A number of handlers in the fed have told me that they would love a reminder or an updated guide to tackling character development. Whether it’s an old character or a new character, it’s always good to review some good habits to help ensure that you stay on track. A number of handlers have told me that they were struggling for ideas or that they had engaged in development that had harmed their character. While it is easy to say the solution for the first problem is that lulls occur and naturally, creativity and motivation come in ebbs and flows, and that you can work your way out of any problematic development or development that did not work out as planned as a response to the second, they do not offer tangible solutions.
I am going to approach this column by giving a sense of my recommendations for starting a character from scratch. But at the same time, many of these same pieces of advice can be helpful in evaluating existing characters, no matter how long they have been active.
I. Developing the Character
Where to start?
So you’re thinking about a new character. You’re wondering what you should do and you pull up your favourite fed (We know it’s SCW!) and you look at the roster you’re thinking about joining. You look at what they may or may not need. You may ask the owner what the fed needs. Does it need another heel or another face? What kind? That’s all well and good, but one question many handlers need to ask should actually ignore the roster it’s entering into. It revolves around what can you reliably write. Some people cannot write comedy to save their lives. Others cannot handle serious material and write it with the attention to detail it may require. Know your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. From there, then decide what purpose the character serves to you as a handler. Is it to try something new? Is it that you always run face characters and want to try running a heel? Do you want to run a second character, in which I always recommend crafting a second character that is clearly different from your main to avoid overlap and relying on comfortable material? These are always more important than what the fed needs. I say this entirely because what the fed doesn’t need is you frustrated that it’s not working out and pulling the character as it may be placed into higher profile positions. It’s up to you, the handler, to determine whether the character you plan to create can fit in the fed you are eying. After you’ve decided what you can offer or what you’re interested in trying, then look at the fed has, read a few recent promos, and make sure that your character will still stand out. Then you tinker to make it fit the fed, or you find another fed to run your original vision.
Determine your core traits
You’ve decided what you’re going to run. Determine two or three core traits that are non-negotiable. These are the core values, motivations, or personality traits that define who your character is.
In a cruder way, these are your archtypes: Hot-headed, Meticulous, Cowardly, Arrogant, Angry at the World, mind-numbingly positive;
It could be their background: Broken family, drug problems, coming off a bad romantic relationship, bouncing back from a bad injury;
Some of these could fit into the next part of this process, but at this point, you’re determining the qualities of your character that never change unless you’re forced to. These are the items that always define your character. They only change when you’re looking to go in a completely new direction. To give one example, a family man or woman who cheats on their spouse. That will change the character and their motivations. That requires a proper arc to explore that (See below). More importantly these are the items that are going to be common. There are millions of arrogant heels, for example. There are millions femme fatales. There are millions of rich people in the game. The point here is not to differentiate. The point here is to define the type of character you plan to run.
Determine your secondary traits
Now that you have the core traits, pick 5 or 6 secondary features that will differentiate the character. Here is where you make it your own. This is where you add the layers. The backstory, the motivations, relationships that reveal something about the character.
For example:
Core traits – Arrogant heel who womanizes and parties every night after the show
Secondary traits – Crafty in the ring, Has three failed marriages, money problems, is starting to deal with health issues due to his partying, has an estranged child looking to enter the business, in their forties.
And so forth. This is a rather simple one but nicely illustrates how this process can make a character your own.
Ultimately, accept that you are not going to be 100% creative. In this game, the chances that you are going to come up with a completely unique character are low. But you can make a character that is unique to you, that emphasizes different things from other similar characters. It’s also a way for you to compare your own characters to make sure you’re not overlapping or relying on similar tropes or material. As the character has more history and you roleplay longer, those lists will evolve and grow. This is also a way of re-evaluating stale characters and determining where changes could be made.
II. Portraying the Character
So you’ve created your character and now you need to start roleplaying. When debuting a new character, or starting a shift in character, plan out three or four weeks of roleplays to introduce the key qualities. Have a plan. Even if you only want to show a scene of the character’s home life to show some of their relationships, take the time to make the reader care about what makes your character unique.
So how do you show that? I think too many people start by coming up with some great story and hoping that they can make their character fit. When starting a character, or even when you’re struggling with ideas, consider putting your character in situations which emphasize the character’s personality. It’s great to want to write a roleplay where, for example, their significant other breaks up with them. Too frequently, the emphasis is placed on the event. The event is important, but what makes it unique is how the character reacts and responds. By focusing on the character and not the event, it allows you to make sure that it has the results you want.
The same principle should hold for any storyline arc. When I come up with angles for Breakdown and feuds, I have a general idea of what it should mean or accomplish for both involved. It can be as simple as showing that they are competitive in the division they are in or to give them an edge or to settle a feud allowing the character to move on from a rivalry that has defined their last few months. Sometimes an angle is to spur a significant character change or evolution or to emphasize a specific character trait to make it relevant to the “audience”. The same goals should be in the back of your mind when working on your character development arcs. Creating an arc without a purpose really serves nothing except to have content. It’s akin to having a series of wrestling matches that mean nothing. I will cover how to develop an arc and non-arc and status quo roleplays in another column. But for now, always remember that any content you have should have a point for YOUR character.
