Diary Writing Tips

[NoNeck]

[QUOTE=Scapino1974;489785] Sometimes somebody would say something about how they thought a match would go and that would spark an idea I could use. There were even a few times when people's predictions would change the way my shows would play out. [/QUOTE] Exactly. That's what I attempted to say back in my post. Thanks for getting it out correctly for me. :)

[angeldelayette]

Wow. I just realized that over a 2 year span I've started 26 diaries! LOL.

[juggaloninjalee]

This tip thread has helped me find motivation for a diary. I always love doing them and have plans but never really develope my characters enough to where me or my reader gets wrapped up in them. So today I was watching something on tv after work and I think it has given me some ideas that make a diary seem very enticing. It has helped me come up with some very good storylines to build off of with a certain promotion that I envision. So yeah for my next diary that I will probably start next week I will be pulling from television storyline ideas instead of wrestling. I used to pull a lot of my ideas from storylines I remember in the old WWF and WCW days. TV shows, cartoons, and movies are all great for building storylines I have decided.

[G-Prime]

[QUOTE=angeldelayette;489858]Wow. I just realized that over a 2 year span I've started 26 diaries! LOL.[/QUOTE] Not as bad as Deezy ;)

[juggaloninjalee]

Ive probably done about 5 in 2 years. Maybe less.

[MattitudeV2]

[QUOTE=G-Prime;490048]Not as bad as Deezy ;)[/QUOTE] Wow could G-prime be anymore right but for all seriousness aside I believe this most recent diary will last for a while.

[tristram]

