POPULAR: Simple Questions, Simple Answers

[AceTrainer14]

Thanks for the feedback, this does help me out I think that since it isn't been said like a question than a lack of a question mark is alright. I think it mostly the use of 'who' that seems to confuse Word

 

[Misfit Angel]

So, I'm introducing a few Fakemon in the next chapter of Storm Island, and I'm wondering how to introduce them. The characters have absolutely zero knowledge about them, including even their names. Before when I've introduced Fakemon, the characters associated with them knew a little about them, so I could reveal a bit more. What's even more tricky is that neither of the characters has access to a Pokedex, so they can't just look up information on them.

So how do I introduce them, or specifically the names of them? I'm involving one of the Fakemon in a battle scene, and it's getting pretty tiring write 'the creature' when referring to it, and I'd imagine it wouldn't be fun to read, either.

 

[chaos_Leader]

Does the fakemon have a documented name?

Regardless of whether it doesn't or does, perhaps whoever ends up "owning" the fakemon will name it, give it a personalized nickname, and use that to refer to the fakemon of ambiguous designation.

 

[Misfit Angel]

Every Fakemon I plan to introduce has an in-world documented name, but they may be unfamiliar to others from far away lands. Ones already owned will likely be named outright, or explained to people who are unfamiliar to them. My main concern is wild Pokemon being introduced without any natives around to explain who or what it is. Like, "Oh no, this big bastard charged out of the bushes and is attacking me!" How would I refer to something like that, just flat out name it out of convenience for the reader?

 

[Beth Pavell]

You could have your character give it a nickname, so to speak. You know, it's not a poliwag or whatever, but it reminds them if one, so they call them a sand poliwag or something

 

[chaos_Leader]

Even then, a person who sees a creature and has no name for it will come up with *something* to refer to it and others like it by, for the very same reason you're looking for a name now. They want something convenient in their minds to remember an object or creature by for which they have no name. Like in H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, there was no name for the walking alien vehicles that terrorized the city and land around, but since the vehicles moved on three legs, the character referred to them as "tripods".

Whatever is a convenient, distinct, easy to remember identifying designation for the fakemon could be used.

 

[GhostFingers]

Bit of a problem with a short story i'm working on atm. There's the main character, and then there's the one he loves. The problem is that for the first half of the story, he doesn't know the other's name and i'm trying to avoid overuse of descriptive epithets in place of a name. I can't keep using the pronoun 'he' either, and i can't say 'the man' too much because it's too impersonal.

 

[Lord Kyuubi]

As a thought, the character could give his love a nickname or something? The character himself is going to have to refer to them as something, so by using a nickname, you could solve both the name he gives them and how you talk about them in the text. Just a suggestion.

 

[Kallyle]

Okay, so I kind of want to do a crossover Fanfic involving Kill la Kill, and I've got a couple of ideas on possible plots:

• Ryuko Matoi falls into the Pokémon world, where it turns out Senketsu has been turned into as a Shuppet. She has to defeat the Kalos Elite Four to return home.
• Team Rocket fall into a rift in space, causing them to land in the world of Kill la Kill. After seeing the strength of the Goku Uniforms and the technology Nudist Beach has, they make numerous attempts to steal those items so they can use it back home. Hilarity ensues!

Which one of these sounds more appealing?

 

[CrystaI]

Okay, so I kind of want to do a crossover Fanfic involving Kill la Kill, and I've got a couple of ideas on possible plots:

• Ryuko Matoi falls into the Pokémon world, where it turns out Senketsu has been turned into as a Shuppet. She has to defeat the Kalos Elite Four to return home.
• Team Rocket fall into a rift in space, causing them to land in the world of Kill la Kill. After seeing the strength of the Goku Uniforms and the technology Nudist Beach has, they make numerous attempts to steal those items so they can use it back home. Hilarity ensues!

Which one of these sounds more appealing?

Neither of the two.

First thing first, why the crossover must be in the format of "character of canon A suddenly transfer to universe of canon B"? Can't it be the setting of canon A adapt to or even exist in the universe of canon B, where then it doesn't have the problem of implausibility of that fundamental phenomenon of abrupt dimensional traveling, and no more the trouble of looking for methods to dimensionally travel back to respective canon universe of respective character(s).

Being a crossover story cognoscenti (Nah, I'm just a general fanfic writer currently working on a crossover fic, but studied deeply into the crossover category of story-writing before I even started to plan my current fic), I'm strict within this field. I personally don't favor crossover fics where writer uses dimensional canon travel as the foundation to establish crossover. There are many ways to establish crossover story, but from my personal experience and personal opinion, the format of "character of canon A suddenly transfer to universe of canon B" is just generally speaking the most poorly written kind.

 

[Kallyle]

Okay, so I kind of want to do a crossover Fanfic involving Kill la Kill, and I've got a couple of ideas on possible plots:

• Ryuko Matoi falls into the Pokémon world, where it turns out Senketsu has been turned into as a Shuppet. She has to defeat the Kalos Elite Four to return home.
• Team Rocket fall into a rift in space, causing them to land in the world of Kill la Kill. After seeing the strength of the Goku Uniforms and the technology Nudist Beach has, they make numerous attempts to steal those items so they can use it back home. Hilarity ensues!

