User blog:Boredfan1/Unofficial Writing Guide

Introduction
This is an unofficial guide created by yours truly in order to assist anyone and everyone reading this in improving the efficiency of writing and the quality of their writing as well, thus increasing the quality of writing found on articles, roleplaying pages/threads/etc and allowing those like myself aspiring to be great authors to publish their work faster and publish more.

Unfortunately, I can't finish this guide alone, I therefore must rely on the help of my friends and random strangers who wish to help to make intelligent edits to further this guide. Finally, I will make sure that EVERYONE who contributed is listed in the Acknowledgments section at the bottom of this article unless the person specifies otherwise.

I ask that before making a big edit, post what you want to do on the talk page so it can be discussed to see if it really should be added to the guide.

Appearance (Incomplete)
A good place, but not necessarally the best place to start is the top of the person which start's with their hair and going down to their feet, making it as clear as if it was on an anime. For hair, describe it by letting us, the readers know the hair's color, hairstyle and if it looks dirty or has a shine, etc.

After that, there is the forehead which may or may not be covered by the hair of the character, usually that part is not included however, if the person is wearing a headband, describe it in detail such as color, material, paterns, symbols etc.

Next, is the nose and eyes, you can do either first as they are technically at the same spot on the head. For the nose, describe it's shape such as if it's a hook nose, looks pig like etc while for the eyes, describe the shape and color as well as the size of the pupil, descriptions like "beedy eyed" is a good example.

Under that is the mouth, it may be the toughest as there is not much to the mouth however, descibe the color of the lips, whether they look full or not and things such as scars, moles and more either on the lip(s) itself or at the corner of them.

Last for the head is the cheeks, chin and everything around what has already been described, this can be considered extra head details which is not always necessary though often rewarding to describe it anyways, dimples, freckles and other such things go under this category usally unless it's on the nose.

With the head done, we move down to the neck however, this part is not normally described unless there is a tatoo or birthmark on it which makes it more of an extra detail thing than the important maun details though necessary to include for characters who have tatoos all over them or something like the curse mark.

Moving on to the torso, this is again one of the most difficult parts to describe as it has three parts to it, the main body and the arms and hands attatched to the arms. Easiest thing to do is basically to say whether the arms are scrawny, bony or muscular though if you think of more detail, than you should put it.

The hands are rather easy actually but the chest requires as much detail as the head. To describe the chest, think about if you want him or her to be buff or scrawny and if it's a guy, whether he has chest hair, how much chest hair as well as the color of the chest hair and where on the chest the hair is location.

Of course, the belly and back is part of the torso too so the writer should describe if the belly is flat, bulging a bit or outright big while describing the back pretty much as they did the chest.

Abilities (Incomplete)
Abilities are what your character can and can't do, making it a major part of them of their profile and must be thought out carefully in great detail in order to make them the best possible however, be careful about over thinking it because then you can put too much detail. Below are rules that should be followed for developing this section.
 * Make sure you balance your abilities out. You can  NOT have your character be great at everything, that would be unfair to the other characters and roleplayers.
 * The character's background is a major dictator of their abilities. For example, the character Daichi Uchiha lived on an isolated island for 14 years so he was unable to awake it during his time on the island and without the Sharingan, he can't use genjutsu however, he is great with ninjutsu and pretty good with taijutsu as well due to training from his parents.
 * Age is another big factor of a character's abilities as for example those who are under the age of for example 15 won't likely have the speed, balance and agility as well as the strength that older characters would due to years of training and natural development from aging.
 * Rank is also very important because it often though not always determines your level of abilities. For example, Genin are not normally very good strategists unless they are from the Nara Clan or similar clans thus, they are often rash and arrogant with little ability in teamwork.
 * Characters need weaknesses to balance out their strengths and if they have far more strengths than weaknesses and the weaknesses need to be strong enough to rival the strengths otherwise your powerplaying. Weaknesses shouldn't be generic like pressure points or a person's neck, that is not a true weakness as most people are vulnerable to those.
 * No one has unlimited stamina meaning that everyone must get tired and need to rest at some point, limiting what techniques and attacks they can do as well as their dodging ability since as their stamina goes down, their speed and agility starts to go with it at some point.

Weapons & Tools

 * Katana
 * Smoke Bombs
 * Shuriken
 * Kunai
 * Food Pills

Naruto World Classifications
Basically, this section lists the different kinds of characters you can create to broaden your experience in roleplaying within the Naruto world but if you don't understand a type, don't be afraid to ask, our community is always here to help each other!


