Follow TV Tropes

Following

How do you avoid a wall of text?

Go To

RPGLegend Dipper fan from Mexico city Since: Mar, 2014
Dipper fan
#1: Mar 29th 2015 at 5:23:57 PM

Recently I have noticed that some of my rp post could use more content to avoid the "telling instead of showing" issue and flesh out my characters inner feelings.

But I am a bit afraid that adding more lenght to my posts will become a TL:DR walls of text. In fact I usually try to write as little as possible not to lose any potenial reader.

What would you advice me?

Here is an example of one of my longest posts

edited 29th Mar '15 5:26:39 PM by RPGLegend

Forgiveness is beyond justice, faith is superior than hope, redemption is better than perfection and love is greater than them all.
Germaholic Since: Jan, 2001
#2: Mar 29th 2015 at 5:49:35 PM

Just break it up into smaller paragraphs. Problem solved. :)

NiallRoach Since: Jan, 2015
#3: Mar 29th 2015 at 5:51:20 PM

That post doesn't seem too bad; look at the one immediately above yours.

Avoiding the dreaded wall of text is more about using paragraph breaks than the actual number of words. There's a point, obviously, at which even liberal paragraph breaks aren;'t going to save you, but they definitely push that point up.

RPGLegend Dipper fan from Mexico city Since: Mar, 2014
Dipper fan
#4: Mar 29th 2015 at 6:04:04 PM

Thanks a lot you two smile.

Forgiveness is beyond justice, faith is superior than hope, redemption is better than perfection and love is greater than them all.
Slysheen Professional Recluse from My nerd cave Since: Sep, 2014 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
Professional Recluse
#5: Mar 29th 2015 at 6:09:31 PM

Long? That's positively tame! Considering the averages I see that's actually kind of short. But than again I am a rambler.

Stoned hippie without the stoned. Or the hippie. My AO3 Page, grab a chair and relax.
AwSamWeston Fantasy writer turned Filmmaker. from Minnesota Nice Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Fantasy writer turned Filmmaker.
#6: Mar 29th 2015 at 9:40:02 PM

As far as length goes, I've seen some absolutely terrible (non-RP) examples over on World Building.

But really, the problem isn't usually about length. It's about how dense the text is, how much "character"note  you inject into it, and making sure it doesn't drone on like some ancient religious tome or encyclopedia (and all those things are really just different ways of describing the same problem).

Award-winning screenwriter. Directed some movies. Trying to earn a Creator page. I do feedback here.
Add Post

Total posts: 6
Top