Section two; How to expand on your
posting lengths.

Okay, I know that many of you do not know me, but when I first started off role-playing, I couldn’t get past five word posts. I was a beginner though, yet I’d look at these people and go ‘how on earth do they get those long posts?’ And it took me a while because I never settled in one place. But here I am now, to all you people out there, to tell you all how to make these really long posts with a few simple steps.

Step One: Do you know your character? The moods.
At the start of any post, you must determine what mood your character is in. Are they angry? Upset? Confused? Are they happy, or ecstatic? Perhaps they’re feeling excited? This is what you need to decide, and it will help your character and posting length, if you describe a bit about what they are feeling, and then go into describe why, and how, and what would possibly calm them down or make everything better. Example,

‘Vicki ran into her room, she was angry, and not for the first time’

This tells us your character is angry, however, it does not tell us why, or how. So, shall we take this a little further?

‘Not for the first time, Vicki had slammed her room door shut after running up there to hide herself. The anger pulsing through her body was going at such an uncontrollable rate, she didn’t know if she could calm herself down in time before she actually smashed something to pieces. Her hands gripped the ends of her bed so hard that her knuckles turned red, and her breathing became faster with her heartbeat. Why had it happened? It had happened before – the downside of having a younger sister that seemed to get away with everything. Vicki scowled, falling back onto her bed, and slamming the pillow against the wall, breathing unevenly. Her artwork was ruined, her mother didn’t care edgeways; it was so bloody irritating!’

We have expanded! Going from a fourteen-word sentence, to a one hundred odd word paragraph. It goes into depth about why Vicki was angry, and also how she is dealing with her anger (not in the best way, I admit, but its still releasing it). Get into your character’s mind, that is what this is about. If you cannot expand on your characters personality and get into their head, then you clearly do not know them at all well. I suggest sitting down with a pen and some paper and writing down everything about your character, from start to finish.

Step Two: I can see into your mind [The personal thoughts]
Adding personal thoughts to your posts can expand them a lot. You can go a whole paragraph of them just simply thinking, thinking over the things which have happened and recent events causing them to react in a certain way. This is perhaps the most challenging thing you can do in a post, but use it right, and it can be extremely effective. Try expanding on their thoughts as well, instead of just mentioning one thought try mentioning all of them. Surely when you’ve been upset once or twice in the past, many things were going through your head? So add! It varies with what kind of personality your character has, so I shall give two.

‘Sarah’s heart was pumping so hard it was almost bursting out of her chest. ‘Why am I doing this?’ she thought, and that very thought had been entering her mind for the past hour, through the whole journey here. Her mother’s words of support meant nothing against her worries, but she kept breathing. ‘Just keep calm. The worst that can happen is that you could pass out…Oh god’ thinking wasn’t helping her much, as that made her jump in her seat as her mother sped round a corner. ‘God, her speeding doesn’t do much good’, everything was going too fast; she could feel the stares of the interviewers now, peering down her back as she stumbled on her words. This was her chance, she was going to get in to university and she knew it, but the interviews…the car came to a stop and Sarah clung hard to her bag, almost ripping through the material. Stay calm, stay calm, and BREATHE! It was going too fast, and before she knew it, her timid steps had entered her into the building…’

And for the second, the same basic post, but edited in the form of a much more open and confident person.

‘It was nothing she couldn’t handle. Aimee had her arms folded across her steady moving chest as her mother’s car rounded a corner. She was doing this because she wanted to get somewhere with her life. ‘This is going to be easy…just go in there and give it all you’ve got!’ A grin moved across her face, pros and cons for this were moving through her mind but she pushed them back; she had all the confidence she could ever want for this, entry into university. The only bad side would be the incapability of seeing her friends as much as she wanted to, but she’d get by that. She was strong; she’d get through without a second doubt, parade in, make tons of new friends and hope for the best. Another grin as the car stopped, and Aimee moved quicker than lightening out of the car, taking steps forward to her future with a confident spring in each stride’

See, Sarah is a quite person, and you get that from the fact that she’s extremely nervous about getting to the interview about university. And from Aimee, you can get the feel that she’s a bit up-herself in a way. Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?

