S
Silvir
Guest
It brings tears of joy to my eyes to see how a painful wall of text turns into a glorious piece of story that i can rest my eyes upon instead of the dreaded mountain it was at first >.<
Cutting the Shit
- Thread starter Asmodeus
- Start date
T
The TV Heads Cometh
Guest
Speaking as someone who appreciates a good deal of brevity myself, I can't really agree with the content of this thread at all.
Like, it's one thing to be brief. It's another thing to force it on another player, or shame them for not. Kind of like a religious doctrine, or a particular moral code.
Course, I'm a mere neophyte here, my viewpoint and a quarter will get ya'll a gumball.
Like, it's one thing to be brief. It's another thing to force it on another player, or shame them for not. Kind of like a religious doctrine, or a particular moral code.
Course, I'm a mere neophyte here, my viewpoint and a quarter will get ya'll a gumball.
B
Bel _ Vel _ El
Guest
I'm going to have to agree with The TV Heads Cometh on this one.
I enjoy reading short posts with detail and I love reading long posts with detail too. As someone who writes long, detailed posts, I like to give my partners a look into the backdrop of the world created, my character(s), and enough to work with if need be in their post. I usually tell people I write long so stuff, as mentioned in this thread doesn't happen meaning people getting...I'll use the word annoyed. *Shrugs* I would say if you don't want to read long posts find someone you can discuss with on post length but to just cast shame on some of us that do is kinda....annoying too.
I enjoy reading short posts with detail and I love reading long posts with detail too. As someone who writes long, detailed posts, I like to give my partners a look into the backdrop of the world created, my character(s), and enough to work with if need be in their post. I usually tell people I write long so stuff, as mentioned in this thread doesn't happen meaning people getting...I'll use the word annoyed. *Shrugs* I would say if you don't want to read long posts find someone you can discuss with on post length but to just cast shame on some of us that do is kinda....annoying too.
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The point I was getting at in this exercise... (which I posted a very long time ago now o_O) ... is that many people write unnecessary detail, either because they want to show off or because they are trapped in a stream of consciousness routine.
Especially those posts where they RECAP on everything the other players have done.
This is the point at which creativity becomes filler.
Also, they sometimes feel the need to describe every single emotion their character experiences. This is fair enough - humans are emotional beings. But a reader is not able to feel everything at the rate you felt it when you were writing. The result is a muddle and an overload.
Show Not Tell is as true now as it ever was. Nothing puts a reader off more than being spoon-fed. If you construct every image for them and dictate how they should feel at every moment, it creates a shallow picture. The greatest stories are told in the imagination of the reader. A reader will fill in the gaps, and fill them in with images and impressions that mean something to them - thus elevating the entire emotional experience.
And at the end, they'll thank you and think you a great artist, even though all you did was trigger a series of powerful reactions with a few key words.
Compare these two sentences:
She stood in a black and jagged pine forest where the soil was the grainy brown kind and the roots were about the thickness of a thumb and sprouted in all directions to support the jade-green foliage of triangular leaves. Through the forest ran a river that wound this way and that and fed the trees with water which was then sucked up into the leaves to be evaporated by the pleasant golden sun. Purple-feathered birds tweeted and hopped between the branches, their song a note that was somewhere between children's laughter and cat meows. And just to the right was a ridge about five foot high that supported bigger oak trees that were twice the size of the pines and grew in an R-shape with bark that had the texture of a heavy leatherbound book.
She stood in a jagged pine forest, cut by streams and oak tree ridges, and listened to the chatter of strange birds.
The second one lets my mind breathe, and my soul create. That's the essence of a good reading experience.
Especially those posts where they RECAP on everything the other players have done.
This is the point at which creativity becomes filler.
Also, they sometimes feel the need to describe every single emotion their character experiences. This is fair enough - humans are emotional beings. But a reader is not able to feel everything at the rate you felt it when you were writing. The result is a muddle and an overload.
Show Not Tell is as true now as it ever was. Nothing puts a reader off more than being spoon-fed. If you construct every image for them and dictate how they should feel at every moment, it creates a shallow picture. The greatest stories are told in the imagination of the reader. A reader will fill in the gaps, and fill them in with images and impressions that mean something to them - thus elevating the entire emotional experience.
And at the end, they'll thank you and think you a great artist, even though all you did was trigger a series of powerful reactions with a few key words.
Compare these two sentences:
She stood in a black and jagged pine forest where the soil was the grainy brown kind and the roots were about the thickness of a thumb and sprouted in all directions to support the jade-green foliage of triangular leaves. Through the forest ran a river that wound this way and that and fed the trees with water which was then sucked up into the leaves to be evaporated by the pleasant golden sun. Purple-feathered birds tweeted and hopped between the branches, their song a note that was somewhere between children's laughter and cat meows. And just to the right was a ridge about five foot high that supported bigger oak trees that were twice the size of the pines and grew in an R-shape with bark that had the texture of a heavy leatherbound book.
