For all of you that prefer long posts/write long posts: why?

[owls]

Simple question. Why do you want 10-15 lines per post, and why do you put out 1k+ words for every little scene? Not attacking anyone directly. It's just, I've been stretching my wings on Jcink and Proboards lately, and it's somewhat common over there to encounter people who have word counts of 600 minimum. And you always see those people praising others on their lengthy posts, which is weird to me. I just sort of want to understand y'alls thought process.

 

[Nav]

I write long posts because I enjoy it. I wish I had a more eloquent answer, but I don't. I enjoy the detail and thought I and my partner places into a scene. I enjoy watching my partner describe the scenery so I can picture it, and it allows for really unique and in-depth analyses of character development.

 

[Maggie]

Sometimes I can think of more details in certain rp situations and I forget I'm not writing novels. But other times I agree, it's difficult in a lot of ways, to write a lot of long, 20 paged paragraphs! I am not always a long-paragraph writer, but I do like to make sure to wring out every detail I possibly can. Some days I have more focus than others though. Just depends! I'm pretty flexible about it though. :)

 

[Elle Joyner]

I personally think less in terms of length and more in terms of quality. You can crank out 600 words of pure crap or make me cry with two sentences. Depends on the content and what you do with it. I don't enjoy reading useless fluff. It irks me to see 10000 words in one post and have maybe one or two sentences be something reaction worthy. To read half a novel and not have any mention of the scene or other characters in it. Our inclination as writers shouldn't be to write A WHOLE BUNCH of useless words. It should be to master taking any number of words an evoking emotion with them.

 

[junebug]

I'm with Elle on this one. Quality over quantity always

 

[Indabayou]

To me, it's like each post is a piece of a story. I really love reading books and fanfic and stuff, so I want my posts to emulate that kind of writing that draws a person in and gets them invested and excited to see what happens next. I find that I can't really do that with less than 2-300 words, and sometimes I get to 600 or more without realizing it because I have so much to say and so much of a scene to set. There's nothing wrong with short post rping, in fact it can be fun and move things along more quickly, but I personally just enjoy writing more.

 

[Skyswimsky]

Not one of the people who can consistently make long posts. In fact, I've cut things rather shorter than I would have liked to because I started working, ehehe...

But, honestly, a lot of these 'Wow such amazes. Gud quality. You awesome! Much words many praise.' things are more often than not outright bad. Don't get me wrong, you can keep up a certain amount of quality and make a post long; but that really depends on what you are given to work with. If you're having some rapid-fire dialogue/collab going on and you are consistently hitting such lengths then you are certainly doing something wrong.

Not everyone has understood that roleplay is something you work on together with others, not write a book. But by far the biggest and worst culprit are people who have yet to learn that too much introspection is bad. Simple as that.

Maybe I am wrong but I'm 90% positive that these posts you are talking about, most of the time, are posts including said introspection. Don't get me wrong, some introspection at certain places is certainly healthy, but a lot of people make the mistake of giving too much too soon. Maybe it's because they've come from one-liner city and the first 'thing' they were supposed to work on was their posting length, thinking quality equals quantity. Or maybe they're afraid the RP dies too soon and they have to get everything out in non-speech.

I don't know.

 

[The Mood is Write]

I'm a bit of a long-poster, sometimes, though I also know the benefits of shorter posts as well.

For me, I enjoy long posts and respect short posts that do well enough to get the job done—that job being to convey the necessary information. As long as a post can do that, regardless of size, it is a useful post!

However, I've found that longer posts can be a little more fun to read. They let you delve into deeper details and highlight those things that are important at the moment. As long as you don't get carried away, you can go on tangents based on the character's thoughts and emotions, too—those people who say never to tell those? They're silly, it's a sometimes food. ;3

But beyond that, long posts just sort of end up... happening, after a while. Especially for people who are constantly questioning how they can improve their writing.

That doesn't mean that long posts are all good posts, though. It's just a step in learning.

Eventually, those players may learn that the best roleplays have a variety of post sizes. Long posts are better for some moments, while shorter posts can be better for getting through slogging scenes, for something lower-effort, or even just for something more quick-paced!

