Chit-Chat: General Roleplay Discussion Thread "the RPD" (archived)

[Nagi]

to be honest, i find the white line after every line of dialogue to be extremely irksome, haha. it breaks the cohesion of the dialogue for me. of course white lines are necessary to separate paragraphs and avoid walls of text, but after every line in a single dialogue i find it really annoying. ( ´ ▽ ` )ゞ also because the RP post ends up becoming more white than actual text, and make it seem like there is very little 'body text' to a post, if that makes sense.
i didn't realise this was actually the regular way of writing in RPs however, so i apologize if anyone found my posts so far annoying to read. still... i'm not about to change it much either ( ´ ▽ ` )ゞ if anything, i might try playing around with the aforementioned indents to signify conversation and make it easier to read, but otherwise, i don't know. sorrynotsorry

 

[moon]

Fair enough then.

As I said, if you all really find my posts that difficult to read I'll make an effort to switch to the method everyone prefers. After all, I like to make my posts enjoyable for others to read if I can. It will take some time to break out of old habits though.

to be honest, i find the white line after every line of dialogue to be extremely irksome, haha. it breaks the cohesion of the dialogue for me. of course white lines are necessary to separate paragraphs and avoid walls of text, but after every line in a single dialogue i find it really annoying. ( ´ ▽ ` )ゞ also because the RP post ends up becoming more white than actual text, and make it seem like there is very little 'body text' to a post, if that makes sense.
i didn't realise this was actually the regular way of writing in RPs however, so i apologize if anyone found my posts so far annoying to read. still... i'm not about to change it much either ( ´ ▽ ` )ゞ if anything, i might try playing around with the aforementioned indents to signify conversation and make it easier to read, but otherwise, i don't know. sorrynotsorry

Oh, no, don't worry! You write in whatever way you are the most comfortable with :) how you write is not as important in this section as what you write, after all. I'm sorry if I sounded like my opinion was an universal truth. Obviously there are people (like Nagi) who prefer denser posts, just like some prefer heavily css'd ic posts and some prefer to sleep naked 8)

Look at all this discussion. We could totally fill an entire forum with in-depth threads on topics like this (and some silly).

 

[Nakuzami]

Fair enough then.

As I said, if you all really find my posts that difficult to read I'll make an effort to switch to the method everyone prefers. After all, I like to make my posts enjoyable for others to read if I can. It will take some time to break out of old habits though.

well you know how I like to yell at you when we JP and you do that, haha

I mean, yeah of course if you're writing a book or something then do the format of

Paragraph end
{indent}new paragraph start​

That's how I do all my writing normally, but because of the way the forum translates it (ESPECIALLY without the option to do a proper indent at the start of a paragraph) I do

Paragraph end

Paragraph start​

it just seems like the natural way to do it here, haha

but that doesn't mean you can't do it other ways obvs
unless you're one of those people who puts dialogue from multiple characters in one paragraph. don't be one of those people.

 

[moon]

unless you're one of those people who puts dialogue from multiple characters in one paragraph. don't be one of those people.

Hahaha biggest pet peeve here! Especially when JPing and someone writes much more densely than I do.

 

[gimmepie]

Oh, no, don't worry! You write in whatever way you are the most comfortable with :) how you write is not as important in this section as what you write, after all. I'm sorry if I sounded like my opinion was an universal truth. Obviously there are people (like Nagi) who prefer denser posts, just like some prefer heavily css'd ic posts and some prefer to sleep naked 8)

Look at all this discussion. We could totally fill an entire forum with in-depth threads on topics like this (and some silly).

That's a really cool idea, perhaps someone should make that happen.

 

[moon]

That's a really cool idea, perhaps someone should make that happen.

I'm not sure the people here could handle such a drastic change. I mean, what if the sections changed names at the same time? No on would find it anymore. The chaos would be greater than on the day of Blarzigord.

 

[gimmepie]

I'm not sure the people here could handle such a drastic change. I mean, what if the sections changed names at the same time? No on would find it anymore. The chaos would be greater than on the day of Blarzigord.

You should pray to our great lord Blarzigord for guidance.

 

[moon]

Blarzigord Corner
- Unholy Halls of Recruitment
- Dark Alien Adventure Land

 

[gimmepie]

Blarzigord Corner
- Unholy Halls of Recruitment
- Dark Alien Adventure Land

Make this happen.
That is all.

