2015 Reflections

So I was thinking about how the New Year is coming up (and the inevitable RDJ memes complete with eye roll orgasm face) and I thought about my over all year in eFedding for 2015.

There were some really good moments, and some really good story.  There were some not so good as well.

I'm not really in the mood for a rant so those people and feds that might deserve a little Flamethrower Love (tm) aren't getting it today.  If you fucked up and are reading this I'm of the mind that you already know what you did and either apologized already (or didn't give a fuck in the first place lol).

TAG TEAM!!!  Wooooooooooo!

I got to do some fun tag teams this year - including FUCKING FINALLY a team of Christian Kane and Kitty Sasso.  That took us how long?  It was fun, and GDI it was glorious and while the ending of that falls under the heading of Flamethrower Love (tm) thanks to some asshats?  I still would have wanted to do this team.  The fact that we would have still been doing this team and aren't tells you all you need to know.  #Vanagloria

I was also blessed enough to run #SHERISSA with Sherry Diamond-Kane and Marissa Diamond-Kane.  Oh My God.  We had one hell of a run in Sin City Wrestling (@scwcentral) and I feel good about the attention we got for the tag team division.

S&V - now this is a newer team, so brand spanking new that we just literally got our first win in Carnage Wrestling (@carnagewrestlin).  This is the team of Shirlea Frost and Vivian Lee and man they are the smart ass weaselly cheatery heel beautiful bad girls :D  I love the fact that they were written as blatantly cheating too.

THE RETURN OF THE RETURN OF THE INCEPTION OF MCGILLICUTTY ... lol.  Okay maybe that's just funny to me.

It likely is just funny to me and I'm okay with that.


I had some interesting "shake ups" character / storyline wise during 2015.   Aurora, arguably my most successful and dominant character to date took a hiatus after Phoenix Wrestling closed in April because she was pregnant and when I run a pregnancy story we do the full nine months yo.  This allowed me to soften up a few of her harder edges while she was involved in the industry and so forth due to her many connections but didn't have to actively compete.  We also embraced the ridiculous quite a bit, like taking Ashlyn's assertions that Aurora was a succubus and just sort of rolling that forward into Aurora's being a crossroads demon and then Queen of the Crossroads.  LOL to those unfamiliar with the character no, she does not actually believe she is a demon in real life, but bless everyone that sells the fuck out of her assertions she is.  I could link a ton of Tweets from characters like Lucy Jones, Dom Harter, and many others that just support this lovely fuckery.

We won't even get into the whole Narnia thing.  >.>

Like she Tweeted the other day, her household is rather unique in that only in her house are you going to find a Frost Giant (Legacy), a crossroads demon (herself), a furie (Aubrey J Parker-Wilkinson) and two pixies (Allegra and Nicoletta).

So fun.

Sherry took a hiatus as well, for active competition though she's going to be making frequent appearances as a trainer with that developmental fed thingy that SCW is going to be doing.  She's also fervently training with THRONE MMA alongside her wife Marissa and who knows what might come of that.

Noelle Smith had an interesting character arc for a good chunk of the tail end of the year.  I've seen the grumbling over it, and I'm again not in the mood to dispense the Flamethrower Love (tm).  What I am going to say is thank you.  Thank you to Max, Dion, Lisa, Sasso, Dimitri especially - you five were crucial to what went on and helped to sell, support, build, and grow the story.  An extra thank you goes out to the people who DIDN'T, NOT ONCE use the off cam goings on to blow the reveal of Ruby having taken Noelle's life over etc.  Whether you liked, loved, hated, wtfe'd the idea or story?  You didn't fall to the temptation to ruin it for anyone else, and for the people that faced Ruby and reacted as if she were Crazy Noelle, you get an extra tip of the hat.

