I already did a board search, and didn't see anything like this here, so here goes nothing. Writing Tips, for when you get stuck on a roleplay reply or maybe just want some pointers for personal writing! This is going to be mostly focused on the forum RPs, because I have the most experience there. Feel free to add your own tricks below, because I certainly don't know everything! Plus, my methods will not work for everyone, so have at it.

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#1: Sentences

#2: Word Choice

#3: Personification Through Text

#4: Worldbuilding

#5: Writer's Block

#6: Writing Media

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I've noticed that a lot of new RPers have some trouble with giving out information on what their characters are doing, what their enviornment looks like, and all the little things that really build up a world. It's also the main reason a lot of people will have short, three-sentance posts, simply because they don't know how to convey the image in their brains. I'll get into writer's block and forcing out longer work later on in this post. Most of what I've noticed in these kinds of posts is sort, simple sentances that get to the point immediately. While that is usually good in casual and most professional settings, if you're looking to eke out another hundred words, you need to do something more. You need to find a balance between too-short and overlong sentances in order to get the most out of what you type. Too short, and there's nothing for others to work with. Too long, and you bore the readers. They'll start to skim, and miss something you've dropped in the middle. Here's some examples of the same sentence, written in each of the three lengths;

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1. His eyes look gold in the light.

2. The eyes that look back are bright, gold-tinged in the sunlight.

3. The man's eyes blaze a fiery, molten yellow under the noon light of the hot sun.

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The first sentence is dull, and kind of boring to read. It doesn't engage the reader, too simplistic to describe anything more complicated than an obvious fact. The second is much better, more descriptive of the character's apperance and a possible hint towards his personality if you prefer to keep it subtle. The third is still alright, but too descriptive. The continuing theme of fire and heat could be a hint towards anything from emotional turmoil (Probably either romantic or some kind of anger/rage) to actual abilities/occurances (Ex: A pyrokinetic, or someone who's watching a bonfire) but it gets bogged down by the overly flowery language.

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However, I will not say that any of the listed sentence structures and lengths are bad or wrong in some way. Depending on the character you want to portray, the length of their observations can be a huge indicator. Short, simple statements show a character who is either simple-minded or in some kind of panic-mode, while overly lengthy pieces show a propensity for prose. For example, a character in the middle of a tense fight with an antagonist should think, observe, and react in short, choppy bursts to really get that feel of adrenaline and tension, while someone describing a royal ball would have to be more long-winded and extravagant.

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1. Out of the dark ally, between the two buildings she was about to pass, some masked man jumps out at Sarah. He's holding a knife. "Gimme yer cash, girle, and I'll let'cha walk!" The man nearly snarls. She's frozen, hand half-way in her purse. "Well?" A streetlight glints off the blade as it cuts the air. Sarah takes a deep, suddering breath, and pulls the pepper spray from her bag.

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The suddenness of an ambush, the mugging in this case, is very easily conveyed in how the sentences never drag on for too many words, and events occur quickly after one another. The lack of solid description of the attacker himself in exchange for a focus on the knife is how a lot of inexperienced people would react to having a weapon waved in their face as a threat. Sarah isn't thinking about who the guy is, or where she is, just that this is happening he's got a knife what do I do. That is, in fact, how I write most of my fight scenes. I will take a VERY simplified string of events and string them together as much as I have too before posting. In this case, Woman walking alone, man jumps out with a knife, Woman uses pepper spray.

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2. Candlelight refracts around the crystal in the chandelier, the softly flickering orange bathing the area in constantly-moving shadows around the massive ballroom. Marble columns rise from the edges of the room, carvings inlaid with gold to show the family's wealth. Tables line the walls, draped in decorative purple velvet and piled high with fresh fruits and cheeses, all imported from far off colonies to be consumed by the attendees this night. Dancers fill the center of the hall, parading around in their tastefully designed and highly fasionable dresses and suits across the smooth granite tiles.

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Over-explaining the exact apperance and effects of the ballroom make it seem large, implies a level of extreme wealth, and conveys the enviornment for further action later down the line. Within such lengthy descriptions, it's quite easy to slip in personal touches on how your character views such an enviornment. Change up some of the words and you're able to show weither your character loves the luxury of it all, if they hate the shallow and gaudy display, or if they're in awe of such a large space.

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Structure is also important! HOW you word your sentence is just as important as how long or detailed it is. Change up the word order, or write your posts in such an order as to prioritize certain information. A good rule of thumb to make sure your sentences aren't too long, read them out loud! If you can say it all in one breath, it's not a run-on. This is, of course, ignoring the commas (,) symbol, which in speaking the text indicates where the reader should take an additional breath.

