Important Please Mind your Application Lengths

[Skye]

Hi!

This is Skye, your friendly neighborhood Peryton! I've got something I would really like to ask all of you to help me out on, it'd make things a lot faster and easier for everyone on staff.

Please don't write huuuuuuuuge long fics for your applications! Please! You have no idea how much reading that makes all of us have to do! We don't need to know a complete back history of every character you've ever thought of in an app. We just want to know about -this- character. Please keep your applications short to one or two moderate length paragraphs. Just the basics need to be covered, what it's like to interact with this pony, any personality quirks they may have, explanations for likes and dislikes, motivations, things like that. Keep them short and sweet. But whatever you write, PLEASE keep it to one or two moderate length paragraphs!

We've been noticing an increasing number of applications that are truly epic in size. Like, seriously, HUGE. I have to read -EVERY- app that goes in for approval, and the more time I have to spend on one, means less time I get to spend on another. This is one of the MAJOR reasons why it takes so long for your applications to be approved!

There's nothing wrong with writing a nice, healthy fic to go with your application. I encourage it, actually! However, just put the short summary in your application. Just the basics. Put the actual -fic- portion of your character in the Writing Discussion section, and you can then link it in later posts for your character if you like. Just make sure you don't put in anything that would require a re-approval, naturally. But any back histories or things that don't have anything to actually do with your character directly doesn't need to be in your app.

Please help us conserve our eyes!

[Angie Cakes]

you have no idea how happy I am to hear this :'D I've been thinking about making a character, but based on the lengths of most of the apps I come across, I was starting to think that anything I would write would be too short. I don't know if I could turn out more than a paragraph or two.

[SunsetSombra]

Believe me, handing over a medium sized solidly written app is a lot better than a dropping a long written novel-quality one onto our laps...it takes less time to read and means less notes and thoughts are required to apply relevent critique, questions and suggestions when assessing - Skye's got it absolutely right here:

Length isn't quite an absolute guarantee of quality, but it does mean more time is required for all involved!

Edited January 15, 2012 by Robikku Pegasus

[Frain Breeze]

I'm happy to hear this as well! I always try to read the apps for characters I'm RPing with, but some of them go on and on and on and on and... you get the idea. Just tell me who the guy is already! XP

That, and it's kind of intimidating to make a new character when it looks like everyone's supposed to write a book. Nice to know I don't need a massive backstory.

[Solitaire]

I'm happy to hear this as well! I always try to read the apps for characters I'm RPing with, but some of them go on and on and on and on and... you get the idea. Just tell me who the guy is already! XP

That, and it's kind of intimidating to make a new character when it looks like everyone's supposed to write a book. Nice to know I don't need a massive backstory.

You said it ^^

It makes me nervous when I'm told to write a long thing for either a character or story, because then I feel I might go out oif my depth and not be good enough to reach standards.

Nice to know that the standards on length aren't quite so hard to achieve

[korok132]

Yeah, my first character, Scoundrel, I wrote kinda a lot for her because I thought that was the standard. I was kinda surprised when Gizmo made it through, with only like three sentences in each paragraph.

[Skye]

We do want a bit of length to also demonstrate ability to roleplay as well (It helps get a feel of it!) but at the same time we don't want things that are TOO lengthy or fanfic in nature. There's been a large number of those recently and it's just too much to read for every application. I don't want to make the summaries a form, because that would take away from the creativity portion of it. But there are some features we'd like people to use as a standard.

For example, please use the code in the application form to start with, so all apps look the same in that regard. Then when putting in your entries, please try to keep them short and to the point. That means we would like to avoid lengthy paragraphs in the motivation section. For example:

Motivation: To be known for her apple pie business in lower Equestria.

Same goes for the summary. Keep things short and to the point as well. Check out our examples!

[lordbrony]

the thing is that you guys want quality over quantity; thats not a problem in itself but some people are gonna get chided for being "brief or incomplete" while those that tried to cover all the bases will be asked to cut stuff out and they will be stuck because everything is important to them

throw in different writing styles and its ugh

Maybe the problem can be solved with a RP app reviewer recruitment drive or something

[Skye]

the thing is that you guys want quality over quantity; thats not a problem in itself but some people are gonna get chided for being "brief or incomplete" while those that tried to cover all the bases will be asked to cut stuff out and they will be stuck because everything is important to them

throw in different writing styles and its ugh

Maybe the problem can be solved with a RP app reviewer recruitment drive or something

Well, it's actually pretty easy to cover all the bases in a creative manner, but without going overboard with details that have nothing to do with the pony itself.

[starswirlthebearded]

This is good news as I'm on the fence on doing rp. Now that I know this I might give it a shot if time permits during classes. I already have a rough idea for a character... I just suck as design... I'll figure something out.

[Guest EoLPinkie]

I wanna rp with Starry

[Dunes]

Ohh my gosh I have been bad about this, my apologies.

I like hammering out a character's past so I have a better understanding, but maybe I could put the "long-honkin' version" of it in a separate reply below the actual app to save folks' eyes in future.

SO SORRY

[Halide]

Oh wait seriously oops. How much of a thing is this when it comes to applying for cast characters?

[Apolline Allura]

I hope three short paragraphs can match said length. I'd hate for my Fluttershy app to go down in flames for that.

[AsthmaticPegasus]

I feel like I was a pretty bad offender when it came to writing long Apps. i'd like to say I'm sorry for taking up your time, and that Any more apps in the future will be shorter! It's just that I like writing a lot of backstory for a character, because it helps solidify how they act in my head, and I liked making my intentions for the character as clear as possible.

[Ashton]

lol, a couple pages... I was working on CHAPTERS for one of my characters before I was stopped.

The sad part is eventually, like in S3+ it will REQUIRE multiple pages for cast apps just to list their various exploits. By the time Dash becomes available again I expect to HAVE to write around 10 pages just to cover everything she's done upto that point...

[MyLittlePonyTales]

Who cares what the character has done? If it doesn't affect their life, why does it matter?

EX: Rainboom VS not being able to get cider. Both of these things are not important!

Guys, overall, it's about quality rather than quantity. If you want to write a super long Application... summarize it, and then put the long version in a spoiler. That way, it's all there so you don't forget, and the staff are spared!

[RarityDash]

Rainboom is not important?

I don't know. No matter how I look at Dash's character the first Sonic Rainboom is a critical point in her life and the development of her character. I mean, it's her cutie mark story after all. I like to think the second Rainboom was pretty important to her character too, for all the attention it got her. It lead to her meeting the Wonderbolts for the first time after all, and the event was even called back to in a later episode.

[MyLittlePonyTales]

Reading that again, I totally worded that wrong.

I meant only ONE of those things was important, not both. That's where the VS came from.

[Skye]

I feel like I was a pretty bad offender when it came to writing long Apps. i'd like to say I'm sorry for taking up your time, and that Any more apps in the future will be shorter! It's just that I like writing a lot of backstory for a character, because it helps solidify how they act in my head, and I liked making my intentions for the character as clear as possible.

There's nothing wrong with writing backstory! Just have it attached in a later post or link to it in your App. Keep the app itself short. Keep in mind that we also will not be assessing the back story as part of the application, so it's considered separate, but if you want to write something that's very cool and just fine! It's just as a matter of trying to keep apps from going on about things that have nothing to do with that pony whatsoever when we're trying to determine whether or not the pony themselves will fit in the RP.

[Frosty]

I guess I kinda went overboard too with my app too, or atleast I think I did. I'll revise it right away if it's too long. Sorry if I went overboard.