Welcome to writing tips. Hopefully you are here to learn how to become a better writer in general, although the main focus may be around roleplays here on Keiichi Anime Forever. Please take the time to read this and practice your writing, you will become an appreciated addition to our community! =D

Common Mistakes

Quotations:

"Hello there, and welcome to the ninja academy," she said.

Take note; there is not a period if you merely wish to express who is speaking.

Do not: "Hello there, and welcome to the ninja academy." She said.

Putting a period instead of a comma and capitalizing "she" is incorrect. If it is a question or exclamation, use the proper punctuation.

"Where is the dojo?" he asked.

OR

"Thank you!" he said(/exclaimed).

Do NOT capitalize a pronoun.

In another case:

"Thank you very much," he said. "Who are you, may I ask?"

If you insert the speaker between two sentences, place a comma before you indicate the speaker and then place a period after the action (said, exclaimed, asked, etc).

Thank you very much," he said, "for the beans."

If you wish to indicate the speaker mid-sentence but not actually separate a quotation, merely place commas on both sides of the speaker and his/her action.

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Actions:

When your character/NPC speak, but it is already apparent who is speaking and you want to follow it with an action:

"It's in that direction to the sparring dojo." She pointed up a large knoll, where a large structure made of paper, wood, and a tiled roof stood.
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Minor actions in mid-sentence:

If your character is going to nod or gesture in the middle of a quotation:

"Wow--" he jerked his thumb toward the dojo "--it's very large!"

(I just use two to show that it is a dash, when in normal word processors it does it automatically)
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Capitlization:

Self-explanatory. I see many simple mistakes of laziness, such as:

-i instead of I
-beggining of the sentence is not capitalized
-Proper nouns are lower-cased where they should not be.

PLEASE CAPITALIZE.

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Vocabulary:

Use a thesaurus to try and use more advanced vocabulary, but make sure that it means what you intended using a dictionary. Often times, I see words being repeated very often. It's not a large problem, but it makes reading your post more entertaining and less simplistic.

• http://dictionary.reference.com/
• http://thesaurus.reference.com/

They're really good resources. Don't be afraid, they're your friend. (Provided by Sakuya`)
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Common Spelling/Grammatical Spelling Mistakes (Provided mostly by Jo'ogn, aided by Divine Pyre and HeVn)

"aloud" instead of "allowed"
"hunny" instead of "honey"
"anyway" has no s at the end
"witch" instead of "which"
"Your" (Possesive) and "You're" (You are)
"Schizophrenic" instead of "Scitzo", "Skitso", etc.
"Through" instead of "Threw."

When your character or another character is talking, certain things like "wanna" in place of "want to" is acceptable, given that it is the way we talk sometimes in English. There are also a few other acceptions.

Also if you can't spell a word and want a quick fix solution you could try typing your word into Google, if it was correct you'll get pages with the word used an example, if not you'll get nothing or a message saying "Did you mean..." (This bit provided by HeVn)
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Tenses and words that sound the same but have different meaning:(Provided by Erinyes):

Than: comparison between two object/organism
Then: coming after

Too: Either, agree, similar
Two: The number after one, double, twice

Three: The number after two, thrice
Tree: A kind of plant that can grow more than 30 feet.

Once: one time
Ones: Referring to someone (not to be specific)

Where: Pertaining to a location
Were: Past tense of the plural of is, are

There: Pertains to a location, far away from the speaker
Their: Shows ownership or possession.
They're: They are.

Bear: A fuzzy animal
Bear: To endure
Bear: To well, carry a baby�something about reproducing

Hare: a kind of rabbit
Hair: dead cells that grows out of your head to protect your head.

Write: To take down, to list
Right: The opposite of left, the east (other meaning: correct)

Common mistakes in Spelling

Separate = WRONG
Seperate = CORRECT

Expanding Your Post

Use modifiers.

Example: "Ana walked out the house."
"Surprisingly, Ana had quietly walked out the grand and enormous house."

Kinds of Sentences

-The difference between the Interrogative and Exclamatory sentence-

Interrogative: It is a question
Exclamatory: has an intense emotion.

"What a show it was"
"What show was it"

Aside from the adjective "a", do you notice the difference? The subject (it) in Example A came first before the verb (was[or linking verb]) while on Example B, the verb came first. Having the subject come first before the verb states exclamatory sentence; therefore use an exclamatory point. As for the other one, use a question mark for it is an Interrogative sentence.

"What a show it was!"
"What show was it?"

At this way, you don't have to write: "What?!" or "WHAT?"

Sentences

A sentence is composed of a Subject and Predicate. The words: Indeed, precisely, correct, agree, etc..., are NOT Sentence because it does not contain Subject and predicate; though it is called utterance.