She stood in a jagged pine forest, cut by streams and oak tree ridges, and listened to the chatter of strange birds.
The second one lets my mind breathe, and my soul create. That's the essence of a good reading experience.
B
Bel _ Vel _ El
Guest
(I just read it today, that's why I happened to post ^-^)
I am still going to have to agree to disagree with you there. You bring up valid points on how you may feel with others, however, everyone is different. While some may have similar thinking on the following:
She stood in a black and jagged pine forest where the soil was the grainy brown kind and the roots were about the thickness of a thumb and sprouted in all directions to support the jade-green foliage of triangular leaves. Through the forest ran a river that wound this way and that and fed the trees with water which was then sucked up into the leaves to be evaporated by the pleasant golden sun. Purple-feathered birds tweeted and hopped between the branches, their song a note that was somewhere between children's laughter and cat meows. And just to the right was a ridge about five foot high that supported bigger oak trees that were twice the size of the pines and grew in an R-shape with bark that had the texture of a heavy leatherbound book.
She stood in a jagged pine forest, cut by streams and oak tree ridges, and listened to the chatter of strange birds.
Not everyone does. I feel that both entries are good in their own separate way. That is just my opinion. I like description. As much as possible, it helps me garner an image of a place, a time, person, or object. In some cases I may not have known about those in which I just mentioned, having someone tell about them helps. For me, I am brought into their world of imagination, I get images in my head about what they've described.
I write detail, as you may consider it unnecessary, not because I am or wanting to show off, that's never been my style lol, I like to convey as much information as possible, detail about my character, the world, and so forth. Not everyone likes that, I understand, then again some do. Yes, a reader should be given room to imagine as much as possible, however, I don't think it is dictating for a writer to describe what they need to do. At the end of the day, everyone here is just trying to find someone to write with, it's about having fun, doing what we all obviously like to do: write. Everyone is a great artist whether they write 2,000 words or 100. Creativity is in our hands.
I am still going to have to agree to disagree with you there. You bring up valid points on how you may feel with others, however, everyone is different. While some may have similar thinking on the following:
She stood in a black and jagged pine forest where the soil was the grainy brown kind and the roots were about the thickness of a thumb and sprouted in all directions to support the jade-green foliage of triangular leaves. Through the forest ran a river that wound this way and that and fed the trees with water which was then sucked up into the leaves to be evaporated by the pleasant golden sun. Purple-feathered birds tweeted and hopped between the branches, their song a note that was somewhere between children's laughter and cat meows. And just to the right was a ridge about five foot high that supported bigger oak trees that were twice the size of the pines and grew in an R-shape with bark that had the texture of a heavy leatherbound book.
She stood in a jagged pine forest, cut by streams and oak tree ridges, and listened to the chatter of strange birds.
Not everyone does. I feel that both entries are good in their own separate way. That is just my opinion. I like description. As much as possible, it helps me garner an image of a place, a time, person, or object. In some cases I may not have known about those in which I just mentioned, having someone tell about them helps. For me, I am brought into their world of imagination, I get images in my head about what they've described.
I write detail, as you may consider it unnecessary, not because I am or wanting to show off, that's never been my style lol, I like to convey as much information as possible, detail about my character, the world, and so forth. Not everyone likes that, I understand, then again some do. Yes, a reader should be given room to imagine as much as possible, however, I don't think it is dictating for a writer to describe what they need to do. At the end of the day, everyone here is just trying to find someone to write with, it's about having fun, doing what we all obviously like to do: write. Everyone is a great artist whether they write 2,000 words or 100. Creativity is in our hands.
S
Silvir
Guest
I don't mind a long text but the longer you make the text the more critical I will be towards how it's written.
Length raises the bar of quality substantially.
Wall of text with little variation in use of words or flow of story is not quality. It be word poopin.
It does not help fellow Rpers and it hurts most peoples eyes. Or makes them skim and miss details in a text that reminds them of an political essay from school.
I have friends that write very long texts but I don't look uppon a wall to climb when I read them. I sit enjoy them like I read a page in a book. Use of paragraphs, small breaks in the descriptions to keep it from becoming nagging and to allow me to fill out some the rest in my post instead.....
There is a reason why even majority of authors avoid such texts and it's a good hint
:3
Length raises the bar of quality substantially.
Wall of text with little variation in use of words or flow of story is not quality. It be word poopin.
It does not help fellow Rpers and it hurts most peoples eyes. Or makes them skim and miss details in a text that reminds them of an political essay from school.
I have friends that write very long texts but I don't look uppon a wall to climb when I read them. I sit enjoy them like I read a page in a book. Use of paragraphs, small breaks in the descriptions to keep it from becoming nagging and to allow me to fill out some the rest in my post instead.....
There is a reason why even majority of authors avoid such texts and it's a good hint
:3
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Diomedes
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I'm not totally sure, but I believe this type of writing is what's known as "Purple Prose." Purple prose is a defined on Wikipedia as, "prose that is so extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw excessive attention to itself. Purple prose is sensually evocative beyond the requirements of its context."