(09-06-2013, 04:15 PM)sanguineFenrir Wrote: Because of having to keep the pace for other people and being a relatively slow typist, I am afraid to make the long, descriptive, figurative posts that were so characteristic of my former writing. For one thing, I had the reputation of being a "show-off"(I'll freely admit that), and, for another, the RP goes by so fast that I can't feel the sensory details I rely on. So it comes off as stilted, and I stop. Crowded areas are very distracting to me, but planning everything is something some people decry as inorganic.
I still roleplay on this game, but with a constantly nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I am not living up to my own very high self-standard. For whatever reason, perhaps lack of practice or a change in emotional state, I have completely lost the ability to write except at a relatively basic, nondetailed, technical level, which outright infuriates me. I would go back into practice, but I have no reason to write, and even if I were to post things here, I would have to disallow input, because they may not have anything to do with the world at large, and I don't really want others reading my work until I can get my "power" back, if I knew how.
It's a vicious cycle, and it upsets me, because I know I can do better work than what most people see.
 I always find myself typing too much too. And honestly, it's great when you're in a pair or a small group where you don't have to worry about A. Washing other people's RP away with a wall of text and B. People responding too soon or not waiting for you to finish.
I love my multi-para RP, and while sometimes I'll get into a mood where I can match others for their one-liners or three-liners (no offense to those of you who choose to RP that way; I -do- understand that with an avatar and /emotes and the environment already there for you, you can skip all the superfluous details), most often I sort of... gently encourage others to meet my pace. As often as one might feel obligated to post less, others can be encouraged to post more. It does good, I think, to give others a reason to 'step up their game' so to speak.
For all of you that are shy IRL and afraid of jumping in with people who might be too fast-paced or elitist or too busy to even acknowledge you, I should say that I suffered the same feelings, especially in WoW. I always felt like the best RPers, who wrote the way I did, were paired up or in House guilds (And I was terribly bored of Elven Houses in WoW), going along at their own little pace. While they -claimed- they'd accept walk-up RP and such, most often they were just OOC until they met up with a bunch of their friends.
I was terrified of even being on a forum; that people would decide they didn't like me here and it would carry over into character, based on how highly opinionated I can seem at times. I avoided all the forums until now. But really, like in WoW, I realized that I just have to keep putting my character out there. She's a fantastic character to me, although I'm a little biased, and I'm not a terrible roleplayer. I know this. And I'm sure many of you are confident in your skills, just not in the reception you'll receive from other players.
I'm not going to say I hate people that ignore me because I understand many of them are caught up in what they're doing or they're busy. That's not their fault-- whether it's because you're with friends and you've got tunnel vision or you're just not 100% focused on others, you're going to fall a little shy of the super focus on every single line or paragraph that -might- be focused on you. There are plenty of people, I'm sure, roaming around who'll walk up to you any time or take your walk up and you'll make new friends. It's important, regardless of whether you decide to meet up with people via pre-arranged meetings OOCly or you join a linkshell to try and break yourself of the fear. Be bold. Don't wait for people to come to you and don't be afraid of what will happen when you go up to them. They're just characters in a game with people behind the monitors, writers just like you. If they don't like you or they snub you, let it roll right off your back and keep going because there are other shy people out there like you who might not be able to get the reinforcement you can get from the RPC, who deserve to be RPed with too.
For those of you afraid that you're not going to be able to keep up with large groups, I actually did something in SWTOR that helped me quicken my pace a lot without sacrificing the size of my posts. I got a Cantina job.
I know it sounds cliche and so many people are like "Ungh, I hate tavern RP" but when you're working as a waitress or a bartender, you can write big posts and acknowledge people, help them build their characters and hone your ability to acknowledge multiple people without making them feel like you're rushing through them. It's also a good way to keep up to date on events with RP characters and make good friends.
You don't need to have a super social character to do it, just one that wants or needs a job or who is mildly interested in seeing how others are interacting.
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