The last time I took time off/contemplated retirement and then came back, I did so secretly under the guise of a deviously idiotic and amoral character known as Roderick McRatrick. I had people going for awhile, but then I revealed myself, although I'm not sure if it came out naturally or if someone *cough*Lindz*cough* forced it out of me. Ah well.
Anyway, here are some of Roddy's greatest hits. Why am I posting them? Well, because I want feedback. For a guy like myself who's known more for handling comedically biased characters (you could argue Maggot and Captain Suleimon were the only ones that didn't have a built in sense of humor about them, and even that's debatable), Roddy, to me, is my most funny work. Comedy is a lot more subjective than regular e-fedding, so I want to get feedback from all of youse out there. Without further ado:
The Debut of the Ghost of Steve Guttenberg - Scroll down for more hijinks with Homsar of HSR.com fame
Roderick in Japan
Lord Tophattington and All of Roddy's Friends
The Debut of Randy McRanderson
Vs. Dan Ryan!
The Debut of Real Ultimate Power
A Visit to Santa!
Roderick Tools a Future A1E World Champion
Roderick's First Apperance at FWC... featuring POWERMASTER~!
I want honest feedback. How does the character hold up after all these years? I want to know, because in a way, Roderick feels like my best character.
Showing posts with label feedback. Show all posts
Showing posts with label feedback. Show all posts
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Monday, July 16, 2007
More random notes
I was going to have this big long post about the happenings this weekend, but I figured that'd only unneccessarily raise my blood pressure and my urge to kill everyone who has pissed me off in the last 72 hours. It's healthier to let sleeping dogs lie anyway and not dwell on the past. Let's concentrate on the positive, like everyone who did well in the ToC. Congrats to ChrisNova for adding yet ANOTHER trophy to his mantel for this year. Big ups to everyone in the top 10, becuase it was a damn good crop this year. There have been some other pretty good developments too, like...
- WrestleStock, Night One posted! With everything that was on my plate today, I haven't gotten a chance to sink my teeth into it, but I did skim some results. Big ups to Jamar Short for winning the King of the Cage with "Triple X" Sean Stevens. You deserved it, and if I had to job to anyone, I'm glad it was you.
- If you haven't had the chance yet, go over to PTC and check out what Mat Waters has done with promoting his new angle fed, One World Wrestling. This very much reminds me of an idea I had back before I started brainstorming the original concept for TEAM: Nation-based wrestling. He's been busting his ass, hyping this thread with teaser matches and now, roster profiles. What's unique about the fed is that he's not starting it from the ground floor. He's putting in a backstory, giving the fed history. That's ballsy, very ballsy, but I'm very intrigued by the idea. Hopefully, he'll let his roster input some things about the history, make things as organic and spontaneous as you can with this kind of thing. Here are links to each of his hype pieces thus far. If you've got the stomach for narrative, check them out:
DigiMort is the first non-Waters created character featured so far. I'm very intrigued to see both the NPCs that Mat's keeping around like STOICA~! and the handlers who are going to be involved. My advice is to keep an eye on this fed. Hopefully, it can withstand the almost insurmountable entropy that seems to doom angle feds before they start nowadays.
- Another great idea from the PTC fold - PTC Wiki! Big ups to Craig for starting this, and hopefully people pick up on it. FW had one of these rumored too. I know Edmunds has or at least had one for NEW and I think he even proposed one for FW. Edmunds is always thinking a step ahead of the game; it's just too bad a lot of the doers at FW are few and busy with their own projects to be able to help out fully. Either way, Wikis are a great idea to help get outsiders better acclimated to the forums and feds with centralized information. Just another thing that would probably be a lot more fleshed out of we got paid to do this kind of thing :)
- WrestleStock, Night One posted! With everything that was on my plate today, I haven't gotten a chance to sink my teeth into it, but I did skim some results. Big ups to Jamar Short for winning the King of the Cage with "Triple X" Sean Stevens. You deserved it, and if I had to job to anyone, I'm glad it was you.
