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| Formatting for Segments and Matches | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 16 2011, 07:05 PM (337 Views) | |
| The Blue Scorpion | Jan 16 2011, 07:05 PM Post #1 |
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The Ruthless Patriarch
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OK, after my earlier rant, I thought I'd post this and then hopefully it can get stickied either here or in Backstage Business so that people can reference it when putting together matches and segs for Massacre and PPVs. The suggestions I make will be the way that, generally, whilst I've been here (a fucking long time, by most people's standards :P) the majority of well-respected, regular members have formatted their segments and matches. Then, hopefully, this will then become the accepted way to structure the shows. Any discrepancies or changes need to be made, please let me know. ![]() Matches OK, we'll start with matches, something I've been doing since time began, it seems, so hopefully I should be OK with getting this right. So, for me, it should all run as you would expect a normal wrestling show to run. So, before the match even begins, you should have a Ray Douglas introduction, along the lines of "This match is scheduled for one fall, and will be for the CWF World Heavyweight Championship! Introducing first...". Alternatively, if you wanted to switch it up a little bit, you could have a short commentary exchange doing some last minute hype for the match ahead. Then, this should be followed by entrances, as specified in the Custom Match Entrances Thread (NB: If you haven't written a short little entrance for your character yet, including theme music and any pyro etc, I strongly recommend you do, if only for the matchwriters' sake :P). Following each entrance, Ray Douglas should then introduce the competitor, with weight, hometown and any nickname included, like so: Ray Douglas: Introducing first, from Atlanta, Georgia and weighing in tonight at two hundred and fifty seven pounds - he is the Ruthless Patriach, THE BLUE SCORPION! Following all of the entrances and introductions, a short pre-match paragraph can often be good to build realism and, if nothing else, bulk the match out a little bit. Again, take an example from the (fairly) recent Impact Title Tag Team Title Match: =/= Referee “Big” Denny Davidson takes the Impact Title from Dan Highlander, holding it high into the air for all to see, as the two teams reluctantly discuss who is going to start off in the ring. Highlander, obviously wanting to keep the defence of his title in his own hands, asserts that he’ll be the legal man for his team, whereas a much less vocal conversation on the other side of the ring determines that Jarvis King will be Dan’s initial opponent. The two come to the centre of the ring, the bell sounds, and we’re underway Then, obviously, we have the in-ring action, which should always be pre- and pro-ceded by the good old fashioned "=/=" symbols. Commentary should have the commentator's name preceding the speech, with a colon. And of course, try to keep in character. That pretty much sums matches up I think... stick to this basic plan, and you won't go far wrong. Segments This should be a much shorter section, as I don't want to go over old ground. The main thing to remember is to keep your action/descriptions in the =/= symbols, and do the speech in the same way as the commentary... oh, and try to paragraph properly as well. Double space if necessary, and always split up large blocks of text or speech to make it easier to read. I think that's it...... if there's anything I've forgotten, please let me know and I'll add it in. Otherwise, happy segging and matchwriting as you follow these simple steps to brilliance!
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![]() Former CWF World Champion 3x Former Co-Holder of the CWF Tag Team Titles | |
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| Ataxia | Jan 16 2011, 07:32 PM Post #2 |
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One thing to add here. If you want a different entrance for this match or something to happen prematch or during the match not only pm/email it to Rish but please send it to the match writer just in case people have already started writing. Just a common courtesy thing. We don't want to ruin your storyline stuff we just want to make sure we get it before we send it into Rish so he's not having to edit it when we could do it easy. |
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| Jarvis King | Jan 16 2011, 08:39 PM Post #3 |
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The Hall of Fame Hallmark
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It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who's so fucking OCD about this stuff. LULAS, Mitchy. One thing to note is the simple formatting of dialogue. That's what gets me. I don't mean to call individual people out, but it's best if we have a concrete example of the wrong way to format and the right way. Here's an example of a properly formatted segment:
The action is between the =/= tags, and dialogue is preceded by the speaker's full name, and a colon. Here's a couple of examples of the wrong way:
Simple enough fix - All of the "Sean -" should simply be changed to "Sean O'Mailley:". It's just a matter of uniformity. If everything's formatted the same way, if simply looks more professional, more put-together and better over-all. One more...a good segment, but formatted all wrong.
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CWF Hall of Famer![]() The John Dulong Show: Every Monday on Apple Podcasts and Google Play | |
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| weaponx | Jan 16 2011, 08:46 PM Post #4 |
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The HarKore God
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I'm sure if Storm shows up he can remember some of my anal retentive ways about either shows or other things as he's known me years but yeah I'm looking over them now as I agree with most of this. Not my exact way of course but, as I said in the Massacre thread for last week, if the "flow" of the show is so chopped up it's not believeable so as long as we have a format it makes alot of things easier. So kudos for Blue bringing it up again. |
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A Moral Compass & Hardcore Legend in Professional Wrestling Since 1995. | |
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| The Blue Scorpion | Jan 18 2011, 08:31 AM Post #5 |
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The Ruthless Patriarch
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Sticky me! Please! |
![]() Former CWF World Champion 3x Former Co-Holder of the CWF Tag Team Titles | |
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| Alex Cain | Jan 18 2011, 11:47 AM Post #6 |
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Alex Cain
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Can i just make a point, that on occasion it is sometimes not workable to have each piece of dialogue preceeded by the characters name. Most notably when the character in question is a "mystery person" in said seg. in which case i presonally find that the seg is better seved just having the dialogue written without having something as crass as Mystery Person preceeding it. for instance. "I knew you would get here sooner or later" =/= The voice reverberated around the room to such an extent that Alex Cain didnt know where to look into the shadows for it. =/= Its a very occasional thing but i think sometimes it helps to break from the rigidity of structuring a seg exactly the same all the time. just my two pence for what its worth, which i imagine is about...oooh....two pence? |
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5x CWF Champion 1x Impact Champion 1x Tag Team Champion CWF Hall of Famer | |
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