AndyUK Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 Genuine question here because I'm seriously giving this consideration. I watched ''The Wrestler'' again recently and after looking for similiar stuff, I've realised just how little fictional material that involves wrestling. Â Now, why is that? Yeah, it's considered low brow by a lot of people but there are reasons for that. It seems a bit of a shady world that is full of all sorts of characters. The thing is, shady worlds often make for good stories. Â I deliberately used the words ''set in the world of Pro Wrestling'' instead of ''Pro Wrestling novel'' because I'm not talking about a story that completely revolves about people understanding everything about wrestling. I think that would be daft. I'm talking about a story that just so happens to be set in the wrestling world but could still work somewhere else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smegma Cake Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 I've read some very very good novel-esque stuff in a pro wrestling setting on numerous e-feds in the past. Especially the CAW based ones, rather than real life wrestlers. One I was in many years back, almost half the roster were aspiring writers and rather than the promo based RP's a lot of people did, theirs read like a novel. Every week would be another chapter and yes the premise was solely to win a match, but a lot of the stuff was very very good indeed. Â Its probably a very very niche market though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Pitcos Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 I don't think there's a great market for it. I actually think a novel built around pro wrestling would put off more people than it would attract -- not that wrestling fans can't read, but I think we're far more likely to read a wrestling autobiography if we're going to read a book about wrestling. But certainly there's room for it if you're not writing purely with publication/audience in mind. I think there's a lot of mileage in a comic thriller crime novel that spends some time in the world of wrestling. Something Colin Bateman-esque. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LEGIT Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 Genuine question here because I'm seriously giving this consideration. I watched ''The Wrestler'' again recently and after looking for similiar stuff, I've realised just how little fictional material that involves wrestling. Â Now, why is that? Yeah, it's considered low brow by a lot of people but there are reasons for that. It seems a bit of a shady world that is full of all sorts of characters. The thing is, shady worlds often make for good stories. Â I deliberately used the words ''set in the world of Pro Wrestling'' instead of ''Pro Wrestling novel'' because I'm not talking about a story that completely revolves about people understanding everything about wrestling. I think that would be daft. I'm talking about a story that just so happens to be set in the wrestling world but could still work somewhere else. If the books good, aye, I honestly don't see why there wouldn't be a market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnum Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 I don't see why it can't be a suitable setting for a novel: as you say, you have that bizarre, carnivalesque atmosphere filled with schysters, nerds, thugs and drug addicts as a starting point. It's a seedy, niche subculture, but writers like Chuck Palahniuk have been very successful in mining those sorts of subcultures for literature in the past. Â Looking at it in terms of a 'market' is probably the wrong way to go about this, though. The large majority of fans who fall into the 'will buy anything with wrestling in the title' are probably kids who will lose interest when they see there's nothing in there about John Cena or Kane, and as an older wrestling fan who laps up the autobiographies, it's the reviews that would convince me more than anything else. As it sounds like you're positioning this as adult fiction focused on the underbelly of society, I'd imagine your primary target audience probably won't care one way or the other if it's set in the wrestling world - how you build the characters and plot around that setting is what will make or break it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Tommy! Posted December 23, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted December 23, 2011 Only if TwoSheds wrote it. I'd probably laugh so hard i'd soil myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Pitcos Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 This is no place for a soiled man, soiled man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JNLister Posted December 23, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted December 23, 2011 Get yourself a Kindle so that you can read the free samples of books and you'll soon find there are many many horrendous novels about wrestling. The worst was a poorly disguised fanfic in which the middle-aged overweight female sports journalist (ie the book's writer) wound up getting together with definitely-not-Bryan-Kendrick and having a kid with him. Â We're talking so bad it was worth the 86p to get the whole thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Pitcos Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 What happens when two people from different worlds who never knew each other prior to one fateful meeting, yet a common interest brings them together? Â It's a question L. Anne Carrington answers in her novel, The Cruiserweight, (461 pp. Night Publishing, 2011 - Paperback Version), which won an Honorable Mention for Best Book - Misc. Sports, and Ms. Carrington named Best New Sports Author in Paparazzi Publishing's 2010 Sports Theme Book Awards. Â "The book combines wrestling with romance. Brett Kerrigan and Karen Montgomery aren't the average novel main characters," Ms. Carrington