Claire.  Oh Claire.  Of all my characters in 2015 none of them were quite as successful as Claire Foxe.  She started out as a side character for Kitty Sasso, a sort of shy mouse cousin that some had seen briefly in RP but never quite known who she was.  I repurposed a character Twitter and had a fun sort of "reveal" process going on but by the time I was done ... it wasn't who I had first thought might occupy the space, so to speak.  Claire poked her head up and said "Hi" and hasn't looked back since.  She really started to blossom when she met Lex Collins though and dear God.  Those two... if you have followed Lex at all the change in him is so monumental that I could devote a whole blog just to the layers of character development that have happened.  She's my first true blue all the way to the bone babyface.  Not even Noelle is this good a person, and that's woah.  It hasn't always been easy, but she's in a great place (@boardwalkw) that appreciate her and let me grow her story the way it should be.

Playing a face for me is uber hard, not because I'm not at heart a nice person, but because being a face of any kind in efedding can be tough.  You have to balance the need for trash / smack talk in a way that a real life face wouldn't have to, and still keep true to the character.  I think I've finally hit that stride with Claire :)

2015 also had the return of the return of (lol you knew I'd get back there) of the second character I ever made in eFedding, Cynthia Cross.  She'd had a decent start back in IWF, even finished out as their final Rising Phoenix Champion when the fed closed its doors.  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized ... she's not done.  I faced a few things that were problematic about a return for her - for one, the handler of her boyfriend was done with eFedding actively and while he may pop up for a cameo or two?  Frankly I've already got two major characters stuck in a situation where their other half are having to be done by me as well since the handlers retired and I was in no mood for a third.  So I thought about it for awhile, it wasn't something I wanted to just retcon though I could have fairly easily just because she wasn't a hugely known character... but that seemed just wrong on several levels.  This wasn't a case of the other handler being a jackass or a liar or something awful, he was just done.  I certainly understood that and still do.  But it left me with that problem... what now?

I decided when Sherry went on hiatus to bring Cynthia into SCW.  There were people there from IWF she knew in Dexter and West (or had been there like Molly and Gordon) and she knew from Aurora's husband that they were decent employers.  So there had been some plans for another character return that had to be put on hold - and I'm not revealing details because that's still happening and needs to be a surprise LOL... but when that had to be put on hold I realized there was no reason that Cynthia couldn't be the one that stepped up.  I'm so glad that I did, too.  We're getting some positive changes for her, and revealing the story of what happened between IWF's closing and her getting hired by SCW.  I'm loving how this is happening, and I'm excited to see what comes for her in 2016, especially now that she's met her a "nice boy".

LMFAO while I was typing this, we ended up in a Twitter conversation about vajazzling.

I also debuted very late in the year a character who had originally been created as a sort of  'straight man' foil for the comedy tag team Triple X Xpress, Vivian Lee.  She's running in Carnage of course and teaming with Shirlea (as mentioned above) and so far I am just loving this!  I get to work with a great writer that I get along with and I love tag teams - and she's got story to tell.  This is fun for me :D

Which leads me to : NON WRESTLER CHARACTERS!

I have two that I am so in love with playing, even though they don't actively compete anywhere (because oooh not wrestlers!).  These are Missy Mae and Sabrina Shaw.  Missy Mae is a character who was supposed to be one thing but right away took the reigns and told me what was up.  I got exceptionally lucky that things happened for her the way they did too.  She ended up hired by Jackson and things just unfolded from there.  Working with Jax has been something I've wanted to do for YEARS ... I've had several characters be a part of Jax's story, Sabra for example but this was more than that nearly right off the bat.  Right time, right place, and the chemistry was insane.  Some of the most intense characterwork I've done in years has been with Jax and Missy and I love it beyond expression.

And Sabrina?  She started out as a 'mere support' character for Xander Shaw and boy did that just not stop LOL.  She's become her own independent person, with her own friends and job, and everything.  It's always such a pleasant surprise to me when people tell me how much they like Sabrina :D

So yeah WOW.

Edit - you know there's a THIRD.  And I didn't include him the first time, which is an absolute crime really because he's been a character that I've had a long time and yet never got his chance to really shine.  I'm talking about Mikhail Petrov, Sabra's half brother (though most people think they're cousins).  He's got this amazing backstory and I'm finally getting to show him off and he's been a real thoroughbred as far as RP goes.  He's something else and I'm also looking forward for more people to see more of him now that he and his lovely, gorgeous wife Kaitlynn are more in the spotlight.

