Requesting Tips For Forum RP

[Sethore]

Heya guys, I just wanted to ask if you could give a few tips, tricks or other ways to improve and extend a forum post.

And i also wanted to know if you post character insight / thoughts (and alike)

e.g. Jimmy lost all thought for a moment as the snot cover face touch his body

Or. Bob rubbed the side of her neck <I wonder if she likes this?>

I'm still learning and any help is appreciated

[RarityDash]

There isn't one set way to do thing when RPing. For the most part it's a personal preference thing. Personally, for thoughts I think the former reads much cleaner though. Setting thoughts as an aside has always just seemed awkward to me.

As for tips to extend a post, I think the important thing is to not do it needlessly. A post really should be no longer than it needs to be. Fluffing a post with extraneous detail does not make it better, and often is how purple prose is born.

What you should be focusing on is making sure that the post is complete.You want to do as much as you can with your character as you can at the time. You also want to provide lots of perspective and insight into your character and how they think. Relate things that are happening to them to things that are important to them. You will not make a character interesting just by listing their actions without adding perspective. It's as important to keep fleshing your characters out and building them up as it is to respond to what your RP partner says and does.

There aren't really tricks to it exactly, mostly it's just being smart with your writing. Of course, there are other things to keep in mind. Always be sure you're respectful of your RP partners. Leave everything in how their characters respond for them to decide and focus only on things from your perspective. Don't overdo it though and try and make your character the star and the focal point of every thread though. RP is a collaborative process, no one should ideally be any more important than anyone else in deciding how the story flows.

[DerpRavener]

For the most part, I just agree with what Rarity said.

The one thing I want to add is that I like to add 'hooks' to posts wherever is reasonable, that is things made to be reacted to. So I'll try to end posts with my character asking a question (either to a specific character or as an open question), stating a noteworthy opinion or taking some action that invites other characters to react to it, or the like. It isn't necessary for every post, and it's generally better not to force it, but I think it's a good thing to keep in mind to keep RPs moving.