POPULAR: Simple Questions, Simple Answers

[AetherX]

Oh my, I'm posting here for once... So! Let's see. I'd gotten a lot of mixed reviews about how I started Survival Project. For anyone who hasn't read it, I started with an action scene, or more specifically, a chase/fighting scene. I'm not sure if it was the POV character's pessimistic writing style that made it seem melodramatic, but at any rate, it was said to be dark for the sake of being dark, even though other readers claimed that it introduced the characters in a way that made sense once they got to know the characters more.

I was wondering what other people's thoughts were on starting stories with a 'bang', so to speak -- whether it's with action, character death, some other tragedy, etc. My other stories ended up starting with infodumps, so yeah. Any advice in general with opening chapters would be appreciated. I do plan to release SP's sequel soon, but I'm wondering if I kind of fell into the same trap as I did for the original. Without spoiling: the difference between the two openings is that SP's serves to kickstart the plot straightaway, whereas the sequel's opening is used less for plot and more to cause several different kinds of conflict between the characters, which complicates how the plot unfolds once it's introduced thoroughly/properly.

Beginning a story is such a huge topic that it probably deserves a thread of its own, but I'll try to keep this advice targeted at you specifically. The more I've written and read and thought about storytelling, the more I've realized how much I like the "standard" plot progression. That is, starting with exposition and background, then having a turning point into rising action and so on. Part of why SP's beginning felt so unsteady to me is because it began with the turning point. That action scene wasn't quite shocking or high-stakes because I had no clue what the setting was like or who these characters were. As time went on I began to understand why it was a big deal for Senori to be "captured" and what led to his decision to leave home, but until then I consciously and subconsciously figured that the world of SP was one where people wander around and attack Pokemon, everyone has a mysterious past, and you'll never really understand what's going on. It wasn't until about halfway through the fic that I was able to shake that feeling and actually empathize with the characters as they were.

Opening with an action scene is fine, just realize that it and the following scenes will set the tone of the story. Establishing a status quo is important before you upend that status quo with the rest of the story. In other words, I think your current plan for how to start the sequel should work excellently.

 

[diamondpearl876]

Beginning a story is such a huge topic that it probably deserves a thread of its own, but I'll try to keep this advice targeted at you specifically. The more I've written and read and thought about storytelling, the more I've realized how much I like the "standard" plot progression. That is, starting with exposition and background, then having a turning point into rising action and so on. Part of why SP's beginning felt so unsteady to me is because it began with the turning point. That action scene wasn't quite shocking or high-stakes because I had no clue what the setting was like or who these characters were. As time went on I began to understand why it was a big deal for Senori to be "captured" and what led to his decision to leave home, but until then I consciously and subconsciously figured that the world of SP was one where people wander around and attack Pokemon, everyone has a mysterious past, and you'll never really understand what's going on. It wasn't until about halfway through the fic that I was able to shake that feeling and actually empathize with the characters as they were.

That makes sense. It probably didn't help that the worldbuilding was lacking not only at the beginning of the story, but also throughout the story. I plan to remedy that.

Opening with an action scene is fine, just realize that it and the following scenes will set the tone of the story. Establishing a status quo is important before you upend that status quo with the rest of the story. In other words, I think your current plan for how to start the sequel should work excellently.

I hope it works. XD It's more of an emotional/tragic 'bang' than action, but hopefully the character background set up in the original will help to make readers care. I've wondered too about readers who haven't read SP... but unfortunately since the series is mostly a character study I'm not sure there's much I can do besides do some recap that's not just set up like exposition, and to build on some of the themes/plot ideas that were introduced in the original but not fully explored.

 

[0bs1d1an_kn1ght]

How would you guys deconstruct Attract and Cute Charm? The lightest deconstruction I can come up with is they're pretty much courtship calls.