says. "There is 'wrestler' Brett that the public sees, but readers will also get a look at the human side of him. Cocky and arrogant in the ring, away from the spotlight, Brett is a kind-hearted man with anxiety problems which are only calmed by marijuana use. He's frustrated with his status in a major wrestling company until he's released from his talent contract. He's uneasy around women, except for those who are his friends or the occasional one-night stand. Karen is a plus sized woman seventeen years older than Brett, and a sports journalist whose focus is on wrestling. She's been a fan of his for years and even wrote a feature on Brett, which earned her an award. They meet a year after Karen's feature is printed, become fast friends, and their relationship emerges from there. In between, readers learn of the ups and downs in each of Brett's and Karen's respective careers and personal lives." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Up Chuck Posted December 24, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted December 24, 2011 That sounds beyond incredible. When I have the hard drive space I'll get the Kindle app and give that a read. Â Anyway, given the unexpected critical success of The Wrestler, you can never rule out the possibility of success. Anything can do well if it's good (note: "can", not "will"). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted December 24, 2011 Share Posted December 24, 2011 I wouldn't say the critical success of The Wrestler was unexpected at all. Aronofsky is a favourite of the critics. Well, maybe not all of them for The Fountain but Pi and Requiem For A Dream were praised hugely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyUK Posted December 24, 2011 Author Share Posted December 24, 2011 I don't see why it can't be a suitable setting for a novel: as you say, you have that bizarre, carnivalesque atmosphere filled with schysters, nerds, thugs and drug addicts as a starting point. It's a seedy, niche subculture, but writers like Chuck Palahniuk have been very successful in mining those sorts of subcultures for literature in the past.  Looking at it in terms of a 'market' is probably the wrong way to go about this, though. The large majority of fans who fall into the 'will buy anything with wrestling in the title' are probably kids who will lose interest when they see there's nothing in there about John Cena or Kane, and as an older wrestling fan who laps up the autobiographies, it's the reviews that would convince me more than anything else. As it sounds like you're positioning this as adult fiction focused on the underbelly of society, I'd imagine your primary target audience probably won't care one way or the other if it's set in the wrestling world - how you build the characters and plot around that setting is what will make or break it.  Yeah, I definitely see what you mean. Targeting wrestling fans specifically would be wrong because you've got to think that in general, the majority of wrestling fans aren't going to be the novel reading type anyway. They're two completely different cultures.  Your description on what I'd be going for is pretty much dead on. A combination of the transgressive fiction that Palahniuk writes and Noir fiction is probably how I'd best describe what I have in mind.   Get yourself a Kindle so that you can read the free samples of books and you'll soon find there are many many horrendous novels about wrestling. The worst was a poorly disguised fanfic in which the middle-aged overweight female sports journalist (ie the book's writer) wound up getting together with definitely-not-Bryan-Kendrick and having a kid with him. We're talking so bad it was worth the 86p to get the whole thing.  Getting one for Christmas actually mate. Now I know exactly what to look for first Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vamp Posted December 24, 2011 Share Posted December 24, 2011 Set it a few hundred years back and have a detective trying to solve a murder that happened in the ring. All people in this country buy are detective or historical novels. Â In all seriousness, if you handled it right it'd work. I wouldn't do it as a first book though. Not if you're aiming for a career. It'd probably have to take a critical tone on the whole thing though. The Wrestler worked because it wasn't really about the wrestling, it was more a look at how certain constructed forms of masculinity are not only outdated but are dangerous (there's actually a fair bit already noir about it in that way really) which obviously ties in quite well to a wrestling setting. What's wonderful about The Wrestler is that Black Sawn is really a follow up movie to it which shows how little truth there is to gender construction since really the movies are about the same things. Â A novel about a show like the WWE (obviously it wouldn't be the WWE) would be interesting if you were to do a novel focusing on confused gender identity since the paranoia around male epic films and bodybuilder killer movies probably apply quite well to wrestling and are even more complex in that environment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Your Fight Site Posted December 24, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted December 24, 2011 "Is there a market for a novel set in the world of Pro Wrestling?" Yes. That market is pro wrestling fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Up Chuck Posted December 24, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted December 24, 2011 I wouldn't say the critical success of The Wrestler was unexpected at all. Aronofsky is a favourite of the critics. Well, maybe not all of them for The Fountain but Pi and Requiem For A Dream were praised hugely. Â Exposing my lack of film knowledge superbly there. I guess by "unexpected" I meant "unexpected by me for a film about wrestling". Silly, really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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