First things first, Tip 1: Book a couple of months in TEW first. Sometimes for instance if you're a chronic WCW booker like me and you have the fascination of taking Benoit and Jericho to your cruscendo PPV, if they have no chemistry you can be off put. So that's the other thing, have a general plan, an image if you will, but nothing that's set in concrete. TEW, like professional wrestling itself, has an art of throwing your plans out the window and you have to be able to respond. Hell, if you can, book six months worth... if you have a massive story, book it out, see how it goes. Did it live up to your expectations? If you continually book it first, I think you'll find the storyline will flow so much better. Tip 2: Write 3-4 of your shows in Word before posting them. Why? Because they take a long time to write and you need to feel comfortable that you have time to write them. Secondly, you can also make use of thesaurus' etc. These two tips are important. Why? Because to me TEW has a major playability hook with setting up new games. Because frankly the biggest change any booker ever wants to make is changing their roster, in other words cutting jobbers and bringing in new stars. Real life pro bookers do it too. The question is, do you have anything beyond that? And not just that, but can you sustain something beyond that? I'd hasten to guess the average dynasty on here is about 4 shows, which is fairly sad. And I'd say that average is dragged down immensely by one showers, who then get 12 responses (great show etc etc), perhaps it should almost be fundamentally unwise to respond after one show but rather give more praise to those who have stuck it out, and have done more than put on an 'impact' show but developed a storyline, developed characters etc. To me, for that reason, nothing at the moment can overcome nevermore's ECW Worldwide. It's developed, you can sense the history, the intriuge. IMO, one of the most fundamentally frustrating things is to see a new version of TEW come out, and have to go to page 3 to see how ECW Worldwide is going because Joe Bloggs and the 34 sheep stooges have posted their once off phenomiums. Have some respect and if you want to have a go, have a think about it first, have some plans, have something written and booked, and THEN go for it. Sorry, went off on a tangent. Tip 3: Book with some sense of realism. It would be stupid to book Alex Wright to defeat Hulk Hogan in a steel cage match at the beginning of 1998. Hindsight tells many of us that Hogan for instance should have been managed better, but that's rhetorical nonsense. You'll find yourself struggling to book on because your overness and momentums will be everywhere and you will notice things aren't what they should be. For example, in DOWCW Chris Kanyon became WCW World Heavyweight Champion, it felt so much better getting that belt on him after investing time in developing his character and making the readers, let alone myself, believe there was a chance that with how he was developed he could be there. I hoped people could see in my imagination of what I saw. Tip 4: Develop some unique characters.... slowly. Things take time. I like gimmicks, I will say that, I like them. I think it was Raemeon (sorry for the spelling) who booked Texas Pete just as I imagined him, like Yosemite Sam cowboy style. I loved it. That was the hook to me on his version of TCW. Tip 5: Not every match is a great match. Sometimes for instance Jerry Flynn did fight the Barbarian. Don't be afraid to use some sense of humour and criticise yourself. But have that match still have meaning as well, let's say Jerry Flynn is part of Jimmy Hart's First Family, and he loses. And the Nasty Boys get pissed and decimate him post match to push themselves as genuine powerplayers. You've turned a meaningless job into something of meaning. Tip 6: JOKE! Have a bit of fun. Have some play on words. Use some light hearted (realistically) interviews. If you're having fun, chances are us readers are too. One of the greatest ever diaries I read was J Silver's USPW. The bloke took the piss out of everything that was a struggling cult/national federation slightly overversed in golden oldies. Use your imagination, grab a pen and paper and just write down 10 funny things that COULD happen in pro wrestling and then book them in over your next month's programs. Tip 7: Set the mood. What's going on? I used to roleplay in e-feds, and one of the best things I found was simply describing my character. What was his recent history? Why was he here? Did the clothes he wore have meaning to them? You have two characters facing off in the ring at the end of the show, tension is simmering, the big man is looking down at the little man. Is he looking into his eyes to send fear into him, or is he gazing down at his belt? Is he gazing down at the blood on his opponents face and smiling? What are your characters feeling? How do the crowd feel about it? (Realistically). Are they not buying it? Are they buying it? Tip 8: Link. In the midcard match, someone undoes the steel turnbuckle. Of course the ring attendents put it back up, but what if it was put it dodgily and in the main event it cost someone a world title? Imagine the feuds. You've sorta then intermerged your midcard to get in with the big boys. Is there someone in the crowd that is watching on. What are they doing there? You're in Texas, is the guy with the cowboy hat in the crowd going to come into things? You know wrestlers get cheap pops on the mic, but surely you can imagine out setting based events? It's 1992, and somehow you've got Nirvana to play Smells Like Teen Spirit to introduce DDP, should DDP interact with them? Should his opponent trash the drum set? Should Krist of Nirvana then pull on his opponents foot to offset the opponent and cause a pinfall? Tip 9: Finally, what is your point of difference? ECW Worldwide, you know nevermore is going to take wrestlers souls to hell and back with absolute carnage. If you're booking an indy fed in Texas, wouldn't you want to see a bunch of rednecks and cowboys and maybe some indians? Yes it's stereotypical, and that's an extreme, but what's your point of difference? Why is YOUR version of SWF different to Joe Blogg's? And for god's sakes, don't everyone go for an adaptation of the nWo, use imagination, craft, test your mind, find out what made you WANT to do this in the first place... in all likelihood it was because you wanted to do something different. So do it! If you do that, chances are you'll keep going, and we'll keep reading. Edited: One more. Tip 10: Interference. It is somewhat necessary to advance storylines and also to put on a good match on a house show that is really PPV quality but one where you don't want to kill off each other momentums. But it doesn't need to cost matches. It doesn't even need to be physical. Take Sting in 1997. The bloke sat in the rafters and caused losses for the nWo. He put them off. Take the 1998 Booker T-Chris Benoit-Fit Finlay situation, I think it was Chris Benoit who just walked down the aisle, caught the eye of Booker T and caused him to lose. What though if Fit Finlay rolls up Booker T and Booker T rolls through, and instead gets the pin? You have Booker T incensed with Benoit's arrival, and now Fit Finlay shattered. Three way matches galore. Ultimately to me all these things equal Be committed - don't arse around if you truly don't believe in it and you have no idea whether you'll last, out of respect for the guys who do bust their's day in day out Be creative Have fun at your own expense Have a long term plan Do something that sets yourself apart

[tristram]

