Teeps' Friendly Match Writing Guide For Cool People
Jan 28, 2019 21:20:31 GMT -5
Dave D-Flipz, ForeverKuroi, and 8 more like this
Post by Technical Perfection on Jan 28, 2019 21:20:31 GMT -5
The following guide is scheduled for one fall…
Crowd: ONE FALL!
...and is Teeps’ friendly guide to watch writing.
This is my method for doing things and if it provides any help to other people, cool.
SPLITS!
People may have heard me babbling about splits. This is how I work a match. I go in with a rough guess at how long I think the match should run and then break it into rough chunks. Then you set mini targets for yourself. If you think “I can’t write a 2500 word match!” think instead “I can write 500 words of offense for one guy, 750 for the other, some nice even strength stuff and I have a cool finish in mind, then you glue it all together with nice transitions and bingo, you got a match there, son!
THE EBB AND FLOW OF A NORMAL WRESTLING MATCH
Specifically: Opening, Shine, Heat, Comeback, Finish. Work out who’s working heel in the match (obvious if you have face vs heel, but face vs face it’s the edgier one working heel and heel vs heel it’s the bigger bastard!) You have them exchange a few moves at the start. Then you get the segment where the designated face gets time to show off their moves. Then the designated heel takes control for what should be the LONGEST PART OF THE MATCH. You can put a false comeback “hope” spot in the middle of the heat but the face should actually get anything serious rolling until the comeback. Then the face takes over, does his big stuff, looks like winning and then all hell breaks loose for the cool finish you have in mind.
FINISH COMES FIRST AKA PSYCHOLOGY FOR BEGINNERS
OK this may sound backwards to you. I don’t mean write your finish first. I mean plan your finish first. If you have to write two finishes because you don’t know the result coming in, you need to keep both in mind. Everything that comes before it in a match should work towards the finish. Hopefully your writers imply their strats in their move set. Otherwise… extrapolate from their finisher what they should be working on. Like if it’s a submission, it’s obvious. Nasty head drop people probably work the head, neck and spine. Guys with big flat back bumps work the spine and ribs. If you need an opponent to be kneeling to hit your finish? Work the legs (go watch any post Shining Wizard invention Mutoh match, you’ll see that at work) High Flyers? Well they just need to hit enough random stuff to keep their opponent on the mat for long enough to climb the ropes. Give your match an internal sense of logic and it will read better.
TAG TEAM PSYCHOLOGY
Oh, you already know this. One guy on the face team plays Ricky Morton and gets the crap kicked out of him in the heat section, the other plays Robert Gibson and cleans up in the comeback. For bonus points, you can run a double up on this, have one guy isolated, his partner comes in and cleans house but gets taken out BEFORE he can win, then he becomes the target.
THREE WAY DANCE
You know how these go too. Pair off two guys while one guy is out of it, then that guy turns up again and another gets taken out. I know it’s not always the formula for three way dances and if you want to try to recreate Styles vs Daniels vs Joe, feel free. It would spin my brain out writing that many three way spots in a row.
RESPECT THE GIMMICKS
Pay close attention to the guys in the match. Get the crowd involved. Have flashy crowd favourites and crowd baiting heels interact with the audience. Throw in contemporary crowd chants to give your match the real feel. Have cheaters cheat and the morally upstanding stick to their guns. Offering a goody two shoes face a CHANCE to cheat and have him look all conflicted about it and turn it down, ESPECIALLY when he knows damn well his opponent would can tell a hell of a story about a character. Don’t forget the managers who should be reacting to their charge’s fortunes more than anyone else.
ALL CAPS MAKE EVERYTHING BETTER
ESPECIALLY NEAR THE END OF THE MATCH! OH MY GOD! MAMMA MIA! AS GOD AS MY WITNESS HE HAS BROKEN HIS SHIFT KEY IN HALF! Ask yourself, which of these is the most dramatic. “He turns and charges hitting his opponent with the Lariat.” Or “HE TURNS… CHARGES… AND HITS HIS OPPONENT WITH THE LAAAAARIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAATOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”
RULE OF COOL
Don’t break the laws of wrestling. Also remember that the laws of physics and the laws of wrestling are not the same thing. If you just though of something unfathomably cool and you’re wondering whether it’s possible, I would recommend you go watch Will Ospreay vs Ricochet, shrug your shoulders and put the really cool thing in. Don’t make it immersion breaking but remember that when reading, the mental image you have in your head might be reasonably reached by anyone with a decently creative imagination. Like, say, a roleplay writer.
And remember… practise makes perfect. Or at least, in my case, makes better. If you think you suck at match writing, you don’t. You might not have done it enough to be brilliant. YET. The more you do this, the better you will be.
Now. Taken all that in?
