Freeform Homeroom

This thread is for everyone who feels the need to improve their RPing skills, though this is aimed more at newbies who are having trouble, and for those who wish to help newbies improve their RPing skills only.

Things to note:

• No, this is not the same kind of homeroom and teacher-student system we used to have.
  
  
• This is a designated thread for newbies, though I wouldn't say no to anyone else who wants to have their RPing reviewed. If you still struggle with godmoding and powerplaying even though you're not a newbie, this is the place to come to learn better techinques. If you just want some of your RPing reviewed, this is the place to come to get a reviewer.
  
  
• However, anyone else willing to RP with newbies and instruct them on how to better RP as they do so, should apply, and once approved, advertise themselves as volunteers here for all newbies or other members seeking help.
  
  
• This is not the OoC thread. So no spamming, unless you want to get smacked with my ruler and sent to the corner.
  
  
• All guidelines of the Peer Review still apply here. So I shouldn't have to remind anyone not to be here if they can't take constructive criticism or are unnecessarily harsh or cruel to others in their critiques. If anyone goes against that, they will be smacked with my rule and sent to the corner.

Asking for Help:

Okay, so either you're a newbie who wants to learn more either just to brush up your skills or because it's been hard to get people to RP with you. You could also be an older member who wishes to brush up your skills or could be still struggling with the basics of godmoding and powerplay (hey, no judgment here. Everyone has their own learning curve to go by, so don't be shy).

Just post in this thread asking for help. I encourage that you state what you want help with, if you have anything in particular in mind. If not, just say you want help and wait for me to respond to you.

This could go one of several ways:

1. I tell you to go apply to the Match-Maker thread, so that you get a partner to RP with.
2. Or if you already have an RP going, either I or another reviewer will review your previous posts and posts to come.
3. I pair you with a volunteer reviewer who is willing to RP with you and to give you advice and review your posts as you both RP.
4. I pair you with another newbie from this thread and review both of you as you two RP with each other. I may give the both of you a volunteer to review you instead of me.
5. Or you respond to reviewer who has volunteered to help and has expressed so in this thread, asking if they would RP with and advise you.

All RPs will be either posted in the Crossroads or the Dome (if the setting takes place in the Dome). DO NOT POST THEM HERE OR IN THE PEER REVIEW.

Only reviews are posted in the Peer Review sub-forum.

If you may even alternate between reviewers as you RP in a thread, between posts, for different opinions and advice. Just let me know what your needs are.

Volunteering to Help:

So you are an experienced and successful member of the BA. You may have even been here for a few years now. You have RPed many times and know how to not godmode or powerplay. So you have a lot to offer newbies or other members who still struggle with those things.

You must be able to be assertive but not harsh with your reviews and advice. Your reviewees may still be godmoding and powerplaying. They just need it to be pointed out, told why it's not acceptable, and showed how to not do it. They need to be given new techniques. I would prefer it if you didn't focus too much on grammar, spelling, syntax, etc. Though there may be some cases where your reviewee may need more help in that area. Just don't obsess about it being perfect. Also try to keep in mind that everyone will have their own style, so try not to enforce yours too much. You're offering advice and your opinion, but remember that it's still their choice as to whether they take it. This is not our old teacher-student homeroom model. They don't have to edit their posts completely to your liking. You give advice on a post and drop it, and then move onto the next one.

You will copy each of their posts from the thread and repost it in the Peer Review, and then type up your review of that post. You will do this with each of their posts for the rest of the RP. Or your reviewee many even wish to switch reviewers between their posts in an RP to get several different opinions.

To apply -

PM me if you want to be a reviewer for this help thread. If, for whatever the reason, I think you're not qualified to be a reviewer I will tell you so. You'll get a PM back from me either approving or disapproving you to be a reviewer. Then you may post in this thread advertising it. Introduce yourself. I will post a list of the reviewers for this thread and will link their introduction posts.

Reviewers:

Shrub

Greetings all. I am Re Dei Draghi, and I am a volunteer reviewer in the freeform homeroom. I will be here to help anyone that needs it, and will do my best to help improve others RP skills however is needed. I answer any VM's, PM's, and emails as promptly as I am able, so feel free to send a line my way if you need something from me. I look forward to working with all of you awesome BA people!

Hi, everyone. My name is HH, and I've been an RP addict for six years now. I've got the itch real bad, and it can even interfer with work. Sometimes it leads me to reviewing other people's RPs. It can be tough at times, since I've got a lot going on, but if anyone sends me a PM, I'll review it real thoroughly.





(Non-stupid version: Hi, I'm HH. Send me a PM if you want me to review your stuff and whatnot.)

Hellooo, I)ragon here.

