Before Obama went on vacation again--Thanks Obama!
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| Wait, wut? |
Alright, let’s dodge the politics bullet. I’m neither supporting nor condemning the president here, but rather poking fun at people with certain cognitive biases that interfere with that said synaptic activity. I know that couldn’t be true for any of you, because you’re obviously smart enough to be reading this blog, so that says something. Oh wait, wouldn’t that… never mind, let’s just get to the jump already.
What's Happening Valucre?
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| Where were your peacekeepers? |
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| Yeah, he made me give into wrath... |
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| But can't you smell the freedom? |
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| I bet he was patient zero. >__<" |
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| Yeah, getting there.... |
A Snapshot: This RP takes place in Blaidd’s Barony, a new region in Terrenus. A princess of the Cold South comes to this new land to extend the offer of ‘friendship’. The conversation itself displays pleasantries that test boundaries, the tension of two parties unsure of how to measure each other meeting for the first time. As of the time of this post, a theme of guarded tension drives the thread.
Why the Feature: Three quality RPers coming together in a tale that speaks of tensions between parties who have clashed before, but the glimmer of hope for reconciliation continues to burn. You get a sense of urgency and anxiousness both, leaving you to wonder how this tale will end.
Who: Give a big shoutout to Pashion Passiva, Roen & Malice. Wonderful read!
New Members!
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| No New Members? This is almost As bad as finding out Afleck is batman! |
Not good enough you say?
Well, the heck with you, I'm only one man, trying to do as much as he can with a limited amount of time, and all this other stuff going on, and and and... oh, you're just messing with me.
Just go read the next part of the blog.
Your Writing Assignment
Why should you, you ask? Well, first, why not? Second, because it helps in writing and role-playing, giving you something you have to make work and turn into a cohesive story. Third, because its different and you might just get to RP with someone new. So here is what I will do: Once this blog goes up, I am going to create a watercooler thread. I will be the first to put themselves out there and I will write with the first person who claims me- anyone, I don’t care. If you are looking for a buddy, go put your name in there. If you don’t feel comfortable with who is there, also add your name and see if someone you want more claims you. If you have someone in mind, just go post there letting us know you are participating. Make sure to get the links in there, and try to finish before the next week if possible.
Once the new blog rolls around, I’ll throw up the links and a link to a vote, and we’ll see which pair the people thought did the best job in making this work.
Let’s have fun.
This week, this what came up:
- Characters: An adventurous 68 year-old woman and an eccentric 18yr old man.
- Setting: The story begins in a hair salon
- Situation: Someone is arrested
- Theme: It's a story about a journey
- Character Action: Your character sees something s/he wasn't meant to see
Other Highlights?
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| About how this feels |
Rss Feed Available: If you like using RSS feeds, or you know someone who does and should be reading this very awesome, never in poor taste blog, then get them to come over and get this stuff hooked up. How you ask? Well, over on the right side, there is this nifty button that says, "Subscribe" and when you push that, it gives you the option to go for "Atom" which is an RSS feed. You could also click here. WARNING: Do not click if you do not have a reader and you use chrome- you'll get gibberish.
Did You Know- That the ignore features include a way to ignore signatures? If you get tired of seeing someone's sig (I dunno, you don't care for MLP maybe?) you can click the x in the top right and ignore that sig, putting it away from your mind. To learn more, check it out here. While you are at it, read the rest of the Did You Knows too.
Closing Thoughts?
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| Wait, I can't even eat cookies anymore. Thanks Obama! |
Well, I’m tired and this is way late, but I am going to
*squeeze* it in here anyway, because I am just awesome like that… and because I
decided this needs to go out. This closing thought is definitely directed at
our newer members than our “olbies’ or “Vet” crowd, but maybe you can gloss
something from it anyway. If not, feel free to take the week off from reading
this and go find something else to do. Like the prompt I put up. Yeah, not
going to let you forget that one.
Let’s talk about post content; quantity, and the actual
stuff you’re putting in it.
Now, at the risk of sounding elitist (I’d like to think I’m
not, but I guess that term is subjective), I believe in at least covering
certain minimums. Now, if you can accomplish something great in 100 words,
there is no need to add another 200 words to make it longer. This is not saying
that all posts musts be long and have a deep amount of content, though –in general-,
I would say that you need more than 100 words to accomplish a good post when
you are writing collaboratively with other people. When you write with someone
who gave you a good bit of material, you’re going to need a good bit of
material to qualitatively complete a post.