He's come a long way from the guy that made appearances in Sabra RP's and on SCW TV threatening to murder Extream.

In closing I want to thank first and foremost Lisa.  To take nothing away from other people I write with, she is amazing and everything we write has been a sheer and absolute joy for me even if I just look at it from a creative standpoint.  Sometimes we forget to thank the people we write with regularly because it becomes expected I guess?  But there isn't a single time that I write with her that I'm not just insanely happy that I got to, and so much of the best of what I've done this year has been with her.

Sasso, Cris, Benny, Josh, Kyle, MAX, Dion, Dimitri, Gordo - THANK YOU all as well.  I've worked regularly in at least some capacity with all of you and <3

A special thanks for Max, Kyle, and BMac for keeping me from losing my shit on people more than once :D

An extra special thanks to Sasso - you've taken SCW and made it what we always knew it could be, and we ALL of us see what you're doing and it's so very yay.

Love you guys to death :D

So Hi There Party Peoples - Shilling a Fed, out of Love.

Hey peoples!

Okay usually my blogs are helpful hints, don't be that guy posts, rants etc ...

today I'm going to shill a little.  :)

There are lots of feds out there - every time someone tells me that fedding is dying I lol because what this tells me is that they haven't actually looked around outside of their comfort zone bubble.  That's fine, but please don't piss on everyone else's good time just because your umbrella broke a strut.

The fed I'm going to talk about is Carnage Wrestling.

http://www.carnagewrestling.com/forum/

and can be found on Twitter @CarnageWrestlin

They are described as "Hybrid Bi-Weekly Intergender Fed! Always looking for good members. Give us a try. Great shows, Good Fun. CW: It's Home"

What they are?  Oh God.  Like I told one of the fedheads, Carnage Wrestling is a glorious hot mess of a fed and it's FUN.  Holy shit is it fun.

The rules are fairly simple, and can be found here: http://www.carnagewrestling.com/forum/index.php?topic=359.0

- CW is a HYBRID Fed.  By that, we mean that we strongly encourage you to work with other members closely to come up with stories and 'angles' that play out over time.  Parts of these stories or angles may include matches to have a predetermined winner.  That is not only perfectly okay, but encouraged.  Contendership points are still paid out to the winners of 'angled matches' due to CP being an In-Character system.
- However, MOST title matches will be contested under best RPs wins scenario.  Staff will only accept angling a title match if it's really necessary or if the angle desperately calls for it.

Some key points that people usually want to know about:
- There is a 3 Roleplay Limit per match, unless other wise specified in the Match Thread.
- Tag Team matches are the exception here, having a 2 RP limit.  One member of the team may post both RPs or, if a team has two handlers, they may split the posts up at one a piece.
- Word Limits: 4000 Word Limit per roleplay. (Unless otherwise noted on match thread.)  For most Championship matches, we will increase the word limit to 5000 words per roleplay.  

I suggest reading the entire rules page OF COURSE.

The fedheads care about things, and are very open to be approached to talk to about issues - just please be an adult if you check them out on my recommendation ;)

My active character there is Vivian Lee (@sweetvivianlee though I also have a non-wrestling character who is often seen on shows named Missy Mae (@missed_missy )

There are two belts, the top is currently held by Jackson (@bjaxsun) and the UltraViolent title (which he vacated at Chaos 11 - so it's up for grabs folks!)

For those that like having an extremely light travel schedule for their characters, the fed is based out of Baltimore and is in a way very reminiscent of ECW - a small, rabid fanbase and a place where up and comers rub elbows with big names on the way towards retirement.

So if you're looking for a place to build up a new character, bring back an old one who just didn't seem to have a place somewhere else I would suggest Carnage.

