James Champ's Promo Tips

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Hey guys. I figure I could post up some Promo Tips. As most of you know I used to do a promo feedback thread with a grading system and that's been gone for a while as its rather consuming on my end. So I figure I'd share some tips with you on how to write a stronger promo.

These tips are not gospel, they will not guarantee you a victory. I am NOT a judge or a booker. I'm just sharing tips from my own experience in hopes that it may benefit someone. If these tips don't seem like your thing, cool; no worries. If you think they might help, try them out and see how they feel.

I marked a few of them important as they have helped me achieve much success in the past.

FEEL FREE TO ADD TO THE LIST!!!

1. Strong Narrative: When you are writing, its beneficial to have a strong voice. Simple descriptions can be effective but making those simple things sound confident is the key. Your narrative doesn't have to be a book. We don't need 6 paragraphs about the woods your characters in while he smokes a cigarette or hides a body. This is not to say Quality > Quantity but you want that narrative to capture the audience.

2. Color Code: Color is an option in most feds. Some it's a requirement or at least unwritten law. Color adds structure to the promo and helps organize thoughts, but also your promo shouldn't look like a Baskin Robbins. Keep it simple and not too distracting to the reader. Make sure the text is big enough for the reader as well.

3. Spacing: Spacing is important. Spacing helps organize. I'll give and example

Fever Dream: Sup Cowbell?
Cowbell: Fevuh, whats poppin?

- thats no good. It's too condensed and easy to skip/ lose your place

Fever Dream: Sup Cowbell?

Cowbell: Fevuh, whats poppin?

- that looks much better. Same with scene description. Add that line skip to show things are changing.

4. Good Vocabulary: A stronger vocab lends to effective word choice. This will add depth to your writing.

5. Character Development: A back story or story arc for the promo is always a good thing. Doesn’t need to be crazy detail but enough to whet the pallet of the reader.

6. (IMPORTANT) Strong Match Shoot: When you talk about your match, get as in depth as you can so you can make your promo as well rounded as you can.

7. (IMPORTANT) Balance: Try and balance out your content so that nothing is too heavy ( scene description/ CD/ Shoot.)

8. Multiple Scenes: Nothing wrong with this but you should try to sandwich content. Shoot at the very end makes it feel like its tacked on.

9. Character: If your guy owns a business, he's still a wrestler. Try not to forget that.

10. Have Fun: This is the EHWF. EXTREME HARDCORE WRESTLING FEDERATION! We love that crazy stuff. RP to have fun and enjoy YOUR CHARACTER the way YOU WANT.

[Deleted]

I'd like to add on to this a bit. Perhaps not NEW points, but further developing and showing examples for your current and effective points:

1. STRONG NARRATIVE: Guys, on this, There's a line in the sand. You want to be more detailed than, say, a children's story, but at the same time you don't want to be as descriptive as J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings). No one wants to read about, "the 25,000 acre forest that has that one tree with the one set of leaves that has better photosynthesis than the other because the sun's rays hit it at a perfect 45 degree angle for exactly 13 hours and 52 minutes each day." Get what I'm sayin'?

2. COLOR CODE: I agree with staying away from the Skittles Rainbow here. 2 to 3 colors are ideal here, if you ask me. Two VERY contrasting examples are David Smith and myself. David will use a white and a gray color switch out, while I will use white for scene description but a different color for each individual character that is being used in my scenes. This is left to preference, but please remember that just because we want to Taste The Rainbow, doesn't mean we want to see it for 7k words in every promo.

3. SPACING: Evan covered this one pretty much with his example. But, don't be lured into thinking that everything can just be double spaced. Example, I treat Scene Titles and Post Headings as an introduction to a letter or a book, meaning that there is 4 spaces between the heading and the start of the scene. Basically, it just makes it look a little more clean cut, rather than a thrown together double spaced mess. But again, remember, too much spacing CAN be distracting. It's all about being drawn in. Don't let me fall out of the scene by having to scroll down a quarter mile to the next text.

4. Vocabulary: While I agree that a strong vocabulary makes for a strong promo, don't be Better Than You Damien Sandow with it. No one wants to read sentences structured around words that the average man is going to need a Thesaurus for. Again...happy medium. I always tend to shoot for a Senior in High School/Intro-College vocabulary base. Nothing super out there, but a nice, developed vocabulary list to showcase that you're not the 90% of the IWC just hacking away on a keyboard.

