USS Odin :: Wiki - Basic Writing Tips

1. Introduction

Writing is writing, and when we sim, we write. But simming is also simming. This "course" style page talks about writing from a simming perspective. From the experienced simmer to the total novice, it's always good to work to improve our efforts! There are even a couple optional "assignments" if you would like a little extra help.

2. A Word about the Technical Stuff: Grammar & Formatting

These are just a few of the “primary” issues I see popping up in logs/posts.

A. The Plague of Ellipses

The ellipses: the '...' that is often used to indicate pauses, hesitations and dramatic emphasis in statements. It's a wonderful little grammatical tool, but it can unwittingly become a plague upon an otherwise well written piece.

Sometimes... it gets over-used... put in places... where commas should be... or where periods... should go... or where... there shouldn't be any of those... things.

There can also just be too many of them. Sometimes……it reads…like the author’s……period…button got stuck……

Do you see my point on this one?

They lose their effect for drama when they'd overdone, much like anything, but what's worse about this particular device is that it can make something very hard to read. It's as if the reader stutters while they're trying to read it, having to continuously start and stop in the middle of statements, and then your whole meaning and point can be lost.

B. Organizing Dialogue

There are two aspects to dialogue, in relation to this section: the grammar of it and the formatting of it.

Grammar: "When you're going to use dialogue, and then a he said or she said to follow, your dialogue sentence should not end in a period, although a comma, question or exclamation mark are fine," the teacher said. "Only when it's not to be followed by a signifier should you use the period."

Formatting: If you have two characters speaking in one post, or in a fanfic, do not put both pieces of dialogue in one paragraph if it's more than one word. Even then, don't do it too often. It makes it dreadfully hard to understand who's saying what.

In all writing, it’s important to remember your reader and to make things easier for them to not only read but also comprehend what you’ve written.

C. Walls of Text: Watch Paragraph Size

Everyone's opinion on what length a paragraph should be in a post differs, and that's fine, because everyone has their own style. Still, you should be cautious about how long your paragraphs go, because when your reader is assaulted with a 'wall of text,' they are probably going to lose interest very quickly. It's just very difficult to read when there is word after word after word with no break, and even worse--see above lesson--if there's multiple speakers' dialogue in that one block. Not only is your reader cross-eyed by the time they get through that huge block, but they're also confused. Breaking up your paragraphs is also a good way to single out particular parts that you really want to make a point about. It draws the reader's eye to it more easily and then in standing out as it does, it stands out in the reader's mind as well.

The moral of the lesson is? Watch the sizes of your paragraphs.

3. A Word about the Technical Stuff: Tense & Perspective

A. Tense

Tense is the framing of your verbs in relation to time. There are three forms of tense, like time: Past, Present, and Future.

When using past tense, you write as though everything has already happened: Example girl walked to the barn and opened the door, where she saw a dead chicken. Immediately, she turned right around and ran away, because nobody wanted to see a dead chicken.

When using present tense, you write as though things are in the process of happening: Example girl walks to the barn and opens the door, where she sees a dead chicken. Immediately, she turns right around and runs away, because nobody wants to see a dead chicken.

When using future tense, you write (I'm sure you can guess) as though things have not happened yet but are about to: Example girl will walk to the barn and will open the door, where she will see a dead chicken. Immediately, she will turn right around and run away, because nobody wants to see a dead chicken.

In simming, we write in the past tense, so be careful to watch that present tense doesn’t slip into your writing—unless it’s dialogue! Which is different.

B. First, Second & Third Person

'Person' refers to your choice of pronouns for the person the post's narrative is focusing on.

First Person: I walked up the hill, because I wanted to see the flower they said was growing in the rock.

Second Person: You walked up the hill, because you wanted to see the flower they said was growing in the rock.

Third Person: She walked up the hill, because she wanted to see the flower they said was growing in the rock.

Due to the nature of simming, people always write in third person. The only times that first or second should be used is in the case of things within a post--for example, a letter's text could be in one of these, while the post around it about the person writing or reading the letter would be in third.

I promise that I'm not telling you this to confuse you, but that for those who read a lot, you can see a lot of different types of things and that can influence your writing. It's good to know what to be careful about and what to avoid.

First and second person can be used in careful circumstances to accent your writing, like in my example above, but should not be your primary narrative choice.

