Advice/Help What gives you the courage to share your writing to the public?

Korillian

Melody
Hello fellow RPers.

Forgive me for a bit of a broader post, but I've been sitting on this for a few months now. I've wanted to share a roleplay between a friend and I as a reading piece, and while I've had a couple of friends express their interest, it hasn't exactly been approached more than a "sure that sounds cool." I've had a recent realization that what gives me joy in the RP world is knowing that someone is actually reading what I've worked on and giving their thoughts through acknowledgement, whether it be OOC or in character. I thought maybe it would be a decent attempt to post chapters to a public space, but the very thought for some reason just locks me.

On RPnation specifically, I've glanced at a handful of people's stories and I've found them quite talented and imaginative. But I can't seem to give it a try on my own because of the fear behind it. I'm not quite sure what this hesitation stems from, but I'm more or less curious from one writer to another to perhaps jump over this hurdle. What gives you that drive to share your work to strangers so freely? I find it incredibly inspiring, but I still end up in my own dead end with it whenever I attempt.

For clarity sake, this isn't about a fear with roleplaying with another and what the partner would respond with. I'm specifically targeting the idea of sharing the written work openly with others not involved.

Thank you for your time, and I hope you're all having a good day.
 
I've honestly been rp'ing publicly for off and on for nearly two decades. The only way you could RP on forums back then and for many years was to do so openly in a public forum and you couldn't even post images without taking up a lot of bandwidth. My writing and the layout of those posts were absolutely atrocious for the first few years and I just tried to improve in reflection to those I seen as my peers. I would suggest just dipping your toes in some group RP's then when you are more acquainted with that, posting this other rp in the projects section you can set up for the world to see if you so wish.

Maybe not the most helpful of advice but once something is just the way you do it at that point the rest becomes routine and secondary. Familiarity breeds contempt as they say.
 
I think at least for myself, whether or not I am willing to publicly post my rps on public is dependant on whether or not I am currently happy and confident with my writing style (considering that it occassionally shifts from hiatuses). It comes more from a personal place than public, I don't treat it as something I must do (or in your words, a hurdle to pass), but rather something I simply wish to do. To reiterate my point I suppose I worry less about what people think about my writing, but whether I feel proud enough of it to call it mine.
 
For me, it's as simple as me liking my writing style/ideas. I think they're pretty good, so why should I be wary of other people reading them?

Then again, I am one of those people who have no shame, lol. I don't mind speaking before crowds, giving presentations I haven't prepared in advance, etc. etc. So, you could say it's a personality thing.

But tbh, I think most people don't read threads they aren't involved in. I guess you could use that thought to be less nervous about posting publicly? Most people aren't going to read it and those who stick around for some reason clearly like you/your style.
 
But tbh, I think most people don't read threads they aren't involved in. I guess you could use that thought to be less nervous about posting publicly? Most people aren't going to read it and those who stick around for some reason clearly like you/your style.
This, pretty much.
Unless you want to post your rp publicly for specific friends who will read it because you'll give then a link, most people won't read your rp thread even if it's public.

And also, there are as many people roleplaying in private messages as they are in public threads. So if you want to share with specific friends, you can as well invite them into private conversation.

Or you could edit the rp into a fanfiction/original fiction and post it in the form of a complete story. Might be easier that way if the text is edited and brushed up compared to rp style.
 
For me, sharing my ideas was the reason I begun roleplaying and remains one of my strongest motivations to roleplay. Outside of things that might trigger political landmines, I generally just don’t have a problem sharing those ideas and what I make of them. I wish I could give you some reason you could apply to yourself, but... to be honest I just I think it's something between my nature as a person and my beliefs, because while I certainly do easily get argumentative, defensive even perhaps, this tends to happen out of a feeling that my reasoning isn't being properly addressed or acknowledged rather than due to more personal matters. After all, even in the way I talk I tend to go back and forth to consider various ways of seeing what I'm saying and filtering myself all the time (in fact I had a whole ramble about these things I mentioned that I ended up deleting due to believing it was excessive), so if I do post something at all, I've given it thought (even if sometimes it doesn't look like it). Thus, I can't say posting something publicly as opposed to privately is something I see as a detriment, not unless I feel there is a political landmine in there somewhere, rather it's just something that allows me to share my ideas more/further. At the very least it's not as detrimental as roleplay by means other than threads have proven to be for me from my experience, though admittedly the tools for RPing through PMs have improved since last I did.

