Rules

Rules of Operation for the Blog Story Pages       

Creativity should never be stymied by rules, so the hard and fast prohibitions on these pages are kept to a bare minimum.  But rules there are, and if you violate them, your posts will be summarily deleted.  So here goes:

1) Let every word and every syllable in each and every post be true to the story.

2) Be courteous to your fellow role players.  This means taking some things in consideration. Please click here and read. . We have zero tolerance for drama!

3) Never delete a profile used in a blog story, and keep it active (log in at least every 45 days).  If deleted, then all your posts in the stories vanish, leaving holes. 

4) Once you start in a story, stick with it to the end.  We all have obligations in real life.  If you need to go on hiatus for a while, we understand.  Just let the story lead know so we can write around you. To show us that you have read these rules, please comment with your favorite gif below.

That's it for rules.  But there are some guidelines that are just as important.  Drum roll, please...

1) THINK before you speak.  Read the story to make sure your post is IN CONTEXT - setting wise, time wise, other characters within earshot, whether it's day or night, etc. etc. etc.

2) Take the time to design your post so it MOVES THE STORY ALONG, in character development, plot, or setting.  If it doesn't achieve any of those things, shut up and sit down!

3) Take the TIME to write well.  You might want to think about writing out your post in Word or Word Perfect, doing a spell check and looking for grammatical errors before posting. 

4) The role playing pages ARE NOT for chit chatting or out-of-character messaging.  There are other venues for that. 

5) THINK about what you want to say, given the context of the story, then commit your thoughts to paper in as few words as possible.  Devise descriptions as needed for the reader to fully visualize what's happening, but for sure, concise is the name of the game, my literary friends.  If you drone on and on and on, your reader will develop attention deficit disorder and wander away, never to return again.  The longest post does not win - it's the one that draws the reader in and leaves them yearning and desperate for more.  THAT'S good writing my role-playing amigos.   

6) Be INCLUSIVE.  Think how to involve other characters who may not be participating for one reason or another.  If you engage in posts that only involve one or two other characters, to the exclusion of others, we will lose the rest of our talented role players.  Give them an opportunity to participate, even if it means delaying the story for a while.   Message them when it's time for their input. 

7) LEARN FROM OTHERS.  Read the posts of your fellow role players.  Find the posts you like and tease out what it is you like about them.  Don't plagiarize anyone word for word, but don't hesitate to adopt or adapt aspects of someone's style or even steal a few words from them now and then.  If you like someone's writing, ask them to critique some of your own posts.  There are excellent writers among us, and we should all be learning from each other.

8) READ AND CONTEMPLATE our blog (on this page) entitled 'A Preliminary Guide for Composing Top-notch Role Play Posts'.

Finally, here are some resources for budding writers.  Take advantage of them...

 https://thesaurus.com  An online thesaurus, dictionary, translator, and encyclopedia.  Use it to be creative with words and to give the appearance that your character is smart.

https://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/easywriter4e/#518364__523173__Identifies the most common grammatical errors.  Use it to be grammatically correct.

https://www.writingclasses.com/InformationPages/index.php/PageID/269 Relish in writing tips from the masters of fiction.