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Nearly every word in the English language has some kind of conotation despite having similar meanings. 'Huge' and 'gigantic' are practically synonyms for 'very large', but 'gigantic' seems larger to our minds. If you're having trouble saying something, do not be afraid to use some kind of thesaurus. Yes, there is a stigma against using one because oftentimes people will go overboard with it. Try to keep to words you definitely know, from your actual life experiences and not just because you read it once on a trendy website. It will prevent you from falling into the purple prose trap.

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Next is on the topic of repeating words. Try to keep it to a minimum as much as possible. Avoid using the same word more than twice within three sentences if at all possible. Names and 'connecting' words such as 'a', 'the', or 'and' are mostly exceptions, but still try to switch up your language. My personal rule is one 'and' per sentence, two 'the's, and avoiding 'thing(s)' as much as possible outside of dialogue. Vary your sentence beginnings! Don't have more than one in a row start with the same word, no matter what. Not a name, not a place, not a connector. It's a subtle change, but makes all your words blurr together so people loose their place in your post and start to skim. Remember that terms like 'such as' exist!

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Okay, this one is very important. Grammar. Capitalize proper nouns (Names, places, important events, etc) and the letter 'i'. Nobody really thinks about it when you do, but by not having proper capitalization and punctuation, it makes you look less capable, even if you write like Shakespeare. Use periods in your sentences, full quotation marks around spoken dialogue, apostraphes for thoughts. Preferably also italicize thoughts, as it makes those lines stand out more from the rest of the post. Underline words that are supposed to be spoken in another language, be it telepathy or Elvish. Bold or italicize words you want to place emphasis on, but avoid either overusing it or capitalizing the whole word/sentence. IT'S HARD TO TAKE SOMEONE SERIOUSLY WHEN IT LOOKS LIKE THEY LEFT CAPSLOCK ON! And over-formatting makes a mess of your posts. One last part here, I swear. All those fancy punctuation marks? Use them properly and in moderation.

1. Periods (.) at the end of sentences.

2. Commas (,) to indicate addendums. People tend to either over or under comma their work. The comma sign is supposte to break up a sentence, just a little bit, so the reader can take a breath between words. One thing I've noticed is that people tend to leave out commas in a certain method of listing, as portrayed here; red, blue, yellow and green. While that method isn't inherently wrong, the lack of comma between yellow and green gives the impression of combining the two colors. Most professionals would write the same sentence as red, blue, yellow, and green instead, to keep all the subjects separate.

3. Colons (:) don't get used much outside of lists, because they're meant to be used as separators that provide emphasis.

4. Semi-colons (;) are the weird one, either never being touched or placed incorrectly. It's meant to be, as the symbol suggests, used like a combination of a comma and period; It punctuates a new sentences while keeping both parts connected.

5. Ellipses (...) are used to show pauses after words are completed, or to indicate a person trailing off the word. They also show that something within a direct quotation came before or after the statement copied. They're often used incorrectly, or have commas substituted in place of them. An example of a proper and improper use is really the best way to display it: It's really too... expensive... for me is incorrect; The second set is making an entirely new pause between words that should not be intended. The proper form would be It's... really too expensive for me. That structure shows a hesitence on the speaker's part, while the former sounds both more derisive and as if there should be special emphasis on the 'expensive'. If you want to keep the original implications of the first setence, you would write it as It's really too... expensive for me. Oftentimes, people with either use too many ellipses in their writing, or will put commas behind words directly after one. The comma, when used like this, might as well be just another set of ellipses.

6. Hyphens (-) are used to either combine two contextually related words or to show when someone's speech has been cut off. Typically when hyphens are used to combine two or more words, it's supposted to give extra gravitas to the newly combined term. For example, "Her eyes were as bright as a knife" has a slightly different impact than "Her eyes were knife-bright". Both imply that there's something wrong with the character, but the hyphenated version gives the sentence more weight with its unusual notation. If a hyphen is being used to show that a word is being cut off by a sudden event, try to avoid simply slapping it on the end of the word. Half-type the word you want your character stopped at, it will seem much more abrupt. You can also just end at a cut-off if someone else is going to be writing the event, or go on to a new chapter in the event that you're writing a story for that sweet, sweet cliffhanger.

