So a few days ago it was discussed on the chat about setting up promo lessons for people who may need them to help them get better with promos, may have been oasis who originally suggested it, I forget tbh. Anyway, I was talking to DEDEDE earlier about this with the initial idea of doing this in a random chat but with time-zones and shit, it's probably easier to do this on here. Anyway, topics so far:

-Being a face
-Being a heel
-Developing Character and its importance

People can also add in their own questions that they want asked or if they want any topics to the above added, feel free to post them (more should be covered, if i think of any or if anybody, mainly ddd/imp/whoever has any)

Along with topics being covered, people can post their promos on here to be read over and given feedback on what you did good, what you did wrong, what you could improve on, etc. I feel like this is better than the promo feedback thread that's already up as people have to leave a promo up before they can give feedback on another and most people don't typically know what to look for/give the right stuff for.

Anyway, if you wish to join this thread as somebody who wants to feel people, whether it's covering topics, leaving promo feedback for people or answering a question for people, feel free to say it on the thread or just do so yourself.

People so far:
Myself
DEDEDE
Y2Impact

I'll help, as I'm not washed up like the three running the school right now.

I'll join.

? wrote:

I'll help, as I'm not washed up like the three running the school right now.

can you ever be less of an annoying faggot?

It was indeed I who suggested it. Glad to see you're doing it, this should be a big help to a lot of the new guys we just had come in!

Promo like you talk, that's the most important part. Imp gets away with the large vocabulary and he manages to pull it off very well but that doesn't mean the rest of you need to use a thesaurus on every word in your promo. Your grammar doesn't really matter. Obviously, don't promo like El Landerson but you shouldn't expect scrutiny for misspelling words or forgetting punctuation. While you're typing your promo out, say it in your head. Does it sound natural? If yes, USE IT AS IT IS. If no, then drop it. Promos are 100% content and that's the most important parts: ideas and natural execution. Don't try to be something you can't effectively do.

I'll probably ask for some help coming near a big match, so I'll pop in and out of here because I feel like I'm already a semi-decent promoer who can win a few small matches with my material.

Just for the sake of clarification, while I do consider myself fairly articulate, I don't think I use that many more "big words" than most others and I never make it a point of emphasis one way or another. I just write what comes to my mind and what I know makes sense within the context. I would agree that you should promo similar to how you speak (unless you stutter all the time when you talk, in which case don't do that), but there's nothing wrong with going outside that zone and trying to do something different so long as you're not making a fool of your character.

As you all see me as an individual with such a sterling intellect, I shall join in on this as well.

Not sure how qualified I am to help out, but happy to chip in here and there.

I'm more than willing to help out.  

-Being a face: Be likable and human.  I think the self-righteous thing doesn't get over so well these days.  Everyone wants Batman, not Superman.  Be flawed, be humble, and simply be someone that's easy to identify with.  Sense of humor helps, but it's not necessarily the end-all be-all.  Don't talk over people's heads, be on the status quo's level, and don't be a patronizing pious type unless you can have fun with it.  If you go too straight laced, then people turn on you faster than you can say Right To Censor.

-Being a heel: Don't bury your opponent.  I've seen this brought up by many a wrestler who are king of the promo.  If I'm a nobody not worth your time, then you better damn well beat me.  Otherwise, you've lost to a nobody.  Be logical as well.  People tend to turn on a heel because their plight against society and it's mores tends to make sense.  It's when the heel plays helpless victim to the 'system' when it comes off as a patronizing jerk.  You can still be a world class techtician and take the cheap way out because it's the 'smarter' and 'easier' and 'less risky' way to go about things, which leads me to my next point; there's nothing wrong with playing a coward.  Again, you can be god's gift to the headlock and still sell fear based on paranoia, second-guessing based on size or strength in an opponent, regardless to if they're a lesser in the ring on the textbook side of things, or you could just sell the fact that the badass biker brawler known for curb stomping pretty boys frightens you, or that the undead god of the underworld might have some link to the unknown and the fate of your soul that you don't know about.  This doesn't mean you have to be a blubbering mess in promos, but at least plant that seed and play up the undertones beneath the smarmy veneer.  The inability to show any sort of vulnerability has always been the crux of a face or a heel promo to me.  If you're not a classic heel and you're some world beating muscle head, then it's fine to play the intimidation card...it's just not easy to make it interesting without some sort of antithesis to bounce your badassery off of, like a mouthy manager to your near mute monster.