5. Character Development: I disagree with Evan here. And he's a hypocrite for saying not crazy detailed. WE ALL REMEMBER ROMAN QUARTZ, EVAN! There's nothing better than a compelling and attention grabbing CD segment/storyline. eFedding has evolved past the point of 100% Shoot Promos like it was 10 years ago. This is all about storytelling, both in and out of the shoots/ring. You character needs depth. It needs a personality. It needs LIFE. We need to believe that that character you're writing about...that creation in your head...could walk right next to us on the subway or on the bus one day and go, "Hey man, sup?" You know what I mean? Now, to be fair, I'm a Sci-Fi nerd. I did the Devil Gene arc, but I am willing to bet that if I hadn't...I wouldn't have been World Champion a second time.

6. Strong Match Shoot: Remember that being in-depth is a great thing, but it's all about delivery. If most of you are like me, you know the message you are trying to send before you even have the scene open. You know that line...that ONE line...that PUNCH...that's gonna get you over the moon with people. You can't deliver that line at a lull in your shoot. Your shoot should be a steady crescendo (music reference. Basically means starting from a low tone and climbing all the way to a climax before an abrupt end) that ends with that ONE LINE. That one...perfect line...that lets people know, "Hey mother fucker. I'm comin' for yo ass."

7. Balance: I agree that there should be a line of balance, but do not take that to mean that it should be 33.33333% all the way across the board. It's all about your preference. Example, I'm a big CD guy. I love doing about 50% CD with about 30% shoot, and 20% dedicated to scenery and settings. That rubs some people wrong, saying I should shoot more. It's all about the time and place. It's easier to do 80% shoot when you're in a 6 man match. It's easier to do CD/Scenes when you're 1 on 1. It's all about the time, place, and set up.

8. Multi-Scenes: I'm a HUGE fan of multiple scenes. Create that separation between your CD and your Shoot. Don't make it all one large drawn out scene that everyone has to skim through to get to the meat and potatoes of what you really need them to see. Tacking a shoot onto the end of a RP is a rookie mistake. I like to break my shoots into 2 segments and sandwich them between my Character Development scenes and THEN finish with a small shoot at the end for flavor.

9. Character: Yes, your character is still a wrestler, but remember...you're character needs a LIFE. As a reader, I'm always interested in character development, so whatever happens OUTSIDE the squared circle is always interesting for me to read. You have guys like David Smith who live, breathes, and exists only for wrestling. You have guys like Silver Kazama who wrestles because he loves it, but has a family and traditions that he wishes to maintain...a family legacy to hold. Guys like Brandon Bash who, while a wrestler and business man, is the head of his family's Bank in Texas. Guys like James Champ and Roman Quartz who have so much actual character DEPTH to them that their shoots come natural. These are just a few examples.

10 Have Fun: Indeed. Nuff Said.

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@fatheroftheyear

Never Forget!
Rest In Peace, his nig-GUH!

But in all seriousness, I always tried to go with the Ernest Hemingway approach where it was the stuff left unsaid. Great expansion, my man! Love the in-depth look at everything.

[Deleted]

Gah, fine! I'll add some points from my 13 years of e-fedding! Lol kidding, but still, a couple of things I'd like to add about this, despite some people's thoughts about my promos (so *raspberry sound* to the haters lol)


1. STRONG NARRATIVE: Keep it short, but at the same time, make people feel like they're seeing it for themselves. Like they've said, don't go super-detail-mode, but at the same time, don't just say "So and so stands there and starts talking". When it comes to my stuff, I get detailed in my descriptions, but keep it short and simple as well. The readers need just enough to be able to visualize the scene, but not enough to know where every rock, twig, and puddle is.

2. COLOR CODE: Like Silver, I usually assign a color for each character and if you happen to pay attention to my stuff, you'll notice that I usually keep the same color assigned over each promo for the same character, makes it less confusing as time goes by. Also a pretty good suggestion on this would be to use a neutral color for non-speaking parts, like white or grey, most people usually look for it as such.

3. SPACING: What they've said pretty much hits the nail on the head. Always try to separate scene description and speaking parts for sure because the space helps make it that much clearer. And like Silver said, if your style is to add a title to scenes (I go back and forth on that myself), make sure it has more spacing to it so that it's clear that it's a transistion to a new scene. Just don't overdo it because it'll annoy the readers and cause them to dislike it a little more if there's huge gaps between what's going on.