Step Three: Know where you are [Familiarize: The surroundings]
Possibly the easiest, but what most people take for granted. Describing your surroundings and whether your character is comfortable where they are gives a great deal of interesting features and emotionality to your posts; you can describe what’s going on/happening around them and at the same time note whether or not they like where they are. For this example, I’ve incorporated my own character [Paris] into the post.

‘As soon as she had turned the key into the slightly rusting lock, and closed the door behind her entry, Paris knew she was alone. The echoed silence drifting around the house from her previous call of question, hello, had received no answer, and to add, the lights were off. Her hand went for the light switch, and a soft smile played against her lips the moment her eyes adjusted to the sudden illumination, she was home. The familiar smell of her old life drifted across her senses, and the colours, she knew too well. Paris knew her place here, she knew where everything was, but there was a slight disadvantage to this evening; being alone. Paris never liked being on her own, in fact, she hated it. And being on her own in an empty house brought on a slight worry; each echo that she may hear, or drifting of a shadow, could mean that someone else was hiding in the dark. A shiver ran down her spine. She was being cynical; no one could possibly be here. Although she was satisfied with her quick round check of the house, there still remained the thought of maybe. Maybe there could be someone there, hiding, waiting to grab her. She shook her head, it wasn’t worth worrying about.'

As Paris described her home, and that she was happy with her surroundings, she was also worried about the disadvantages of being home alone. See, it gives the post more depth, and elaboration on simple things really makes it swing easier.

Step Four: Like pieces of a puzzle [Putting everything together]
If you have followed me all the way through this, then congratulations you! You have obviously understood what I have been going on about, and taken everything into mind, and now, with a little help from my tired muse, I can show you what combining everything does. [This was written by me, so no stealing, else find myself with a pitchfork chasing you around the net, and I will get help doing so, IP addresses people]

'The rain reminded him of things he’d used to do with friends. Not in the bad way, getting into trouble by sneaking round people’s houses dripping wet and sodden with rain, no. But in the sort of sense that he would be outdoors, when he was much little of course, playing football in the drenching pitter pattering of the drops of wetness. There were so many things they would do, in the rain. They would run around with masks on, and pants over their heads, wailing out and shouting with excitement as they pretended to hit each other with plastic light sabers. Then the rain would beat down on them to such extremes that their clothes would stick heavily to their bodies as they trod wet muddy shoes into the hallways, hands sweaty and still gripping hold of whatever had preoccupied their attentions to such extents that they hadn’t even noticed how wet they were getting. And their hair, sticking fast down their facial features and ears, Hayden clearly remembered his hair acting as a sort of long curly shield around his eyes whenever it was wet. That was stupid, as he looked back and to what he was now it seemed like a whole other lifetime ago that he was able to mess around, get wet, dirty and angry, and still not change into a freaky wolf which could stand on two legs if he wanted. He wasn’t going to complain about it, the best thing that had happened to him as far was what he was more excited about. All the energy packed up inside him at this very moment was stirring something inside his mind, making him shiver where he was. Any passer by wouldn’t take sympathy for his shivering, they would believe that he had simply decided not to huddle up to and share the umbrella of the perfectly innocent, young, beautiful, perfect girl next to him. But it wasn’t the cold drifting around his mind, surfacing when he couldn’t control his emotions at one certain time. It was the thought, and the knowledge, of what he was, and what he could do. And what he was very much capable of doing at his young age, letting everything personal get in the way of controlling his emotions and status around humans. It drove him almost to the point of insanity, where he would need to talk to someone about how he was feeling otherwise it would build up inside his body like fizzy coke inside a bottle when you shake it. And when you open it, the coke spills out with foam, and that’s what would happen to Hayden; a break out of emotion and exposure of what he and the others were…werewolves.