I feel like I've come a long way (a really, really long way. My old stuff is horrid. HH would know) since I first came to the BA and I feel it's about time I pass down my vast amounts of knowledge and awesome to the little newbies. I personally like the old teacher/student thing we had going so if anyone wants to be taken under Zyler's wing in an RP while I critique your posts and provide suggestions, let me now. (I might also use Roery for this after her next Roleplay wraps up)

Otherwise, feel free to request a review of a single post, or an RP, or what have you =]

sup guys

I used to a TON of RPing a few years back, but recently, not so much. I never considered myself a very good writer when it comes to "stories" but I think I normally have a lot of good ideas and interesting stuff when its written. That being said, its my delivery that gets tripped up.

No, I dont write much. Between being busy, not in college and...not LOVING writing, I dont do it much. However, Ive recently kicked it back on with this RP Liah and I are doing:

An Example of Poor Childcare (Liah and Notsil!)

I honestly dunno what Im looking for, but..Id like some feedback and some help improving.

I can call myself out on a few issues though;
using words (pronouns) over and over again. I try very hard to add variation, but forcing it can get clumsy. Im not really comfortable going wayyyy out of my way to make up some dumb substitution for the word "her"

Difficulty explainging things; I dunno if this is an issue or not, but I think I have a hard time explaining a setting, character or...thing.

and yeah

HELP

I could really do with some help with my writing being a newbie and all. Haven't done this kind of thing since descriptive writing back in highschool, about five years back now :3.

I always feel its very repetitive and just some tips on how to improve it would be greatly appreciated. I guess a good place to start would be my character fiction.

Help please.

Originally Posted by Notsil

sup guys

I used to a TON of RPing a few years back, but recently, not so much. I never considered myself a very good writer when it comes to "stories" but I think I normally have a lot of good ideas and interesting stuff when its written. That being said, its my delivery that gets tripped up.

No, I dont write much. Between being busy, not in college and...not LOVING writing, I dont do it much. However, Ive recently kicked it back on with this RP Liah and I are doing:

An Example of Poor Childcare (Liah and Notsil!)

I honestly dunno what Im looking for, but..Id like some feedback and some help improving.

I can call myself out on a few issues though;
using words (pronouns) over and over again. I try very hard to add variation, but forcing it can get clumsy. Im not really comfortable going wayyyy out of my way to make up some dumb substitution for the word "her"

Difficulty explainging things; I dunno if this is an issue or not, but I think I have a hard time explaining a setting, character or...thing.

and yeah

HELP

Alright then, so what would you like to do? Would you like me or another reviewer to review your posts in An Example of Poor Childcare? Or would you like to start a whole new RP with with your reviewer or someone else to be reviewed?

If there's anyone specific you would like for a reviewer please let me know. If not I may do it or I may just match you up with someone else randomly.

Gah, knew I was missing something.

I'd rather you (or...someone. YOU RIGHT THERE!) reviewed the posts I have been making, as opposed to starting up a new RP.

And as far as who? It'd be kinda cool to have one of you fancy "vetern" BAers (Alty, Ciro,Drammor or yourself, Shrub) take care of me, but I really don't care who.

Originally Posted by Papahl

I could really do with some help with my writing being a newbie and all. Haven't done this kind of thing since descriptive writing back in highschool, about five years back now :3.

I always feel its very repetitive and just some tips on how to improve it would be greatly appreciated. I guess a good place to start would be my character fiction.

Help please.

Usually, this thread is aimed more toward RPing, and character fictions are more solo, thus different. We could start there if you really want the character fiction to be reviewed. But are there any RPs of yours that you would like your posts of to be reviewed as well? And is there any specific reviewer you would like? If not I can just pair you with anyone.

---------- Post added at 05:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:11 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Nostil

And as far as who? It'd be kinda cool to have one of you fancy "vetern" BAers (Alty, Ciro,Drammor or yourself, Shrub) take care of me, but I really don't care who.

Righty, these are your available reviewers at the moment:

Originally Posted by Shrub

Reviewers:

Shrub
Fairess
I)ragon
Halcyon Hero
Re Dei Draghi

Just to let you know, they will always be listed at the bottom of the opening post. But I guess I'll handle it since I am one of those you already listed.

uyhldlfasd

sorry, its one of those days. ><

Fairess, yourself and HH are the only ones up there I'm familiar with, honestly, so one of 'em would be alright with me!

Hai!
Can I has rewiev rolpelay?

I'd like to train my ability to converse with other characters, making the proper amount of action (fighting) in a post, and generally improve my grammar (since I'm Norwegian).
A conversation, I've discovered, is most often two persons switching between talking. How is this solved in roleplays where you often are encouraged to post at least a paragraph, and more? How to avoid useless descriptions and such?
And I feel it's pretty much the same in battles as well.

Originally Posted by Shrub

Usually, this thread is aimed more toward RPing, and character fictions are more solo, thus different. We could start there if you really want the character fiction to be reviewed. But are there any RPs of yours that you would like your posts of to be reviewed as well? And is there any specific reviewer you would like? If not I can just pair you with anyone

Aha. The only active RP I'm involved in is Fools' Gold. I'm happy to be paired with anyone! Thank you.

Oh... um... well...

Like any fashionable person, my entrance is late. Whee~

For a short intro...

Hi!

