Forums » RP Discussion » Bored of my own writing. Pacing issues.

Maybe I just have too many roleplays, but I find I get very tired of my own writing. I feel as if I explain actions all the same way, and it becomes a bit dull for me unless something very interesting is happening plot wise. How do you change it up so your own writing doesn't bore you?


Also, how do you approach explaining scenes and evoking feeling?


Also another huge issue I have is pacing. How can I properly pace my scenes so I am not overloading my partner with information...but I am also properly moving the scene along? I don't ever wish to write out my partners ideas but I can't seem to properly manage my pacing.

I hear you Kotomi! You mention two of the deep questions/feelings that come up for me in my RP journeys. Let me see if I can answer... or at least present my thoughts on them.

Pacing - this is a tricky one, for one doesn’t want to move time and action along too far in a post, yet at the same time have things slow down to a point that there is little to write about. In 1x1 RP, the ‘sweet-spot’ usually has to be found with the writing partners, and not all of them will be the same. Getting familiar with writing partners and what they consider a good pace usually takes care of this issue, and I’ve found that usually a ‘variable pace’ gets put in place. It’s like a TV, movie, or book pace where some scenes are highly descriptive and interactive which leads to a series of somewhat shorter, but quicker posts with the timescale not moving very much. When the scene is played out and the writers are satisfied, a ‘time shift’ occurs where the next post moves time ahead and starts with an in-depth lead-in to the next scene. Usually the second person to post at this point covers any concurrent stuff they want mentioned before moving the scene along. That has been my best RP experiences. Good OOC communication is key in setting the pace of an RP.

Scene Description & Feelings - Being one to pay attention to detail, I like to mention things like attire, the weather, and moon-phase for example is the narration. I don’t get overly detailed with descriptors but do expect it to be noted for continuity in subsequent posts. If I have something pictured in my head I do my best to transcribe that into writing as best I can without getting hung up in the details too much.

Getting Bored - I run into this at times and is one of the many causes of writers block for me. If I think I’m being too repetitive I try and think of different ways to describe the same thing. This sometimes leads me to overthink the whole thing and I get tripped up with wording and and structure and I lose the concentration on the story at hand. What I do to change it up is to try and put myself into the headspace of the character. If things aren’t working out right, I will change characters and maybe try and look at things from an NPC’s POV just to regain scope and direction for my main character.

I hope my keyboard rambling makes some sense.

I really liked the ways you worded everything! I've taken screenshots of everything you said (hopefully you don't mind). Thanks alot for taking the time to share your tips with me. I never thought of trying to describe a scene or picture it from the characters or an NPC's point of view! Thank you so much .

I was wondering a bit about how to discuss pacing out side of character ? Would it be as simple as discussing which scenes we want to explore before hand?

Getting Bored
I completely understand what you mean about getting tired of your own writing. I feel the same a lot of times when I see my posts between different RPs. I feel like I explain things the same way, and even if it's different to a particular RP partner, I myself have seen it countless times since it is my writing. One thing I try to do is read other people's posts in group forums, or read books to see how other people describe and explain things. Then I will attempt to adapt that into my own writing. It doesn't always work, but sometimes I will get enough of a change that I don't feel like I'm being too repetitive in my writing.

Pacing
As Rogue-Scribe mentioned, pacing can be quite tricky. It's hard to find a good balance between a fast and slow pace from scene to scene. However, communication is very important (not just in RP, but all aspects of life). So talk with your RP partner(s) about a particular scene to see how fast or slow you both want things to move, and try to come to a middle ground that you can both agree on. This might start to feel tedious if you're doing it for every scene, but after a while, you will get more comfortable with a particular partner's pacing, as they will with yours. Then things should start to flow more naturally from there.

Describing Scenes & Evoking Feeling
This can also be partner dependant. So as with pacing, it's important to communicate with your writing partner to see what level of detail they are okay with. I've found that most of the time, even if my partner doesn't write as much as I do, they tend to enjoy the extra details I add to my posts. Everyone has a different writing style, so it's all about feeling out your partner's style and trying to find a middle ground with your own so the two can meld seamlessly into a coherent story. This won't happen right away, and can sometimes take quite a while to happen. But when it finally does, it will be worth it!

Hopefully that all made sense, and if you have other questions, don't hesitate to ask.

As a side note, I think your writing is excellent, Kotomi. I always look forward to reading your next post in our RP.

I was really worried about the reptitiveness of asking my partners over and over about pacing but maybe that's exactly what I need to do! I think discussing how fast we want certain scenes to be help ne with the detail. Sometimes I do find myself reading literature in hopes of finding alternative ways of doing that so I'll tey that some more! Thank you so much for your input and your kind words!!

This has really helped me look at things differently.

Don’t mind at all. Feel free to use what I said however you want.

I agree with what Arekkusu says as well. Most of the pacing and writing style interaction grows with familiarity with the writing partner, and it usually becomes easier as things go when writing partners mesh well. When an RP starts to bog down some and posts get shorter and shorter, that is a good time to bring up OOC if a scene needs to move forward in time. I’ve found in my Mod/SoL and Mod Historical RPs that an agreed shift of a few weeks helps regain focus, and the writers posting some concurrent summary of the passed time resets the RP in a ‘new’ light.

One thing to beware of I found is when planning new RPs with new writers, don’t ‘overplay’. I have gotten bored with some RPs just because we spent three pages of back-and-forth OOC PM just trying to get it set up. Then the RP starts, it goes ‘three and out’ (a baseball term I use for those RPs that manage to get a starter and pone post each afterward).

As for using NPCs point-of-view, it’s sort of like looking in a ‘different window’ at the overall scene of a long-running RP. It works for me, and this process was what led to my creation of a character when I found myself using him for a different perspective a lot.

On the opposite end,I have ‘recycled’ scenes and descriptions from dead RPs, tweaked to fit the current RP. Is it laziness on my part? Possibly, it I find it sometimes helps in filling in a crevice when I’m having one of those ‘low-muse’ days when I’m overthinking my response and doubt myself if it is good enough to keep my writing partner interested.