Post by silvus on Jun 16, 2008 15:12:43 GMT -6
A little bit of Promo Advice
Okay for everyone reading this, this is not me saying I can promo better then you because a promo is individual to everyone, and each promo needs to be viewed as a new. Now taking that into account a Promo it's self must be relevant so to help anybody new to the e-fedding world, and at the same time lay out a sort of method i use for writing promos.
Now this doesn't mean this is going to be perfect and that will work for you because unfortuntaly as i said in my welcome post when I'm in the zone i can be damn good at promos, Wench, Hellspawn and Matt can all account for this even Soul Reaper however i do have off days and so like everyone else in this game I've taken losses, and will do because there is always going to be somebody better. Now lets begin with the most basic aspect of any promo and thats simple who are you facing.
Part 1 - Your opponent:
The key aspect in any competive promo is to know your opponent, you can't expect to out promo somebody if you don't know who your facing, and on sayig that if you do known them then here's the important part, Research... Knowing your opponent is important and being able to use his history against him is a key point in any promo, if you don't know what your opponent is capable of your going to be on the wrong end of a beating. If your new and you don't know your opponent find a friend and ask what they know, Wench, Hellspawn, soul Reaper, Matt, Viper and myself included have been around, and if you don't know something on your opponent we might we are a valuable resource and you've got a personal messenger built into the forum ask for advice and you may receieve.
Now once you know your opponent you then need to learn what kind of rper he is, does he rp once a week or twice daily, does he do long promo's or small promo's. Is there detail in it or just a quick glance over. Does he MONOLOGUE, here's the main thing there a few people who can type for the world when it comes to promoing to name but two Soul Reaper and Hellspawn. These guys know what it takes to in the big bashes and to put up one hell of a fight, I've lost to them both and I've beaten them both but every time I've faced them it's been a challenge if you want to work at their level read their promo's learn from them.
Now once you know what type of promoer your opponent is you need to set your self to there pace or better, there is no if's or buts if you can't keep up with them and stay consistent then your opponent will take the win plain and simple. This is coming from experience it took me two to three attempts before i got my first win on an e-fed, and keeping up the pace can leave you weary and sometimes... a lot of the times hit you with writers block. Now we move on to the second part 2 of any promo, were still on the preparation but it is a key part.
Part 2 - The Theme:
The Theme, sounds simple doesn't it but this can be the most annoying part of planning any promo, if your promo doesn't have a theme it can die pretty quickly so instead of showing what you wanted in a 5 page promo spectacle you get about half a page. But the main point here is what do i mean by a theme? I don't mean to sound like i'm patronising people here but unfortunatly this is the biggest problem I see people can't get there heads round a theme and what they want to say. A theme can be anything from anger, to just a setting however certain themes only work well once for example using a setting theme for a promo means you'll get one decent promo out of it because a setting is a location and a location doesn't give you anything to really portray whilst an emotion, or a feeling that can be used over two to three promo's to get your point over.
Let's say your in a promo with Hellspawn (i'm likely to use him a lot i know his style), and he's written a 2 page promo filled with the Rage that is Hellspawn. Now taking this into account how do we set a promo to face that? thats your problem I can't tell you I can tell you how I would face Hellspawn and I could write a promo but in the end that doesn't help you or your own style, and as i said earlier no style is wrong in writing a promo but certain aspects can be picked up on. For instance read Hellspawns promo back and fourth till you know it down to it's core and you understand what he is saying to you, then what I normally do and I emphasise this is what i normally do, is copy and paste his promo into note pad, then I disect the promo and instead of having onehuge chunk to promo against I promo paragraph for paragraph. This makes it easier to think about however there is a problem with this style and I will get to that in the third part. Anyway back to Themes, A theme that is round an emotion or any state of mind tends to make for a good read if you can show that emotion or that feeling and you can build on it with each promo it then becomes something special. However this style of promoing tends to only work in a Feud when your set to face someone more then once over the following days.
Now there isn't much i can say more on themes but if you can think of something more to add let me know this isn't a document to be set in stone it's dynamic and changeable. I'm always learning something new every time and this document will grow.
Part 3 - The Promo:
The promo is the only scetion i can't give you any major advice on however as a former Head-Booker I can tell you how a promo is rated and what I personally look for in a promo I can give you little bits of advice on what to avoid doing but in the end I can't tell you how to write a promo this is something you need to learn for yourself. Some people are natural's they tend to be Creative writers and are writing stories all the time anyway and to them this is just another story. Some people had to struggle to get as good as they are and have earned the reputation through growth not through natural skill. I won't drop people into categories here because it's not nice to categories everyone and some people arn't what you expect them to be. Okay to begin with lets talk about what isn't good to do in a promo or a group of promo's and that is simply to repeat yourself, It happens to the best of us, everyone has at somepoint repeated themselves in a promo or in multiple promo's people can't help it, but it comes down to a argumentative mentallity, now repeating in one promo is okay once to make a statement stick but more then once and it begins to get boring, however the only exception to that is a Tag line.