--
A handy side note:  I've been asked by a few people where I'm currently running & what active characters so here's this:

Claire Foxe (@Claire_Foxe)  - Boardwalk Wrestling (@boardwalkw) http://www.boardwalkwrestling.com/index.php/forum

Cynthia Cross (@CynthiaJilliane) - Sin City Wrestling (@scwcentral)
http://z15.invisionfree.com/SCWforums/index.php

Noelle Smith (@Noelle_licious) - Frontier Grappling Arts (@fgawrestling)
http://fgawrestling.proboards.com/

Raechel Lynne Bello (@raechel_lynne)  (she's doing the MMA thing - it was BIG DOG FIGHTS but I forget what it changed to LOL)

Jet Blanchard (no Twitter) - Southern Cross Pro Wrestling (@SCPWOfficial)
http://s13.zifboards.com/SouthernCrossPro
This is a brand new fed, currently building roster.

A lil recap :D

A small recap on fedding:  These are my opinions, and some of you may agree - but I don't mind if you don't. LOL.

Twitter isn't going away, it's too much fun for the people that use it to build stories/feuds/connections etc.  The downside of course is the tendency for people to go on long ass rants #oocly - without the aid usually Twitlonger (which would keep the entire post in order rather than randomly shuffled as people answer parts).

Some people will embrace it, others hate it.  But guess what?  No one is insisting that you get a Twitter and you know, use it.  If it's not for you?  Then don't.  There are plenty of other ways to hype yourself and your storylines, both traditional and non.  Don't be butthurt over it when the people that DO like Twitter don't really care if you're on it or not because if you don't you're likely going to be acting like a wet blanket on other people's fun anyway.

Don't like it? Don't do it, don't try to firehose piss over everyone else's good time.


If you blend IC/OOC habitually and when called on it say Yolo or IDGAF you're not worth the time it takes to mess with.

NOT EVERYONE FEDS LIKE YOU DO.  That doesn't make them righter or wronger than you, it's paper or plastic - a choice, not the end of the fucking world, folks.

Beefing ooc'ly in shoutboxes, Twitter, Facebook, pretty much any public forum is kind of a dick move.  I say "kind of" because honestly there ARE times that things are wrong and should be brought to light.  It's HOW you present it that matters.  Endless ooc bitching - even if you're 100% right, the victim, taken advantage of etc...just makes you look like a dick.  It definitely will not do what you hoped, which is enact a change of some sort.  But if you've exhausted every possible polite avenue and are still being fucked over, let people know.  Don't let your buddies get caught up in the drama and waste their time.


If you find someplace that's great?  Hype the shit out of it.  SHARE it with people.  Get people interested in why you're having a good time.  If you are having fun, share that with people!!!

If you make a committment to someone, be it to write a match, do a seg, hell even RP out a cycle before you move on?  Do it.  Sure, this is "just a game" because OF COURSE IT IS.  But do you really want to be "that guy/gal"?  Think about how YOU would feel, if you were the fedhead who put in the time to set up the card, do the show, write the stuff... all the little details it takes to even make a show, that hey guess what?  They don't get paid for.  Think about how you feel, if you bust your ass on an RP - good, bad, ugly...doesn't matter you put in time, and your opponent no shows or half asses deliberately.

Don't be that person.

Also, don't be the person that gets on Twitter and says:  Oh well, I RP'd but it suxxors... I wrote it in ten minutes...I ran out of time...I'm fighting writer's block.

Hell, maybe all those are true!  Maybe, you need to take a break, or for some reason just weren't feeling it.  It happens to everyone.  But whether you intend for it to or not, saying those things sucks for the other person because if you win... what does it say about them?  If you lose, oh well you already had your pat excuse.

Don't be that person either.

Oh Hai. Please keep your OOC out of my IC 'kay? Kay.

Dear Fellow Fedders

It's simple really.  Keep In Character IC, keep out of character OOC.

I mean right?

Apparently not though, as I've seen more than one IC account Tweeting ooc'ly tonight without a tag.  I mean, sure it happens - you're doing a string of ooc posts in a row, get excited, forget the tag.  It's no big.  Or even you drop an #ooc at the end of a string, you know how it happens.

But please, do go ahead and be a dumbass where I can clearly see it on my timeline.  Really, go ahead.

