Advice/Help Have you ever written a post that doesn't feel up to par?

[Ganryu]

Yes, but want to know a secret, every single one of my best posts ever come from those too. Rewriting it til it's good is something I've done a few times.

Also a few times I've had to go 'fuck it, it goes up', and those weren't... pretty. But moved the RP forward, and was necessary

 

[Whisker]

Legitimately me about every post I have ever written.

 

[natsukashii]

Without a doubt. Like it's been noted before this response, we all have had those moments where we don't write our best; it can't be helped. There isn't anything we can do but push forward. Sometimes I write posts that either lack detail or have too much (yes that is a thing). I just keep reminding myself that this post needs to be written regardless of how I feel about it.

What I find helps is getting opinions from those who will read it. I know there might be a few that you should write for your own satisfaction. While I agree with that (to some extent), when you are your own worst critic, the validation from your peers can go a long way. So that's why it makes me feel good when I get a notification about someone giving me a love or like reaction to something I've written.

 

[baggysack]

Contrarian post warning... What is an "on-par" RP post? Seriously, it's a completely free-written, context-necessary piece of short-form creative writing ranging from 100 to 600 words. At that point, I think anyone should be proud of that: you're writing over 100 words a day on the spot. Not bad!

 

[bad wolf]

Literally everything I write of late feels this way. I haven't felt myself in my work in quite some time and it's so upsetting sometimes. You feel discouraged after a while.

Thankfully, I've got partners who are very understanding and supportive of the time I take to write. They give me nice boosts of confidence which is always very awesome of them to do, but I always have that hesitation to write and doubt in my ability regardless.

I think it's just something you've got to realize and overcome. Learn to work with. Overthinking is probably the leading factor in feeling this way... But still. I miss writing contently and without a whole lot of worry.

 

[Cross]

I think a lot of writers struggle with perfectionism. Unfortunately, the amount of effort you put into a post doesn't correlate to good prose. At some point, you just got to post even if it's bad. It's better to make a bad post than not post at all.

 

[Jannah]

Yes, all the damn time. At least 50% of my posts.

 

[kibou]

Of course. I took a huge break from both rping and reading books and as a result of being rusty and my tendency to overthink everything to hell, a lot of posts I've just had to say "fuck it" and hit reply.

I've began a new technique to write when I feel super stumped about how to approach something- I'll bullet point out all the information I want to convey in plain words, re-arrange it a lil to flow better, and then turn it into actual sentences and flower it up a bit. It works just well enough to brute force shit posts out, and honestly when so many rps die from lack of activity you just gotta do it sometimes. I still usually re-arrange sentences and change up the structure and stuff, because I'm still incapable of not over-thinking.

Usually you are your own worst critic, and I don't think anyone's ever commented on any of my posts being noticeably different. When you understand everything about why you write the way you do and what techniques you like to use, you'll be the first and sometimes only person to know when it's not as good as usual. I think people (I am people) should remember that roleplaying is a hobby, for fun, and if you're stressing a lot and not having fun you should figure out why and try to change something so it becomes fun again.

Also, you'd think on a writing website people would read, but they don't. Be reassured in the existence of skimmers.

 

[Pith]

oh, all the time. Personally, I try not to dwell on them because doing that just distracts from working on the next one better imo. It's a bit different if you're, say, writing a book or paper and it's going to have a completed entirety, but RP is sort of an ever-evolving, living thing. Concentrating on an older tag isn't going to necessarily make what comes after better, so learning to just let go and move on is a good skill to learn imo.