- If you haven't had the chance yet, go over to PTC and check out what Mat Waters has done with promoting his new angle fed, One World Wrestling. This very much reminds me of an idea I had back before I started brainstorming the original concept for TEAM: Nation-based wrestling. He's been busting his ass, hyping this thread with teaser matches and now, roster profiles. What's unique about the fed is that he's not starting it from the ground floor. He's putting in a backstory, giving the fed history. That's ballsy, very ballsy, but I'm very intrigued by the idea. Hopefully, he'll let his roster input some things about the history, make things as organic and spontaneous as you can with this kind of thing. Here are links to each of his hype pieces thus far. If you've got the stomach for narrative, check them out:
- The Maltese Falcon vs. Nadir
- Persia vs. Greece... aka the movie 300 in wrestling form!
- THE ROMAN SOCCER HOOLIGAN~! in action
- 40 Man Over the Top Battle Royale Spotlight on 100 Freaking Punches
- Our first taste of STOICA~!
- The first profile, naturally, it's STOICA~!
- Introducing the PRIME KILLER~!, Digital Mortality!
DigiMort is the first non-Waters created character featured so far. I'm very intrigued to see both the NPCs that Mat's keeping around like STOICA~! and the handlers who are going to be involved. My advice is to keep an eye on this fed. Hopefully, it can withstand the almost insurmountable entropy that seems to doom angle feds before they start nowadays.
- Another great idea from the PTC fold - PTC Wiki! Big ups to Craig for starting this, and hopefully people pick up on it. FW had one of these rumored too. I know Edmunds has or at least had one for NEW and I think he even proposed one for FW. Edmunds is always thinking a step ahead of the game; it's just too bad a lot of the doers at FW are few and busy with their own projects to be able to help out fully. Either way, Wikis are a great idea to help get outsiders better acclimated to the forums and feds with centralized information. Just another thing that would probably be a lot more fleshed out of we got paid to do this kind of thing :)
Friday, July 06, 2007
ToC Thoughts from the Man Behind the Curtain
Before we get to the main event, how about some Major League Wrestling, eh? New league, run by Sanket Desai, proprietor of the defunct competitor in last year's Dupree Cup, War Zone Wrestling. Give it a shot if you have the chance, Sanket's good people, and he's a young'un too, so you know he's got enthusiasm :)
Now, the ToC...
I thought there was a marked difference between this year's ToC and last year's, and it had nothing to do with the change in venue. It probably had more to do with a change in the competitors. Only four people came back from last year (Nero, ProfT, Ravager, Kin Hiroshi). I also think more people knew what they were getting into this year than last year. Seeing that 2006 was the first time I ever did something like this, it's going to throw people into shock. Now, folks are getting wise to the format, and I think that's why the last two rounds were handled a bit better than before.
The first round though... I'm not going to say it was bad, because there were a lot of really good RPs in there. Last year's round 1, however, stuck out to me more. D!, Mr. Amazing! and Eddie Mayfield all really jumped out at me, and K-Wolf and Vangelus Olsig had really memorable RPs. That's not to say that this year's crop wasn't good or memorable. It's just no one really jumped out at me, which isn't a good or bad thing; it just meant that this round was a lot harder for me to judge this time around.
Round 2 and round 3 though... I thought the quality for both rounds was better, and the most telling thing to me about that was the lack of cringeworthy moments. Last year, and I'm not mentioning names, I had to cringe at the quality of some of the later round RP stuff. Here, there was really none of that. The writing quality went up, and there very few times when I had to cringe at how the writing was. It felt like Round 2 was solid RP after solid RP, even for the first timers.
I feel like whoever's coming out of this as the winner really earned it, much like Brunk did with the TiT. Two tournaments, two hellacious RP battles. Hopefully that bodes well for the Dupree Cup... which is right around the corner, ladies and gentlement ;)
Now, the ToC...
I thought there was a marked difference between this year's ToC and last year's, and it had nothing to do with the change in venue. It probably had more to do with a change in the competitors. Only four people came back from last year (Nero, ProfT, Ravager, Kin Hiroshi). I also think more people knew what they were getting into this year than last year. Seeing that 2006 was the first time I ever did something like this, it's going to throw people into shock. Now, folks are getting wise to the format, and I think that's why the last two rounds were handled a bit better than before.
