Post Length, "Velocity," and You

[Ryees]

Hello BMR! I have found that I am having this conversation with many of my friends and co-writers, so I thought I would just write a little article here detailing what the actual f*ck I'm talking about and try and condense my ideas into sense. Probably I will tweak and edit and maybe expand on these thoughts in future posts on this thread, but I digress.

Post length

We all talk about it, and pretty regularly I think. At least among my own, I have often expressed the sentiment, "sorry this post is a little short," and had that same sentiment expressed to me, even though I have never given or received a comment like, "Man that post was kinda short, you useless ninny."

What gives? What is this inherent guilt that we feel when we hit send on a short post?

I think it stems from the call-and-response system inherent to forum writing, and that feeling that we must fill in all the gaps. We must react to what our partner did, insert characterization, and then act to move the plot forward, all within our post, and if we only give two paragraphs, maybe a total of 400-600 words, did we really accomplish that? This post is so short, it looks awful in comparison to the huge wall my partner just gave me!

Therein lies the trap.

Velocity and Drafting

I use the term "velocity" to describe many things. Post rate plays into it a little bit: Do you and your partner post every day each? Do you post once weekly? Once monthly?

Post length also is a factor. Are all your posts 60 words? Are they 300 words? A thousand words? Three thousand?

I do not believe that a thread that only gets a post once a week that is 4000 words is doomed to have low velocity, and I do not believe that a thread that gets 5 posts a day that are 100 words will inevitably have high velocity. I use the term as a sort of composite of many factors to describe how well the story moves along. A single thread will, over its life, go through periods of high and low velocities, when muses run high or low, action sequences happen, smut occurs, and so forth.

High velocity feels amazing, and it's what we're all here for: Those times where your muse is singing, the words are flowing, you're thinking about the story when you shower and having dreams about it, and you can't wait to get off work/school/life to get back to your keyboard, read your partner's post, and furiously taptaptap out a response. Low velocity, obviously, feels pretty bad. You sit down at your computer, write six words, then tab over to a YouTube video, and when you tab back in, your mind just isn't in it, you're not really there. It's slow, it's monotonous, and it can even feel stressful at times. Your partner is waiting on you, you have to get this post out. I think these low velocity periods are where most threads die.

Smut and dialog tend to be velocity-killers, and also a place where that shame creeps in. If your partners gives you a 1000 word essay that ends in, "So how do you like your eggs?" then chances are pretty good that beyond entering the diner and answering, "Over-medium, with toast," you're going to be pretty light on a response.

And that is okay!

Your job as a co-writer is to provide a response with substance, action, and reactivity. If you can do that in 300 words, I would implore you not to unnecessarily fluff up that post just to make it "look better." Post quality is so much more important than quantity. I can and have pumped out 6000 word wall-o'-the-texts, but I personally think those only have a true home when you're setting a scene, be it an intro post, a large transition, a time skip, or otherwise. Sometimes you get into that mystical flow state and you accidentally shit out a 2000 word essay in response to your partner's one-paragraph fart of a post, and that is totally fine and often times feels great, but expecting that to be your average or your norm can be exhausting and toxic to yourself.

A practice I have started with my partners is what we have taken to calling "Drafting," and this has been an absolutely instrumental tool in preserving velocity. When you have a scene that is, primarily, just two or more characters talking, your posts naturally shrink. You talk, they talk, you wiggle your eyebrows, they sigh from their chest, and then the next and the next and the next until the conversation ends. When these scenes come up, I often times like to make use of a faster-paced medium like Discord or PMs and organize a time where my partner and I can sit down and rapid-fire out super fast call-and-response messages that are usually only 20-50 words each, much like you would see in a novel written by a single author. Whoever is up to post then copies all of that text, formats it down, and posts it as one single block of text into their post, making sure to follow proper etiquette at the end of the post to give their partner a place to pick up the torch.

Example: This is a link to a post that contains drafted dialog. Gail and Tamsin are talking back and forth, and if you saw this with no context, it could look very much like Tamsin's writer is just straight up god-modding Gail through this scene. But what you don't see is that, behind the scenes, we popped into our server for this story, drafted through this dialog, and then they copied and pasted it into their post. And now it looks super organic, flows great, and, most importantly, did not take 15 posts of back and forth dialog to accomplish 45 seconds of in-world time.