This is a wrestlers catch phrase or gimmick line, and can feature in your promos over and over as long as it's relevant to your character for instance, one of my brothers characters Dark Sun, is known for saying "Feel the Burn" in every one of his promo's this tends to be his ending and it's a perfect little ending. However if he started doing that everywhere in his promos the tag line would be worthless it's a critic thing and unfortunately in this buisness your writing to please a booker and there tastes arn't going to be the same world over. So What I tell you isn't going to be how ever booker votes but how I vote and most booker's I've met vote. There's only a rare time when a Vote becomes irrelevant to a match usually for a story or angle idea that needs a certain ending and if this is the case both parties are informed normally.
Now we get to the important part What does a booker look for when he votes on matches, Now a lot of bookers are honest and fair, those bookers will look at 5 points of any rp and these points are:
1 - Creativity - If it isn't fresh or new then it's not going to impress however from a new person this could be different, but if you know the person and have seen the promo before it becomes dull. So always think of something fresh and new or unique in some way.
2 - Consistency - Your promo's needs to be consistent, have a super one, one week and then a crap one another means that yes your good but Bookers won't want to risk a belt on you or a belt run as most belt holders need to be able to hold up for a couple of matches as every belt means your in some feud.
3 - Quality - If you promo hasn't got any atmosphere to it, then it's missing some major piece of work. A promo needs to make your reader feel apart of the scene even if it means you need to describe the stench of rotting flesh. It all adds to the atmosphere and increases the Quality of a promo.
4 - Improvement - This is the 4th thing I always look for wench can attest to this as she always ask's me for feedback on her promo's and my first comment back will usually be it's an improvement on your last one or not quite as good as this such and such is. I love to see people improve and once you get to a point it becomes very hard to improve, but if you do all the better.
5 - Legnth - This is the last thing anyone should ever look at when it comes to promos, Quality is always better then quantity however when you have two high quality promo's facing off it comes down to quantity. Harsh I know but if there's more to read it's means one of two things have occured 1) You've written a decent promo with lots of atmosphere and description as well as getting your point and theme across, or 2) You just repeated yourself about 900 times in one promo, (I can account for both here I have written two 15 page promo's once was unique to the point of comedy, the other i got muddled so badly in what i was saying i ended up repeating myself about 5 times).
Those 5 points are what I look for again I'm stressing this because what I look for may not be the same as what Matt, Wench or Hellspawn will look for. So what may score well for me might score you down for someone else, the best thing you can do is ask each booker how they Vote, most bookers are friendly and will tell you how we work as honest tends to be the best policy.
Now saying all that I need to touch a point that has affected more then one E-Fed and that is Corrupt Bookers, I don't see it happening here as I know all the bookers fairly well and can back there honesty but on some e-fed there have been problems with bookers unfairly booking and out right screwing people over. Wench has been a victim of this, Hellspawn has been a victim of this, soul reaper was a victim of this and I have been a victim of this. It does happen but thankfully not often and sometimes it can be just a simple misunderstanding. Now we get to the last part...
Part 4 - Feedback
Yup such a strange concept this one, but suprisingly quite a simple one any promo you do ask for feedback off a friend. One of the members or even a booker, a booker has to vote on your promo anyway so let them tell you what they liked what they disliked and where they think you could improve. This is about giving everyone a fair chance and to improve your own odds of winning you need to know where you should improve your work, if this means filling my pm box with request for me to give you feedback then send me a link to your promo in the pm and I will give you feedback. I read every promo as a standard simply because I like to learn who i may face and how well they promo. The worst someone can say to this simple request is no and in a community of this size I doubt that will happen. Saying all this read everyone else promo's write your own notes on what you think of there promo's and where you think they should improve, learning to pick out where others can improve can help yourself pick out your own needs to improve, and seening where somebody else promo's may give you an idea to improve your own promo. Feedback is such a small thing and takes 10 to 20 minutes to do but it will help in the long run.
Now that's just about covered everything i can think of at the moment and I must again emphasise this is my own beliefs and opinions on how to promo if you have a different method that works then share it with everyone then somebody who is knew to this can pick and choose what works best for them. This is from a part time genius with many weaknessess, I get writers block regularly, I know what it like to be new to the whole game, and what I have written here is a collection of what I believe but this does not mean it will work for you but it may help you improve on where you stand at the moment. I know this was quite lengthy but I had a lot to say and I don't feel there is much support for new E-Fedders in the community.
