How to improve your roleplaying style

[♥Picasso]

This thread is here to help members that are perhaps not as roleplay-savvy as others. It will help people expand their vocabulary and help them know the right and wrongs of roleplaying. I will try and show what makes a good, literate roleplayer, which hopefully you guys will find useful.

Grammar;

Grammar is a huge part of roleplaying. If you don't know the basic knowledge of grammar, then you are not literate. Here are some rules that you should know, and abide by, when roleplaying:

• Capitalisation occurs at the beginning of sentences and at the use of names (place names or character names). You do not capitalise words such as 'love' or 'dog' unless they begin at a sentence. You also must capitalise 'I', 'I'm', 'I'll' and so forth.
  
• Apostrophes are used when combining words such as 'do not' into 'don't'.
  
• Commas are used whenever there should be a pause in a sentence. Refrain from using commas when full stops (periods) should be used.
  
• When using speech, commas and fullstops should be used after the sentence. For example:
  
  "Hello," she said. This is a correct use of grammar.
  
  She said, "Hello." This is also a correct use of grammar.
  
  
• No excessive use of exclamation marks or question marks. You only need one ! or ?. When using ellipsis (...) then you only need three. Anymore will look cluttered, messy and unprofessional.
  
• Would've, could've and should've translate to would have, could have and should have. Not would of, could of and should of.
  
• There are many other grammatical rules, however I have targeted the most simple ones. This will be edited in due course if I find out more common mistakes.

Expanding vocabulary;

It's always hard to expand your vocabulary, however in roleplaying it can get very boring to see the same old words used over and over again. So, this is a list of well-used words, and other words that can be used instead of them.

Actions;

Look
Gaze, glance, stare, glimpse, peek, glare

Walk
Stroll, saunter, amble, march, stride, pace, hike, toddle, stagger, move

Run
Sprint, jog, lope, scamper, dart, dash, scurry, rush, hurry

Search
Hunt, look for, investigate, explore, seek

Jump
Bound, leap, hop, skip, hurdle

Growl
Snarl, bark, howl, rumble

Reply
Retort, answer, counter

Laugh
Chuckle, giggle, snort, cackle, snicker, snigger, hoot, guffaw, chortle, titter, double up

Whimper
Whine, sob, snivel, moan, whinge, cry

Whisper
Murmur, sigh, speak softly, hiss

Colours

Red
Crimson, scarlet, cherry, ruby, burgundy

White
Ivory, waxen, pale

Grey
Ashen, ashy

Blue
Azure, cobalt, navy, sapphire, indigo

Green
Jade, emerald, lime, olive

Purple
Mauve, lilac, lavender, violet, plum, wine, amethyst

Feelings

Sad
Upset, gloomy, depressed, miserable, cheerless, distressed, saddened

Happy
Ecstatic, content, joyful, cheerful, delighted, blissful, jovial, in high spirits, glad, pleased

Angry
Annoyed, livid, fuming, irritated, irate, heated, cross, furious, incensed, enraged, outraged, infuriated

Calm
Tranquil, peaceful, quiet, still, composed, unruffled, serene, relaxed

Hungry
Starving, famished, ravenous

Full
Satiated, satisfied, sated, repleted, gorged, bursting, stuffed.

Shy
Timid, bashful, introverted, withdrawn, reserved, quiet

This is only a small portion of synonyms. If you ever want a word, yet you can't think of one, there is a thesaurus button at the bottom which you can always press and it'll link you to plenty of synonyms for you ^.^ Also, although they are synonyms, they do not always mean to same thing. For example, navy and indigo both mean blue, but they are different types of blue.

Literary Techniques;

Now we've got our vocab out the way, we can now go onto some literary techniques! These can include similes and metaphors that improve the quality of your writing and make things that much more interesting to read.

Similes

Similes are quite easy to understand. A lot of the time you use them in everyday sentences without even realising. They happen when you describe something, and you use 'like' or 'as' to compare it to something else. A simple simile could be seen as this:

The cat was as fat as a house.

or

The dog laughed like a hyena.

Now these aren't very imaginative or clever similes, and I recommend you use your own brains to think of better similes for your writing. If you can't think of a decent simile, just leave it! You don't need a simile every sentence (I wouldn't recommend it either!).

Metaphors

Ah, metaphors! Now these also compare something to another, however they do not use 'like' or 'as' like similes do. For example:

Her eyes were emeralds.

Obviously, her eyes aren't actually emeralds. Metaphors can be incredibly over the top, however they do the job of making something look grand. Like her emerald eyes ^.^ Again, don't go over the top with using metaphors!

Alliteration

Woop, alliteration! This is when you use words together that sound the same at the beginning. They don't necessarily have to begin with the same letter. For example:

Silly sausage

or

Joyful George

Once again, me and my amazing mind have supplied some epic alliterations XD Use alliterations sparingly ^.^

Imagery

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I think imagery is a must-have in roleplaying. It is definitely essential in the first post of a roleplay, when you're describing the scene using different senses. Without imagery, you won't know if it is light or dark, cold or warm, etc. etc.

I don't have an example of imagery, but you basically use your character's senses to create a mental image of the scene. Descriptive words are essential in imagery so that the reader can get a full understanding of where you are and what the character is doing.

Try and use all five senses: sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste. ^.^

Other;

This is where we focus on other ways to improve your roleplaying skills. So here, have some top tips!

• Get inside your character's head! Work out your character's motives, give them thoughts and feelings. It'll help you develop your character.
  
• Stay clear of ramblings. You don't need a whole paragraph dedicated to the colour of the sky.
  
• Spellcheck your work! I have a spellchecker on my Firefox, which I recommend you download. As soon as I'm writing something, it'll pop up with a red, squiggly line if I've misspelled something.
  
• Read other people's works. If you enjoy how someone roleplays, work out why you like their style so much. What have they included which makes it interesting?
  
• Keep to the same tense. It can be difficult, however check and make sure everything is in the same tense. I personally prefer past tense (she liked instead of she likes).
  
• Keep it descriptive. Don't just say She said. Use adverbs. She said slyly. Describe the setting, describe what your character is doing, describe!
  
• Use a thesaurus. Not compulsory, but if you want a clever word for 'bite' then maybe you should try looking for a synonym.
  
  

That's it for some roleplay help. I hope people find it helpful and it will improve their roleplaying skills <33

If you think anything should be added to this thread, feel free to PM me and I can add it on there :D
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