Post size should be variable, because the content is what needs to shine more than the word number.

Often times, when I'm stuck on something, I'll throw a short post for the sake of moving forward so I can continue to experience the story. When I'm feeling the teeth of excitement and fascination on my neck, I can write for miles (and often break discord's character limit lmao).

Based on the above, I do enjoy longer posts more, but I also believe that there's some sort of upper limit—usually a person's attention span—to take into consideration when writing those novel-sized posts.

My best advice to anyone reading this to figure out if long or short is better? Experiment and find what's more fun to you. For a week or two, try writing 1k-word posts. For another week (or another RP) try to do 50 or fewer words! You don't have to hit the goal every time, and you don't have to strain, but making an effort can be a fun learning experience that helps you find your favorite voice.

Also, take all advice or rules with a grain of salt. Not all long posts are good. Not all short posts are bad. It comes down to preference!

... I think I got a little off-topic.

Anyway, I honestly enjoy long posts a bit more, because I've always loved to read and been able to read quickly. I love the details that can be added, and the opportunities those posts give me when they're done well.

For me, shorter posts don't always have the important details needed—if he laid down, is he on his side, back, belly? Maybe on his head? Clarity is important to me. =D

 

[fish-writer]

I think both have their place! In general, I prefer long posts because I'm a slow RPer. However, I've been in 1:1 RPs where my post length is significantly shorter because I post a lot more often. In this latter case, less happens per post. Maybe it's just a paragraph that's a line of dialogue and an action, instead of a full scene.

For my long posts, a lot usually happens in one post, whether that's a lot of action, or a lot of reaction, or a mix. I also agree with Mood about level of detail– it's kind of reassuring to see long posts with a lot of detail so I know exactly where everyone is and what they look like.

 

[ᴛᴏᴄᴋᴀ]

I like writing. That's pretty much the biggest reason for it. I always warn people that I will write novels because I've had way too many people start a roleplay with me, look at my first post and say 'I can't write that much. I'm out.' (Paraphrasing, but you get the idea.)

Writing is my happy place. It gives me an outlet for my stress and helps me stay focused on something other than the chaos in my house. If I'm into a plot and I've got a character that speaks to me, I can go on and on until I have to force myself to stop. Mind you, I don't expect people to match me word for word, but I tend to become more invested in stories where I have a partner that's contributing just as much as I am. To me, short replies feel like they're just there to push the story forward and nothing more. I know that's not how everyone sees it, but that's how my brain works.

 

[Prometheus.]

Hah, I am one of those who'll write you the longest bloody novel that ever existed as one reply in a roleplay to make you read it all!

Nah!

I write long posts (2-5 word pages average, often longer, longest reply I have ever written was 28 word pages long in one post) because I am a sucker for detail, for flashed out characters, for elaborate, deep introspection, for painting a picture of the scenes outside and inside of the characters, their thoughts, their presents, their pasts, their philosophies, their dynamics with their surroundings, because I enjoy to create and to shape vivid and lively worlds, universes and stories with different types of characters in them.

The goal of my writing - no matter if it's a novels or a roleplay - is to accompany and follow my characters through their journeys and adventures that unfold and create on my mind like a movie and to get this across, to make it come to life and be able to indulge in their worlds and to invite the person who reads my work to to enter and lose themselves in those very worlds too while reading it and this is what I am trying to achieve. When it comes to roleplaying it is important to convey this as the roleplay partner is supposed to be able to experience the story and the universe created while at the same time it requires them to manage to be able to do the same thing with their writing and their characters for it to be interesting and worthwhile for both parties.

I also like to take on challenges, to try out new perceptions, different characters and worlds all the time. I like to grow and improve as a writer while I am actively writing. I am all for broadening my horizon and my repertoire.

This, to me, is what I consider to be fun about roleplaying and writing and what makes it such a great hobby and while one doesn't have to match my posts in length 100% and I understand that different scenes require different length in content, one has to give me detail, introspection, development, depth and quality, something that makes me able to get to develop an interest in the characters and the roleplay, to have substance to work with, that moves things forward and contributes as much as I do. I need something that motivates me to respond with something good to what I get!