Okay for everyone reading this, this is not me saying I can promo better then you because a promo is individual to everyone, and each promo needs to be viewed as a new. Now taking that into account a Promo it's self must be relevant so to help anybody new to the e-fedding world, and at the same time lay out a sort of method i use for writing promos.
Now this doesn't mean this is going to be perfect and that will work for you because unfortuntaly as i said in my welcome post when I'm in the zone i can be damn good at promos, Wench, Hellspawn and Matt can all account for this even Soul Reaper however i do have off days and so like everyone else in this game I've taken losses, and will do because there is always going to be somebody better. Now lets begin with the most basic aspect of any promo and thats simple who are you facing.
Part 1 - Your opponent:
The key aspect in any competive promo is to know your opponent, you can't expect to out promo somebody if you don't know who your facing, and on sayig that if you do known them then here's the important part, Research... Knowing your opponent is important and being able to use his history against him is a key point in any promo, if you don't know what your opponent is capable of your going to be on the wrong end of a beating. If your new and you don't know your opponent find a friend and ask what they know, Wench, Hellspawn, soul Reaper, Matt, Viper and myself included have been around, and if you don't know something on your opponent we might we are a valuable resource and you've got a personal messenger built into the forum ask for advice and you may receieve.
Now once you know your opponent you then need to learn what kind of rper he is, does he rp once a week or twice daily, does he do long promo's or small promo's. Is there detail in it or just a quick glance over. Does he MONOLOGUE, here's the main thing there a few people who can type for the world when it comes to promoing to name but two Soul Reaper and Hellspawn. These guys know what it takes to in the big bashes and to put up one hell of a fight, I've lost to them both and I've beaten them both but every time I've faced them it's been a challenge if you want to work at their level read their promo's learn from them.
Now once you know what type of promoer your opponent is you need to set your self to there pace or better, there is no if's or buts if you can't keep up with them and stay consistent then your opponent will take the win plain and simple. This is coming from experience it took me two to three attempts before i got my first win on an e-fed, and keeping up the pace can leave you weary and sometimes... a lot of the times hit you with writers block. Now we move on to the second part 2 of any promo, were still on the preparation but it is a key part.
Part 2 - The Theme:
The Theme, sounds simple doesn't it but this can be the most annoying part of planning any promo, if your promo doesn't have a theme it can die pretty quickly so instead of showing what you wanted in a 5 page promo spectacle you get about half a page. But the main point here is what do i mean by a theme? I don't mean to sound like i'm patronising people here but unfortunatly this is the biggest problem I see people can't get there heads round a theme and what they want to say. A theme can be anything from anger, to just a setting however certain themes only work well once for example using a setting theme for a promo means you'll get one decent promo out of it because a setting is a location and a location doesn't give you anything to really portray whilst an emotion, or a feeling that can be used over two to three promo's to get your point over.
Let's say your in a promo with Hellspawn (i'm likely to use him a lot i know his style), and he's written a 2 page promo filled with the Rage that is Hellspawn. Now taking this into account how do we set a promo to face that? thats your problem I can't tell you I can tell you how I would face Hellspawn and I could write a promo but in the end that doesn't help you or your own style, and as i said earlier no style is wrong in writing a promo but certain aspects can be picked up on. For instance read Hellspawns promo back and fourth till you know it down to it's core and you understand what he is saying to you, then what I normally do and I emphasise this is what i normally do, is copy and paste his promo into note pad, then I disect the promo and instead of having onehuge chunk to promo against I promo paragraph for paragraph. This makes it easier to think about however there is a problem with this style and I will get to that in the third part. Anyway back to Themes, A theme that is round an emotion or any state of mind tends to make for a good read if you can show that emotion or that feeling and you can build on it with each promo it then becomes something special. However this style of promoing tends to only work in a Feud when your set to face someone more then once over the following days.
Now there isn't much i can say more on themes but if you can think of something more to add let me know this isn't a document to be set in stone it's dynamic and changeable. I'm always learning something new every time and this document will grow.
Part 3 - The Promo:
The promo is the only scetion i can't give you any major advice on however as a former Head-Booker I can tell you how a promo is rated and what I personally look for in a promo I can give you little bits of advice on what to avoid doing but in the end I can't tell you how to write a promo this is something you need to learn for yourself. Some people are natural's they tend to be Creative writers and are writing stories all the time anyway and to them this is just another story. Some people had to struggle to get as good as they are and have earned the reputation through growth not through natural skill. I won't drop people into categories here because it's not nice to categories everyone and some people arn't what you expect them to be. Okay to begin with lets talk about what isn't good to do in a promo or a group of promo's and that is simply to repeat yourself, It happens to the best of us, everyone has at somepoint repeated themselves in a promo or in multiple promo's people can't help it, but it comes down to a argumentative mentallity, now repeating in one promo is okay once to make a statement stick but more then once and it begins to get boring, however the only exception to that is a Tag line.
