Wording/Vocab

[SciFiMaeve]

I'm pretty decent at role-playing, but I notice I can get repetitive, or say a word that doesn't make sense.

Sounds dumb, I know I can look up words but I felt it would be better coming from other roleplayers with perhaps more experience!

And also how to keep a roleplay going, on the sense of keeping my responses long, not short..

[Pixel]

Mostly everyone faces this mental challenge now and then, really what it boils down to is practice and reading. 

I think most partners are more of the "quality over quantity" mindset, but repetition is a common challenge too. Personally, I like to play a scene out in my head and put it into words with no unnecessary fluff to give my partners plenty of feelings, expression, actions and speech to work with, and hopefully they do the same in turn. Of course sometimes, I get the "She could be heard in the shower" response and nothing else lol. 

How long was it that you consistently wanted to have your responses? I feel like I'm most cases a healthy 3-4 paragraphs is more than adequate.

I'm also curious as to what @IsabellaRose might have to say, she's the most amazing writer amogus.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

Post length is a thing people get kind of wound up about that's actually, in my opinion, a bad guage. Yeah, it's the number of times someone tapped a screen or key, but that's not REALLY what we want.

We want cool stuff. We want to see how our last post influenced the story, inspired the response and what happens next. That doesn't always require 10 paragraphs. Sometimes a paragraph or two is all you need when there's intense action, fun dialogue or an important choice for another character to make.

Words are tricky - more so in ERP because we end up talking about genitalia a lot. One way around that is describe other stuff. Faces, sweat on skin, the sound of panting - there's a ton of other stuff happening.

But mostly, like starting sentences with conjunctions, relax. It ain't all that. You shouldn't feel like you're being graded.

[Gangsta Moll Deactivated]

I am so guilty of repetition, and not only as in: "aauugghhh ffuckk yes yes yes fuck yes"

[Pixel]

Just now, Gangsta Moll said:

I am so guilty of repetition, and not only as in: "aauugghhh ffuckk yes yes yes fuck yes"

You're a perfectly fine writer, love.

[Durendal]

Mhmm, I'd happily echo what others have said here! Sometimes, trying to focus on not repeating yourself can lead to more issues than it's worth. I know in some of my longer messages I think "Maybe I should refer to my characters cum differently", but that just leads me to sounding like a thesaurus- using the words semen, sperm, spunk, etc. Or the dreaded one when none others remain- baby batter.

At times it can even pull you out of an RP if you have to go look up a thesaurus before continuing :') I'd say write however feels natural to you. As long as your response doesn't take away from your partners, plus it includes some fun- to use the wonderful Pixel's words- feelings, expression, actions and speech to work with, then it'll be appreciated, I'm sure.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

@Gangsta Moll,  I might read a whole post of just "cuntlips". I have no idea where you acquired that or I had not discovered it, but I have adopted it like it was a wet puppy I found on the side of the road.

It is a delicious word.

To @SciFiMaeve's point, another method is when a partner uses a great word, add it to your own vocabulary.

[Gangsta Moll Deactivated]

5 minutes ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

@Gangsta Moll,  I might read a whole post of just "cuntlips". I have no idea where you acquired that or I had not discovered it, but I have adopted it like it was a wet puppy I found on the side of the road.

It is a delicious word.

I read Germaine Greer when I was young.

[Pixel]

42 minutes ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

@Gangsta Moll,  I might read a whole post of just "cuntlips". I have no idea where you acquired that or I had not discovered it, but I have adopted it like it was a wet puppy I found on the side of the road.

It is a delicious word.

To @SciFiMaeve's point, another method is when a partner uses a great word, add it to your own vocabulary.

I've learned a LOT from various partners I've had over the years and they from me over time. Experience, experience, experience.

[bumpnrun]

I like writing with writers that are much better than myself. I know that through my own carelessness I will learn something that will improve my own abilities. It's a slow process, but effective.

[Teppo]

I've found that it's more effective to build-up a scene and have the sex as the payoff, or reward if you will, and to allow repetitive actions to be a one post action.  And then, to try and be more descriptive of the scene; smell, touch, taste, sound and sight.  And remember, that there are literally hundreds of sex positions out there and they all feel and look different.  And get creative!  It's fantasy for fuck's sake!  There's no reason it has to be realistic unless you want it to.  Make the characters able to feel and do things that aren't normal.  Let cum taste different, let it be funny colors, let it fly farther than possible and be thicker and more copious than it should, let a girl cream gratuitously over a cock or squirt uncontrollably.