This leads to one final point – promos. These same tenets should be considered when you craft promos. While promos should flow and read well and have a certain cadence for effective delivery, along with appropriate content, you need to find your character’s voice. Their character should inform how they respond to certain events, how they deliver their material, what they emphasize and so on. Much like character development scenes, promos can be a great opportunity to show your character’s motivations, personality and voice.
III. Questions Regarding Character Development
What are some common tropes that should be avoided?
As nice as it would be to say, don’t do x, y and z and you’ll be fine, it is never that simple. For example, a couple of years ago, there was a trend that many writers would create characters that would be “dark”. There were a lot of nihilists, cult leaders and people who were just violent to be violent. But while that’s a trend and it becomes a problem, it does not mean that someone who has a new take or does something particularly differently would not be able to craft a successful and unique character.
Why are monsters so difficult to pull off effectively? What are some other difficult characters to pull off?
Monsters are difficult to pull off not because of content. In many ways, they are fairly simple to write and there are some really easy ways to maintain the mystique of the character (e.g. not having them talk) and it is easy to show the character as an imposing force. The issue is that in a roleplay fed, it comes down to the writer’s ability to be consistent and roleplay at a high level more often than not. At some point, they reach their ceiling and therefore, there are only so many times the character can be protected before they lose their unstoppable, monster-like mystique and become simply a large man or woman. That ceiling can be delayed by roleplaying at a high level and doing so regularly. It is one of the few characters that requires ability to have longevity. Even if the character is kept at a certain level, keeping their writing ability in mind, the ceiling is then artificial.
Other characters come down to taste often. Comedic characters can often be problematic as if the writer’s sense of humour and the match judges’ don’t mesh, the point of the character is missed and it becomes less effective. Otherwise, the characters that struggle usually come down to the character itself not being that unique, being nothing more than a bland archetype. Then it comes down strictly to whether the writer writes better content than their opponent and nothing more. Creativity has been punted on and character development is limited.
What do I hate to see in a character bio?
There are a lot of pet peeves (see previous columns where I rant on the insane length of some entrances). But regarding characters, there are two that stand out.
The first is the failure to include a biography or general overview of the character. This is something that can be used to enhance your character right from the start. Were they a standout athlete in university? Were they successful in other places? Do they have connections to other wrestlers in the fed? It’s an opportunity to provide a foundation to the character that you can use to build your debut roleplay and wrestling persona in SCW (or any other fed). Many don’t like to do it as it takes time, but doing so gives me as a match writer especially more options. I can establish they are strong because they were linebacker in college, etc. This is often more important for the wrestling persona, but it’s an important part. While many people provide information about the wrestler outside of the ring, establishing that voice and character in the ring, in an easy to understand bite-size blurb can do wonders.
The second is a specific pet peeve – I hate when people tell me that their character will never tap out under any circumstance. It only eliminates options and rarely is it because it makes sense for the character; it’s usually because the handler never wants to have any of their characters lose by submission. There are also better ways to reflect it. For example, if they’re experienced, make it a part of their character (“They’ve made a career of showcasing their intense toughness in which despite some hard fought battles, he/she has never submitted in 4 years.”) Now it’s a tag line for a match down the road. It has meaning. There are ready-made promos. It can be used to really promote a win as huge for both the winner and loser too if they haven’t tapped out in years. There’s always been a weird stigma with submissions going back to when I first opened SCW and I’m sure every fed has it. I see people tell me this yearly, so it’s hardly a new phenomenon. People assume it is some sort of humiliation and it’s only that if it’s portrayed that way. What’s the humiliation in losing to a technician who specializes in wrestling submissions?
What types of character would I like to see?
This is an amalgamation of two questions. For the most part, it is just a call to consider different types of wrestlers. I’d love to see a Japanese wrestler with no ties to the Yakuza, as that seems to be a standard trope. I’d love to see more masked wrestlers, where the handler actually shows the life under the mask and without the mask. I’d love to see fewer millionaires who have the ability to live in luxury and more people scraping by. I’d love to see happier characters that rely on telling happy stories more often than not or had a happy family life. I’d love to see characters that are normal people, but show lifestyles from different parts of a given country, without relying on stereotypes (for example, I’d love to see a character from the Southern United States, but not from Texas, Florida or California). I’d love to see more characters that aren’t the standard high-flier, and more brawlers or powerhouses. Related to that, how is it that SCW has never had ANY bodybuilder types who talk about how they focus so much on their body and physique that they spend every moment in the gym. We have everyone running a gym, but none of those prototypical wrestlers that we all grew up with. Finally, I would love to see more gimmicks. No, we don’t need wrestling accountants. But I’d love to see people who have quirks, or focus on different viewpoints (not necessarily nihilistic), or a willingness to put their character in specific situations. People have asked why characters like Ace Marshall, or the F-Ups, or Giovanni Aries, get so many unique ideas. It is because they are unique characters. They have something that is clearly different from the majority and so it’s easy to come up with ideas. I can also get away with different angles – for example, certain types of comedy and still keep them serious characters to a degree.
This is just a small sample of some different avenues. Ultimately though, a roster with multiple different types of characters and different styles only makes it stronger. It leads to different options for angles from the booking standpoint. It leads to different options for roleplaying and interaction between characters. For handlers, you can create your niche and create something special. At the end of the day, we’re creating. You’re going to make mistakes. You may not have it perfect. You will have lulls if you run a character for any period of time. Hopefully, this piece will give you a sense of how to approach creating, or reinventing, a character as you partake in this game we enjoy.