Forums » Smalltalk » Too many RPs!

So, right now I'm actually at an okay number of RPs, but!

How do y'all keep yourselves from taking on literally -all- of the RPs?
Because I want to take on so many more but I know that if I do, then I'll burn out again and I'll end up not wanting to respond to any like the bad writer I am lol

on the flip side:
If you are a chronic RP starter like myself, how do you organize your replies? Do you just reply as your rps come in? Do you have a schedule? What's up with your organization techniques?


Idk, I want at least one RP for all of my characters, but that's extremely unrealistic, I know lol
Just thinking, figured I'd make a forum for people to share their thoughts :>

I fall into this trap myself. As soon as I catch up on my replies, I start thinking about something new I've been wanting to start! And then I find myself behind and sometimes a little stressed over all the replies I owe! Over the past decade or so that I've been doing this, I've burnt myself out on it multiple times and ended up taking a 6+ month hiatus.

But in general, I prioritize group RP replies first. I love group RPs and the wide variety in the cast of characters, but they tend to be more 'fragile'. So I feel they need extra attention to keep them going.

Then, the ones that feel 'easy' for me to reply to. Usually because I know exactly what I want to write and just can hardly wait to get it typed up.

And lastly, and only when I'm caught up with the easy ones, I tackle the 'hard' ones. Sometimes they are hard because I just really don't have a clear idea in my head where the story is going. Other times because my partner wrote a particularly wonderful post, so I feel a need to take my time and get them a worthy reply.

Yeah, one of my partners had to wait on me for just under a year to get a reply out to them. They are the most patient person I've probably ever met, that taken into consideration, tbh lol
And then I at least got into replying once a week, but now I'm feeling more in my element again, and it's hard not to start -every- RP x_x


Yeah, I think this is the hard part for me, is pulling myself to reply to the difficult ones. I find that when an RP is in a slow lull, I tend to put it off as long as possible... which is kind of backwards, considering replying faster would get the RP going quicker, but y'know, my brain makes no sense x_x

darn those easy replies, taking up all of my time lol

*wink*

HOWEVER! I too struggle with this. And usually loose. The slow time at work starts and I suddenly have all the time in the world so I start all the rps in the world and then work picks up and life picks up and suddenly I'm never able to respond anymore and I feel awful so I start dropping rps in an attempt to get back to a reasonable response time on the ones I can't live without and then work slows down and suddenly it's ALL THE RPS again. It's a vicious cycle that I'm trying to break. But it's hard. Thankfully I've reached a point where I have enough partners that respond consistently and are understanding of life's craziness that it's rare I feel the need to give into that itch, though I did fall a little bit down that rabbit hole recently. And then two of my older rps suddenly cropped back up again and now I'm all overwhelmed again and I have no one but myself to blame but I love all my rps now and can't bring myself to bow out of any of them anymore and I'm so sorrrrrryyyyy!

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

I know this struggle all too well. Having a world of my own, modding a couple of others for other people, and being part of a couple more, as well as having 40+ 1x1s happening, I struggle with this all the time. School and work, as well as familial stress, doesn't help.

The way that I manage everything is that I literally schedule time to RP, just like you would schedule a time to go out with friends or do homework. I have a personal preferred minimum of getting 3 posts done a day, but I'm not super hard on myself if I don't make it.

Edit: I have two 'lists' of RP that I keep in my notes. One is oldest replies and the other is personal preference/excitement. I try to do two in the oldest replies and one in the preferred list per day.

I honestly am at a place where I have a couple too many RPs but am unwilling to end 90% of them because I love them so much. They're mostly with all the same people, I have way more RPs than I have partners, but I have found a way to organize them fairly well that doesn't stress me out so much.

Monday Replies - At least one post on Mondays

Friday Replies - At least one post on Fridays

Saturdays and Wednesday Replies - At least one post on Sat and Wed.

Monday-Friday - at least one post Monday through Friday.

I try my best to stick to the schedules but sometimes I end up replying to someone on a day they aren't scheduled for.

First of all, great topic. I'm certain that most, if not all of us has faced this dilemma. I recently accrued a bit too much role plays than I thought I can handle. I did not realize that after waking up and seeing several replies. Each of them, I had to take care of, one by one. They need my utmost attention so I can deliver the best possible replies. This certainly happened to me before so I had to turn down some people whose role plays I did not find very compelling. There are also times when I did so in the contrary, but I do get bored and I don't realize that until much later.

What I did is schedule replies. Similar to what the guy above me did. Since my role plays required much of my concentration, I decided that I could give two replies to each role play per day at most. I am also taking into account of my college classes and my leisure time so I feel that this amount should be satisfactory to my current partners.

I am a chronic wanter of rp starts, but I have a tendency to keeping that in check mentally because I don't want to start something I can't commit to. It's strange though, some days I end up with little rp to do at all, and other days it feels like my partners have coordinated a surgical strike of replies in my direction, which I have always found made it very difficult to gauge how many rps I would be able to keep up with.

As far as responses, I tend to respond to the more active ones first. If I have 2 responses to make, and one person is known for a response every 3 days or so, and the other replies daily maybe a couple times a day, I tend to reply to the daily reposter first. Most of the time my partners don't have to wait too long for a response though, as the little free time I have is often spent here on rpr.

@Mercyinreach that's a very unique schedule you have actually, I'm not sure I personally would care for that kind of structure myself, but I can see how others would love that way of doing things. I must ask, though, do you tell your partners at any point they are scheduled for such and such a day so they can expect responses then? Or just leave it unspoken?

Is there truly such a thing as TOO much of a good thing? Yes and no. If you take on too much you can feel overwhelmed, but if you love roleplaying and are passionate about it, it's worth it. I don't have a ton of rps with writers, but often I have more than 1 rp with a writer. My one friend and I have like 13 different rps going on at once, and we typically pick out 5 total messages we want to protize.

Typically, I go from oldest-newest rp wise. However, I can't deny, if I'm really enjoying the rp, I may bump you up on my waiting list of people, because I'm super excited about that rp. I don't think I'm a great rper, but I try putting my heart and feelings into each message, and trying to connect with the other writer that is writing with me.

When it comes to starting new roleplays, I have absolutely no self control; so, when I have a fair amount of roleplays to reply to, I’ll sit down when I know I have the time and reply to all, from oldest to newest. ^^

*Stares at the 53 replies to get to in inbox.*

I'll let you know when I find the answer. ;;;

I have my reply schedule listed on my profile! I have their characters names under each reply section.

I used to think that 10 was far more than I could handle, but I found that over time I can deal with about 20. These are all relatively active, though some partners take more than a month to reply, some more than a week, and some only a day or two. This means that I can take my time on the stories that are responded to on a slower pace at a pace I'm comfortable with and I know that if I'm not feeling inspiration for that specific story I can wait a bit longer and my partner won't become impatient.
The quicker my partner replies the faster I tend to try and reply as well without pushing myself past what I feel is a good enough reply to manage. However, sometimes I force myself to reply for the sake of getting something out and moving the story along if my partner has been waiting a bit longer than I'd like and I've had trouble responding.

I think it comes with trial and error for finding what is a limit for yourself. Due to my depression and anxiety, I can become overwhelmed with just having one story sitting in my inbox, and sometimes I know my writing partners don't mind if I can't get to them based on what characters I feel like writing.

You have to try and find what suits you best, because no one knows your limits better than you do.