.:: Spectre's Pet Peeves ::.

Writing good roleplays is an art that does't come by overnight. It takes time to learn, just as it does to ride a bike. When you first learned to ride a bike as a kid, you just didnt hop on the seat and pedal down the street at breakneck speeds with no hands. No, you were wobbly and awkward. At best you got five or ten feet before falling on your butt. But you didn't give up. You brushed yourself off, got back on and tried again, and again, and again. The more you did it, the more you learned. Sometimes, however, learning to ride a bike is harder to learn for others. The same is true for writing roleplays. If you don't learn HOW to roleplay, or do things or put things that are considered a no-no in the world of e-wrestling roleplays, you'll find it very difficult to get far in your e-fed quote . You may spend a great deal of time on your roleplay, and think it is your best one ever. In some cases, it may be true, but if you include one (or in many cases MORE than one) of the no-no's you'll find your wrestler looking up at the lights in a lot of cases. Almost every person who has been in efeds for a while will have their own likes and dislikes about roleplays, but MOST will have at least a few similarities of their so-called 'Pet Peeves'. Here then, is MY personal Pet Peeves list. Take it for what it\rquote s worth, but I'll almost guarantee you, a lot of fed heads will agree to most of these Pet Peeves and say that is what they DON'T want to see in roleplays. They are in no particular order.

1. RPs with BAD SPELLING - one of the most frustrating things in roleplays is those that contain MANY spelling errors! Other members don't like it. Fed heads or judges HATE IT, and it just makes the person who wrote the roleplay look incompetent and lazy. There is such thing as 'SPELL CHECK' on computers, so use that to you check your roleplays for all those errors. Spelling errors are bad, and splitting a word that shouldn't be (ex: wrestling) is worse! Take your time and don't rush through the roleplay. It's also good to use paragraphs instead of one long paragraph to make the roleplay more readable and easier to follow.

2. RPs with little or NO Punctuation - believe it or not there are some people who just seem to get on a roll, and they don't stop. I mean they start typing and just go and go and go. This is especially true when the wrestler has a speaking part. I've seen it already in MPW at least once. The wrestler starts talking and actually says four or five sentences before you see a single period. I don't know about you, but when I see that I'm thinking, breathe, damn it!. Putting a simple period at the end of each sentence isn't that hard to do and it makes the role play SO much easier to read. Some people may not think it matters, but believe me, it does. You certainly wouldn't turn in a term paper into a professor, or a project into your boss with several punctuation errors, and roleplays is no different. REMEMBER! Your roleplay is judged on EVERYTHING!

3. Very Short RPs - very short rps make no sense at all, and in most cases they won't get counted, or don't DESERVE to get counted toward a match. What constitutes a very short rp? Every fed head is different. You'll enter in some feds and they REQUIRE roleplays be of certain length. If not, however, you can rest assured that an rp of less than 15 lines in most cases is going to get no more than a laugh and a 'THAT'S IT??' response from everyone else, especially the fed head. An average roleplay could be anywhere from 30 to 50 lines long, and it\rquote s long enough to keep most readers interested.

4. In Ring RPS - this is self-explanatory. In-ring roleplays basically show lack of imagination. ANYBODY can do an in-ring promo, and that\rquote s why most fed heads tend to frown upon those that use it too much. An occasional in-ring promo? Yeah, it's alright, but it should be used very sparingly. If you insist on having your wrestler do an in-ring promo, then have him do it ON THE SHOW, not during the week for an upcoming match! Here is where imagination comes in: try to put your wrestler in another setting besides 'in the ring'. NOTE: A HOUSE SHOW is a wrestling card that is NOT televised, so there will be NO cameras, and NO announcers. That\rquote s a tip for future reference. You know who you are.

5. RPs That Use Cameramen - this one gets under my skin probably more than any other pet peeve, except maybe #6. EVERY time I see one of these roleplays I just want to smack the person that wrote the roleplay. Here is what I'm talking about. Let's say a wrestler, we'll call him Mister Fantastic, is out doing something, we'll say working out. This is all described in detail then the infamous words appear in the roleplay:

( The cameraman walks up to Mister Fantastic.)

CAMERAMAN: Mister Fantastic, if I could get a word (get an interview) with you?

What in the hell? What CAMERAMAN in any wrestling fed EVER says that? NONE! NADA! ZIPPO! It's cheesy and fake, and frankly downright amateur. Don't use it! Another CAMERAMAN usage is having the camera NOD up and down or shake up and down in response to a wrestler question. Again, have you ever seen that in any televised feds? No! The camera responding is worse than the cameraman asking questions, but they're still just a bad thing to do.

6. RPs That Use Interviewer at Inappropriate times - this is just like #5. Wrestlers are eating, working out, at a movie, a ballgame, whatever, and lo and behold, an MPW interviewer comes up and says, guess what? That's right! 'Excuse me, but could I get a word with you about' Same song, different verse! The use of interviewers is ANOTHER overdone trait of the newer guys, and shows lack of imagination. Why use interviewers to carry a roleplay? Why have the interviewer ask the wrestler questions when the wrestler can do it himself alone in a roleplay? Interviewers are ANOTHER trait that should be done VERY sparingly. For the most part you should only see interviewers AT wrestling shows backstage asking wrestlers questions prior to a match or after a huge fight or turn of events.

7. RPs That Don't Get To The Point - some people work hard on roleplays, yet they never seem to get to the point. They spend the majority of the roleplay doing nonsensical or extreme descriptions of what is going on, then have a simple 5 or 6 line blurb of how they're going to kick their opponent's ass. You mean to tell me all that time was spent on that roleplay, and that's all you had to say? It took you that long to get your point across?? Roleplays need to keep your readers interest, not ramble on and on about nothing. These types of roleplays might be called blahblahblah.

8. RPs where One or More Passages of Time Occur - I have never understood this concept. People will write up a roleplay, and instead of maybe breaking it up into separate smaller roleplays, they make one HUGE roleplay (which isn't always a good thing), sometimes slip in words like 1 hour later..6 hours later. the next morning. A roleplay is meant to be a promo that lasts a couple of minutes, NOT several hours, or even a day or two. IF it is necessary to, or you plan to have a passage of time occur in your roleplay, it might be better to split the roleplay up into parts and label it as such. For instance, Game Over- Part One, Game Over- Part Two. By doing it in that way, you keep your audience interested and actually WANTING to read your next roleplay. It also adds to the growing trend 'storyline' rps.

9. RPs where the Wrestler Beats on some Schmuck - this is another one of those 'anybody can' situations. Having your own wrestler beat on a 'nobody' is a CHEAP way to get heat from the audience, and it does nothing more than prove that sure your wrestler can pick on non-wrestlers who in most cases are smaller. How about someone bigger that actually wrestles? Picking on guys in a bar, or employees at a workplace is ESPECIALLY overdone when it comes to 'picking on or beating on' someone smaller. Some people may try to twist this around and have someone who is bigger or a bouncer/fighter confront them. But the point still is these people are non-wrestlers. If you want to get heat then work out a storyline where your wrestler attacks someone backstage, or does a run-in.

10. Very Long Rps - just as very short rps are irritating, so are long rps, ESPECIALLY if they mostly ramble, or have more than one passage of time occurs. Some feel that only long rps should be done as a way to 'impress everyone'. Well, it's true to a point, but you still need to be able to hold your audience's attention. People will get tired of reading if the roleplay seems to go on and on and on. As mentioned earlier, a good-sized roleplay should be around 30 to 50, preferably closer to 50. I usually try to read everyone's roleplays in any fed I am in; however, there was one fed I was where I flat out refused to read a specific person's roleplays. Why? Nothing personal, but he basically wrote very large roleplays. The only thing I did basically was quickly skim the roleplay and see if I was mentioned. If I was I read around that section and otherwise didn't read anything else.

The bottom line of listing these pet peeves is to let you know at least some of the things that fed heads look at, and MAY frown upon. Take a look at some of your roleplays, and see if you have one or more of these Pet Peeves contained in them. They all can't be avoided ALL of the time, but keep in mind that avoiding the pet peeves will make your roleplay look more professional, and make others notice you and respect you. It is also a tremendous help in getting more experience and better in your roleplay ability, allowing you to have more fun overall. I hope this has been a help to at least some of you, and you take this as only constructive criticism. See you backstage, and in the ring!

Todd aka Spectre