The first round though... I'm not going to say it was bad, because there were a lot of really good RPs in there. Last year's round 1, however, stuck out to me more. D!, Mr. Amazing! and Eddie Mayfield all really jumped out at me, and K-Wolf and Vangelus Olsig had really memorable RPs. That's not to say that this year's crop wasn't good or memorable. It's just no one really jumped out at me, which isn't a good or bad thing; it just meant that this round was a lot harder for me to judge this time around.
Round 2 and round 3 though... I thought the quality for both rounds was better, and the most telling thing to me about that was the lack of cringeworthy moments. Last year, and I'm not mentioning names, I had to cringe at the quality of some of the later round RP stuff. Here, there was really none of that. The writing quality went up, and there very few times when I had to cringe at how the writing was. It felt like Round 2 was solid RP after solid RP, even for the first timers.
I feel like whoever's coming out of this as the winner really earned it, much like Brunk did with the TiT. Two tournaments, two hellacious RP battles. Hopefully that bodes well for the Dupree Cup... which is right around the corner, ladies and gentlement ;)
Friday, May 18, 2007
Give your Blogger feedback
Thus marks the 300th post on this crazy thing, and as with any milestone post, there has to be a crazy gimmick involved, right? No? Well, you're getting it anyway.
I really try not to talk about myself on the blog, and in fact, the last time I really asked for thoughts about me and my work, it was the 200th entry, so I'm doing it again. If you don't like it... tough cookies :) It's just a series of questions about the blog, about my work in eW and things I've done and what I might do. So here goes:
The last time I did a self-post, I asked what your favorite character of mine was. If you didn't answer last time, tell me, what is your favorite Holzer-character? If you did, has that answer changed since the last time?
I love gimmicks and I love handling gimmicked characters. I've done the Ottoman throwback, the masked GOPundit and a score of others. What kind of gimmick would you like to see me do in the future?
Those of you who actually read RPs, how have I been since I came over to FW in 2004 and then started the blog in 2005?
What do you think of the blog? Be honest, if you think there's something missing, something wrong, something I'm doing or allowing to be done that just plain sucks, please let me know. I'm glad people like the blog, but if I hear nothing but knob-slobbering praise, I have no idea how to improve, because let's face it, I'm not a perfect writer and I'm not a perfect judge of content. I need to know, people!
That's it. You don't have to answer all of the questions if you do answer, but if you do, please, please, please, PLEASE answer the last question if you only do one.
I really try not to talk about myself on the blog, and in fact, the last time I really asked for thoughts about me and my work, it was the 200th entry, so I'm doing it again. If you don't like it... tough cookies :) It's just a series of questions about the blog, about my work in eW and things I've done and what I might do. So here goes:
The last time I did a self-post, I asked what your favorite character of mine was. If you didn't answer last time, tell me, what is your favorite Holzer-character? If you did, has that answer changed since the last time?
I love gimmicks and I love handling gimmicked characters. I've done the Ottoman throwback, the masked GOPundit and a score of others. What kind of gimmick would you like to see me do in the future?
Those of you who actually read RPs, how have I been since I came over to FW in 2004 and then started the blog in 2005?
What do you think of the blog? Be honest, if you think there's something missing, something wrong, something I'm doing or allowing to be done that just plain sucks, please let me know. I'm glad people like the blog, but if I hear nothing but knob-slobbering praise, I have no idea how to improve, because let's face it, I'm not a perfect writer and I'm not a perfect judge of content. I need to know, people!
That's it. You don't have to answer all of the questions if you do answer, but if you do, please, please, please, PLEASE answer the last question if you only do one.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
RRoaEL Presents: Guest Blogger!
Welcome everyone to our first guest blogger. His name is Shane Gerlach, and he likes puppies, long walks on the beach and generally irritating UCW administration. This would have gone up with the last entry, but I reserve the right to keep all milestone entries to myself :p Anyway, here goes.
How Do I Know If I'm Any Good?
Shane Gerlach, Special Guest to the Blog
Good evening everyone. I’m not Tom obviously. Tom never greets us; he just gives us the news fast and hard. I’m actually Shane Gerlach, known as Irishred in A1E, MBE, EPW, UCW and TEAM. I volunteered to be a guest Blogger here on Random Ramblings of an E-Fed Lifer.
