User:Alucard vess/Sandbox

Grammar and Spelling

Written by Captain Malcolm Lysander

The best way to avoid grammar and spelling errors is to use the following rule: Read your sim out loud from start to finish at least once. If you can’t read it out loud, then read it from start to finish, in your head, three times, slowly. AND, if you have a spell-checker, USE IT!! It will, at first, catch a lot of words that aren’t normal like "Bajoran". Just click the "ADD" button, and it will add those words that you know are correct to the dictionary. So, if it gets the word "StarBase" and you KNOW that’s correct, then push ADD, and next time, it won’t point that out as a problem.

Good spelling and grammar are imperative to making your sims readable. When one spelling problem becomes twelve in your sim, it makes it hard to follow what you’re trying to say, thus making the whole experience of reading the sims not enjoyable. So PLEASE PLEASE read your sims back to catch these problems!

Here are some common errors that people make, and how to fix them:

it’s = Contraction of "It is".

• "It’s cold out here!" / "It is cold out here!"

its = The possesive form of "it".

• "Its value cannot be measured."

you’re = Contraction of "You are".

• "You’re very silly." / "You are very silly."

your = The possesive form of "you".

• "Your dog is blue."

their = The possesive form of "they".

• "Their car broke down today."

they’re = Contraction of "They are".

• "They’re crazy, aren’t they?" / "They are crazy, aren’t they?"

there = A place.

• "Your book is over there."

to = The first part of any infinitive.

• "Let’s go to town."

too = Means: besides, also, or to an excessive degree.

• "I want to go too!"
• "Too many dogs here!"

than = Indicates a difference in manner or identity.

• "He’s taller than she is."

then = A function of time.

• "Let’s go to the Academy, and then to the StarBase."

e.g. = Latin for "for example".

• "Pick up any writing utensil, e.g., a pen, then dip it in the ink."

i.e. = Latin for "that is".

• "Wise writers use them sparingly, i.e., primarily when documenting resources and then only parenthetically."

a lot = Two words!

• "We need a lot of money."

Rules of Writing From the Pros

Written by Fleet Admiral Tristan Wolf

The following texts are provided as some simple tips that you may find useful while writing sims.

Eight rules for writing fiction

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Kurt Vonnegut (source)

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

George Orwell’s 6 Rules for Effective Writing

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George Orwell (source)

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than saying anything outright barbarous.

Speaking for Others: The Voices You Borrow

Written by Captain Malcolm Lysander

As to speaking for other people in your sim, here’s the basic premise you should follow: feel free to write small things for other characters, as long as they are accurate with that character. Here are some examples using the characters that played in the StarBase 118 Operations sim. One example included a dialogue between the captain (Lysander) and a medical officer (Bizak): (sim)

“BIZAK: Well, I guess I’d better start at the beginning?” “LYSANDER: I’d say that’s the best place.”

In this situation what Bizak wrote for Lysander was not something that would change the situation dramatically, nor was it something that was beyond the scope of what Lysander would say in that situation. So, we could say that “low impact dialogue”, or dialogue that really doesn’t have much effect on the entire sim is acceptable. HOWEVER, if Bizak had written:

“BIZAK: Well, I guess I’d better start at the beginning?” “LYSANDER: Why would I want to start from there?! I have to go, I don’t like you.”

… that would be unacceptable. Why? First off, Lysander probably wouldn’t say something like that because he has never given an indication that he doesn’t like Bizak. After all, in that sim, HE asked HER to have a drink with him, so obviously he wouldn’t then decide that he didn’t like her.

The following also wouldn’t work:

“BIZAK: Well, I guess I’d better start at the beginning?” "LYSANDER: Uh oh, watch out! The Enterprise is crashing through the wall behind you as we speak!”

… for most obvious reasons. For starters, nothing dramatic is happening in the sim that would suggest that there would be any reason for a ship to come crashing into the station. Next, before you put something into a sim that will changes things, like the Enterprise set to ram the StarBase, you need to talk to the captain first.

Another example of a GOOD use of someone else’s character:

“LYSANDER: Locke, fire phasers!” LOCKE: Aye Captain, firing phasers!”

Lysander put the words in Locke’s mouth that would more than likely be spoken by Locke, the tactical officer.

You simply have to walk a fine line between moving the sim along, and giving too much of someone else’s character. Use your good judgment, and try to use the other person’s character as little as possible, to avoid a problem. Keep your words neutral (so that you’re not stepping on the other person’s character in the wrong way), and only use the other character for simple actions, if you have to use them at all.

If you’re going to involve another character in such a way that the other character may be injured, you should CO-WRITE the sim together, or at least ask the other person how far you can go with their character. Co-writing a sim means contacting the other character via Instant Messenger or e-mail to write the sim out piece by piece. (So, one person would write one thing, and send that to the other person. Then the other person writes their response, and sends that back. Then you put all that into one sim and send it out.)

Format, Style, & Feel

Written by Captain Brian Kelly

While sim “style” is certainly a personal choice, and varied styles can successfully co-exist on the same ship, there are several unavoidable truths about simming generally.

