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DispatchFactbookMiscellaneous

by New grestin. . 369 reads.

New Grestin's Tips on How to write Good


New Grestin: Resident Pretentious Prick and your Guide to the World of Not Writing Garbage RPs

    What exactly is writing?

    No. I don't mean that in, like, a stupid existential way. I mean, what exactly is writing? If you look it up on Google, it'll probably be a kind of nebulous description. What you've probably come here to understand is how to not suck at writing within the context of a roleplay. Now, I know what you're probably thinking.

    "Why is this strange man standing behind me at the computer, telling me my Hetalia-Tank-Girl-Twin-Peaks-Sherlock RP is garbage?"

    Well, friend. That's because I'm probably the devil. Or not. I'm not even sure anymore.

    The point is that, with the tradition of NationStates Summer coming around again, I feel it would behoove me to try and help improve the collective writing quality of the P2TM Roleplaying board. How do I intend to do this? Well, I'm glad you asked, hypothetical person I just made up.

    I'm going to incessantly belittle you and explain in a condescending manner how to improve your writing, with the addition of constant swearing and references you probably won't get.

    Let's begin with lesson one.


1.) For f-ck's sake, EFFORT:
    This is the biggest one that I can't do enough to mash into your presumably thick skull. A story lives and dies on the effort of it's writer, and an RP is little more than a collectively written story. Putting forward a marginal amount of effort, no matter how small, will do wonders for the longevity of your RP. It's not a winning strategy on it's own, but effort should be the gravestone upon which you build your story. Lack of effort is the pervading theme during times like NS Summer, so even just putting a little extra time into your OP can help grab attention.

2.) Lean-Cut Beef:

    This is important, especially for Original Content Stories, but it can also apply to so-called "Franchise RPs". You need to understand that there are very few people that care about the inner-workings of your universe. You need to realize that some things need to be cut to keep the OP lean and to the point. This is not to say that additional information shouldn't be made available, though. You need to give your Players the tools to write within the box you've created, and giving them enough supplemental information to effectively write is important. Think like this: "Is this important to the player, or to me?" If it's ony important to you, then you should probably not include it. If it might be useful to the player, feel free to include it. There is, of course, an easy way around this.

3.) Segregation (Not like that, you twit):

    An easy work-around for the issue of having too much world-building is to simply segregate it from the rest of the RP and make it optional. Simply writing out a dispatch of whatever in-universe shenanigans you want to explain, or talk about, and making it a separate part of the story is an easy way to get around the issue of info overload. As long as you make it readily apparent to the audience that it's not a barrier to entry, you should be fine. In fact, it can be an excellent way to get rid of ideas that wouldn't work in the main RP. Simply sticking them in a dispatch for later can be a great way to keep the idea around without cluttering the OOC with explanation and the IC with exposition dumps.

4.) Presentation, Presentation, Presentation:

    This is something I don't see a lot of people bring up, because they don't think it's important. It is. This ties back into the issue of effort. Sure, you can write up an OP with just text and no formatting and expect the worst dregs of P2TM to show up and RP Slenderman or Tracer, but if you want the attention of actual writers, you need to squeeze a little effort into your OP. Learn some photoshop, learn BBCode so you can format properly. F-cking learn some basic grammar. If English isn't your first language, have someone proofread it how knows it. All it takes is a little elbow-grease and a little thought, and you can basically make any idea work. The fact is that the images in the OP are the first thing a potential player sees, and making sure that those images are reasonably presentable should be your first concern when actually writing.

5.) Co-Operation:

    The importance of a good team can never be overstated for a story, especially an RP. Co-Ops are the most important people you can have around, because having folks that share your vision and can manage a thread while you're away are invaluable. Make sure you keep them on the same page as much as possible, because they're the best way to keep the story steered in the direction you want. It goes without saying, but don't treat them like sh-t. Good Co-Ops are hard to come by these days, and you shouldn't make a habit of burning bridges on a board with as small a player-base as P2TM, at least in comparison to International Incidents or the like.

