Forums » Smalltalk » Does anyone else suffer burn out?

Hi everyone! I dont know if I would call this as a genuine rant or a question, but I would like to get some other suggestions/opinions to see what you all think!

So, I've been roleplaying for as long as I can remember, have been on numerous sites. Some good, some bad. Over my time, I have had numerous partners in various ranges of expertise when it comes to roleplaying. Again, some good, some bad. However, I've kind of noticed lately, at least for me, that I've been suffering from burn out. I've either had writer's block, the plot doesnt move along, or the partner just ups and leave. Sometimes, it's kind of combination of both. Yes, I understand that life is busy, but sometimes I think its courteous to let the partner know whats going on, so you dont leave them twisting in the wind or whatever the reason may be.

I was wondering if anyone else on here kind of feel the same way on here? Or maybe it's just me?

Hello!

I have been through similar experiences. It sucks, to be perfectly honest. But here's the thing, everyone suffers from writers block and some form of burn out at least at some point in their lives. Maybe even multiple times. There are various ways to deal with it according to Google.

I'm still in my burn out phase as of right now. So, I'm creating characters and once I am done, I plan on stepping away for a while before making my return. So consider this a suggestion: Take a break if your feeling a little burned out. Take a vacation, a nice long one. Allow your Role-Playing batteries to recharge and your creativity to make a come back.

I have retired from Role-Playing more than once and each time I have, I returned because I got my creativity back and I was so enthusiastic about returning I had some pretty epic RP's. All because I took a nice long break.

Maybe that's all you need. Hopefully others will pitch in and offer what works for them.

B U M P

That seems to be common these days, which makes sense with the pandemic hitting everyone and work sort of going into overdrive for most people. It's hard to find partners with decent communication, but don't give up! I found it helpful to do small writing prompts, or even just if a small idea pops into your head for a character or a plot, write it down!

It's easy to go back to something when it's written down instead of trying to remember it all over again. Burn out is a real problem, but there are plenty of ways to combat it.

Good luck and I hope you get your spark back!

Yeah, various forms of burnout is pretty common. Based on what I keep seeing, it seems like it's become a bit of a critical, mass issue in recent years. It's entirely possible that it's purely how I'm perceiving things rather than what's really happening, but it seems to me like more people than ever are getting hit harder than ever on a pretty much perpetual basis - and it's not like there's a lack of reasons for that to be the case. Aside from all the craziness that keeps going on in the world, I've also realized that the generation who really brought RP to the internet and popularized play-by-post, the first generation to basically grow up doing that... we're all getting older. We're wearing out faster - maybe even faster than we should be at our ages. And the folks that continue to be more active, more reliably, might be starting to seem a little overwhelming to those of us who aren't.

But again, that's just my perception, and I could be way off the mark.

The problem with me is that I'm a multi-para roleplayer. Depending on the genre and topic, I can write 2 to 3 PAGE responses, and I love it. However, I pour all of my effort into it, hoping to get the same as what I put in, and when I get short responses or one-liners, it frustrates me. Or, if I get writer's block and talk to my partner about roleplay ideas, scenarios, situations to help jumpstart the roleplay again, and when they can't come up with something else either, the roleplay kind of stalls.

It's things like that that make me feel flustered and burnt out on roleplays.

I appreciate it Whenever I have numerous roleplays going, I keep them/my responses saved in Microsoft Word, so not only does it help me with my responses, but it also lets me know where we sit at. However, whenever I get writer's block, I try to talk to my partner about different ideas/scenarios about trying to move it forward, but when they're stumped too, it makes it hard to continue.

Yeah, I get that. I started out roleplaying during the MySpace days, if that tells you anything () but I still enjoy it. It helps me get away from the stresses of life and allows me to do what I want, when I want, how I want, and so on. Unfortunately, like you said, it almost seems like people are wearing out faster or can't handle the massive load of responses/detail. They become stressed and maybe they leave/ghost. Or sometimes whenever writer's block kicks in, and neither myself nor my partner can come up with anything to move it along, it feels stuck and we both get burnt out.

I get what you are saying weasel. It sort of comes in waves it seems. But if you are writing multi-para and get a one line reply to it, there is something fundamentally wrong with the paring in my opinion.

I'm not sure if what I am experiencing right now is 'burnout', but more like, 'no inspiration'. Yesterday while I had a day off, I couldn't put two sentences together without being distracted. Today at work I'm coming up with all sorts of inspiration and would go tap it out on a note really quick, and now I'm getting it done. I did sort of been less motivated this month due to some stuff that came along and crimped a wonderful July here, but I'm getting past it and looking forward to brighter days!

You touched upon a little on how your getting passed your 'No Inspiration', but would please go into a little more detail on how your conquering this? I'd greatly appreciate any advice you can me as I find myself also lacking inspiration.

I deal with burn outs in regards to rp all the time. It's really annoying, but I've found that I can't seem do anything about it. It always pops up every so often.

2 to 3 pages! Ouf! my average is usually two to three paragraphs and sometimes I cut some of my writing out when I feel it's too long with dialogue because I can't deal with walls of text. LOL that's just me anyway.

One of the things I enjoy doing with my partners in our forum groups is impromptu IC RP. Most times its just silly IC shenanigans where we completely accept one-liners. It's humorous, it helps us connect as friends and it releases stress and anxiety.

I think a lot of people use the forum games in such a way to get inspiration in a low stress environment.

