Teynara Jeralyr
Resident Sig Lord
So, I posted a little of this in a Faction thread over at OS, and some people there suggested that I post it here, so I thought I'd expand a little upon a few things, so there's a nice clear guide available for those that want it.
Now, most of you that have RPed with me know that I'm a sucker for detail. As far as I'm concerned, the role of a good narrative is to immerse your reader as much as possible into the writing: they should feel part of the story, and be able to empathise with and understand your characters - what they think, how they feel, and know as much about the background as possible. That can be a lot of writing, and sometimes it's a lot of work. I also can't argue when some people say it's an unnecessary level of detail, but better that than the absence of any!
Writing is a unique artform, because it gives us the ability to express more things in a way that enables the reader to come with us: a TV show might provoke an emotion, may give you an idea of what's going on around and about your protagonists and antagonists, but you don't often get inside their head, and you have to try and 'read' their thoughts and feelings purely off their actions and facial expressions. I always remember being taken aback when I read Frank Herbert's Dune, because he very cleverly incorporated the thoughts of the characters into the writing, so you saw the dialogue between them and yet also understood that what they were saying was only one layer on the cake. It's a formula I've seen used time and again, and I think it's one of the great subtleties of good writing.
Anyway, let's move onto those tips:
What should I write about?
It's a little formulaic, but I've always had a particular writing style, following along a basic criteria for what goes into every post. I'm not saying you need to write pages and pages: if you want to be concise, 2-3 paragraphs will do, but that's all a matter of style and preference, so I leave that to you. When you're writing, I'd suggest taking the following into consideration:
Characters thoughts - there's never a situation where your character thinks nothing, because there's never a situation when a person doesn't. They might be reflecting on their insecurities, being suspicious of what someone else says or does, remembering teachings from their wise Master, or something along those lines: every situation will provoke some sort of thought, and articulating that will help your readers understand the character better - both in terms of their motives, why they do as they do, and what brought them to that.
For example: consider yourself in a combat situation, facing off against an opponent. You may not know them, have no idea what they're capable of or even why they want to fight you. These are all things you can express as thoughts, but then also consider why you are fighting them. What outcome does your character want? How do they perceive their opponent? That alone can provide pages and pages of text, because we're all complicated people and it's rare to face a situation like that without lots of nuance underneath it. This is all stuff you can be writing down!
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Character Emotions - Yes, this is similar to Character Thoughts, but also a little independent of it, because what we feel influences how we think, but doesn't always bleed directly into that: it's very possible to feel something and yet think clearly. Or have your thoughts be at odd with your emotions. Maybe you're panicking, a little scared, but understand that you still need to stand your ground. That's a rational thought contrasting with an emotion. It's not as simple as being happy, or sad (though it can be if you want) - remember that all emotions have reasons. You might be scared because you don't know what's going to happen next, or because you feel inadequate to deal with the situation in front of you.
While we're at it, remember that it's possible to feel lots of different emotions at the same time: in combat, you can feel scared and elated. You can feel suspicious and amused. Arrogant and reflective. And so on - there are lots of different combinations.
Finally, remember that emotions are expressive: yes, they are internal, something personal and often private, but how many happy people do you know that don't smile? How many angry people have you met that won't glare at you? And, if they don't, what's the reasoning behind that? Why the control? Why aren't they expressing themselves. Every emotion has some form of expression, or has a reason why it's not being. You can find something funny but find it an inappropriate moment to laugh, but you could always smile. Showing your emotions in body language is an excellent way of communicating to other writers: it gives them something to write about you.
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Environmental/Sensory Information - Here's where you get to go nuts with your writing. Every minute of every day, we're assailed by a mass of sensory data: information that tells us something about our environment. You all know your five senses: sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing. For the Force Sensitives among us, you know there's also your various Force Senses: life sense, danger sense etc. All these can be articulated to give a more detailed picture about the environment that your character is in and help your reader to understand your character's thoughts and feelings as a consequence of those stimuli.
If I walk down a street and smell something delicious, I'm likely to feel a little hungry, but also approving of the smell, and this will alter my mood and perhaps make me feel like I want to go and get something to eat. That's a sensory-response: I'm acting in response to sensory stimuli. That's a very powerful tool in writing, because many of the things we do are informed by how we feel about them: we might feel elated or energised by good music, made to feel hungry because we see or smell something that looks good. We might be relaxed by the sound of running water, or worried because the lights have gone out and you're stuck in darkness.
So, when you're entering a new situation, tell us about it! Consider some of the following:
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Speech (Directed or Monologue) - Everybody loves a good bit of speech, but that can be delivered far more powerfully if you're articulating more than just the words. Your choice of words is always important, but sometimes you shouldn't choose carefully - if your character is a rash/impulsive one, sometimes it's best to say the first thing that pops into your head.
