Following posts on diet?

I am just curious about it and cause I still am pretty new around here I have been reading a few Role-Plays.

One thing is pretty obvious and I wonder why it is happening.

Most Role-play threads start off with a great first post, a great and detailed 2nd one follows, the 3rd one gets thinner and 4rd one even more.

Why is it that some who start an RP and obviously are able to type more than just those few words in one line, suddenly let it shrink down like that?

Is the excitement missing? Are you bored and do not want to admit it? Lost interest?

It is not pointed towards anyone personally, but I try to understand the flow :blush:

I do not post for word count myself. So I never go by how much text I see or do not see. I go by content and content only. So, sometimes posts require several paragraphs and sometimes posts require a single paragraph. For me, so long as the posts add something to the RP itself (meaning it adds to the plots, character development, character relationships, moves things forward AND gives me something to post off of) then I'm perfectly happy and consider the post to be more than satisfactory. I also prefer for the posts I'm dealing with to be decent in the grammar and spelling department since it does make it easier for me to both read and respond to. Exceptions, of course, are when I know I'm writing with someone where English isn't their first language or I know the person I'm writing with is looking to improve in some way or their storytelling is so stellar it just doesn't matter that they have crappy grammar/spelling, lolol. But anyway, the point is this. For me, it's about content. So, when I write for RPs, my posts will vary in length all throughout and those lengths tend to be scene and situation dependent. Introductions do tend to be longer for obvious reasons. But you will find all sorts of post lengths at random intervals. As for anyone else, I can't say. This is just how it is for me.

The following is my views and ideas on Role-Playing, and may not apply to all.

Consider the nature of the posts: What is an introductory post, and what is a response?

With an introductory post, the writer is setting the scene, introducing characters, and writing about what that character is currently doing. It directly sets up the current event, and has a large impact on many of the details that would naturally form further events and scenarios. Anyone that enjoys writing will use as many words as they see fit to achieve the above. Granted, some writers are less skilled than others, and my not have a long and/or interesting introductory post (it can be short and interesting). This is writing at it's purest (in regards to role-playing), and allows the role-player to freely exercise their creative ability.

Once the role-players have established their characters, the setting, and acknowledged the current event or scenario, the posts may get smaller.

Most posts after the first or second post are responses. In a response, the role-player is obviously responding to the post before it. They acknowledge everything that is possible for their character to acknowledge, and have the character take reasonable actions. However, we have already established beforehand all of the details that make the scene. It is these details that have made the introductory post longer, so to state them again would be entirely redundant and uninteresting to read. To avoid this, we cut a lot of those details out. The writer has no need to constantly remind the reader about the size of the room, the clothes a character is wearing, or how dirty the bar is. When you take these details out, the post is reasonably smaller. The role-player may then add a few newer details to showcase new information the character has noticed as time passed. These details are fewer than before (everything important ought to be written already), and usually help to more strongly establish the scene, and/or bring the various characters into interaction with each other.

After that point, one may notice the posts get even smaller. This happens because the details are even more extraneous and have less reason to be mentioned. One switches focus from the scene around the characters, and instead focus on the interaction between them. One is left to have the character notice details about the other character(s), and to write about what they are saying or thinking. This ought to take fewer words to accomplish, otherwise the post may seem too cumbersome for an interaction. I've always found it unreasonable for a role-player to rattle off a dozen actions and dialogue tags in a single turn of a conversation. It ruins the pacing and flow of the conversation and creates a timeline issue.

• From Time 1 through Time 10, Role-player A has stated the order of events. If Role-Player B contradicts this, it disrupts that order of events. Consider if Role-Player B replied to every action and dialogue through Time 1 to 10. What you have is two people interacting, where Role-Player B is responding to everything, and Role-Player A is ignoring them. In the following response, Role-Player A is forced to backtrack their character, and have them doing multiple things at once. You get a timeline that makes no sense whatsoever. On the other hand, Role-Player A can just continue to ignore all of the responses that Role-Player B made from Time 1 to 10, and instead respond to the actions taken at Time 11 and later. However, does that feel like a natural interaction between people to you?
  