7. Apostrophes (') show up everywhere. But they aren't always used right. The apostraphe is meant to indicate where two words have been combined, usually for shorthand. He is becomes he's, are not becomes aren't. This is a list of common suffixes to add on to the ends of words, for all the non-English speakers who are interested:

1. ___ is: ___'s: When a person or proper noun is taking an action

2. ___ not: ___n't: A negative of action words like is, are, do, and will. Does not apply to direct action terms such as punch, jump, or fly. Because stabn't, while it looks funny, isn't proper English

3. ___ are: ___'re: For when an event or action is occuring nearly immediately or right now

4. ___ will: ___'ll: For when an event or action is going to happen in the future

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Formatting is very important to making sure people can read your post easily, and it can also help make you look like you write a lot more that you actually do. Separate paragraphs, preferably with at least one line between each, and you can emphasize breaks with several of the symbol keys. Within this post, you can see I separated paragraphs within the categories with the tilde '~' key and split up the different sections with a longer line of equal '=' lines. Keep your text either centered or to the left for ease of reading. Sure, nobody types in the right, but that's because it's a pain to read.

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Last part of this category has to be common mix-ups and vocabulary issues I've seen a lot.

1. First is, of course, the ever-hated They're-Their-There. Everyone hates these three homonyms because they all sound the same, two of them are plurals with similar definitions, and the third is totally unrelated. I come to bring you clarity! They're is for group actions; It really just means 'they are'. Their is a possessive plural, to say that something belongs to a group. Note that both They're and Their are also used to refer to non-binary people in place of the typical 'he/she is' and 'his/hers'.

2. Second is Quite and Quiet. Just the swapping of the last two letters changes the definition entirely, I know. English is a mess. Quite has a similar meaning to both 'yes, of course' and 'very much so'. Quiet is just for portarying a low level of noise made or present in an area.

3. This is one of my personal pet peeves, Breath and Breathe. Because these two are pretty much just different tenses for the same action, I will give an example. A character takes a deep Breath before they jump into a pool. A character has to Breathe in order to calm down from a panic attack. Hopefully that helps!

4. Next, Then and Than. Then indicates an event or action proceeding another, for example; this, then that. Than is usually for comparisons and contradictions, such as I'd rather jump off a cliff than go cave diving.

5. Its and It's is one I've always had trouble with. Its is for indicating possession of either an object or quality in relation to something/someone who's pronoun would be 'it', such as its food or its edge. Imagine its is just another version of his, hers, and theirs, but for non-sapient beings and objects. It's is the simplification of 'it is', like it's a known fact.

There are many more, and I will add them here as I think of them.

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It is incredibly important to be able to show your character's personality in how they act. This is especially necessary in stories, as there isn't a nice and handy character sheet readers can read to get an impression of the characters. Besides, the most important thing to know about any character you end up making; They will evolve. As you write more and more with them, as event occur to and around them, you will stop having the nice and neat hero/villain you started with. Maybe you'll be hit with sudden inspiration, or something big ends up happening. Every character you make, every good character, is going to experience change as they are portrayed.

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Here are just a few examples of how more common archetypes would be personified. For a more bestial character, you might want to cut out words with more than a certain number of syllables, or make them speak of people in the third person. A more cunning, sly character might speak quite a lot without actually saying much, filling their sentences with flattery, insults, or plain old nattering rather than information. If you want someone to seem smart, don't just say 'oh, she's smart'. Show us! Have them solve a complicated puzzle, make them speak in large words or complicated phrases! Do not, under ANY circumstance, just Google 'smart quotes' and throw them up as dialogue. Maybe have your 'genius' character be incredibly observant, or have them make reasonably-gained-but-accurate predictions. Don't just say your character is the smartest of bois, prove it.

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Creating characters. Oh boy, this is something that I think a lot of people would like guidance on. I certainly did when I first started RPing! So, here are my personal tips for character creation and imagining.

1. Know the World: You want your character to be a part of the world they inhabit, someone that would feel natural in such an enviornment. In the case of roleplays, all you need to do is read all the posts! Well, you don't need to read everything, but the first page should have all the necessary information. The plot synopsis, basic background, possibly the location, and the creator's character(s). If you know how the original poster made their character, you'll know how they'd prefer others to be made. And the rules! READ THOSE! A lot of the time, there will be a kind of code word hidden in the list that you need to include somewhere in your post (Usually the bottom) that proves that you read all the rules instead of just skimming. But some people want to write their own stories, or create their own RPs. In that case, I find it easier to create the basics of the world first, before making characters in inhabit that world. Where your characters live is going to affect pretty much everything about them (Unless they're in some kind of isekai/time travel story) from their attitude to their apperance. A Caucasian isn't going to have just been born naturally in a world with an enviornment more akin to Africa unless there's magical fuckery. And if you need magic to make your character fit, there's something wrong! So give yourself the bare-bones basics of your character's universe. See #4: Worldbuilding for more information.