6.) Planning Ahead:

    Here's a secret fact that you might already be aware of. Most RPs on P2TM are sh-t. You know why? Most have no structure or design whatsoever. Writing requires a skeleton to function, even if the skeleton might be a bit of a clusterf-ck and might get you an C- in anatomy. When you have an idea for an RP, decide how you want the story to start and how you want it to end. The Middle can be more flexible. You need to understand that the players need some kind of goal, however minor it might be. Otherwise, people have to make their own drama, and that gets old fast. Figure out your ending, then your starting point, then you can afford to wing it through the middle. A little structure never killed anyone.

7.) Bringing the Pain:

    Shockingly, to some of those reading that aren't sheltered, people on the internet can be idiots. Sometimes, those idiots end up on P2TM. Those idiots will end up in your RP, inevitably. You need to know when to say no. If they're breaking your rules, and they refuse to improve their posting habits, then you need to put your foot down. A simple "cut that out" will usually suffice. However, expanding that to a ban and potential moderator action should always be on the table if people ignore your requests. Be polite, until that politeness is shat upon. Then you can afford to ban people or potentially get Moderation involved.

8.) The Pacing Problem:

    Here's the thing. You can't force the pace of an RP. Anyone that thinks they can speed things up is delusional. You can keep activity alive on the OOC, but you can't force a good writer into anything other than a conniption fit. If your RP is slower paced, then live with it. If it's fast-paced, then work around it. People will go at the pace they're comfortable with, combined with how often you post. Use this to your advantage to ensure that the story structure is maintained.


1.) Show, Don't Tell:
    A lot of hack literary snobs will just say this without explaining it. Everyone that writes is going to do this by accident at some point, so if you find yourself doing it, don't get strung out. It seems kind of contradictory, but you need to be able to transmit information to the reader without them realizing you're doing it. For example, just saying a character is an alcoholic is fine, but it doesn't have much oomph behind it. Instead of just telling someone what a character's trait is, use their environment and their actions to illustrate it. If they're in alcoholic, like in the previous instance, then have broken beer bottles laying around or the like. Use the environment and your character's actions to more fluidly explain their quirks and eccentricities. Not only does it save time, but it makes for a more engaging experience for the reader.

2.) Balancing Description:

    It's always important to describe the environment. There's no doubt in that. That said, overly describing the environment is one of the most common mistakes you'll run into. You don't need to transmit every single detail of every single nook and cranny of the room. As you write, you'll gain a better feel for what information is needed and what isn't, but until then, ask yourself a question. "Is this important for the reader to know?" If it isn't, then don't include it. If it is, include it. This is a good shorthand rule for understanding what information to exclude and what to include. Try to avoid overly describing a character's clothing too. A short, succinct description will oftentimes get the idea across easily. What's important is that you provide enough detail for the reader to visualize the environment and characters within it.

3.) Knowing what to Cut:

    This is something that every writer will struggle with, and it ties in with the previous point. You can't be too attached to certain things. There are details that you might cherish that the reader does not care about at all. Make your peace with that. You'll feel like you're slicing out part of your soul, but it needs to be done. The leaner you can get the story, the better. If you feel like you absolutely need to include a certain detail, then you can always segregate it into a supplemental dispatch. The fact is that the audience will almost invariably want the most succinct version of the story you can provide, and getting bogged down on the finer details will really hurt the flow of a story.

4.) The Characterization Problem:

    Writing good characters is hard. I'm still not sure if I even write interesting characters myself. It's just not an exact science, but there are certain pitfalls to avoid. The first is that, if you make your character a psychopath or sociopath, you've basically already failed. There needs to be at least a little bit of normal in a character to make them relatable, at least in your protagonist. Secondary characters can be as weird as you want, but the protagonist needs to be as relatable as possible. This means giving them quirks and traits that would be found in a normal person, like a certain fear or something they really enjoy. You want the audience to root for the protagonist, at least in a conventional story, and by making that character seem more real, you help foster that attitude. Give them little moments that establish or nurture their character traits, like finding an old book or fawning over something they love. Draw on people you know; friends, family and the like. Real life is an excellent source to steal characters from. Mainly because you can't copyright that weird guy down the street with the body pillow, or that rude secretary at work. Real life is always an excellent inspiration for characters, is what I'm saying.

