arietti
the sentient Ry Bread, at your service!
When writing roleplays, to some of us, the story comes naturally. To others, we may have to write drafts or outlines before we can come up with a final product. No matter what method you decide to do though, you will end up producing a written roleplay. But what makes this roleplay “good,” and how do you go about producing a roleplay post that is considered quality?
There are so many possible answers and opinions to these intriguing questions. To see what our own region thought about them, I went and surveyed many active roleplayers and people throughout the region. Many answers were given along with many explanations for their reasons behind their decisions, but the top three most popular answers for what makes a roleplay quality are as follows:
Now how do we apply these to roleplay?
First, let’s talk about plot. Plot is the sequence of events that make up the story line of your roleplay. Plot is powerful, and can make or break your audience’s interest in your roleplay. A great way to keep your audience interested in what you’ve written is to write a plot that makes them want to keep reading in order to find out what happens next. One example of a way to make the plot interesting is through the use of plot twists. A plot twist is an unexpected event or turn of events in a story that shocks the reader or changes the way they think about a character or scene. By including a plot twist, you inspire a feeling of shock or surprise in a reader, which will prompt them to want to know more about this new development in the story, which will lead them to keep reading so that they can find or discover more about the new turn of events. When writing a plot that includes twists, however, it is important to make sure there are not too many included in the plot. This can make the story line confusing and hard for readers to understand because of how much things continuously change.
An example (SPOILER WARNING) of a popular plot twist is in M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense, where towards the end of the movie it is revealed that Dr. Malcolm Crowe has been a ghost the whole time, while he has been under the assumption that he survived the gun wound inflicted on him at the beginning of the film. Including this twist in the story keeps readers interested in the plot by giving them a new event to think and learn about, going on the same journey of confusion and discovery started by the twist that the character is now going on, which also helps in drawing the audience into the story even more. Nonetheless, in order to have a plot in motion, you of course will need characters.
Complex characters help improve your roleplay post quality by adding a sense of relatability to the characters in the story you’re writing about, making the story more immersive. Creating characters with a good balance of positive and negative qualities can also help make the characters more likeable. A positive quality can be defined as a character or personality trait that improves how others view the person possessing those traits, and negative qualities are those that help present the person in a bad or possibly dislikeable light. Giving characters both positive and negative qualities make them more entertaining to read about, and continue to increase the immersion level of the story. It's important to make sure characters are not cliche, however. This includes overused personalities or ones lacking originality. It also means avoiding making them Mary Sues, characters that contain little to no flaws.
On the other hand, this does not mean you should outright avoid writing any characters similar to or containing cliches; it’s all about how you write the characters. One way you can take cliches and turn them into interesting characters is by changing one or two details about a usual cliche, like switching the gender of your character to the one opposite of the gender usually seen containing the cliche traits. Another example of how you can put a spin on cliches and make them more unique is by changing the character’s social standing in the story. For example, take the typical shy nerd character and make her friendly and outgoing instead of an extrovert. Or, take the grumpy elderly man with a heart of gold and make him just plan old mean and grumpy all around instead of just having it as a persona.
By putting your own spin on common character cliches, you add a sense of uniqueness to your characters and ultimately make them your own. This leads them to be characters people will be interested in reading and learning about, as they are unique enough that they won’t be viewed as boring and unoriginal. It is not about whether or not your characters contain cliches, but how you ultimately write them, that will determine whether or not they’re interesting to read about. Originality, relatability, and the balance of strengths and weaknesses are key in creating characters your audience will grow to be interested in and enjoy reading about.
However, what about the bases? The things that makes up your characters, plot, and the story itself: the vocabulary and written words? Yes! That! You story’s narrative can also help decide whether a roleplay post is quality, or not so great. The wording you use when telling your story can help add imagery, meaning, and power to your story. They can also help make the story easier to visualize, which continues to assist in drawing in your readers and keeping them interested in the story because of the way it feels like they are seeing the events in front of them with their own eyes. One example of how to use vocabulary choice and the way you write your narrative to your advantage is through the use of the technique “Show Don’t Tell”. Show, Don’t Tell is when an author shows a specific topic or emotion in a written text through the use of character and scene description rather than outright stating it.
For instance, let’s talk emotions. If an author was trying to tell a character’s emotions, they would simply say “She was sad.” However, if they were to use Show Don’t Tell, they would use detail to show she was sad. It might look something like this: “Her brows dipped into a frown as her lips began to pucker. A soft whimper escaped her shuddering lips, and tears began to form in her eyes.” In this version of the scene, details are used to describe what emotion the character is portraying through the description of their actions and features related to the emotion. Instead of stating that the character was said, the emotion was described and portrayed through actions to make it sound more relatable and easier to visualize. By using Show Don’t Tell, you as the author allow the audience more insight into the world of the story and characters around them by making it easier to visualize and drawing the readers in more through the use of description and relatability.
In the end though, a roleplay is a roleplay no matter what the quality. It is still your own work, and it already earns some good points if you put effort and hard work into it. Including these aspects helps increase the quality of the roleplay, but at the end of the day what truly makes it special is the work and heart you put into it. So keep working, believe in yourself, and I wish you luck in the next post you create!
