Advice/Help How to write longer replies

[Mystic Butterfly]

I'm sick and tired of my partners leaving me because my replies are too short. So I just want to know how to write longer responses in roleplays. Trust me, I have tried on my own, but when I try to write a big long paragraph or even multiple paragraphs, I just end up repeating stuff and writing a bunch of stuff that has nothing to do with the story. Is there anyway I can make longer replies? Any help is appreciated, thanks

 

[The Silent Z]

Getting to know your character beyond its OC sheet can help. I know that's obvious and always done anyway, but some characters connect better then others for people. Usually the hype you have for a character, the easier it flows when writing for them and then you end up writing more then you intended.

Another thing is just simple Inner dialogue, observations of scenery and people, thoughts on them and using expressions and gestures of the hands and body language. Sometimes that can add more then any words they might speak and add to the presence your OC gives off.

Also getting comfortable and set in the story helps. New characters, plots, Rps and etc can be difficult to just jump into, it takes time to get comfortable and really knowing your character in my honest opinion. Just cause you wrote their CS doesn't mean your fully aware of how they'd talk, react and etc to every conversation or scene, simple things even can take time.

Just finding a groove and relaxing should help. I'm sure there are other ways too, but that's what I've experienced in my own struggles past and present and what I've seen in advice sections for others.

Hopefully this helps some ^^"

Side-Note: Details on the scenery and surroundings help with writing longer replies, getting what your describing more accurately and helping you overall. Plus helps others. Just makes it easier when you go to write to be able to picture your surroundings or know it well because of the description and detail provided by you and your partnered writers.

Second edit:
Perhaps also just laying out your experience and goals as a writer may help when searching for your next group or partner in a interest check. Letting them know up fromt the type of Rper you are (Writing wise & Etc) that way you could find that group or person who can be patient and let you develop as a writer without them bailing on you. Because that can just mess with your confidence as a writer and skill as you won't get to improve and have fun like you'd like to do.

 

[Mystic Butterfly]

Getting to know your character beyond its OC sheet can help. I know that's obvious and always done anyway, but some characters connect better then others for people. Usually the hype you have for a character, the easier it flows when writing for them and then you end up writing more then you intended.

Another thing is just simple Inner dialogue, observations of scenery and people, thoughts on them and using expressions and gestures of the hands and body language. Sometimes that can add more then any words they might speak and add to the presence your OC gives off.

Also getting comfortable and set in the story helps. New characters, plots, Rps and etc can be difficult to just jump into, it takes time to get comfortable and really knowing your character in my honest opinion. Just cause you wrote their CS doesn't mean your fully aware of how they'd talk, react and etc to every conversation or scene, simple things even can take time.

Just finding a groove and relaxing should help. I'm sure there are other ways too, but that's what I've experienced in my own struggles past and present and what I've seen in advice sections for others.

Hopefully this helps some ^^"

Side-Note: Details on the scenery and surroundings help with writing longer replies, getting what your describing more accurately and helping you overall. Plus helps others. Just makes it easier when you go to write to be able to picture your surroundings or know it well because of the description and detail provided by you and your partnered writers.

Second edit:
Perhaps also just laying out your experience and goals as a writer may help when searching for your next group or partner in a interest check. Letting them know up fromt the type of Rper you are (Writing wise & Etc) that way you could find that group or person who can be patient and let you develop as a writer without them bailing on you. Because that can just mess with your confidence as a writer and skill as you won't get to improve and have fun like you'd like to do.

That actually makes a lot of sense. Thanks a lot!

 

[The Silent Z]

That actually makes a lot of sense. Thanks a lot!

Your welcome! Glad to be of help ^^

 

[HymnShark]

As Saru said, simply describing surroundings etc brings out the length to your reply, but also describe the small things your character may do. Does they frown, switch weight from side to side a lot, touch their hair, bite their lip etc.

Bring something new to every reply. Bring the plot forward. Write something that your partner's character can reply to. It doesn't need to be simply speaking, it can as well be simple reactions. Is your character scared of high places and they are in a one right now? Tell how your character's hands are shaking and how they are holding the railing like a last lifeline.
Also react to everything other character is doing, which can be reacted to. You can even do it so you copy the text you're replying to, and bold the spots where your character could react to them somehow, even if they are only inner musings.

