I remind myself every single person doing roleplay wants to have fun.

Look. We aren't here to win prizes or awards, we aren't here to be Very Important Writers, we are here to write our little characters doing stories we are jazzed about, and we decided to write with other people on purpose. We could be fanfic writers! Or write fiction novels! Instead, we choose to do a collaborative hobby because we enjoy thriving off other people's creativity.

If you like what you're doing, you'll find people who like the same things. Not everyone will like what you like, and that's okay! But your people will be excited about the stories you're telling.

What's the worst thing that happens if someone doesn't like your post? A stranger on the internet prefers stories you don't. That's it. I find it helps to remind myself how small the stakes are in roleplay, and it takes the edge off.

I think I'm in the same camp as Traveller and Wraith here. I've had to learn not to equate length to effort in roleplay. When I'm pressed for time, my posts tend to be longer. When I have time to give, I cut a lot more words. A lot of times, I write out my post and then I delete the first paragraph of whatever I wrote. Because it was just clearing my throat and getting started.

'Is the writing compelling,' is the better question. I don't mind reading monologuing about characters -- I often find it interesting! -- but it has to be written in a way where it's enjoyable to read, as opposed to feeling like skimming a grocery list or listening to a lecture.

Additionally, you need to have things people can respond to! Dialogue, actions, etc. A post that is just interiority is hard to respond to, no matter how beautifully written. I'm a very introspective writer and it's important to me that my character's motivations are understood by my writing partners, but I make a rule for myself that everything needs to have something grounded in the moment to go with it: a meaningful glance, or a phrase of dialogue that hits differently knowing the interior monologue, or maybe a shift in mood or unexpected action that is explained by the way the character reacts to the scene internally.

Lately my own posts skew 200-300 words ish on average, but they'll get longer if it's a big scene where there's a lot of action going on. 800+ feels like a lot for me personally, and my last post in that range was a pivotal event for my character with a lot of characters and responses to account for.

I think type of event comes into play here, too.

Some groups prefer stuff that’s more socially oriented, some that are more PVP, some that feel like D&D campaigns unlocking site lore. Helps to figure out which type of event gets the best response. Trial and error until you finagle the magic combos.

My early mod events were hot garbage. Once I got experience and paid attention to what my members liked, my events were way more efficient and married things I liked to do to things I knew people would enjoy. Was easier to predict where I should put my effort.

Usually, descriptive writing is what spurs me to look into things. Describing everything from clothing, to architecture, to flowers, to instruments, and to weapons involves learning a new lexicon of words to be precise. One example: I had a lot of fun designing a new location around mangroves, and I had to look up all the unique fauna and flora they include!

Was captured and being tried for her crimes, did middle finger guns, blew up and did a forbidden curse that destroyed her own immortality.

Being a mod villain was fun.

Another angle on this topic: Some of my favorite writing partners I've ever had are people I didn't talk to much OOCly. I shipped with someone for, uh, seven years? And we knew passing things about one another OOC, but the majority of our conversations were, "Hey want to do X plot? Okay, cool, when are you free?"

I think sometimes people feel they have to be OOCly always available and chatty and enthusiastic to be a 'good' RP partner, and that's not only unsustainable for many people, but also simply not true. I think writing speaks for itself. Good roleplay partners give you good content to respond to, and communicate with you about anything like absences, or desires to change direction in storytelling.

I've often been surprised to learn people think I'm upset with them, or assume I don't want to plot anymore, and their reasoning was because I hadn't reached out for a thread in awhile. They're even writers I feel I give my 'best' to, and who have some of my favorite threads! But again, the OOC weight given to socializing and to conveying enthusiasm can create a false sense that the other roleplayer isn't interested, and all you can do is hope people believe you when you give them your answers. I try to be honest when confronted, too, and admit things like 'My current plot didn't seem like it would be fun for you.' It goes both ways.

Final thought: It's unhealthy to play the game of hypervigilance where you try and guess what other people "really mean." I say this as a hypervigilant person who tries too hard to make other people comfortable. Shouldn't we expect people to advocate for themselves and their wants? If we expect people to be honest, then we should take their words at face value until proven otherwise. We cannot (and shouldn't!) be mind readers who perfectly navigate every hurdle without fail. That's just not realistic, and what's worse, it's exhausting. And silently teaches people being passive aggressive is the way to get you to change your behavior.

Uh, this is a good question, hm. It's a combination of having strong character goals I'm fleshing out, genuine interest in learning about other people's characters and stories, and then the pleasant dopamine hit of connecting those things into satisfying arcs.

I tend to daydream a lot and drift off into thinking about plots organically. When I go on long drives or walks my brain usually just drifts into this kind of space and without realizing it I'm concocting ideas.

I then excitedly discuss these with other roleplayers, who either are on board or not. I also enjoy being on the receiving end of good ideas and then finding ways to make them work. Idk, it's fun and invigorating to collaborate. It's also really cool to see how other people take your ideas and run with them!

Honestly, I'm totally scattered about my actual writing routine but try to do at least one or two posts a day. If a post takes me a long time, it's sometimes because 1) I lost track of it, 2) I am still figuring out where to enter it from as a writer, or 3) I'm having a low muse cycle and it takes more of a push to get through. The posts that I write fastest are the ones I've already mentally prepped around the most, because those plots are already circling my head frequently. It's like I've been secretly outlining responses in advance, so when the moment comes, I'm ready to take it.

I also really enjoy listening to music as I write that suits the threads I'm writing. If I'm having trouble writing in general, I will reread books or rewatch shows I like, or explore other people's threads to build up excitement about storytelling again.

Definitely collaboration! Your stories weaving with another person's stories to make an amazing, larger-scale plot is so, so satisfying. I think that's probably my favorite thing, next to meeting people.

I love writing vengeful characters with grudges.

Meanwhile, I struggle to get angry with people IRL. Even when they deserve it.

I find myself getting increasingly bored with slice-of-life, fluffy romance, endgame plots. I can't do it without some drama spicing things up.

I get bored. I don't know what that says about me as a person, but here we are.

Echoing everyone who says 'the roleplayer makes the character.' To be more specific, the best characters are written by people who are open to plotting widely, to taking chances in storytelling, and to being 'yes-and' with sharing their stories.

Some characters are fantastic as stand-alone, well-written concepts, but the writers don't want to risk looking foolish/taking an 'L'/writing outside their preferred groups, and that limits the stories you can tell with them in my experience.

What makes a good starter?
Give me a setting to write in. Give me a character to respond to. I'm not especially fussed on if my character is mentioned at all. I often like doing 'dropped in the moment' starters where it's one person set in the scene, and the person replying gets to decide what their character is doing in response. I dislike assuming what other characters would do or not, and so I try to make a real enough scenario the writer can decide how to integrate themselves into it.

Do you like starting threads? If not, why?
I do! Because I like naming threads, and it's easier for me to keep track of threads that way to be quite honest!

Been kind of a rough year or so (or three?), but all the little things I’ve been doing to try and take care of myself have finally paid off.

I took a job I was intimidated by and now I’m getting promoted. I’m moving to a city I always liked but didn’t think I could afford. I have a car again. I am getting reasons to travel places I’ve never been before. Little by little I’m making my life my own again, and there’s a part of me that keeps expecting everything to fall apart without warning because life has a way of doing that. But I also know it’s probably going to be okay, and I’m going to be okay.