Forums » Help » Terms for writing and length

I'm finally gonna ask lol

I have seen terms like Novella, Semi-lit, Advanced lit and stuff, and i cannot really figure out what exactly they mean.. No one seemes to really fully agree, so i'd love to know what people mean and think?
Only one i really know what is, is One-liners, that one has been quite obvious haha

Thank you for asking this question for me /jk

I am the same way, I never know what it means!
I'm assuming Novella is the longest length, maybe, but I can't ever be sure :')

Novella means extremely long message lengths and lit means literacy

I think it is the longest? but how long.. i have no idea lol
and also when people say 1-3 paragraphs or 4-6 paragraphs, like.. what length is each paragraph? lmao very big difference between one being 3 sentences and one being 20 sentences.. it's so unclear :_;

I have understood that so far, but that is very vague if i'm being honest

Novella. For roleplay, it is a 5-10 paragraph response. A paragraph may consist of 5-8 sentences. Though for me, a paragraph normally has 7 sentences, but hey, people write differently so the number of sentences vary. And sometimes, the number of paragraphs can be until 12 paras (maybe even more) depending on how much the player wants to describe or narrate.

Semi-lit. When someone is Semi-lit, they can only or they often provide less than 3 sentences or less than a usual paragraph of 5-7 sentences.

...
I also had to research on these terms before. I understand the confusion. Hehe.

So it would go something like: one liners, semi lit, advanced lit and then Novella?

I personally find it easier to speak in terms of how many words lol so like my paragraphs are like 70-120 words usually, and i just know my usual replies are mostly 200-600 words, but i have no clue what that falls in under xD

Hmmm. If I remember correctly, for your reference and info also, there was an issue about using the "lit" terms for categorization before. Can't recall when, but it didn't do good cause it's like saying, "if you're semi-literate, you're not 'literate' enough." Or something like that. So, best to avoid those terms, I think. Maybe use these terms instead? If its the length you're worried about.

RP Length

• One-liner - 1 sentence or less than a sentence. (10-20 words)
• Semi-para - 2-3 sentences; less than a paragraph (40-50 words)
• One-para - 1 paragraph; 5-7 sentences (100-200 words)
• Multi-para - 2-4 paragraphs (400-700 words)
• Novella - 5-10 paragraphs (900 or more words)
  
  Note: These are just estimates. Not exact.

I find that I usually start an RP novella style and as the characters advance or actions are occurring I drop to multi-para. I usually just follow whatever my partner is doing unless they start phoning in one para responses. Then I assume they have lost interest or have busy lives so I usually give them an out.

That makes sense, i was mostly wondering for when i see other people talking about what they're looking for

I think the term 'para' suits more the actual length of posts. When I see 'literate' I think properly speleld words, proper punctuation, sentence structure, and such.

I personally think that Novella, Semi-lit, Advanced-lit, etc. is sort of an individual interpretation for our expectations or preferences. Novella is more of a style of writing while the lits are standards for writing. For me I use Novella as an introductory post that most often times sets the scene -- very verbose, lots of flourishing descriptions, embellishing prose, and all the pretty, pretty words. Novella tells a story while Semi-lit and Advanced-lit, in my opinion, are more focused on directing the role-play, the character interactions, and expecting proper semantics. They still tell a story of course, but to me, Novella is a slippery slope into something richly complex and could be it's own short story in its entirety.

I personally tend to get very carried away when it comes to Novella, and will oftentimes burn out when I'm forced to keep to it consistently throughout the whole role-play. It's a lot of work, so I will happily shift gears into para-RP where, I feel, more things get accomplished between the characters.

Now as far as Lit, Semi-lit, and Advanced-lit -- upon perusing the internet and trying to gain a sense for myself on what they might mean, I've discovered that they almost definitively are what they say they are. To be literate, or on some level capable of the basics, one would at least need a good grasp on punctuation, proper spelling, and be somewhat decent with grammatics. This applies to Novella, para, multi-para, and even on some level, chatspeak-type RPs.

When Semi-lit and Advanced-lit come into play, I feel there is an increase on expectations and the standards people hold for their role-plays. There is also a higher demand for detail-oriented posts on top of all the basic semantics. Reading comprehension also seems to be more in demand, I feel, and posts tend to be longer.

Granted, this is just my take on things, but from my own personal experiences, it's pretty much what I've come to expect when people role-play with me once we establish our ground rules. Thus far I've not had any complaints upon playing by their rules, so I hope this has at least been informative, if not a little repetitive considering I feel like I'm just saying similar things to what others are telling. Hah hah...

In case it can be helpful, I posted a relevant thing awhile back, mostly about issues with calling up "literate" as a measure of post length. There was a little bit of convo that followed, too.

Can be found here: https://www.rprepository.com/community/forums/topic/49502

Things may have become more nuanced since then.

Just quickly looked, and the terms really are extremely vague and does also sound rather rude as if someones writing is better or worse

I don't use the terms myself, i generally mention amount of paragraphs and amounts of words
I asked cause i keep seeing the terms and they confuse me lol

Also thank you!