Roleplay/Hiatus syndrome

[Sleeping Umbran 1907]

Anyone else suffer from what I have just now lovingly dubbed, Cyclical Roleplay/Hiatus Syndrome?

A phenomenon in which you have been role playing for an exceedingly long time ( possibly since the wild west of role play forums on gaiaonline, neopets ect. ) And find yourself going through bouts of insatiable desire for role play, burn through stories in dramatic fashion and then suddenly drop off the face of the planet. Cause life? (Ammiright?)
And then six months later do it all over again.

Being back from like a two year hiatus has got me thinking about how predictable my rp habits are. And while I'm going to do my very best not to do it again now that I'm back, I was curious how many other writers have a similar cycle.

 

[Nyctibius]

RP-as-a-hobby has always been one where I come and go in terms of inspiration. Sometimes I'm extremely invigorated and find new partners and write new stories, but then between those stories fizzling, partners ghosting, or just straight up losing the drive, I end up taking months at a time off. I think it's just sort of the nature of the beast when it comes to creative hobbies. When you don't have to do the thing, but only want to do it, you only do it when it's comfortable.

I try to follow more a routine now to avoid burnout, but it doesn't always go as planned.

 

[Sleeping Umbran 1907]

RP-as-a-hobby has always been one where I come and go in terms of inspiration. Sometimes I'm extremely invigorated and find new partners and write new stories, but then between those stories fizzling, partners ghosting, or just straight up losing the drive, I end up taking months at a time off. I think it's just sort of the nature of the beast when it comes to creative hobbies. When you don't have to do the thing, but only want to do it, you only do it when it's comfortable.

I try to follow more a routine now to avoid burnout, but it doesn't always go as planned.

Click to shrink...

Yeah that sounds about right!

I think the nature of role play is ever changing as well and frustrations occur if you can't find the style you like. I've never really been interested in Fandom, so if I'm having a difficult time finding a partner who's interested in original works I'm more likely to drift away from the community.

I'm also far less likely to join in on an rp that mildly holds my interest, just to fill time.

The older I get the less I'm interested in doing the same things over and over again.

 

[humon]

The same things over and over again is the critical point. I don't start an RP unless the plot is going to go somewhere that I haven't written before. I always have to be exploring new territory, otherwise what is the point? It's the reason I don't go to the gym anymore, but I never get bored cycling around town. The randomness of the natural world keeps me sharp, not knowing what small things might be different each time around.

When a roleplay has been going on for a long time and feels stale, what I do is I stop posting for a week or so, let my mind wander onto other things, other stories or passive entertainment, whatever, and then when I come back to it, I come back with a fresh idea for where the story should go. Then I'm interested again.

Another way to avoid burnout is just with time. Posting every day is something I never do, unless it's a new RP and everything is still being established. Once it's hit a stride, I wait at least 24 hours after my partner's post, just to give my mind a chance to process how I want my next post to look. Sometimes I'll write a post and get a reply a few hours later. I won't even look at the reply until the next day. Too much back and forth without a sleep cycle just builds up like a memory leak in a badly-coded Windows application.

Also booze and drugs help to clear one's mind every so often. It's something ancient shamans used to do--along with fasting and breath control and other things--what we call 'disruptive strategies' to shake all the old unused neural circuitry out of your head and break up old rigid thought patterns; open up the mental filters so you can see all the new ideas you were previously ignoring. You don't want to do it all the time, or you go crazy, but once in a while it helps to shake the box, so to speak.

 

[Sleeping Umbran 1907]

The same things over and over again is the critical point. I don't start an RP unless the plot is going to go somewhere that I haven't written before. I always have to be exploring new territory, otherwise what is the point? It's the reason I don't go to the gym anymore, but I never get bored cycling around town. The randomness of the natural world keeps me sharp, not knowing what small things might be different each time around.

When a roleplay has been going on for a long time and feels stale, what I do is I stop posting for a week or so, let my mind wander onto other things, other stories or passive entertainment, whatever, and then when I come back to it, I come back with a fresh idea for where the story should go. Then I'm interested again.

Another way to avoid burnout is just with time. Posting every day is something I never do, unless it's a new RP and everything is still being established. Once it's hit a stride, I wait at least 24 hours after my partner's post, just to give my mind a chance to process how I want my next post to look. Sometimes I'll write a post and get a reply a few hours later. I won't even look at the reply until the next day. Too much back and forth without a sleep cycle just builds up like a memory leak in a badly-coded Windows application.

Also booze and drugs help to clear one's mind every so often. It's something ancient shamans used to do--along with fasting and breath control and other things--what we call 'disruptive strategies' to shake all the old unused neural circuitry out of your head and break up old rigid thought patterns; open up the mental filters so you can see all the new ideas you were previously ignoring. You don't want to do it all the time, or you go crazy, but once in a while it helps to shake the box, so to speak.

Click to shrink...

I think I'll definitely be applying the 24 hour reply rule going forward, at least part of the time. I think you're definitely right in a lot of ways, the pressure to keep an inhumane writing pace, especially as a role play hits it's main stride can lead to heavy burn out.

It's interesting to see that people with a similar issue are finding ways of coping and making things fresh!

Thanks for replying!