-Developing Character and its importance: Cone in with a pretty strong idea of what your character is, who they're going to be in a month, what their goals are, and work up from that foundation.  Don't just say 'I want to be Cesaro because he was a good wrestler' or 'I'm going to be Bray Wyatt because he cuts gothy promos', otherwise you're going to be as lost in the shuffle as they are in real life without any guidance, thought, or direction in place for their characters.  Cocky heel isn't a character, good wrestler isn't a character, creepy dude isn't a character.  They're archetypes that characters are built around.  Figure out who your character is, what they've been through, where they've been in life before hitting EAW, and figure out what the makeup of their personality is before you even write a promo.  You don't have to tell anyone what it is, but as long as it gives you a vehicle with a guideline to how to act in certain situations, what they love, what they fear, and why they're that way, you're square.

Stark wrote:

Promo like you talk, that's the most important part. Imp gets away with the large vocabulary and he manages to pull it off very well but that doesn't mean the rest of you need to use a thesaurus on every word in your promo. Your grammar doesn't really matter. Obviously, don't promo like El Landerson but you shouldn't expect scrutiny for misspelling words or forgetting punctuation. While you're typing your promo out, say it in your head. Does it sound natural? If yes, USE IT AS IT IS. If no, then drop it. Promos are 100% content and that's the most important parts: ideas and natural execution. Don't try to be something you can't effectively do.

Did you just insult El Landerson?

Honestly, I feel like everyone has a different approach to their character. While it's generally advisable not to bury your opponent to protect your character in the event that you lose, I feel like a good enough heel can make the right excuses to justify their defeat. There are so many loopholes you can exploit to work around this, like talking about how you weren't ready, the referee made a fast count, or you simply weren't provided with the right Gatorade flavor before the match and lost out on some much-needed electrolytes. It's not necessary to be tough or badass to get over.

I already know my promo's need to be longer, any other suggestions?

With your time here going the way it is, spend more time investing into your characters more personal thoughts and attitudes. Develop him far more, flesh out the character to make him as interesting as you can. Creating interest and giving your writers a reason to invest time in your character in the shows should be your target. 

Obviously being heel it's hard to imagine a deeper side to your character but one exists.Find it, explore it, give people a reason to care about your character beyond ripping them apart which is, quite frankly, the most generic idea behind a heel character.

Please tell a story. Too many people promo directly and forget that there is a match to be sold to the audience. You need to build your opponent up so that your victory actually means something. If you say someone sucks and you beat him, what does that prove? If you call someone great--but yourself better--you prove that you are great.

Little things like spacing and mechanics go a long way. Though DDD and Demon have done well for himself in spite of it, grammar is important. You WANT to look professional. Presentation is very underrated in promos. For example, a guy like GI Styles used to post his promos in red and have thirty-spaces between each paragraph. Were the promos good? Absolutely, but the presentation was not. Look professional, as previously stated.

Know your character inside-and-out. Start a word document and write down words that describe your character, write down a synopsis of his back-story, write down anything. There's a few secrets of mine that I don't wish to share, but believe me, you are in charge of your own greatness.

I cant stress enough the importance of presence. When you promo, your verbiage should be able to stick out to the point if they were on a blank sheet of paper and not attached to a name, they'd know its you. Of course, theres the El Landerson way of standing out and theres the HBB, Jay, Imp, etc way. Although not everyone can be as GOAT as Landerson still in this day and age in EAW, standing out is still as important as ever.

