeel.htm
marriage.about.com/cs/dialogue/a/feelingwords.htm
www.wwme.org/feelings.html

What is your character's personality like?

Writing a few sentences about the personality of your character never goes a miss! It can help the people your RPing with understand your character more and help to find things they may have in common. Whether they are arrogant, kind, loyal or caring, where applicable can be included in your threads!

Here are a few websites that may help you describe your characters personalities! :

www.examples-help.org.uk/parts-of-speech/personality-adjectives.htm
descriptivewords.org/descriptive-words-list-of-adjectives-for-characters.html
descriptivewords.org/descriptive-words-list-of-adjectives-for-personal-traits-and-characteristics.html

Whats your character doing?

Describing what your characters doing in the thread is a great way to start! People won't join if they don't know what the thread is about so tell them! It could be mucking out the horses, taking a drink in the Ram or even taking a trip to the local butchers! Set the scene in the thread so the reader will have a vivid image and will know how to respond. Similiarly describing where they are is another crucial thing to include!

Some websites:
descriptivewords.org/descriptive-words-list-of-adjectives-for-movements-fast.html
descriptivewords.org/descriptive-words-list-of-adjectives-for-movements-slow.html
descriptivewords.org/descriptive-words-list-of-adjectives-for-action-verbs.html

Where is your character?

Every thread needs a setting! A few paragraphs can easily be spent describing the weather, where they are and also what there character thinks of their current setting. Is it light or dark? Raining or is the sun shining? Where are they in Camelot? Are they even in Camelot? These are the questions you need to ask yourself when starting a thread and if your struggling for things to write you can always put in some of the things listed above. Also when describing the setting the 5 senses can be used. Smell, touch, taste, hearing and sight. Describe what your character see's, what they can taste and so on...

Here are a few websites that can help you descrive the setting and the senses:
www.msgarrettonline.com/descripwords.html
descriptivewords.org/descriptive-words-list-of-adjectives-for-touch-a-feel.html
descriptivewords.org/descriptive-words-list-of-adjectives-for-taste.html
descriptivewords.org/descriptive-words-list-of-adjectives-for-smell.html
descriptivewords.org/descriptive-words-list-of-adjectives-for-hearing-loud-sounds.html
descriptivewords.org/descriptive-words-list-of-adjectives-for-hearing-soft-sounds.html

Finally add the characters thoughts and speech; no post is complete without this. Tell us what they think, verbalise their thoughts or even strike up a conversation with whoever your in the thread with! Putting 'Said' after everything they say can get quite boring, so even it out and put 'asked, questioned, grumbled, mused' and so on.

To sum up:

• Say what your character looks like
  
• What they are feeling and why they are feeling it
  
• What there personality is like
  
• Add what your character is doing
  
• Add the setting; where they are
  
• And finally add speech and thoughts
  

Don't forget to add describing words, Use Bold and Italics where necessary (Italics for what people have said in previous posts, colour your character's speech if you wish etc...), RP in 3rd person and in past tense, DON'T USE CHAT SPEAK! and remember Spell check is your friend!

Hope this helped anyone who's struggling writing posts ;]!!!