How to turn people down and not feel like an asshole for it?

Sidhe

poor little meow meow
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  1. Looking for partners
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  2. One post per day
  3. Multiple posts per week
  4. 1-3 posts per week
  5. One post per week
  6. Slow As Molasses
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Writing Levels
  1. Intermediate
  2. Adept
  3. Advanced
  4. Prestige
  5. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Male
  2. Nonbinary
  3. Transgender
  4. Primarily Prefer Male
Genres
High fantasy, modern fantasy, gaslamp fantasy, Anything Fantasy, dark comedy, supernatural, paranormal, psychological, essentially everything except slice-of-life and historical.
This is a part of roleplaying that I have never been able to get used to. I hate doing this. It makes me feel like a huge jerk, even though I know I am well within my rights to do so and it makes me an even bigger jerk just to ignore someone instead. However, because this is me at all times:

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I just don't know how to do it.

I always try to be polite but it makes me so anxious! I don't want to upset anyone, but I almost always know just from looking at someone's profile whether or not I'm going to work well with them, and I don't want to waste anyone's time - mine or theirs. What is the best way to turn people down...?
 
Turning people down gently is easy.

"Thank you very much for the offer! I looked over your concept and it looks interesting but I don't think it is right for me. Please keep me in mind if you have any other ideas!"

I don't know if there is a trick to 'not feeling bad' for turning people down. I've never had that problem. While it is true that the person making the offer might have their heart broken over being rejected like that, at the end of the day it is their responsibility to get over it.
 
Normally I will tell a person that I don't feel our writing styles will click- it saves a lot of pain later. A lot of times I am filled to the brim with roleplays so that's a valid excuse as well.

One thing I have learned is not to take pity roleplays.
 
People will always feel upset or disappointed with rejection, no help in that and no matter how politely you put it. How they respond is entirely to their own.

When turning people down I usually state that I’m happy with their interest, but that I don’t think it will work out for now.
 
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Everyone's advice on what to say is spot on. 8D So my advice is for how not to feel bad about it!

Just remind yourself that your feelings and joy are just as important as your potential partners. O: Your partners also want you to be having fun with your characters and plots, and many people can tell if you're not feeling it because that struggle tends to come out in the quality of the posts, the awkwardness in plotting, or old fashioned avoidance. A person might be disappointed to be turned down, but you're sparing each other an unnecessary struggle. Most roleplayers completely understand that we're all after our own happy playtimes and that everyone has different interests and priorities.