Topic: Writing Level and Word Counts: The REAL Story (Read 127 times)

Roswenthe · « **on:** Nov 08, 09, 01:42:07 PM »

Here at Hogwarts: Old School, all we want is for you to have fun. We don't care how many words you post. There's a secret a lot of roleplayers don't want to admit: all long post requirements mean is that you post less often. It doesn't mean you write more overall, nor does it mean you are not as good of a writer if you write shorter posts.

Once upon a time, I decided to do a bit of a research project. I looked at about 20 sites, half with long word count requirements, and half with short or no word count requirements. I counted their average words per thread, and found out that the sites with short or no word count requirements generally had slightly longer word counts per thread than long posts sites. Why? Because people required to always write long posts write many fewer posts.

I found that short posters tended to focus on dialogue and action, over a lot of introspection or long scene descriptions or other things with which the other characters in the thread couldn't actually interact. Some introspection is fine, but a whole lot of it was completely irrevalent to the storyline. I also found that the short post requirement sites had a wide variety of post lengths, depending on need and what was going on in the thread. Furthermore, a lot of the long posts were simply four or five posts shoved together, with responses to multiple actions in one post, whereas the short posters would spread these out so the action happens in order. AND....I found out that long posters tended to abandon threads much more often.

So, I discovered that a lot of people who think long posts makes them better writers and that they write more than those who write shorter posts are pretty much just lying to themselves. It's simply not true.

If you ever start to feel pressured to write a whole lot, don't. If you need to do so, think of an excuse to walk off in the thread, and make an exit and just take a break. Really! Don't make roleplaying a chore. We're here to have fun and enjoy ourselves.

Hogwarts: Old School

Shoutbox

Who's Online

Site Information

Latest Members

House Points

Search

Random Poll

Member Information

Disclaimer

Affiliates

About Hogwarts: Old School

Author Topic: Writing Level and Word Counts: The REAL Story (Read 127 times)

Roswenthe

Writing Level and Word Counts: The REAL Story

Recent Topics

Playlist

Listed At