Have Performance Anxiety?

[DaL]

This question might not get that many hits. But if you've been that kind of person who's had issues keeping up with requests and RPs simply because of fear and anxiety, yet somehow managed to conquer those problems, then I must ask how you've been able to do it. How do you deal with issues like wanting to continue an RP but have trouble doing so because of self doubt? Or what would you say to someone that's always concerned about what their writing partners think to the point when they can't enjoy the RP anymore?

 

[LizH]

I've had the situation where I've been intimidated by a partner's fluency and creativity and constantly worried if my replies were up to their standards, exacerbated by them not replying to PMs when I've tried to fish for whether they were happy with my own output (which felt cliched and pedestrian by comparison) or my ideas about where things might go. It got to the stage where I started to develop a mental block on replying to them even though I was really enjoying the RP, because I was terrified of writing the wrong thing. As Solo says, trying to communicate this to a partner can be a good thing and iron out such issues, but I know it can also be just as hard to approach them OOC, because of not wanting to come across as insecure and needy. Truth be told, in the end my solution was just to trust myself, my instincts and opinions, and just write the damn post. And lo and behold the replies kept coming back and the RP continued to both of our mutual enjoyment. In short - and I know it's easier said than done - try not to overthink things - just do it. And whatever happens, happens. If a RP folds, it's not the end of the world, but the surest way to make it fold is to let your own insecurity stop you from replying.

 

[Dirty Fingers]

Only once did I feel a bit anxious. This person told me they were an English Lit Grad and we were about to start a RP where my character was a well known writer and hers was a young English Lit student. Turned out no matter what I wrote, no matter how much I gave her to work with all I got was one liners. Oh well.

I used to get intimidated by people who could write 10 plus paragraphs per post until I realized that a lot of what they were writing was just rehashing what I just wrote and/or going into detail about things that didn't matter like the tablecloths in a restaurant.