I recently had a look through http://www.rprepository.com/help/writing-for-rp and once I have some more free time, I'll be reading over the log itself. It's a wonderful resource, and if nothing else, an entertaining read. But as far as I was able to see (and again, I haven't read the entire log yet, so please excuse me if this is eventually considered in more detail) when it came to the topics of style and prose, the favorable answer was to be concise in your writing, and leave anything else up to your preferences. And that's fair enough; it'd probably be very tedious to list them all, especially when you're trying to keep a conversation rolling towards several different aspects of writing, not just the two. But I'm genuinely curious as to why people choose to write the way that they do, and those questions often concern style and prose. So to that end, let me ask a question you may have seen before:
"How do I improve my writing?"
When I see this question, people usually aren't asking how to write fleshed-out characters, or how to worldbuild, or how to include thematic elements without seeming cliché about it (though these things can come up eventually). More often than not, this is where writers like to take liberties and experiment for themselves: where the results of their creative process are immediately obvious and at their whim. What they're asking, in my experience, is a little more nuts-and-bolts-ish than that. It's stuff like, "How do I make my writing look good? Is the sentence structure here too repetitive? Is there a better word I could use here, or does it seem too fancy? Am I focusing too much on details that don't matter, or is there something I should be describing instead? Am I using punctuation effectively here?" And the list goes on for another umpteen-hundred items, but I'll stop there. You get the point.
Now those kinds of questions really interest me, because for the longest time I thought (and associated with others who thought) that a writer's creative process was something better left to each writer's own judgement. Sure, if they were asking, you could give them your two cents or edit a draft of theirs, if they were feeling particularly brave. But otherwise, your writing was your own and it should stay that way regardless of what others thought. Eventually, that's how you'd come into your own as a "legitimate" writer. And the longer I stewed with those ideas, the more dissatisfied I became with them.
I mean, sure, there's some truth to it in that you should have the final say in your projects. But looking back on it now, I feel like denying the influences and opinions of generations of writers before me severely stunted my growth as one. As much as I wanted to believe that my work had merit simply because it was mine, and a few other people liked it, I was ignoring the real reasons for the success or failure of my writing: the objective reasons.
Writing has tangible results, so it's quantifiable. The emotional response it evokes may not always be, but the mechanics are. Your grammar, syntax, punctuation, spelling, and even the use of spacing on the page all compose the results that you present, and thus your "style". That's something we can all observe and learn from, and before I get off on another tangent, those are the kinds of questions I want to pose to you now. What are the advantages of writing the way that you do, and why do you prefer them as opposed to other styles? Or if you're having trouble nailing down your own style, what habits do you notice in other styles of writing that you don't like, or that you'd never want to use yourself?
If it really helps, explain yourself as broadly as tropes that you couldn't be paid enough to touch, or as minutely as having a max sentence length for your paragraphs because you feel like the pace of the narrative slows too much otherwise. But I'd really like to focus more on how you present the content that you're used to writing about as opposed to the content itself, just to be clear.
I think we're pulling from a large range of experiences here, so I'm very eager to see what you all might have to say!
"How do I improve my writing?"
When I see this question, people usually aren't asking how to write fleshed-out characters, or how to worldbuild, or how to include thematic elements without seeming cliché about it (though these things can come up eventually). More often than not, this is where writers like to take liberties and experiment for themselves: where the results of their creative process are immediately obvious and at their whim. What they're asking, in my experience, is a little more nuts-and-bolts-ish than that. It's stuff like, "How do I make my writing look good? Is the sentence structure here too repetitive? Is there a better word I could use here, or does it seem too fancy? Am I focusing too much on details that don't matter, or is there something I should be describing instead? Am I using punctuation effectively here?" And the list goes on for another umpteen-hundred items, but I'll stop there. You get the point.
Now those kinds of questions really interest me, because for the longest time I thought (and associated with others who thought) that a writer's creative process was something better left to each writer's own judgement. Sure, if they were asking, you could give them your two cents or edit a draft of theirs, if they were feeling particularly brave. But otherwise, your writing was your own and it should stay that way regardless of what others thought. Eventually, that's how you'd come into your own as a "legitimate" writer. And the longer I stewed with those ideas, the more dissatisfied I became with them.
I mean, sure, there's some truth to it in that you should have the final say in your projects. But looking back on it now, I feel like denying the influences and opinions of generations of writers before me severely stunted my growth as one. As much as I wanted to believe that my work had merit simply because it was mine, and a few other people liked it, I was ignoring the real reasons for the success or failure of my writing: the objective reasons.
Writing has tangible results, so it's quantifiable. The emotional response it evokes may not always be, but the mechanics are. Your grammar, syntax, punctuation, spelling, and even the use of spacing on the page all compose the results that you present, and thus your "style". That's something we can all observe and learn from, and before I get off on another tangent, those are the kinds of questions I want to pose to you now. What are the advantages of writing the way that you do, and why do you prefer them as opposed to other styles? Or if you're having trouble nailing down your own style, what habits do you notice in other styles of writing that you don't like, or that you'd never want to use yourself?