A scene is worth a thousand words—and is often made of about that many

Intro posts are the place where you can let your keyboard run wild and really get your money's worth out of those mechanical switches you paid a premium for. A scene that is set well can be absolutely essential to a good story, and the more detail you can glean from that post, the better. But this comes at a cost: Energy. Spoons. Time. Raw brain power. You have to use these things to make a good post. The good news is that introduction posts often come at one of the highest points of enthusiasm for a story, right when the idea is fresh and you're just coming off the heels of the chat with your partner that got all the ideas flowing. It's new and exciting and getting all those words out feels great.

But when you're on post 105, and you're looking at your current three lines of text, and then you look back at your intro post and you think, "Why can't I get that much out this time?" you're setting yourself up for failure. You sit, stare at your words, and what happens most times is that you don't post at all. You get so caught up in the "length requirements" of your post that you simply fail to post anything, and that is one of the best ways to murder your velocity in cold blood.

Just send the damn post

When you write, just write, and don't think about length. Write until you're done. And then, just hit send. Trust that you are a good writer that is cognizant of what a post needs. Trust that your partner is not size-queening your posts every time they see them. Trust that your ability to tell a story is inherent, and that the text that you just wrote is good enough. If you write, and you finish writing, and the only problem you can see with the post is that it isn't long enough, then there is no problem with the post, only your perception of what is "required" of you as a writer.

I would rather get a post from my partner every other day that is 500 words than one post every two weeks that is 1500 words. I would rather get one post a week that is 500 words than no posts at all because they don't have the material to write more. Sometimes, there just isn't a good reason to write more than one paragraph.

And that's okay. We're still proud of you in the end.

Happy writing, writers.

 

[Origami]

We all talk about it, and pretty regularly I think. At least among my own, I have often expressed the sentiment, "sorry this post is a little short," and had that same sentiment expressed to me, even though I have never given or received a comment like, "Man that post was kinda short, you useless ninny."

What gives? What is this inherent guilt that we feel when we hit send on a short post?

For me personally, it’s not guilt, I could easily tell someone I didn’t enjoy their post and if they could re-do it because it simply did nothing to inspire my muse. In some cases I can ignore it and just push through. Why don’t I say something? I think as much as someone says “Please tell me if I need to re-do it” to me, I’ll still have a voice in the back of my head that they’re absolutely going to be offended and then suddenly I’m left with a crossed out name, even if I never said I wanted them to re-do it, but just mentioned I had difficulties getting a response out and if next time they’d be more mindful of the details that add more.

But I actually did ask someone to re-do their post, I felt like I could jokingly bring it up since me and this person has had some pretty bueno conversation. Which then ended up in a little dialogue between us, which was mostly me covering my ass, explaining my thoughts, since that small voice was definitely still there, but because I really value the project, I just said fuck it and told him. Which went as smooth as possible I’d say, he was understanding and totally redeemed himself and made everything flow a lot better.

I always give the impression before starting something, that sometimes short posts are impossible to avoid. I sometimes give a heads up if I feel like something will steer into short post territory.

 

[Madam Mim]

Smut and dialog tend to be velocity-killers, and also a place where that shame creeps in.

This is it, right here. For me, at least. Dialog sometimes not so much; sometimes there's nothing for it, there's gonna be times where we're both doing short, quick posts and that can't be helped. But smut is what kills velocity for me a lot of the time. I've figured out over the years that I'm prone to what I've dubbed "smut fatigue." If a smut scene goes on too long, or if there are too many too close together, I get bored and lose interest because it's not engaging me on a creative level. tbh I think that's what killed Athreos for me the first time: the more smut, the less chance there is to develop characters both as people and in relation to one another. They can say "I love you" all day long but like...why? What changed between point A and point B when we've just been fuckin this whole time? Is it off-screen development? Because what's the point in writing if all the relationship-building and character development happens off-screen where you're not writing it?

Honestly drafting with you has really changed how I look at dialog-heavy scenes and I'm gonna see if my partners are into it in the future. I know where you stand on smut in general, but how would you solve the velocity problem when it comes to smut? (She says, standing on the precipice of a smut scene XD)

 

[Ryees]

I think

how would you solve the velocity problem when it comes to smut?

I think the line is finer here because drafting smut could quickly turn into strategy cyber sex, and that gets fuzzy on boundaries and comfort levels.

