All the World's a Stage is a source for roleplaying ideas, commentary, and discussions. It is published every Sunday evening. Except for this week, when it is more like the early afternoon.

Your usual AtWaS columnist, David Bowers, has found himself a tad busy this weekend. Due to this, I'll be nosing in on his territory for a day. Don't worry ladies and gentlemen, I'll take good care of you. Just yesterday we discussed a little about RP descriptions. That is, the physical descriptions you can give your character via addons such as FlagRSP2 or MyRoleplay. David seemed to think this was a pretty good topic, so we're going to go a little more in depth into the right and wrong way of writing these.

Right and wrong in this case is naturally up to the individual, but in general there are some pretty solid guidelines you should keep in mind. The first and most obvious is that you should always proofread your writing. In general, roleplayers gravitate towards people with at least some grasp of the English language. A sloppily written description is the first thing someone will see, and it's going to set off alarms in the heads of other people.

In general, proofreading your description shouldn't even take that long. I prefer keeping my descriptions to two paragraphs or less, so a quick glance or two over your work should be enough. Remember, your descriptions should encourage people to interact with you, not drive them away! Proofreading your description is like brushing your teeth and fixing your hair. People are more inclined to hold a conversation with you if your breath doesn't smell like rotting corpses.

Let's use the description of Daniel Whitcomb's Night Elf Druid as an example. If he were drunk and half asleep when it was written, it would look something like this:

"This man walks with a ditermin gait and his eye glow intensely he wears the tabard of the Cenarion Circle and the signs of the Argent Dawn and the Northrend Commonwealth are pinned to his cloak he wears a ring wedding ring finger. Another ring says hes an honored protector of the Bronze Dragon and another for the Violet Eye.

His clothing varies from day to day but it usually leather with a bear or wolf about his shoulders and antlers on his head. He smells."

What a mess! Do you want to play with that? Probably not. Luckily for Daniel, a little proofreading and revision makes it much more attractive.

"This man walks with a determined gait, and his eyes glow intensely. He wears the Tabard of the Cenarion Circle, and the insignias of the Argent Dawn and the Northrend Commonwealth are pinned to his cloak. He wears an elaborate insignia ring on his wedding ring finger. Another ring marks him as an honored protector of the Bronze Dragonflight, while yet another is emblazoned with the shield of the Violet Eye.

His clothing varies from day to day, but it's usually rustic leather, with a bear or wolf pelt about his shoulders and antlers on his forehead. He smells of smoked dreamfoil."

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