Just a couple of things to go on. Just remember that it doesn't need to be super long reply, as long as there is something that brings the plot on and that there is something other character can react to.
2 paragraphs that fills out those two things are a lot better than 8 paragraphs of inner banter and telling how beautiful the dawn is. ^^

 

[Jay Wolf]

I'm sick and tired of my partners leaving me because my replies are too short. So I just want to know how to write longer responses in roleplays. Trust me, I have tried on my own, but when I try to write a big long paragraph or even multiple paragraphs, I just end up repeating stuff and writing a bunch of stuff that has nothing to do with the story. Is there anyway I can make longer replies? Any help is appreciated, thanks

As someone who writes a lot, and is (according to teachers) a really good writer, here is my secret to writing more: use a bunch of fancy and descriptive words. Never say "Sally ate an apple" when you can say "Sally munched on the delicious, sweet smelling red apple."

 

[_Exodus_]

Exaggerate the small things

 

[Idea]

Well, @HYMN shark and The Silent Z already pretty much said it all, but I would like to add a few footnotes to it:

1. Write expressively: Don't limit yourself to describing things, but expand your horizon by actually placing yourself as the character and showing how the character lives each moment. Their thoughts, emotions, how each sensation is like to them. Choose vocabulary fititng the character, bring up examples they would, and show emotions with an expressive style of writing. Sometimes metaphors, sometimes repetitions, it relaly pays off to be strongly inside the character's head anc ommunicating that feeling.

2.Find out what your partner wants to read: the clues are usually in the post if your partner is competent, but remember to check and try to figure out what routes would make your partner happier. Your problem seems to be partnrs leaving and sometimes people will make excuses as to why they are going away. Hook them by trying to show them you care about their stakes in the roleplay as well or that you can resonate well with them as a partner.

3. Have purpose: it may seem counter-intitive when you want to xpand your post, but it«s a fundamental aspect of a good writer to not let scenes be just one thing. Your scenes must never be just about what is happening but also what it means in the bigger picture of the narrative. The better you know what direction you want to go to and what each scene means for your characters the more you cna flourish it without breaking the scenes and it usually helps a person be more inspired.

4. Pre-plan: I can't say this enough to people, ad-lib is a terrible way of going about things. You loose cohesion and control of what you can or not write when you restrict yourself to just praying you will get a muse when you have time to write. No, you should make a skeleton of your post, the key points, etc.... This way, even if you don't feel partiuclar inspired you still know what is missing and what you can add instead of freezing or giving somehting half-assed as you try to expand.

5.Know your character inside and out- Preferably write it down too, but it«s important you really know your character is you're to write anythign with detail. After all, your posts are centered on it, and nobody likes a blurred picture. Knowing the character not only helps you hop into their viewpoint better, helping you describe things more in line and giving you a sense of direction, but it also let'«s you see possibilites and branches you would be blinded with if stuck to your point of view.

Well, that ended being bigger than I thought it would. Oh well... I guess that was kind of the point

 

[Eonivar]

From one who has a hard time writing short entries...the above advice is very good.

My advice is to make sure to use all five senses and then associate them with the character and plot. I find it has a tendency to chain together ideas and grow.

For example...It is raining, how does the rain feel? Is the sound of the rain significant? Or the smells, smells are very powerful as smells are often associated with memories and you get to learn cool words like Petrichor. Does looking out into the rain conjure a significant image or theme? Do the character(s) associate anything with the rain? Emotions, plot points, memories, their past? How does the character(s) react when experiencing the rain?

And so on...for me it has a tendency to create more and more description.

 

[eyflfla]

Show, don't tell.

Mary was pissed off at Geoff. She yelled at him "you stupid idiot." and shook her fist.

Mary's face contorted with rage, there was malice in her eyes and hatred in her tone. "You stupid idiot!" She raises her bony fist between them. Unwavering white knuckles stand still as iron, a promise of violence to come.

And I probably could have taken my own advice a little more. *Shrug* just an example.

Also, my advice is not to force it. Don't intentionally include all 5 senses in every post just to pad out your paragraph. I suggest reviewing the 2 or 3 sentences you do write, and embellishing and expanding upon them. Throw in some extra words, some extra meaning, and maybe one sentence will become two. And so on and so forth.

Have your characters speak about surface issues, the matters at hand. Have them think and feel about underlying issues, their conscience, their motives. Noone is as simple as one thought and one action.

 

[Coward]

I don't think you should try to just add more words, but try to add value.

Here's an example:

1. Robert sat at the table. He was playing cards.

2. Robert sat at the hard, polished, mahogany table. He was holding six poker cards patterned with blue stripes, and he was using them to play poker.

