How Do You RP?

[Gravity]

I thought this would be a fun thread to get in the heads of our fine WPW Superstars. Essentially, what is your RP process? Do you go in with an idea ahead of time? Do you RP in silence? How long does it take you? Any enlightenment on your process is welcome here.

Here's what I usually do with Sal. I throw down some kind of epic rock music (Hurt is a favorite) and then just dive right in. It's very rare I have an idea thought out ahead of time and usually just wing it through the entire RP. I feel it helps capture more of a promo-type image if I just rant as the words come to me, as opposed to having a speech prepared. I also rarely work in Word, as I don't like to bother myself with how long the RP is, but just to end it at a natural stopping point. Because of that, I always just work in the Reply window, applying effects as I go. It's probably also noted that I tend to have a story telling style, as I refer to everything in the past tense, as opposed to the "We see Sal Karver sitting in bed" approach, I go with "Sal Karver was sitting in bed."

[legendaryken]

I vary between the planned storyline idea which is worked out beforehand and written in Word (Be afraid, Stallion. Be very afraid), and the blank page straight to 'Post quick reply' which usually end up as straight to camera, or 'KJ reacts after watching his opponent's promo'.
They're nearly all in present tense - I much prefer it that way - and they're usually written to some sort of soundtrack - currently Kvazar's 'A Giant's Lullaby'
I also like writing to some sort of storyline arc - currently Dr Schiklgruber, though previously I've done the election bid, the trip to Ireland, the biography of JMC etc. It's usually a good place to start with a 'what happens next?'

[blade13]

I sometimes listen to music when I roleplay..like love music. I think about ideas laying down for about an hour then I go and start typing.

[One Stratusfied Customer]

Usually have a basic idea and then just do it on the fly in the quick reply box and post it. Like my last RP I had the idea of doing it as a wwe.com "after the bell" style thing and that Blake was pissy about losing and had had enough, then the rest just came as I was typing.
Already got an idea to include in my next RP but I think it's best not to have too much set in stone because obviously it all depends on how your opponent (in this case JMC) replies and what they say in their RP.

[Mr. Hendrickson]

Well when I roleplay with the Genuine Articles (Jackson Strong & Brent Richards) I just think of some of the funniest promos i've seen over the years, twist them, add in some humor and there you go got the Genuine Articles.

When I write for Trent James, it comes from the heart, I prefer silence when I do roleplays. I believe I am writing the biography of my character and thus the roleplays are thought through however sometimes aspects of it are winged. I like to develop all characters in my story even though people don't care to read my diatrabes I still do them because personally its an achievement for me.

So I wing it on occasion in aspects but in full I know where I want the story to go.

[Gunnar Brian]

Bit of quiet, word document and whatever comes to mind really providing it fits within the current story/gimmick/etc. I try to leave myself with enough outs incase anything goes wrong, an example being the week of Gunnar vs Silver, the inital idea being recover from coma and spend a week under care, however due to time restraints (unforseen) I cut it short and kept the coma thing going for the week, left me with the out I am currently using.

For Frank it is literally whatever I can be bothered doing in a 5 min block of writing, nbo process just whatever my fingers decide to type.

[AFalseSinn]

The longest I have spent on any RP (and this is counting my really long JMC/One style epics) is 20 to 30 minutes. Which I have heard from both of them pisses them off. haha

I open this little reply box, sometimes going into advanced mode. and I type. Somes I have a line planned. Not an idea, just a single line I want, and I write around that (i do the same with my poetry).

Actually, the longest time I spent on an rp was facing Gunnar as Fank (hahaha) The translation rp took like two hours! Copying and pasting loads of text multiple times and then pasting it back into another document before putting it in here. That took forever.

[Mr. Hendrickson]

It takes an average of 2-3 hours to do a standard Trent James Roleplay, well the diatrabes I guess. For the Time Line roleplays maybe an hour. Genuine Articles maybe twenty minutes at most. I use another site to do my roleplays. But I do agree that I use the quick reply box occasionally to do a rp but I've lost way too many to continue to do that.

[One Stratusfied Customer]

I think the longest I've ever spent on an RP would probably be 30 mins... Sorry if that hurts me and sounds like I don't care, it's just after that long I get bored and can't think of anything else to add. I tend to post the first draft with like 1 or 2 changes. I don't spend a long time making sure everything is perfect.

