Friday, October 21, 2005

This comment needs its own entry

I want to lash anyone who says, "I don't enjoy narrative rps," "it's hard for me to read them..." -- Tard

There's no real need to lash out at people because they don't enjoy a certain kind of writing. To be fair, the rest of that quote includes "narrative writing has no place in e-fedding," and I don't think that's the case, actually. Tolerance works on both scales.

But to lash out at folks who don't like narrative... well that's a bit harsh.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I have a very good reason why I have distaste for narrative. To me, it doesn't mesh with the way wrestling is presented or should be presented. I grew up watching the WWF, ECW and sometimes, WCW. The way I saw things on TV was the way that I thought things should be presented. Mean Gene holds a mic to Hulk Hogan's face, and the Hulkster talks. Or there's a scene backstage, and Triple H is arguing with X-Pac. The way things are laid out on TV lends itself to script, IMO. As someone who is roleplaying as a wrestler, I'm going to emulate the form I see or have seen on TV as best I can.

Now, when you boil it down, of course it's all fictional writing. And yes, if you read a book, then you see it in narrative form more often than not. However, novels lend themselves to narrative writing.

And plus, it's a lot easier to write script and hide obvious deficiencies of your writing. Bad writers can be great e-fedders if they use script. Bad narrative grates at me more than bad script because to me, it's almost illegible. It's very hard for me to delineate and pick out where important stuff happens if it's so thick and dryly written that I tend to skim rather than read.

Plus, a lot of people who write narrative that I've seen tend to go on the pretentious side and go thesaurus-crazy. Drives me nuts sometimes, and this is coming from someone who scored in the high 600s on his Verbal SATs and uses $10 words in everyday speech.

One of hte big benefits of narrative according to those who use it is that it gives insight to what the characters are feeling. Well, I think that can be conveyed more powerfully in script form with words and stage directions. Plus, it challenges the reader to do some critical thinking, and it lends more power to actions. When you don't have to be told outright what's going on and you dig a bit deeper and use that big, sexy brain of yours to figure out what's going on, it's more satisfying, IMO.

I won't tell people how to write, and if you can write in narrative and that's how you wanna write, more power to you. Just don't expect me to praise the form for this hobby when I don't think it's a good fit.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another thing to consider:

People like myself and Steve...we've been in this hobby for a long time. I'd venture to guess that for 75% of that time we only worked in a script format.

There's alot of people on fwrestling.com that have maintained the same exact style for 10+ years.

Some of us get bored with it and eventually find a good percentage of it boring, but we still enjoy the hobby and exploring other options or styles.

Most of you are making the argument that narrative isn't true to the artform for which we are writing. You're obviously basing on your comments on the little narrative you have read. I'd also like to argue that most of the wrestling I watched SUCKED and I haven't watched it in ten years, so why emulate it at all?

If you read Devin Woods, Mike Renner, Butch Rosser -- you'll find narrative writers that aren't committing the cardinal sins you're pigeonholing narrative writers with.

Joey Melton/Lindsay Troy...isn't a litmus test. Its just a story two people enjoy writing.

The bigger hypocrisy in all this that I've never seen a wrestling fed that has COUNTLESS upon COUNTLESS promos directed at each other. If anything angle feds are more realistic than any RP thread fed since they at least have the common sense to cut out the whole 'wrestling must be on 24/7 for all these guys to be watching each other and respoding so much' theorem.

Anonymous said...

Obviously, the line you chose to make a post out of was dripping with sarcasm. I'll start emoting if I post on here again. How's that.

Nobody's right or wrong. It's all preferance. If you wanna say that a fantasy wrestling card should be a spec script, something Vince's production crew could work from, then, I agree everything should be in script style with importance placed on unity and proper format.

If that's the way you want your league to run, or like your cards to read, great. I've seen'em that way for well over ten years.

But we're not shooting an NFW, or EPW card tomorrow with a digital camera and FW regulars in costume. It's a hobby/game that requires writing and reading. Our scripts aren't getting produced, they're being read. You write a comic/tv/movie script in hopes it'll be transformed into another medium. What Dave gets for an EPW card through his email box, he slaps on a website to be read. There's a marked difference between what we're doing here and what you saw as a kid, or continue to see now.

If writing narratively exposes my writing, who gives a shit. I personally think it's helped me grow as a writer. As Katz said you get to a point where you want to try something new to keep you interested. If the quality of the writing makes someone's eyes bleed, then sucks to be them, but it's not going to have me running back to half-assed script formatting.

I enjoy FW writing. Be it a rp, seasonal match, or narrative storyline . Most of what I do narratively is general rp, off camera. It's done for the enjoyment of myself and when it applies writing partner. If someones reads that and thinks, "How Stupid, who the fuck cares about Melton and Troy picking out new drapes?" that's their issue. But again, to back Katz's point, I've never seen a league air promos 24/7. What I liked about the fWo when I first saw it, was the idea of strickly writing for cards. Carrying on as if you were a real promotion. Limited rp, everything set up behind the scenes as if to 'produce' a TV show. Focusing writing on getting cards up, made sense. That's a little more reality than having flash rp styles, and holding to a standard of what you saw/see in wrestling today.

FW and RW are different animals. To have to play by the other's rules when it's convient doesn't seem right.

I don't write narratively to be praised, or to seem like i'm somehow placing myself above the standard fair.

Different strokes for different folks. We could spend a day and pick apart the dangers of writing in script format, but then when you boil it down, it's just the quality of someone's writing, period. You either like it or you don't.

And that's fine.

Outside of a sarcastic comment I don't think I've ever been on a crusade to rid FW of script style writing. I'm writing a match in it right now. There's room for whatever moves the writer, and its up to the league owners to specify what they want and/or prefer.

A Gethard rp is more or less pretty simple in it's writing and direction but it's often genius. A Ryan promo is a beautiful thing. Etc, etc. The script format's easy to dig, but I love Russo's Ivy narrative epics. It's the quality of someone's work and what you get out of it. If you don't want to take the time to read a narrative rp, that's cool.

This is all fan-fiction for crap's sake. Yet I've hard, "People who write narratively just don't know how to do it." Okay. And? Oh Gawd you're not Stephen King and you're writing a narrative rp. If you're in FW on some level you're a writer.

I feel those who write narratively have been and are more accepting of script format, than vice versa.

Silly.

Jeffrey Paternostro said...

Well, I got a 750 on my verbal SAT and I only write about dildos and transvestite hookers, so take that for what you will.

Anonymous said...

you must know alot of synonyms for the word "wedge"

TH said...

And all I did was give a reasoned post as to why I don't like narrative. You and Katz can continue to write narrative until the cows come home, and I might read it. I might like some of it, I might not. But that's not going to change the fact that I have a general distaste.

I didn't come here and say "narrative writers should be burned at the stake and beheaded." That would be kinda hypocritical of me. But I'm not going to pretend to like every bit of narrative in e-fed writing.

Anonymous said...

Nobody said you did.

We're defending our opinions. Relax.

--Should Die

Anonymous said...

Be careful - Katz may post all of this on an ESPN message board...at a most inoppurtune time!

Anonymous said...

Are you whining because Dah-veed Carr had 9 freaking pass attempts? ;)