C. Point of View

In writing a log, the point of view that you'll use will almost exclusively be your own character. This means that all thoughts and feelings will be from your character, and dialogue and actions will be as well. The only exception is if an NPC is involved, but you never write for another person's character. It’s considered the “golden rule” of simming to not write for someone else’s character unless you have that writer’s permission.

If you’re writing a log where you’re writing for more than one character, it's very important to remember which point of view you're writing from at which time. This will help keep your reader from getting confused.

Clear:

Joe stood back and looked up at the sky, wondering where that bird had come from. He had seen Alice point to it and then followed the line of sight and seen it himself, so he knew that it was there but it seemed to have just come out of nowhere!

Smiling, Alice shrugged. She didn't care. She liked birds. "It's pretty," she said.

Unclear:

He stood back and looked up at the sky, wondering where that bird had come from. She shrugged. She didn't care. He had seen Alice point to it and then followed the line of her sight. "It's pretty." It had just seemed to come out of nowhere!

Obviously, these are only minor examples and the 'unclear' one is a rather exaggerated case, but you can see how having no clear lines of definition can make it difficult to know who is doing what or thinking what.

It helps to use names to define point of view, but try not to over-do it, because regular pronouns are great, too! It's just particularly tough if you're writing for two characters in one post and both are the same gender, or if you're referring to another character of the same gender--slip in names or other defining details to make sure that your reader knows who you are referring to.

D. Exposition & Dialogue

There are two possible parts to every scene: the exposition and the dialogue. The dialogue is pretty obvious--it's the talking. The exposition is everything goes around it--the descriptions and the information, thoughts and feelings, and things that take place outside the quotes.

You can have scenes with just one or the other, but scenes without exposition are very, very rare in simming because they can be very hard to follow. They're hard to follow in pretty much any writing, but they do happen. Usually, only a few lines for dramatic emphasis are recommended.

Scenes without dialogue are far more common, but if you're going to do that, then you need to make sure that the exposition has enough going for it, particularly if you're writing with someone else.

3. Setting the Scene

A. Show & Tell

One of the biggest rules of writing is this: show, don't just tell, your reader what you want them to know. Make the most of your words to paint the picture for your reader so they feel it as well. If you just tell someone what they're supposed to feel, they won't feel it. You have to show them.

Every moment in life has more going on than meets the eye. You have five senses and most of them are involved in the moment to moment, primarily sight, sound and smell, but also touch and sometimes taste. It's good to remember this when you're trying to lay out a scene your character is involved in.

No, not every sense has to be described in every post, but try to at least think through them. Could your character hear something or smell something that would catch their notice and add a layer of detail?

Sense of physical being is also a very useful detail in logs. How does your character feel? What are their thoughts and their emotions, but also what does their body feel like? If your character is tense, muscles can be taut and start to ache, teeth may grind if they're angry, or their eyes may burn if they've been crying.

When you want to make the most of a scene, be aware of everything that's possible to be going on with and around your character. Pick out what the important details are and then run with them.

Something important to remember, in all writing, is that if you don't feel what you're writing, then your reader won't either. (This is true both in setting and character, but we'll take a look at character later.)

B. First Impressions

Another primary rule of writing fiction is this: you've got a small timeframe to capture your reader. You need to grab them by the lapels and pull them in to your story. Bang them against their monitor! (Not literally, really.) Then, you have to back it up and keep their attention, but those initial lines are the most important.

It’s important to make a good first impression, to engage your readers and your writing partners both!

Focusing on your opening right from the start can be very beneficial to your writing, rather than hoping to get a second chance.

Find below several examples of first lines from popular books across a variety of genres. I am certainly not saying that every log you write needs to be Asimov or something, but these are examples of how popular stories have caught their readers’ attention from the first lines.

You don't need to know the books, but just see the first line/first paragraph and analyze the hook.