4. Vocabulary: Here is an important part of an promo for me when I read them. No offense meant or anything, but when I read promos, I want to feel like I'm not reading something meant for kids first learning to read or something that I constantly have to question what half or more of what I read even means at all. I've been known to have a bit of a higher level vocab in promos before, although to be fair it was character based, but make sure it's understandable. The way I look at it is "Do I think I'd get an A on this from a high school and/or college teacher?"

5. Character Development: This is something you definitely have to have, yet have to be extremely careful about. I've been definitely known for having lots of character development in the past and lost a lot of matches over time because of it. Character development is good to have, but learn how and where to limit it. Think of it like seeing a good movie. Enough detail in there for you to know the character and understand why they do something, but more focus on the reason of the movie itself aka the next topic...

6. Strong Match Shoot: This one is definitely important because most of the time this is what determines a win or a loss for you. You want some good lines, some great things brought up in it. However, make sure it flows well and tells the story it's supposed to tell. Despite what people will say about my shoots, definitely make sure that you don't get to the point either where you feel like you need more length and tend to repeat the same things over and over again. If I see "I'm going to kick your ass" 30 different times through a shoot, it's not as good as reading that line a couple of times in the right spots. And like they've said before me, build up to that lasting line, the part that you want sticking in the heads of people the most. Come up with a couple of topics about the match, speak about them well but not overdone, then deliver that final blow so to speak at the end.

7. Balance: Like Silver, I'm a CD kind of guy myself. I like to develop characters and stories, especially in a match where there's history and it's one on one instead of a multi-person setting. But you still have to find the right balance as well. Like I've mentioned already, too much character development can be boring and seem unneeded, but too much shoot can be boring as well. Most of the time I personally go with about 25-40% CD depending on what kind of match I'm in as well as what kind of storyline I have going on at the time and cover the rest with the shoot part. An important thing though as well is to keep with the balance once you find the one that works for you. Bouncing around with it all the time will make your future work harder on you, trust me on that one.

8. Multi-Scenes: This is where I find my disagreement with the previous two gentleman in the sense that if you read my work at all, you know that I always put the CD part at the beginning of my promo and the shoot part at the end. Being in this business for 13 years, I've watched this always change over time, but I stuck with this for the reason I already mentioned, that final line impact. Unless it's a "To Be continued" kind of CD moment, I like finishing with the shoot because the moment was built up by your CD, then it's put out there in the end. This doesn't mean that I'm telling you to do it this way by any means, but it's an option that's not necessarily a rookie mistake or a tacked on option (lol sorry, had to say it). Again, think of it like a movie. If it was just one giant scene throughout it, it'd be boring. But if timely different things happened, it adds to the entertainment.

9. Character: Despite what some might say, to me this is what makes the difference between the stuff you'd see on here and the stuff you see in real life on TV (hint hint at a certain Connecticut wrestling company). Find a character that works well for you and once you do, give it the distinction between you and everyone else. You want people to think of your character and have what makes them different pop out in their head. But at the same time, be careful with it. In recent months, I've tested out a few too many characters and been mocked for it in promos (thanks so much guys lol). So once you find one that works well for you, try to keep it going and you'll do great. But, like it's been mentioned plenty of times before, remember the balance. Your guy can be this dark "cancer of society" type character, but he's also a wrestler. Find the character, find the balance, and you'll have no problems becoming a big name in the business because of it.

10 Have Fun: This one can not be stressed enough. This isn't a job that we're paid based off of performance or anything. This isn't a life or death situation. This is a fantasy world where we all get to have FUN. I've been in places before that wasn't much fun and it was some of the worst times I had. It's supposed to be fun getting to roleplay as a professional wrestler, when it's not fun that's when you need to sit down and find the fun. I've been known for "breaking the fourth wall" in promos in the past, but in all honesty I have no personal problems with anyone here, management or otherwise, and honestly have fun when I spend time here in any capacity, something that anyone out there should be able to do as well.

Although I haven't been a World champ around here (yet lol), I've got experience that others may or may not have, so feel free to hit me up if ever in need of advice at all, my door is always open aka I always check messages in my inbox lol.