( Demons Two Cents)
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU ARE IN A WRITERS BLOCK
Useful guide to what to put in a post
1) Response to visual/audio cues= What your character sees in the person.
= What your character thinks of a person's visual attribute/cue (eg. Sloppy hair. Normal = boring etc)
= What your character feels because of a person's words/action (eg. irritation to gum popping, sudden wish to taste gum too?)
= How your character reacts after absorbing such information, and feeling it. (eg. Choose to ignore temptation? Pretend not to look annoyed? Or glare)
2) Adding to the environment= Bringing a person to a place familiar to your character/ your character's own (Remember this might reflect on your character's personality)
- organisation of space. Neat/tidy/untidy/cluttered/organised chaos
- the smell in the place
- brief visual description of objects in room/area
- comparison to what a normal area would be like. (it was a shabby garden, it was a spick and span library, it was a luxurious galaxy in a bedroom)
= Bringing a person to a public place
- what objects would exist in a normal public place? (vending machine, coffee maker, staff lounge)
- what smell/sensation might be associated with the place. (coffee, whining from latent machinery, flicking lights?)
- Does your character have any response to background noise/stimuli? (conciously avoiding other pedastrians)
- What quirks might come out in a relaxed/tense/unfamiliar environment? (hands snug in pockets, picking at fraying felt of a notice board?)
3) A reason to everything= Explain why your character feels a certain way/tendency to do things. A short flashback suffices, but do not insert long ones throughout your posts.
= If apathetic, explain why.
= If unresponsive, what is s/he missing out on? (Her head felt so heavy the lights of the carousal swept past her like a cloud of fireflies, noises melding and whirring into a pot of droning sounds, muffled as if she had been dunked into water.)
= If seemingly no reason, is it instinct? A need to -do something- to occupy time? To amuse oneself? The mind always needs stimuli.
4) Going beyond the descriptive narration= Comparison
- Like (She was like a butterfly, her wings of hope fluttering upon the breeze of encouragement he gave her.)
- Is/Was (He is a pig, gorging himself and wallowing in the filth of the earth and sins of mankind.)
= Relation to fiction/folklore
= Relation to science, explaining the body's mechanisms in conjuction with the descriptive narration.
= Quoting from famous literature/media
= Inserting small discussions about concepts from your character's POV. Death, life etc.
= Show instead of tell. (He didn't like it. VS He frowned, eyes narrowing as he thought of the sickening possibilities and the massacre of unborn life.)
5) Keeping the rp flowing= Try to give enough for your partner/s to reply to
= Try to position your character in a way that won't leave them hanging
= Try to interact with others instead of sitting around in a public area (There are many reasons students might approach teachers and staff to other staff)
= Keep in mind the bazillion NPCs in the school building & legal consequences of some things. (A math teacher attacking the doctor in full view of dorm windows is pretty silly... - -'" )
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