Diary Writing Tips

[crayon]

[QUOTE=FINisher;633992]I've always had a lot easier job writing and inventing heel characters than faces. To me it's really easy to invent these brute, scary, unique heels than wholesome faces.[/QUOTE] I don't think that's just you. I think it's also just a natural part of the entertainment business. Just taking a look at movies, tv, and even back to wrestling that exists today, it seems as though heels are one of the easier thing to get over and build up as a credible threat, as opposed to the effort required for a good hero. My reasoning for it would be that not only is it easier for us to envision the sort of characters we'd hate to run into in a dark alley, a heel can get over because most of the time they're "doing" characters; the heel is pro-active, and he goes out there and generally causes sh*t to hit the fan. Whereas many babyfaces are "reactionary" characters, with their momentum (in a narrative sense) largely depending on what the heel is doing.. so in order to make a babyface stand out as more than Joe Everyman-fighing-for-what's-right a writer really needs to go that extra mile in characterization, even though it may not seem relevant to the storyline.

[FlameSnoopy]

And to add to that crayon's text, I think that a good heel makes atleast a decent face. If the fans basically want to see that ásshole heel lose, doesn't that also mean they want to see the face to win? And when Triple H gets added a bit of heel elements, they make him thousand times more interesting than that normal face HHH.

[Self]

See, the trouble I have in writing Heels is that I am naturally a Heel mark. My favorite WWE guys right now are Edge, Jericho, Morrison, Tyson Kidd etc. They entertain me.... and that's the problem. If I find a character entertaining, I find him likable. If I find him likable, that will comes through in my writing, and others might find him likable, and then he's not a Heel. He's a Babyface. I'm kinda struggling for Heels in the Frontier Combat Kingdom. Partly it's due to the characters I drafted, and that have fallen into my lap during the game, and partly it's due to the fact that most of the time when I come up with gimmicks, I have too much fun coming up with wacky skits and personality defects. Which make them entertaining and relatable, to me at least.

[The Masked Orange]

[QUOTE=Self;634021]See, the trouble I have in writing Heels is that I am naturally a Heel mark. My favorite WWE guys right now are Edge, Jericho, Morrison, Tyson Kidd etc. They entertain me.... and that's the problem. If I find a character entertaining, I find him likable. If I find him likable, that will comes through in my writing, and others might find him likable, and then he's not a Heel. He's a Babyface. I'm kinda struggling for Heels in the Frontier Combat Kingdom. Partly it's due to the characters I drafted, and that have fallen into my lap during the game, and partly it's due to the fact that most of the time when I come up with gimmicks, I have too much fun coming up with wacky skits and personality defects. Which make them entertaining and relatable, to me at least.[/QUOTE] What I've found, not just in the dynasties, but in most peoples games, is that the worst crime is being too generic. If you have someone without the quirks, and just play them straight edge, it should be easier. Although, I haven't really had that much experience in Dynasty writing, so this is just an idea...

[crayon]

[QUOTE=The Masked Orange;634024]What I've found, not just in the dynasties, but in most peoples games, is that the worst crime is being too generic. If you have someone without the quirks, and just play them straight edge, it should be easier. Although, I haven't really had that much experience in Dynasty writing, so this is just an idea...[/QUOTE] Just to add my experience with the straight edge being easier part... in the mod I'm working on I've got a promotion that I eventually want to use for a diary.. I've been planning the storylines in my head for some time, but due to me giving everyone on the roster some sort of quirks I've actually realized I've got no "Straight Man" in the promotion, and I can now see just how valuable having a clean cut regular guy is, in terms of storyline opportunities. Quirky and rich characters are great for driving a storyline by themselves; letting it go naturally where their personas would take it.. but in some instances you really need a character who is a bit of a blank slate, for when you want the storyline to drive the character and not the other way around.

[foolinc]

[QUOTE=crayon;634231]Just to add my experience with the straight edge being easier part... in the mod I'm working on I've got a promotion that I eventually want to use for a diary.. I've been planning the storylines in my head for some time, but due to me giving everyone on the roster some sort of quirks I've actually realized I've got no "Straight Man" in the promotion, and I can now see just how valuable having a clean cut regular guy is, in terms of storyline opportunities. Quirky and rich characters are great for driving a storyline by themselves; letting it go naturally where their personas would take it.. but in some instances you really need a character who is a bit of a blank slate, for when you want the storyline to drive the character and not the other way around.[/QUOTE] I agree that the straight man is both a needed character yet at the same time hard to write for at times. The way I see RPW is pretty much an edger version of CHIKARA (since the late 90s were a bit edger in general than today's culture) if it was run by character in the same vein as the Mr. McMahon character. With so many goofy characters in the promotion, straight men are vital to make those characters actually stand out. Because of this, it's pretty fun to write for Steve Flash, though I guess him being the man in the ring helps a bit. I think my main strength is that I come up with a lot of good ideas and concepts, though it's hard for me to fully express the idea/concept in the way I want. It's probably why I've had so much success with the NEO diary. The "cupcake" style doesn't need a lot of super detailed explanations, so there was less for me to get stuck on.

