Advice/Help What's your writing process?

[Seahomie]

Greetings RpN! As I began to craft my response to a PM I have waiting for me, I was curious to know how others begin to write the replies. I tend to jot down general ideas into an on-going notepad before I construct the full reply, but there are obviously more ways of doing it that may be more convenient.

So, I ask you: What is your process for constructing a decent and solid response to a roleplay? Are you the type to get an idea then create the scenes surrounding that one idea? Do you write linearly where you start from point A to point Z or do you jump around from different scenes?

How do you personally keep thoughts and ideas organized?

-A

 

[Idea]

Coincidentally I thought about this very topic this morning. Let's see...

Well, I divide my writing process into eight steps: Planning, Response, refreshing, Idea, schematic, development, connection, writing (I'm calling them that now but I just made those names up as I went here)

Planning- As far as I have found so far, this is something pretty unique to my writing process here on RPN. I begin readying my responses before they ever have to come as I am a big advocate of planning things. I usually have character arcs and subplots built in-character and trace particular potential routes for what may come next. If I have a partner I cna cooperate with well enough, I may find myself planning the scene out with them, using our posts to simply flesh out that ready skeleton.

Response-This doesn't work for the first post of course, but it's the part where I read what came before, usually the latest posts interacting with mine and my own last post, and figure out the character's immediate reaction to it.

Refreshing- I then go back and re-read the character's sheet and any other information I think may be important to keep in mind for that post. This sometimes is the area that takes me the longest, as it tends to be the one in which I do my research.

Idea- This part is usually the second longest, and it's coming up with what I can do to push the action foward. This has to be something outside of reacting to my partner, but still connected to the other parts and not usually moving so much that we would get of the scene or conversation. Proper planning helps speed this part a lot, but unfortunately with the general preference for ad-libing people have, I end up having to just hope for inspiration on this area as well.

Schematic- Once I have my ideas, I jolt them down ina small piece of paper. It's easier to use paper than a machine, as I can stuff into the scheme as I see fit, with arrows and stuff. I write down all the eky events my post has to go through, and in which sequence and small notes of random ideas I had along the way.

Connection- This is the part that takes the longest, for two reasons. One, it usually takes place while I am writing, and that is really hard to push because I tend to get nervous and freeze while I write because of how long it takes. It's also the most boring part, since it's just me connecting all the events I had in my schematic in a consistent manner. I usually slip in some characterization or bit of foreshadowing for spice though.
The other thing that makes this phase take so long is that this is the phase where all the technical details come up. By which I don't JUSt mean how to phrase things but also the bulk of my research is usually in this phase, since it often avoids mistakes and helps create connections.

Writing- This is the obvious part. Typing. 'Nough said. Posting. The trouble is only in writing taking effort and sometimes being unsure about the phrasing and the like.

 

[Necessity4Fun]

I am not really a planner, thus my system is more on a whim as I pour myself heart and soul into the task of replying. But, If I were to structure it similarly to Idea, it would probably go something like this:

Direction: If it's not the first post in a scene, I might have a general idea of the direction I want the scene to take, at least for a while. This is useful especially if there's a problem to solve that my character may be able to solve.

Reading: I read the replies as soon as I can and multiple times. The first time is to appreciate the post itself, the writing the comedy, it makes me laugh or feel things. The consequential times I pay more attention to the actions the other characters took and what they mean to the scene as a whole, then, at last, a light goes on inside my mind: "I want to reply like this!", this is what kicks my muse into a drive, the initial inspiration point.

Brainstorming (optional): Sometimes, and I love when that happens, the reply I got takes me by surprise. It puts my character into a position I did not plan for. Then I need to sit down and consider my options. I may also open the character profile at this stage because I need to have full conscious of who my character is and what the reactions could possibly be.
I may take days in this process, so eager to post sometimes that in my every not busy moment (especially bus trips to college/from college) my brain travels back to the scene. Heck, sometimes I fall asleep during classes and my brain cooks up my reply for me, in a dream! That's the level of eagerness I'm at >w<
I determine up to three different paths I could take for my reply and keep them in mind.