2. Character Information: As soon as you feel you've got enough knowledge of a place for your characters, you need the most basic information of those characters. I recommend you create the personality first above all else, and do the rest of the information afterwards. It's much easier to create a past for a personality, rather than a personality from a past. When it comes to writing up a personality, make it loose. There needs to be room for the character to 'spread out' naturally as you write. If you make their initial personality to restrictive, the character ends up stagnant and dull. Here's the list I tend to use for creating my own characters. Basically just fill out the information and add categories as you need them.

Name

Age

Gender

Sexuality

Relationships (Family, friends, enemies, etc)

Personality

Apperance

Strength/Speed/Agility (Scale of 0-10; 0 means a complete inability, 5 is average, and 10 is the maximum limit reacable by any character)

Skills

History

3. Character Evolution: Most interesting characters grew in some way over time. Usually their personalities somehow improved, or they acknowledged & overcame flaws. The easiest example would be Artemis Fowl, from Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl book series. He started off a criminal seeking only personal gain, but ended the story as, while still a criminal, more of a Robin Hood-meets-Batman kind of character. Positive growth that made the character into a better, more likeable person by the end of the series. Sometimes, your characters 'devolve' as it were; Becoming worse as the story goes on. The best example I can think of is Wildbow's Worm, where a girl who wants to be a superhero goes undercover as a villain in order to bring other criminals down, but she ends up progressively escalating until the world is so terrified of her that it's pretty much become a meme in the fandom. A classic tale of good intentions gone bad, and just as entertaining. Let your characters change with what happens around them. A greedy thief might catch sight of a poor beggar and, in a moment of internal guilt, drop a portion of their recent haul into their alms bowl. A close family member or friend might end up murdered, so the hero declares bloody vengence upon the murderer that might end up consuming them. Go with the flow of events! Plan out the major story beats, but allow inspiration and other people to give you ideas on how to fill the time between major events. You'll end up with a more fluid and natural story this way.

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I am not an expert on this, but I will try my best to share what I know. The basics, at the very least, I think I have down pretty well.

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Creating your own universe isn't going to happen quickly, and making it more than just a place for events to happen in is very difficult. Beyond all else, start small. Don't make up an entire culture for seven different nations, build a single town/city. How big is it, in both population and size? What time period is the town in? What's the architecture like? Are they rich, poor, or somewhere in-between? What is the town known for, if anything? How is the town split up? Are there social classes? If so, what are these classes based on? Is there a central religion? Is it important to the story you want to tell? Ask yourself questions like this, focusing on one relatively small section before slowly branching out as you go. DO NOT exposit the worldbuilding, unless you absolutely must in order to help readers understand something. Make it as natural as possible. For example, if your town is based around industrial work, describe the sky being choked with smog, or soot covering the buildings and people. Imply, try not to state. That's just 'pretentious' for show don't tell. Like with character development, allow the world to also change as the story progresses. Some will just be subtle, background changes that don't really affect much, just flesh out the universe a bit more, while others might result from the actions of characters in the world. A protagonist burning a dock down to stop a slaver ship from leaving port might result in higher prices in that city/town as imports become harder to come by. An antagonist successfully infiltrating a political organization might lead to new laws being passed.

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It's always hard to delete something you've worked on for a while, but sometimes you have to in order to better fit the story together. Revisions and drafts are a thing, much like beta readers. Get some help if you're stuck! Just ask someone, most people would be totally fine acting as a sounding board for ideas, or spellchecking your writing. That's all I have for right now, but I'll probably come back and add more as I think of things, as well as consolidating anything others want put up. Thanks for reading, and I really hope it all helps someone!

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We've all been there. Someone's just posted on the forums and you need to make a new RP post, or a new paragraph in your book just isn't flowing right. Maybe you just have a paper due in two days but don't have more than half a page down. It's okay, y'all. Because I am here to teach you how to bloat your posts, but in a good way.

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All of you forum RPers reading this know exactly what I'm talking about. Everyone's waiting on your next post so the plot can move forwards. But you just can't think of enough details to meet the required length, or you can barely put down three sentences. I have got you covered, my friends. First and foremost, what needs to be written before all else, is a response to the previous post(s). Who said what, how did the characters around yours act? Put down how your character(s) respond to questions asked, or statements given. Have them ask questions of their own, mention how they say those sentences. After you've got the speaking down, move on to what you want your people to do. Describe how they shifted their stance to properly react to a threat, if they move their hands while they talk, who or what they're looking at. Make observations about the other characters and enviornments, put down what yours are thinking in response to certain actions. If all else fails and you've got nothing to work with, start up an inner monologue about the whole conversation and your character's understanding of it. Try to avoid copy-pasting what the other posters have already said. You can repeat things, oh yeah, but don't just use the same phrases they did. That should get you more than enough for a good post.