Adding to this are my personal standards and metrics for what I do make. For instance, while I don't mention this often, I have a personal minimum of 7 full PC lines. If any RP I'm on has me consistently unable to go above that threshold, I will quit that RP, as it's not giving me enough content to do what I see as the bare minimum for myself. Of course this one isn't the most suited requirement for any sort of quality control, but I think it passes as a digestible example of the one of the things I do as part of my method of coping with RPs dying as often as they do. For me, I try to make sure whatever I do is worth my time, by doing the best I can with it to have it have value on its own, so I can look back proudly on it and not feel it was a waste of my time. Even if sometimes what I make isn't quite up to par, well, I still feel there's plenty to appreciate. Plenty I want to show to others. I tend to focus more on that fact than on whatever flaws it may have. Again, it's something to do with the mindset I have.

I guess that is something one could try doing though. Focus less on the parts about what might be wrong, and more on what might be right. What things are you happy or excited about in what you made, what parts do you want to show others and want their thoughts on. We're only human after all, we all make mistakes, so surely we can work on improving those, and showing progress in our small accomplishments in the meantime.

Guess that got a bit corny philosophical there at the end. I'm gonna keep it though. I like philosophy.

(Oh, and as a last note, don't force yourself to share things publicly if you don't want to. PM Rping is perfectly legitimate and there's nothing wrong with sticking to that if you're not comfortable with playing in threads. That being said, if you do want to come to threads... Welcome :) )
 
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I should also clarify that I'm not afraid of people not reading the work. I very much want to share it regardless of it's read or not, but there's just... something mentally stopping me with an unsourced hesitation. Either way, thanks everyone for your responses. It's helped provide some insight and narrow down where I should improve.
 
I should also clarify that I'm not afraid of people not reading the work. I very much want to share it regardless of it's read or not, but there's just... something mentally stopping me with an unsourced hesitation. Either way, thanks everyone for your responses. It's helped provide some insight and narrow down where I should improve.

As someone with a generalized anxiety disorder sometimes the only way to confront unsourced anxiety is exposure.

Do the thing you that makes you anxious and remind yourself the world isn’t gonna end when you do.

A lot of times we built things up in our head and we find when we actually do them it lessens that fear. Because nothing is ever as bad as we make it out to be in our minds.

Even if the world does end and everyone laughs at you it’s usually easier to handle it once it happens. Cuz in general people are rarely as cruel as you make them in your head. Especially on this site, you kinda have to seek out the assholes. I would just make the first few works of fiction (no criticism please).

Like get up your confidence to just post and then you can open yourself up to other peoples opinions.
 
reading writing worse than mine
I cackled at this because I'm fairly sure a number of people feel this on a personal level.
Personally I've been wanting to have some sort of compilation for my writing so I've been looking to try and post and write things more publicly- that's still a work in progress, though
 
I like sharing lol. I don't mind. I am proud of what I write so I put it out there. If someone wants to read it, cool beans. I think, when you are ready of course, you just have to put yourself out there with your writing.
 
On RPnation specifically, I've glanced at a handful of people's stories and I've found them quite talented and imaginative. But I can't seem to give it a try on my own because of the fear behind it. I'm not quite sure what this hesitation stems from, but I'm more or less curious from one writer to another to perhaps jump over this hurdle. What gives you that drive to share your work to strangers so freely? I find it incredibly inspiring, but I still end up in my own dead end with it whenever I attempt.

I should also clarify that I'm not afraid of people not reading the work. I very much want to share it regardless of it's read or not, but there's just... something mentally stopping me with an unsourced hesitation. Either way, thanks everyone for your responses. It's helped provide some insight and narrow down where I should improve.

Hello Korillian,

I would take serious steps to identify where my fears are coming from; I can't fix it if I don't know what's broken. Asking "how do you do it" when you don't know yourself what the problem is might not lead to a solution (then again, it might).

Why I write: I believe in my stories, my characters, and everything I create. I also happen to be the only one who can create them. Others can write their way, but only I can bring to life what's in my head. I love sharing. I love writing to improve my writing skills. I love being able to look back on it all, word for word, years and years later, and relive it. For as Jen in The Dark Crystal says when asked what writing is, it is "words that stay." That's it in a nutshell. =)

I wish you good fortune in finding out what is stopping you so you can stop it if you gather my meaning. =)

Honor and fun,
Dannigan
 

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