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The Urge for Something New


anthrxmilkshake
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Lately I've been itching, and it's something I've scratched at before. My problem here is that I itch and want, but when it comes down to actually joining another site I just can't ever seem to become actually invested in the people. I'm itching for something new,a different scenery. Somewhere with a new storyline, and atmosphere and genre. I don't want to give up what I have, because I adore what I have, but what I need is ...something...new.

 

How do you deal with these urges? Do you just go out and join something new? Do you make new things? I'm getting itchy and it's driving me batty. Making me antsy and just all around causing a loss of muse.

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This depends a good deal on what something new I happen to be craving at any given time I have this problem. Figuring out what the root cause of this urge is, is ostensibly the most important part of figuring out how to deal with it, but also one of the hardest parts. Often, it presents as one thing, but is actually another. Sometimes, I just feel like the plots I have are going stale or becoming repetitive, and I have a really difficult time with my plots being essentially rehashes of the same thing, and my brain's just wandering. It happens when you've role-played as long as I have, I guess? If it's just my plots are going stale or repetitive, I'll attack that tree's trunk and try mixing it up first, before I do anything more drastic.

 

Other times, I really do just want a different board. Once, I'd try to find a new one, but to be honest, it takes a certain type of community to handle my crap and I've yet to find one nowadays that can, so now I just make my own, if I feel strongly enough about a new concept. My most recent board-child took me over a year to start taking seriously, and it's now going on two years in development, so I don't dive in head-first with making a new board (I have one and am a member of another, I don't need to be jumping guns, right?), but kind of mess with ideas, examine and re-examine, and make sure that's what I want.

 

And yet other times, all I want is new people. -shrug- Do you actually want a new board, or is there something wrong with the one(s) you have somehow? It's a tough call sometimes. You can also try personal writing in a different setting, if you're not sure you're ready to commit to a new site, or make any massive changes to anything going on now. Sometimes the stories in our heads demand to be written, and rather loudly, loudly enough to drown everything else out, but the good news is, they're usually not terribly picky about how they get written or where. And of course, there's always 1x1s. A lot of people are cool with 1x1s, so it's also a good way of getting a certain plot or set up out without committing to an entire site you may not be able to give a full duck about, anyway.

Edited by Arceus
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I am the darkness, always watching, always listening, ALWAYS THERE.
(If you're interested in Plain of Ice, message me, it's private. Bleach site, non-canon.)

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I get the itch like crazy, but I rarely ever do anything about it. Back in the day, I would just make a post somewhere, get a person or five involved, and just go for it until I get tired of it, too. Now, I pitch the idea to my rp partner and we either do it or don't. Sometimes, just talking it out satisfies my itch. I have a really bad problem, and I 100% don't mean offense or to sound like an elitist snob, but I very rarely want to slog through all of the crap posters to find gems on a new site. It's terrible. I'm a horrible person. But I am feeling burned by the last four sites I've tried to make work. In the end though, if the itch is too great, I just make a community and go with it. My current project is my low maintenance HP sandbox that I hope will solve my problems, even if I just end up rping with myself and the same rp partners over and over until all the plots die. At least they will have lived.

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Heck yes.

 

I start to feel claustrophobic.  I become impatient and dissatisfied with my current situation.  If I go and look at other RP sites, it eventually fades away.  Or maybe I'll start designing a new character - spending a lot of time on it - and then I'm kind of burned on the idea so I'm not so eager to rush into something new.

 

But usually this occurs with my own sites.  The setting becomes too small, and there aren't opportunities for action and adventure, and I just don't feel like things are the way they should be.  Sometimes it means that I'll end up re-writing the setting (and making the plot change to match), though I've learned that I have to be very, very careful not to upset the entire board just for my own personal reasons.  Normally, though, this "claustrophobia" comes up because the current system doesn't work anymore - I've been in places where the system was too big for the few members we had, and too small for the many members we had - and a change in the setting/plot is required to get things on track.