"A small lizard perched on a brown stone. Feeling threatened by the approach of human beings along the path, it metamorphosed into a stingray beetle, then into a stench-puffer, then into a fiery salamander." - 'A Spell for Chameleon' by Piers Anthony

"The car was doing at least forty when the right front fender smashed against my left hip and sent me spinning off the road to flop bonelessly into a mass of thick, windblown grass." - 'Bloodlist' by P. N. Elrod

"The sun was already sinking into the deep green of the hills to the west of the valley, the red and gray-pink of its shadows touching the corners of the land, when Flick Ohmsford began his descent." - 'The Sword of Shannara' by Terry Brooks

"1801--I have just returned from a visit to my landlord - the solitary neighbor that I shall be troubled with." - 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Bronte

"When is a legend legend? When is a myth a myth? How old and disused must a fact be for it to be relegated to the category of "Fairy-tale"? And why do certain facts remain incontrovertible while others lost their validity to assume a shabby, unstable character?" - 'Dragonflight' by Anne McCaffrey

"There are some men who enter a woman's life and screw it up forever. Joseph Morelli did this to me--not forever, but periodically." - 'One for the Money' by Janet Evanovich

Each of these, regardless of genre or plot, has something in that first line or paragraph that hooks the reader. This is the lesson to be learned. Even in just a few words, there's something in there that makes the reader want to know more and so they keep reading.

We read these lines and want to know more about this odd little lizard and why it felt threatened. We want to know if Elrod's narrator died and if so, how is he narrating? Why is Flick Ohmsford descending into the valley? What's wrong with the narrator's neighbor that he'll be 'troubled' with him? What is McCaffrey about to tell us that we need to think about these things? And what did Joseph Morelli do to that poor woman's life?

These openings catch our attention enough to make us ask these questions and keep reading to find the answers. That's the brilliance of a good hook.

While none of us (well, mostly) are trying to write novels here, it is still a good thing to try to keep your openings interesting. Just remember that a good opening does need to follow into a good rest-of-it, so don't forsake the rest of the writing just for the opening!

C. Making the Most of Words

The thesaurus is a wonderful thing, but no one expects you to sit at your computer to post with one by your keyboard! This is one area where observing the writing of others--either people you role-play with or from books you read--can be useful. One's vocabulary can greatly increase by exposing one's self to the writing of many different writers.

One of my favorite quotes is from a television show. It says: "Anyone in my family who uses five words when they could've used ten just isn't trying hard enough." (Jed Bartlett, 'West Wing,' for reference.) This isn't always true of all writing, but it can be particularly true in fiction writing and when it comes to setting a scene.

Still, you need to be careful to not go too crazy and lose your reader's attention. Writers are at their best when they have a reader, after all, and in simming, you want to keep the attention of the person that you're writing with!

So... You want to be thorough, but careful to not be too wordy. Choosing your adjectives and verbs can help you to do this. Try to always find the best one to match the scene that you're trying to set--not only will this help in getting across the particular statement, but a pattern in all your words will help set your overall tone.

Remember that choosing one right word can set your scene better than twenty so-so words.

Uncolorful:

The sun was out. It was afternoon. Sue walked to the beach and down the coastline. She was wearing a blue dress, red hair tied back, and was picking up seashells.

Colorful:

The afternoon sun was beating down on the back of Sue's neck as she idly walked along the beach. Auburn hair tied back, she enjoyed the feeling of the wind on her skin. Her dress was quiet shade of blue and she had to lift the hem out of the water as she knelt down to dig seashells out of the sand.

You should be able to see the difference of how information is given to the reader. 'Show, don't tell' your reader what you want them to know.

Don't just tell your reader that the sun was out, or even that it was hot, but that it was burning or 'beating down.' Her hair wasn't just red but auburn, and the dress wasn't plain blue but a 'quiet shade.' She had to pick up her hem to kneel and dig seashells from the sand, not just pick them.

Think about what these different phrases and words do for drawing the picture in your mind.

To use examples from an earlier section:

Anthony doesn't just write that 'a lizard sat on a stone', but that it was a small lizard and on a brown stone. He didn't follow it up with 'it changed shapes' but why it changed and what it changed in to.

This opening would've been very different had Elrod just written: "The car hit me and I fell on to the grass." She gave details about the car, and what part hit the narrator. He (the narrator) went 'spinning' off the road and didn't just fall, but flopped, and bonelessly at that, in to the 'thick windblown grass.' In just these few words, a brighter image has been painted--well, a dark one for the narrator, but a crisp clean image for the reader of what it was like.

Again, it would've been less tactile and visual to the reader is Brook had just said 'the sun set as Flick Ohmsford walked down the hill.' No, he pulls it out just enough to pull you in. The sun was sinking into the deep green hills, west of a valley, with red and gray-pink shadows not just covering the land, but 'touching the corners' of it.

From just these three examples, you can see how just a few words can make all the difference, when they're purposefully and carefully chosen. I know that saying it that way makes it sound like a lot of work, but it's just a little effort for a lot of reward, for both you as a writer and your reader.