[QUOTE=tristram;490218] Tip 6: JOKE! Have a bit of fun. Have some play on words. Use some light hearted (realistically) interviews. If you're having fun, chances are us readers are too. One of the greatest ever diaries I read was J Silver's USPW. The bloke took the piss out of everything that was a struggling cult/national federation slightly overversed in golden oldies. Use your imagination, grab a pen and paper and just write down 10 funny things that COULD happen in pro wrestling and then book them in over your next month's programs. [/QUOTE] Just to draw on that one, two of my favourite things I did with DOWCW was Jeff Jarrett constantly harrassing Pamela Paulshock(ers) and D.I.C.K (from memory something like Disgruntled Individuals Collective Kin) which was simply a way for me to give I think it was Bam Bam Bigelow, Shane Douglas, Disco Inferno and someone else who frankly escapes me now a way of getitng on air, doing something that would humour me, and in so doing I hoped humoured others. I even gave D.I.C.K purple helmets, not just because to me it was crude humour but also to show that these guys were kinda a bit ... slow and didn't see the match to it all. One last thing, one of the key reason's I rate nevermore so highly. It is as if every show there is a hidden agenda. An easter egg in computer gaming terms, if you will. There have been moments when the big ruse has been played out, much to everyone's surprise and as readers we're like well how in the hell did we miss that, and to finalise it all he has a prose setting where the antagonist tells how it was planned out. I think one such moment was with Paul Burchill and Raven, where nevermore had an indescrete moment from a show a long while back that you would have thought nothing of. But lo and behold, that one item from memory was the key to the lock. It made the whole promotion's roster fold like a stack of cards the way the an antagonists wanted. Simple things like setting out the lay out of a dressing room, perhaps there's a book or something you've mentioned being left on the couch and you've made out like it's meaningless and you're just telling it for the sake that that as is what your eye has seen, but in actual fact that book may have been a book of notes by a particular antagonist or something similar that places someone at the scene of the 'crime', or if you will the place where the antagonist formulated the plan for it to all occur. I will long remember that prose nevermore put up, it was quite frankly at epic genius levels. I thoroughly wish VKM found out about this bloke and got him involved in the "E's" version of ECW, for while it would I'm sure have to be toned down, he could excite you with stories where everything that is happening has meaning, whether you know it or not, and like all good soaps of the day you keep coming back to it because something is always happening, conflict is always arising, and he leaves you in a constant state of "I had X amount of questions unanswered, but while he answered some, I've left that show with more and more questions I want answered...ahh, I better read what happens next."

[juggaloninjalee]

Its official. Today I will buy TEW08 due to this thread giving me great ideas and making me really wanna get a good diary going. So thank you to all of you who have posted here. I am gonna try my best to utilize some of the opinions, and tips suggested in this thread.

[tizzyt]

thought I'd give this fantastic topic (that should be stickied) a bump

[Bigpapa42]

Would just like to say thanks to some people on here, as I've found this tip thread quite helpful in writing my first diary.

[lazorbeak]

[QUOTE=shipshirt;487819]Yeah the Joseph Campbell "Hero's Journey" formula would make a nice storyline that could go a lot of different ways.[/QUOTE] I feel like Tristam's said just about everything worth saying (and I'm proud of myself for having already gone more than 4 shows), but I wanted to say something about this. Don't make every story a hero's journey! There's nothing that gets old faster than some rube overcoming impossible odds and acquiring power with help from his friends, returning a master of both worlds and blah blah blah. At least, don't try to rigidly adhere to it. There's far more useful tools for understanding wrestling than Campbell. Roland Barthes wrote some great stuff about wrestling: he said wrestling is fundamentally about suffering. It's about seeing defeat, victory, justice, all of that stuff on an epic (meaning simple and understandable, not old) scale. There's a ton of simple mythemes that you can tell in a wrestling ring. You can tell the fisher king story (veteran is 'healed' by winning the big one), David and Goliath (duh), Oedipus-style child vs. parents, betrayal of friendships, lovers that society rejects (spike dudley and molly holly), and the list goes on. But the most important thing for any good story is that you have a defined good guy and bad guy. That doesn't always have to be as simple as it sounds: anybody from Hogan to Austin to the Rock can be a "good guy," as it doesn't have one clear meaning. The defining characteristic of the good guy is that they want to give the bad guy what he deserves: this is why Barthes says wrestling is based on ethics and is almost mythological in its "good vs. evil" ritual. Why does the face (almost) always win the main event at wrestlemania? Because in the end, the bad guy gets his and the world is put right, if only for a day. Sorry for quoting Barthes, but he's way more relevant than Campbell and I'm a huge nerd.

[Antithesis]

Only thing I would add, as a reader, is try to change the format of your shows from time to time. There is a diary here, in the Hall of Fame, that is fairly entertaining if you only read it as it's updated. If you were like me and came to it late and read most of it in one sitting, you'd notice the diary consists basically of the same show, week after week after week. Same format, same finishes, and many times, the same matches, ad nauseum. A real life example would be when Raw used to open with a 10 minute + promo week after week and it would always serve to set up the main event. They stopped doing that all the time because people became sick of it. People should be mindful of that in their diaries also.

[mistaken]

[QUOTE=angeldelayette;489858]Wow. I just realized that over a 2 year span I've started 26 diaries! LOL.[/QUOTE] it's not about quantity it's about quality. you could start 500, as long as you did a couple of shows that make it look like you at least gave some thought to each, then 500 would probably ok. If you star 30 in a 6 month window, with most not making it to their first show...well around here we have a special word for that. :p Truth is some times a diary gets off to a great start, but you tell all the story you had planned out, or had time to tell and it dies. 26 is just more than 1 a month, which though high is not horrible. Eventually you will hit on that one that keeps both your attention and the readers, and then you will be off to the races!