3. Robert hunched over the table, mouth hidden behind one hand. The other nervously ruffled his cards, like that would help.

All 3 do the same job, telling you that Robert is sitting at the table playing cards.

1. is quick and sweet. Sometimes you only need this much, and more would be meaningless.
2. is longer, but there's not much added value. You used a lot of words to talk about a table and some stripes.
3. Tells you about Robert. You now know that Robert is sitting at the table. You also know that he's losing, that he's nervous, that he's probably not good at poker because he's literally covering his face, that maybe he's already lost a couple of hands and some money.

So 3. is the sort of thing that helps the reader know your character. 3 uses more words than 1, but those words are pulling their weight, unlike in 2.

 

[StoneWolf18]

Just gonna drop this here...

Advice/Help - Stone's Comprehensive "WTF is detail" Guide

 

[Elephantom]

So, you wanna write longer, eh, mate? Longer than your partner, longer than your limousine-riding cousin? You've come to the exact right place, or depending on perception, the exact wrong place. But, nevertheless, I will give you some potentially A-grade info, and probably some insider knowledge too; which may have been glossed over by the people above me. But who cares? I didn't even read them. Ain't got the time, ain't got the patience.

So, y'see, you're only stuck in one paragraph. I know it, you know it, and the ditchers know it. That's why they ditch you. Short words, short sentences, and almost all of it a grotesque, macabre parody of a storyteller's fugue. That short. Probably didn't make any sense, probably won't. You get the gist of it, and nothing else matters. So, Lover, you write one short paragraph always? “Yeah, yeah,” you're probably thinking to yourself. Well, you're absolutely correct too. You tell a lot, you tell like there's an absence of Mondays in this filthy, sweet world. Well, I would there to be, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that you can't show, you can't gloat. Rules is rules.

So, don't go on telling your character did this, or did that. Show it. He's angry? Fuck you. He's frowning, gritting his teeth, curling his fist, or just rigging up the long motherfucker talk? Aces. Avoid adverbs, adjectives, and use more of them sweet verbs. Never be the passive guy. Always be the active one. Action, action, actionity, action.

So, maybe you can't comprehend activity? Well, I can't help you on that, but you could start slow. Tighten it on all your was, were, -ly, had, have, that, and skip all those speech rhetoricz they teach you in 'versity.


The officer smacked his chapped lips. He sat silent, watching, a case of quills and ink kept near his principal hand. He wore a thick beard over his cleft chin, the hair shaved on the sides and kept singularly near his mouth. A fixed sneer glared from his rotund face, with pronounced cheeks and a hooked nose, for which Julius almost mistook him for a pale Cosarian, though his stocky eyebrows betrayed his true race.

Second thing you got going for you is description. As in setting the mood for the story. The excerpt above shows the description for an officer, a person. One thing is, try to show your descriptions. I could say the officer's grumpy and all, but I didn't, and neither are you going to. I simply stated what Julius saw, and what was shown to his beautiful, beautiful eyes.

More descriptive lines, in the shown form.

The grasses swayed.

The walls drooled a thick streak of blood.

The stairs groaned.

As simple as that.

Not saying you gotta do that *all* the time, and it would be weird if you did that, but just try to follow the rule every now and then.


What you gotta do is lay it out plain and straight, pithy as fuck. Though fucking takes a long times, and for the most part, ain't even curt, so take my words with a grain of salt. Fuck purple proze. Porose. Morose prose.

Okay, let's see this thing here.

‘The night he first touched her was the night the raven-haired specter of a girl, her, Riannon, ever saw the masked figure of death looming over her future as a storming cloud might over a peaceful and innocent city. A rake, he was a rake and she could still feel the press of his icy-chilled touch grazing her once nubile young body. With the innocence and mournful grace of a peach nary plucked. He plucked her. Plucked her and plucked her a thousand and twelve times since the night it happened. It was a night like this one and she could feel the reaper’s death melody sung soprano on usurious notes of amber tonality.’

That, sir, is a death sentence for writers. It's melodramatic, over-the-top, absolutely not poetic, and filled with so many rhetorical linguisms that comprehending this is as possible as downing shit. Shiitake. Shititirkrk. Bleeding hells.

Usurious notes of amber tonality? Fuck you.​

 

[KickStab]

just describe a bunch of things happening at the moment. surroundings, feelings, thoughts.

 

[Adonya]

Take a moment, close your eyes, immerse yourself in the character and their point of view.

What do you want see? If it's not been described, and you don't feel comfortable making the call on how to describe something, lead the other writer with your character's looks. As others have mentioned, bring your senses in to the scene then describe it.