This is a wrestlers catch phrase or gimmick line, and can feature in your promos over and over as long as it's relevant to your character for instance, one of my brothers characters Dark Sun, is known for saying "Feel the Burn" in every one of his promo's this tends to be his ending and it's a perfect little ending. However if he started doing that everywhere in his promos the tag line would be worthless it's a critic thing and unfortunately in this buisness your writing to please a booker and there tastes arn't going to be the same world over. So What I tell you isn't going to be how ever booker votes but how I vote and most booker's I've met vote. There's only a rare time when a Vote becomes irrelevant to a match usually for a story or angle idea that needs a certain ending and if this is the case both parties are informed normally.
Now we get to the important part What does a booker look for when he votes on matches, Now a lot of bookers are honest and fair, those bookers will look at 5 points of any rp and these points are:
1 - Creativity - If it isn't fresh or new then it's not going to impress however from a new person this could be different, but if you know the person and have seen the promo before it becomes dull. So always think of something fresh and new or unique in some way.
2 - Consistency - Your promo's needs to be consistent, have a super one, one week and then a crap one another means that yes your good but Bookers won't want to risk a belt on you or a belt run as most belt holders need to be able to hold up for a couple of matches as every belt means your in some feud.
3 - Quality - If you promo hasn't got any atmosphere to it, then it's missing some major piece of work. A promo needs to make your reader feel apart of the scene even if it means you need to describe the stench of rotting flesh. It all adds to the atmosphere and increases the Quality of a promo.
4 - Improvement - This is the 4th thing I always look for wench can attest to this as she always ask's me for feedback on her promo's and my first comment back will usually be it's an improvement on your last one or not quite as good as this such and such is. I love to see people improve and once you get to a point it becomes very hard to improve, but if you do all the better.
5 - Legnth - This is the last thing anyone should ever look at when it comes to promos, Quality is always better then quantity however when you have two high quality promo's facing off it comes down to quantity. Harsh I know but if there's more to read it's means one of two things have occured 1) You've written a decent promo with lots of atmosphere and description as well as getting your point and theme across, or 2) You just repeated yourself about 900 times in one promo, (I can account for both here I have written two 15 page promo's once was unique to the point of comedy, the other i got muddled so badly in what i was saying i ended up repeating myself about 5 times).
Those 5 points are what I look for again I'm stressing this because what I look for may not be the same as what Matt, Wench or Hellspawn will look for. So what may score well for me might score you down for someone else, the best thing you can do is ask each booker how they Vote, most bookers are friendly and will tell you how we work as honest tends to be the best policy.
Now saying all that I need to touch a point that has affected more then one E-Fed and that is Corrupt Bookers, I don't see it happening here as I know all the bookers fairly well and can back there honesty but on some e-fed there have been problems with bookers unfairly booking and out right screwing people over. Wench has been a victim of this, Hellspawn has been a victim of this, soul reaper was a victim of this and I have been a victim of this. It does happen but thankfully not often and sometimes it can be just a simple misunderstanding. Now we get to the last part...
Part 4 - Feedback
Yup such a strange concept this one, but suprisingly quite a simple one any promo you do ask for feedback off a friend. One of the members or even a booker, a booker has to vote on your promo anyway so let them tell you what they liked what they disliked and where they think you could improve. This is about giving everyone a fair chance and to improve your own odds of winning you need to know where you should improve your work, if this means filling my pm box with request for me to give you feedback then send me a link to your promo in the pm and I will give you feedback. I read every promo as a standard simply because I like to learn who i may face and how well they promo. The worst someone can say to this simple request is no and in a community of this size I doubt that will happen. Saying all this read everyone else promo's write your own notes on what you think of there promo's and where you think they should improve, learning to pick out where others can improve can help yourself pick out your own needs to improve, and seening where somebody else promo's may give you an idea to improve your own promo. Feedback is such a small thing and takes 10 to 20 minutes to do but it will help in the long run.
Now that's just about covered everything i can think of at the moment and I must again emphasise this is my own beliefs and opinions on how to promo if you have a different method that works then share it with everyone then somebody who is knew to this can pick and choose what works best for them. This is from a part time genius with many weaknessess, I get writers block regularly, I know what it like to be new to the whole game, and what I have written here is a collection of what I believe but this does not mean it will work for you but it may help you improve on where you stand at the moment. I know this was quite lengthy but I had a lot to say and I don't feel there is much support for new E-Fedders in the community.