But with Terri beside him everything seemed to be calm. When he was building up something inside of him, talking to her made him calm and relaxed, and much to the point nearer sanity then insanity. Could he really be that close to her? He felt like he was and yet too afraid to push it any further, was it what she really wanted? It wasn’t as if they were dealing humans here, not like that bloodsucker and his obsession with the mortal girl, although Hayden’s spiralling feelings towards Sienna were somewhat similar, here was a beautiful girl who he could be happy with, quite easily, and he liked her in that way enough to say that out loud to a spokes load of people, but it just didn’t seem right when he had grasped two girls’ attentions, and now was playing time on their emotions to figure out what he wanted and who, and how he was going to cope with the damage left to the other person. With Sienna it would only complicate things terribly if he were to choose her; a dangerous decision on his part to involve her in a world she would never have imagined true. Yes, monsters did exist dear, and did I mention I’m one too? That would send her loopy, he was sure of that. The confusion he could almost picture in her face, then the laughter and mocking would probably follow in such a sense that she might be proved he was insane and yes that he needed help. Hayden refused to move anywhere on that subject. As far as his parents knew, he was perfectly fine being a werewolf. They knew of the legends and bloodline stories, did they not? But Hayden just didn’t know whether or not Sienna would be able to cope with the shock and realization of it all. Then again, perhaps he was just imagining things, and he had better let things unfold as they decided to, or as fate had planned in its mind.

If Hayden chose Terri, however, then things would take the opposite turn. Like Hayden had already been thinking, Terri knew everything that was happening to him. Heck, she had even gone through it herself, and she was alive, she was coping, was she not? The fear of hurting her stung him in the back, and he couldn’t bare it if she was suffering because of his mistakes in involving them both in his own selfish wants, so he saw it. The road ahead of him, his future, never looked so foggy. The outcome in the werewolf transformation for the first time, he had understood, and knew it would work the moment he was changing. Of course, all the others had changed so why couldn’t he? Hayden just had the problem of realizing the danger of his irresponsible actions and decisions he would make in the future, most probably anyway. And the hyperactive ness he often went through when around many others. He had feelings for both, both equal in his love and desire, yet Hayden found himself looking at depth personality and beauty…Terri came more appealing. But still there was just no answer for him, to concentrate on and decide his future. damn, he wished that fortune telling bloodsucker could sense out the future for the werewolves. Then he’d quite honestly jump down there and get her to tell him what would happen to him. He was willing that much. He needed guidance, what was it happening to him? All this stress, everything pilling on top of him stack after stack, did they never stop? Did they never stop stacking? How high was he stack…were the people using ladders to add even more? Hayden cursed silently in his mind, glad that thoughts could only be read in wolf form. Wait, was he in wolf form? The rain had stopped beating down on him. Terri was closer to him now, the ducky umbrella shielding them from the raining clouds above. He was still human, as he saw his hands in his lap. He went to brush a hand through his hair and as he did, only made things much worse. Then he flattened it, so at least it looked the tiniest respectable, and laughed as he looked at Terri. The enjoyment and friendship the two had together was something he would never want to lose.

Again, a laugh for hers in return. The nickname was something he’d gotten used to, although it sent a warm feeling throughout his body whenever she said it. He’d leave and come back a million times if it meant hearing her voice speak those words so clearly without hurt in her tone. “Hey Terri,” He grinned, looking up briefly at the faint outline of ducks circling the umbrella for the decorated pattern. Trust her, but he liked it. Of course he did. He stopped grinning at looked ahead of him. Just as well, Terri spoke again, and the statement presented quite an irresistible urge to do something then, tell her, or show her, how his love was expressed inside of him for her. But nothing came, and he turned back to look at her beautifully delicate features. “It does indeed. But you don’t need the rain to look good,” It was a cheesy line, most likely a Hollywood creation he had probably seen somewhere. But it sounded right with the times.'

© Izobel (Paris here). I did spend a while on this, so please.