There are so many possible answers and opinions to these intriguing questions. To see what our own region thought about them, I went and surveyed many active roleplayers and people throughout the region. Many answers were given along with many explanations for their reasons behind their decisions, but the top three most popular answers for what makes a roleplay quality are as follows:
- An entertaining plot
- Complex characters
- A hooking narrative
Now how do we apply these to roleplay?
First, let’s talk about plot. Plot is the sequence of events that make up the story line of your roleplay. Plot is powerful, and can make or break your audience’s interest in your roleplay. A great way to keep your audience interested in what you’ve written is to write a plot that makes them want to keep reading in order to find out what happens next. One example of a way to make the plot interesting is through the use of plot twists. A plot twist is an unexpected event or turn of events in a story that shocks the reader or changes the way they think about a character or scene. By including a plot twist, you inspire a feeling of shock or surprise in a reader, which will prompt them to want to know more about this new development in the story, which will lead them to keep reading so that they can find or discover more about the new turn of events. When writing a plot that includes twists, however, it is important to make sure there are not too many included in the plot. This can make the story line confusing and hard for readers to understand because of how much things continuously change.
An example (SPOILER WARNING) of a popular plot twist is in M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense, where towards the end of the movie it is revealed that Dr. Malcolm Crowe has been a ghost the whole time, while he has been under the assumption that he survived the gun wound inflicted on him at the beginning of the film. Including this twist in the story keeps readers interested in the plot by giving them a new event to think and learn about, going on the same journey of confusion and discovery started by the twist that the character is now going on, which also helps in drawing the audience into the story even more. Nonetheless, in order to have a plot in motion, you of course will need characters.
Complex characters help improve your roleplay post quality by adding a sense of relatability to the characters in the story you’re writing about, making the story more immersive. Creating characters with a good balance of positive and negative qualities can also help make the characters more likeable. A positive quality can be defined as a character or personality trait that improves how others view the person possessing those traits, and negative qualities are those that help present the person in a bad or possibly dislikeable light. Giving characters both positive and negative qualities make them more entertaining to read about, and continue to increase the immersion level of the story. It's important to make sure characters are not cliche, however. This includes overused personalities or ones lacking originality. It also means avoiding making them Mary Sues, characters that contain little to no flaws.
On the other hand, this does not mean you should outright avoid writing any characters similar to or containing cliches; it’s all about how you write the characters. One way you can take cliches and turn them into interesting characters is by changing one or two details about a usual cliche, like switching the gender of your character to the one opposite of the gender usually seen containing the cliche traits. Another example of how you can put a spin on cliches and make them more unique is by changing the character’s social standing in the story. For example, take the typical shy nerd character and make her friendly and outgoing instead of an extrovert. Or, take the grumpy elderly man with a heart of gold and make him just plan old mean and grumpy all around instead of just having it as a persona.
By putting your own spin on common character cliches, you add a sense of uniqueness to your characters and ultimately make them your own. This leads them to be characters people will be interested in reading and learning about, as they are unique enough that they won’t be viewed as boring and unoriginal. It is not about whether or not your characters contain cliches, but how you ultimately write them, that will determine whether or not they’re interesting to read about. Originality, relatability, and the balance of strengths and weaknesses are key in creating characters your audience will grow to be interested in and enjoy reading about.
However, what about the bases? The things that makes up your characters, plot, and the story itself: the vocabulary and written words? Yes! That! You story’s narrative can also help decide whether a roleplay post is quality, or not so great. The wording you use when telling your story can help add imagery, meaning, and power to your story. They can also help make the story easier to visualize, which continues to assist in drawing in your readers and keeping them interested in the story because of the way it feels like they are seeing the events in front of them with their own eyes. One example of how to use vocabulary choice and the way you write your narrative to your advantage is through the use of the technique “Show Don’t Tell”. Show, Don’t Tell is when an author shows a specific topic or emotion in a written text through the use of character and scene description rather than outright stating it.
For instance, let’s talk emotions. If an author was trying to tell a character’s emotions, they would simply say “She was sad.” However, if they were to use Show Don’t Tell, they would use detail to show she was sad. It might look something like this: “Her brows dipped into a frown as her lips began to pucker. A soft whimper escaped her shuddering lips, and tears began to form in her eyes.” In this version of the scene, details are used to describe what emotion the character is portraying through the description of their actions and features related to the emotion. Instead of stating that the character was said, the emotion was described and portrayed through actions to make it sound more relatable and easier to visualize. By using Show Don’t Tell, you as the author allow the audience more insight into the world of the story and characters around them by making it easier to visualize and drawing the readers in more through the use of description and relatability.
In the end though, a roleplay is a roleplay no matter what the quality. It is still your own work, and it already earns some good points if you put effort and hard work into it. Including these aspects helps increase the quality of the roleplay, but at the end of the day what truly makes it special is the work and heart you put into it. So keep working, believe in yourself, and I wish you luck in the next post you create!
Last edited by a moderator: