Re: Improvement/Critique Thread

[ReikoH]

I've seen a lot of older, archived threads that seem to vary wildly in writing quality compared to what the regulars seem to produce now days. I was wondering if there's a favored way of doing things around here.

From my observations, a lot of matches seem to wind up dialogue heavy. To me, this feels a lot like that old comic book problem, where, in the midst of an action shot, Wolverine manages to spew out multiple paragraphs of speech during a scene that should have taken a mere second. Is this normal practice here?

Personally, I feel a minimalist approach to dialogue seems more ideal, especially for posts containing mostly one or two moves / transitions, etc, and posts specifically for promos etc should be more vocal.

[M.J.Caboose14]

HOW DARE YOU INSULT ARE LONG PARAGRAPHS!? WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!?

Jk! It literally doesn't matter. Some people like long, others like short. There's a LOT of freedom here!

[Berial]

I've seen a lot of older, archived threads that seem to vary wildly in writing quality compared to what the regulars seem to produce now days. I was wondering if there's a favored way of doing things around here.

From my observations, a lot of matches seem to wind up dialogue heavy. To me, this feels a lot like that old comic book problem, where, in the midst of an action shot, Wolverine manages to spew out multiple paragraphs of speech during a scene that should have taken a mere second. Is this normal practice here?

Personally, I feel a minimalist approach to dialogue seems more ideal, especially for posts containing mostly one or two moves / transitions, etc, and posts specifically for promos etc should be more vocal.

Not that I’ve been here all that long myself, but from what I’ve also picked up on, the site used to be a lot more congested when it was younger and the quality of writing had a much greater variation. Since then, I feel as though standards have risen a fair bit and quality has improved as old members left and new ones entered.

That being said, how you write is entirely up to you. Dialogue is a largely subjective thing and it can be as long or short, straightforward or drawn-out, as you want it to be. What's more important is that you write in a way that feels appropriate to your character. I find the best practice is just to stick to what you think your character would say in the given context, try and capture their voice in your head as they respond. Everyone learns to write differently and we have more than a few members who don’t share English as their first language. So long as no rules are broken, there’s no problem (though probably plenty of judgement (kidding)).

I couldn’t really say we have a ‘normal practice’, but what I’ve generally observed is that promos tend to have the heavy dialogue dumps. This is usually because its a character’s space to be flamboyant and big and generate hype. Everything else is so much normal conversation…as “normal” as things get here. Just do what comes natural.

HOW DARE YOU INSULT ARE LONG PARAGRAPHS!?

*our

[Harrier]

It is true that the writing styles on AFW changed dramatically. The quality of writing has probably improved, but I have to admit that the majority of my favorite threads are from older threads. No matter how good a post is written, if it fails to capture my imagination I won´t remember it for long.

Regarding the bigger dialogue, I would say it depends. If one of the characters is very dominant, you can parade around and gloat a little bit in my opinion.

[Old_Man_Tai]

Dialogue doesn't have to be set a certain way. It's basically whatever works for your character and your style.

We've come a long way from how we used to be, and while we've lost a fair share of good writers over the years, this current crop might be some of our absolute best yet. That being said, there is no "set" way of doing things here.

I HAVE ENTERED THE IMPROVEMENT THREAD. I ALLOW YOU THE RARE CHANCE TO CRITIQUE ONE OF YOUR ALL POWERFUL AND HOLY MODS, WITH FULL SAFETY FROM ANY FORMS OF PUNISHMENT FOR DOING SO.

BRING ME YOUR CRITIQUES, THAT I MAY LEARN FROM THEM.

[Jaystar]

I've seen a lot of older, archived threads that seem to vary wildly in writing quality compared to what the regulars seem to produce now days. I was wondering if there's a favored way of doing things around here.

While I don't have much to add to what others have already said, I'd like to emphasize that I don't think there is any certain way that is expected in here over the other. Of course, some players seem to enjoy more of lengthier posts etc, and others enjoy more of keeping the match fast-paced with a lot of action going on in briefer texts. I think both are equally fine.

Personally, when I began writing here my emphasis was on trying to come up with, and learning to write posts on the somewhat longer side to try to match the quality of some other players. As a consequence, these days it's really hard for me to write really short posts, even if I wanted to. Ideally I'd like to pretty much match the amount that the RP partner in the thread is producing (as I somehow assume that they would like to read similar posts to their own from me).

Personally I usually enjoy reading both short and long posts, as long as the story/match in question is fun for me. One thing that I do appreciate though is trying to pay attention to the grammar/coherence of the text. Just because obviously, if it's hard for me to understand what is being written/happening, it dampens the experience somewhat. And I'd like to emphasize that this problem does usually not occur with the people who don't have English as their first language, but with players who just don't seem to pay much attention or effort to what they're writing (rare these days). I'm not a native speaker myself either, which is visible at least by the fact that the vocabulary I use tends to be somewhat more basic compared to some others here.

And getting back to the topic, while I don't feel like being in a position to evaluate other people's writing, if anyone fancies to evaluate mine, please go ahead and do so. I can't promise that I'd improve, but it would of course be interesting to hear some thoughts!

[Harrier]

I cant really say anything about Tai, we never managed to post together for more than 20 posts and I don´t follow Tension that much.

@Jaystar
I like the way you go along with a thread. I make an educated guess and say that you often write what you want in your posts instead of making a lengthy talking session out of some minor stuff, which makes it quite comfortable to write with you. I would not have guessed that you are not a native English speaker, but as I am not on myself this is maybe something that I can not really judge.

[XSirenX]

Know your post count boasting rights

[godjacob]

Okay was redirected here so I will just ask this.

I have a wrestler draft in mind with the girl that has the build/personality of a kawaii wrestler but I fear putting her there would limit her capacity as a wrestler given she is part of a three-man tag team I had in mind and I didn't want someone who comes off as a load to the team given kawaii seems all about inexperience and tiring easily.

So I am stuck on what should be done. Since she seems ideal for the kawaii division and I did want to explore that but it suddenly puts a cap on her skill or competitive level which I fear will hurt her.

[M.J.Caboose14]

Honestly, I have 'technical kawaiis' just not in that section. You really don't need to put them in that section. I'd just put them in friction main.

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