Experiences "I always match my partner"

[Millfall]

But do you really? Or are you just saying that because you heard it many times and that's your definition of a "safe" response?

Just asked someone how much they usually like to write per post, and they told me something like that.
So I asked them next:

"So If I write 1000 words, you will respond with 1000 words?"

Shut them up nicely. I think this single question is a good way to insta tell if someone is bullshiting you or not.

 

[Syntra]

No, I don't. I write as much as any given scene needs. Granted, it's actually easy for me to write 1000 words and I often do so, but I am not going to do it just because my partner did it first. I do usually write a similar amount as my partner as I react to everything they described + move the plot along as well, but I don't really care about word counts.

 

[Millfall]

No, I don't. I write as much as any given scene needs. Granted, it's actually easy for me to write 1000 words and I often do so, but I am not going to do it just because my partner did it first. I do usually write a similar amount as my partner as I react to everything they described + move the plot along as well, but I don't really care about word counts.

That's a healthy attitude. Saying you write as much as needed is a much better response, though perhaps a bit vague.

 

[nerdy tangents]

So I think this might be down to different perspectives. When I first started roleplaying it was considered polite and expected that you matched your partners length. Especially in groups everyone was expected to write the same length posts.

This was not presented in an antagonistic manner nor was it presented as “more writing is better quality”.

It was just presented as “your partner / the other players put the time and effort to make a post with five paragraphs. You respect that time and effort by writing out five paragraphs in return.”

Now the thing that made this work is that there was not one post length for every roleplay. You had quick one liner roleplays where each post was maybe a sentence or two long. You had slower roleplays where each post was five chunky paragraphs or more.

So if someone tells me they match the post length of their partner Im totally fine with that. I usually send them a previous roleplay sample so they see how I respond on average in a roleplay. If they want to match that length per post that’s fine, if they don’t it’s also fine.

 

[Jewel]

I always match my partner’s response, word for word. It gets a little tedious copying down everything they’ve written and sending it back to them, especially if they’ve written more than ~5 sentences, but I haven’t been able to figure out how to copy/paste on my Elonex Websurfer. But I always match my partner’s replies, verbatim. It’s what they deserve!

 

[Idea]

I have a bit of what I guess at this point you could call a pet theory, that people's writing style, specifically as it pertains to detail (and by consequence, length) is tied to their approach to writing, their mindset when it comes to writing. People who put more of a stock on ambience, worldbuilding, and other details that aren't necessarily tied to the plot or characters, who value a "how and why" approach tend to write with more detail and more length. By contrast people who focus on things that are specifically relevant for plot and characters and thus consider things detached from those to be superfluous, people who focus more on the "what", thus write with relatively less detail and less length (note in the original posting for this I considered three major categories, but naturally it's all a sliding scale).

As such when someone tells me "they'll match my writing style" what's between the lines is "I'll write in a way I'm not necessarily comfortable with". That's not what I want in a partner. For one thing, such a thing means you are forcing yourself to write for a length that doesn't suit your mindset. That is exactly how you get people who think that random repetition of things and stuffing your post with cacophonic action are a good approach to writing long posts. People who are taking the approach of a style where action and dialogue reign supreme, into the constraints of a style where descriptiveness and contemplation are far more relevant than in that prior style.

More importantly, however, I'm looking for the best partners I can get since I am past the point in my life where I can take just about anyone, and your best partner is never someone who is unhappy with your roleplay. Post lengths are not an end in of themselves, they are meant to filter for similar writing styles and preferences in regards to them. I want partners who like writing long posts, and do so consistently.

In groups there's another issue with the approach as well, which is the natural tendency for the matchers to sink into lower and lower lengths. Let's take a simple example and say two people match lengths, A and B. Now, in life things sometimes happen, or maybe just because of a lack of a suitable scene, and someone has to make a shorter post, let's say A did. Now B makes a shorter post as well. Then A again matching B continues the trend, until something else happens that disrupts one of them, and they have to make a shorter post, which reduces the length again and so on until a critical minimum where they would both feel their posts would basically be empty if they lowered it any further. There are counter-balancing forces to this, like other players, but generally this checks out with trends I've observed in RPs that didn't attract more detailed players who consistently make longer posts from the start.