 * Missing Ninja/Rogue Ninja
 * Jinchuriki
 * Sages
 * Puppeteers (including elemental puppeteers)
 * Samurai
 * Hunter ninja
 * Taijutsu specialists
 * Ninjutsu specialists
 * Genjutsu specialists
 * Bukijutsu specalists (weapon specialists)
 * Uchiha
 * Kekkai Genkai specialist
 * Hidens specialist (sub type to ninjutsu)

Roleplaying Terms

 * Godmod/Godmode - The controlling of another character you shouldn't have control over like another person's character. This should be done only with permission by the thread owner.
 * Powerplaying - It is defined as giving yourself an insane amount of power to make yourself invincible. You must have at least one flaw.
 * Autohitting - The act of automatically hitting another person, object, beast, or being, without giving a chance of retaliation.
 * Autokilling - This is defined as automatically killing another person, object or beast without giving the other players a chance to accept the death or rebut it by finding a way to escape it.
 * IC - In Character
 * Timeskip - A time skip passes over a period of time when nothing has happened, or getting to the point without interruptions. Normally this is done when all characters are asleep, traveling etc. No posts are allowed except by the owner(s).
 * NPC - Characters that are not usually controlled by a player and was created by the thread's owner to serve a purpose in the story or simply be there as background characters.
 * RP — Roleplay.
 * RPG — Roleplay Game/Group.
 * Semi-Para — Three sentences of post length.
 * Canon - (1) The official or generally accepted story line or turn of events. (2) The original history or back story of a character. (3) A character originally created by a published author or which already exists in another fandom.
 * Faction - Two or more sides that don't generally agree with each other and often fights with each other.
 * Fandom - An existing setting or 'universe' in which writers may create role plays.
 * Furrie, also Furry - A animal with human clothing, sentience, and behavior. Typically walking upright however, may have animal like behavior but, human like emotions. Another type is a non human animal who possesses sapience and sentience, as well as human like emotions and thought processes but, otherwise behave and appear as their feral counterparts.
 * Game Master (GM) - Somebody who writes role plays, runs role plays, controls the plot and or NPC and directs player characters as well as enforce the rules however, a GM can do any of that individually although, often as not the GM does all of that or most of it.
 * Literate or Literacy - An in-character post consisting of at least a few good-sized paragraphs, with good grammar and spelling. May also refer to the capability to write posts consisting of upwards of 500-700 words, although exact parameters differ between role players.
 * Metagaming - Information or knowledge in an In Character post which does not reflect the character's range of information or knowledge, but information or knowledge gained by the player in an Out of Character setting, discussion, or research. It can also refer to the act of writing such a post or having a habit of writing such posts.
 * NRP or Nation Role play - Role play in which the players control nation entities or similar factions which interact diplomatically, economically, and militarily. Players often take on the roles of individual government or military officials in addition to controlling broader aspects of their nation.
 * Powered - Any character with a special power. For example, a character who controls an element, who can read minds, summon allies from anywhere or open portals.
 * Semi-Literate/Semi-Lit - An in-character post consisting of one to three good-sized paragraphs, with good grammar and spelling. Also an in character post of sizable length, but lacking perfection in terms of grammar and spelling.
 * Storyteller - See GM
 * Subplot - A plot developed by players, typically without the inclusion of the GM, involving some of the characters in a role play, which takes place within the frame of the overarching plot.

General Tips
1. Never abbreviate a character's name, it is simply lazy and degrades the quality of whatever the writing is for, using a person's first name is usually all that is needed so that gives you a bit of a break however, sometimes the person's last name is needed and rarely their middle name(s).

2. Always remember to capitalize names, places and beginning letters of the first word of a sentance. 3. While you can abbreviate, it is best to spell out words as must as possible however, really long names for example the United States of America can be abbreviated, everyone pretty much knows what it means but don't always abbrieviate it.

4. Do your very best at all times, not doing so will result in a very sloppy mess that hardly anyone will want to read, resulting in harsh criticism.

5. Criticism is part of the writing process, accept that and try to learn everything you can from it, you learn a lot more from failure than you do success and criticism does indicate failure a lot.

6. While you will get compliments when you do well, don't let it go to your head and get all arrogant to the point where you believe you're better than everyone else, that leads to degration of your writing skills and less will comment on your writing.

7. Always do a spell check before you save, it is very embarrassing to have misspelled a word due to a typo or incompetence or mess up with grammar or punctuation.

8. Never try to force yourself to think of something, that will simply hinder your writing abilities further, instead let your creativeness flow on it's own.

9. Keep a positive attitude, the moment you get negative is when your writing abilities will go out the door.

10. Try to be as detailed as possible, putting too little or too much detail though can easily kill the RP.

11: Keep the character's gender and ages balanced, too much of one will make you too comfortable with one style and prevent you from advancing as fast.

Handy Links

 * Placeholder

Acknowledgments

 * Thanks to User:Na'Jorne for starting development on the abilities section.

=Lord of the bored, User:Boredfan1= 06:51, October 9, 2013 (UTC)