And all of that's simply not possible with plain and short posts at all!

I can't work with short posts, they don't manage to get me hooked, they bore the living shit out of me and I will lose interest.

When I get those plain, shallow and short posts and haven't dropped it immediately, due to whatever reason, maybe because I see potential in the story, the characters or think there might be room for improvement and it could get better, I have the problem that I usually massively struggle to reply to those roleplays, I will often be unmotivated to respond and I'll automatically end up prioritising every other detailed, deep, lively roleplay with substance that is thought through, fun to read and manages to capture me over the one with short posts even though it would – theoretically – take me a lot less time to type up something equal in response to the short, shallow, plain one that doesn't contain much detail and information as a novella style one does.

 

[ᴛᴏᴄᴋᴀ]

When I get those plain, shallow and short posts and haven't dropped it immediately, due to whatever reason, maybe because I see potential in the story, the characters or think there might be room for improvement and it could get better, I have the problem that I usually massively struggle to reply to those roleplays, I will often be unmotivated to respond and I'll automatically end up prioritising every other detailed, deep, lively roleplay with substance that is thought through, fun to read and manages to capture me over the one with short posts even though it would – theoretically – take me a lot less time to type up something equal in response to the short, shallow, plain one that doesn't contain much detail and information as a novella style one does.

This! So much this!

Sorry, I'm just happy to see I'm not the only one like this. -Sniffles-

 

[Elle Joyner]

Ironically, I find myself with the opposite problem. You may say you don't expect folks to match length for length but the difficulty there is that some people still feel obligated to. At least, speaking for myself, I do...

And it murders my muse to try lol. I find unnecessarily long posts draining and tiresome both to read and write, generally bogged down in overly descriptive details and far too much exposition. Anyone who can write ream after rram and NOT fall into that trap, man... You're a writing legend or something.

Roleplaying is meant to be a team sport, and pages and pages and pages of writing for one post, at least to me, feels a little like hogging the ball.

That's not to say ubershort posts are better... There just ought to be a middle ground between one-liners and novellas...

 

[Nemopedia]

Places that tend to have a minimum-paragraphs, or minimum-words rule tend to work with the thought that one-liners can't ever contribute to a story, move a scene, or give the partner something to work with. It is the same sort of trend as the use of literate, semi-literate, etc...

Having been part of both the 'one-liners club' and the 'you must write x-amount' I like to consider myself a compromis between the two, haha. I can see the sense and use in both, but also their nuisances. In the end it is all about moving the scene in roleplay and avoid being stuck in a 'time-vacuum', which both one-liners and long posts can create. One-liners just tend to be more notorious for them, because of the lack of detail and hooks that it leaves the partner to respond with. It is just all about what is happening in the scene itself. If your character is involved in an intense dialogue I can imagine a witty one-liner to be all that is needed to tip the whole scene and give your partner enough to work with. Longer posts are good when the pace is slower and when a scene needs to be set up, like in world-building, or to explain the emotions a character is going through.

To me, depending on the scene I hold no real preference over what length I receive. Longer posts can make me happy if all the information within is relevant to me to write a response to. However, if it is eternally digging into old dialogue that has long since moved on because there is that one witty comment that must be made by the character, or a detailed recap of what happened before, but from the eye of the other, then I usually drone out. The scene isn't moving, time isn't shifting, just filling and rewriting itself creating the time-vacuum I mentioned earlier. The same goes for shorter posts with a few lines. When placed in a dialogue where nothing much happens I'm a happy champ to respond to a few lines. Though if it is basically an 'ok-response' (thus responding, but not adding to the scene) I'm going to be similarly stuck and lose interest.

TL;DR: I don't think we can agree on any sort of length of post being better than the other. It is all about what the story needs at that moment.

 

[Quiet Pain]

Actually, I write long posts because of communication. If my partner knows a lot about the world they've created and can communicate with me as many details as possible about plot, character arcs, world conflicts, etc, they might find I can create compelling content. I think short posts sometimes have the issue of being afraid to explore the world because the limitations aren't known. I actually say that because of my own writing experience.