 

[VeniaSilente]

Engineered, weaponized courtship calls and overall procedures of sexual attraction and arousal. Orders of magnitude more likely to work on your own species / egg group than merely against anything "the other gender", given the various physiological and psychological factors involved in courtship and attraction in general (the in-game mechanic is basically a reduction for the same of playability with the game engine). Overall play of seduction, but followed with a strong and necessary form of foreplay or intimate engagement, required so it can have the effect of distracting and weakening the opponent (otherwise, all you get is an opponent who becomes aroused and readier to battle). Cute Charm most likely a version more if not fully dependent on physiological transmission factors such as pheromones, sense-tuning or the like. Because of the nature of the move, potentially highly telegraphed, which makes their use inadvisable unless one counts with some other form of support for their Pokémon.

Likely to also have some sort of effect on "genderless" Pokémon depending on what the definition of gender being used is, though most likely the effect won't amount to the same nor be as usable as with a gendered Pokémon. This Rare Candy Treatment comic comes to mind.

Depending on how sentient and sapient Pokémon are in your setting, Attract and Cute Charm could be considered "evil" techniques or dirty play, not unlike most of everything in the stereotypical Dark-type spectrum, as it is basically a light-to-medium, premeditated form of mind control that relies on sexual predation. Trainers known to teach or strategize on such techniques might see themselves short on challenges from monogamous species in the wild, Pokémon unwilling to risk the potential of being forced to like (if not more) someone outside their own volition. On the other hand, such technique might be part of the natural arsenal of some species in the wild, I'm thinking bug-like and bird-like Pokémon mostly, and thus specimens from those lines would over time in the wild have developed a form of partial resistance against the move.

Depending on how the various components of Attract / Cute Charm function at the psychological level, the move might be useless, or at least very easily resisted, by Pokémon who have found themselves part of running, long-term relationships. I'm thinking here species that would either pick mates for life, or have courtship and breeding cycles running at time scales far different than the norm, such as dragons.

 

[Misfit Angel]

This is an embarrassing question, considering I've written 51 chapters of Storm Island, nearly 20 chapters of my professional project and ~30 chapters of other assorted projects, but...

I'm beginning to worry about the way I introduce characters. My usual stance is to introduce them via description; hair color/style, height/body shape, other noteworthy things about appearance, and attitude if needed. They might say a couple lines as a nameless character before another character will refer to them by name, at which point "the man said" will start turning into "Jack said". It's how I've always done it.

I can not for the life of me find an example of another author doing it this way and I'm starting to worry if I'm doing something wrong. While 'wrong' is entirely subjective in art and literature, I still feel like I'm out of place. When I read my stuff back it starts to feel pointlessly contrived and I wonder to myself, "why hasn't this character been introduce by name already?" At the same time, while I feel like I'm not doing it right, I also feel like this is frivolous worry.

What does everyone think? Should characters who are introduced in a non-dramatic way be named quickly? Or is it okay to describe them a bit, let the reader know who they are before they're named?

 

[AetherX]

That's actually a huge reason why I prefer writing in first person. It's easy. If the POV character knows this new character's name then I give it in exposition in the first or second sentence after they show up. If the POV character doesn't know the new character's name (and it matters) then they introduce themselves to each other like most real people do. If it's a one-off character then I give them some single defining attribute and just use that to refer to them until the end of the scene.

In the little third person writing I've done, I do it exactly like you described, doubt myself, and then never finish the project.

 

[GastlyGibus]

I'm by no means an expert on the topic, but I might as well give my opinion.

When it comes to introducing characters, I try to give a reason for their name to be said. Something they say that in turn leads to someone addressing them by name, like "I agree with Jimmy" or "Shut up, Ashley, we're busy!" Alternatively you could have the narrator mention it, as perhaps something the protagonist is thinking. "He always admired how Heather was so professional in everything she did," is an example, or "He was getting quite fed up with Arnold's constant excuses." The was I see it, you're the writer; you are essentially the god of whatever story you're writing. You can make up literally anything to have someone mention their name, so it just takes a little creativity. Just a tiny little snippet from something I wrote as an example:

Spoiler

She stopped, looking down and noticing the perpetrator. It was a young woman, who looked to be around thirteen years of age, the same as Cassandra, flinging small rocks at the window. Cassandra instantly recognized her: it was Alexis, her old friend.