Two things to start…
In my opinion Tommy Boy Holzerman is the single most passionate person in E-Fedding. Tom gives his heart and soul to this hobby. He is responsible for surges in federations all on his own. Tom and I don’t always see eye to eye on things but for my money there isn’t anyone more important to the e-fed community.
All the opinions in this Blog are mine. Tom may or may not share my feelings on this. In know way should my thoughts and ramblings be lain at Tommy’s door.
Now on to the topic…
One of the things I do agree with Tom about is that there isn’t enough discussion and feedback in this hobby. We send out our role-plays over the internet, we pour a little piece of ourselves into each and every promo and hope for the best. Let’s be honest…while we may do this for enjoyment…we all want to win. We as a general rule think that every RP we put up is worthy of a win. Why would we write them if that wasn’t true?
Sure there’s exceptions. There are instances when a loss is booked to advance a storyline; but still those are our words out there. That is something we worked hard on and dammit we want and deserve recognition for it. Everyone wants to feel good and get that “atta boy” for the work they put into their character.
We sit in front of that blank computer screen and wait for the muse to overtake us. We wait for that moment of inspiration to guide us. What can I say that will make this be special? What can I say to make everyone take notice? How can I impress the booker or voters?
There’s the dig. This is a very arbitrary hobby. What I think is great 10 others may think is crap. What I feel is the promo of the year may be completely ignored by others. In A1E there is a voting system. This is a carry over from the old MBE system. You lay your promos out in your match thread and the rest of the community reads them and votes on whether you won or not. This is the exception to the rule in the E-Fed community. In most feds you have a fed head or committee that decides the winner based on the RP’s.
I think both have their flaws and assets. In a voting system you have the chance to get a variety of opinions. A variety of readers are looking at your work and deciding whether or not you “had” it that week. I compare it to opening a movie to a test audience. You get to “hear” the cheers and jeers so to speak. When I win the vote in A1E I know that I was on my game that week. I know that I was good enough to impress a majority of the readers.
Now there are problems. I know in the old MBE there was Bloc voting. People voted for their clique. That’s a problem that I believe that A1E has addressed. The head booker has the ability to over rule a vote if there seems to be an obvious discrepancy in the vote total. I have only seen that happen once in my time on the A1E BC.
I know that the votes that come in for A1E are by people that actually have read the threads for the most part. These are people that took the time to actually read every response in the thread and formed an opinion. I don’t always agree with the decision of the majority; but hey. I like a lot a crap that most people don’t, so I’m used to being the island in the storm.
In a “booked” fed on the other hand you only have to really impress one person. (With the occasional group of judges) You are playing to an audience of one for the most part. You are hoping to impress that head booker. You want their approval. I have been treated more then fairly in booked feds. I have vehemently disagreed with the views of bookers as well. In those cases I have not so gracefully made my opinion known to them. For the most part the Bookers have been gracious enough to explain to me why I lost.
That brings me to the point of this crap. Feedback. We all need it. We all want it. If we suck we want to be told why we suck. If we did great we want those accolades. I just don’t think that we talk to each other enough. The vast amount of knowledge out there in our e-fed vets that have had sustained success should be shared. One of the best at this is Dave Brunk. I have learned more in discussions with Dave then almost anyone else. Dave has taken the time to talk to me about the direction of my character and the moments that I hit and miss. I respect that about him. Dave’s not afraid to tell me that I stunk up the joint and why and he is equally good about giving me praise when I have done something that works.
Why can’t all of us do that? Why don’t we say to one of our E-Fed friends that they stunk? Are we afraid to be critical? Are we afraid of the backlash of their friends and the e-fed community as a whole? On the flip side of that how many of us send an email out saying to a handler “That was awesome.”?
Why don’t we make ourselves more available to each other? I long for a sounding board, but at the same time I don’t want to seem like an attention whore going to each and every board I compete on putting up feedback threads.