But, the most important thing is to have fun.  Think about all the ways you can have fun with it, let your mind soar.

[IsabellaRose]

You've hit on a topic that @Pixel intuitively knew would compel me to respond. I apologize in advance for this disjointed post that will likely meander all over the place.

TL;DR - use a thesaurus but look up the words to make sure they have the connotation you intend, make your post length match the pacing of the scene, move the story forward, leave a jumping off point for your partner's next post

When I write a roleplay reply, I usually jot down the immediate responses that pop into my head after reading what my partner wrote. Depending upon what kind of scene they setup, it could be lines of dialog, poses, actions my character might take, anything I think will happen in my post that I don't want to forget. Then I go back and re-read my previous post, then my partner's post a second time, then I start writing.

As I write, I sometimes get stuck on a word. I keep thesaurus.com open in another tab, flip over there, check words as I go to avoid duplication. Sometimes I come back and reuse a word I already used, particularly if it's one of the most commonly used or well known ways to say a thing. If it seems like I'm writing the same types of words over and over and I don't want to sound like a thesaurus, I usually try to move on to something else. I might continue the scene focusing on a different sense. I might skip ahead with a "after a few minutes" time jump or something similar. 

In my opinion, a good post doesn't have a paragraph requirement, although I have seen that quite often on other sites. On some other sites, roleplay groups required a minimum post length. The goal was to keep people from posting one or three word responses, but all it did was generate painfully long posts that were repetitive, clearly used words found in a thesaurus without even knowing what those words meant, and were nearly incomprehensible. Those posts would have been better off with a short sentence and no more.

Write your post to fit the pacing. When beginning a roleplay, take time to paint a scene. Describe the scenery, smells, sounds, and tactile sensations. Tell us about your character, their thoughts, their view of the world around them. Give us some background for the setting and character. Early posts are often longer. Once you're in an action scene, be it a chase, fight, or sex scene, keep your posts tight and punchy, short energetic posts that fit the pacing of the scene. A quick back and forth between two partners can make an action scene read like a book, where a bunch of repetitive long posts describing the mechanical action of sex, overly detailed physical descriptions, repetitive use of the same name for a body part or too many varied names of the same body part, can make a scene a boring slog, or worse still, make the reader laugh at stretching for all those ways to say penis.

Early in a roleplay, when we're still setting the scene, building the world, and defining the characters, my posts are almost always longer. Sometimes, in an intense action scene, my replies may only be a couple of sentences. I almost never write the ah's, oo's, and oh's during sex. I've found my sex scenes are better without labeling every single piece of anatomy, but I do use their proper names when I'm writing in the third person, and often use names I think my character would use if writing from their perspective or in the first person.

A post that just repeats the same thing as your previous post, like continuing a sex scene in an attempt to make it more intimate, often just makes it seem like a boring slog. If the sex scene goes on for twenty minutes of a woman riding a guy, find a way to say that without putting the reader through twenty minutes of descriptions of a penis sliding into a vagina. Move it forward, describe the other positions they moved into, how it made your character feel, the sensations within their body, their thoughts, doubts, fears, the comparisons their brain makes to former lovers, the unexpected and involuntary muscle reactions... but move it forward. Don't just circle around back to where you started.

Most importantly, give your partner something to work with. Leave them with a spot for their post to begin. A question asked, an action that demands reaction, a whispered confession... anything to keep things moving forward and let your partner sink their teeth into a response. My best roleplays were almost like challenges where my partner and I would leave off demanding an answer from the other, be it dialog, action, worldbuilding, anything... if you leave your partner with a question that demands an answer, it makes it almost imperative to answer. This is a delicate one, though. You have to leave them room to maneuver. There's a difference between leaving off with a question and painting your partner into a corner. Don't give them only one way out; leave their options wide open and let them surprise you with their response.

I think that a good post is easy to read, focused on what's important in the scene, fits the pace of the scene, moves the story forward, and leaves your partner with an obvious place to pick things up from their character's perspective. But that's just how I like to do it. YMMV.
 

[Pixel]