Format

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First, while sim ‘style’ is to a degree a matter of choice, form should not be. When a captain requires form to be relatively consistent on her ship, she is not curtailing freedom or creativity, she is trying to prevent confusion. One can be as creative as one likes using one format as he can with another. With that in mind…

You should remember that not all email programs organize bytes the same way, and what looks visually good on your screen might not on other screens. So I like to separate portions of sim text with a blank line for purposes of visual organization. For example, I place that space between the portion of the sim which is my private thought and that portion where I speak, and also between different expressions of speech as well:

::Kelly realized the prisoner was lying to him. He turned to the brig officer and signalled for him to restore the force field. Kelly left the cell, then turned back to the prisoner…:: KELLY: Are you sure you can’t remember what happened? CLARK: That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it…

You can also see that when I am thinking to myself, or relating what is happening in the omnipotent third person (narration), I present that in very traditional text format. In the past tense (for we are telling a story, and the ‘recent past tense’ is the traditional tool for that format), and place it between two sets of colons at either end to make clear what it is.

I have seen “Oo” or “oO” used to delineate thoughts from actual narration but for my money that’s confusing, because those ‘thought bubbles’ are also then used to capture action as well as private rumination. So I simply use the double colon for both, and things are cleaner.

Also, when someone is speaking, I like to place their name in CAPS to draw attention to the fact that speech is coming and who will be speaking. Again, anything that visually separates and organizes is a good thing. I also use caps whenever I refer to a PLANET, a STARSHIP or a BASE OR OUTPOST. Too, this draws attention to these important proper nouns in sims.

This is not something most captains require, but they’ll appreciate it. If they use a different format, change yours to suit; it’s not brown nosing, it’s consistency, and that’s never a bad thing. On RANGER, I prefer everyone use that format, though not all do, and I wait for them to rise in rank before I ask them to mold, because I want them to get used first to the more important aspects of simming, namely, style.

Style

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As I said, this is the deeper part of the ocean, as the saying goes. I have seen so many great simmers use different styles that the very idea of a uniform style is an impossible one when creative endeavor is our goal. On the other hand, some general observations about style, I hope, will help you develop one of your own if you haven’t got one yet, or help you refine it if you have. The polish and veneer of your sims are part, in the end, of the over all evaluations that take place when the big promotions are looming, and given that we’re all human and make perforce subjective judgements, polish can only help, and its absence can only hurt.

First, I know some of you are not from English speaking lands. Ok. But in this I am not politically correct: If you are joining our group, which sims in English, and you expect to be well regarded, you must master the language as best you can, and that means spelling and grammar as much as word usage. I had a commander on RANGER who was from the Netherlands, and for whom English was not a first language, and most of the time, you would never know it. Even more importantly, he improved his command of English over time so that it was clear he was putting in real effort, and that counted for a lot with me, as well as with others.

Of course, not mastering these elements of style is an especially grievous sin if you ARE from an English speaking land. Neither age nor being pressed for time is a valid excuse here, not with me. If your command officers claim it is less important to them, be aware that it is only LESS important. If you consistently present sloppy sims, it won’t help you in the long run; not in getting taken seriously by your fellow simmers, and not when it comes time for high rank.

Do mistakes happen? Absolutely. I make them, every captain does, and every member of the EC does. In fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there are a few typos or grammar errors in this article — the UFOP is not, after all, a Pulitzer competition or a master’s thesis. But my own rate of error is not high, and I always proof my submissions once at least. Of course, by taking the time to discuss this topic, I don’t need to point out that the rate is sometimes higher for others, too much so for it not to become on occasion irritating.

And the cure for it is so simple — READ YOUR POSTS BEFORE YOU HIT “SEND.” Even the longest sims, if they were worth writing, are worth another two to three minutes to check; and that’s all it EVER takes for the longer ones. So if you don’t have the time do make that minimal investment, you don’t have the time to sim right then. In other words, if you don’t have time to do it right, don’t do it till you do.

Youth is also not an excuse. If you’re in High School, you’re learning — or should be — how to write well and organize thought, as well as grammar. And no matter your age, everyone has a spell checker. If you make lots of spelling mistakes, use it.

Is all of this “required” by the UFOP either by way of the group as a whole or by a captain in the sense that if you dont adhere, you’re let go? Of course not. This isn’t military school and you’re not being punished — this is supposed to be fun. But in the end, many of you come to aspire to higher office. So I suggest you do all you can to make sure what you display looks and feels right so it gets taken seriously — otherwise you wasted your time, or at best, you’re saddling yourself with a disadvantage which is easily avoided.

The Feel

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I have always felt, and continue to feel, that the best sims are those which delve deeply inside the character — and thus the best simmers are those who add layers and dimensions to their character. Some of the best sims I have seen from others (and those I myself do and enjoy the most) are the sims in which little or no “action” takes place — or even dialog, sometimes — and in which the person mulls over a problem, a memory, or an issue. Sometimes that mulling involves memories, and one ex first officer of RANGER who went on to command used to make masterful use of the “flashback” to the great enjoyment of all who read his sims. Another current captain about to start her own ship does a great deal of work with friends and family visits and calls. When she served with Fleet Captain Hollis, I know he enjoyed reading about this simmer’s friend from her marine days.

The consistent thread here — which Gene Roddenberry always held was the soul of Star Trek — is that the best stories are about people, not new weapons, or spies, or fights or battles. Those, like magic in a good fantasy novel, are merely backdrops to tell a good story about people; they are not characters themselves, nor should they ever be what drives a story.

This isn’t easy for everyone at first blush, especially if UFOP is your first shot at acting, or role-playing. But remember that you can only have so many fights, so many new weapons, so many “unusual plot developments” before things get boring. When that happens, I commend to your attention looking inside your character, revealing their hurts, their dark places, their fears, their motivations; start with family and friends to flesh yourself out. You’ll find your sims richer, your enjoyment of this deeper, and your investment in UFOP more likely to reap rewards.