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I get this problem when I've rped a lot in a current setting and the role-plays start to drop off. Usually it's down to people not having time for it anymore, or they've moved on to another fandom that's currently popular. Occasionally it's because there's been a big problem within a community and you just don't want to interact with the people who've stayed in it - the last one is more of a killer for it than people having things to do in RL, or moving on to other fandoms because it taints the fandom you're in. There is the hope that new people will join and my enthusiasm in it will be revived, but it doesn't always happen. Sometimes the fandom is too small and you can't help but run into the people you don't want to run into again. At this stage, I try other sites, panfandom sites, etc. Sometimes I feel like going on to another fandom I like, but the trouble is, I usually can't find a board in the fandom that I'm interested that I like, and the panfandom sites are usually full of 1 x 1s on current popular fandoms I don't know enough about, (Marvel is a big one for this) or want to play. Then, I try to find an original setting but the original setting will have to be something that really sparks my interest for me to want to join it.

 

In the end, I just go back to working on the lore of my board, and the characters I want to write (both canon and original), if I can't find a site I feel at home on, or do other, non-rp related things because sometimes a break is what is needed.

 

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I've done both in the past and neither are really a bad thing. Lately I've leaned toward just changing or adding different plots between myself and a one on one partner. The plot moves at a pace I'm comfortable with. We can reset when we want. We have full control of as many characters as we want to include and we can go wherever our whims fancy.

 

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I created my panfandom sandbox SPECIFICALLY so that I could scratch short itches. But....panfandoms aren't popular so I've ended up scratching nothing tbh.

 

But I'll be honest with you: I'm terrified of joining new sites. I'm scared of being "not good enough" to write with strange new members. I'm scared of being labeled as the inactive/unreliable one because my work schedule might only let me post 2-3 times that week or I can't write 6 paragraphs. I'm scared of messing up somebody else's lore. I'm scared of joining a site and finding out that the staff have special "clique" perks and don't follow their own rules. I'm scared of finding I don't mesh with this other established community.

Because of this, when I "itch", I either make the board myself (if I have enough material to warrant a whole forum), or just complain to my only RP friend left that still RPs until the itch goes away.

Edited by CovertSphinx
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I get this feeling as well, it's completely normal. I find because of the taboo of being a flake or not being 100% committed to a site like a life-long marriage pact, some people repress or deny it rather than embrace or accept it.  

 

I see it like anything else: too much of something, even if you love everything that comes with it to death, is never good. It's kind of like how they tell couples to make time away from each other because a "break" is beneficial. Maybe you can join somewhere temporarily (so long as you're respectful about it) but if the urge isn't that strong, maybe you can do it privately, write your own personal stuff or find a friend or fellow RPer to co-write something. I don't know, but the options really are endless.

 

To deal with this feeling, I always rotate my hobbies and genres I am writing in. In terms of RP: I have three private sites of different genres with friends, which are low commitment meaning I don't have to write all the time, I can go for however long I want and come back, but if I have the urge to write horror for example, I have somewhere.

 

In other cases, I have personal writings. Sometimes, I might do a totally different hobby from writing all together, like write a song with my instruments or do some art. Or something. Related or loosely related to the urge I am having.

 

Edited by Heath
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When I find myself itching for something new or a change of pace, I remind myself of my disabilities and that usually shuts down that itch pretty damn fast. I've only got so many spoons, so many good back days, and those two combine into a clusterfuck of how-long-will-this-good-spell-last.

 

If I'm still feeling that itch, knowing full well that I can't join another site, I jump to another project of mine. A creative switch often helps satisfy that craving for something "new". Even working on something new for the site can help me get over it. Since Antarsia is a sandbox, it's usually not an issue.

 

I don't think I've had a craving for new partners before. Just a craving for new plots to experience with my new ones--that's not to say I won't rp with new people--I'll just think of fun scenarios or AUs for characters and be like "I need this in my life".

 

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The itch is pretty normal. Especially when you're not running your own site, it can be hard to find something fresh about the one you're in. When you are the admin, it's a bit easier to change things up and scratch the itch that way. That's what I tend to do.

 

Or, I do the same thing I do when I have the itch to buy things. I go to the shops---I pick out a heap of things that look super shiny, and I walk around with them until I decide I don't want them anymore and put them back. I actually do this... a lot. Sometimes that itch is just the desire to look around and see what's outside your current world. Sometimes, you do find that one thing you can't put back, and so you bring it home and love it.

 

And talking/thinking about RP ideas can be almost as fun as making them happen. I love having theoretical RP board discussions with my bestie. The boards will never happen, but that doesn't make the ideas less interesting.

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