When I first joined back in the day I never had a gimmick and I found it hard to promo at times, but as my characters storylines expanded my character started to develop his own gimmick and promoing became easier.

Having returned after such a long time I didn't feel I had the right to immeadiatly pick up where I left off and once again have gone for the approach of having the character develop itself. Which has resulted in some hit and miss promos but it's still early days.

I thought that it would be a good idea to create a thread for people just starting out or developing a gimmick. 
From experience the ways your character  developed and promoing became easy.

I still remember our promo battle back in 2011 (this is Doni Prasdana btw. I was one half of The United Ford with Dorin, lol) and IMO your promos are much better nowadays, lol.

Can't really give you an advice here since I don't think I'm the right person to do this but all I can say is that you're doing great. You are a former champion for a reason, because you're good. Well, that's it (H).

Creating a backstory or developing a story for your character is a good way with having support character is a good way to introduce who he or she is.

I think if people over think it, on the long run of things, they are shooting themselves in the foot. So it's important to pick a character that comes naturally to the point it boils down to how would they react in the situation. I guess the Bruce Lee method of be like water and creating a style that suits your needs.

Hmm. My best advice is t make them feel like real people. For instance I've tried to establish that whole Mark Michaels is a total narcissistic asshole, he still has some good qualities such as a strong work ethic and an ability to learn quickly when applies himself.  Try to make your character have his pros and cons while remaining in your role as either a heel or face. 


Another tip, I'd say keep promoing. Even when you don't have a match do some character development promos and that should help find more of your voice and who your character is. Simply practice will help make perfect

I have a friend who works in pageants as a hobby.  She used to be in them, but then she went on to holding regional ones and judging in other pageants.  She would also act as a coach for some of the women involved, which meant telling them how to stand, how to walk, and drilling them on questions.  I kind of found some of that interesting as a wrestling fan.  She'd often ask me to help with some of these things before her husband got us out of it (thank god.  I still have PTSD over the songs 'Firework' and 'Party in the USA'.)  Before that I'd often wonder how one of Mick Foley's personas would handle being prompted with pageant questions.  How would Dude Love answer a women's rights question? How would Cactus Jack react to being asked about the diminishing wetlands? How would Mankind solve world hunger or sum up the definitive plan for world peace?

It's a silly game to play between having to bounce the rogue pervert who doesn't want to pay for a fundraiser ticket, but it's also the kind of thinking that helped me with e-fedding.  How does a middle class young adult abducted into the carnival that is wrestling react to a guy like Nico Borg? What does he think about a cocky but capable guy like Chris Elite? Or a masked anomaly like El Ironico?  Better yet, how does he handle loss or winning a title? How does he handle being verbally and physically assaulted on a weekly basis? What are his opinions on the politics of Ryan Marx? These are important things to know about your character.  They're insane things that no line of prompts could ever prepare you for, but they are the essence of your character.  If you don't know the answer off-hand just based off of the template of a character that you've created, then evolving that character is figuring out the answers to these questions, and it might actually help a bit if you did ask different questions about your character in your spare time to get a vibe about them.  What's their musical taste? favorite movie? what's their home life like? Do they eat pineapple on pizza? that sort of minutia and trivia that nobody else needs to know or care about but you until the right opportunity comes to say 'hey, my guy doesn't care for having his body flung off of the top of a vault, and it effects him quite negatively.'

People like to say quality > quantity and that's some real shit. But when you tryna find yo gimmick then I think you could argue the opposite tbh. Cuz if you just keep pumpin' out that quantity eventually u gonna figure out what works and what don't work and make that gimmick lit af.

It took me two years the find the sweet spot I currently have with Stephanie, but it took time and character development to get where I am now. Everyone above is right in their own way; go with what works and don't over think it. Also, keep in mind that your character may not be the same further down the road. I went from babyface to heel to tweener and now I'm slowly going back to face and barely any of it was pre-determined. Read your opponent's previous promos and feuds if you can. Everyone has a story to tell. Find the theme and exploit it as much as you can without repeating the same stuff over and over. In time, you'll grow in your ability to cut a great promo week after week.

Catchphrases help a lot too. Same goes for nicknames. Also, a short brainstorm with your writer never hurts either.

One day I heard someone, I forgot who I think it was Vince McMahon, saying that the best gimmicks are those that have a part of yourself in it or something you love/like. I took that advice to heart and since then every one of my characters I play in either e-fedding or Larping (I love larping!) have a tiny bit of me in them and by that I mean something I love or have high interest in.

For example:
Prime, my first ever character was heavily based on Steve Austin and ''how I would be if I wrestled''.
Sylvain Primeau, Prime's oldest son, is based off my love for soccer.
Simon Gaele-Primeau, Prime's yougest, is based off Kevin Owens and boxing
Tony ''Brujah'' St-Michel is based of Vampire the Masquerade, Brock Lesnar and my interest in Raves and Dubsteps
Ryan Wilson is based off my love for Deadpool

Of course there is nothing wrong with playing something totally out of your area of confort and we should always work to try and leave room for evolution for our characters which is sometimes not easy.

Take one part of yourself and expand it to your character, that's what happened with my Raging Roaring Lion persona. I mean if you create something you don't believe in, you won't be able to do a promo and the rest goes on, by putting a part of yourself that can be something you like or know very well, your promos will become instantly fluid but having an ethic is extremely important too.

And like Showster told you, keep promoing by you using the EAW Feed and the EAW Promoz threads even you don't have a match, if you promo, it will be more easier to us to know you are and for you, to develop your skills. It's a win-win situation.

I think that, even if you don't have a gimmick in mind, make your character have a past - it doesn't have to be entirely detailed. From there, you can definitely build the way your character behaves and talks. When I came up with my character initially, I didn't even consider the whole crazy, 'Devil of Ultraviolence' gimmick - that came about in my second/third match in another efed.

And just to mirror what others before me have been saying, it's always a lot easier to take something from your personality and give it to your character. Exaggerate if you have to, there's no shame in that - after all, these characters are supposed to be larger-than-life to an extent. For Harv, I mainly took from my terrible high school emo phase, and made something crazy out of it. Gimmicks don't have to be entirely realistic, either - they're fictitious for a reason.

As Cloud said, nicknames and catchphrases can work great too. But don't be like me and base your entire first few promos off of them, lmao. Having those things can really solidify your gimmick; and as always, if something doesn't work, try something else. It's a learning process, so don't go harsh on yourself if you don't succeed at first.

Of course, if you're struggling on creating your character's gimmick/mic skills, look elsewhere for inspiration. EAW has plenty of great writers, so checking out the EAW Promoz, the EAW Feed or NEO Promoz sections can always help out. For me personally, I get my inspiration from comics and TV shows. Promo often. Write out character development pieces (whether or not you chose to post them is always up to you). Use the Feed to get more into character, if that works for you. Talk to others. Talk to the writers for your brand. Ask for feedback (I'm always down to give advice, by the way). Bookmark your inspiration. Take screenshots of blocks of text/images that remind you of your character. Take notes if you need to. Don't worry about being 'unoriginal,' we all take ideas from others whether people catch on to it or not. It's all about what's finding what works better for you.