#the yips

[saywhat-politics]

Trump mocks artists getting ‘the yips’ about his Freedom 250 concert and unveils new star performer – himself

Ariana Baio

Updated Sat, May 30, 2026 at 9:56 AM MST

Trump mocks artists getting ‘the yips’ about his Freedom 250 concert and unveils new star performer – himself

Multiple musicians, including Bret Michaels and Martina McBride, announced this week that they would no longer perform at the concert series

[victusinveritas]

[thesweetestsupervillains]

Avoid The Roleplayer Yips!

So here's something that I've dealt with, and talking with friends, they've dealt with, and from what it seems like, it's something that's not really talked about in the wider community.

Now, 'The Yips' is often talked about in terms of sports. It's a mental wall that keeps you from performing at your best; maybe the pressure to perform has gotten to you, maybe you just got back from injury and you're too preoccupied with not getting injured, but whatever it is you're incapable of performing at the level that you were before.

This happens with creative people too. Maybe you're a musician and you can't seem to play the same way you used to. Maybe you're a writer who can't bring yourself to sit down and write like you think you should. Maybe you're an artist and everything you put out looks, to you, like garbage. You're always chasing this feeling, this idea, this thing that you think needs to be true to be great.

And in roleplaying, this happens all the time. You think that you need to put in a lot of effort into your replies, because you want to meet expectations of your partners. You take their replies and you put them in your drafts, and you say 'I'll get to them.' But you don't. Instead they sit there, piling up, like a giant boulder growing heavier by the second. You can't bring yourself to deal with them, because it feels like such a huge ordeal.

And then one of two things happens. You either quit roleplaying entirely, because it's not fun. It's a chore. It's work. Or, you just delete all of them, start fresh, but don't change your behavior and the process starts again. Maybe you decide you need to start fresh on a new blog, and you move from account to account, never finding anything changing.

Look, you don't realize it, but you've already got The Yips. You've fallen into the pit. But don't worry, because there is a way out. But first you need to grasp how it happened.

When everyone starts roleplaying, no one thinks about things like quality or how much they 'need' to write or things like trying to meet other people's expectations. You're having fun. You want to have fun. You're writing, and they're writing, and that's all there is.

But then you start to actually gain understanding; you realize that some people are good writers. You realize that people seem to be putting in effort. You've gained understanding, and in so doing, you've suddenly realized that you might not be as good as others. But, and this is the important part, the only one who cares about this is you. After all, no one was complaining before; the one who has changed is you.

In other words, you're so concerned with meeting ideas of 'quality' and 'living up to expectations' that you end up doing nothing because you're being crushed under the weight of your own expectations.

So, now we know what it is. How do we deal with it?

Well, for one, you need to teach yourself how to get back to basics. Chances are, at no point have any of your partners actually complained about any of the supposedly awful parts of your writing. Thus, we need to see this as a skill, one you're going to work on. It's a habit that you're going to form for yourself.

First, I don't think about roleplaying as writing. Yes, it involves writing. But for me, writing implies a lot of things; writing a novel or a story is work, it requires effort, it's tiring, it's something that contains expectations. Writing is what you do in school, a thing that gets a grade at the end. It's stressful and has pressure associated with it.

But roleplaying is different. I've separated these two things in my mind. I don't go 'I'm going to write today' I go 'I'm going to roleplay.' Roleplaying is a game, it's fun, it's something I do that's entirely separate from writing.

But let's take this a step further.

When I write a response, I don't use drafts. I don't think about it. I just go with my gut. A response for me takes no more than around 5 minutes, maybe 10 if it's really long. And the way I do this is that I read my partner's response, and I just respond, and then I post it.

Now, some people will go but how could you not go back over it and make sure it's perfect and not bad and- No. Stop.

This is the skill you're going to learn. This is the thing you're going to develop. No more overthinking, no more trying to be perfect.

By just going with your gut, by not thinking but feeling your muse, you're training yourself to just respond. It's not work. It's not conscious. It's just something you know how to do. It's not stressful. It's just something that you do.

And this will make your writing easier. You'll stop struggling to 'have muse' because you'll just write. You won't have to think about how to respond, you'll just respond. And more importantly, you'll remove the stress from replying.

Look, it's not going to be easy at first. But the point is that you, the mun, need to form the habits that let roleplaying be fun again. Instead of feeling stressed or anxious, you'll be able to just write and enjoy yourself. It's a skill, one you can develop.

And it begins by taking a step back and changing how you approach your roleplaying. Roleplaying isn't a job. It's not a test. It's not something with serious consequences. So don't approach it the way you approach those things. Retrain yourself to do more roleplaying and less worrying.

[circular-time]

More Legends of Gally

No meeping angels for the first time in years, but these chaps are back.

I am very fond of them.

[bracketsoffear]

The Death of Bunny Munro - Nick Cave I am sincerely hoping that the titular death did not occur prior to this scene. "Flenched blubber" is not an erotic term.

The Yips - Nicola Barker I hate that I'm hungry now.

Bad Sex Flesh Poll Round 1 Bout 5

The Death of Bunny Munro - Nick Cave

The Yips - Nicola Barker

Voting ended onFeb 10, 2025

Excerpts below the cut

Bunny: "Bunny lies on his back on the sofa. He is naked and his clothes sit in sad, little heaps on the living room floor. River, also naked, straddles him and with enormous verve moves piston-like over his unresponsive body. Bunny’s considerable member retains a certain curiosity – it must be said – but the rest of him feels wholly disembodied, as if it attaches no intrinsic value to the matter at hand. He feels like the flenched blubber a butcher may trim from a choice fillet of prime English beef and, as the song says, he has never felt this way before. This is completely new territory for him. He can see that the hard globes of River’s breasts are perfect and better than the real thing and he attempts to lift his arm in order to pinch her nipples, which are the size and texture of liquorice Jelly Spogs, or stick his finger in her arsehole or something, but realises with a certain amount of satisfaction that he can’t be fucked and he lets his arm drop to the side."

Yips: "She smells of almonds, like a plump Bakewell pudding; and he is the spoon, the whipped cream, the helpless dollop of warm custard. She steams. He applauds, his tongue hanging out (like a bloodhound espying a raw chop in a cartoon). She is topped with melted apricot jam. It makes her shine. Beneath that: the spongy gold, the give, the softness. Then still further down, the firmer butteriness of a thin-baked layer of crumbling shortcrust."

[redisnotonfire]

gonna start blaming The Yips anytime I fuck up or am bad at something

[themancorialist]

Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester.