Advice/Help Preventing Early Burnout for RP makers

[SAIGO-NO-HEATS]

So I've noticed a problem that I know I have and that I've seen others have as well.

I tend to get really big ideas for my RPs, I put in a lot of work into developing the setting, plot out some general story beats with the hope of keeping the players interested and generally like to feel that I'm in a good place before I even post the RP. But more often than not after the first few pages of actually running the thing I end up feeling worn down and getting less interested to the point that I don't keep up with the RP.

I need to find a good way to help keep myself going, because I want the story to work and be fun for the people playing it. What's some good advice to keep your head in the game, or at least to keep the thing running so that it doesn't die the moment you need to take a break?

 

[GojiBean]

Greetings!

This is definitely a pervasive problem for a massive majority of role-players.

Arguably the best piece of advice I can personally offer as someone who's been role-playing for over 20 years now is to simply not give up. I know it's a bit overly simplistic advice, but it's the best I can provide. Don't give up.

It's really easy to give up. It's really easy to just become mentally fatigued and think to yourself "maybe if I just take a break for a few days and come back it'll be okay." This can prove true, but it can also prove to be untrue. And when you come back you're like, "Well... I kinda want to do this now instead."

I'm sure we've all been there at least a few times in the past, yeah?

Pushing through mental, emotional, and/or physical fatigue is never easy. It's part of the human condition to search for the path of least resistance. It's part of nature's survival strategy. Find the path of least resistance. And overcoming that primal urge can be difficult, frustrating, and even at times depressing.

But you need to push through it. If you love your ideas, worlds, and characters, you need to push through it.

Sometimes an idea simply isn't ready to be fully realized. In those cases, set it aside and just try to think about the idea for a few minutes every day. The more you think about it, the more new possibilities will present themselves and the story will gradually come out of its shell until the moment you know that it's ready to be shared for real. And the amount of time it takes for some ideas to realize their potential varies. I have a story idea that's been in development now since November 19th, 2009 (yes, I remember its birthday, lol). And it's still not fully ready yet. But it's getting close.

So don't give up.

Accept the fatigue for what it is, and push hard to protect your ideas, worlds, and characters from it. It'll be difficult to keep your head in the game. But you gotta do it.

Cheers!

 

[nerdy tangents]

So to clarify you want to know how to run a group roleplay?

 

[Idea]

My first advice regarding this, would be the following: The idea needs to pass the hype test. The thing about ideas we're excited about, is that often we forget that excitement is temporary and fueled by circumstance. It can be anything from inspiration from a show we watched, to not having mulled over the implications of the idea yet, to the simple sheer novelty that comes with coming up with something (sometimes realizing it's not actually that original of an idea when we give our head time to breathe). As a rule of thumb, any idea I have I give it three weeks- I still need to really want to do that idea after three weeks, or I will not do it, I will not post an interest check about it. If an idea can't last 3 weeks before I have to start putting in effort for it, there's no way it will handle long-term longevity.

The second thing would be preparation. If you want to take breaks, or know you will be busy, or anything like that, then that means you need to divert tomorrow's work to today. The way to do that is to make preparations ahead of time for your RP, or making clearing out more menial repetitive tasks that can be addressed earlier and will allow you to keep the creative aspects alone for later. It will largely depend on the kind of RP you're running what type of preparation is best suited for it.

And about that creative process? Well, one thing I say one can do is break it down and schematize it. It's not going to give you the best things ever, but it's good enough for when you have a hard time coming up with anything more complex: A small problem is less complicated to untangle than a big one. So, to do this you just take a post and ask yourself "ok, what do I need for this post?", and once you've got a basic list of the things the post needs to include, you try to write them according to that list. Again, it's ticking a box, but it's a method that simplifies the thinking so it can serve if one really needs it.

That being said, the most important thing of all, is this fourth one: Good habits. Writing, and any effort-demanding activity really, is like exercising: The more you do it, within relative boundaries (there is such a thing as exercising beyond the breaking point) the easier and more natural it gets. Establishing a routine, sticking to writing, this things help your brain getting into writing more - but the more you run because you don't feel like doing it, the less of a habit writing will be, the more of a chore it will seem, and the harder and harder it will get to actually get to writing. Exercise a lot, and now your muscles are built up and you're more used to the effort of exercising so you notice it less. But skip out on it and you will feel even more exhausted and it will get even harder to get exercising. Writing is the same way.

It's not an easy or quick route, but reliable results rarely are. Hopefully the other bits of advice help as well in the meantime.

In fact, hope all of this helps. Best of luck and happy RPing!