Optional: If you want to write a scene and have it reviewed, advice offered, feel free to do the following and email it to the CO at boom.baby83 (at) gmail.com

Take the idea that you've been asked to start a log with someone, but they've asked that you set things up in it as much as possible. Pick a location for them to meet and the starting scenario and then set that scene using the elements we've discussed here.

4. Character

The thing that immediately follows scene is character, in terms of importance and usually in terms of order of events. Character is what you started with here when you joined, but now that we're writing stories, we set scenes and work our characters into them.

Your character is an important part of the scene and outside of it, though. You need to make the most of them just as you would the scene--everything about describing the scene applies to how you describe your character, picking out and illuminating the important details of the moments, and giving a full image of thoughts and feelings.

There's more, though. That's how you want to focus on character in each small scene you write out, but this section is going to deal with the over-reaching concepts of character--the things that are important overall and reach into each component of writing for that character.

A. Realism

It's a basic understanding that most of us read and write science fiction for a certain amount of escapism, because we like playing in worlds where characters--ours or those of others--get to do stuff that we can't do in real life. We like reading and writing about exciting stories in the great, wide universe.

That's perfectly natural, and more than okay. It's what we're here for!

Yet all good stories—even fantasy and science fiction—don't present us with perfect characters. Are they heroes? Of course they are, but they're realistic, too. This is a goal of simming. In its extreme form, it's the rule against god-moding, but it's something that needs to be watched on the small levels, too.

It's all about balance. If you want your character to be amazing in one area, then there needs to be an area where they aren't so amazing or even might be weak. Do you want a character who is an engineering genius? Okay, but they are terrible socially. Painfully awkward. A sharpshooter who never misses? Okay, but they make every computer they touch go haywire.

Some things will be a part of your character when they come onto the sim, but consider letting them learn and improve on incredible skills over time. Give not only balance but explanation. Your character can still be incredible, but with enough basis that he or she will also be believable and thusly, enjoyable to read about.

A Word About Meta-Gaming…

One other thing that plays off realism, as well as point of view, is that it's important to make sure that your character only knows what they could realistically know.

You're writing from the perspective of your character, not an overall narrator, so your character cannot know what someone else is thinking or feeling unless that other character says or does something to make it obvious...or your write an empath/telepath. Another example is that your character cannot know what another character did the day before unless they were there or were told about it.

B. Continuity

Continuity is the overall concept of keeping everything that you write for your character making sense. It can be tricky, but it is important to the above concept of a realistic and believable character.

Keep reactions consistent from occasion to occasion, and if it differs, then make the reason for the difference clear; explain what circumstances make it different.
Don't write one detail about your character in one place, and then write a completely different, conflicting detail in another. (Don’t write they have blue eyes in one log and that they have brown eyes in another.)

This is where both the big picture and the details are important. Details are the building blocks of the big picture, and you can't have one without the other, but details left hanging or in conflict with other details will make for a very hard to follow big picture.

It's mainly just about keeping track of what you state in your character's history and then what you do with them in your writing with them, then just make sure that it makes sense from one to the other and that if you deviate, that's it's realistically explainable.

C. Depth

When you take a two-dimensional character, formed of the written word, and then make it so that they seem to come alive to both the writer and the readers then you have achieved giving your character depth. This is very much attached to the issue of realism.

Depth is often achieved through drama--causing conflict for your character, working them through it, and then having them come out the other side different than they went in. Each moment in life shapes each person, and so it happens (or should happen) to the characters that you write for.

No one wants to read about a flat character any more than a too-perfect one. Drama, joy, tragedy, struggle, contentment--these are all things that can give your character depth, and finding a balance between them all will allow for both depth and realism.

You can hit two birds with one stone on that one, because too much drama all the time? It isn't any more realistic than being too perfect.

Story arcs are great for depth--things that stretch over multiple logs and plots, that recur and come back, but aren't necessarily present one hundred percent of the time. These take some planning and behind the scenes orchestration, but can be very rewarding and will allow you to balance their drama with other events that will weigh on the other side of the scale--the happy events to balance a tragic arc, or a little darker drama to balance a happy arc.

This is what you see happening across the course of a book, and it can be achieved through simming as well.

The main point to this is to look at the whole board when it comes to your character, work out balancing events and work in realism. Make your character one that seems to come to life to you and your reader.