 

[Millfall]

In groups there's another issue with the approach as well, which is the natural tendency for the matchers to sink into lower and lower lengths. Let's take a simple example and say two people match lengths, A and B. Now, in life things sometimes happen, or maybe just because of a lack of a suitable scene, and someone has to make a shorter post, let's say A did. Now B makes a shorter post as well. Then A again matching B continues the trend, until something else happens that disrupts one of them, and they have to make a shorter post, which reduces the length again and so on until a critical minimum where they would both feel their posts would basically be empty if they lowered it any further. There are counter-balancing forces to this, like other players, but generally this checks out with trends I've observed in RPs that didn't attract more detailed players who consistently make longer posts from the start.

This is also because people don't understand that "minimal post length" doesn't mean "average post length".

In other words, it's supposed to be the lowest low you sink to. When do people sink to their lowest?

During rapid-fire action scenes, sex scenes, and dialog scenes, where there is nothing to do but to respond to what the other player said or did. They are often done when both players are online, and respond one after another without delay.

So if someone wrote 10 paragraphs for opening scene, when they were just introducing their character without any such restraints, it's natural to think they will only write 2 paragraphs for rapid sequence.

But if someone writes 2 paragraphs when nothing restrains their creativity, their length will degrade to 2 lines during quick time event.

I have a bit of what I guess at this point you could call a pet theory, that people's writing style, specifically as it pertains to detail (and by consequence, length) is tied to their approach to writing, their mindset when it comes to writing. People who put more of a stock on ambience, worldbuilding, and other details that aren't necessarily tied to the plot or characters, who value a "how and why" approach tend to write with more detail and more length. By contrast people who focus on things that are specifically relevant for plot and characters and thus consider things detached from those to be superfluous, people who focus more on the "what", thus write with relatively less detail and less length (note in the original posting for this I considered three major categories, but naturally it's all a sliding scale).

I'd say the real division is between....

The roleplayers, who self-insert into their character and treat roleplay as literally what it name implies.

...and....

The creative writers, who see themselves as authors of collaborative fiction.

Can't marry the two.

 

[Idea]

I'd say the real division is between....

The roleplayers, who self-insert into their character and treat roleplay as literally what it name implies.

...and....

The creative writers, who see themselves as authors of collaborative fiction.

Can't marry the two

I don't think that distinction really plays into this. I've seen plenty of great roleplayers here who actively choose to make shorter posts for example, as they believe in a general "less is more" approach where part of good writing is in saying what you want to say in a more concise manner. There's also those who values the writing feeling more organic, as often the nature of roleplay forces more detailed things to become more artificial than organic because you don't have the continuous control of a scene as you would in a book.

Don't get me wrong there is a correlation with certain levels of length and caring about some aspects of a story. People who just wanna play self-inserts and the like also tend to care less about plot or development, and certainly tend to disregard worldbuilding or atmosphere and such elements. If someone is happy just playing the character they will tend to write the least amount of length, it's where you actually tend to find one-liners. On the contrary, people who care most for detail also tend to care more for things like story structure.

However, I would definitely say using those motivations you mentioned as the cause is both putting the cart before the horse in the cases where it even applies, and also taking a correlation for a causation.

 

[Onmyoji]

For me it means that "If you write 1000 words I won't write 10 in return". I can write 801 or 1242 but generally, the length would be comparable, if not exactly the same.
I never count words and write as much as I feel is needed to write to express what I want to say. And posts can go from let's say 300 words to 1800 in the same roleplay, depending on situation.
Just that if a partner is comfortable with, for example, 2 paragraph responses, I won't write 50 paragraphs every time unless I need it for something (like a starter or major scene setting). I'll keep responses around 1-3 paragraphs on average as well.
If my partner writes 10 paragraphs every time, I also write longer posts, which still doesn't mean they'll always be 10 paragraphs as well. They can be 6 or 8 or 15, but you get the idea. They'll be longer than 1, unless the situation calls for it for whatever reason.