All you've done is show me that you're a twatwaffle, and that's ...pretty cool really.  Because then I know I never need to consider you as someone trustworthy enough to write with, feud with, build story with, join a fed on your say so.

I've seen way too much stupid shit start over someone thinking they're being clever or funny, tapping the 4th Wall to whine when their characters couldn't give a shit about whatever it is that has the handler's panties in a wad.

But please, do go ahead and act like a dickhead where the rest of us that aren't in the game to be fuckwits can see it.

You'll save the good people time and energy that they might have accidentally invested in you.

Mina

Can we not lol

So while I wait on the fractured story parts of my FGA RP to get finished so I can line them all up (lol), I figured yep. Blog time.

There were several things I could write a whole blog on but I think I can capture the essence of what I'm going for without all that so let's dig in, shall we?

Twitter – like it, love it, hate it, nothing it... guess what, it's a pretty large part of eFedding and it's not going away unless the company goes under.

The key points on this are simple, really.

1. If you don't want to use Twitter, don't.
2. If your friend loves Twitter and uses it to build character arcs, heat for a feud, meet people from other feds, etc? Let them!
3. No one can force you to interact with them on Twitter, especially ooc'ly.
4. If someone tells you that their DM's are ooc only? Respect that. If you don't respect it and act like a jerk trying to force shady RP don't get mad if you get named and shamed.
5. How someone else uses Twitter isn't your problem, if they want to be a big bag of dicks let them. MUTE is a beautiful thing.
6. Which leads me to this: Don't BE A DICK. There needs to be less of that anyway.

COURTESY. If it's not yours, don't take it. If you want to use someone's character in your RP (and they aren't a partner that have given you standing permission to do so) … ASK THEM. Most people will say yes and might even help you with your idea to make it better. If they say no? RESPECT THAT.

This is something that you'd think I wouldn't need to blog about. For the most part we're all adults, right?

Right?

Now I don't know the details of what happened, and I haven't asked. But on its face this should be the most simple of things to remember. If it's not yours, don't take it.

This means – someone's creative work, no matter what form it takes. You don't take someone else's character and have them do things. I'm not talking about a parody stand in for a promo, I'm talking full on actions that a character wouldn't do presented as being from that character without permission.

You don't do that. You don't take someone else's promos, graphic works they did, or their character and claim it as yours. That's theft, it's ass, and if I could stress that more I would.

If you steal someone's stuff and claim it's yours, you're a fucking scumbag. Especially if your attitude is “so what?” or “chill out, it's a joke”.

It's not a joke when someone spends time to develop their character the way they want it and someone else waltzes in and fucks with it. It's one of the facets of why bad match writing is so disappointing. When a match writer doesn't care or goes completely against the build of your character when you've taken time to leave notes to help out? Sure, they donated time to write a match and that's great – still a dick.

Personally I've had losses that I could have cared less about because the match write up was so spot on, so perfectly in character that I was over the moon happy. The match writers that can do that are worth their weight in gold and that's just how I feel about it.

Also personally? Right now I am an unbelievably lucky Mina. I have writing partners that I actually totally TRUST with my characters. There isn't a person I work with regularly that I would hesitate for even a second to let them go ahead and use my character even if I didn't have time to spot check the dialog or something. And that is cool.

This pretty much applies across the board, yo.

I was 'talking' to one of my efed buddies HI BENNY and the conversation came around to feedback, as it sometimes does.

I'm posting this feedback response that I gave to James Betterman in IWF (as Cynthia Cross) so I won't lose it again LOL and well... honestly.

==

I'm going to give you straight up feedback and you can use it to improve your roleplaying and writing or you can ignore it and continue to fail. Some of this is going to come across super harsh, but it's said in the intent to help you.

1: If all that matters to you is "winning" in this "damn" fed, then just maybe you need to find somewhere else to write that is better suited to your style.

2: Check your ego at the door. If you're happy with what you wrote, and proud of it that's actually cool. But the truth is, you aren't or you wouldn't be so worried about winning or trying to change what you're writing to win.

