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Second Post
Short Note
Descriptions
Fight Scenes
Conversations
Paragraphs
Note from Celeste

Short Note

Length and Pacing is a really easy thing to learn, most of the time you know it before you realize you need to know it to Roleplay. There are a couple little things to know and then you're off!

Descriptions

Normally, it's best to give a really thourough description of your character in your first post in the thread, after that you really only need to describe the things you are interacting with, a a mention of it here and there won't hurt. This keeps from unnecessary length and boring words. You can only say your hair is black so many times. ^^

ex.

Sarah Geilder strode purposefully through the wooden door leading into the building, shaking out her rain dampened hair. It had gone a dark amber and was glued to her face and back, clinging to her smooth creamy skin. A small smile lighted upon her full reddish lips as she ran a manicured hand through her soaked hair. Her green eyes gleamed beneath perfectly shaped drak red eyebrows, curved most seductively.

As she removed her raincoat, it slid deliciously over long, white limbs, exposed by a tightly clinging dress. It was a luscious red color and it was strapless, nothing but her well defined chest and a well placed elastic held it up. It seemed to be a kind of satin fabric, complemented by a wide golden belt that splayed across her hips. A long slit ran up to her mid-thigh area, letting her leg peep out promiscuously. Sarah hung up her jacket and strolled across the floor of the inn, delighting in the attention being served to her...

(note: that is not a full post, or rather, a good full post. It gives the partner very little to go off of. It should probably contain a park where she orders a room or some such. It does not seem like much, but if the other person is occupied with introducing themselves in a similar manner, it should be fine. )

Fight Scenes

In fights, people tend to rush through their kicks and punches, this can cause a short post with lots of action, it can also result in one liners. You should make sure to describe your actions with adjectives and add in a couple thoughts to drag these kinds of posts out. Adding more in between also helps people remember each and every move you dealt out to them. Also, MAKE SURE YOU DON't GODMODE!! This is very important, as nobody likes godmoders, take a few hits! It only makes you cooler when you continue to fight with a missing arm! hehe.


ex.

Matt Barder chuckled throatily. The other man's fist had ended it's course right beside his head, hitting the cement wall and creating a rather large crater. But Matt was not one to get intimidated so easily. He slowly turned his head to better see the man who assaulted him, and then smiled frostily.

His arm flexed by his side, itching to be driven into the man's skull. Not yet, thought Matt, unclenching his fist with great effort. Instead, he tensed his whole body, getting ready for his first move. You could almost hear the Pop! when Matt moved, realeasing the building tension in his body.

He ducked down and twisted his foot for a better stance. Then he snapped his foot up and towards the stomach of his attacker, barely waiting to see if it connected, he let his fist fly up from his side and formed it into an upper-cut in mid-air, hopefully to bury itself in the other man's chin.

Conversations

Since in Roleplays you end up conducting like 3 conversations at once, it can go either way, making your responses and questions much too long without saying anything or saying just barely enough. It's best to put a paragraph or two in between each of your responses and after or before responding putting the tone of voice of your character, and maybe a bit of thoughts or feelings to tip it off.


ex.

Sarah's rich laughter floated from her lips, warming the air in the bar noticably, in response to a man's lust coated inquiry. She leaned forward, letting her reddened lips close in quite close to his, and responded in a husky, yet teasing voice. "Of course I'm still single! Could a body like this," she motioned subtly to her own figure, "belong to only one man?"

The men sitting around the table openly stared at her scantly clad figure, their drool almost covering the table below them. Sarah smiled suavely and repositioned her weight in the chair to better show off her curves. Foolish men. Like they could ever get anyone like me.

A tug pulled insistantly on her arm, practically dragging her from her chair. Matt was there, glaring at her, some random drunkard lying in a heap by the back door. "Let's go." Sarah preened quietly as Matt grabbed her coat and threw it over her shoulders.

She stood up and began to leave, waiving dainty fingers over her shoulders. "Perhaps we shall meet again on the road," this was directed to the men at the table left to stare. Sarah then whirled around to face Matt, a glare imprinted on her sexy features. "Why the hell do we have to leave every time you get into a fight?!" She said this in a heated whisper to her companion, who only shrugged and lead her out the heavy door.