 

[Ice1]

to be honest, i find the white line after every line of dialogue to be extremely irksome, haha. it breaks the cohesion of the dialogue for me. of course white lines are necessary to separate paragraphs and avoid walls of text, but after every line in a single dialogue i find it really annoying. ( ´ ▽ ` )ゞ also because the RP post ends up becoming more white than actual text, and make it seem like there is very little 'body text' to a post, if that makes sense.
i didn't realise this was actually the regular way of writing in RPs however, so i apologize if anyone found my posts so far annoying to read. still... i'm not about to change it much either ( ´ ▽ ` )ゞ if anything, i might try playing around with the aforementioned indents to signify conversation and make it easier to read, but otherwise, i don't know. sorrynotsorry

There is a difference in white lines. I personally like it if people use a single enter to differentiate their dialogue from other characters, but if you use a double enter that you would use for a paragraph, it get's to be a bit much. In my version of word, I use shift+enter to shift down a line if I get to a new sentence of dialogue, and use a full enter when I feel like it's time to start a new paragraph.

 

[Nagi]

There is a difference in white lines. I personally like it if people use a single enter to differentiate their dialogue from other characters, but if you use a double enter that you would use for a paragraph, it get's to be a bit much. In my version of word, I use shift+enter to shift down a line if I get to a new sentence of dialogue, and use a full enter when I feel like it's time to start a new paragraph.

this is exactly what i do yes. just one enter/return (so no white line in between) for switching between different characters' lines in a dialogue. so i suppose technically i'm one of 'those people' that puts several characters' dialogue into one 'paragraph'. c: sorry if the whole mention of a 'white line' was confusing, but i thought it'd be the most clear description of what otherwise would be a 'full/double enter', haha.

this is different in JPs though, i agree. i always like to separate the other person's writing from mine by a white line hehe.

 

[moon]

[FONT=Lato
this is different in JPs though, i agree. i always like to separate the other person's writing from mine by a white line hehe.[/FONT]

*cringes*

Haha, I really dislike this personally, as I much prefer a JP to look like a consistently typed thing and not as if it was made by different people. But that might be my writer's brain kicking in. In roleplaying, it's actually pretty neat to be able to see who has written what. I just... Need to try to accept it haha.

 

[Dawn]

Y'know, I've been thinking about a method to better format dialogue heavy posts. For a long time my solution has just been "DON'T WRITE DIALOGUE HEAVY POSTS!", which to be fair has more to do with giving people the chance to interrupt the dialogue and respond to the dialogue. However, sometimes you've just gotta do what you've gotta do y'know? I still haven't figured out a perfect solution to the dilmena.

One linebreak without whitepace looks messy. Two linebreaks with whitespace looks like an inefficient use of space. No linebreaks has a tendency to impact the writing's clarity.You can work around the clarity issue by more closely imitating the way books are written, constantly specifying who is speaking directly, but that's potentially tedious and potentially just as inefficient with space as two linebreaks.

It's such a struggle~

 

[moon]

Here are some fun examples of different styles of writing RP posts, all of which are perfectly legible imo! http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?p=8714599#8714599

Rose Quartz only makes any kind of breaks when she feels that a new paragraph is needed. Any dialogue, regardless of person talking, is simply within the text.

Me and Robin write a lot of dialogue and always make double linebreaks between any new person speaking.

Nagi indents the dialogue, with single linebreaks between dialogue parts but double linebreaks between paragraphs.

gimmepie makes a linebreak whenever there is dialogue, but makes double linebreaks where he feels a new paragraph is needed.


Interesting to analyze, isn't it? 8) None of these examples use colored text though.

 

[gimmepie]

Here are some fun examples of different styles of writing RP posts, all of which are perfectly legible imo! http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?p=8714599#8714599

Rose Quartz only makes any kind of breaks when she feels that a new paragraph is needed. Any dialogue, regardless of person talking, is simply within the text.

Me and Robin write a lot of dialogue and always make double linebreaks between any new person speaking.

Nagi indents the dialogue, with single linebreaks between dialogue parts but double linebreaks between paragraphs.

gimmepie makes a linebreak whenever there is dialogue, but makes double linebreaks where he feels a new paragraph is needed.


Interesting to analyze, isn't it? 8) None of these examples use colored text though.