Let me give you a for instance. I cannot beat Andy Gilkison. It can’t be done. No matter what character he is running (Jack or Andrew) I end up losing to him. I feel like I have done some of my better RP’s against Andy; but every single time I end up on the losing end of the stick when I face him. Why? I have no freaking clue. There’s times when I finished the RP period knowing I had beat him…oh how wrong I was. What have I done wrong every single time I have faced him? Maybe Drew is just that much better then me. I don’t know and that is the point. I don’t know. The losses even bothered me for a time because it is a constant. Don’t get me wrong; Andy is a great handler. He has held titles everywhere that he has competed…I’m not saying that I deserve to beat him…I just would someday like to understand why I lose to him.
I think that all of us have that happen to us haven't we? We go into a week and bust ass on promo’s and read the results and find out we lost. I have stared at the screen absolutely dumbfounded from time to time trying to understand why I lost. I go back and re-read the Promo thread as objectively as possible and try to find where I slipped up. But honestly how unbiased are any of us when it comes to our own work? So feedback would be great.
I’m lucky in the fact that I have a core group of E-Fed friends who will be honest with me. Dan West, Josh, Dave, Tommy, James Irish, Roger, Bill, Jeff, Phil, Lindz, Mike, Shane…I count on these people to be my sounding board. I count on these people to be honest with me. I hope that I play that back. I hope that I am someone that people can come to and talk to about their character and RP’s.
Let’s face it doing this for an audience of ourselves is nothing more then literary masturbation. As with any performer we need the audience.
What do you do to help others? What do you do to encourage others? Do you take the time to talk to your fellow E-Fedders? Do you honestly even read the other threads and make yourself aware of what is happening around you? I know that has become a problem in some federations. I read each and every thread in every fed I am in.
The reason is twofold. Number one I owe it to the fed to do that. No fed is there just for one handler (No matter how many characters you run in that fed). The federations are a playground for all of us to escape our problems in real life. A place to go out and play. I try to be as active as I can. I try to reference other storylines in my RP’s. I try my best to act like I am part of a group.
Number two, if I read all the threads I am prepared when I face another wrestler. I know where they are in the storylines. I know what their RP style is. I know how they work and can counteract that and hopefully get a win.
Tommy preaches participation in this blog like Jerry Falwell begging for your money and I second that emotion.
Talk to each other. Work with each other. Help each other.
That’s all I’ve got. I’m done. I’m spent. Thank you Tommy for letting me be the first guest on your Blog. I hope I haven’t ruined your reputation.
How Do I Know If I'm Any Good?
Shane Gerlach, Special Guest to the Blog
Good evening everyone. I’m not Tom obviously. Tom never greets us; he just gives us the news fast and hard. I’m actually Shane Gerlach, known as Irishred in A1E, MBE, EPW, UCW and TEAM. I volunteered to be a guest Blogger here on Random Ramblings of an E-Fed Lifer.
Two things to start…
In my opinion Tommy Boy Holzerman is the single most passionate person in E-Fedding. Tom gives his heart and soul to this hobby. He is responsible for surges in federations all on his own. Tom and I don’t always see eye to eye on things but for my money there isn’t anyone more important to the e-fed community.
All the opinions in this Blog are mine. Tom may or may not share my feelings on this. In know way should my thoughts and ramblings be lain at Tommy’s door.
Now on to the topic…
One of the things I do agree with Tom about is that there isn’t enough discussion and feedback in this hobby. We send out our role-plays over the internet, we pour a little piece of ourselves into each and every promo and hope for the best. Let’s be honest…while we may do this for enjoyment…we all want to win. We as a general rule think that every RP we put up is worthy of a win. Why would we write them if that wasn’t true?
Sure there’s exceptions. There are instances when a loss is booked to advance a storyline; but still those are our words out there. That is something we worked hard on and dammit we want and deserve recognition for it. Everyone wants to feel good and get that “atta boy” for the work they put into their character.
We sit in front of that blank computer screen and wait for the muse to overtake us. We wait for that moment of inspiration to guide us. What can I say that will make this be special? What can I say to make everyone take notice? How can I impress the booker or voters?