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So you've got this awesome plot, set in a wonderful world filled with all sorts of interesting characters. The only problem is, you have no idea how to go on from the last sentence. Maybe it was a cliffhanger, or the middle of a fight scene. Whatever it is, you don't know how to move on from it. My personal recommendation, if you ever find yourself stuck in one character's story, switch to a different perspective. Finish off the last full thought you had for them and jump to someone else. This won't always work, however, such as in the case of a story which follows a tightly-knit group that doesn't have any party members outside of the same area and can't show hte antagonist's side of the events because that would ruin a later plot point. If that happens, there are two main options beyond forcing yourself to write more. The one I prefer is to simply take a break. Eat a sandwich, play a video game, watch paint dry. Whatever it is, just stop writing. Come back in two or so hours and try again. Get a little farther, rinse and repeat until you either finish the chapter/scene or absolutely can not continue writing. Let your muse rest and recuperate, you'll figure something out eventually. The second option I like to call the 'Suddenly, pineapples!' route. Where you throw in a sudden event to break up the previous scene. It can be an ambush, a storm, or even something as big as the sudden injury/death of an important character! However, you're going to want to keep this method as a kind of last-resort. If every other chapter has a sudden, inexplicably random event to break your writer's block, it's going to come out looking like a barely-put-together mess of plot holes and confusion. Spontaneous events certainly add spice to your writing, but pour in too many and nobody wants to touch it.

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Because I certainly would have liked something like this in highschool! There's a paper due, five pages on the current political state of Arealplace, and you only have three and a half done. You can't just up the text size and double-space it because the teacher told you "Times New Roman font, size 11 or 12, single spaced," like the monster they secretly are. You've found all the information you could, but dragging it out for five pages is just too great a task. This has certainly happened to me, many times before. I've always been the kind of person who'd rather write five sentences of the most important information and then be done with it. Sadly, that is not how most places want you to write. Be it professional or educational, somebody's going to want you to give them fifteen to twenty pages of reports someday. So, it's time to pad. Go over everything you've got written down, and expand it ALL. Turn comparative 'like' and similar terms into 'such as' or 'compared to'. Pull out your thesaurus to find yourself some nice, long synonyms. Throw in popular buzzwords wherever possible like 'inclusion', 'diversity', that kind of language. Avoid starting sentences with 'the' unless you absolutely have to. Never write in the first person unless specifically told to. 'I' takes up much less space than 'some people'. Separate your paragraphs as much as you can. As soon as you finish on a topic or example, just tap that enter key. If you can get away with it, keep a line between every paragraph. Type out the words for numbers, no matter the size, but any number with more than one digit should also have the number placed in parenthesis next to it. For example, five doesn't need it, but four-hundred-eighty-one-point-seven (481.7) does. Write out your units! Don't settle for m/h, go for miles per hour. Hopefully I've helped somebody with this.

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Here's a list of resources I've compiled that have to do with writing. Right now, it's pretty much all YouTubers because that's the easiest and usually quickest to watch, but if anyone posts recommendations, I'll add them here!

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YouTube:

-Overly Sarcastic Productions: They've got a good series called 'Trope Talk' that explains a lot about common writing cliches, how they work, and how they tend to be used. Their series on mythology is also pretty amusing.

-Terrible Writing Advice: Basically, he makes parody videos filled with, as the name suggests, terrible writing advice. They're short videos, usually 5-15 minutes, and give great examples of what NOT to do.

-KrimsonRouge: His videos are more on the longer side, where he reviews books and some movies. They're on the longer side, ranging from an hour to two in length, but go into great detail about the books/movies he's reviewing.

-Amanda the Jedi: She's not specifically a book channel, but she has quite a few videos reviewing movies, which can have some good information on writing stories.

-Kappa Kaiju: Similar to KrimsonRouge, except with shorter videos and a larger focus on comedy.

-TheDomReviews: This guy reviews both books and movies, usually classics and kids books from what I've seen so far.

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Extra Space!

Hello! I've created an RP alliance and was going to make this exact guide, but since you already have it I was wondering if I could link it in my alliance so people could check it out.

Sure, man, go ahead! Glad it's being put to use!