Research (optional): Now we get into the actual process of writing, well, not really. I sit down to start it, but there are times I need to call upon knowledge I don't have, in my posts. Being a bit of a perfectionist, I do research. These can go from youtube videos and language dictionaries to articles and detailed videos depending on the matter I'm researching about. I'm capable of spending hours in this, wanting to know as much as I could possibly need, even if I don't ultimately use this information.
I'm fascinated by understanding how things work, so this is in no way boring to me. I've learned so many cool things while roleplaying!! +O+

Writing: Unlike Idea, I don't normally write things down in the paper, that's actually very rare and might happen because I'm bored during college and have multiple threads to reply for in one go. Other than that, everything stays inside my brain until the time I ultimately sit down to write and it's not as continuous as a movement as I would like it to ^^'

Starting is always a bit difficult, I re-read the thread I need to respond to a couple times, maybe one or two pages back to get myself inserted back in the context. I do so until that same light from when I read it the first time come back, telling me ways to start.
These can be starting from reaction (Starts with a narration about how my character reacted to something that happened), starting from a line (Starts with a sentence of speech either from the other character or my own) or starting from a action (literally starting from where I left of), depends on what I want to do... Evoking a line from the previous post sometimes makes for good comedy as you jump right into the reactions next, but it's annoying if you use it too much >w<

Once I'm started I let the drive to write take me whenever it wants to. The vocabulary may end more or less poetic, more or less sophisticated depending on which character I'm writing for and my current mood. I don't think much about anything while I write, just stopping once in a while to look up a word I want to use (English is not my mother tongue) or a different way to say something (because I don't like being repetitive). Each new action I take a little pause to go back and read it. Or they were meant to be little pauses, but I may lose my motivation completely and struggle to get back, which I hate when it happens because sometimes I can't find it again for a few hours, best case >~<
I need the breaks so that I don't begin to hate what I'm writing, because if that happens and I get depressed about it I won't come back to it any soon ^^'

Yeah, it's not a very good work ethic, but I can't write if I'm not feeling it, it's not how I do things.

Revision: Finally finished and feeling proud of what I wrote, I read the whole thing in one go a few times just to make sure everything is okay. This is where I start re-writing phrases better, changing vocabulary, fixing all the typos I manage to see and at last, assigning the speech colors and filling the side box (when it exists) with any needed information. I also like to use bold and or italics to emphasize tones here and there, like sarcasm and such.

Do that and yay! You're done! >w<
Of course, some characters and threads are easier to write for than others, so sometimes I do it quickly in two hours, when other times I spend the afternoon on it or in the worst case scenario fall into a deep depression and can't work at all for a couple days... It's really really fickle ^^'
I do my best not to make people wait for too long tho, or at least let them know I'm not feeling okay.

 

[Seahomie]

Thank you for responding to my thread both of you! It's interesting to see the different ideas and ways that people tend to be organized in order to create a decent reply. I do have specific questions for the each of you if you don't mind answering them!

Idea-
From what it sounds like, you start thinking about your next move even before your partner replies back to you. You then mold your idea around whatever is said by your partner, but there's obviously quite a bit that you tend to go through before the "writing stage."
How long does this entire process take for you on average? Necessity4fun mentioned that it could take up to a couple hours to a couple days for her process to finish out its entirety, does yours take longer or shorter do you suspect?
When you say you get ideas, what would you say the ratio between initial plans you may have, and the ones you actually use are? Sometimes when I write, I believe I may have good ideas but when it comes to incorporating them into my responses, I may not use them.
I also don't see a revising stage anywhere in your listed steps, which is astounding! Do you do this along the way, or do you feel as though your ideas flow well enough that you don't really need to edit anything since you've completed quite a bit of prep work beforehand?
Do you sit down and write everything out all at once or do you write scenes one at a time?
Also, as a side note, I really enjoy the fact that you use paper and do agree that it tends to be easier to organize whims when you don't have to constantly number events in chronological order, or copy the ideas and paste them in different positions. If that makes any sense.
And thank you again for taking the time out to respond, I enjoyed reading it!


