How to Start

God

Super Moderator

This will give you all a look at how to set out your federation and what is the easiest, but not necessarily your way of going about, none the less it will help in one way or another.

Step 1 - Deciding on a Project
The first thing you have to do is decide what kind of fed do you want to create, whether it be a simple WWE or TNA fed, or a created fed from your own imagination, or a deceased fed of the past like WCW, ECW, NWA or something along those lines, or even you want to create an Indy fed. If your not very knowledgeable about these companies or Indy wrestlers, I suggest sticking with WWE or creating your own. Once you have done that, you need to pick an owner of the company and someone with booking powers (a General Manager, a Commissioner) or something like that. Or you could just the have owner as the GM, but it's good to have someone with booking powers.

Step 2 - Creating a Roster
A suggestion to a newer writer is to start off with 40 superstars, I believe 40 is a great number because you will be able to write special events like the Royal Rumble and have enough, while at the same time being able to use the majority of the superstars on your roster, so that nobody is left out, while not writing a six hour show each week. If your doing a split fed, then I suggest that both roster have 25 superstars, again it will be more than enough for special events, but it will be small enough so that no member of your roster is left out. Now, you might say how can I narrow it down to 40 superstars, well here are some helpful hints. First, separate that 40 into Main Eventers, Mid-Carders, cruiser weights, tag teams and jobbers. You should have 6-8 Main Eventers (title contenders that the headline the show), 10 mid-carders (guys that compete for the US or IC title, they fill in the gaps), around 5 tag teams (self explanatory, so 5 teams out 2=10), and around 7-8 Cruiser weights (guys like Mysterio, Billy Kidman and Ultimo Dragon) if you have a Cruiserweight division, guys that you can elevate into the mid-card area if it becomes stale or into the Tag Team Division for a short period of time. Finally throw in a few guys that you don't care about (Maven, Gene Snitsky etc.) that can be used to make your bigger guys look stronger.

Step 2 - Creating Your Titles
After you have your roster, its time to create your titles, normally I would suggest keeping the amount of titles down, lets say start with 4 championships, a World Title (most important, for the Main Event) a mid card title (say IC or US to use as a stepping stone) and the Tag Team Titles.... Finally ex it off with the Cruiserweight Title to add some flair into the show. Another title you could add is the Hardcore Title, or something along those lines, again you don't have to call them (Intercontinental Title) feel free to come up with something new like the Atlantic title, or something along those lines, after you've decided on that, it's time to move on. If you have split brands then having the IC and the US on opposite shows is always a good idea. The CW and the TV can act as the small titles on each show as well.

Step 3 - Begin Planning
First off, plan a few months ahead so you know exactly what you want to accomplish, for example if your starting a WWE fed, and you want to start at the beginning of the wrestling year (Day after WrestleMania), then first thing you should do once you have your roster and titles, is figure out what you want to do at the next PPV like feuds and such, and then work backwards, that way you will have an exact direction that you want to take your work. Have a few months planned out before you write, keep in mind that you can still make changes as you go, but having a general direction will help you keep your focus.

Step 4 - Developing characters and story lines
Once you have everything planned, and a basic outline of what you want to see happen, its time to start writing, over the first couple of shows is when you start building your story lines, highlighting your feature talent and establishing your champions, however just as important and most often ignored is character development. While it is difficult to do with a large roster, it is important that everyone on your roster have his or her own distinguished personality to set them apart, and when your roster is shortened (40 or especially 25) it's important to create distinction between each and every person on the roster. For example, you want to establish a monster, you use Kane, in a simple promo or act demonstrate that he is a monster with no conscience. Developing characters and pushing them correctly is the best way to get recognition for your project.

Step 5 - Writing the Show
Now that you have a good idea of your roster, a rough plan of what you want to do, its time to write your show, until you feel comfortable, I suggest using this basic formula.

Segment 1 - Opening Promo
Segment 2 - First Match
Segment 3 - Small Promo/Mid-card Match
Segment 4 - Promo to Set-up PPV match
Segment 5 - Tag Team Match
Segment 6 - Promo to set-up match next week/IC Title Match
Segment 7 - Main Event

Once you gain some comfort and confidence, you will be free to break away from this, start with match at the beginning, or end the show with a promo, but for newer writers I suggest it because it covers everything you need, and sets up for the next show. Now for match writing, now I suggest not writing full matches, just providing the ending of the match and aftermath, although I suggest for PPV's writing the full match, cause just the ending of a WrestleMania main event wont cut it

Step 6 - BE CREATIVE
One of the greatest feds I have ever read was one where the matches themselves weren't necessarily 5 stars, but because the story lines were so unique, it was an instant hit. Be creative, and be original, take these characters that you have created and molded and throw them through situations, like friendship, betrayal, depression, manipulation, loss of faith and much more..... Experiment with characters, find out what works and what doesn’t, what works for one writer doesn't work for another, find what works for you.

Important Final Notes
Learn from your mistakes, as a beginner nobody is expecting you to be the best booker, or a legend in your first month or so, just learn from your mistakes and from the advise that others give you, And remember to use proper grammar and organization. NOTHING throws readers off like bad grammar and disorganized work, use of bold, italics and underlines will save you a lot of trouble and even some color thrown in there would add a little touch every once in awhile, make your work look good, take some pride in your work... Because if you don’t show some pride in your work, how can you expect us too?

All in all just have fun at this. Don't take something personally if somebody didn’t like your show; learn from it that’s what everybody is here for, to help each other. I hope this little hand book helped some of you guys realize what BTB is all about. Before I forget DO NOT make more then one post for a show. What I mean is don’t go to commercial and then post it and then post then next bit it looks very unprofessional and I will just merge the show anyway. Just remember this is all in fun and not a competition.



Credit: TheLastJoECool.