This might seem like a lot of back and forthing, but for a guy that doesn't have a whole lot of experience in this style of fed, this is really helpful guys, so thank you!

The Franchise Demon wrote:

I already know my promo's need to be longer, any other suggestions?

Post a promo of yours here and ill give my opinion

I honestly give zero fucks about grammar, or language skill. I don't care about how you format your promos as long as its readable. 

I care about creativity above everything. I care if your promo is entertaining or if it's boring. If it's repetitive or if it has a purpose. If you don't have a purpose behind something you say, don't post it. In other words, have a goal for your character. Think of what you want your character to be in a month from now, two months, etc. and make it happen.

Come up with an interesting character and know why it's interesting. I don't want to read a promo that sounds like some 16 year old bitching online and pretending to be a 30+ year old pro wrestler. Watch TV, movies, wrestling, find your character's voice. 

If you are trying to use your own voice as your character, think about yourself. Why are you interesting? Once you think of your interesting qualities, now ask yourself, is this how people see me? Ask yourself this for every quality you came up with. If you said no to any of these things you are probably delusional and need to either fix your promos to make that quality more obvious, or discard it altogether.

Oh and read your promo again before you post it. Try to read it in the perspective of someone else in the fed if you can. Maybe your opponent, maybe your writer. How do you think they will see what you wrote? If you don't like what you wrote, or you think others might not like it, then change it.

Study the greats. That's the biggest tip you will ever get. Be hungry to surpass your peers.

I'll still post on here if people put up promos, but honestly I think this would work much better in PC or PM. I wouldn't blame a lot of new people for not wanting to post promos in this thread. It's the same reason why teachers don't publish your grades for the entire class to see (at least in the US).

While I do agree that creativity is more important than writing quality, acting like writing quality and presentation doesn't matter is totally ridiculous and absurd. The greats in EAW don't always have excellent grammar and perfect punctuation, but they all have fairly expansive vocabularies that allows virtually everything they say to remain fresh instead of feeling like they're reiterating the same thing over and over again. There's a difference between driving your point home and beating a dead horse. A misspelled word here and there may not matter as it relates to the overall quality of your promo, but sentence structure, using correct tenses, and weeding out awkwardness absolutely matters. "Writing quality and language don't matter" seems like an excuse to not improve your writing skill. Creativity is obviously paramount, but no matter how creative you are, it's going to come across like shit if you don't have a basic understanding of how you're writing it. A creative writer with an excellent understanding of language is always going to be better than a creative writer who has no idea how to effectively platform their ideas. Being a good all-around writer, it helps ensure your reader doesn't misconstrue what you're saying and everything will be perfectly comprehensible. There is no excuse for an unwillingness to learn. Even now, I still strive to get better through my own means in whatever way I possibly can. 

The thing about e-feds (writing) vs. actual wrestling (talking) is that charisma comes across so much clearer in reality than it does with a pen or keyboard. The majority of "real" wrestling promos are relatively short in comparison to the promos that people do here. There will be a guy/girl with a unique gimmick that catches the eye every now and then, but it's generally very hard to convey charisma without coming across clearly and effectively that you're being enthusiastic and passionate about what you're saying. Guys like DDD, Jay, Demon, Pizza Boy, etc, all have an exceptional understanding of how to convey their emotions. Being a good writer helps you do that, so saying that it's useless or that creative writing without the actual ability to write well is the standard you should set yourself to just comes off like a nonsensical justification for not wanting to improve. Everyone can get better.

Well yeah obviously I wasn't advocating that people don't try to improve. I was simply pointing out the areas I feel new people need to focus on the most. When I read promos, I'm not going to analyze every word and sentence to see how great the vocabulary or grammar is. However, clearly if you notice another aspect that you can improve on you should take every opportunity to do so. That's what I was trying to get across by saying you have to work on your character's voice.