With smut in particular, I think there's often enough descriptive things happening to justify a full post from each party. Probably your posts will shrink to that 1-3 paragraph average, but there are enough sensory details happening where you can use those to make your posts both more evocative and also more interesting without the need for unnecessary fluffing.

To help keep velocity, I would make sure that I really adhered very strictly to the react-describe-act template. And actually as I write this and think about it, I would actually lean towards making smut posts as short and sweet as is still engaging and appropriate within the context of your thread. No need to describe every thrust, every bounce, or every grunt. Give meb lead-in, position changes, some sensory text, and then the climax, and let it be.

I guess it's worth noting that velocity is only a real consideration in threads that are not wholly smut-centric. If the whole point of the thread is to get hot and sweaty, that changes the equation. But in cases with you're Plot With Some Porn, instead of Porn With Some Plot, velocity becomes much more relevant, and preserving it becomes a much higher priority.

 

[Brokk]

Drafting - Interesting. I'm sending that concept to one of my writing partners now and see if she'd be up for trying it at some point. My characters tend to be more talkative. They are older and know more, so they often fall into an instructional role. As such, there is less need for back/forth. We are both great about checking in to ask how the other might react or if it's OK to describe that reaction in the middle of our post to keep things moving. However we are still early in our story, so this could still prove useful at some point.

Post length - It definitely varies by partner and need. I feel like a pattern is established with each partner for min/max post lengths. Some partners give me 150-300 words. Others give me 600-1200 words. I respond in kind, although 150 is just too short for my own tastes to send, I'd likely give them 250-450.

I would definitely say something to my partner if they normally send 600+ and I suddenly get 150 from them. Red flags would go up that something was wrong and I would start an OOC conversation. I've also chatted with partners when their posts keep getting shorter and shorter. Usually it means they are losing interest in the story and we need to change something.

It feels like each story and partnership has its own comfort zone for post length. I apologize for posts that feel like they are creeping outside that range in either direction. Why? I suppose it's just a way of me acknowledging an awareness "Yeah, that was a bit long" or "I kept it short because..." - I don't want them to think I'm losing interest or not taking it as seriously. I'm a huge advocate for communication. If I'm struggling with my muse to get words out, maybe there is something that can be tweaked or changed. I feel I owe it to my partner to let them know. I also would want to know if they are struggling.

Just send the damn post. I agree with most of that. However... for me personally, words tend to flow very easily. If they aren't flowing, it always means there is an issue. I need to pay attention and figure out what is wrong, because its not just going away. Sure, I can send those three sentences, but the problem is still there and I don't know what it is.

I want my partner to talk to me if they are struggling. I can help. I can inspire. I can brainstorm. We can change the story, timeskip, alter my last post... so many options. I want them to enjoy it. If they struggle for a month, then decide to quit, that's not a happy place.

 

[Zephyra]

Interesting post, and I definitely related to a lot of it. I've heard of the drafting suggestion before, and I did do a roleplay on Google Docs once that would have made something like that extremely easy since you could just type it onto the doc in real time, but I've never actually done it myself. I can see the appeal and would probably be open to trying it, but I usually have enough to write about even in a dialogue scene that, so far, I've been alright with just sticking to the typical back-and-forth fashion, even if it's not perfect and sometimes lends itself to light god-modding in the form of cut-off sentences or forced/implied reactions. Of course, that's another thing that can and should be discussed beforehand to avoid overstepping any boundaries.

I think I have reached a point where I am too often apologizing for my posts being too long rather than too short, though. There's some perfect middle-ground that I'm always striving for which is neither too long or too short, likely somewhere in the elusive 500-900 word range, but a lot of the time I find myself going above that threshold and feeling guilty for writing more than what was needed and leaving too much for my partner to be able to easily read and react to. So, I relate in sort of the opposite direction, and it's definitely a recurring issue for me. I want to react to everything my partner said and in doing so I usually just end up making a huge wall of text, so I really need to get better at knowing which things to skip completely and which things to give less detail to. If I could do that, my velocity would probably improve, as well.

Something else I've noticed though is that I'm actually finding it easier to write smut posts than story ones since it kinda takes less brain power for me. I still vastly prefer a story focus in my plots, but when it comes to smut scenes I can usually get posts out a bit faster since I don't have to think too hard on driving the plot forward and can just have MC act and react in the moment. It's what comes directly after a smut scene ends that's one of the biggest motivational killers for me, 'cause now we have to write this awkward part after the sex where they need to get back down to business and it's like pls let this be over now.