[Gravity]

I'm pretty much with AFS and OSC here, I rarely spend more than a half hour to 45 minutes on any RP, it's just the way I do things.

[Scorch]

I wrote rps a number of ways.

The bulk of them were written first in Word, and with the new system, pasted in, coding reset, then coded properly. My connections have always had a thing with cutting out, and after you lose a few rps to things like that, it just makes sense to have them in a place they are easier to save. Plus it allows a chance to read them over, spell check and all that good stuff.

Usually I had one rough idea for a promo each week, and would go from there. I would tend to take that idea and write around it, things like "have Scorch meet this person" or "Scorch goes to this place", or "Scorch has this realization". It tends to work better to have an idea and just seeing what comes out of my head, rather then having a story worked out for the most part. The less it was worked out before, the better.

Many times I would work on an rp over the course of the week. But usually that meant I tried the day the card went up, wrote a sentence, then just did not have that spark going, and would instead watch TV or play a game or look up other things, save it at the end of the night, open it the next day, no spark, then the weekend or last day, a spark comes, write it and post it. Once something was done it was always posted, no sitting on promos, as I was told some thought I did. I only ever waited to post an rp twice, the PCW ladder match (I had an order to do them, and at times I would get stuck on one, and work on another. I think I finished the third or fourth before the second or third.), and the WPW title match vs The One (there were rules worked out before of the order and length of the rps.)

I pretty much always had sound, either music through head phones or the TV on when I wrote. Often I did so while talking to people as well.

Typically one of two things happened with the promo, I would get the idea for the next one writing the first, or I would be building the first, realize I had enough for a second, and the first idea became the next rp.

The few times I rped in the quick reply box, I started 20-30 minutes before deadline, knew "I have time, I have an idea, I like to write" and I did. Anytime rps went up back to back, means I finished and posted one, started the next and posted that when it was done too.

The promos come from a mix of things, personal experience, class room experiences, movies, music, TV shows, random thoughts on random walks and more.

The best advice I can give anyone, is to learn your style. Not everyone can write the same way. Some people need a lot of time, some do not. Some need outlines, others can wing it. And easy way to know this, ask yourself, if you had to give a presentation next week in class, how much prep work would you need to do, to get a top grade (in other words, if your answer is "none, because I do not care", then your work will not be as good as it can be.)

Never try to adapt to please others, only adapt to better yourself. And always remember to ask yourself "who cares?" No matter how cool you think your idea is, be sure there is a reason for the reader to care about what happens and (this is what many people seem to forget) why they care it happened to who it happened to. That is, you can tell me you want the belt, but why do I as a reader, care that person wants that belt. It's a subtle thing, but the difference between challenger and champion.

I still have a lot to learn as a writer, as does everyone here. The people who realize this, it really shows in their work, and it makes it that much more of a pleasure to read. If you do not care about getting better, hey that is your call, but just now that if you do not want to be a better writer, you will achieve your goal.

As far as how long I actually spend writing each rp, depends on length, probably between 20 minutes to around an hour for a really long one.

[blade13]

I spend about 30-40 minutes on an roleplay when doing one with Blade. But when I use to roleplay with Sly I took 10-20 minutes.

[Prometheus]

There is barely an RP that I make that takes less than an hour to write. any 'good' RP will take that time and more. Almost all my speeches revolve around speeches and arguments, and therefore they get written first. The Scenery will then develop and I'll make sure it compliments the speech I've just made. If it doesn't, I'll edit the speech to ensure it does. \when I wanna write RPs with more than one person.. Well that takes even longer, I am so afraid of bad dialogue that it haunts me! Usually, I'll interject something confrontational. Or appear like JMC has already rehearsed this conversation.
But really, I could never do it in 20 minutes ever. The quickest I could do it is thirty! I envy you guys!

[Mr. Hendrickson]

You work in a similar way that Ihave been doing Promy. I work on the arguement/speach first because it easier to do it that way. Then I go back and try to do the scenery around it because its best to do that last. I then go forth and do the coloring and what not. I havent had an rp that took less than an hour in a while. Hell I just fiished one rp for my story it took over 2 1/2 hours to write and no one will read it lol.

