We all have a bit of trouble writing posts occaisionally - especially long ones. You have to bear in mind, a post doesn't need to be long to be effective, but a post usually needs to be a decent length to create the right effect. Here on CD, there is a rule which states that a post must be at least one paragraph. A paragraph is classed as a post of around 8 sentences. Bear in mind, this is a minimum post length, so please write more if you can. This topic has been made to help you in achieving a good post length.
First of all, lets take a post:
| QUOTE |
| The stallion trotted into the land. He looked around and neighed. Seeing a very pretty mare trot toward him, he looked up and watched her.. |
There are four main things we can do to this post to make it longer-
1: Add adjectives/descriptions
2: Add adverbs
3: Add characters thoughts/other supporting actions
4: Add other descriptions
1 - Add adjectives/descriptions
An adjective is a describing word. They are very important in writing your posts, as they help to add detail. They also make your post longer. Adjectives can be used to describe size, colour, sound, texture, taste - basically anything. If we add a few of these into our post, it looks like this:
| QUOTE |
| The darkly dappled stallion trotted into the beautiful, green land. He looked around and neighed. Seeing a very pretty mare trot toward him, he looked up and watched her. |
2 - Add Adverbs
An adverb is basically what it says - an add on to a verb. They describe how your character does something. This can givea lot of insight into your characters feelings - for example someone could smile happily, or they could smile sadly. Either way, it works. This also adds more detail into your post. There are many places that adverbs can be used in, but it gets boring if you use too many, so try to keep them for when they are needed.
| QUOTE |
| The darkly dappled stallion trotted cautiously into the beautiful green land. He looked around and neighed loudly. Seeing a very pretty mare trot elegantly toward him, he looked up and watched her intently. |
3 - Add characters thoughts/other supporting actions
A character is not a robot. They do have feelings, and these must become apparent as you write your post. You can recall past memories of the character, or just describe how they are feeling at the moment. Other supporting actions are small things that your character does to make it more detailed. For example, in our post, we say that the the stallion trots in and then neighs. He must have stopped to do this, but we haven't described this. We could add in an extra sentence desribing how he stopped. This is a really easy way of boosting your post length, but don't do it too much, as it will get boring. Here's what our post looks like if we add some of those in:
| QUOTE |
| The darkly dappled stallion trotted cautiously into the beautiful green land. He slid to a sudden stop atop a large hill. Bending down to scratch an itch on his leg, he looked around and neighed loudly, wondering where everyone was. His attentive ears caught the sound of hoofbeats on the wind, and, seeing a very pretty mare trot elegantly toward him, he looked up and watched her intently. Her face seemed similar to that old his old mate's, who died a few years ago. Feeing a pang of sadness as he remembered her, the horse dipped his head to the mare, allowing her to speak first. |
4 - Add Other Descriptions
This is really easy to do. Just describe the surroundings your characters is in, or describe what a part of their body looks like. For example, a sky can be clear blue, cloudly, rainy, grey, stormy, or basically anything you want it to be. This adds even more detail to your post:
| QUOTE |
| The darkly dappled stallion trotted cautiously into the beautiful green land, feelng the golden sun beam merrily down onto his warm pelt. He slid to a sudden stop atop a large hill. Bending down to scratch an itch on his leg, and taking a few mouthfuls of the lush green grass, he looked around and neighed loudly, wondering where everyone was. The only sound he could hear was that of an eagle overhead, cawing to its mate over by the tall rocky cliffs that cast shadows over the lands. Sighing loudly, he rested one of his back legs. His attentive ears caught the sound of hoofbeats on the wind, and, seeing a very pretty mare trot elegantly toward him, he looked up and watched her intently. Her face seemed similar to that old his old mate's, who died a few years ago. Feeing a pang of sadness as he remembered her, the horse dipped his head to the mare, allowing her to speak first. |
That post is eight sentences long - what CD classes as a paragraph.