There’s the dig. This is a very arbitrary hobby. What I think is great 10 others may think is crap. What I feel is the promo of the year may be completely ignored by others. In A1E there is a voting system. This is a carry over from the old MBE system. You lay your promos out in your match thread and the rest of the community reads them and votes on whether you won or not. This is the exception to the rule in the E-Fed community. In most feds you have a fed head or committee that decides the winner based on the RP’s.
I think both have their flaws and assets. In a voting system you have the chance to get a variety of opinions. A variety of readers are looking at your work and deciding whether or not you “had” it that week. I compare it to opening a movie to a test audience. You get to “hear” the cheers and jeers so to speak. When I win the vote in A1E I know that I was on my game that week. I know that I was good enough to impress a majority of the readers.
Now there are problems. I know in the old MBE there was Bloc voting. People voted for their clique. That’s a problem that I believe that A1E has addressed. The head booker has the ability to over rule a vote if there seems to be an obvious discrepancy in the vote total. I have only seen that happen once in my time on the A1E BC.
I know that the votes that come in for A1E are by people that actually have read the threads for the most part. These are people that took the time to actually read every response in the thread and formed an opinion. I don’t always agree with the decision of the majority; but hey. I like a lot a crap that most people don’t, so I’m used to being the island in the storm.
In a “booked” fed on the other hand you only have to really impress one person. (With the occasional group of judges) You are playing to an audience of one for the most part. You are hoping to impress that head booker. You want their approval. I have been treated more then fairly in booked feds. I have vehemently disagreed with the views of bookers as well. In those cases I have not so gracefully made my opinion known to them. For the most part the Bookers have been gracious enough to explain to me why I lost.
That brings me to the point of this crap. Feedback. We all need it. We all want it. If we suck we want to be told why we suck. If we did great we want those accolades. I just don’t think that we talk to each other enough. The vast amount of knowledge out there in our e-fed vets that have had sustained success should be shared. One of the best at this is Dave Brunk. I have learned more in discussions with Dave then almost anyone else. Dave has taken the time to talk to me about the direction of my character and the moments that I hit and miss. I respect that about him. Dave’s not afraid to tell me that I stunk up the joint and why and he is equally good about giving me praise when I have done something that works.
Why can’t all of us do that? Why don’t we say to one of our E-Fed friends that they stunk? Are we afraid to be critical? Are we afraid of the backlash of their friends and the e-fed community as a whole? On the flip side of that how many of us send an email out saying to a handler “That was awesome.”?
Why don’t we make ourselves more available to each other? I long for a sounding board, but at the same time I don’t want to seem like an attention whore going to each and every board I compete on putting up feedback threads.
Let me give you a for instance. I cannot beat Andy Gilkison. It can’t be done. No matter what character he is running (Jack or Andrew) I end up losing to him. I feel like I have done some of my better RP’s against Andy; but every single time I end up on the losing end of the stick when I face him. Why? I have no freaking clue. There’s times when I finished the RP period knowing I had beat him…oh how wrong I was. What have I done wrong every single time I have faced him? Maybe Drew is just that much better then me. I don’t know and that is the point. I don’t know. The losses even bothered me for a time because it is a constant. Don’t get me wrong; Andy is a great handler. He has held titles everywhere that he has competed…I’m not saying that I deserve to beat him…I just would someday like to understand why I lose to him.
I think that all of us have that happen to us haven't we? We go into a week and bust ass on promo’s and read the results and find out we lost. I have stared at the screen absolutely dumbfounded from time to time trying to understand why I lost. I go back and re-read the Promo thread as objectively as possible and try to find where I slipped up. But honestly how unbiased are any of us when it comes to our own work? So feedback would be great.
I’m lucky in the fact that I have a core group of E-Fed friends who will be honest with me. Dan West, Josh, Dave, Tommy, James Irish, Roger, Bill, Jeff, Phil, Lindz, Mike, Shane…I count on these people to be my sounding board. I count on these people to be honest with me. I hope that I play that back. I hope that I am someone that people can come to and talk to about their character and RP’s.
Let’s face it doing this for an audience of ourselves is nothing more then literary masturbation. As with any performer we need the audience.
What do you do to help others? What do you do to encourage others? Do you take the time to talk to your fellow E-Fedders? Do you honestly even read the other threads and make yourself aware of what is happening around you? I know that has become a problem in some federations. I read each and every thread in every fed I am in.