If it really helps, explain yourself as broadly as tropes that you couldn't be paid enough to touch, or as minutely as having a max sentence length for your paragraphs because you feel like the pace of the narrative slows too much otherwise. But I'd really like to focus more on how you present the content that you're used to writing about as opposed to the content itself, just to be clear.
I think we're pulling from a large range of experiences here, so I'm very eager to see what you all might have to say!
I always used multi para to novella and remained in third person PoV. I find First Person awkward and it doesn't mix in well with third person POV Rping.
I always try to improve my own writing and take some small steps to improve them.
I always try to improve my own writing and take some small steps to improve them.
The amount of my writing always depends on what the situation is. For example, if the situation was in the middle of a battle, I'd probably write one short paragraph as opposed to a long one or two shorter ones. In the end, I write as much as I feel comfortable writing without repeating myself or making it boring.
Like ThePsychicBruiser, I also find first-person POV to be very awkward. I only once tried it, but I quickly gave up on it, since it had a too personal feel to it. At the same time, I really enjoy describing given emotions my characters feel at any point of time, believing it gives them more depth than if I only described their actions.
But my biggest pet peeve of all is grammar. No matter what it is I'm reading, a post to a roleplay or a story, I have to have the 'I' capitalized or have punctuation marks where they belong. That's why when writing my own stories or replies, I take great care to grammar.
Of course, along the way, I also learn a lot of new things from more experienced roleplayers or from roleplayers that simply have a different style than me. After all, one small tip can go a long way to improve my writing and together with it, the level of the RP itself.
Like ThePsychicBruiser, I also find first-person POV to be very awkward. I only once tried it, but I quickly gave up on it, since it had a too personal feel to it. At the same time, I really enjoy describing given emotions my characters feel at any point of time, believing it gives them more depth than if I only described their actions.
But my biggest pet peeve of all is grammar. No matter what it is I'm reading, a post to a roleplay or a story, I have to have the 'I' capitalized or have punctuation marks where they belong. That's why when writing my own stories or replies, I take great care to grammar.
Of course, along the way, I also learn a lot of new things from more experienced roleplayers or from roleplayers that simply have a different style than me. After all, one small tip can go a long way to improve my writing and together with it, the level of the RP itself.
To better answer the initial question of why I prefer my style, I suppose it behooves me to attempt to describe what it is.
In objective counting measurements, I tend to write a paragraph or so, a strong handful of sentences each, with weight given to action, speech, and thought depending on the scene at the moment. Much more and it becomes needless fluff, words written just to have them, to fill space, as opposed to truly reacting and building from, and offering something to react to and build from in return. I also write in a more off-the-cuff, stream-of-consciousness style, as opposed to anything more predetermined or scripted. I rarely know what a character is going to do or say before I write it.
Now, more subjectively, I'd say my style lends better to a more organic story, to one that, like real-life or a believably-written novel, has twists and turns along paths that make sense, but within the bounds of characterization. Further, and closer to answering the initial question, I believe that it allows for growth of a character, and story, enough to surprise and intrigue those involved.
Third-person point-of-view is also my preferred one, as, I also agree, I find anything else too intimate and odd. I am not my character, and to use first-person sentence structures, purposefully or otherwise, implies that I am. That is--odd and off-putting, to put it mildly. I like to explore ideas, not use a character as a personal avatar.
I hope I've helped answer the original question, and I further hope it hasn't been too long to make my posting--unwarranted. I thought the topic was a very interesting one, as I share similar views on writing as a concept, so had to offer my own thoughts on the matter.
In objective counting measurements, I tend to write a paragraph or so, a strong handful of sentences each, with weight given to action, speech, and thought depending on the scene at the moment. Much more and it becomes needless fluff, words written just to have them, to fill space, as opposed to truly reacting and building from, and offering something to react to and build from in return. I also write in a more off-the-cuff, stream-of-consciousness style, as opposed to anything more predetermined or scripted. I rarely know what a character is going to do or say before I write it.
Now, more subjectively, I'd say my style lends better to a more organic story, to one that, like real-life or a believably-written novel, has twists and turns along paths that make sense, but within the bounds of characterization. Further, and closer to answering the initial question, I believe that it allows for growth of a character, and story, enough to surprise and intrigue those involved.
Third-person point-of-view is also my preferred one, as, I also agree, I find anything else too intimate and odd. I am not my character, and to use first-person sentence structures, purposefully or otherwise, implies that I am. That is--odd and off-putting, to put it mildly. I like to explore ideas, not use a character as a personal avatar.
I hope I've helped answer the original question, and I further hope it hasn't been too long to make my posting--unwarranted. I thought the topic was a very interesting one, as I share similar views on writing as a concept, so had to offer my own thoughts on the matter.
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