Creative is big for me. Not imitating the ever so usual "I'm better than you" promo.

There is no one, singular method that makes a good promo. Hashing out your own style and continuously building on it is the easiest path toward success.

Effort. For me it's really that simple, even if I'm not a fan of a character or promo it is usually pretty obvious when someone is putting in effort or not.

I think it's generally knowing who your character is, doing and saying things that define them that aren't contradictory to one another, and essentially being ready to know how to respond in the voice of your character.  

I've seen plenty of rps that were done as straight up, look in the camera, no scene description needed, pure dialogue that have been awesome that I wouldn't consider lessers to those like me whom like to have some sort of self-contained storyline for character progression and fun.  And likewise, I've seen guys similar to my style whom go completely off topic of having a match that deliver something interesting and compelling and endearing, but to an extent it starts to kind of feel like a cheat card if you ambiance a promo so much that there's no room for the match it's supposed to be talking about, and even if a promo of that nature were better than it's competition, I think there's room for debate on whether or not something should be deducted for it, because at some point it quits being an rp and becomes prose, and therefore not really applicable.

So yeah, scenery is good, dialogue is good, back story is good, and N.P.C. managers/girlfriends/boyfriends/siblings are fine, but a good promo still boils down to addressing the match, what stakes are on the line, and ultimately how it's going to affect the fed and it's storylines and your desired direction in both.

I find that some of the best promos have a thread of truth to them. That's in irl wrestling and in e-fedding. Know your character and try to draw similarities to yourself and the character you play. If you do that, it's easier to find a voice because it's generally partially your own voice. The easiest and most effective character is always your own personality with the volume turned up to 11.

ThePizzaBoy wrote:

I think it's generally knowing who your character is, doing and saying things that define them that aren't contradictory to one another, and essentially being ready to know how to respond in the voice of your character.  

I've seen plenty of rps that were done as straight up, look in the camera, no scene description needed, pure dialogue that have been awesome that I wouldn't consider lessers to those like me whom like to have some sort of self-contained storyline for character progression and fun.  And likewise, I've seen guys similar to my style whom go completely off topic of having a match that deliver something interesting and compelling and endearing, but to an extent it starts to kind of feel like a cheat card if you ambiance a promo so much that there's no room for the match it's supposed to be talking about, and even if a promo of that nature were better than it's competition, I think there's room for debate on whether or not something should be deducted for it, because at some point it quits being an rp and becomes prose, and therefore not really applicable.

So yeah, scenery is good, dialogue is good, back story is good, and N.P.C. managers/girlfriends/boyfriends/siblings are fine, but a good promo still boils down to addressing the match, what stakes are on the line, and ultimately how it's going to affect the fed and it's storylines and your desired direction in both.

Strongly disagree with your opinion on direct promos being "cheat cards." I've actually felt the exact opposite way about many of these promos where interviewers are used that ask unrealistic and/or bland questions that answer themselves and effectively act as filler to complete your promo. It does not take linguistic skill to write contrived, often tedious scenes that anyone who actually did an essay in Freshman English could do something comparable to. Any amount of description is fine and dandy with me, and in the past I've had no trouble with scenes when I felt it necessary, but to say that it in any way makes someone a better writer is nothing short of utterly ridiculous hogwash. You didn't say that verbatim, but it seems to be the implication when you question whether or not people who write that style of promos should be consequently deducted. The amount of words used in a promo has never been overly important; it has always been the manner in which you use the words.