It's not really about words, more about "substance" and "amount of action/information" in every post.

 

[Buttercup.]

My usual comfort area is 200-1000 words and where in that area my posts end up mostly depends on the partner. A lengthy post with actual stuff happening naturally warrants more.

What's been bamboozling me more is just how many different things people can mean by buzzwords such as "literate". Recently I saw an interest check where the person said they write "literate multi-para" and clarified that they'll always write at least one complete sentance (sic). On the other hand you have self-indulgent purple prose connoisseurs. The word just doesn't mean ANYTHING, does it?

 

[nerdy tangents]

My usual comfort area is 200-1000 words and where in that area my posts end up mostly depends on the partner. A lengthy post with actual stuff happening naturally warrants more.

What's been bamboozling me more is just how many different things people can mean by buzzwords such as "literate". Recently I saw an interest check where the person said they write "literate multi-para" and clarified that they'll always write at least one complete sentance (sic). On the other hand you have self-indulgent purple prose connoisseurs. The word just doesn't mean ANYTHING, does it?

that person has realized you say literate to get partners but hasn’t realized it is an indicator of post length.

 

[Buttercup.]

that person has realized you say literate to get partners but hasn’t realized it is an indicator of post length.

They also clearly didn't stop to think for one second about "multi-para".
What does "multi" mean? What could "para" be an abbreviation for?

 

[ThePrinceoffire]

I always worry about quantity and that is a mistake since then I just word vomit to make posts longer sometimes and partners can tell if you half ass it.

 

[smolfluffball]

I've NEVER tried to match my partners response at all. The most I'll do is make a post shorter if they give me something shorter but tbh I feel bad if people think they have to match me?? Like no you don't have to, just write what your comfortable writing!! I sometimes worry I write too much and my stuff is just meh or I'm recycling stuff that already happened but that's possibly just anxiety talking haha.

I get where people come from when they want to match length, but if you take time to write a response then I'll never care about how long or short it is! RPing is supposed to be fun and stressing about word count or matching someone seems like...the exact opposite of that. If it's something people like to do then I'll never bash it but I just won't ever try to because it's not how I RP.

Also what Buttercup. said made me laugh aogjosk. Maybe para could be short for paralegal??? And multi is short for multiplication, obviously!! So multiplication paralegal.... Yep, makes a lot of sense to me!

 

[Wandering Fae]

I think 1000 words is very easy to match personally, but I'll be straight up I don't like rambling and feeling like I'm talking about nothing just to fill in space. The amount I write typically depends on two things. How much I'm given to work with and how inspired I am. We all have off days when we just can't think of that much to write but I've never dropped below a paragraph. Typically it's more.

 

[kibou]

I'm not gonna lie, if I said I generally match length and someone said "So If I write 1000 words, you will respond with 1000 words?" I'd probably feel like it was a little aggressive and came out of nowhere even if 1k is easy. I usually give what's needed and actively do not match length if it would be ridiculous to do so- scenes where two people are talking, staying in the same place are going to be pretty short after the initial two posts and are probably better suited to collabs. I honestly don't like the trend of reacting to things that have already happened in first half the last persons post, you end up almost constantly playing catch up and slightly redacting and changing what happened when it's really not necessary, even going back to things multiple posts ago. If it's important, I'll write how they respond of course, but if you're throwing like 10 lines of dialogue at me, my character is going to focus on the most important and last bits because that's how conversations naturally flow irl. If my character is moving, going somewhere new, focusing on stuff other than a conversation then of course longer posts are going to be called for, with descriptions of what they're doing and the new environments + their thoughts. Honestly, I feel like in a medium like roleplaying, sometimes super long posts are just not well suited to the whole collaboration aspect and don't allow people/their characters to react to the scenes and moments they otherwise would've if the post moves on to a new scene by the time it ends.