Necessity4Fun
--
As it turns out, our organization strategies are very similar, but yours are definitely more thought out. The whole re-read the responses multiple is something I tend to do too, among other key points you've made such as going back to a scene when my IRL life goes through its daily dull points. Your thought process behind your starting points actually is advice I think I'm going to use from this moment forward since the process I use currently may be outdated. It's "what can I say in the first sentence that really grabs my reader's attention that I can then explain throughout the course of my reply?" Though it may be interesting, sometimes that results in my points becoming sporadic, so I love this three-branched alternative you have!
If you keep everything in your mind, does it become difficult to try and remember key points? I used to do that as well, but I would become frustrated when I couldn't remember what I wanted to incorporate.
I also really like your idea of breaks in between each "scene" but are these breaks to try and organize where to go next // what idea you want to enact next? And from what I can tell, you write in chunks instead of pushing out everything you have all in one setting, correct? Is that a method you enjoy doing, or is it based on your motivation levels at the time?
Also, thank you for taking the time to write all of that out and I will be taking some of your "advice" because I really do believe that this will come in handy. Both of you guys have excellent ways of doing things and there's no doubt that your parnter's recieve amazing works after it's all said and done!

 

[Idea]

From what it sounds like, you start thinking about your next move even before your partner replies back to you. You then mold your idea around whatever is said by your partner, but there's obviously quite a bit that you tend to go through before the "writing stage."

This partially accurate. The things I plan before my partner even replied don't necessarily make it into my posts. The important part about them, is that those plans exist. This way even if on a particular day I don't have the inspiration I do have these to fall back into. Furthermore, when I do use them, I do indeed "mold" them into the rest of the post, which helps create foreshadowing because you can't foreshadow an event that you yourself have no idea will happen. One of the things I hate the most to read is contrived stuff, and ad-libing tends to produce those contrived overly-convenient results. I don't wanna produce something I can't be proud of, so I prefer a more structured and planned-out approach.

How long does this entire process take for you on average? Necessity4fun mentioned that it could take up to a couple hours to a couple days for her process to finish out its entirety, does yours take longer or shorter do you suspect?

Depends on what my partner gives me to work with and the type of character I am playing, mostly. My posts take about 40 minutes to a week to make, with most taking some 2-3-4 hours, counting all the phases together. It is important to note, however, that these numbers are in part because I'm an exclusively detailed roleplayer, usually demanding of myself a bare minimum of 15-20 lines on PC per post. So yeah, I take a relatively long time, but this is in the process of searching for quality AND quantity on my post's contents.

When you say you get ideas, what would you say the ratio between initial plans you may have, and the ones you actually use are? Sometimes when I write, I believe I may have good ideas but when it comes to incorporating them into my responses, I may not use them.

Well, the first question about that should be "Is the roleplay still alive?". I make my plans to function in the long-term as well, so they aren't fully fulfilled 99% of the time because virtually every roleplay dies before reaching the longterm.

However, within the short-term part of my long-term plans, that is, the part actually concerning each of my posts, I'd say about 30% of my plans is kept on most posts, as far as the first stage go, between my own terrible memory and partners often reacting in ways I couldn't have predicted. However, every other couple of posts I end up finding one where I can fit like 80% of my plans in, first stage alone, because my partner either planned it out with me or because they weren't "feeling the muse" that day, thus leaving all the work to me.
As a sidenote, if we're counting the planning on the schematics, then 98% of that makes it into the post, with those other 2% being limed out while I connect things or due to matters of phrasing.

I also don't see a revising stage anywhere in your listed steps, which is astounding! Do you do this along the way, or do you feel as though your ideas flow well enough that you don't really need to edit anything since you've completed quite a bit of prep work beforehand?

