whenever I am roleplaying I get very very demotivated to do anything. and I always end up dropping out of RP's. is this natural for most RPers to do this, or should I try to train myself to be more motivated or what?.

I feel like their's nothing for me to RP here. all of the Free RPs are cliche and contain overused premises, all of the Casual Roleplaying looks like it holds more stuff for me, but I am not on a high enough commitment level for it.

I tried GMing. all of my RP's sucked and had one person with everyone dropping out before Round start.

Out of curiosity, how many role plays have you joined, and what sort of RPs are they?

Free is mostly shotgun simple posting so if you want something with depth you'll need to move up to casual. Casual doesn't have to be several paragraphs, only a couple. It also doesn't have to be a fast rp and that could be what's causing you issues. The RPs you're joining may be too fast and you're burning yourself out too quickly. Much like eating a 5 course meal in a single, short sitting.

I feel like their's nothing for me to RP here.

Ask yourself the hard questions...why do you want to roleplay? Why do you want to write? Do you want to write? Don't wait for inspiration. Writing is damn hard work and it requires paramount focus. Go for it.

Don't wait for inspiration. Writing is damn hard work and it requires paramount focus. Go for it.

This.

What works for me right now is to read through my partner's post, imagine it, feel it, and see what strikes my fancy - see what inspiration gives me, so to speak. I would have specific points I want to include in my reply, I note them down, and then - this is where hard work begins - I sit myself down and churn out a first draft of my post. Ugly and crude like a troll baby it usually is; I write whatever my mind comes up with to get it out of the way. What I find difficult is not judging myself and to let it go, to free flow my writing, so that I will have something to work with later on. Then the day after, I will smooth out the scene I have in a second draft, and I will polish it up again another time.

If, for some reason I cannot write out a scene, it feels boring and sluggish, then I concede that maybe it isn't what I want to have - subconsciously I want to go in another direction. There's nothing wrong with chucking out the first idea in favour of a more exciting prospect.

It is hard work. It needs practice. And like every hobby and skill you want to learn, it gets easier and better with every session, however short it may be.

That said, I can't play in a group RP. It's too fast paced and/or too much filler goes on in them, so my preferred medium is 1x1. You may need to find out if it's the rate that gets you or a personal laziness you want to whip into shape.

<Snipped quote by Hipster>

Ask yourself the hard questions...why do you want to roleplay? Why do you want to write? Do you want to write? Don't wait for inspiration. Writing is damn hard work and it requires paramount focus. Go for it.

I strongly agree with this.

As for me, if things aren't working well or out of my accordance, music is my last resort. Whenever I listen to a really good track, my imagination becomes alive and will start framing a lot of fictitious settings and people. It doesn't actually correspond with the words I can muster from but through this alone, it helps me a ton with the whole writing process.

EDIT: I get the feeling that at first you become demotivated and end up dropping out RPs. I won't deny I've tried that before but that's because I wanted to start out in a desirable approach, like I wanted to skip everything from point A and go directly to point B where all of the action are residing. Perhaps some won't admit they wanted something like that so they just leave without noticing but I later realized over the years I've spent RPing that things like these aren't the core foundation of story writing. Good stories start at a basic point and the thrill happens while it's being brought into progress. The concept alone motivated me that during the story's progress, you can see how much development has grown. Yes it's boring at some points, however once you get from point A to point B and notice the changes, I'm certain you'll be satisfied and continue until you've reached the tip of the story you've desired.

@NuttsnBolts I usually join about 2 or so rp's, sometimes 3 but most two, I usually look for anything without the word Highschool or Romance mentioned in it anywhere

@Scoundrel@RhymerGood idea, I'll go try again and get inspired

@Hipster I suggest try training yourself to post. I know it may seem odd but even hobbies need a certain level of devotion. When you join or create and rp you're basically telling those in the Rp that you respect the time they put into it, so you need to try.

I know with life in general posting cam get hectic and motivation isn't always there. For me, this is why I try to have built song play lists for various scenarios - introductions, fights, romance, etc. And I try to chose a theme song I can fall back on for each character. Music helps get me in the mood to rp.

If the rp is based off a movie, tv show or anime I'll try to have that on the tv or computer as I type, again, all about the ambiance here.

If you do need drop an rp for any reason, always let your fellow rpers know. It is a far forgotten common courtesy that needs to be reinstilled into the RP world.

I know as a Gm if someone lets me know they need to drop I'll leave a space open for them in the future. If they just stop posting but I see them active elsewhere on the forum I won't allow them into any future rps of mine.

Communication is key when it comes to rp and will many times get you much further than any post count.

Again, find what you love, rp that, set aside time for it. We make sure each day we have time for work, studies, bathing, eating and so forth. Just do the same for rp, if you find it hard to post, find inspiration. Sometimes you will just have to force a post and while it is generally frowned on, I would rather force a post to get back in the swing of things than drop an rp fully.

Failure is good— a lot of role-playing for me, at least, is the experience that comes with failure and the fact I challenged myself to do it which as a byproduct kept my rhythm. Much like any social hobby a lot of activities within it are trial & error situations where you build your social network and learn from the experiences. I’ve tried the same RP three times in this year and I’ve walked away from it without despair as I attempt to look forward.

Have hope and carry on.

thanks for the help

I think I'm going to have to take suggestions from this thread... only a few RP's I'm in have any degree of activity and the main ones are pretty dead right now; I can't really bring myself to build things for roleplays that are presently just sitting; and while there's some that I've expressed interest in as a side, i've found that I am not as interested as I was. So I end up expressing interest and now I need to throw out another batch of "oops, sorry" posts -_-

Excellent suggestions have been made by lots of folks already. I certainly took away some gold nuggets and will add my two cents to the pot.

Though a newcomer to the roleplaying scene, I view it similarly to writing a short story, novella, novel, whatever other medium of writing one decides to pursue. In the subject you want to write about - in terms of this site the interest check you pursue - there has to be a reason why it has intrigued you enough to invest the initial energy into joining it. Whilst it's very much reliant on the GM to create a story, setting, and a whole host of other factors, it's on the roleplayer to craft a character for the GM's world. I find it helpful when writing to find a way to emotional invest myself in the character. What would they think? What would they feel? How would they interact with the world? All these questions eventually create a story motivator, which would then place the writer in the position to discover something about the character. Namely, the writer provides the platform for the character to live. I'm not sure if I made sense, but this has kept me from burning out when writing my own stuff.

As for GMing. If I understand that portion correctly, it's akin to that of an author. Namely, before you begin writing, story boarding and world creation is paramount. Think of it like creating a stage and the props for a play. Without those things, how could you expect characters to perform to their fullest? Elicit maximum emotional impact from the audience? You can't. Not doing the necessary preparation before embarking on any writing will probably result in failure. To summarize, a GM should already have created a setting, world features, and a road map of sorts before posting an interest check. Of course, being malleable in adapting the plot to other writer's suggestions should be afforded, but you're the GM. The god of the story you're advertising. People join with the assumption that you know how to lead and direct them.

Echoing what has already been said, writing is hard. Contrary to what folks who don't write think. Waiting for inspiration or chalking no productivity up to writer's block is a myth. Think of it like exercising. To get better at running - for example - you have to continually push yourself even if you want to stop at the side and deal with your body's whining. Writing is similar. Keep prodding along, and it'll get easier. Writing is a muscle. The more you work at it, the more concentration and endurance you'll get.

I hope this was helpful. I would hate for the above to sound elitist and pompous. I assure you that's not what I was going for. Anyway, I may have resurrected an old thread. Sorry!