wolfspeak: it doesn’t make you sound “literate”
sorry in advance for how long this post is lmao Wolfspeak is a term used to describe the flowery (and often redundant) language that many roleplayers on wolf forums and games use as the backbone of their writing style.
To be truthful, wolfspeak is less of a “writing style” than a way for people to try to sound as smart as possible by fucking a thesaurus with a chainsaw. Words are made up, misused, and butchered constantly all in the name of “creative writing”. Many literate groups have a culture that encourages wolfspeak and discourages people from writing in different ways.
Purple prose is a more appropriate term for wolfspeak in my opinion because of the same kind of overcomplicated sentences and ornate words it encompasses. For the majority of this post, I will refer to wolfspeak as purple prose. This is because it does not apply solely to wolf roleplays or even animal roleplays in general.
The purpose of this post is to address this problem within the writing and to establish that wolfspeak/purple prose is, for the most part, an objectively wrong use of language.
Let’s look at some examples of purple prose. Most of these posts have been written by myself to avoid bashing on anyone individually. My intention is not to shame anyone for their writing “style”, but to SHOW people why it is a bad way to write.
What’s wrong with this post?
“The slender, well-built fae lifted her soft, cherubic features upward as she looked toward the brute. Her pair of kaleidoscopic orbs searched his for traces of ill intent. Finding none, the femme's shapely hips shook subtly as she approached him on her long pillars.”
One of the biggest problems with the post above is that the author constantly describes their character as appealing, either implicitly or explicitly. This is another thing that can come across as pretentious or contrived.
Another problem is how the author constantly describes their character. I like to think about roleplaying as collaborative storytelling. It’s like you're writing a novel alongside other people. In novels, the author really doesn't describe characters constantly unless it is relevant.
This isn't to say that character descriptions are unnecessary. A little exposition can be great, as long as it's used when relevant. ex.. you contrast or compare your character's looks with another character's. That would be a relevant situation to mention appearance. For the most part, though, character descriptions are completely unnecessary.
Another big thing to avoid is constantly using poetic terms to describe your character. Some shown above are "kaleidoscopic orbs", "shapely hips", and "cherubic features"
Let’s revisit this post and break it down even further. This time, I have bolded every word or phrase that is used to describe the author’s character.
“The slender, well-built fae lifted her soft, cherubic features upward as she looked toward the brute. Her pair of kaleidoscopic orbs searched his for traces of ill intent. Finding none, the femme's shapely hips shook subtly as she approached him on her long pillars.”
The author of this post (me lmao) takes up more of their time talking about how gorgeous and great their character is than describing the setting, other characters, their character’s thoughts, or actions. All of this flowery language does nothing. It does not contribute to the plot, it does not make you sound smart, and it certainly does not make you a good writer.
Here’s a list of common replacements of male/female on FH and why you should not use them in most circumstances.
BRUJO: This is not an English word. This does not mean anything in English. In Spanish, though, it means “a shaman or witchdoctor”. Most likely this word is used because it is similar in spelling to brute/brutus. BRUTE: Yes, this is an English word. Yes, it has a meaningful definition that is related to how people use it on FH. Why is it on this list, then? It’s on here because it is one of the most common replacements of male in the entirety of FH. Now, this isn’t to say that common words are bad ones. The reason I dislike this word when used to describe a male is that it is never used to describe personality, just gender. It would add so many levels of characterization if you use this word to describe a particularly brutish or aggressive character rather than just a male character. Be cautious when using this word in your posts. BRUTUS: This word, like brute, is a word that can have tremendous power when used in the right context. Unless you're using this word to describe a relationship, ex. "They were like Brutus and Cesar", I wouldn't use this word at all for reasons outlined earlier. EFFEMINATE - This is a word I've seen commonly to describe female characters when it is actually a term for feminine males. It's probably better to use "feminine" instead of this word when describing a female. FAE - this word means fairy, not female. Is your character a fairy? DAME, DUKE, DUCHESS, AND LORD: These are all words that describe royalty, and yet many of them are used to describe the common wolf. Think about it like this: would you find this word in a novel describing just an average person? Aside from the word dame, probably not.
In conclusion, please do not contribute to this wolfspeak epidemic. If you read this post and decide that you will continue to use it, cool. I hope you enjoy your garbage writing style. If you used to use wolfspeak and stopped after reading this post, that’s really cool.
Posts to look out for in the future, in no particular order: The Average Feralheart Group (and its utter lack of creativity) Why Not All Characters on FH Have to be Young and Attractive FH’s Obsession With Size Differences in Couples The “Illiterates” Aren’t All That Bad