Now, more important than what you say is how you say it. That might sound difficult to articulate in writing, but it's actually fairly straightforward: are you shouting, whispering, delivering your words forcefully, or slow and punctuated by little pauses, for effect? Different readers will read dialogue in different ways (and I've known plenty who skip the rest and only go straight for the dialogue), so how you choose to frame that speech is important: a statement softly whispered will have a very different impact to a shouted exclamation. Watch your adverbs here, people!
This is where a lot of your body language will be best demonstrated: how does your character look when they're speaking? Are they standing straight and confident, slouching and maybe trying not to be noticed? Are they nervous and fidgety? Are they glaring defiantly at the person they're speaking to? Everything from eye movements to posture can be included here, and the more you write, the more people have to respond to.
By the by, don't overlook the use of the monologue: I usually save mine for internal thoughts, but sometimes it's good to talk to yourself! We all do it in our day-to-day lives, so why won't your characters? Why not mutter an insult under your breath, or wait until another character has walked away before you talk to yourself about how stupid they are, or how you've deceived them, or how what they've just said is making you think or feel? Monologues are incredibly powerful when used for affect: consider writing one!
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Actions - I'll be honest, I've always felt that actions are the very least part of good detail writing, because ultimately, every action we write will require a response, so you very rarely fit in more than a small few into your post. You can't post the whole articulation of a lightsaber duel, because it's not just you writing - you have to give your opponent(s) and allies chance to respond with their own movements.
That noted, actions don't exist all by themselves - they are the consequence of all the other four things we've examined so far. If I punch you in the nose, I have my reasons for doing it, and that's being provoked by different thoughts and feelings. I'll feel the crunch of your nose under my fist, might feel a slight jolt of pain in my hand as it makes contact and meets resistance, and so on. No action is ever independent of thoughts, feelings or sensory data. And everything you do (or that someone else does) will have an impact on all of those levels: someone swearing at you might make you feel bad about yourself, or angry at the other person. Your muscles might tense, your face might feel flushed, your eyes might narrow, jaw clenches. You might think that they're mean, or come up with a few insults to respond with. You might decide you want to do them harm in a more direct manner: never 'just' respond with another action. It's boring.
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Now, I'm going to be honest, I've got a ton more I could write - this is one of those things where you start writing, intending a little brevity, but it provokes a truckload more thoughts that I could articulate. Not gonna do that right now, but I might edit things out later and express a few more things that could be built into that.
Thanks for sticking with me so far, and good luck with the writing
Now, most of you that have RPed with me know that I'm a sucker for detail. As far as I'm concerned, the role of a good narrative is to immerse your reader as much as possible into the writing: they should feel part of the story, and be able to empathise with and understand your characters - what they think, how they feel, and know as much about the background as possible. That can be a lot of writing, and sometimes it's a lot of work. I also can't argue when some people say it's an unnecessary level of detail, but better that than the absence of any!
Writing is a unique artform, because it gives us the ability to express more things in a way that enables the reader to come with us: a TV show might provoke an emotion, may give you an idea of what's going on around and about your protagonists and antagonists, but you don't often get inside their head, and you have to try and 'read' their thoughts and feelings purely off their actions and facial expressions. I always remember being taken aback when I read Frank Herbert's Dune, because he very cleverly incorporated the thoughts of the characters into the writing, so you saw the dialogue between them and yet also understood that what they were saying was only one layer on the cake. It's a formula I've seen used time and again, and I think it's one of the great subtleties of good writing.
Anyway, let's move onto those tips:
What should I write about?
It's a little formulaic, but I've always had a particular writing style, following along a basic criteria for what goes into every post. I'm not saying you need to write pages and pages: if you want to be concise, 2-3 paragraphs will do, but that's all a matter of style and preference, so I leave that to you. When you're writing, I'd suggest taking the following into consideration:
Characters thoughts - there's never a situation where your character thinks nothing, because there's never a situation when a person doesn't. They might be reflecting on their insecurities, being suspicious of what someone else says or does, remembering teachings from their wise Master, or something along those lines: every situation will provoke some sort of thought, and articulating that will help your readers understand the character better - both in terms of their motives, why they do as they do, and what brought them to that.
For example: consider yourself in a combat situation, facing off against an opponent. You may not know them, have no idea what they're capable of or even why they want to fight you. These are all things you can express as thoughts, but then also consider why you are fighting them. What outcome does your character want? How do they perceive their opponent? That alone can provide pages and pages of text, because we're all complicated people and it's rare to face a situation like that without lots of nuance underneath it. This is all stuff you can be writing down!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Character Emotions - Yes, this is similar to Character Thoughts, but also a little independent of it, because what we feel influences how we think, but doesn't always bleed directly into that: it's very possible to feel something and yet think clearly. Or have your thoughts be at odd with your emotions. Maybe you're panicking, a little scared, but understand that you still need to stand your ground. That's a rational thought contrasting with an emotion. It's not as simple as being happy, or sad (though it can be if you want) - remember that all emotions have reasons. You might be scared because you don't know what's going to happen next, or because you feel inadequate to deal with the situation in front of you.