Again, main emphasis here is not that you have to write
super long, but that you need to put out some good quality, which most times is
going to require some bit of writing.
As our numbers of newer folks continues to grow (and lately,
we have gotten A LOT of new people) it stands to reason that we might get
people who have not RP’d before at all. On the other hand, we could be getting
new members from other sites where habits were formed, and as the site had no
expectations of length or what have you, people come to Valucre looking to add
posts that are between 5 words (not even a full line) to a few lines. It makes
it hard for people to work with, and it makes it difficult to muster up the
desire to write with someone who will answer your hard work with something that
literally took 10 seconds to write.
Supernal has preached it and I will here as well: Quality
over Quantity! This is not a race to make 1,000 posts.
Now, especially if you built up some habits before you came
rolling through Valucre, you might find it hard to expand into more content.
Let me give you some tips:
Post reactions to
other characters and things going on.
Your character should be paying attention to what goes
around them (unless your character is literally a rock, in which case, carry
on) and they will have some kind of reaction to it, even if minimal and subtle.
You can write what your character did, how they saw it, how they interpreted,
how it made them feel, the sky is the limit here, just keep from going
overboard and make sure it fits your character. Sometimes, the character might
not have much reaction at all, but if you at least post that your character
took note of another party, you are posting content, and you have told the
other player that you acknowledged their entrance and read their post. This is
just a good practice, because people hope that other people in the RP with them
take the time to read what they work on.
Show, Not Tell
Seen a lot of this lately- people saying what they are doing
in the most basic terms, things like, “I run outside”, which really only tells
us what you did, but does not show us anything. What would want you to show?
Well, because we need some information to get a picture of what they did and
how they went about it. Did they,
“Leap from their chair and burst out the door like the devil
were on their heels?”
“Rise from their chair and then suddenly run for the door,
tearing it open and dashing into the night?”
“With a startled yelp, he falls from his chair, and
scrambling to his feet, he races back outside.”
All three versions above tell something a little different; though
it should be clear that the situation is more or less the same: Something
startled the character and they ran outside. In one case, the character
maintained enough composure to leap from their chair, but then chose to high
tail it, using a metaphor to emphasize the speed he traveled. In the second, he
maintained quite a bit of composure, until suddenly he had to get out of that
place, wrenching the door open while he was at it. The last, he was caught so
utterly off guard he fell out of his seat, barely got back up onto his feet and
then got outside as quickly as he could.
Show us what they do, not just simply tell us. You can also
avoid going overboard by trying to avoid over verbosity by using specific kinds
of words to emphasize what happened. I never said he ran fast while scared, but
chose action words to help carry my point. I did drop a couple adverbs in
there- “Suddenly” and “Startled”, but a bit here and there is fine, unless you
are writing under Stephen king. If your mentor is Stephen King, best you murder
all your adverbs now.
Do more than one
action
You can do more than one action in one post! Sure, you don’t
want to write out what you did over the next six hours when we are in the midst
of something covering the next few minutes, but you can do something like “walk
over to the table, pick up the comb and start combing my hair”. You do not need
to say, “Grabs the comb” and then wait. Granted, the longer you make a post
(with more actions) the more likely someone is to interject something in
between, but in most cases, the interjected material is benign and can be
worked into your next post easily. Perhaps while you grabbed the comb, the
other character picked their nose. Sure, they did it as you picked up the comb
and started to comb your hair, but your next post can relate the feeling of
disgust that manifests with a grimace as you comb your hair.
Do NOT use emoticons
in an IC post
Please, please, please- do not post emoticons in your IC
posts- we do not use emoticons to convey feelings, and I can tell you if you do
that with the majority of the member base, you are going to get some reactions-
some maybe mild and oriented on correction, others, not so much. If you want to
show that the character is sad, actually
show it. As I wrote in the above section “show not tell”, do not use an
emoticon to tell me that your character is dismayed and frustrated, show that
to me by having them clench their fists while their faces turn red, the anger
oozing through their pores.
It is that easy.
Okay, that’s what I got for this week. Maybe I’ll do an
expanded version of this to hit the “intermediate” level posters looking for
ways to fine tune posts. Who knows though, I never did go back and finish that
RP-forum guide. >>
Until next week-
- Acies
"It is quality rather than quantity that matters." ~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca
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