If it's been mentioned, REACT. Your partner tends to write about what interests them, and giving them a mirrored response where you acknowledge that bit of info will not only boost your reply bulk but it also makes the other writer feel good. Validated. Noticed.

Respond every now and then in a way that is surprising or not expected. What I mean by this, and it's just a personal thing for me, is that it helps to keep people interested if they don't know where the story will go or how your character will necessarily react. So, in short, don't always go with an action that is to be expected. This lets you dig deeper into your character by creating your own reasoning for why they would react differently. This reason gives you things to write MORE about, you get me?

Feel for your character. That will give you more expressions to see, more body language to describe, nonverbal queues like grunts, angry puffs of air, sighs, etc.

I think a lot of us are harping on the same descriptive chord, and I'm no professional writer myself, but it takes practice and time to learn these things. Perhaps just reading through the posts of others on the forums here would help? I'm a watch and learn kind of person, just a thought.

 

[ChoShadow]

The single best piece of advice I can give about helping you get into the mindset of someone who writes longer by nature instead of by forced choice is this: Ask questions... Lots of questions.

For instance when you put your character into a forest setting, ask questions like the following:

* How old is the forest?
* What's the climate like?
* Given the climate, what's the current weather like?
* Does the light pass through the tree canopy or is it so dense it blocks the sunlight?
* Do the tree branches hang low enough to get in your character's way, or are they all higher up the trunks?
* How dense is the underbrush between the trees?
* What kinds of plans and grasses comprise the underbrush?
* Is there a main path?
* Is there, or are there, animal trail(s)?
* What kinds of animals can your character hear or see?
* Is the local fauna dangerous or are they mostly little critters which won't endanger your character?
* How close or far away from civilization is your character?
* Is your character currently equipped for a short or long trip?
* Are they even equipped to be where they are?
* What is your character's current physical condition?
* If they're physically okay, what's their mental condition?
* If their physical condition is poor (injured or sick) then why are they way out in the forest?
* If the above is true, what's their mental condition?

Questions like these will create a vivid picture of your surroundings, and you can use the answers for these and many more questions to craft your posts. For instance, using the above questions I could craft the following post:

----------------------------------------Sample Post----------------------------------------​

The trees were old and worn down. Their bark greying and chipping away where the animals had brushed against them. Beyond the darkness of the dense canopy a few sparse rays of light penetrated the darkness lighting the forest floor just enough to see where he was going.

Richard Moore coughed as the chilly air of this fall climate cut through his jacket chilling him to his bones. His hands shook inside his gloves despite pressing them firmly in his pockets. This would normally not be a problem if it weren't for the fact that the low hanging tree branches constantly threatened to scratch and whip him in the face as he ducked and crouched past them. His trek forward was made all the more difficult by the thorny bushes and vines covering and growing in and around the tree roots. In order to move safely past he had to get creative about the path he took.

Every so often he spotted an animal trail leading around the more thorny areas, but the problem was some of them either disappeared or didn't lead back to the main road. He had to pick his path carefully. Some of these trails were crafted by the passing of numerous large predators like bears and jaguars, both of which could cause his day to go south in a hurry. Today though he had been lucky that only a few birds and a lone squirrel were all he saw.

His destination, the city of Juthland, home of the Elves, lay approximately 100 miles beyond the edge of this forest. If he stayed on the main path he was approximately one week's trek away which wasn't too bad. He had just enough provisions to make the trip, but he was stretching it thin. He had a fire starter kit, a hunting knife, a pot and water jug to boil water to disinfect it, a sleeping bag and a pillow.

Despite the chill in the air Richard was in good health and good condition. His right knee ached a little from the long journey he was taking, but that was normal given the temperature around him. An old injury from his teenage years was the root cause, and the cold weather the final touch. But aside from this he was doing well. Just a few other scratches from unavoidable thorns here and there.

One more week... Just one more week. If he took care of himself he'd make it to Juthland without an issue to meet an old friend whom he'd longed to see for many years.

"One more week," he mumbled to himself.

Richard trekked on, determined to reach his destination before his provisions ran out or his luck turn south thanks to an unwanted attack by bears.

----------------------------------------End Of Sample Post----------------------------------------​

The list of questions I asked was rudimentary, but as you can see it helped me craft a lengthy yet informative post which established the setting, established a mood and tone, and established Richard as the character I am portraying.

So ask questions. Lots of questions. The more you question yourself before you post, the longer your posts will get.