Help
- Locked due to inactivity on Apr 11, '17 3:54am
Thread Topic: Help
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Yo.
So, I'm helping a friend Roleplay. They are fairly good with grammar and punctuation. However, they have a few problems with making long replies. Can someone experienced (Experienced to me is someone that has been Roleplaying for 1 year or more) please answer the questions below? I'm good at teaching. However, I would like a wide range of different answers from different people. Since, every brain works different.
Questions ~
1. How do you make long replies? Do you brainstorm or have a certain way?
2. What are proper motives for being an antagonist? (Mental disorders are not proper motives. They are only factors.)
3. What's a good way to grow character development from beginning to end?
4. How do you explain the setting in a reply decently?
5. Do you have any good writing tips? -
1A. First, think of what you want to character to do. Example: Open a locker. Then, you expand on that. What is the character thinking as he opens the locker? What does he feel like? Maybe he's hungry and he's opening the locker because the smell of his sandwich that he has packed in his lunchbox is driving him crazy. Basically, just add on details that fit the character and the environment around them.
2A. Antagonists are tricky. Many 'antagonists' don't have a motive and just want to take over the world. Maybe they're seeking revenge for someone who was wrongly accused by a court for doing something they didn't do. Maybe they have a superiority complex and thing all other life forms are inferior, thus they want to kill them all. That is also known as the god complex.
3A. Slide in exposition casually. It's tricky to weave in character backstory casually. It's just something you have to learn by relying on your social skills. No one says "I was born in a broken home with a cannibalistic mother and deadbeat dad" right after walking out of a movie theater. The correct way to do that would be as so:
"Hey, you seemed offended when I made a joke about cannibalism. What's wrong?"
"It's just... Well, when I was a kid, my mom was a cannibal. She would always bring home arms and hearts from the bodies she was supposed to bury after funerals. It was... Scarring, to said the least. And it doesn't help that my only dad was a deadbeat piece of trash. I lived in a broken home, to say the least."
4. I'm not sure what you're asking.
5A. Try to create unique characters. I cannot tell you how many times i've seen a typical 'crazy insane unstable' character and roll my eyes. Be unique but reasonable. Stay away from cliches or, if the character is supposed to be cliche, give them some sort of twist to stand out. For example: John was a murderer that found enjoyment in the taste of human blood. he got a buzz from it and the sight of the red essence made him feel alive. But alas, none of his victims ever suspect a thing due his deceiving personality. On the outside he's loving, caring, and treasures the one he loves above all else. It's a shame they don't see past his lies before it's too late.
Other than that, have a broad vocabulary. Try replacing 'he hit his toe on the door' with 'he stubbed his big toe on the hinge of the door'. A larger vocabulary makes repeating sentences less boring and dull.
Hope this helps. -
I'm not an experienced role-player, but I can point out the fourth question. If what you meant by setting is the situation, condition, place, time and how do they look like in a particular time, then proceed below.
To be honest, it's hard for me to describe a setting in a story while not breaking the flow as it progresses through. Therefore, I brainstormed for some time to find some resolutions, and what I found is to visualise yourself as one of the character (especially main character) in that situation. From now on think what would your character see in this place, then after compiling some ideas, write them down. Try to put the description in separate sentences or paragraphs and not confuse them with dialogues, for they'd make your story unclear.
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