I guess you could say I do it in the meantime? (thanks for the compliment by the way XD) When I write my posts, I do so from an in-character perspective and often picture the scene in my mind several times. This aids during the connection phase in which I create the pathway of sorts between the various parts of my post. Because I carefully set up everything to flow better than a domino AS I write, I don't feel the need to go back and revise the post (though I do suffer from a few typos because of this). It's a matter of knowing your own strengths and weaknesses. I know I am unable to force myself to revise properly and would end up skipping a lot of things, so I cut that in favor of making a more careful approach whole actually writing. With all the advantages and disadvantages it carries. As a disadvantage, I end up freezing a lot because I'm fretting at how long I take to do each thing or because the phrasing isn't exactly right... but I do have the advantage of being able to plant plenty of neat tricks and details that enchance the overall quality of my writing, such as the foreshadowing I mentioned earlier

Do you sit down and write everything out all at once or do you write scenes one at a time?

I sit down and write it all at once. By the time I sit down to write, the post pretty much already exists in my head, so it's a matter of giving it form. I may interrupt to go look up some piece of vocabulary, check my notes or more interestingly, stand up and verbally describe the scene to myself, then sit back down and keep writing.

And thank you again for taking the time out to respond, I enjoyed reading it!

Always glad to provide and enjoyable read

 

[Necessity4Fun]

Thank you for responding to my thread both of you! It's interesting to see the different ideas and ways that people tend to be organized in order to create a decent reply. I do have specific questions for the each of you if you don't mind answering them!

Necessity4Fun
--
I also really like your idea of breaks in between each "scene" but are these breaks to try and organize where to go next // what idea you want to enact next?

Oh wow! I wasn't expecting to get a reply back, even less, questions!

These may sound really thoughtful but, the truth is they just happened XD It was actually a bit of a challenge to write that all down because again! I'm not a planner ^^'

Yep, they are! I make a break to go back and read the previous posts to know what to react to next. There's a chronology to all of the other players' actions and I try to be mindful of these. For example, in the reply I'm working on right now I just finished a speech part, that was a response to something the other character had said to mine. Now that character did something else I need to reply to, possibly with another action, so it's the point I stop, read what I already wrote, maybe tweak it here and there and go back to the thread to read it. Then once that get done, I need to transition to react to another character that's in the same scene, so I need to go to that post next, and so on...
It's a constant movement of going back and forth, but it helps a lot with being coherent and such.

And from what I can tell, you write in chunks instead of pushing out everything you have all in one setting, correct? Is that a method you enjoy doing, or is it based on your motivation levels at the time?

Writing in chunks is both. I enjoy doing it and it's needed to an extent because once you get a distance from your writing and then comes back to it a little later, you start seeing it differently. Maybe something that you were absolutely certain about at the time you wrote it isn't actually what the scene needs, or maybe you just had a better idea that you like more.

But at the same time, with depression, anxiety and whatnot, the motivation just...dies. And it's rather frustrating. I look at the screen for a long time and nothing comes to me. My mind goes blank. Sometimes, just by doing something else, like playing a game or watching a show it comes back. But other times... It's just not that simple. It's a real struggle when nothing I do, even the things I deeply enjoy and am very passionate about, just can't seem to drag me out of it. I'm forced to wait it out or give in to my coca-cola addiction... I don't know why, but most times drinking coke helps ^^'
Maybe because it gives me energy? Either that or the sugar-rush >w<

If you keep everything in your mind, does it become difficult to try and remember key points? I used to do that as well, but I would become frustrated when I couldn't remember what I wanted to incorporate.

Not the key points. I still know exactly what I wanted to do with my reply, it's just the job of linking all of them together that takes a lot of effort. It's as if I had the reply in a bullet-list inside my brain, but then I need to put it down in consistent and cohesive paragraphs. Bullet-lists are definitely a lot easier! XD
When I write my ideas down, they come up as a chronological bullet-list too.

Also, thank you for taking the time to write all of that out and I will be taking some of your "advice" because I really do believe that this will come in handy. Both of you guys have excellent ways of doing things and there's no doubt that your parnter's recieve amazing works after it's all said and done!