As for descriptions of characters, it's something I try hard to avoid at any given opportunity. We don't need to know every last minute detail about what any character is wearing that particular day. Over-description of characters bogs down a story, and it's something I hardly ever see done in any kind of professional writing.

What I do see a lot of, and something I try to do, is try to mix the description in with action. Like, let's say I'm writing a female character with long, blonde hair that falls over her eyes. Rather than simply saying "she had long, blonde hair that fell over her eyes," mix it in with action. "She stopped in front of the school, taking a moment to catch her breath, sweeping her long, blonde hair out of her eyes." It mixes it in with the action and it flows naturally, so now we know what her hair looks like without having to stop the action and describe it. Describe appearances only when it becomes relevant. To be perfectly frank, readers don't really care about exactly what a character looks like. Less is more, in my opinion, and it's often better to leave things up to a readers imagination, only filling in the crucial details.

This is just how I approach things, anyways, so take it with a grain of salt. This is based on what I've read and what I find personally enjoyable or aggravating. It annoys me, for example, when I see a writer coming to a dead stop in a story to describe a character. She had long, blonde hair, tied up in a ponytail. She was wearing a simple outfit, with skinny black jeans and blah blah blah get on with it already I don't care what she's wearing! Cover the crucial details, and tie them into the action. If a character is tall, have them stand next to a shorter person and note the difference. If a character is wearing a jacket on a hot day, maybe have them think to themselves "why did I choose to wear a hoodie on a hot summer day?" It really just comes down to "show, don't tell."

 

[CynthiaLover]

Okay, I have a question about an old soon-to-be revived Pokemon fanfic that I was working on long ago (several years ago, if I'm not mistaken). Around the time ORAS came to be, I started working on restoring it, but modifying it from its original form, so it would look and read different (plus I had gained some more writing experience since then, so I wanted to make it look better). It'll have the same main characters as before (in this case: Geo, Lora the soon-to-be Gardevoir, and Team Galactic's Vivi, Victor, and Weavile). It'll follow a similar adventure style like Ash's adventures, though Geo will be far older (mid 20's due to a rare heart condition holding him back for many years), and he'll start in Sinnoh (obviously). Because of how and when I wrote out the planning documents, it'll be using Gen VI data.

But anyway, my question is this: How should I go by this? Pokemon fics aren't a strong point of mine, especially battles (though my Breath of Fire 3 novelization has helped me improve there), and I want to put in certain new elements into it, such as Bond Phenomenon (which Lora will gain near the end of Geo's Sinnoh run). There will be some cliches (Geo can understand what Pokemon say, though how he got it is different, and he knows it's not a unique trait), talking Pokemon (Weavile can and Lora will follow), and female companions are interested in Contests. But I need some pointers here. Any advice would be good, as I want to give this series another chance, especially since I did a lot of work fixing up the old data and documents. So anyone got pointers or advice for me? Thanks in advance.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I'd probably decide on what tone you want to go for - a punchy shonen style action fic or something closer to a character-driven slice-of-life. It's not impossible to do both in the same story, but I think it is substantially harder. The nature of the game plot is such that when you try and translate it right to a prose story, it usually comes across as much sillier. The games get away with it because the protagonist has no character of their own and the actual plot itself is quite thin on the ground. You can't hide the cracks behind gameplay in prose.

If you are going to go for an evil team plot, I'd recommend taking them seriously, à la AetherX's Unpredictable - it'll mean you have to spend more time plotting and planning but the payoff will be that there's better tension as a result. If it were me I'd probably heavily adapt if not scrap some of the "canon" evil team encounters in Sinnoh and rewrite them. Straight adaptations tend to have a foregone conclusion feel to them, since the reader can be pretty sure it's only a matter of time till the plucky kids beat off the villains.

 

[Misfit Angel]

As was said, figure out what you're doing first. It is the absolute most important thing you can do, because a later shift in style or end goal can have disastrous consequences for completing the story. I learned that the hard way.

What do you want to do with it? You said you want it to be like Ash's journey, which I'll assume means taking on the gyms, fighting with Team Galactic, and the female lead being interested in coordination. A good basis, but it probably still needs refinement. Ask yourself these questions:

How will the gym conquest storyline work out? Will he bulldoze every challenge before him? Will he struggle relentlessly until he learns the value of training? Will it be a delicate balance between the two? Maybe since he's starting his journey later, he's had the time to study the ins and outs of Pokemon training and starts with an advantage and gets the grips of it much easier than his peers? These same questions could apply to the coordinator of the group, as well.

Is there a specific reason that Geo is dealing with Team Galactic? What event starts off their relationship? Or is it just random in that he happens to stumble upon them and feels it's his civic duty to confront them?

What is it about Geo that allows him to understand what his Pokemon say? Why can Lora eventually learn to speak human language? Or does she communicate telepathically?

After that, I'd look at what you want to keep from Sinnoh, what you want to add, and then look at altering things to better fit your needs. I'm in agreement with Beth Pavell, just straight up copying the plot of the Gen 4 games (is this what you're doing? I can't find any mention of it) will lead to a boring and predictable story, even if you start to throw in your own alterations.

Once all of that's out of the way is when I'd start to work on the details and maybe ask for more advice.

it's only a matter of time till the plucky kids beat off the villains.

You may wish to rethink your choice of wording here ;P

 

[CynthiaLover]

As was said, figure out what you're doing first. It is the absolute most important thing you can do, because a later shift in style or end goal can have disastrous consequences for completing the story. I learned that the hard way.

This is exactly why I do countless planning documents. It helps organize my thoughts and map out a general plan of action.

What do you want to do with it? You said you want it to be like Ash's journey, which I'll assume means taking on the gyms, fighting with Team Galactic, and the female lead being interested in coordination. A good basis, but it probably still needs refinement. Ask yourself these questions:

How will the gym conquest storyline work out? Will he bulldoze every challenge before him? Will he struggle relentlessly until he learns the value of training? Will it be a delicate balance between the two? Maybe since he's starting his journey later, he's had the time to study the ins and outs of Pokemon training and starts with an advantage and gets the grips of it much easier than his peers? These same questions could apply to the coordinator of the group, as well.

Compared to Ash's journey, it'll be quite a bit more serious. While still retaining humor (mainly thanks to Vivi, Victor, and Weavile), it'll have a more serious nature, as things like death, destruction, and so on will be more prominent (for example, Geo and the gang rescues a Luxio near death due to her getting accidentally too close to a Team Galactic plot that gravely injures her, and the only reason she stays alive is because Geo tends and does everything he can to keep her alive until Danny and Jodi get Nurse Joy so she can properly treat Luxio, saving her life and gaining Luxio's loyalty and affection). As for the gym conquest, it will be more or less a struggle, as he also has to cope with his own shortcomings (mainly, he can't get excited or overly stressed, as his heart is still weakened from his "battle" with the rare illness, so he has to remain virtually calm and levelheaded at all times, which isn't easy given the higher stress levels that gym battles create). Like you said, since he started late, he had plenty of time to study the ins and outs of Pokemon, which also resulted in him being able to tell the difference between each Pokemon's gender even if they don't have gender differences, giving him very keen observation skills, but also good strategic abilities. So he will have good strategies and tactics at his disposal, including contest-style combos (his mother was a coordinator in her youth, so he picked up some ideas from that, which he passes on to the coordinator character), but he will have some trouble regardless, as learning from books and learning on the field are two separate situations.

Is there a specific reason that Geo is dealing with Team Galactic? What event starts off their relationship? Or is it just random in that he happens to stumble upon them and feels it's his civic duty to confront them?

He runs into Team Galactic (Vivi, Victor, and Weavile, to be specific) by chance when he first reaches Jublilife City. Since they're pulling off a massive Pokemon heist, he steps in, as he can't stand injustice and thievery, stopping them. Since then Vivi, Victor, and Weavile chase after him to steal his Pokemon as a form of revenge like TRio, though they're not the only Team Galactic members he crosses paths with during the adventure. It does follow a similar plot to Platinum, however, but it won't be cut-and-paste, as there will be some other, somewhat anime-style events that occur, such as protecting the Adamant and Lustrous Orbs from Team Galactic and specific Lake Guardians responding to him and his friends.

