I actually do a lot of roleplaying from my phone, from mobile, or from my tablet. In those cases, adding an image is kind of a pain in the ass. Sometimes I just plain forget (like my reply to Pietro earlier).
Frequently, I don’t want to. I want to improve my writing by evoking the image in the mind of the reader, instead of just giving it to them. I have no objection to other people continuing to use images, even in a thread where I stop doing it.
I tried to think of a way to answer this without being insulting. I’m not actually sure I can. Then again, I feel kind of insulted.
In the first place, I personally find that textual tricks detract from my enjoyment and comprehension of writing. Smaller text is harder for me to read, in a literal sense. I have correctors set up in Stylish to make tiny text larger. I think those tricks have applications, but I find them mostly to be in poetry, and they should be used sparingly.
In the second place, if a reader is concerned about the way my writing /looks/, maybe they should be reading someone else. My sole concern is that my writing conveys what I want it to convey, that the meaning is clear. Making the text larger or smaller, moving it across the screen, or changing fonts — these tools don’t provide anything to the meaning of my writing.
In the third place, computerized writing already comes equipped with standard ways of providing emphasis. Italics, bold, and underline are standardized across many different platforms, browsers, and operating systems — did you know that almost all the ways to make the text smaller don’t work in Tumblr’s mobile app? But bold, italic, and underline do.
I personally prefer not to even use those as a way of conveying emphasis. You will have noticed that I surrounded one word in the third paragraph with forward slashes. I tend to use those in place of italics, and I tend to use caps in place of bold. It’s faster for me, and I don’t have to argue with html or any given platform’s vagaries for interpreting ctrl+i and where it should end.
Frankly, I know all the html tricks for changing text size. I’m a web developer. I know all the css tricks Tumblr doesn’t allow. These are design elements, not writing elements.
Basically, the idea that I need to change the size of my text to make my writing look better is insulting. My writing stands on it’s own. It would be just as good if I handwrote it and snail mailed it to my partners. It would be just as good if I read it aloud. The smaller text does not constitute an improvement — and people who base their assessment of “quality” on that kind of thing aren’t people I want to write with anyway.
oh, a question I don’t want to have to answer …
it’s … people who barely reply, or reply very slowly. People who are good, great roleplayers, but who seem very focused on specific people. People no matter how hard I try, what kind of plots I come up with, how much I prove that I care about them and not just their muse — I’m not good enough for them.
/passive-aggressive whinging
Why should I? Will it make my thoughts clearer as I try to translate them to words? Will it convey my meaning any more accurately?
I’m a storyteller. Why should I spend a whole extra step on something that has no relevance to the stories I’m telling? I’m usually in a tearing hurry to get my replies out anyway; what a waste of my time.
Reblog if you agree with this:
Our muses can flirt, hell they can be friends with benefits. Shipping isn’t going to be forced.
I don’t really like that I feel like I have to act insecure about my writing in the tumblr roleplay community.
Just the periodic reminder, since I got so many new followers lately (fifteen in a week is a lot for me)
I could set aside my responsibilities to others and live my life as I pleased only when I also severed my ties to them. … To be a part of a family, or any community, is to have duties and responsibilities …
— the musing of FitzChivalry Farseer, Fool’s Errand, Robin Hobb
this seems to me to peculiarly apply to sub-communities of fandom, particularly roleplayers, who insist that because they roleplay for fun, they must not be held to any social standards that may be part and parcel of group activities. For example, it is believed that a roleplayer does not need to give any reason for refusal to thread with someone, and may in fact completely ignore that person without repercussion, and that person is permitted no socially acceptable response. Yet if the same circumstances were to obtain over a board game or other equally social activity, such behaviour would be considered exceptionally rude by all parties.
You ever notice how other RPer’s seem to find the one mun to RP with where they get to make interesting plots that never die, and they both drop everything to reply as soon as it comes in because they’re so excited about it? They seem to have this bond together that exists both IC and OOC and you know that even if no one else ever RPed with them again they wouldn’t care because they’d still have each other.
I want that. I want that so badly my teeth ache.
Stop saying this. Stop being like this. Look around at what you have instead of expecting lightning to strike you out of a clear sky. How many times have I tried to be this to someone and they literally do not even see it? It’s not even worth looking for it, because when you have it you don’t even know.
You’re all stupid selfish children, whining and begging for more of what you already have. Grow up, and look at the people around you, look at who fills your inbox and begs for your skype and waits desperately all day for your replies. That’s the person you’re looking for, but you’re so caught up in your fucked up idea of how sparkly and anime and love-at-first-sight it’s going to be that you don’t even see it.
It weirds me out so badly to see other rpers with my same fc.