It actually is extremely interesting xD
Especially because a lot of us find switching to different styles quite hard, I just tried the spaces method in one of my last posts and it was actually surprisingly hard to make myself do.

I wonder what actually influences our preferred methods of writing.

Also, what conventions do you guys use when handling thought? I think most of us use italics, but how do you handle the breaks and things there? I tend to follow a similar approach to external speech.

 

[Ice1]

It actually is extremely interesting xD
Especially because a lot of us find switching to different styles quite hard, I just tried the spaces method in one of my last posts and it was actually surprisingly hard to make myself do.

I wonder what actually influences our preferred methods of writing.

Also, what conventions do you guys use when handling thought? I think most of us use italics, but how do you handle the breaks and things there? I tend to follow a similar approach to external speech.

I think what influences it the most is how much internet writing against conventional writing we've read. I am really new to this, but I have read a lot of Dutch books, so I keep myself to Dutch writing conventions. It's why I need to adjust to the big amount of paragraph enters, and white lines. It's also why in the JP I didn't really want to do a perspective change. I guess I'm mostly afraid of change, haha

When it comes to thinking I use italics, because that's the norm, but I dislike it myself. I usually don't change anything, and just insert he/she thought into the sentence. No special interpunction or font or anything. But the italics make it clear too, and it's not too bad, so I can live with it.

 

[gimmepie]

I think what influences it the most is how much internet writing against conventional writing we've read. I am really new to this, but I have read a lot of Dutch books, so I keep myself to Dutch writing conventions. It's why I need to adjust to the big amount of paragraph enters, and white lines. It's also why in the JP I didn't really want to do a perspective change. I guess I'm mostly afraid of change, haha

When it comes to thinking I use italics, because that's the norm, but I dislike it myself. I usually don't change anything, and just insert he/she thought into the sentence. No special interpunction or font or anything. But the italics make it clear too, and it's not too bad, so I can live with it.

Even in books italics tend to be used though. That's because quotation marks indicate the spoken word. I do think you're right though, the writing conventions we experience and learn probably have a lot to do with how we write in RPs.

 

[Nagi]

*cringes*

Haha, I really dislike this personally, as I much prefer a JP to look like a consistently typed thing and not as if it was made by different people. But that might be my writer's brain kicking in. In roleplaying, it's actually pretty neat to be able to see who has written what. I just... Need to try to accept it haha.

haha! no i actually really agree that it is important for a JP finished product to come out as a coherent story, rather than a jumbled mix of styles. it's just that i'd use a double linebreak (learned a new phrase today) to separate it because i wouldn't want to tick off my co-writers by editing into their text or anything like that. and since usually both write about their own characters only, a double linebreak is warranted anyway because the focus changes to the other character.

it really is interesting to see our different writing styles in the Digimon RP too, which is why i love reading everyone's posts there so much - i feel like i'm learning a lot! and to be honest, i really only implemented the indents into my post today, after the discussion we had about it here, haha. i'd have done it differently, but using an indent automatically creates a double linebreak to whatever you write outside of the indent (｡ ＞艸＜) but i'm also really not a fan of coloured text

as for handling thought - i always try to write as close to the type of writing you'd find in a book, and so i try to never put literal thoughts in italics. rather, i describe how my character feels about something c:

 

[Ice1]

as for handling thought - i always try to write as close to the type of writing you'd find in a book, and so i try to never put literal thoughts in italics. rather, i describe how my character feels about something c:

Books have thinking characters, right? A character could give a mental opinion about something, or think through his actions, it's not just described feeling there.

@GP, I have never read a book with italics used for thought, but there may be some differences in Dutch and English writing conventions. Same thing with the indents thing, I have never seen that.

When it comes to reading JP's, I'd like a paragraph (and preferably a whole post, but that may be too unreasonable) to written from one perspective. I don't like it when you can hear multiple thoughts in the same paragraph, and there is no real perspective you read from. I don't know how reasonable that is to expect from people, though.

 

[Crunch Punch]

What do people feel about writing in 1st perspective? As far as I know nearly everyone here write their posts in 3rd person, but I would love to see a roleplay where everything is done in 1st perspective; that way describing what a person is thinking and any emotions involved can be described in a more natural way.

I don't see it as a permanent thing, as 3rd person is probably better suited for most rps (especially ones which include heavy action), but it would interesting imo.