What is it about Geo that allows him to understand what his Pokemon say? Why can Lora eventually learn to speak human language? Or does she communicate telepathically?

He didn't have the ability to begin with. But during his tenure in the hospital while fighting his rare heart condition, he was given therapy Pokemon to keep his spirits up. In a situation similar to Anabel, as he communicated with the therapy Pokemon, they talked back and eventually he just gained the ability to understand and translate what they say. He knows it's not an unique ability, however, but it does give him an edge in figuring out various problems involving Pokemon, though many still get baffled by it. As for Lora, she originally talks like any other Ralts/Kirlia/Gardevoir, but since Geo can understand Pokemon, she starts practicing how to speak the human language so she can better understand humans, effectively being sort of a mirror of him. Weavile was also a form of inspiration, since he can speak the human language, and the two are rivals in a sense (though Lora does have some form of supremacy over him, since she's also a competent battler, which Weavile lacks to a degree).

After that, I'd look at what you want to keep from Sinnoh, what you want to add, and then look at altering things to better fit your needs. I'm in agreement with Beth Pavell, just straight up copying the plot of the Gen 4 games (is this what you're doing? I can't find any mention of it) will lead to a boring and predictable story, even if you start to throw in your own alterations.

As I said, it'll have some Platinum elements as a source for general plot for the Sinnoh arc (I do plan other arcs as well), but it won't be a cut-and-paste. Mostly, any real elements of game-related plots will be minimum bar some situations, such as Spear Pillar. Overall, it'll be mostly about Geo's quest to overcome his limits, reach his dream, and then go beyond the Sinnoh League, as I do plan him to travel to other regions to broaden his horizons. But that's the general gist of it.

 

[Brilliant Gold]

Out of curiosity, does anybody take Pokemon sizes into account when planning teams? I just thought about this while looking at Pokedex entries and how the anime has different sizes for Pokemon when convenient to the plot.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Not when planning, but definitely while writing. Especially while writing the battles, come to that. I'm a great believer in the idea of logical constraints encouraging creativity - if you have to stick to any one pokémon specimen being a consistent size, you open the door for thinking about how size could be dis/advantageous in battle, for example. That's not to say that I'd insist on all pokémon of any one species being the same size. I wouldn't have any issue with, say, an onix being particularly small due to being young or underfed.

 

[VeniaSilente]

When planning teams, I do pay attention to the sizes of some Pokémon, for a simple reason: the general Pokémon rider factor, in particular when using things like Fly or Dive. The Pokémon has to be able to somehow carry a human and the most sensible ways all start by having the adequate size.

Other than that, I allow some Pokémon to be larger than what the Pokédex says for the intimidation factor or to emphasize how evolved forms can not always fit that well in buildings and rooms made for humans. But even with that I am not too strict. The official Pokédex measurements might be crap, but the big lesson to learn is to not make the same mistakes as they did (of which the most relevant is not the actual measurements, but the lack of official consistent measurement criteria. I mean, really, where does the "height" of a Kyogre begin and end?).

 

[Misfit Angel]

Here's an abstract question.

How does one combat the feeling that what they're writing is inherently boring? As these feelings pile up, it becomes harder and harder to continue. An obvious solution is to change the situation to something more interesting, but I feel like what I'm writing is the only logical way forward at this point in the story.

 

[CrystaI]

So virtually speaking, it is "How shall writing a fic not become a tiresome work?"

Sorry that my experience may not be any help, because I don't really recall any scenes within my fanfics where I feel so boring that I just wanted to skip writing it, even to the point of considering an alternative plot route where I may just advance the story without including that specific scene. Though to be fair, I won't say I'm not in a similar situation like you had described just now, because basically that is just my current fanfic writing situation. I'm currently writing an introductory scene set in a school classroom, where what happen there is purely conversation between friends. Yeah, sounds veeeeeeeeerrrrrrrry boring from the reader perspective, because it is just such ordinary mundane situation where nothing exciting nor any dramatic event will happen at there, additionally it is one compulsory scene where it must be there to progress the plot, without it story progression will just sounds illogical.