Anyways my Shoot RP I am working on has taken me over an hour thus far to write and Iam not done yet. I think it is a good start back..

[DjM]

You work in a similar way that Ihave been doing Promy.

Works better for him though, huh?

[Prometheus]

What crawled up your ass Dan?

[AFalseSinn]

I am still trying to figure out the "any good rp is done takes this long" bit from you Prom.

Do you mean any good rp from you....or anyone?

I mean I may not be a former WPW champion, but I do kinda have a few belts under my name sir. *poke*

[Prometheus]

No, this is a personal view. If i do a 20 minute job, it stinks. I'm impressed your mind works faster than mine. Because, as we all know, the likes of many of you can produce brilliant stuff. I'm almost a little sad that my mind is so damn slow!

[AFalseSinn]

ah Prom, dont worry your little head, your an actor...you gotta get into the charicters skin every time.
Hell, each charicter I play is just a different part of me (i got lots of parts) so its a quick turn and I am ready to go.

[pepsinut]

I open something that is inspirational to me and then write with that in mind

I also sometimes make some popcorn before writing

[Gunnar Brian]

No pepsi then ;)

[Aperama]

I don't think he'd want pepsi. From the sounds of things he'd get too excited. :) (Always been a Coca-Cola man, myself.)

Anyhow. Back when I was RPing, I would do the following:

If it was an intro RP, I'd try to have a vague idea of a direction I was going. Like, say, past just a random setting (and I got pretty random, sometimes) - I'd say 'look, I want to introduce (x character) or (x thought) and go from there'. Wasn't always the most effective deal, but I find in multiple person/thing sorta RPs, you really need to give some undeniable things that just make those characters tick, or it's boring. I always made a steady effort to make sure that the characters, whoever I used, were never just to make things go forward - they were always designed to have their own backstory, even if I was just using them one-off. I've found that characters like.. well, not trying to pick on you here Blade, but Blade's girlfriend Jessica, is more along the lines of 'plot device' than 'person'. And that's something I've always striven to assure never happens, which was always my first goal in RPs.

My RPs could take up to two hours - but I mostly just had fun with them. Any of you ever see Ray Charles play the piano when he got really into it? Well, I was like that. Gimme a keyboard and some ridiculous music (the more ridiculous the better - I'm talking stuff here that's technically mostly power metal, because that's the most ridiculous thing anyone can come around with (and trust me, if you see most of the lyrics to power metal, you'll understand why) - but it helped me to do what I did. The real honest key to my RPs was write something that I'd find entertaining - that's why my RPs almost always had a comedic slant. What some people might not have noticed is, because Nicolls started as a comedy character and quickly evolved into something different, I was always careful to make sure that the comedy was never actually related to Nicolls. He had a quirky dress sense and was stupid - but he was never trying to juggle balls and make the kiddies laugh.. he was always the 'straight man', which helped me keep the humorous side to the setting / other characters. Which is appropriate to wrestling, too - essentially, Kurt Angle did the same thing with his 'straight talking' in his early promo work which got him so far. (He still falls towards the 'unintentional stupid' thing, even to this day, except when he's being boring - anyone ever seen him talk about Karen? 'You kidding me? Me and Karen are going to get back together now. She's got a lot of work to do, sure I can go out for a beer with you! I mean, she's gotta clean up our kitchen, and..')

Rebuttal RPs I always treated more like debates; storyline RPs had to be somewhat rigid, each RP furthering at least some tiny faucet of the story behind it. But either way, motivation was always the deciding factor alongside how long it took me to write. When you're having fun, that makes everything easier. I guess that's what it all comes down to - whenever I was successful, I was usually having fun, not because of the success, but just because.. I was just having fun! Silly, but it works for me.

[Duff]

Back in the days when i was an active RPer, i tried not to stick to one resolute method of writing. Prom mentioned that he would start wth the dialogue and work the scenery round that. I used to do that on occasion, or i would start with the scenery and work the dialogue to fit. Other times i'd just ask someone to come up with a random thought and build an RP out of it, just to see if i could. As for how long it took, that too varied. Someimes i could be done in 20 mins and other times i could spend hours on one RP.

At the end of the day, there's no fixed way of doing it and what works for one person may not work for another, although it's interesting to see how different people approach it.