Post by ADMINISTRATION on Jul 23, 2010 0:49:42 GMT -5
Alright so this is a learning session for everyone that doesn’t know how to post. This also might be informative for all of those people that think they know how to post and for those that actually know. My name is Lisa and I have been posting on Proboards for almost a decade. I am aware that this board already has posting techniques but it can’t hurt to add and learn a couple of things that expand their ideas. So let’s get started. I am going to lay out an outline of a couple of things that all posts should have in them.
1. Every post should have some form of action![/u] A lot of times I will see a post in which the writer will have a bunch of useless words and nothing is done in the post to further the thread or the communication between the posters. Every post should have some sort of motion even if it is something as small as taking a few steps forward or a few steps backwards. There should never be a time when a character does nothing unless they have been told to do nothing by another poster and have an obligation to follow the previous posters commands. Of course, then by doing nothing, they actually do something. However, this is a rare case and so, for the most part try and actually have your character do something.
2. Describe the Setting So many posts do not do this enough. It is unbelievable how much longer your posts will be if you just talk a little about what is going around in your surroundings. So many people get honed into what is going on with their character they start to take a very first person approach. Go third person for a second and just visualize the scene you find yourself in and describe what is going on, just a little bit in every post. It doesn’t need to be a whole paragraph but it can be. Just two or three sentences would be sufficient and it would improve your writing so much. It just gives a much more believable element to your writing.
3. Reiterate! This suggestion is really for newer posters and mainly because they run out of things to say too soon. For those of you that have problems typing long paragraphs and posts, just repeat what the person typed in how you understood it. A trick here would be to say your character is listening to the other person talk about such and such. It gives your character something to do in the post and it gives you a little more space on the page where you have written something. Also, this always you to be thinking about what you’re going to reply as you write out what the other posters have done. Thirdly this really helps the flow of the thread because then other readers can know what is going on from everyone’s post because you give a synopsis or analysis in your post of everyone else.
4. Give the other poster something to do!![/u] This is SO important because so many people don’t do this with their posts. If there are two people in the same room and on opposite sides of one other you have to make something happen to give the other poster something to reply. If you just walk into a bar you aren’t really doing much because all the poster can reply is that he/she sees you walk in. You can do the whole spectacular entrance but sometimes that gets old and redundant. As a poster it is your obligation to keep the person you are posting with interested and keep them moving through the thread with YOUR actions. Don’t wait on them to make every move because they will become bored very quickly and the thread will die. Respond and cause a response with your posts. Make things interesting! This could be as easy as ending every thread with a rhetorical or non rhetorical question for the other poster to answer or think about in their post. Give them something to do right off the bat from your post.
5. Think![/u]This is one of the most overlooked and most often forgotten and yet one of the most important things in a thread/post! Make sure you talk about what your character is thinking and feeling! Emotions are so important to us in reality why should our characters not have them and be contemplating them too? What is your character thinking about when he looks at the other person, watches what they are doing? What is your going feeling? Be as specific as you want and describe everything all the little emotions and even some of the tangents too. It lets us get to know your character more and it just makes them deeper. The deeper the character’s thoughts the deeper the character. I love people talking about their characters and giving me insight about them because it shows me that the writer cares.
6. 250 Words[/b] All you have to do and all I ask for everyone that posts is just please write at least two hundred and fifty words. If you do all the things I just suggested then they will come out in about five minutes at least and you will probably have more than required. The truth of the matter is that posting should be fun but it also should be done well. I am giving you this guideline as a suggestion, not as a requirement and I am not sitting back here all high and mighty because I know I have some grammatical errors somewhere in there.
But have fun and please take these things into consideration. I will probably be adding to this every now and then as some other things come to me. But feel free to suggest other things or comment on my suggestions, I can definitely talk over PMs or this if you would like.
The rules posted above for what I would like every poster to try and incorporate in their posts so that things will run smoothly and the posting quality will be good. Alright everyone, this wasn’t that hard to read so now you are on to the next step of your posting experience! Enjoy Forks!
1. Every post should have some form of action![/u] A lot of times I will see a post in which the writer will have a bunch of useless words and nothing is done in the post to further the thread or the communication between the posters. Every post should have some sort of motion even if it is something as small as taking a few steps forward or a few steps backwards. There should never be a time when a character does nothing unless they have been told to do nothing by another poster and have an obligation to follow the previous posters commands. Of course, then by doing nothing, they actually do something. However, this is a rare case and so, for the most part try and actually have your character do something.
2. Describe the Setting So many posts do not do this enough. It is unbelievable how much longer your posts will be if you just talk a little about what is going around in your surroundings. So many people get honed into what is going on with their character they start to take a very first person approach. Go third person for a second and just visualize the scene you find yourself in and describe what is going on, just a little bit in every post. It doesn’t need to be a whole paragraph but it can be. Just two or three sentences would be sufficient and it would improve your writing so much. It just gives a much more believable element to your writing.
3. Reiterate! This suggestion is really for newer posters and mainly because they run out of things to say too soon. For those of you that have problems typing long paragraphs and posts, just repeat what the person typed in how you understood it. A trick here would be to say your character is listening to the other person talk about such and such. It gives your character something to do in the post and it gives you a little more space on the page where you have written something. Also, this always you to be thinking about what you’re going to reply as you write out what the other posters have done. Thirdly this really helps the flow of the thread because then other readers can know what is going on from everyone’s post because you give a synopsis or analysis in your post of everyone else.
4. Give the other poster something to do!![/u] This is SO important because so many people don’t do this with their posts. If there are two people in the same room and on opposite sides of one other you have to make something happen to give the other poster something to reply. If you just walk into a bar you aren’t really doing much because all the poster can reply is that he/she sees you walk in. You can do the whole spectacular entrance but sometimes that gets old and redundant. As a poster it is your obligation to keep the person you are posting with interested and keep them moving through the thread with YOUR actions. Don’t wait on them to make every move because they will become bored very quickly and the thread will die. Respond and cause a response with your posts. Make things interesting! This could be as easy as ending every thread with a rhetorical or non rhetorical question for the other poster to answer or think about in their post. Give them something to do right off the bat from your post.
5. Think![/u]This is one of the most overlooked and most often forgotten and yet one of the most important things in a thread/post! Make sure you talk about what your character is thinking and feeling! Emotions are so important to us in reality why should our characters not have them and be contemplating them too? What is your character thinking about when he looks at the other person, watches what they are doing? What is your going feeling? Be as specific as you want and describe everything all the little emotions and even some of the tangents too. It lets us get to know your character more and it just makes them deeper. The deeper the character’s thoughts the deeper the character. I love people talking about their characters and giving me insight about them because it shows me that the writer cares.
6. 250 Words[/b] All you have to do and all I ask for everyone that posts is just please write at least two hundred and fifty words. If you do all the things I just suggested then they will come out in about five minutes at least and you will probably have more than required. The truth of the matter is that posting should be fun but it also should be done well. I am giving you this guideline as a suggestion, not as a requirement and I am not sitting back here all high and mighty because I know I have some grammatical errors somewhere in there.
But have fun and please take these things into consideration. I will probably be adding to this every now and then as some other things come to me. But feel free to suggest other things or comment on my suggestions, I can definitely talk over PMs or this if you would like.
The rules posted above for what I would like every poster to try and incorporate in their posts so that things will run smoothly and the posting quality will be good. Alright everyone, this wasn’t that hard to read so now you are on to the next step of your posting experience! Enjoy Forks!