However, I won't really say it is "boring" by any sense, at least not what I think nor feel about it. Despite it is an mundane scene where nothing is exciting nor dramatic, but nonetheless I enjoy thinking about it, especially the character interactions during that scene, that is the most interesting part to enjoy, and every time I think about it just make me smile. Currently I'm stuck in here trying to finishing this scene not because of it bored me out or anything, but more because of I'm very unskilled in writing conversation in general. Well may be in a sense I am bored because I need to work on a field I'm unskilled about, but I don't even trying to thinking about it being "boring", I sees it as a challenge, and finish writing this scene is an accomplishment for me.

I think the key point of finish writing a "boring" plot is, finding an element within that part which you are passionate about that shall arouse your earnest interest. Writing a long fiction is hard work, and what keep us from persistently continuing this hard work is always only thing: LOVE. The affection towards your fanfic overall, both the good and bad parts about it.

If you think a scene within your fic bored you out, I think it is because you haven't found yet any element within that scene that you love about. Trying to think, what part within that scene interests you? Even that is just a very minor thing, it shall be something that you enjoy to work on it.
About that school classroom conversation scene I had mentioned, what I personally loved in that scene is, the interactions between characters. Despite that scene overall is unexciting and undramatic, as long as I can think of some way to pull some interesting interactions through the characters' dialogues, I'm able to continue working with it without diminishing in the passion.

Sorry it may not be of any help. But that is just my 2 cents on how not to feel tiresome from writing fictions.

 

[AetherX]

If it's boring because it's not important to the story in any way (be it plot, worldbuilding, or character development), then take a break and try to come up with a way to skip it. If it is important, but feels boring anyway, maybe try giving the scene to someone else to read to see what they think.

If you're really stuck, then you could try folding the plot-important elements into something else that's more interesting. Basically, add more layers to it. Write in in a subplot involving development for a likable supporting character or change the setting to something more susceptible to worldbuilding. Stuff like that.

 

[Misfit Angel]

I've never studied this specifically, but...

I'm writing a very dialogue heavy chapter at the moment, and a large chunk of it is done over the phone. Several lines go by of just bland speech with little to break it up, though I'm trying to make at least one of the characters vaguely emotive to spice it up a bit. Is there any sort of rule, official or otherwise, regarding extensive dialogue and how to make it not so monotonous and bland looking?

I'm having a little trouble focusing on my own writing when I'm reading it back, which is strange, and I worry that others will have the same problem.

 

[Morningstar]

I've never studied this specifically, but...

I'm writing a very dialogue heavy chapter at the moment, and a large chunk of it is done over the phone. Several lines go by of just bland speech with little to break it up, though I'm trying to make at least one of the characters vaguely emotive to spice it up a bit. Is there any sort of rule, official or otherwise, regarding extensive dialogue and how to make it not so monotonous and bland looking?

I'm having a little trouble focusing on my own writing when I'm reading it back, which is strange, and I worry that others will have the same problem.

If you plan on using said bookisms I would advise keeping it "bland" instead. I have no other ideas, but it might help to describe the characters doing things between some of the dialogue sentences/paragraphs.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I've never studied this specifically, but...

I'm writing a very dialogue heavy chapter at the moment, and a large chunk of it is done over the phone. Several lines go by of just bland speech with little to break it up, though I'm trying to make at least one of the characters vaguely emotive to spice it up a bit. Is there any sort of rule, official or otherwise, regarding extensive dialogue and how to make it not so monotonous and bland looking?

I'm having a little trouble focusing on my own writing when I'm reading it back, which is strange, and I worry that others will have the same problem.

If the conversation is good enough, it won't matter that there's little to no other action. You'd be best off focusing your attention on polishing up the dialogue as highly as you can. Try and resist the temptation to overcompensate with the old said bookisms and adverbs - I'm a fan of unselfconsciously using both (And damn what the snooty professionals say), but in this case you might end up actually distracting attention away from the dialogue if you get carried away with them