DISCUSSION What Keeps You from Posting in Roleplays?

The two above me really summed up my problem when I try to post for RPs. Distractions are really really prevalent, especially with the fact that sitting down and writing can take quite a long time, and then I know I just start to procrastinate if I know that I need to hold myself up to a certain standard that people have (length, development, etc.). I'm not entirely sure if there is or will ever be a solution to this, but I know that I have a hard time sitting down and posting.

 

Tumblr, Facebook, and Youtube are my big ones. But other times it's just like I'm not really in the mood, or I just completely flake on it. I tell myself "Oh, I need to take care of that... I'll get to it... eventually..." And like Gist said, there is a standard around, and when I see these super long and flowery Jonno and Eebit and Masq novellas, I think "crap gotta write like that and not make myself look like an ugly dumb ass" and then I realize that I can't and then I hide in a corner and try to avoid that.

 

because tldr

 

In all seriousness though, I am extremely busy. I am a student, the main organizer/leader/contact for both a Spark unit and my church's youth group. Adding in working full time and my various other volunteer commitments means that I spend my free time sleeping or with @Eebit (when he's home from university).

Also I feel the same way as @Rose when I do get around to writing. I have to both meet my own standard's as a writer and the forum's. I don't want to write shit and let people down, which then leads to me not posting and letting others down.

 

Well I don't have any obligation to post like the rest of y'all do, but I feel like it applies to me because I am a part of the ZEJ community more or less and I really should join some RPs to better integrate myself, but I don't because of several reasons. I'm too lazy to join any, I'm very easily distracted, and I don't have any confidence in my writing. There are a few other reasons(or.. maybe sub-reasons..?) but those four are the main ones.

"But wait, four? You only listed three, tyran you dumb fuck."
Now woah there Giga, wait a minute. I did mention four reasons. My first reason was that I've no obligation to. If I got myself in an RP, I'd feel more dedicated to posting than I would if I were not. If I were in an RP, you'd probably see me post more in the entire forum too. See, joining an RP means that I feel that I'm ready to become dedicated, either because I have more free time or whatever. However, even if I have more time, that doesn't mean I'll post more. A fine example being Shadow. Don't lie, this topic was made entirely for Shadow. >Has shitton of free time, stays up until the late hours of the night staring at shiny lolis instead of posten.
 It's because of Shadow-like posters that I refrain from joining RPs. As I said, joining an RP means that I feel ready to become dedicated. That's almost never the case for me, because I'm too lazy to habitually dedicate myself to anything. Of course, I have previously taken on tasks where I felt like I was going to stay dedicated but soon lost interest because I'm inconsistent as fuck. I do a lot of things on whims and, without the proper encouragement, I'll stop whatever I was doing just as easily as I had started it.
It's because of this inconsistency that, even if I were in an RP, I'd lag a lot because of reasons you guys have already mentioned. There are so many things to do in a day that I don't have enough time to focus on all of them. Some eat my time up more than others. Some aren't necessary but they're less mentally demanding than writing for an RP so I'll tend to gravitate towards them. One thing leads to the next and, by the time I remember that I have to post, the day will be over and I'll have to go to sleep, and forget again that following morning. My memory isn't as bad as Kuda!Memory, Gist!Memory, Nate!Memory, or anyonelse!Memory, but when I'd rather waste my time with distractions, I'd condition myself to forget just that one necessity: To post.
BUT... Even if I joined an RP, even if I remember to post, I probably won't want to. I'd want to firmly dedicate myself. I want to have all the time in the world to write whenever and however I please, but I'll have a stronger mindset to just get it out there as promptly as I can so that people won't have to wait on me. Even if you guys don't rush me, I'll rush myself because I'll feel bad for whoever has to wait. When that happens, I can't control the quality of my already-terrible writing skills. I can't edit it to my every desire because it'll take too long for me to be comfortable with. I'll look over it and automatically assume that everyone thinks I've ruined the RP with my horrible writing, because that's what I'll feel like I did. Even if, most of the time, it won't be true because the lot of you are generally lenient with stuff like that. Regardless, I'll still believe I fuq'd shit up. If you compliment my writing-- Even if everyone did-- it'll have helped my confidence a bit but there will still be that little twinge of bullshittery in the back of my mind that is still insulting each letter and word, every reference or metaphor- It'll question my structure, my usage of punctuation, and just my entire post. It'll eat at me to a point where I just stop because I'd rather not put my friends through any bullshit, whether it be my shitty ass posts or the anxiety that comes along with it.

inb4 sleeping with Eebit

 

Stickying because I feel like this is kind of a big deal.

 

Okay, so now that we've discussed the problems (and seeing that nobody else is going to chime in from that side of the fence), I think that, if this thread is to remain a stickied thread, it's important that we discuss possible solutions as well. How can we best support one another in terms of keeping a steady balance of keeping commitments and getting a good posting rhythm, while making it not seem like a chore?

 

I'm not sure if there really is a solution, though, for these distractions. This is the Internet, and people are bound to get led astray if they're not focused on the thing they want to accoplish. I don't think there really is anything other than just telling someone to go post, and then that person actually sitting down in front of a word processor and actually writing the thing out, but then that takes all the fun out of it. The new RP that Masq started on ED has a decent posting pace at the moment, but I think that's because of the shininess of it and the fact that the ball hasn't been dropped yet. Once someone doesn't post for a while, the whole thing will begin to drag down. Once something stops, it's extremely difficult to get it started up again, let alone at the pace it might have had when it started.

tl;dr if you're trying to focus on a post, what I do is copy the last couple of posts into Word (or Notepad if you don't have that) and then I just sit there I type out my response. This may not work for everyone, but this is what I do, and most of the time, I can pound it out and feel relatively good about it afterwards. I don't know.

Eh.

 

I wish there was a reminder tool on ZEJ that says "hey you need to post here" and won't go away until you post there. I'm sure that's not possible, but if it won't go away and gets progressively more annoying the longer you wait, that could be a way to fix it.

Realistically though, I have no idea beyond what has been suggested AKA harassment. But even then that doesn't work.

 

It wouldn't be -too- hard to implement, actually! However, I'd not be so for it, because I honestly can't help if my creative juices aren't flowing, so I don't think it's fair to bug someone about posting in a progressively annoying manner beyond a joke.

 

People have to want to post. If they don't want to, they won't, and there's really nothing anyone can do about it.

So, if you revitalize people's want to post, they might do it more often? That has yet to be tested, however.