If my post is short, it's honestly because I don't feel comfortable in the world my partner or I created. I don't know what the "rules" are or what direction my partner wants to go in.

If there is preparation, I feel roleplays will be able to move forward regardless of length. If someone makes a really cool world with really cool characters, heck yeah I'm gonna be detailed and explore the heck out of it. That said I ask a lot of questions.

 

[Diana]

I need content I can respond to. It doesn't matter if it's 5 sentences or 50 paragraphs! There needs to be content that moves the scene forward. My posts tend to average around 300 words, and only get longer if I am setting up a scene or a major event. But I always, always make sure there is dialogue you can respond to, actions that you can respond to, scenery to interact with and guiding tidbits that helps my partner (or players) know which direction they can go to progress our scene.

For me, being able to actually TELL the story and have our characters evolve is way more important than focusing too much on every single nittygritty detail.

I've seen people go through pages and pages of 1000 word posts and they're just rehashing the same content over and over. There'd be like one line of dialogue and maybe one action/movement and the rest is just useless exposition or repetition of what the prior posts were. Just like where one liners progress nothing cause you have zero content to respond to be a "he smirks", these mega posts are just spinning in place. We can't get anywhere. I want my characters to evolve and I want to learn the surprising back story, and all play out the story, and we can't do that if we spend 10 pages on one scene because all my partner is doing is re-writing my post in their character's perspective and then giving me one line of new dialogue. And that's been MY experience with most of the mega-post writers.

if you're writing a thousand words of new valuable content, then heckin yeah I'm happy. O: but I don't think that is sustainable for every post.

 

[Crystalline]

I personally enjoy writing them. I didn't always start off doing posts in the 1K realm but I think around the first or second year of roleplaying I wanted to do more and strived to do more. I really like getting in the mind of my characters, their thoughts or emotions, ultimately how they are feeling. I'm also a world-builder. I want to convey to my partners what I see in the world I'm trying to create meaning I put in details, relevant information without going overboard completely.

 

[owls]

Shameless bump -- I love reading opinions.

 

[Luma]

As far as post content goes, I like to categorize them into these four 'energy levels' by how aggressively they push forward the plot:

High-energy
Content which directly pushes the plot forward - Running over another character's bike with a truck, spilling a drink over another character's jacket, releasing an alien death-hound from a stasis chamber, etc. If you're the GM in a group RP, you'll want to write a lot more of these than usual.

Mid-energy
Content which pushes the scene toward an opportunity for another high-energy post, or at the very least inviting one to occur - hastily parking a bike so it rolls off into the street, wandering into a bar with an expensive jacket on and noticing a 'wet floor' sign, pointing out a cryptic computer terminal in an alien language and mistranslating it. These can also be more subtle if you have good OOC communication and/or collective skill: sighing before walking off, a mischievous look in the eyes, and any other bait you can expect another character to take.

Low-energy
Details and most dialogue fall into this category - Worldbuilding extra pieces of the scene, adding some action in the background that doesn't directly involve the main characters, continuing a casual conversation. In most cases, low-energy can be upped to mid-energy simply by inviting something to go wrong: a bar fight in the background is low-energy until your character turns to the crowd and demands they 'pipe down.'

Zero-energy
Introspection is tons of fun to write; it's also rarely fun to read in large doses. Maybe that's just personal opinion, but it seems to be a common one from what I've heard. This adds nothing the other RPer can react to. It's not useless: introspection can balance out a tense, high-energy scene and give weight to a character's decisions. Still, I'd rather this stuff be the sprinkles on the cake: not the cake; not even the frosting. If introspection is a must for you, I recommend broadcasting it for the other character(s) to notice. "Her gaze traveled off to an impossible distance as she recalled that perfect day," "he visibly cringed at the horrible joke his mind had spawned," etc.


So how does this all relate to post length? Regardless of what RP I'm in, I want a mix of these differing energies over the course of about a week. If I'm in an RP where the other player(s) semi-reliably keep up a multiple-post-per-week pace, I don't mind dropping in a small-ish, low-energy post: worldbuilding, casual conversations... all that good stuff. If I'm only gonna get one post per week (or even less), then I might try to cram the details in with the plot-driving events. Doing that, they can definitely get pretty long, but if ya skip something, the RP is either slow or dull.

