ello ello read the other projects in this series for disclaimers because I am tired and don't feel like typing them all out. I am not a professional, this is for a cat roleplay on a coding website, etc etc etc let's move on. one thing I notice a lot of people in the rping community struggle with is motivation to respond to rps. I've been there, I've neglected those threads, we've all done it and felt the bone-crushing feeling of "I just don't want to" or "I'll do it later" stop. doing it later isn't going to help (unless it's like severe mental health / irl stuff in which case you are at the wrong place ). here is how I (usually?) find the motivation to respond to my rps fairly quickly (at least, I'd like to think so.) 1. keep a list of all the rps you're in. keep it, just make a blankslate or something, check it every once in a while. just make a note there when you get a reply you can't respond to immediately. it helps so, so, so much. if you've forgotten about an rp, you're definitely not going to respond. and if you feel like it's been a while since someone responded ("hey, what happened with that rp with __?") then go check! see if you've accidentally left them on read! or if you need to ping them! seriously. it helps. trust me. 2. pick a time to respond and make yourself do it every day. for me, I will respond once a day right before bed. it doesn't matter if I don't have motivation all day, I will crank out a response at least once a day to all my rps. It is just something that happens. motivation is a fickle thing, so sometimes you're going to need to write on no motivation. the next point has things to write about if you don't have motivation, but this point is to simply say: do it. do the thing. respond. it doesn't have to be good, but it'll help so much if you force yourself to write an average-ly okay reply to each rp once a day. maybe it's shorter than normal - who cares! pick a time and respond one time a day, every day. 3. pick a list of things to write about when you've got no motivation. listen up here. it doesn't have to be good. IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE GOOD. it just has to be written! this isn't a novel, one 'bad' response won't ruin the entire life of someone. as long as it's able to be responded to, (not just 'she smiled') then it's okay. maybe it's 500 characters shorter than the other person, whatever. as long as you're making an effort, I promise that the person you're rping with won't be super mad if you write a 400 character response and get it sent instead of a 1500 character response that they don't hear for half a week. seriously, stop being a perfectionist. that wasn't the point of this bullet point but whatever. the point was, keep a list of things you can ramble on about for at least a few sentences. here are some of mine: -weather -cat accessories/looks -cat scent or any other smells -any sounds? bird calls? distant waterfalls if you're in tc or rc? -feeling of the ground (hard, dry, soft, dusty, stone) -how your character's voice sounds (raspy, soft, pillowy) -character mood/recounting the last thing that happened to them ("blissfate didn't sleep last night again whoopsies") -recent clan events -trees/leaves -time of day those are just a few examples! but, if you know you can write 300 words about the weather on the evening sky, then that's a totally fine response. shove a little low-effort dialogue in, and for an unmotivated rp, you're keeping it going. you can also make something happen, but i basically already did a project on that. ( ) it's also ok to reuse phrases if you're running out of any writing juice at all. no one cares that you told catface and facecat that the clouds over the dawn looked like they were covering the sun with a blanket, the face of the light just peeking out like a child from a nap. literally no one cares, so that's an extra sentence you can use in both responses. you can also brainstorm phrases and sentences when you /do/ have motivation for use in the future! that's all. will probably add more to this one because it took me five minutes and I probably have more ideas. questions in the comments pls!!! I love to talk! hope this helps someone at least a little bit. lmao made this and then lost reply power for two months /hj (it is irl stuff tho i'm not being lazy)
