Other Friendly Opinion

[Noble]

Why is it most roleplays have a chunky three-paragraph limit? What are you supposed to do when you're having a continuous and active conversation character to character? A literary example would be something along the lines of:

"Freddy, it doesn't make sense, why would anyone use the dark crystal knowing what it can do to its wielder?" James was perplexed, reading over the tome with a further twisting expression then looking to his friend, scared for what this all means.

With that example of a simple question to another character from a different player that was easily done in a single line, how does one stretch something like this into three whole paragraphs without making it seem like one hundred percent filler writing? Without making it seem exhausted, pretentious, overdone, and over written? I could understand turning this into a single paragraph, yeah, and most things can be stretched further, but we have to understand the limitations necessary for writing that is not only well read, but comfortable to read. The longer your reply is doesn't always make your reply better, in fact, sometimes it just makes it long winded. Let's all lean away from the three-paragraph demands, to avoid awkward writing, my friends.

Of course, with this all said I do understand that back-to-back one-liners are not thrilling either, they don't give enough for the reader, but sometimes three-paragraph replies for something that could have been simpler and easier to read gives to much. It's too easy to borderline god-mod when you're trying to find filler for your paragraphs. Open up the narrative more, let surprises happen, you'll be shocked by the flow of things.

 

[hologram]

Conversation is definitely one of the topics I have the hardest time balancing in my writing. I'm a bit of a long-winded writer myself but when I'm writing conversation I make sure not to have my character say or do too much and leave it off at a point where a reply could naturally slot in.

I've had a lot of partners in the past who will basically carry on a whole monologue in their post, not giving my characters a natural point to respond and throwing the rhythm of the writing off. I feel like I'm forced to respond to every single point in turn. It's especially difficult to deal with when that monologue is interspersed with character actions that do pretty much count as god moding. Like for example, if the post is multiple paragraphs of monologue and the first sentence says something that pisses my character off and the most IC response would be to have them interrupt, yet I can't easily have them interrupt because there's all this other stuff that happens beyond that point.

When there's just too much dialogue for me to respond to it kills my enthusiasm fast because I spend most of my time writing my post wrangling this information and responding in turn to each little bit in an unnatural, stilted way, rather than actually having fun with my writing.

I think there are absolutely contexts where "post monologuing" makes sense and I've dipped into it a little during dramatic scenes where the character is giving a big speech or is revealing something that requires a lot of explanation, but I can't deal well with writers who do it every single post.

 

[Noble]

Conversation is definitely one of the topics I have the hardest time balancing in my writing. I'm a bit of a long-winded writer myself but when I'm writing conversation I make sure not to have my character say or do too much and leave it off at a point where a reply could naturally slot in.

I've had a lot of partners in the past who will basically carry on a whole monologue in their post, not giving my characters a natural point to respond and throwing the rhythm of the writing off. I feel like I'm forced to respond to every single point in turn. It's especially difficult to deal with when that monologue is interspersed with character actions that do pretty much count as god moding. Like for example, if the post is multiple paragraphs of monologue and the first sentence says something that pisses my character off and the most IC response would be to have them interrupt, yet I can't easily have them interrupt because there's all this other stuff that happens beyond that point.

When there's just too much dialogue for me to respond to it kills my enthusiasm fast because I spend most of my time writing my post wrangling this information and responding in turn to each little bit in an unnatural, stilted way, rather than actually having fun with my writing.

I think there are absolutely contexts where "post monologuing" makes sense and I've dipped into it a little during dramatic scenes where the character is giving a big speech or is revealing something that requires a lot of explanation, but I can't deal well with writers who do it every single post.

That's a perfect example of what I struggle with too. These strange monologues choke the narrative and discombobulate any replies thereafter, it makes it hard for other players to get their characters to do any actions or say anything relevant because these monologues usually move at a pace where you really can't do anything anyway because now you're on a whole new subject altogether.