Examples of questions I feel many (not everyone) who write "scenes" have the tendency to fall back on:

Interviewer: You lost your match last week against Jaywalker. How do you intend to bounce back from this defeat? (Acceptable question, but to further illustrate my point, definitely the type of query that helps an e-fedder more easily transition into his promo despite the misperception of scenes being more difficult)

Interviewer: You made your intentions known on Dynasty. Could you tell us more about that? (Rehash, writes itself, boring)

Interviewer: Do you think you can co-exist with [insert tag team partner here]? (Acceptable, but yet another example of something that allows you to write more easily without attempting to transition into this topic yourself)

So yeah, there's no way people who make direct promos should be docked for doing so when the majority of those who write scenes are assuredly guilty of asking questions that mirror the aforementioned. I don't believe in the assertion that writing promos is more difficult based on what style you choose. I've seen people do scenes and end up with an awful promo I wouldn't consider reading under strong coercion. I feel like this entirely misses the point, because success in promos has always been about what point you make. As long as it's driven home, how you get there doesn't matter at all.

I think you misunderstood his post Imp. Unless I'm the one way off base. It sounded like he was saying that scene promos that go on tangents and remain off topic from the match are like cheat cards, as while some of these promos may be great and interesting it shouldn't let them get away with not promoing on their match or storyline.

I would argue however that people in promos can be off topic and never mention their match and opponents, or storylines and impact of their rivalry, all while not being a scene promo but w.e.

Should have re-read. Apologies for that. Either way, I feel like what I said generally is sensible and holds true nonetheless. Just to clarify, I don't mind scenes and I don't mind any other style of promo as long as it's well-written and a point is made.

Maybe off the point of the thread, but I generally hate scene promos.  I've seen some good ones that build character, but generally it just seems like filler. The best promos in real life are a wrestler and a microphone in the middle of the ring.

I definitely prefer scene promos as I'm sure anyone who's read my promos would've guessed. Direct promos are fine too for people who like them, but I find them limiting in terms of character development. I don't find that scene promos are that off topic although if people are not even mentioning their match or opponent at all or hardly at all that's obviously a problem. Most of the stuff I do in my promos unrelated to my match is for character development purposes so I don't think it qualifies as filler. At the same time I enjoy a lot of direct promos and feel people who do them here tend to do a great job. Everyone has a different writing style so nobody should really be docked for that.

I wasn't necessarily saying the use of other characters in general was bad, Y2I. As a matter of fact, I'm more than for it.  I'm referencing more along the lines of masturbatory related to a single character storylines, opposed to things the fed can actually work with.  

My case in point is a guy I was in a fed with years ago who never mentioned his opponents in promos, never talked about the match, never gave the match writers much to work with in regards to how he reacts to his opponent personally, whether it was just all business or a grudge that could be built upon.  And granted, there are guys who can do that and kind of lend to the product as well by intentionally making their characters an outcast to the roster like Mike Villain did in CWF.  By no means did I mean to imply simply because there's dialogue between two characters that anything should be taken away from a person's ability to promo.  I use interviewers and other characters all of the time, but I do so to build up the story going into the match with a little side or back story mixed in, but when someone solely shuts themselves off from anything remotely dealing with wrestling or the fed and essentially starts writing a self-contained short story each week, it usually doesn't strike me as an rp and I've seen promoters deduct or even dismiss from an rp for it, and I don't disagree with that, regardless to how good it might look or sound sometimes, unless it has a payoff.

Yeah, as Jay mentioned, I misunderstood your original post and thought you meant to say scene promos (interviewers, multiple characters involved, etc) were inherently better since they require more creativity. I was just trying to explain that it's a real mixed bag one way or the other, but upon further review, I definitely understand what you meant and I agree.

I don't remember which thread it was on, I assumed it was on this one since to me it fits this thread, but I recall a post by Ryan Savage about originality where he stated his distaste for people promoing about lack of originality and how originality is overrated-or something of that area- because everything's been done before in EAW.

While I agree that promos about originality are generally lame, and to be honest usually done by people with no originality in the first place, I disagree that everything's been done before.

There are multiple avenues with characters that people have not taken.

A good promo is one that grabs the attention of its audience no matter how long or short if its not interesting its not worth reading.

effort,creativity,ability to work off of your opponent,ability to feel your character's mindset and their emotions and feelings as you write. ability to put yourself in your own character's shoes and portray them as though you was that person.