3: Take a class in the mechanics of writing. Most high schools or local colleges offer creative writing courses and you can learn an amazing amount of things that will do nothing but help you on the bottom line of fedding, which is - This is a writing contest. If you can't write, you can't win, no matter how good your idea is. If you can't execute that idea, you lost before you typed a single word.

4: When someone gives you feedback after you ask for it? You say "Thank you for taking your time to feed back on my writing." You DO NOT ARGUE with that person. You asked for feedback, you got it. You can agree with it or disagree with it all you like, but you best stop and realize that person took time to read what you wrote and try to help you even if they didn't necessarily do it in a kind manner.

5: If you find yourself constantly changing your character the problem isn't the character, or the fed, it's you. Stop trying to force your character to be 'whatever' just to win. Start trying to listen to your character when you write about him or her - and you might be surprised.

6: I cannot stress this enough. SPELL CHECK YOUR WORK. Spell check, turn on the grammar check as well. Most word programs have a spellchecker, use it. A line that might have had real impact can be ruined by not having the right word because of a simply fixed typo or mistake.

7: Read.

8: That's right, read. READ. Read the promos of people that win matches. Read the promos of people you might admire, read the promos of people in your fed. This lets you see what the judges like, sure - but it also gives you a basic working idea of the kind of characters that are in the company that your guy has to work with.

9: Read more. The best way to improve as a writer IS TO READ.

10: Never, ever expect to win a match. Ever. I have a character in PW who has a record of 26 - 3 - 0 in singles and ten wins no losses in tag matches. Aurora is the World Champion and one half of the tag with Conor Blackburn and yet I NEVER EVER THINK I'M GOING TO WIN until I see a show. Ever. Keeps the ego in check, for damn certain... and the less ego you have, the better. Promise.

Now, good luck JB. Seriously. But don't take your frustrations out on people that YOU asked to help you.


NUMBER FOUR FUCKERS.  NUMBER FUCKING FOUR.

Love you guys <3

Get the Whole Story

Perceptions are more important than most people think in eFedding, because people are by nature opinionated.  The problem with this is, that many people who are the most opinionated form their opinions without really knowing what's going on.

I'll give an example as a case in point using myself since I know I won't be pissed at me for Name n Blame etc lol.

I ran Devon Mayhem in ACW, The Source of many of my eFed peeves and why I'm often very suspicious when angles in a storyline are brought up to me to consider.  So anyone that's had to deal with me doing -__- when talking about a story you know where the root is now.

I was very new to fedding, having only started in 09, and I learned the wrong way to do things right off the bat because that was how they did it.  Thank God for meeting Gryphon's handler because he took me aside and gave me the gospel on how it was other places and that the people running ACW were wrong on lots of things.  I ended up on staff where of course I did tons of work while they took credit, but the worst part was that certain people were sure that I didn't lose because I was being "protected".

That I was a "big deal" in ACW but it wasn't proven that I was really any good because I hadn't been big somewhere else like they had.  (lmfao how much I've disproved that really makes that statement hilarious).

Well let me pull the curtain back.

During Devon's record breaking second WHC reign, we tried a change in show format and judging criteria, both of which met with mixed results with the members and staff.  We tried this new method for a time limited period and at the end of which we were going to poll and decide which way was best.  Most agreed that they didn't like the summary results having been spoiled by having fully written shows all the time (even though most didn't participate in match writing) and that's fine - the judging stuff was where things got messy.

I had made it clear that I prefered the old method, which was my mistake.  What happened was, the fedhead decided he wanted his ripoff character who was basically Jeff Hardy blended with Lucifer from Supernatural to end Devon's reign, and since he couldn't legit beat me and didn't want it to seem angled, came up with a way to get me to agree to dropping the belt early.  What was SUPPOSED to happen was at the next PPV Devon would drop the belt in a triple threat and let someone else play with the toys for awhile.  What actually happened is that the fedhead and his second browbeat me into letting them do what they wanted.  The judgements came in and of course Devon won - by the new method.  They then 'rejudged' the match with the old criteria (even though the fedhead's character was in the match) and refused to show me the notes and claimed that "Sarah" had also judged....forgetting THAT I KNEW THAT THE FEDHEAD HAD MADE UP SARAH.

