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Jiro
05-03-2014, 03:11 AM
This post is here for GMs to edit with the official stylistic choices for the Sedorra Role Play. Until then, I will give some suggestions for making your posts easy to read and how to keep everything consistent with the other RPers.

Line Breaks
Remember to use line breaks! You should hit enter twice whenever somebody new is about to speak or think, or whenever you have a new idea in your prose. If in doubt, hit enter a couple of times and continue onwards!"So I do it like this?" Jiro asked."Just like that," Sir Cloud said. "It makes it clearer."Jiro smiled. "Wonderful!"

Spoken Dialogue
"Dialogue should look like this," Jiro said. "Single or double quote marks is fine; the jury is still out on that, but all punctuation should appear inside the quote marks. Oh, and don't forget: use a comma if you have attribution afterwards, or a period if there is no attribution after the end of the sentence."

Internal Thoughts
Thoughts should be represented like this, Jiro thought. He hoped they would understand. They are pretty clever, after all.

Telepathic Communication
"If you are telepathically communicating, please represent it like this. That way we know you have impressive psychic abilities," Jiro said, projecting his thoughts directly into the minds of the RPers.

Attribution
Attribution is the act of assigning dialogue to the speaker, so the reader is able to understand who is saying it. It is commonly done after the dialogue, but does not necessarily have to be, and it does not always have to appear. Attribution is only not needed when it is clear who is delivering the dialogue. Attribution need not always be the character's name; sometimes a pronoun is more fitting. Be careful that you use it clearly though; incorrect pronoun-antecedent use can make your writing incomprehensible.
"Attribution sure is tricky," Jiro said. "I hope they can understand."
Sir Cloud replied: "I'm sure they will."
"How can you be sure?"
"I have faith that you explanations," he said with a grin, "are adequate."
"Right you are," Jiro said.




If you have any concerns or queries, do not be afraid to ask me or another savvy wordsmith. This is a learning experience for everyone, and it should be fun. So have fun!

Pant Leg Eater from the Bad World
05-03-2014, 03:34 AM
This is pretty awesome, and I will do my best to abide by these fantastical rules that have been set forth.

However, I do have a question. As I stated in the OOC Thread, one of my characters doesn't actually speak. He communicates telepathically. And he also thinks to himself. I already write his telepathic communications via italics, and have just been ensuring to annotate that he is thinking to himself when he is.

But then, since the way his telepathy works is that he is forcing his thoughts into the minds of others, I guess I should just italicize everything, and just make sure I say who he is communicating to when he is telepethying.

Okay. I guess I kinda answered my own question...

Jiro
05-03-2014, 03:56 AM
You could, potentially, use quotation marks to signify that it is telepathic conversation, but I suspect that proper attribution should make it clear enough for the other RPers. I don't have a preference or stylistic precedent for this, so it's up to you and the GMs I suppose! Just make sure that it is clear and everything should be fine :ffviwag:

Loony BoB
05-03-2014, 08:13 AM
Yeah, make it obvious when it's thought and when it's a telepathic pulse in your words more than anything, but if you like you could throw in quotation marks. Something like this...

Oh man, that girl is so fit, Randy thought to himself. What a piece of ass! I'm totally getting me some of that.

"I'm not just fit, I'm also a mind reader," the girl responded telepathically. "And you don't have a chance, you pervert."

Jiro
05-03-2014, 04:40 PM
Added it into the top post. Did someone make it a list? Or has vBulletin got sentient on us? I don't want a list, it's confusing. I just want a numbered series of entries... :ffviwag:

Formalhaut
05-03-2014, 05:04 PM
Yup. Got that. Will try to write better! Just one small thing. What is attribution?

Formalhaut
05-03-2014, 05:30 PM
Ah, I see. Thanks! :D

*Devore*
05-03-2014, 09:31 PM
I saw this after I made my last post so thoughts are displayed with both italics and quotation marks, but I'll follow this from now on.

Loony BoB
05-03-2014, 09:33 PM
Added it into the top post. Did someone make it a list? Or has vBulletin got sentient on us? I don't want a list, it's confusing. I just want a numbered series of entries... :ffviwag:

I made it a list because I felt it made it easier to read, given that there were line breaks in the middle of your numbered series of entries. ;) Fitting, considering this thread. xD

Aulayna
05-04-2014, 02:17 AM
I was disappointed this wasn't a thread about fashion on Sedorra. :colbert:

Lonely Paper Star
05-04-2014, 02:18 AM
Yeah, I thought it was, at first, too. XDDDD

Perhaps Jiro should've added a word into the thread title.

Miss Mae
05-04-2014, 04:35 AM
'Style guide' is a pretty common phrase in journalism and writing subjects. When you guys mentioned fashion it took me a moment to figure out how it could've possibly been about anything other than writing.

Jiro
05-04-2014, 04:37 AM
They're called style guides so I call them style guides. :ffviwag:


Who it belongs to/who it's attributed to.

Instead of saying '"That's cool," he said' you'd say: '"That's cool," Formy said.'

He said is still attribution, it's just less clear who it is, particularly if you have numerous male characters interacting.

Citizen Bleys
05-04-2014, 07:20 AM
You might even say they're running around...

Bare.

*shades*