Story Telling Tips & Tricks

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Ashlee
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Story Telling Tips & Tricks

Post by Ashlee »

Here is a great example of how an RP should go. When you get to main event level status in EBWF, you won't even have to consider this model anymore.

A. You need Characters
A Protagonist: Usually your character.
An Antagonist: Usually your opponent, could be JR, could be anyone who makes your character react.

B. You have to have a Setting
Where is it? Describe it!
"Your Character is in a room." A room where? Is he in the bathroom at a Mobile Station? Is he in the Rupp Arena? Is he in a bingo hall in Philly? What does the room look like? What color are the walls? What kind of furniture is in there? What is he wearing? How is he feeling? Is he tired? Is he excited? Is he dreading the show? (He should be!)


C. You must have a Theme
The best RPers can pull off multiple themes in one RP. I'll use Randy Orton as an example. In Scene One Randy might be working out, thinking over his match. In scene two, he might be hanging out with his girlfriend. The angle on their relationship is being furthered and the reader can see that, and they're more than likely discussing the match or event in some way, so the match focus is there. The best way to keep your match focus and maintain multiple themes would be to have multiple scenes. If you're dealing with multiple themes, maybe you're talking about your opponent in an interview. Then write a second scene where you deal with being knocked out of the rumble early. Then a third one where you wrap it up nicely with more match talk.

D. You GOTTA have a Plot
Ah, the plot! It's so hard! I mean after all, the story has a beginning, middle and end, but the end isn't really the end. It's only the end for the moment - but without a plot you get stuck with a lot of what we're seeing. A character in a mystery room in an undisclosed location, talking smack about so many people I need a score card to keep track of it. You need six elements to create a good plot. EVERY RP needs a plot.

1. Motivation - What drives the character? Hmm?

2. Conflict: The main problem. Conflict can be as simple as your match, to as difficult as potentially having a kid you didn't know about, or dating the sister of your arch enemy.

3. Complication: Things that make the main problem bigger! Could be as simple as feeling your opponent is a better wrestler, or as complicated as not being sure the kid is yours or the arch enemy finding out you're boinking his sister.

4. Suspense: There always has to be an element of suspense. The reader doesn't want to read without suspense. Make me wonder what's going to happen. This can be as simple as threatening to bring 20 ECW Superstars all hellbent on revenge or as difficult as waiting for the results of a DNA test.

5. Climax - THE BIG MOMENT WHERE THE CONFLICT, COMPLICATION AND SUSPENSE ALLLLLL COME TOGETHER! As simple as the ECW Superstars arriving at the arena or as difficult as Maury Povich reading the results or your arch enemy taking away your medication and making you dump his sister.

6. Outcome - The end. How it all works out for everyone in the end.



RULES OF THE GAME:

1. SPELLING AND PUNCTUATION. Make sure you spell all of the words you use correctly. Go back and double check if needed, but just try to catch the spelling errors and typos as you write. Make sure you leave spaces between words, so DON'T write like these examples... Bad Examples.

* "youre dead!ill bete you in the ring!big dammy!"

* "Your dead, I'll beat you in the ring on monday"

In The first example, the main problem was someone who is obviously illiterate wrote it. No capital letters, no spaces, it was pathetic. That person would NEVER win a match, unless they were against someone that died and was unable to roleplay. In the second, it was good except for two things. They spelled "Your" wrong, it should've been "You're" in that use of it. And at the end, there was no period. It's still possible to win like that... But you better have some good stuff in there if you spell your words wrong frequently.

If you do not have Microsoft Office. OpenOffice is free software with spell check that you can download. Or www.google.com/docs is a browser based word processor with spell check.


2. DON'T MAKE YOUR WRESTLER SOUND LIKE A CHILD:

If your wrestler sounds like a 13 year old, he'll have as much of a chance of winning as a 13 year old. Watch the WWF or WCW sometime, the wrestlers don't swear and if they do, it's edited out. Also, how many 25 year old wrestlers say "pussy" or "dick?" Not too many. Bad Examples. "Hey shitface pussy breath!" That just sounded stupid. It, quite frankly, sucked. Grown ups don't talk like that, so your wrestlers shouldn't either. If it was up to me, I'd probably kick someone like that out of the fed for being a moron.


3. WRITE IN PARAGRAPHS.

Don't jumble everything together in one big 5K paragraph. It's a little bit harder to read and doesn't look very good. Write in multiple paragraphs, it will definitely help you out.

Bad Examples:

Bad Roleplayer Man: Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Everything was jumbled together and it was all crammed. It's easier to read if you write in paragraphs and it looks much better.



4. BE DESCRIPTIVE:

Describe what your wrestler is wearing, how he is acting, what he is doing. Be very descriptive so the reader can picture it in their head.

Good Examples:

["Idolizer" Trace Michaels sits back on a black chair, reclining. He's wearing all green and red today. Some of the clothes he's featuring are a green t-shirt that says "Moo Krew" on it, green sweat pants with a red bandanna tied loosely around the left knee, and a red bandanna on his head, covering his long blonde hair. He looks towards the camera, stares at it for a second, then begins speaking.]

I told what he was wearing, where he was, and what he was looking at. So the reader knows that he's sitting in a chair and can picture it in their head. Gives the reader a good idea what, when and how.

Hope this helps,
Ashlee
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Writers aren't exactly people. They're a whole bunch of people. Trying to be one person.
The only living, breathing, Queen of Efeds in captivity
"You can't blame a writer for what the characters say." - Truman Capote
Dave M

Re: Story Telling Tips & Tricks

Post by Dave M »

Sorry to pick up on this old thread, but must say I have a copy of this open when writing my RP's to try and follow these guidelines. Its a great help to me keeping things focused!