Paragraphs

Paragraphs not only count in grammar, but also in Length and Pacing. Really short paragraphs can make your post LOOK longer, but it also makes it seem to go really quick. Too long paragraphs get annoying, you loose your place and it takes so long to finish one properly that even if you only had 3 long ones that together don't make an all that long post, it seems like it took together to get through. There really isn't a size that is perfect, and since I have weird amounts of lines on my computer I can't tell you by length of lines, but I'll try. If your paragraph is a one liner or just over, it is TOO SHORT! Just about 606 characters is good (Twice a literate one liner.. which is about 3 lines of typing). It can get quite a bit longer then that without being problematic though, but be careful!

A Note From Celeste

Length and Pacing is not a thing that is easy to teach, you just tend to know. If you do have trouble with it, just send me a friendly PM and I'll try to help you out with it. Lots of people have this down pretty well, and if they don't, once they are told it's easy to fix. I really can't tell you much about this without stepping on the toes of other sections. When you do all those properly, it normally adds up pretty well to a good Length and Pace. ^^

Fourth Post
Quick Introduction
Body language
Trinkets
Vocabulary
Thoughts/Speach Patterns

Quick Introduction

Personality is all in the attitude! Make sure that when you write your profiles you know what kind of person you want to play. I know it's hard to match the quick description in your profile to what you roleplay, (it's one thing I'm particularly bad at) but you have to try. If your person is supposed to be a quiet, shy and scared little girl try to keep her body language like that. Her thoughts shouldn't be about crushing any person who steps above themselves, but rather about how intimidating they are. There are quite a few ways to express such personality traits.

Body language

Although these people aren't 3D, they can still have body language. This is an especially good way to emphasize the type of person your character is. For a defiant person, they should often stand with their feet shoulder width apart and their arms crossed on their hips. A shy person would let their shoulders droop, keep their head and eyes down and hug their arms to their chest. This is all body language, and needs to be written into posts for a better description of your current character.

It's the same as in fights. If you're someone who like to be flashy, you wouldn't use plain or practical moves, you would step widely, sipe your sword in wide, shining arcs, toss your hair and a multitude of other attention grabbing moves.

You can also use body language to show how you feel about another character. Another dimension of personality. If you have a crush on someone, when they appear you would either begin showing off, trying to dissapear, flirting with them or other expressions of your feelings. Feelings are an important aspect of personality, so make sure to fill your writing with them.

Trinkets

Wheter they are small or large and bulky, trinkets are another way of expressing your character's personality. A sword should be decorated to fit the one who uses it, clothes tailored to their wearer's preferences. Perhaps a couple firey red ribbons or a small leopard print purse hiding a bottle of Chanel perfume. All somehow express a side of your person. A woman obsessed with being strong would probably have weight lifting equipment, an animal lover a couple pictures of cuddly creatures. These are all trinkets, and all help describe the person who owns them.

Vocabulary

A more subtle way of displaying your character's personality is with words. Some fit better into different kinds of characters. This is not something you should worry overly much about, as you will normally have a sense for it. Plus it is a less obvious way of setting your person's mood and does not influence the reader as much as body language does. A couple examples of the right vocabulary for a quiet person would be: submissive, gentle, quiet, intimidated, meek, surpressed, restrained, resigned, small. These vary on the kind of quiet person and are of course only a small couple of words. Some words you shouldn't use for such a person would be: openly, defiantly, loudly, fiery, reckless, annoyed. I'm sure you get the picture.

Thoughts/Speach Patterns

This is one of the better ways of expressing a character. In thoughts, you can tell how they are reacting to a ceratin task or situation. As for speach patterns, it simply means how someone talks. I don't mean dialects, but the way they express themselves. If someone said: "Quiet down idiot! Or I'll come over there and break your head off!" You wouldn't expect it to be said by a reserved person who did not like to be disliked. This kind of thing comes naturally, but should alsways be double checked because it's one of the things that gets screwed up first when the writer is tired, excited or rushed.