One chief difference between tabletop/live action games and online RPGs is the fact that online games involve writing. This can make for entertaining (if somewhat schizophrenic) stories where the writing style changes often. However, there's also a downside-- sometimes people get so caught up in the action that they forget that they need to make the story understandable to everyone else.
Fortunately, this is easy to prevent. As long as you concentrate on setting the scene, getting your character's personality across, and making sure that the next player can write as well. Not sure how exactly to do that? Read on...
When starting a story, you have to make sure your audience has a clear idea of where it's taking place and what's going on. You must establish the location, time period, amount of activity going on, and general mood. This is especially important when you post in a story, since your fellow players need to know where their characters are and what they need to react to.
The most common method of establishing a setting is simply to describe it in the first paragraph:
The sun rose over the forest. Shafts of its light beamed through the broken stained glass windows of the old church, creating colored shapes on a carpet of mass and wildflowers. The sanctuary was empty of human life; the only residents were plants and a few animals. The only noise came from the calls of birds and the rustle of leaves as a stray breeze slipped through them. Other than that, everything was almost supernaturally still, until a heap of blankets in the shadow of the broken-down altar shifted, revealing a young girl, who murmured in her sleep and turned over.
This is excellent for starting off at a slower pace; not too much is going on in the story, so the audience can afford to sit back and devote some attention to the scene. Note that the time, location, and general mood are mentioned along with the action.
This method isn't always the best, however. Say you wanted to start out with a bang, with, for example, a battle. Spending a whole paragraph talking about a scene before adding the action to it would kill any sense of speed. In such a case, it's a better idea to throw in references during the action:
CRASH! Glittering shards of stained glass crunched under Violet as she rolled across the floor, her jaw smarting from the blast she'd just taken. Bracing herself on the remains of a pew, she pulled herself upright, facing her assailant, who stood in sillhouette against the ruined window. He pointed a finger at her. Violet barely had time to leap away before a bolt of red energy blasted where she had been, igniting the old wood. Shrieking, a bird fled its nest as the flames spread. The young girl dashed towards the old church's narthex, trying to avoid the roots and vines spread in the aisle.
See how most of the setting is there? Admittedly, the time of day was left out, but that can be mentioned later and probably doesn't have much impact on the story at that moment. However, the other parts of the setting were established without sacrificing too much of the action.
Another method of establishing a setting, much like the one above, is to use the characters' actions and dialogue. This adds to characterization as well as giving the audience an idea of what's going on:
Yawning and squinting in the early morning sun, Daisy followed Violet into the old church, stepping gingerly on the carpet of moss.
"Jeez, how long has this BEEN here?" she exclaimed, folding her arms to keep from touching the broken pews and various fungi that lived on them. "I mean, look at this place! It probably looked really nice a long time ago, but now everything's just gone bad! Why'd anyone want to abandon such a nice--" she stopped abruptly when something wet dropped onto her head. Daisy craned her neck. Up in the rafters a bluebird nestled.
"Violet?" The blonde's voice quavered a bit.
Violet turned. "Yeah?"
"Please tell me that that bird didn't just do what I think it did."
Once again, a complete setting is established without a break in the action, with the added bonus of an instant impression of what Daisy's like. [I'd like to point out that Violet was the victim of a bit of powergaming there. Controlling other people's characters is to be avoided, but minor infractions like this are generally passable. Still, it's best to get a player's permission first.]
Checklist of things to establish in a scene:
Location (Is it in the middle of a desert? A bustling metropolis? A formless void? What's going on around the characters?)
Time of day (Is the sun setting? Are the stars out? How tired is everyone?)
General appearance (Is the area clean? Are there any interesting objects around, like a fountain or a big stinky dumpster? What's there that would be noticed?)
Level of activity (Are there people other than the main characters? How many? What are they doing? Are there any animals around? Machinery?)
Mood (What's the general atmosphere? Dark and depressing? Warm and fuzzy? How do the characters feel?)
Now that the scene is set, let's talk about characterization. This seems to be pretty easy at first, but it actually takes a lot of attention to detail. Not only do you have to communicate WHAT your character does, but HOW she does it. Choose words carefully when writing for different characters; don't rely on the first thing that comes to mind. Let's take an example that's almost always found in the more mediocre writing sample: the he said/she said problem.
In describing dialogue, the most commmon- and least interesting- verb to use is "said." It describes nothing other than the fact that someone is talking, which we already know because they just had a line of dialogue! For example:
"Stop it!" Violet said.
BORING! We have no idea what Violet's mood is here. Admittedly, you COULD add an adverb- "Stop it," Violet said quickly.- but there's a better way:
Use a different word! There are about three hundred kajillion words in the English language, so why would you want to use the same ones over and over? Look at the variety of moods you can get just by using other words:
"Stop it!" Violet whispered.
"Stop it!" Violet giggled.
"Stop it!" Violet muttered.
"Stop it!" Violet screamed.
"Stop it!" Violet snapped.
See what a difference one word makes? There's no mistaking Violet's mood in any of these cases. And it's not only in dialogue that a different word can spice up your writing- it can add zest to an action as well. Here's the example:
Daisy dodged the sorceror's energy blast.
How is she dodging? Daisy's not exactly a track star, so she's probably not being particularly graceful. How can I communicate this to the reader? All together now- By using a different word! So, let's replace the basic and boring word "dodged" with something a bit more descriptive:
Daisy stumbled away from the sorceror's energy blast.
The sentence is a little longer, but it says so much more about Daisy now. Don't be afraid to replace a basic word with a more descriptive phrase (unless said phrase happens to be more than six or seven words long) if it'll add some spice to the action.
Seems daunting, doesn't it? Don't worry, it's not that hard! Notice that in both the examples the word replaced was a verb- just look for any simple verbs like "walk," "run," "say," "stand," or "cry," and try to imagine your character doing any of these things. While she's walking, does she bounce, shuffle, or tromp? Does she sprint while running, or is she more the type of person who jogs? If you have trouble thinking of other words, get a thesaurus; they're very useful.
Okay, now you've got the ball rolling, and you're ready to send it out. However, you might want to check and make sure the next player to post actually has something to do. So many stories languish forever because nobody's clear on exactly what to do next, usually because the last post was ended too neatly. Unless you're typing up the last post of the story, make sure there's a loose end for someone else to pick up-- have your character address someone else, or at least notice another character. Then again, there's always the old standby:
Violet didn't see the other person until it was too late. The two collided, and the brunette landed painfully on her rear end.
"Ouch!" She shook her head and scrambled to her feet, holding out a hand to the other person. "I'm so sorry-- I wasn't looking where I was walking!"
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