Start ignoring the bits of it you don’t like immediately. Writing matches is a personal thing!
And ROCK ON \m/ >_< \m/
Crowd: ONE FALL!
...and is Teeps’ friendly guide to watch writing.
RULE 1
There are no rules. None of this is gospel. Have fun!
This is my method for doing things and if it provides any help to other people, cool.
SPLITS!
People may have heard me babbling about splits. This is how I work a match. I go in with a rough guess at how long I think the match should run and then break it into rough chunks. Then you set mini targets for yourself. If you think “I can’t write a 2500 word match!” think instead “I can write 500 words of offense for one guy, 750 for the other, some nice even strength stuff and I have a cool finish in mind, then you glue it all together with nice transitions and bingo, you got a match there, son!
THE EBB AND FLOW OF A NORMAL WRESTLING MATCH
Specifically: Opening, Shine, Heat, Comeback, Finish. Work out who’s working heel in the match (obvious if you have face vs heel, but face vs face it’s the edgier one working heel and heel vs heel it’s the bigger bastard!) You have them exchange a few moves at the start. Then you get the segment where the designated face gets time to show off their moves. Then the designated heel takes control for what should be the LONGEST PART OF THE MATCH. You can put a false comeback “hope” spot in the middle of the heat but the face should actually get anything serious rolling until the comeback. Then the face takes over, does his big stuff, looks like winning and then all hell breaks loose for the cool finish you have in mind.
FINISH COMES FIRST AKA PSYCHOLOGY FOR BEGINNERS
OK this may sound backwards to you. I don’t mean write your finish first. I mean plan your finish first. If you have to write two finishes because you don’t know the result coming in, you need to keep both in mind. Everything that comes before it in a match should work towards the finish. Hopefully your writers imply their strats in their move set. Otherwise… extrapolate from their finisher what they should be working on. Like if it’s a submission, it’s obvious. Nasty head drop people probably work the head, neck and spine. Guys with big flat back bumps work the spine and ribs. If you need an opponent to be kneeling to hit your finish? Work the legs (go watch any post Shining Wizard invention Mutoh match, you’ll see that at work) High Flyers? Well they just need to hit enough random stuff to keep their opponent on the mat for long enough to climb the ropes. Give your match an internal sense of logic and it will read better.
TAG TEAM PSYCHOLOGY
Oh, you already know this. One guy on the face team plays Ricky Morton and gets the crap kicked out of him in the heat section, the other plays Robert Gibson and cleans up in the comeback. For bonus points, you can run a double up on this, have one guy isolated, his partner comes in and cleans house but gets taken out BEFORE he can win, then he becomes the target.
THREE WAY DANCE
You know how these go too. Pair off two guys while one guy is out of it, then that guy turns up again and another gets taken out. I know it’s not always the formula for three way dances and if you want to try to recreate Styles vs Daniels vs Joe, feel free. It would spin my brain out writing that many three way spots in a row.
RESPECT THE GIMMICKS
Pay close attention to the guys in the match. Get the crowd involved. Have flashy crowd favourites and crowd baiting heels interact with the audience. Throw in contemporary crowd chants to give your match the real feel. Have cheaters cheat and the morally upstanding stick to their guns. Offering a goody two shoes face a CHANCE to cheat and have him look all conflicted about it and turn it down, ESPECIALLY when he knows damn well his opponent would can tell a hell of a story about a character. Don’t forget the managers who should be reacting to their charge’s fortunes more than anyone else.
ALL CAPS MAKE EVERYTHING BETTER
ESPECIALLY NEAR THE END OF THE MATCH! OH MY GOD! MAMMA MIA! AS GOD AS MY WITNESS HE HAS BROKEN HIS SHIFT KEY IN HALF! Ask yourself, which of these is the most dramatic. “He turns and charges hitting his opponent with the Lariat.” Or “HE TURNS… CHARGES… AND HITS HIS OPPONENT WITH THE LAAAAARIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAATOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”
RULE OF COOL
Don’t break the laws of wrestling. Also remember that the laws of physics and the laws of wrestling are not the same thing. If you just though of something unfathomably cool and you’re wondering whether it’s possible, I would recommend you go watch Will Ospreay vs Ricochet, shrug your shoulders and put the really cool thing in. Don’t make it immersion breaking but remember that when reading, the mental image you have in your head might be reasonably reached by anyone with a decently creative imagination. Like, say, a roleplay writer.
And remember… practise makes perfect. Or at least, in my case, makes better. If you think you suck at match writing, you don’t. You might not have done it enough to be brilliant. YET. The more you do this, the better you will be.
Now. Taken all that in?
Start ignoring the bits of it you don’t like immediately. Writing matches is a personal thing!
If there’s anything else you’d like my wisdom on, please ask.