You're welcome! Typing all of that was, oddly pleasant ^^
I actually enjoyed it! I'm really glad to hear that it helped in some way~

Hahahaha, I hope my partners think so too >w<

 

[Idea]

You're welcome! Typing all of that was, oddly pleasant ^^
I actually enjoyed it! I'm really glad to hear that it helped in some way~

Hahahaha, I hope my partners think so too >w<

My feelings exactly about replying to this thread today

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Hmm I think I'm bit less methodical than the people you've heard from so far.

It's rare for me to have a really clear plan or idea at the start of my writing, I just try to stuff my brain with as much relevant info as possible, by reading and rereading the preceding posts, double checking characters sheets or investigating details that catch my eye.

Then I kind of just start writing, I try to keep my character and their mindset, motivations and abilities foregrounded in my head while my subconscious starts connecting the dots in the background. After a paragraph or two I'll either realize what I'm writing is crap and start again or there will be a moment where I consciously realize where my brain is trying to take the scene and I can start to be more deliberate and add a layer of polish to everything.

I research and revise on an ad hoc basis, looking back over sentences as I go then when I complete larger paragraphs and sections I check again to make sure the individual pieces fit together to form a cohesive whole. Right at the end I do a quick once over for spelling and grammar and then post before my anxiety catches up with me and I delete the whole thing.

If I'm not really responding to anything in particular and the post is more of a self contained thing than I usually go into it with more of an idea of what I want to do but I still mostly rely on my gut for the details.

 

[BLK]

Although I haven't applied it to this site, previously I'd use a pretty rigid planning system.

I outline my key actions (Trying to limit these to less than four), and format them as such:
•Action

• What?
• When?
• How?

I'd repeat this for each action, and try to dedicate two to six sentences for each bulletpoint depending on how much was needed.

I'd add the finer details after, make some smooth transitions, and add some character to the post.

It's pretty time consuming, but I find it enjoyable.

 

[myfanwy]

screaming for about thirty minutes and listening to a playlist.
it isn't as well thought out as the posts above but it works for me.

 

[Necessity4Fun]

screaming for about thirty minutes and listening to a playlist.
it isn't as well thought out as the posts above but it works for me.

Playlists are really helpful too!
I didn't go as far as to make a specific Playlist, but I did realize some music styles go better with this and that character and will pick those for at least the couple first songs >w<

I don't like silence, so there's always music in the background ^^'

 

[Rusty of Shackleford]

I don't really have a process. I just sit down, and just...write. I never think it out much, and only have a vague outline of the post. It's just what I find as easier for me.

 

[bluuuu]

All I do is just go with the flow, since I deal with ADHD and I have horrible memory.

I try my best to know what to do and what's going on, and what should I say or how should I react or respond. Music really does help me because it somewhat just give me that deep focus onto roleplaying and gives me that "boost of energy" and whatnot.

This is just my silly way, it's dumb and retarded, but it just works for me, I guess.

 

[Seahomie]

All I do is just go with the flow, since I deal with ADHD and I have horrible memory.

I try my best to know what to do and what's going on, and what should I say or how should I react or respond. Music really does help me because it somewhat just give me that deep focus onto roleplaying and gives me that "boost of energy" and whatnot.

This is just my silly way, it's dumb and retarded, but it just works for me, I guess.

No method is dumb nor retarded. If it works for you, then by all means, it's a style! I wish I could create wonderful responses by just "going with the flow" as you put it, so really, I'm quite envious.

 

[bluuuu]

No method is dumb nor retarded. If it works for you, then by all means, it's a style! I wish I could create wonderful responses by just "going with the flow" as you put it, so really, I'm quite envious.

I'd always put myself down so much all the time because I think that i'm not good enough for such stuff and whatnot, but its either due to my ADHD or my anxiety or whatnot...

But yea, you're right I guess, me "going with the flow" can be a unique style, since it usually takes time, focus, and planning before you even do the writing, but for me, I just be like "I'll just do what my brain tells me to do" and such.

 

[MiracleGrazer]

I generally just throw down every detail I think will be required to get a message or description across, in fact those sentences are initially rather ineloquent. Then I go back to it and start refining it, removing extraneous information that isn't needed. I tend to favor putting as much down as possible at first because it's easier to pull back than to add more