  In other words, to make a more natural, flowing character interaction, fewer actions and dialogue should be written. It allows for the responding role-player to properly respond, or even interrupt, agree, or disagree with what the other character is doing. Consider how real life interactions work. If someone is talking a bunch and doing a bunch of stuff, you're stuck listening and watching, unless you interrupt.
  
  Role-Player B can also just write his responses to the actions from Time 1 through Time 10 in a way that fits naturally, but that's an awful lot of work, and gives Role-Player A complete control over those events-- might as well just co-author a short story or novel.

As a conversation between characters continues, there are fewer and fewer details to write about. The focus is mostly on the words that are being spoken. To continue to mention the characters same emotional state, same gestures, or the same smile or frown, becomes silly. The reader already knows the character is smiling, and will continue to smile until the writer mentions otherwise. It is also silly to have a character swing from mood to mood. If the character goes from happy, to upset every single post (during the same conversation), it's ridiculous. Wouldn't that character stop talking to that person? Maybe attack them? Hug them? Flip flopping between emotions for the sake of dragging out a conversation is not good writing, and it is definitely not good role-playing.

What eventually happens is that the role-players are left with a never ending conversation, or they stir things up, and move the scene forward. They make a new introductory post to introduce a new scene. As darkangel76 mentioned above, the length of the post should start to vary here. As you introduce another character, event, or scene, the post should get longer to reflect this. There is something new to explore, something new to write about, and there should be adequate description.

Basically, if the role-players are good writers, and good role-players, they will have an inconsistent post length. The length will reflect just what is going on in the role-play, and not the word count a particular person wishes to achieve.

Mitsu said:

Basically, if the role-players are good writers, and good role-players, they will have an inconsistent post length. The length will reflect just what is going on in the role-play, and not the word count a particular person wishes to achieve.

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This x1000. It's one of the main reasons I scarcely RP on here anymore is because people have such a hard-on for post length when there are many times that it's simply pulling pointless details out of your ass for no reason other than to masturbate to your own literary talent.

Detailing a new area? sure, explaining a character? why not, but I don't really think it's important to make a conversation seem like a pointless paragraph if it's not related to what the character is thinking or what they are saying, body posture and such only goes so far.

Mhm...... and that was exactly what I said. My posts vary throughout my RPs. I will have posts lengths of all sorts throughout. It will totally depend on the scene, situation, whether there is dialog, the type of dialog... so many things. It really just depends. To go by word count alone is just plain silliness and not a way to judge a good RP in my opinion. If you glance at an RP and say, "Oh he/she MUST be great because they have walls of text." then I pity you. Because that wall of text may very well suck ass and be a wall of 'nothing'.

Hm. Based on the posts in this thread, I'm now inclined to classify what I do not as "role-playing" but "writing a story with someone else". What I value in role-playing is not just a bare minimum "We must move this plot forward" with just enough action and dialogue to enable me to write some sort of response. I desire to know what your characters are thinking and how they are reacting to what is happening. I like to write down the position and physical mannerisms of my characters while they are talking/doing something, like if he makes a particular face while saying something that would influence the interpretations of the words, or body language that articulates his state of mind. Sometimes, depending on what is occurring, some background or history is included in their thoughts; they are remembering things or arguing internally before they respond(you know, like normal people do; you don't just say words with the barest of emotions; there is a process going on inside that happens within seconds or minutes to make those words come out of your mouth).

These aren't "useless details" that I am using to just fill up space because "Oh, I'm really good RPer because I write long-ass posts!" It is not really something I can restrain in myself. When I write a post, I'm not "role-playing" I am writing a small section of a story and I usually build them in that way. The only reason I will usually stop and look at someone with long posts(and completely pass by someone who wrote a paragraph) is because those details are something I desire to have. It does not always equal quality of writing, but I am more likely to find someone who puts more into it when the posts are longer.

As for why they get shorter here, it's because it's a sex role-playing site and people often have trouble typing one-handed, which results in shorter posts that get more to the "point". It's like the difference in plot development between a high-profile theater released movie and a porno. Of course one is shorter.