[NickC13573]

I don't know if I can, or should, do this; but I wanted to know if you guys had any ideas on where I can take my diary over year 2-5. I would also like to know if i should add anything to my diary; such as background stuff, real world things, etc.

[Nedew]

I've got a bit of a surreal problem when it comes to my diary that's in the works - I write too much. It's practically the opposite of writer's block, instead i'm just pouring stuff out, describing every little thing to the nth degree and turning character's lines into speeches. Not only does it make me take ages to write a show out (i'm planning to get 3 or 4 shows completely done before I even post the backstory for a bit of a cushion), it also makes me worry that in the future I won't be able to sustain this level of thoroughness. Any ideas?

[FlameSnoopy]

[QUOTE=Nedew;635906]I've got a bit of a surreal problem when it comes to my diary that's in the works - I write too much. It's practically the opposite of writer's block, instead i'm just pouring stuff out, describing every little thing to the nth degree and turning character's lines into speeches. Not only does it make me take ages to write a show out (i'm planning to get 3 or 4 shows completely done before I even post the backstory for a bit of a cushion), it also makes me worry that in the future I won't be able to sustain this level of thoroughness. Any ideas?[/QUOTE] I think it's normal. Just try to keep it simple, with writing what's the exact thing you want to say. If you want to say how a wrestler sweats like hell, do it. If you want to say how incredibly cool that one move was, do it. If you want to keep it short, just tell what you need to tell, not how the wrestler sweats. And trust me, this isn't the easiest thing to do :D

[Self]

That's totally normal, and in fact sounds a lot like how I write. The trick is to write everything in as much detail as you want, then ruthlessly cut stuff... but you have to allow yourself the freedom to write everything first. Don't censor yourself in that initial phase. Go balls to the wall. When you have that finished first draft in front of you, it's easier to see what needs to be shorter, what bits don't really don't matter in the big picture, what jokes fall flat compared to others, etc. I typically write 12-15 pages of fully-formatted show per episode. Roughly 10 pages of that makes it to the site. If it's taking forever... well, that's something you have to live with. I post a show a week, and guess what, it takes me 8 days to write each show. That's why I take breaks after each PPV. From what I've seen so far, I haven't lost any readers from that, so it's no biggy. The important thing is that you do what you need to do, to deliver the product you want to put out there. Take pride in it. Good on you for getting 3-4 finished shows done before posting. It's a fantastic thing to do.

[Nedew]

[QUOTE=Self;635913]Good on you for getting 3-4 finished shows done before posting. It's a fantastic thing to do.[/QUOTE] :o It's like getting a pat on the back from Jesus, Buddha and Zeus all at once! Cheers for all the advice Self (and FlameSnoopy!), I'll be sure to take it to heart. Thanks muchly :)

[Self]

I honestly wish I'd waited that long before starting my diary. I think I had 2 complete shows ready when I started posting, and by the end of Chapter One I was a bit rushed for time, so a few segments didn't get the attention they deserved. If I'd held off a little longer I could have sat back, rewrote a few scenes, and above all just had a few more days to bask in the (largely imagined) applause and get wasted without worrying about whether Edd Stone was coming off as a Heel or Babyface or about how much dialogue Jeremy could handle.

[Self]

One tip for quickening things up, that helped me over Chapter Two of my diary... Don't get rid of detail, get rid of segments. I originally had 5 matches per show, and a bunch of 6 minute segment. It was a whore to write, so I changed it to 4 matches (with maybe a 5th if REALLY needed) and a bunch of 8 minute segments. I had fewer scenes to write and a narrower focus that forced me to develop specific characters. It isn't a particularly awesome strategy in-game, but in writing terms it did me the world of good. Plus my theory is that too many characters and storylines overwhelm a new reader, whereas 3-4 stories involving a dozen fleshed out characters is easier to get into.

[FINisher]

Yeah. You can't just introduce a bunch of new characters in just one show. Or establish the old ones to the reader in a few. I usually have the shows based around 3 storylines or so with a ten workers related in it and usually the segments, the in-depth detail is only on 1-3 wrestlers at the time (Promos and such. Sage has had several and he has become a sort of Mary Sue in the diary unfortunately). It's a slow process for one to really write about the whole roster as it has to be taken care of one at the time.