While we're at it, remember that it's possible to feel lots of different emotions at the same time: in combat, you can feel scared and elated. You can feel suspicious and amused. Arrogant and reflective. And so on - there are lots of different combinations.
Finally, remember that emotions are expressive: yes, they are internal, something personal and often private, but how many happy people do you know that don't smile? How many angry people have you met that won't glare at you? And, if they don't, what's the reasoning behind that? Why the control? Why aren't they expressing themselves. Every emotion has some form of expression, or has a reason why it's not being. You can find something funny but find it an inappropriate moment to laugh, but you could always smile. Showing your emotions in body language is an excellent way of communicating to other writers: it gives them something to write about you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Environmental/Sensory Information - Here's where you get to go nuts with your writing. Every minute of every day, we're assailed by a mass of sensory data: information that tells us something about our environment. You all know your five senses: sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing. For the Force Sensitives among us, you know there's also your various Force Senses: life sense, danger sense etc. All these can be articulated to give a more detailed picture about the environment that your character is in and help your reader to understand your character's thoughts and feelings as a consequence of those stimuli.
If I walk down a street and smell something delicious, I'm likely to feel a little hungry, but also approving of the smell, and this will alter my mood and perhaps make me feel like I want to go and get something to eat. That's a sensory-response: I'm acting in response to sensory stimuli. That's a very powerful tool in writing, because many of the things we do are informed by how we feel about them: we might feel elated or energised by good music, made to feel hungry because we see or smell something that looks good. We might be relaxed by the sound of running water, or worried because the lights have gone out and you're stuck in darkness.
So, when you're entering a new situation, tell us about it! Consider some of the following:
- Lighting conditions
- Temperature
- Ambient scents or smells (including your own or that of others)
- How does the air feel? Could be smoky, feel like it has low oxygen content etc
- Gravity: we often RP in space, or on planets with different gravitational conditions
- Colours and brightness
- Textures and touch: how does the ground feel beneath your feet? Rough, smooth, uneven/bumpy? When you touch a control panel, or sit down in a chair, how does that feel?
- Pressure
- Extra-Sensory Perceptions (Force Sense etc)
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Speech (Directed or Monologue) - Everybody loves a good bit of speech, but that can be delivered far more powerfully if you're articulating more than just the words. Your choice of words is always important, but sometimes you shouldn't choose carefully - if your character is a rash/impulsive one, sometimes it's best to say the first thing that pops into your head.
Now, more important than what you say is how you say it. That might sound difficult to articulate in writing, but it's actually fairly straightforward: are you shouting, whispering, delivering your words forcefully, or slow and punctuated by little pauses, for effect? Different readers will read dialogue in different ways (and I've known plenty who skip the rest and only go straight for the dialogue), so how you choose to frame that speech is important: a statement softly whispered will have a very different impact to a shouted exclamation. Watch your adverbs here, people!
This is where a lot of your body language will be best demonstrated: how does your character look when they're speaking? Are they standing straight and confident, slouching and maybe trying not to be noticed? Are they nervous and fidgety? Are they glaring defiantly at the person they're speaking to? Everything from eye movements to posture can be included here, and the more you write, the more people have to respond to.
By the by, don't overlook the use of the monologue: I usually save mine for internal thoughts, but sometimes it's good to talk to yourself! We all do it in our day-to-day lives, so why won't your characters? Why not mutter an insult under your breath, or wait until another character has walked away before you talk to yourself about how stupid they are, or how you've deceived them, or how what they've just said is making you think or feel? Monologues are incredibly powerful when used for affect: consider writing one!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Actions - I'll be honest, I've always felt that actions are the very least part of good detail writing, because ultimately, every action we write will require a response, so you very rarely fit in more than a small few into your post. You can't post the whole articulation of a lightsaber duel, because it's not just you writing - you have to give your opponent(s) and allies chance to respond with their own movements.
That noted, actions don't exist all by themselves - they are the consequence of all the other four things we've examined so far. If I punch you in the nose, I have my reasons for doing it, and that's being provoked by different thoughts and feelings. I'll feel the crunch of your nose under my fist, might feel a slight jolt of pain in my hand as it makes contact and meets resistance, and so on. No action is ever independent of thoughts, feelings or sensory data. And everything you do (or that someone else does) will have an impact on all of those levels: someone swearing at you might make you feel bad about yourself, or angry at the other person. Your muscles might tense, your face might feel flushed, your eyes might narrow, jaw clenches. You might think that they're mean, or come up with a few insults to respond with. You might decide you want to do them harm in a more direct manner: never 'just' respond with another action. It's boring.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, I'm going to be honest, I've got a ton more I could write - this is one of those things where you start writing, intending a little brevity, but it provokes a truckload more thoughts that I could articulate. Not gonna do that right now, but I might edit things out later and express a few more things that could be built into that.
Thanks for sticking with me so far, and good luck with the writing