 

[Loveless]

I just like writing and don't know how to be concise. Really, more than posts, my highest problem is with the CSs where I just write three rather long paragraphs for personality and then more 5 or 6 for the backstory. I can't help it, it's just how I tend to do things.

Now why? There's a couple of factors that influence this. Number one: I'm a perfectionist and normally if it's the first post for a roleplay (group RP mostly), you're trying to 'make your mark' get your style and who you are and who the character is across, that's why it's normally referred to as an 'intro post', it's your introduction to the setting, character and writer all in one go. I find these a bore and really stressful to do because of that. Taking that first post as some kind of business card will cause me to unnecessarily fret over it and push myself too hard.

Perfectionism is a good quality to have to one extent. It means you're always willing to put big effort into the things you do because you want it to mean something you want to impress AND be satisfied with the work. But on the other end, if you can't push yourself to quit it, it becomes a hinder and a fun hobby is quick to spiral into grinding senseless work.

Now, going past that barrier, past the very first post, there are a lot more things in stake. Number two: I think of my characters as people. Remember when I said 3 paras for personality and 5 for backstory? That happens because once I think of a concept to work with, I tend to go very deep into the psychology of it all (No wonder I tried it for my college major), I like to really get into what makes that person 'tick' so to speak. The personality traits, surface-level or deeper, have to have come from somewhere. That's what the backstory is for. Why is this person the way they are, what traumas, what happenings have influenced them to act and think the way they are.

Such a style of writing tends to get rather introspectful. I like to pair some internal dialogue in the narration with what is occurring in the scene, sometimes it's in complete contrast with the character's actions, sometimes it's an internal struggle that keeps re-surfacing. For example, a manipulative character might think badly of a person, but speak graceful and politely to them to maintain an image. In the other hand, someone dealing with anxiety, agoraphobia and panic attacks will have the jabbing fears coming at them from left and right, the little paranoias, the sensation of being trapped and having nowhere to go. Someone with terrible self-esteem will continuously self-deprecate themselves, think they're not worthy of affection or effort, ask things like 'Did you expect this to go any different?' to themselves when things go wrong... This kind of things.

As someone who experiments a lot out of my comfort zone, I want to know these things, I want to relay these things. You can say I want to effectively 'become' the character in my writing. Feel what they feel, think what they think and be able to reproduce it in text. From this to the ways they interact with their environment and even other people.

This is the part that makes RP'ing fun to me. To put this person together, see they interact and change in the course of the story. Even internally. The internal dialogues themselves change and I get that feeling of a proud 'mother' whenever a character progresses with an issue they had and such. Certain characters start with many possible arcs that they can end up at, so I watch from the side-lines cheering for the good one, but I never actively influence this. I let them progress and traverse freely. I'm a messenger, not a god.

Number three is well, me not knowing how to be concise with certain subjects. Being able to relay thoughts in a clear and shortened form is not a talent that I have. I'm afraid that I might cut something that felt important to me somewhere in the way and make the whole thing confusing or not exactly what I wanted to say. Words are hard, and I'm one for metaphors and detailed descriptions more than for summarized forms by default, so when I have a task where I must be concise, it doesn't flow as well, I get stressed, it becomes a chore.

In RP I like to give a clear snippet of the environment, or at least important pieces of it in a way that the reader can follow it so closely that they might just be there, making the journey with my character. It's like this very vivid movie-like image in my head that I'm so passionately trying to bring to life but just with words, with descriptions.

Put all of these together and you end up with an average of 600-1200 words (Fast-paced RP's get replied to more often) and my max to this day has been 4500 words, for an intro post where I detailed the intricate plan my character followed to escape his own home uncaught.

Conclusion: I really like writing, I take it way too seriously sometimes and I'm awful at being brief ^^'
At least I don't think any of it is purple-prose... The posts are long, but it feels like everything in them has a place and adds something to them, not just fancy words for the sake of being fancy words : P