Some people are frustrated why the computer always says that your sentence is fragment when you are sure that it is a sentence. To check, see the subject, predicate and verb (either action or linking verb). Sometimes, a noun is mistaken as a verb in the sentence as well and vice versa.

Right words

Use the word Nervous when the event WILL just happen, meaning it hadn't happened yet. Use Anxious when it is already happening.

The dictionary only says the meaning not its use in a sentence.
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Prepositions:

Quoted Kuneho (on Oct 19 2005, 07:00 AM) —

"Surprisingly, Ana had quietly walked out the grand and enormous house."

Example: "Surprisingly, Ana had quietly walked out the grand and enormous house."

Correction: "Surprisingly, Ana had quietly walked out of the grand and enormous house."

(Provided by: Sakuya`)
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Keyboarding Grammar (Provided by Cless_Alvein and DeMetria):



1. A standard indention is 5 spaces.
2. Two spaces after a period at the end of a sentence.
3. One space after a semicolon.
4. One space after comas in a sentence.
5. One space after periods used in the end of initials and abbreviations.
6. Zero spaces after periods in a the middle of an abbreviation or initial. Ex: Ph.D.

If anyone wishes to indent, you can use: (Provided by Sk when I asked him)

Sadly, you can't indent in a novel format (as I wished to ).


Example of the novel format I'm speaking of:
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Details (Provided by: kurisu-kun

Don't be afraid to properly describe what's going on, what characters/places/events/items look like, or how an attack/technique/spell/item did what it did. It won't put us to sleep, it will give the reader a much, MUCH better picture as to what you are trying to get across, and avoid having people have to ask you questions afterward towards that effect.

Adjectives are your friends, as are prepositions (to, at, over, around. Show direction or position). While they are not vital to make a sentence, they are to making something truly worth reading. They make things clearer, more interesting, and just overall more enjoyable. Anyone who seriously enjoys reading has no problem with reading through a good description of something, albeit some have to do it a couple times to pull the effect from it just right.

WITHOUT DETAIL:
A dog walked over. The children scratched its head, and it barked before walking away.
WITH:
A large, shaggy dog with small, black, beady eyes trotted over to the two children. They scratched its head behind the ears, and its tongue lolled happily at the attention. It barked its enjoyment, and then turned to walk away again, back into the driveway it had come from.

Which gave you a better understanding to what the author was trying to say? How much clearer of a picture could you make from it? It's like comparing a stick-figure Flash movie to a Disney/Pixar computer-animated feature film. And you don't even have to pay more than a few more minutes typing for the better one here.
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Separation of Quotations:

A commonly misunderstood concept in some key roleplays is the separation of paragraphs when two or more different characters are in dialogue.

Incorrect: "Hello there, Akira-chan," chirped Machiko."Hello there, Machi-chan," replied Akira.

Correct: "Hey, Akira-chan!" chirped Machiko.

"Hello there, Machi-chan," replied Akira.

This technique makes it easier to read and follow in roleplays and general writing.

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Paragraph separation:

An alternative to using DeMetria's code () for separating paragraphs is to merely make a blank line then start a new paragraph. All too often, paragraphs are written in a way that makes the post look like one gigantic paragraph.

Incorrect: There was something odd going on today. The sky was dark, and it was cold, and something managed to make him look around in a concerned manner.
His skin was itching, and when he turned around, he saw a ghost.

Correct: There was something odd going on today. The sky was dark, and it was cold, and something managed to make him look around in a concerned manner.

His skin was itching, and when he turned around, he saw a ghost.

[If you have anything to add, post it here and I shall add it and give you credit for your contribution]

(This should be added to the description section)

When describing something an adverb can be your worst enemy. It is basically taking the easy way out and basically just telling the reader what is happening instead of showing the reader what is happening.

Examples of bad uses of adverbs:
She sexily walked into the room.
He walked along happily to the candy store.

See those leave me feeling empty when I read sentences with that. What did the character do that made them seem happy or sexy? How did they do it?

This is what the sentences could look like:
She slinked into the room, wearing a see through night gown.
He grinned and closed his eyes tight and let out a small giggle as he walked along with his brother to the candy store.

Now that is better than just describing something with one word. No I am not saying you should never use adverbs. Adverbs were created for a reason but using them like that is just plain boring. It leaves the reader feeling odd and awkward wondering what happened that made that character seem sexy or happy.

Just a little error: the "Common mistakes in Spelling" section lists SEPERATE as the correct way to spell the word, instead of SEPARATE. That's obviously wrong.

-Dizzy-

Actually, both "seperate" and "separate" are words that can be found in a dictionary!

erm, then what is the difference between them?

one is a verb and one is an adjective~!

... I think...