I'd like to think of myself as fairly experienced in writing, and I'm glad to offer my experience on the subject. RPing is a little bit new to me, but what can I say? I love story writing! If you really want to know about some of my advice and opinions on writing, there's a few guides I've already written. A bunch of them are listed in Shrub's thread, and there's some stuff in the Creativity Corner (I would be perfectly happy to go over anyone's stuff in the Creativity Corner as well, as I am already one of the Muses there).

Let's do this thiiiiiiiing~ <3 <3 <3

Edit:

@Mr. Fluey: I find one of the best ways to maintain continuity in a conversation between two people's characters is to IMRP the conversation. It gives both players the chance to write in character without having to write teensy posts or wait for a quick response.

Also, there is such a thing as useless detail, but more often the case is very little detail at all. You always want to add detail where you want the focus to be. If you want to intensify, direct attention to, or focus on any aspect of the action, symbolisim, setting, or mood of a story, that's where most of your detail should go. Even though most people will immediately forget any intimate details you add to a physical setting, they will be able to detect mood and predict possible events about to happen. And it's also important in characterization and making a story believeable.

Your focus may switch every paragraph, but it's good to have an overall purpose for a post. If you want to focus on a character's attack, feelings, or interpretation of the world around them, it's probably best to stick to that focus, especially if it's a somewhat short post.

A lot of people feel like they shouldn't write a post at all if there isn't any action in it. And that's totally untrue. So much of what we do happens in our heads, and the thoughts of a character are a great deal more interesting than some may think. Of course, you'll want to balance independent thoughts with interaction between two players (so your character is actually part of the story, not just background noise), but the key is that you focus detail on what's important at the moment, which could be any number of things. That way you avoid "useless" detail, even if there is a lot of it.

Originally Posted by Notsil

Gah, knew I was missing something.

I'd rather you (or...someone. YOU RIGHT THERE!) reviewed the posts I have been making, as opposed to starting up a new RP.

And as far as who? It'd be kinda cool to have one of you fancy "vetern" BAers (Alty, Ciro,Drammor or yourself, Shrub) take care of me, but I really don't care who.

D:

Originally Posted by Flueworks

Hai!
Can I has rewiev rolpelay?

I'd like to train my ability to converse with other characters, making the proper amount of action (fighting) in a post, and generally improve my grammar (since I'm Norwegian).
A conversation, I've discovered, is most often two persons switching between talking. How is this solved in roleplays where you often are encouraged to post at least a paragraph, and more? How to avoid useless descriptions and such?
And I feel it's pretty much the same in battles as well.

I'll totally RRP with you, if you don't mind (and if you haven't set something up with Fairby). I can show you some of what she talked about. I don't have IM readily available, so I use a couple different methods.

[QUOTE=Halcyon Hero;3898665]D:
QUOTE]

****! HH! You're one of the members I always remember by their avatar, so I completely forgot who you were, until I saw you avatar. Im sorry!

Would you be willing to review my recent posts here?

Prepare for hurt feelings.

Lol, okay, HH with Nostil then.

Originally Posted by Flueworks

Hai!
Can I has rewiev rolpelay?

I'd like to train my ability to converse with other characters, making the proper amount of action (fighting) in a post, and generally improve my grammar (since I'm Norwegian).
A conversation, I've discovered, is most often two persons switching between talking. How is this solved in roleplays where you often are encouraged to post at least a paragraph, and more? How to avoid useless descriptions and such?
And I feel it's pretty much the same in battles as well.

HH had expressed an interest if you're willing to RP with him. However, I would like to split the work up more evenly, and HH already had Nostil to work with.

Though to answer some of those questions. Conversations can be handled in one post by one writer sometimes via IMRP or even PM, if necessary.

However, sometimes a paragraph in one post even if small is fine. It depends on how you want to handle it. Sometimes there's enough thoughts and descriptions to go along with the dialogue to where you fill up a decent sized post. Don't be afraid to do small paragraphs if need be or to talk to your RPing partner about it, maybe do an IMRP with them so that you can punch out a conversation in post to get things moving.

Learning to describe what is important kinda just takes time. It's funny I started out with lack of description, went to too much description, and then down to important description. But yeah, that's definitely a good question, and I'm sure one of us can help you with it. Oh, and all that Fairess said is good stuff too. ^^ wow she was better at explaining that than me.

@ Papahl. I would be happy to be paired with you for an RP as your reviewer if you would like. ^^

Originally Posted by Re Dei Draghi

@ Papahl. I would be happy to be paired with you for an RP as your reviewer if you would like. ^^

Ah thank you! Do you mean to review a current RP or to start a new one?

Edit: I will probably use my character Ithil. :3

Originally Posted by Papahl

Ah thank you! Do you mean to review a current RP or to start a new one?

Am I right in saying you can only use one character for two RPs? If so, I would only have one other character to put to use. Might be a little out of my depth and comfort zone using her.

Would be interesting.

I don't know why you think you can only use one character for two RP's. You can use any character in as many RPs as you want.