Collabs are a stop-gap solution. When you paste many posts together into a collab, yes, it is one scene, but on a read through you will notice that it feels disjointed, because the main problem hasn't gone away:
waiting for approval. You wait for someone to dodge your sword, you ask if it's okay, you recap the other person's post. There is a lot of redundancy and overlap.
In contrast, I'm not saying my scenes are particularly good, but they at least they flow. I gave a disclaimer about this in the character sheet. Your contributions to ilium will (should) largely take the form of
scenes. Yes, for the most part they will revolve around your character. But you should know that the story moves along the smoothest when we plan here and we work together to write scenes.
For example, the list I gave a page back is supposed to serve as a guideline for the next person who wants to move us through the ocean deeps to the floor. You can start off by dropping light references to actions if you can't comfortably do dialogue.
Let's say Lemuel is going down.
@Avabel Brioche is writing. He tells us about his feelings and discomfort. He looks to his left and tries to see Hope in the crushing darkness. He finally finds her. They nod to each other. Hope offers some words of encouragement. He looks back down. The minutes pass by. Then, at last, the floor looms in front of them, all at once. Avabel has hijacked, but in a way that moves the scene fluidly.
Another important part is writing about
setting. The setting you describe is coloured by your character's perception of it. The way I describe the sea bed is different from how Hope sees it. Maybe she knows what to expect. Maybe she sees opportunity when Tem instead just sees nightmares. Settings are more than half of the scene!
A second piece you can start to add in, when you are getting accustomed, are small stories. Connecting setting with personal stories reveals things about your character and contributes to the setting - it's a win-win!
Reference this post by Snowday. Writing about your character's reactions to unusual situations tells us about them. Remember,
conflict is growth.
