If you've stumbled upon this page, you're probably anxious to improve- if not perfect- your wolf role-playing skills. Fear no more: I have the solution. Listed below are the corrections to a few common mistakes in everyday role-playing, amplifiers, hints and other knick-knacks I find important for writing. Let's begin, shall we?

1. CREATING A CHARACTER

Now, bear with me here, 'cause I know that most of already have a character. I respect that, but it would be good to read this session. After these pointers, you just might want to change. ^^

a) If at ALL POSSIBLE, please avoid pure white faes and all black brutes.

It is SO boring to go into every single role-play and see perfect, glistening faes and fearless, steel brutes. Why not make something up? Be creative. My favorite role-playing character is a small, stormy-gray femora with really dark brown eyes. She has her paws and tail dipped in a lighter silver, but only just lighter than her coat. Trust me, it's better than a glistening white wolfess. (By the way, my charrie is © ^^)

b) Please be creative on a name

Please avoid the names Shadow, Angel, Larka, Fell, Demon, and two-word names such as Skydancer or Nighthawk. They are unimaginative, and absolutely no fun at all. Steer clear of names from books (i.e. The Sight), popular human names or things like that. If you want to find some good names, type in "baby names" in Google, and click around. You ought to find some good names, complete with origin, meanings, etc.

c) Perfect characters are gross.

Ever heard this saying? If you fear nothing, you love nothing. So, in that case, you can never really be fearless. And even if you love nothing, wouldn't that mean that you fear to love? Just a thought… o.O Also, by recent experimentation, I've firmly concluded that an imperfect character has appealed to so many more people than the opposite. I'm not saying you should go out and display you character's flaws, but at least don't say he or she is perfect. The other role-players will find out his/her imperfections later

d) The character is the base of the role-play. Think it out very well.

Have you ever been in a role-play where a wolf changes his name in the middle of the story? Or are you one of those people? This is an example of a badly thought-out character. If you're going to be role-playing, you should be able to act out your wolf's personality and character, knowing what he or she would do in any situation. This is especially true if you are in an on-going role-play. Please do us all a favor.

2. DESCRIPTIONS AND AMPLIFYING

If everybody would use description like you're about to, the role-playing world would be a better place. Everybody likes a wolf with good wording, and you're likely to get complimented and adored, believe me.

Here will be the example sentence for today:

A fae walked upon the terra.

This little phrase gives me the chills every time. It is SO darn BORING. And really, it's just sick how many times I've found it on the boards. In every section, we'll add a little bit by a little bit more until we've got a decent sentence. Really, to tell you the truth, it's not so much that I hate white faes as it is that I hate how little description most of them have. We're going to change that.

a) Your Entry Post

This is the most important post of the role-play. This is the post that introduces your character here. Your reputation is on the line! What I suggest doing for the entry post is thinking about it a long time, and write it up on word. You can save it, copy and paste it a million times! I've made an entry post for fall, winter, spring, summer, and desert; night and day for each one. It's that important, truly. 'The setting' had some other things about your entry post, check it out below.

b) The Setting

A good rule to live by; never even MENTION your wolf until you've typed three or four sentences. This'll give you the opportunity to set the surroundings and the 'tempo', or the 'style' if you will. Obviously, if you exaggerate the spookiness of the black trees towering above you, the wind howling through their spindly branches, this will press a feeling of dread and wariness on your audience and fellow players…and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that! It can be the same forest, but all from YOUR point of view. It could be a peaceful, calm forest to one, and to another it can be a haunted, strange forest with danger at every corner. You don't have to change anything about the forest, but just describe it a little different by focusing on different parts; the gorgeous color of the changing leaves and the dapples of sun sifting through them, or the cold stones along the trail, freezing your paws and causing you to trip. It's all how you look at it, and your 'tempo' will tell others a little more about your character as well!

This is where we'll change our sentence from:

The fae walked upon the terra.

To:

Sun shone on the carpet of grass lying on the forest floor, but only those that escaped the canopy of leaves above. A brook could be heard, laughing and babbling within its bed. A fae walked upon the terra.

Okay, so we still have the problem of the original sentence, but now the description of the land is decent.

c) Adjectives and adverbs

Adjectives and adverbs, I must say, are one of the most important parts of the role-play. They change a boring word into a masterpiece, and also similes and metaphors help that. A glossary should be invented for your convenience soon. Just to give you an idea, adjectives are the words that serve for the purpose of describing nouns, examples: glistening, silent, lustrous, silver, delicate… you know what I mean

Adverbs are words describing verbs. These ones are always easy to recognize, seeing as they almost always end in -ly. Examples: quietly, harshly, happily, etc.

This will change our sentence, as well:

From:

Sun shone on the carpet of grass lying on the forest floor. A brook could be heard, laughing and babbling within its bed. A fae walked upon the terra.

To:

Golden sun shone on the carpet of lustrous grass lying softly on the forest floor. A small brook could be heard, laughing and babbling merrily within its bed. A silver fae walked quietly upon the terra.

Hey, this is getting pretty good… J

d) Amplifying

This is our final point for Descriptions and Amplifiers, but to tell you the truth, this is what the long post is made of. Amplifying technically means making little things large; which is exactly how you do this. If you're in to impressing people with long, intricate posts, it all starts here. Take a stupid this like: "leaf". What can you possibly do with the word "leaf"? Here's what: Start by describing it: "A tiny leaf of fiery red hue". Ok, now that we've got that, do it with an action: "A tiny leaf of fiery red hue fluttered silently down from the towering trees". Now comes the tricky part: put feeling into it. Act as if the leaf was alive: "A tiny leaf of fiery red hue fluttered silently down from the towering trees, dancing gently as the wind dipped and swooned around her". Pretty good for just "leaf", huh? :) This'll work on any text or word: just follow the steps.

From:

Golden sun shone on the carpet of lustrous grass lying softly on the forest floor. A small brook could be heard, laughing and babbling merrily within its bed. A silver fae walked quietly upon the terra.

To:

Dapples of golden sun littered the carpet of lustrous grass lying softly on the forest floor, but only those that escaped the canopy of thick, glistening leaves above, sparkling as they absorbed the light from above. A small brook could be heard, laughing and babbling merrily within its bed. A white egret stood motionless in the marshes of a lake into which branched the river, his gleaming eye focused on the tiny minnows flashing silver as they tried desperately to escape. Another pair of golden eyes appeared through the trees, glancing around the terra. The bird wasn't the only one hungry this morning.

Tippers:

· I would suggest not fully showing your character until the second post, but if you choose to show him first, it's not the worst role-playing crime you can commit.

· Big, glowing fonts are absolutely NO FUN TO READ IN A ROLE-PLAY. Period. If you have one of these, please do not hesitate to neomail me with the colors you want, and I will be happy to make you a good one.

· On creating a description for your wolven character, it's not all that difficult. Always remember to describe what your charrie's doing, never leave people hanging. Use Word® thesaurus to search different words for the same boring ones. Always describe your wolves personality, and when role-playing, inflict it in with your posts.

Thank you for reading my hints and tips, take them or leave them. I hope this has showed you a little bit of what I consider literacy, and that your satisfied with what you've learned. If you have a question or comment, please don't hesitate to neomail me.