This would be an example of what I mean from one of my characters:

"I'm tired of being nothing but the serving wench! I want ta go on an adventure! Once ye get typecast as the serving wench ye can't have nice things anymore." She cried as she picked herself up and got back on her feet sobbing.

That's the thing... I have no idea. Why I am not inspired when I have time and why I get inspired while I'm working is a mystery to me. Yesterday I stared at a PM post, and I rad it and reread it and all I could say to myself is 'what am I supposed to do with this?'. So today at work I would think about it and I'm like 'Do this' and 'say this', etc. And I got home and wrote out a multi para reply of about 500 or so words. So... who knows?

Like I said, only 2 - 3 pages if the roleplay is REALLY good. However, my typical responses can be anywhere from 2 - 4 paragraphs on most of your typical roleplays. Only though if my partner can match what they're doing and such.

Exactly. Like I could have a roleplay that could be going well, then it hits a writers block, and things stall. Then, one day, depending on the type of roleplay, I can crank out responses like no other. x.x

Personally, I ended up very out of practice with lit RP for a long time, since my teens were spent doing a lot of Tumblr-based fandom RP (i.e. characters running blogs). I still really enjoy that kind of online interaction type RP, depending on setting, obviously. But the thing that helped me a lot, not just with getting back into writing, but with making characters I'd be able to stick to, was getting out of my comfort zone, and playing characters that I thought I wouldn't necessarily enjoy from the outset.

A lot of my problem, especially, was in the fact that I'd try to play characters in lit RP who just...did not talk. Or who were dealing with too much interiority to really give my partner anything to react to. It's hard to play characters like that, and it's hard to play with them, too, unless the characters' chemistry draws out the more reserved OC. But I don't know, I just had a horrible time getting back into lit, until I shifted around to something I hadn't tried as much, with making more talkative and highly active characters. That was what singlehandedly cured my difficulties with RPing, to be honest.

Something else that I think a lot of people are against for some reason is shifting length according to flow. In a quick conversation, it's not really necessary to write more than a brief paragraph or two, sometimes. I understand some people prefer certain lengths, but I know a lot of people can get much more quickly burnt out by long replies being the requirement rather than the soft norm. I try to write interactions based on how people talk, not based on arbitrary RP rules, and that's made it a million times more fun for me.

Also, reading again was what broke me entirely out of my solo writing block that had lasted...um...a little under a decade. Reading actual books helped me so much with understanding flow and knowing when to give shorter, snippier replies, versus long, wordy, purple prose filled descriptive walls. I'd highly suggest getting into (or back into) reading, for people who are interested in RP. Fanfiction and RP are fine, but reading actual books, especially in genres you like to RP, is a huge help in processing how to write well. And interestingly.

Additionally, I hadn't really played multiple characters in an RP in a long time, but I've been doing that again and it's helped a LOT with my creative flow. Having several characters to juggle makes it far easier to move the plot forward and to always have something to say. Sometimes, I'll randomly write walls of my own characters interacting with one another. Or sometimes it'll just be two short paragraphs moving conversations along. Whatever.

Basically, in my opinion (which I know is not everyone's, of course), I think replies should be far more focused on giving my partner something to respond to. It doesn't matter how long my reply is, if I'm not focused on giving my partner something to actually work with. Not that I'm saying it's anyone else's issue, it's just one that I had trouble with for awhile. RP is collaborative, it's not me and my partner throwing potentially conflicting solo projects at each other. I don't think most people want to read through thousand+ word responses to find that they've got nothing to say. So prioritizing the collaborative element has gotten me much further in RP nowadays, as has keeping up conversations with my RP partners or doing extensive planning beforehand. If my partner and I come up with something we're both passionate about, there's no reason to really drop it.

I'd like to just stress again the importance of getting out of one's comfort zone for burnout. It doesn't have to be playing a genre you're disinterested in, or making a character you don't like; just experiment with things you haven't done as often, but that spark passion in you. Try doing weird stuff with your writing, too! Use unexpected literary devices or try to talk to your partner about doing something new and exciting together. That's the tl;dr, I guess.

I was going through some serious burnout for a while. I think it started a little bit after I picked up playing tabletop, actually. Now, while I DO love tabletop games, there came a point where trying to keep up with the party I was playing with started getting harder and harder.

I'm glad I remembered to come back here and actually start up some one-on-one rps, it's refreshing and certainly lit a fire under my rear, so to speak, and my creativity has been coming back. Hopefully, it'll help me in the way of putting more into my writing while in groups, again. Like several others have said - trying something new might open a door or two!

If you are talking about RP burnout, I have, but nothing too crazy. Right now, it's more of burnout from work and life.

Honestly, some of my burnout in relation to TTRPGs or freeform RP is the social aspect. Doing anything with other people at all will take the wind out of me overtime, but so many campaigns die due to someone else's burnout, and so many groups break up as a result, that it gets exhausting even thinking about seeking out a new group. It takes me so long to get used to people in the first place that I always have to take a couple weeks between groups forming and dissolving, and I've done that so much in the last 2 years that I'm just tired of it.

It's not really anyone's fault, things happen all the time. I think this is just how dedicated group activities work online. When you meet in-person to play games, there's more accountability when you bail, and it's also just so much easier to keep up with people who are physically closer to you. But everyone interested in the systems I want to run, or freeform RPs at all, is a faceless anon on message boards or chat rooms. So it's just the world I live in, haha.