"But if you really want the old system back, you lost by it so you have to do this.  If you don't do this, we'll keep the new one even though no one else wants it."

This was the point that I mentally threw up my hands and let them do what they wanted, and I told the judges that came to me after the show about how it was that Fake Lucifer beat Devon with the crap RP he posted.

This is why no one trusts that old fedhead or his buddy that knew what went on in ACW folks, and why I'll never join a fed either of them are in, in any capacity.  I had to deal with both of them again while in NEW and BOTH of them acted exactly like I told the staff they would, step by step until the inevitable rage quits.

But that's the difference between perception (I was protected) and reality (I got shit on, a lot).

If you're curious folks, on how stuff is going down in your own fed and feel that you're being taken advantage of or that someone else is getting things you should - sometimes yeah, you're right.  That's how bad things happen.  BUT.... ask.  Ask the staff POLITELY in PMs, privately, what's going on.  Don't get on Twitter and rile up the others in the fed, don't start shit without knowing what's going on.  Sometimes it's as simple as they thought you weren't interested in a title shot (some people aren't).  Or that you wanted to do another story, etc.  COMMUNICATE and APPRECIATE your staff guys, without them there'd be no game.

But get the whole story before you go saying snotty shit about a handler - especially one you haven't been able to beat yourself.  LOL.

Love you guys for reading this rant.

War! Uh! Good Gawd Y'All (Twitter Edition)

Okay, everyone has their own opinion on the impact of Twitter on eFedding.  Personally I've used it to promote matches, build feuds, hype the fed and / or shows, build character history and friendships, hunt for new feds, etc and so on.

It's been a lot of fun, the latest example I could give that would be fairly easy to find would be the TOTALLY IN CHARACTER FIGHTS between @SherryBikerGirl and @EvilThatMenDo - aka Sherry Diamond and Dexter Jacobs of Sin City Wrestling (@SCWcentral) - also aka Mina and Max.

HI MAX.

During the course of this feud Sherry and Dexter have been, for lack of a better phrase, total fucking assholes to each other.  Lines were crossed, horrible fates wished upon, etc etc etc.  Pretty sure at one point Sherry had Dexter frothing at the mouth in rage, and he did after all spear her off a truck, etc.

It was very heated, very mean, snarky, bitchy, evil...and fun.

Also during the course of this, Max and Mina, would you think they had hard feelings against each other, especially considering the horrible mean shit flying about on Twitter?  Some people might, but nope, as you can also see from various OOC tagged interactions Max and Mina were discussing things like what kind of cookies Mina was going to make.

Because...GASP...all the drama, hatred, etc etc?  Was in character.

Holy shit, right?

That's what gives me a little pause, that for some people the honest reaction to finding out that not only are Max and Mina getting along and having fun ooc'ly during a feud, they actually have other characters with a building story that are growing even as that's going on.... FUNNY ASS SIDE NOTE:  I had zero idea who ran Gustav Reinhardt when he and Raechel Lynne started interacting on Twitter, and I laughed when I found out it was Max *facepalm*

Anyway - this blog entry was inspired by a Twitter Kerfuffle that went on last night between the characters of Chris Shields and Lex Collins.

I'm not writing this to tear down the handler of Shields, and believe it or not I don't hate him, dislike him, etc, whatever even if he might think so.  When I ran SCW he had a character in, and he pitched in to help and behaved himself which is all I ever asked of anyone.  I wish THAT guy was the one that was around at the end of his PW run.  Because THAT guy was awesome.  The guy that was there at the end of PW, was the guy that got on Twitter last night and started a beef which had roots in ooc issues.  He could have spun it as Shields totally cracking and going off the wagon, going back to his old heel ways, save for the OUT OF CHARACTER comment he made about how IC and OOC cliques had ruined the game and he was quitting etc.

Jesus Christ, this again.

