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Post by bobversion1 on Jun 15, 2011 14:01:43 GMT -5
Just curious, when you guys start a circuit, what burns you out the most? What makes you want to stop the current circuit and start a new one?
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Post by JoshiQ on Jun 15, 2011 15:08:50 GMT -5
For me it's when I try and force myself to write a card. Some days I just don't want to do it. If I start worrying that I haven't posted a card in a few days, and then force myself to sit there and write a card it usually comes out like crap and makes me not want to do it again in a few days. The key is to only do it when it's fun. If it starts being a chore then stop. Also never write for somebody else. Write what you enjoy. Eventually if you make it interesting enough people will come read it. I, for the most part, don't enjoy women's wrestling, old school wrestling where I don't know anyone (like Lou Thesz days), and fantasy wrestler circuits. Yet Rey's TNAW and Ryan's GCW are two of my favorite circuits out there. They started with something that I wasn't overly fond of, but kept it going long enough that I felt like I should read it. The good writing and story telling kept making me want to go back and read some more. But the main point of that is that they seemed to be enjoying it, and they didn't listen to me whine about wanting them to use a circuit where I knew all the wrestlers.  |
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Post by JoshiQ on Jun 15, 2011 15:10:10 GMT -5
Oh, and what makes me want to write a new circuit is when I come up with an original angle that just doesn't fit into the current circuit I'm running. Or if I start watching a bunch of wrestling tapes around a certain time period. It really makes me want to go back and rebook that stuff.
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Post by snabbit888 on Jun 16, 2011 0:34:59 GMT -5
Josh is pretty much spot on. I learned a long time ago that trying to write the circuit you think everyone wants to see will kill your drive in a hurry. That's why I don't think I've seen a single circuit last for very long that's format was determined by "asking the readers" who they want to see in the circuit, what titles, etc.
Book a show you'd like to see first and foremost. If you like it, chances are someone else will too.
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Post by allpowerfulgarth on Jun 16, 2011 7:59:35 GMT -5
One of the problems I've had on occasion is trying to follow a huge card I've been building up in my mind. I have the biggest problem with Royal Rumble matches. The Royal Rumble is my favorite kind of match and I tend to put a lot of work into building up to it, but once it's over, I find it a chore to build toward the next major event. The same can happen for a flagship pay-per-view like a Wrestlemania, or even a high-stakes tournament.
The key, I suppose, is to always have a vision for the next major card beyond the one you're building, no matter how significant a sense of finality you expect the upcoming major card to have. That way, building things back up again doesn't seem like such an overwhelming prospect, because you've already got things moving in that direction.
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Post by mdale2k on Jun 16, 2011 9:11:33 GMT -5
I agree with Garth.
I plan out my major angles for like a year in advance and have my main events scheduled in my booking sheet.
I hope by doing that I don't run out of ideas.
Some times things come up and change but I hope not to get burnout by that.
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Post by JoshiQ on Jun 16, 2011 9:35:56 GMT -5
That's been one of my major problems, Garth. It's either producing the supercard or the card right after the supercard. Both of those can be a beast.
What I like to do, similar to MDale, is have a booking idea for the year. I try and get the three main matches I want for each supercard for the year. The mid-card stuff can change in an instant depending on who I enjoy writing, but the main event stuff usually stays the same. Not to say I never change it, but it sticks for the most part.
I also have taken to keeping track of all the small stuff. I have always liked adding a bunch of smaller side angles in my feds. I like maybe having a team have some problems every once and awhile but still continue their team. Then maybe 8 months later break them up. Usually once you start showing a disagreements between a tag team you know that by the next supercard they will break up. This way it is a far slower build, and less likely to be predicted.
I'm also a fan of there being main angles for guys, but also something on the side to keep them busy before the supercard. Hogan and Justice's main stuff was with themselves, Flair, and the Undertaker, but they had a mini-feud with the Nasty Boys. And that mini-feud is now causing problems for Flair and Perfect because of how that feud began...I guess it all comes down to making sure most people on your roster has something to do. It doesn't have to be everyone, but I find I really can immerse myself into a circuit if I feel like I know each wrestler and have used them in some way.
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Post by seanh529 on Jun 16, 2011 9:58:11 GMT -5
Good topic. One thing that bothers me is writing out too many interviews. When I do TV shows and most of it has to be interviews it just starts to get monotonous. What gets me into TNM is usually reading the Wrestling Observer. Just the way the newsletter will recap different cards that might be coming up, or angles that the companies are running usually gets me going.
TNM is a weird "game" that can very easily become a chore. One of the reasons I love coming to this board is to read everyone elses cards. I can tell you for a fact I am NEVER going to get rid of my USWA circuit. I've had it going for almost 11 years REAL time. I just never was into recreating a real company. I like just having my own, and changing it to my likings as time goes on.
On the other hand I might take a month off or something from posting/running cards. I don't want to be forced to do anything either. Other times I just don't know where I want to go with an angle and I just take time to think about options instead of just running them.