The reason is twofold. Number one I owe it to the fed to do that. No fed is there just for one handler (No matter how many characters you run in that fed). The federations are a playground for all of us to escape our problems in real life. A place to go out and play. I try to be as active as I can. I try to reference other storylines in my RP’s. I try my best to act like I am part of a group.
Number two, if I read all the threads I am prepared when I face another wrestler. I know where they are in the storylines. I know what their RP style is. I know how they work and can counteract that and hopefully get a win.
Tommy preaches participation in this blog like Jerry Falwell begging for your money and I second that emotion.
Talk to each other. Work with each other. Help each other.
That’s all I’ve got. I’m done. I’m spent. Thank you Tommy for letting me be the first guest on your Blog. I hope I haven’t ruined your reputation.
Monday, April 10, 2006
Adding Sizzle to Your Steak, PLUS Begging for Feedback
Now, before I get to my entry for today, I'm going to do some self-shilling and link to the TEAM Tournament Finals:
clicky clicky
Now, I've posted feedback threads at FW, A1, ENN, EWN and PTC, and a grand total of two people got back to me; BraveHeartFan and Josh Ray. I appreciate both their feedbacks (and Josh's was very insightful and thoughtful). But I want more. I crave more. I know more than just two of you read the match. I wanna hear what you think, and I want to hear strong opinions too. I don't just wanna read "oh, it was okay," or "oh, I didn't like it." Praise me. Rip into me. Do something. I wanna know what I'm doing wrong and what I'm doing right.
For the love of God...
Another thing before the entry... Scott Perry over at EWN has opened up a new, funky little concept. It's called the Hotel, and he's described it to me as a soap opera by day and a fighting fed by night. All of this will be written by Scott himself, so it's kinda like my EWA project, which I promise you, is not dead. I'll at least try to follow this, because it looks different, and different is good most of the time.
Anyway, to the entry for today...
A couple of months ago, I wrote an entry on the mechanics of a good RP. Basically, it was my content criteria checklist. It was every ingredient to having a good steak.
But on Food Network, whenever they have cooking competitions, be it on Iron Chef or these pastry cookoffs or whatever, taste is never the only criteria for winning. At first, I thought that was stupid, but really it isn't. Think about it. Would you want to eat something that looks like shit? Probably not. Only the most adventurous of folks would venture to eat something that didn't look appetizing.
It's the same thing with RPs. You could have A+ talent and charisma, but if your formatting is shitty, only the most adventurous souls will try to read your shit. That will hurt you in the long run. If you have great content, you need to be able to show it off by making your prose read all silky and smooth. But how do you do that?
Well, we've all read badly formatted RPs before, we know the pitfalls... but what if we're the ones who are making the cardinal mistakes? Well, this is for you. Of course, I don't claim to be perfect, and I do make these mistakes from time to time, but I also know they're mistakes. So use this checklist and make sure your RPs don't confound your readers.
Spell-check Nothing will make you look dumber than you really are than spelling errors. One typo here and there won't do you in, but multiple spelling errors in multiple promos... well that doesn't bode well. We all know spelling doesn't make the message go round, but it can turn off a lot of people. So, if you feel like you aren't the strongest speller in the world, or if you're just a stream-of-consciousness writer who worries more about ideas than syntax when it's all coming out, just C&P your promo into MS Word and let the spell-checker work for you.
Paragraph breaks Seriously, paragraph breaks are your friends. Reading thick blocks of text can be hell on the eyes, and they're also great concentration breakers. If you're verbose, that's fine, you don't need to shorten your promos up. However, you should look into using paragraph breaks early and often. Get what you have to say out there in short bursts, with white space surrounding each small chunk of text. That way, the words don't jumble together, and people pick up more out of the promo.
HTML Contrast is also a big difference-maker in making your RP aesthetically pleasing. Differentiation between script text and setting-building text is especially crucial. In the old days, I used plain text encased in parentheses to differentiate the setting text. Looking back on those promos, I found they were harder to read than the ones I put out now. Getting fancy with the HTML is a great way to make promos look snazzy and streamlined. Very easy to read. Usually, I stick with regular bold and italic, but other folks like Dan Scifo and Josh Weiner incorporated colors, tables, fonts into their promos. If you have all plain text though... it just makes things look too homogenous. It's the same principle as using paragraph breaks.