[hurricanendp]

I've never read this thread, becasue i've always wanted to run with a "shot in the dark" kind of diary, but reading tristram's follow up of his excellent tips, he's given me an idea for a storyline for a returning worker, how far away in game it is i'm not sure, but it's definately being wrote down as i type so i can remember each bit of it!

[falling_star]

This is all some very excellent, information. . . a lot of it is going to be taken into account on my new diary (only my third in all the years of playing TEW).

[angeldelayette]

Just a quick bump up for this and for all new diary writers!

[tizzyt]

another quick bump to this fine, fine thread

[darthsiddus2]

sticky not bump!

[tizzyt]

I agree, it should be stickied... but I don't have that power... :(

[juggaloninjalee]

I want this to be stickied! So just to add to the thread. Another thing that makes a diary good is if there aren't a lot of the same diaries out there. So my thing is I like to read diaries that have a promotion that nobody else is really using. However this is from a readers perspective.

[Bigpapa42]

Pretty sure that this has been mentioned before, but... plan ahead! That isn't to say you never have every move, every show, and every storyline planned out completely in advance. But take some time and put some solid ideas together. Have more than a "general direction" that you want to go in. Know what story you want to tell, both as the overriding story of the diary and the storylines for your shows. It seems like most of the better-written and most entertaining diaries on the site here are very well planned out. It does also make it easier to write, I find. At the same time, maintain a bit of flexibility in your stories. Stuff will happen in your game. You will lose workers that you don't expect (retirement, injury, or other promotions). You may sign and/or develop workers that you don't expect. If you work with the idea that some things are going to change here and there, you won't find it as frustrating and annoying when they do change.

[FINisher]

Few things to say and not so much of a Writing tips, more of "viewer tips": For all those people who read diaries actively: Remember to comment from time to time, as it is truly rewarding for the writer. I for one thrive from the comments, and it makes making the diary so much fun and way more easier, as I know that people follow and read the diary. If the diary uses predictions, predict. If there's something going on that you like or dislike, say so! The writer will surely appreciate any feedback. :) And few writing tips: If the thing just doesn't feel right and you are not having fun with the diary anymore, take a break from it for a while. Don't stress and/or push yourself to the limit where you don't want to make the diary. It can be down to the promotion you are running: My run with DAVE a while back seemed so.. Weird and uncomfortable. Now I'm writing BBW, and I'm having so much fun, the same as I did with WEXXV. :) Also, when I started with my first diary, I never thought of how hard and time consuming it was to write, right from the beginning. Now that I have written hundreds, thousands lines of text, I'm getting better and better with my english! Also every new diary writer should really consider the lay-out of the diary before he starts to write. I changed mine 3-4 times during the first diary, and now I have been using the same lay-out for months, the one that I have come familiar with and the one that seems easier for me to write and be creative in the colour, font usage. Remember to comment on those diaries you actively follow!

[tizzyt]

BAH! Where's the sticky on this one? Don't make me through a Gregg Hughes-like fit to get this stickied! (For any of the O & A listeners out there) [SIZE="7"][B][I][COLOR="Red"][FONT="Impact"][CENTER]STICKY IT!!!!!!! [/CENTER][/FONT][/COLOR][/I][/B][/SIZE]

[Clarity]

Most of this is just my personal opinion about what makes a good diary. [LIST=1] [*]A good first posting. While its true that most diaries start with just a phone call announcing the position, most great diaries set the scenes from post #1 and get the reader hooked.
[*]An easy read. If i open a diary and it starts 'One Dayz Vince Machanon Phonz Me Up And Sayz 'You Hired' And I Sayz Yo' then im put off straight away. Also starting a diary with a huge wall of text is off-putting to say the least. Break it up into paragraphs and be gramatically correct. And for the life of me, i still dont understand while people would ever capitalise the start of every word.
[*]Characters. If you ask people to name a C-Verse character, then chances are they will think of their favourite from a diary. Maybe its Jack [I]'Wrath Of God'[/I] Giedroyc, Alicia [I]'Muffin'[/I] Strong, Archangel/Joel Kovach or the mighty Jim Force, most of them got their popularity from a well written character from a diary found here. Who knows, write a character well enough and it might achieve forum immortality (like Jim 'Buy My Merchandise' Force did)
[*]Extras. While prediction lists, and images are all well and good, sometimes you can put too much in, with the main culprits being videos being added. Most of them dont really add much to the diary and can hinder the time it takes a page to load. Also bare in mind that people read this forum at work, so make sure that your video doesn't auto-start otherwise they might get into trouble. [/LIST]