The Elements of a Good Response

Subject: The Elements of a Good Response Thu Jul 19, 2012 8:50 pm

A proper post should have the following components (parts):

1) Physical Reaction
2) Mental Reaction
3) Movement
4) Dialogue

Physical Reaction:

It's best to begin with a physical and/or mental reaction to what was said/done in the previous post. It's pretty obvious why this should be done, but for those who don't know it's to mainly help keep the roleplay flowing.

But how do you do this? Easy! What is your character thinking about what was said or done? How do they feel? If they were just attacked, how would they fight back? If they just saw something scary, would they run or scream? It's these small things that help!

Even a non-reaction is technically a reaction, because your character is attempting to look as if they are not reacting. If your character is hiding his emotions, he may no outwardly react to what is happening.

Here is an example:

Quote :: John listened as Maria explained the reasons as to why they could no longer be together. Inside he was seething with anger at her lame attempts to explain the situation, but outwardly he barely gave a hint of what he was feeling. If she looked closely, she may have seen the little tick of a muscle in his jaw as he stood before her, but she was off in her own world.

Mental Reaction:

Remember to put your character's thoughts into the post! It can be done in either first person or third person. First person thoughts are generally put into italics and look like this:

Quote :: "Why does she want to hurt me like this? I thought things were going great."

While third person thoughts look like this:

Quote :: John wondered why Maria would want to hurt him so much.

Remember, posting your character's thoughts is as important as posting their actions. While the other characters may not be able to react as if they know what you are thinking (unless they are mind-readers, in which case, only give out what you want known), it develops your character to put their thoughts out there. It makes them "human" and gives depth to your posts. Without the thoughts, you have no clue what drives this character, what makes them who they are.

Movement:

Physical movement should also be included, whether they take a drink of something, walk across a room, or sit in a chair. Be sure to include a description of what ever the character is physically interacting with.

Be creative with the way you word things! You don't have to say "the chair was old and smelled bad". Instead simply by using alternate words, you can say the same thing this way: "the chair looked ancient and had an odor that usually accompanied a landfill."

Here's an example to incorporate movement into your RP:

Quote :: John crossed the wooden floor, his sneakers squeaking on the worn boards. He found an old chair and plopped down carelessly, sending a poof of dust flying from the old cushions. His finger played in a hole on the arm as he listened to Maria, tearing the fabric of the chair even further and releasing some of the stuffing that had yellowed with age.

Dialogue:

A character's dialogue are the words that character speaks out loud that can be heard by other people in the room. Here's a hint: never have you character say something, even under their breath, unless you want it heard by someone else. Just like in real life, you never know who is really listening, so watch what you say. There could be a character that enters the thread claiming they were "invisible" to you at that moment (ex: hiding behind something such as a door or chair) and over heard what you whispered to yourself.

When writing dialogue, be sure to use proper grammar and punctuation. Spelling is also important. Nothing shows that you put no time into your response more than a post filled with misspelled words and bad punctuation. Spell check is available on most boards and it's highly suggest using it before any posts.

Dialogue should also avoid using "he said," "she replied," and "he asked" (and any other version of these) repeatedly. One time is okay, twice is pushing it, and beyond that is ridiculous. Dialogue should be written as if it were really spoken. A tip is once you have written the dialogue, read it out loud to see if it sounds okay. Some things look fine written but don't work once you try saying it.