5.) The Arc (of the Covenant):

    With a traditional character, you're going to want to give them an arc. For those of you that don't understand the concept, an Arc is the journey a character makes from who they are at the start of the story, to who they are at the end. This might be changing their viewpoint, or changing who they are as a person, but most conventional characters have some kind of arc. This is one of the trickier things to get down, but it's all about that characterization. Give your character a vital, integral flaw. Something they need to get over and beat over the course of the story. Maybe it's a certain viewpoint that needs to be challenged, or maybe it's some past mistake they need to overcome, but it needs to be something. Anything. Challenge the character's viewpoint, and based on what you know about them, let the reaction be natural. Never shoehorn in an arc if you can avoid it. It needs to be baked into the character from the start. The Arc is the butter that goes into your Character Cake. Without it, it's kind of a crappy cake.

6.) Jumpscares:

    Shocking the audience is a tried and true tradition of the literary art. Anyone that's familiar with Game of Thrones knows exactly where I'm going with this. You need to break your audience's expectations in order to keep things interesting. Never give them the full advantage, because that eliminates all tension. Not everyone can die in a story, but try and make it seem like they can. Kill off secondary characters, kill off main characters. Anything to keep the audience on edge and keep them there. Know what your audience is expecting within a particular genre or story-type, and use that to mess with that they think is going to happen. It's a simple trick, but screwing with the audience is one of the most satisfying things to pull off in a story. Like many of these tips, you'll gain a greater insight the longer you write, but simply being aware of it puts you one peg among most.

7.) Most of your Work is Crap:

    Yes, I said it. Most of your work will be unusable garbage. This is normal. You'll write a dozen stories or characters you'll never use, and that's just fine. The only way to realize something is a bad idea is to get it out of your head and on to a page. Only then, when you can look at it objectively, will you understand that it's terrible. As with anything you create, throwing out an idea that seems good will feel like a knife in the gut, but it's necessary to really get to the core of what you want to make. Take notes, write down lines you want to use, get your ideas out of your head and on to the page. Then, you can sort them and get rid of the stinkers. Odds are, there's going to be a lot more crap than diamonds in the mess. That's fine. Most ideas are terrible. Good ideas are hard to come by. It's just a matter of sorting the garbage from the rest.


1.) Know your World:
    Bad Worldbuilding is easy. Good Worldbuilding is hard. The easiest way to achieve good worldbuilding is to look at the real world for inspiration. Look at the modern world and think about the events, characters and stories that went into forging the world as we know it today. From there, apply the same principle to the universe you're creating. What battles were fought? What kinds of strange characters helped to create the world that your characters are going to inhabit? You, personally, need to know all the finer details of how the universe you've crafted functions. The audience doesn't need to know; adding all these details and exrapolating on them creates what I've dubbed "Star Wars Syndrome." I'll go into more detail on that in the next point. The simplest way to get this across is this: If you're writing a story about Napoleon, you want to know the finer details, events and stories that brought him into power. You need to know these things because they help craft better characters that function within the world and it's stories, the audience doesn't because it bogs down the experience. Nobody cares what Napoleon had for breakfast the day before Waterloo, but you should, because then you can better wrap your head around how he acts and thinks as a character.

2.) Star Wars Syndrome:

    If a brief glance at Wookiepedia is any indication, Star Wars has an incredibly deep lore. It's also a lot of useless fluff. An important aspect of Worldbuilding, as stated previously, is knowing what to directly tell the audience and what not to. Star Wars is an excellent example of what not to do. You don't need to explain the inner workings of a blaster rifle or how the force actually works, that's vestigial information that only tangentially affects the story. I can't stress this enough. Know what's important to your story and focus on that, specifically. You can hint at a greater universe beyond the boundaries of your story, but don't let that greater universe and all it's overwhelming lore flood your individual tale.

3.) Every Character, A Story:

    This is something I personally do, and I'd suggest trying it to help create better characters within your world. When you're creating your character, try to create them as though you could write an entire other story around that one character's backstory. Add minor details and references that indicate that there's more to them that entice the reader to want to know more. The key to this, however, is not to actually write the individual story around that character. This goes double if they're just a minor or background character. Writing that individual story ruins the mystery around who that character is and how they came to be. This ties into the idea that "Less is more." The more hints you give to a characters backstory, the more interested the audience can become. The key is, as I've said before, not to turn those hints into outright explanations.

New grestin

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