Jagdish
Bust :(
I'm a refugee from the 1x1 interest checks portion of the forums and let me tell you: There are a lot more people interested in world-building than actually writing stories there.
They come. They talk characters. They join you in plotting out the challenges that our characters have to unite against and the circumstances that will bring them together. They reply quickly and with exclamatory expressions of enthusiasm! Then ... They don't post a single thing into the actual story, or if they do, you get up to three posts that are spread across weeks of delays. These world-builders might say otherwise, but their actions show the truth and I have read enough complaints here to know I am not alone.
It happens whether you have a pre-defined world with an intro right in the greeting or a single-sentence idea to flesh out. It doesn't seem to matter if you talk about posting frequency or long-term aspirations. If you are an idiot like me, you still get your hopes up every time because you love roleplaying with others. I save all these worlds and their characters in a document I call "the graveyard" because they are empty husks that never came to life and trying to pump life (i.e., actual story) into them feels like starting CPR on a body that's gone cold. I am so tired and I want so badly for one of them to live, yet the dead keep coming. My heart and mind ache from the toll and I try a new approach, but the dead are waiting there to.
So, what can we do? I say we give these people somewhere to go that meets their actual interest. I'm too hopeless to believe they won't still follow false aspirations into the search and story forums, but maybe it will filter some away. They like world-building and plotting and collecting their pinterest-style boards of character tidbits and scenes. Good for them -- just go do it somewhere else and let those of us who want to actually write in our worlds get to that goal without wading through a dozen dead worlds for every one that sees the breath of story.
They come. They talk characters. They join you in plotting out the challenges that our characters have to unite against and the circumstances that will bring them together. They reply quickly and with exclamatory expressions of enthusiasm! Then ... They don't post a single thing into the actual story, or if they do, you get up to three posts that are spread across weeks of delays. These world-builders might say otherwise, but their actions show the truth and I have read enough complaints here to know I am not alone.
It happens whether you have a pre-defined world with an intro right in the greeting or a single-sentence idea to flesh out. It doesn't seem to matter if you talk about posting frequency or long-term aspirations. If you are an idiot like me, you still get your hopes up every time because you love roleplaying with others. I save all these worlds and their characters in a document I call "the graveyard" because they are empty husks that never came to life and trying to pump life (i.e., actual story) into them feels like starting CPR on a body that's gone cold. I am so tired and I want so badly for one of them to live, yet the dead keep coming. My heart and mind ache from the toll and I try a new approach, but the dead are waiting there to.
So, what can we do? I say we give these people somewhere to go that meets their actual interest. I'm too hopeless to believe they won't still follow false aspirations into the search and story forums, but maybe it will filter some away. They like world-building and plotting and collecting their pinterest-style boards of character tidbits and scenes. Good for them -- just go do it somewhere else and let those of us who want to actually write in our worlds get to that goal without wading through a dozen dead worlds for every one that sees the breath of story.