[Nedew]

My first show alone has 8 matches and 9 segments. Woops :o In fairness though, it's monthly 2 hour show, but is even that no defense? I've nearly written the whole thing up, and i've got my plans for the second all sorted too, so it'd be a bit of a bugger to give up now...

[Self]

Well "FCK Mondays!" is only 90 minutes, with a 50-50 ratio, so my numbers aren't the be-all-and-end-all.

[Nedew]

[QUOTE=Self;635947]Well "FCK Mondays!" is only 90 minutes, with a 50-50 ratio, so my numbers aren't the be-all-and-end-all.[/QUOTE] It's hard to treat your diary-writing idol's stats that way :p

[Belton]

[QUOTE=Nedew;635948]It's hard to treat [B]everyone's[/B] diary-writing idol's stats that way :p[/QUOTE] Fix'd.

[Self]

Far be it from me to change the subject off of Self-Love, but Jim Cornette wrote another commentary. [URL]http://www.jimcornette.com/Commentary.html[/URL] This one's about Hardcore Wrestling, so isn't specifically useful to diary writers, however, Cornette's a very smart guy, and in between the lines you might find certain pearls of wisdom to help you in your booking. I certainly know I'm changing a couple of my future plans after reading this.

[Bigpapa42]

[url]http://www.stormwrestling.com/index1.html[/url] Lance Storm is another guy who has solid views on the business. Most of his blogs aren't exactly ground-break on their insight, but the stuff is logical.

[praguepride]

I caught this out of that commentary: "Adding Sgt. Danny Davis as the manager of Latham & Farris, the [B]Blonde Bomber[/B]s, Jerry Martin, the blonde bomber hardcore wrestler for RIPW I think. Caught another one, Adam :D

[Genadi]

[QUOTE=Nevermore;489117]Van Dam and Lynn! They woud always combine for brilliance! In fact, by the end, you'd see pretty lacklustre matches (even with Lynn in them) and, then, as soon as those two were billed against each other, the caliber was quite amazing. [/QUOTE] I agree. I'm suprised Austin and Rock weren't mentioned. I thought both those guys took eachother to another level. Punk and Joe also I thought had at least good chemistry.

[crayon]

I see a number of people second-guessing themselves lately and asking "should i do this or that storyline?" (not necessarily in this thread) and I'd just like to say that in my opinion, there is no such thing as a bad storyline; only bad execution. As long as you follow the rules of your diary's world (for instance, it's going to be a lot harder to sell a giant robot invasion in a promotion you've set up to be grounded heavily in reality), any storyline can get over if it has the writing to back it up. Some things will require more talent than others, but that's between you and your keyboard. This applies to to real world booking as well really, and why I don't necessarily agree a hundred percent to some of Storm's views. The problem isn't that X Promotion is doing this way or that way, when booking should be done THIS way instead—the problem is that what they're choosing to do is either counter-productive, and/or they're just doing it really badly.

[SeanMcFly]

Bumped for those in need of it Also, a tip, that I'm not sure if it's been mentioned or not Intros are important in my view, and probably others as well, so, I'm not saying spend all your time on one, but try to make it unique, enough to hook the reader, not just : I Won The Lottery, Then Tommy Cornell phoned me, and somehow I became the Headbooker of TCW when it could be like this : [B]January 1st, 2008[/B] I got an interesting phone call today, and there could only be one reason why. You see, I came into some money lately, not with my job, not with my friends. I'll give you a hint. Starts with an L. Yes. I won the lottery. And suddenly, i found myself strapped with phone calls from people I didn't even know, but one caught my attention... [I]"Hey, It's Tommy Cornell. Are you comfortable right now ? Because I've got an offer for you...[/I] Just a slight story could earn you SO many more readers.

[D-Lyrium]

I'd just like to ask, if I may, how important matches are to you, as a reader. That seems an odd question, considering we're talking about wrestling... but what I mean is: Does a match have to be well written out, in a decent level of detail, for you to enjoy the diary? The thing I'm struggling most with at the moment is match writing, largely because I don't actually watch that much wrestling any more. But whenever I preview my shows on the forum the matches seem really short. I mean, they are short writeups, but some of my opening matches are like three lines when previewed on the forum. I guess my problem with that is that it makes me feel like I haven't put enough effort in, which makes it feel like the readers will come to the same conclusion... I'm not saying I'm aiming for Tigerkinney's BHOTWG levels of awesome match writing, but I'd like the matches that are important, or rate highly, to *feel* important or highly rated... Thoughts? As for the 'heels are easier to write' discussion from the last page... yeah, they are. I guess it's because heels DO stuff. In reality, it's far easier to become known as a bad guy than to become known as a good guy. If you blow up a school, you're a bad guy. If you DON'T blow up a school, you're not lavished with praise. :p