In a perfect world I'd post one card a week, but I'm 30 years old with a real job and a wedding to plan its almost impossible. When I was 18 years old playing the game high school and then into college, things were totally different.
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Post by magiccitydawg on Jun 16, 2011 10:16:52 GMT -5
I am going to say the pressures of work sometimes get to me. Actually, anything real life can burn you out quickly. And things are different at 48 than they were at 18, 28, or even 38. After work, I have more on me since father passed away in 2009. Mother depends on me to take up the slack. I have two off days, Mondays and Fridays. So I take the time to run the card on Monday, think about the story I want to tell through the week in between work, studying the Bible, and whatever else needs to be done. Then, I write early on Friday and post by midnight. In a way, I consider this sim/game to be therapy.
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Post by LillaThrilla on Jun 16, 2011 18:01:09 GMT -5
When I hit a card where I don't know how to resolve a major angle or have resolved too many angles and don't know where I want to go from where I'm at.
More commonly, I don't burnout so much as get distracted. Wrestling (even including TNM) has never really been my prime hobby. So over the last decade I get caught up with Warhammer, Magic The Gathering, football, geocaching, or whatever other hobby my attention drifts toward. Plus the usual work/college stuff; my job gets seasonally busy in the fall/winter and before elections.
What usually brings me back is something happening that nudges me back toward wrestling. Benoit's death. TNA going head to head with WWE, Bret's return to WWE, Nexus, or just a really exciting UFC PPV.
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Post by snabbit888 on Jun 16, 2011 19:20:56 GMT -5
Cool to see another geocaching fan on the forums. I plan on getting into it a lot more after my play is over. I figure I get to travel to some weird places for comedy, I get opportunities to go geocaching in places I'd generally never be.
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Post by magiccitydawg on Jun 17, 2011 0:44:35 GMT -5
Cool to see another geocaching fan on the forums. I plan on getting into it a lot more after my play is over. I figure I get to travel to some weird places for comedy, I get opportunities to go geocaching in places I'd generally never be. I need to try that geocaching. I am doing a baseball universe using Out of the Park 11. You can check it out here: alaga.wikidot.com/ |
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Post by rey619 on Jun 17, 2011 4:52:28 GMT -5
The one advice I can really suggest, is to not write a card when you're not in the mood for it. Last Sunday, I really had nothing to do because I was at a big party the day before and was really hungover. Well, it seems that my creative juices were also hung over, and I really didn't feel like writing a card even though I had booked it and was running it.
Fortunately it was one of my other, unpublished circuits, not TNAW.
So, only write cards when you really want to.
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Post by seanh529 on Jun 17, 2011 7:50:37 GMT -5
I also love OOTP 11! I have been playing that since about 2004. A great game!
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Post by allpowerfulgarth on Jun 17, 2011 8:21:18 GMT -5
I'm with magiccitydawg on the work thing. That's largely what has kept me from posting a circuit with any sort of regularity -- I write for a living, so it can be tough to motivate myself to come home and write some more, especially given how promo-heavy my circuits tend to be.
And I'm also with LillaThrilla on being randomly dragged back in. One of the things that does it for me, weirdly enough, is music -- I'll hear a song that reminds me of one of the circuits I used to run or follow, and it encourages me to come back to the board and give running my own circuit another go. One of the CDs in my car is a mix of entrance music I made for Wrestlemania 21, and because my most recent attempt at a circuit was set in 2005 with (then) modern-day wrestlers, it tends to remind me of the angles I abandoned when last I stopped updating.
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Post by bobversion1 on Jun 17, 2011 9:11:48 GMT -5
Glad this topic is going so well!
As an aside, very cool to see Cachers on here! I haven't Geocached in a couple years, but love it when I do it. It's a very fun hobby and gives Hiking more of an end game instead of hiking just to hike..
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Post by LillaThrilla on Jun 17, 2011 11:14:21 GMT -5
"If you're not in the mood don't do it" is probably good advice for any hobby. When your hobby starts being treated like a chore it usually stops being fun.
Nice to see some other geocachers here. I've been caching for a year and half. Summer is here now in SE FL so that's going backburner for me until it's not absurdly hot.
This talk of the Out Of The Park baseball sim makes me wonder if there is a good sim game for football?
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Post by mdale2k on Jun 17, 2011 12:49:34 GMT -5
Out of the ball park was awesome back in Thr day maybe I will try it. Front office football was great too
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Post by magiccitydawg on Jun 17, 2011 19:31:36 GMT -5
"If you're not in the mood don't do it" is probably good advice for any hobby. When your hobby starts being treated like a chore it usually stops being fun. Nice to see some other geocachers here. I've been caching for a year and half. Summer is here now in SE FL so that's going backburner for me until it's not absurdly hot. This talk of the Out Of The Park baseball sim makes me wonder if there is a good sim game for football? Found this site for a game called Second and Ten Football www.secondandten.com/index.html[Second and Ten is a football simulation covering both professional and college football. Version VII comes with many exciting new features. For a more in-depth explanation of the various features, use the menu box to the left.] |
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