For anyone thinking about joining an online role-playing (RP) site, it is essential that your posts be a pleasure to read, not a chore. In order to help beginners on my own RP site, Worlds of Disney, I published a basic guide. Here is an excerpt:
A simple way to make your posts more readable is to avoid long paragraphs.
There's something about reading on a computer screen that shortens people's attention spans. They start to read a long paragraph, and then just zone out and begin to skim. I've even found myself doing it, and I am a voracious reader. For some reason, a paragraph that doesn't bother me in the least on paper is daunting in pixels. You don't want folks just skimming your text, right? Right. You want them to read the whole thing. My advice is to go back to any longish paragraphs and break them up with your ENTER key. It won't change the content of your writing, just make it more palatable to the reader.
Did you find yourself doing it with the above paragraph? Let's try reading the very same thing broken up a different way:
There's something about reading on a computer screen that shortens people's attention spans. They start to read a long paragraph, and then just zone out and begin to skim.
I've even found myself doing it, and I am a voracious reader. For some reason, a paragraph that doesn't bother me in the least on paper is daunting in pixels.
You don't want folks just skimming your text, right? Right. You want them to read the whole thing.
Read the entire article.
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