D. Making the Most of History

Your character's history is where it all begins. It's where you started with this character, and it's what first shaped how the character would turn out. It's what you continue to build with every event and log that takes place involving your character.

So... If you're getting the idea that I'm saying your character history is pretty important? You're right.

Everything I've stated in this lesson up until now--realism, continuity and depth--comes in to play here. Realize the importance of your character history--both the far past and that which you're building right now.

Make the most of it by being aware of it and how it shaped and is shaping the character, from the way he or she looks, to how they think and feel, how they react to each situation they find, and what choices they make.

Optional: Feel free to do the below task and email it to boom.baby83 (at) gmail.com if you would like a review and advice.

Take something from your character's biography. It can be anything you want--a scene, a briefly mentioned moment, or a feeling. It just has to be something that you haven't focused on very much since then.

Once you've chosen it, expand on it. Make the most out of it, taking into account everything that's been said about realism, depth, and continuity. Make it a life changing thing, for better or for worse, just make it something with some importance.

5. Interaction

Everything that we've covered so far has primarily been about the general stuff with writing, which is important, but in this section, we're going to focus on the particulars of simming, which is writing with others, as well as utilizing NPCs.

The entire goal of simming is to work with other people, but solo logs, often with NPCs, are also common, so it’s important to look at both.

A. Working & Playing with Others

This is probably the biggest part about writing in a sim--writing with other people, PC to PC interaction. Every sim is made up of plots where log after log is done to contribute to the overall story.

Everyone knows the basic idea here, but there are some details to interaction that people don't always think about. The biggest one is working with the person you're writing with and not against them. I'm not saying people do this intentionally, but it's good to be aware of it so that it doesn't happen.

A good rule: try to give something to your writing partner. Don't write a response that they can't respond to in some way. Either say something they can reply to or do something they can react to. It doesn't have to be a big something, but something should be there if you’re able to.

Being a piece of dead wood in a joint log can make it fall off. No one wants to do all the work, so work with the other person or people and at least give a little something. If they do the same, then you've got it!

The other big thing with this is respect. It's a well-known rule that you don't write for the other person, but this can be a thin line. You need to be aware of it to tread carefully, because there are times that it is okay, in minor doses.

For example, if your character asks theirs to take a walk and they reply that they say yes, you can then write that the two start walking. If you do all those things in your post though, the asking and the answering and the walking, then it's not okay. See the difference?

Again, it's a matter of balance, but also respect.

Sometimes, when people have been writing together for a long time, they know one another well and can stretch the boundary a little further, because they have established that relationship, but when writing with someone new, it's best to play way on the side of caution and should make for a happier writing experience for everyone involved!

You'll have seen that the majority of my focus up until this point has been on how a reader will view your writing, and this is the reason. We're here to write with others, so having readers is quite important!

B. The Supporting Cast - Using NPCs

There are times when it's not only okay but encouraged to talk to yourself, and I don't just mean when you walk into the kitchen and forgot why you did in the first place. I mean the use of NPCs!

Whether a one-time use or an NPC that is almost as well established as a PC, NPCs are a great way to add layers and depth, while also adding richness to the scene that you're trying to set and offer you a counter-balance to your character.

One thing to remember is that if an NPC is established and established by someone other than you then you should treat that NPC with the respect you would treat someone's PC, which we discussed earlier.

Typically, if an NPC is on the sim’s manifest then it ‘belongs’ to someone, but you can make up your own as you need.

Something to remember, though, is to not go overboard with NPCs, or to at least carefully regulate the appearance, interaction and amount of information given on each one, so that the ones that need to stand out do and don't get lost in a potential sea of random characters.

As in all things: balance.

Another thing that should be kept in mind when writing an NPC is realism, and also continuity. While it's not as important to be as strict about with NPCs, it's still a valuable tool to creating a believable scene to keep these things in mind for the NPCs as well as the PCs.

NPCs can be seen as details to be utilized, but they make up the big picture as much as anything else and should be treated that way.

Optional: If you would like review/advice, do the below task and email to boom.baby83 (at) gmail.com

Write a scene involving your PC--of your choice if you have more than one--and one NPC. Utilize things from this lesson and all the ones before it to make the most of the glimpse you want to show.

6. In Conclusion...

Thanks for reading along! If you have any questions or think something should be added, just drop me a line: Bella, boom.baby83 (at) gmail.com