Now, if you format your promos like a pro, that's not going make you a superstar. But if you have superstar-level talent, it will bring it to the forefront and take you to the next level. You need to have sizzle and steak. Having too much sizzle and no steak is no good, just like having your steak not sizzle at all is no good.
clicky clicky
Now, I've posted feedback threads at FW, A1, ENN, EWN and PTC, and a grand total of two people got back to me; BraveHeartFan and Josh Ray. I appreciate both their feedbacks (and Josh's was very insightful and thoughtful). But I want more. I crave more. I know more than just two of you read the match. I wanna hear what you think, and I want to hear strong opinions too. I don't just wanna read "oh, it was okay," or "oh, I didn't like it." Praise me. Rip into me. Do something. I wanna know what I'm doing wrong and what I'm doing right.
For the love of God...
Another thing before the entry... Scott Perry over at EWN has opened up a new, funky little concept. It's called the Hotel, and he's described it to me as a soap opera by day and a fighting fed by night. All of this will be written by Scott himself, so it's kinda like my EWA project, which I promise you, is not dead. I'll at least try to follow this, because it looks different, and different is good most of the time.
Anyway, to the entry for today...
A couple of months ago, I wrote an entry on the mechanics of a good RP. Basically, it was my content criteria checklist. It was every ingredient to having a good steak.
But on Food Network, whenever they have cooking competitions, be it on Iron Chef or these pastry cookoffs or whatever, taste is never the only criteria for winning. At first, I thought that was stupid, but really it isn't. Think about it. Would you want to eat something that looks like shit? Probably not. Only the most adventurous of folks would venture to eat something that didn't look appetizing.
It's the same thing with RPs. You could have A+ talent and charisma, but if your formatting is shitty, only the most adventurous souls will try to read your shit. That will hurt you in the long run. If you have great content, you need to be able to show it off by making your prose read all silky and smooth. But how do you do that?
Well, we've all read badly formatted RPs before, we know the pitfalls... but what if we're the ones who are making the cardinal mistakes? Well, this is for you. Of course, I don't claim to be perfect, and I do make these mistakes from time to time, but I also know they're mistakes. So use this checklist and make sure your RPs don't confound your readers.
Spell-check Nothing will make you look dumber than you really are than spelling errors. One typo here and there won't do you in, but multiple spelling errors in multiple promos... well that doesn't bode well. We all know spelling doesn't make the message go round, but it can turn off a lot of people. So, if you feel like you aren't the strongest speller in the world, or if you're just a stream-of-consciousness writer who worries more about ideas than syntax when it's all coming out, just C&P your promo into MS Word and let the spell-checker work for you.
Paragraph breaks Seriously, paragraph breaks are your friends. Reading thick blocks of text can be hell on the eyes, and they're also great concentration breakers. If you're verbose, that's fine, you don't need to shorten your promos up. However, you should look into using paragraph breaks early and often. Get what you have to say out there in short bursts, with white space surrounding each small chunk of text. That way, the words don't jumble together, and people pick up more out of the promo.
HTML Contrast is also a big difference-maker in making your RP aesthetically pleasing. Differentiation between script text and setting-building text is especially crucial. In the old days, I used plain text encased in parentheses to differentiate the setting text. Looking back on those promos, I found they were harder to read than the ones I put out now. Getting fancy with the HTML is a great way to make promos look snazzy and streamlined. Very easy to read. Usually, I stick with regular bold and italic, but other folks like Dan Scifo and Josh Weiner incorporated colors, tables, fonts into their promos. If you have all plain text though... it just makes things look too homogenous. It's the same principle as using paragraph breaks.
Now, if you format your promos like a pro, that's not going make you a superstar. But if you have superstar-level talent, it will bring it to the forefront and take you to the next level. You need to have sizzle and steak. Having too much sizzle and no steak is no good, just like having your steak not sizzle at all is no good.
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