Another huge can of worms, this idea of cliques in eFedding - well, in life altogether I suppose?  Because I'm not going to argue that there aren't cliques, because of course there are.  But I argue the fashion in which the term is applied, and the supposed definition of 'clique'.  Most people hear that and they think The Breakfast Club or NWO, there's not much middle ground lol.

But the thing is, honestly what a clique in eFedding tends to turn out as (and yes I know there are examples of the worst sort of this out there) are a group of people that are friends or who have learned over the years of fedding that their styles of writing and RP mesh well.  That together they can accomplish great things, via story or helping to plan feuds with each other.  Many times these people will join other feds that their buddies are in, and then BOOM great creative shit happens and it's wonderful.

That's not something to be afraid of.  And yes, I am aware of groups that are just as tight, creative, and so on but are the exact opposite, who join a place with the intent and purpose to tear it down.  But thankfully those are more rare nowadays as most people that did that grew the hell up ooc lol.

A complaint that does come with cliques / groups is that it might engender trolling to support the other members, but to that I submit that some people are going to troll regardless, and for God's sake don't take it to heart!  Or that someone might want to do something with one person and not the rest of the group.... well, ask!  Most of the time when I've heard that complaint, the person complaining didn't even try!

Sooooo that's my little blog on this...remember guys, this is a game...and have some fun with it, okay?

Throwback on Feedback

During the month of July in 2014 I was a member of the now closed Insurgency Wrestling Federation as Cynthia Cross.  During that time I gave some feedback to one James Betterman and I showed this to Decker Watts' handler the other day and he was telling me I should post it for everyone to see because it's pretty much valid for way more than just the handler of JB.

Sooo here it is.  Sidenote - Aurora's stats were from that time, they uhm...went up more before the closing of PW >.>



I'm going to give you straight up feedback and you can use it to improve your roleplaying and writing or you can ignore it and continue to fail. Some of this is going to come across super harsh, but it's said in the intent to help you.

1: If all that matters to you is "winning" in this "damn" fed, then just maybe you need to find somewhere else to write that is better suited to your style.

2: Check your ego at the door. If you're happy with what you wrote, and proud of it that's actually cool. But the truth is, you aren't or you wouldn't be so worried about winning or trying to change what you're writing to win.

3: Take a class in the mechanics of writing. Most high schools or local colleges offer creative writing courses and you can learn an amazing amount of things that will do nothing but help you on the bottom line of fedding, which is - This is a writing contest. If you can't write, you can't win, no matter how good your idea is. If you can't execute that idea, you lost before you typed a single word.

4: When someone gives you feedback after you ask for it? You say "Thank you for taking your time to feed back on my writing." You DO NOT ARGUE with that person. You asked for feedback, you got it. You can agree with it or disagree with it all you like, but you best stop and realize that person took time to read what you wrote and try to help you even if they didn't necessarily do it in a kind manner.

5: If you find yourself constantly changing your character the problem isn't the character, or the fed, it's you. Stop trying to force your character to be 'whatever' just to win. Start trying to listen to your character when you write about him or her - and you might be surprised.

6: I cannot stress this enough. SPELL CHECK YOUR WORK. Spell check, turn on the grammar check as well. Most word programs have a spellchecker, use it. A line that might have had real impact can be ruined by not having the right word because of a simply fixed typo or mistake.

7: Read.

8: That's right, read. READ. Read the promos of people that win matches. Read the promos of people you might admire, read the promos of people in your fed. This lets you see what the judges like, sure - but it also gives you a basic working idea of the kind of characters that are in the company that your guy has to work with.

9: Read more. The best way to improve as a writer IS TO READ.

10: Never, ever expect to win a match. Ever. I have a character in PW who has a record of 26 - 3 - 0 in singles and ten wins no losses in tag matches. Aurora is the World Champion and one half of the tag with Conor Blackburn and yet I NEVER EVER THINK I'M GOING TO WIN until I see a show. Ever. Keeps the ego in check, for damn certain... and the less ego you have, the better. Promise.

Now, good luck JB. Seriously. But don't take your frustrations out on people that YOU asked to help you.