Which one of these sounds more appealing?

Neither of the two.

First thing first, why the crossover must be in the format of "character of canon A suddenly transfer to universe of canon B"? Can't it be the setting of canon A adapt to or even exist in the universe of canon B, where then it doesn't have the problem of implausibility of that fundamental phenomenon of abrupt dimensional traveling, and no more the trouble of looking for methods to dimensionally travel back to respective canon universe of respective character(s).

Being a crossover story cognoscenti (Nah, I'm just a general fanfic writer currently working on a crossover fic, but studied deeply into the crossover category of story-writing before I even started to plan my current fic), I'm strict within this field. I personally don't favor crossover fics where writer uses dimensional canon travel as the foundation to establish crossover. There are many ways to establish crossover story, but from my personal experience and personal opinion, the format of "character of canon A suddenly transfer to universe of canon B" is just generally speaking the most poorly written kind.

You're right in that it is a cliche fanfiction plot. In regards to the first story, I can see that something like that might not catch anyone's interest. However, my second idea will at least partially addresses your first concern as why the plot needs to involve dimensional travel.

As you are aware, every technological venture the TRio has participated in fails, even if they just end up piggyback off of someone else's invention. Jessie, James, and Meowth are pretty stubborn villains with high-resolve, so they likely aren't going to blame themselves for their failures. Thus, our TRio ends up coming to the conclusion that the reason they keep failing is because their world's technology just plain sucks. Thus, they end up deliberately looking for other-dimensional technology that can aide in their schemes. From their, they strike a deal with some Mad Scientist. Our TRio also hopes that by doing so, they can to impress the Boss by delivering and distributing other-dimensional tech among their fellow Team Rocket members.

In a nutshell, the TRio are basically deliberately looking to other dimensions for better equipment in hopes that they can impress their superiors. Of course, given how badass everyone in the world of Kill la Kill, it's not as if they'll succeed. This fic isn't to be taken too seriously, as it's supposed to focus on the humor of Team Rocket failing against better written, more badass Anime characters. It's an Excuse Plot.

 

[zoroarctic]

First thing first, why the crossover must be in the format of "character of canon A suddenly transfer to universe of canon B"? Can't it be the setting of canon A adapt to or even exist in the universe of canon B, where then it doesn't have the problem of implausibility of that fundamental phenomenon of abrupt dimensional traveling, and no more the trouble of looking for methods to dimensionally travel back to respective canon universe of respective character(s).

Being a crossover story cognoscenti (Nah, I'm just a general fanfic writer currently working on a crossover fic, but studied deeply into the crossover category of story-writing before I even started to plan my current fic), I'm strict within this field. I personally don't favor crossover fics where writer uses dimensional canon travel as the foundation to establish crossover. There are many ways to establish crossover story, but from my personal experience and personal opinion, the format of "character of canon A suddenly transfer to universe of canon B" is just generally speaking the most poorly written kind.

Dimensional canon travel is not the most creative method, but I generally don't find it problematic as long as it's done within reason. That is, dimensional travel needs to be an established or implied possibility in one of the series involved. That should be easy for Pokemon fics since the series features alternate universes, dimensional transportation technology and several Pokemon with the ability to warp time and space, including one that seems to do it for kicks.

 

[CrystaI]

You're right in that it is a cliche fanfiction plot. In regards to the first story, I can see that something like that might not catch anyone's interest. However, my second idea will at least partially addresses your first concern as why the plot needs to involve dimensional travel.

As you are aware, every technological venture the TRio has participated in fails, even if they just end up piggyback off of someone else's invention. Jessie, James, and Meowth are pretty stubborn villains with high-resolve, so they likely aren't going to blame themselves for their failures. Thus, our TRio ends up coming to the conclusion that the reason they keep failing is because their world's technology just plain sucks. Thus, they end up deliberately looking for other-dimensional technology that can aide in their schemes. From their, they strike a deal with some Mad Scientist. Our TRio also hopes that by doing so, they can to impress the Boss by delivering and distributing other-dimensional tech among their fellow Team Rocket members.

In a nutshell, the TRio are basically deliberately looking to other dimensions for better equipment in hopes that they can impress their superiors. Of course, given how badass everyone in the world of Kill la Kill, it's not as if they'll succeed. This fic isn't to be taken too seriously, as it's supposed to focus on the humor of Team Rocket failing against better written, more badass Anime characters. It's an Excuse Plot.

If you already expected the reactions of reader, and had plot planning to make an interesting story, then really you don't need ask for opinions of other people about story idea. Just go for whatever plot you wanted to write, even that story have a shallow excuse plot twist the physics of universe where common sense don't make sense, as long as you enjoy in writing it out, then go for it.
Because unlike fictional works written for publication by professional author where they make living from it, fan-fiction is merely a hobby for fun. So whether your work appeals to the majority readers is really not a necessary concern you need to trouble yourself. Unless, if hoping to appeal to the fandom is your very reason to write.

And this will be my personal opinion on your intended crossover story. I'm not interested in the Pokemon anime TRio, nor the anime Kill la Kill, so I'll definitely not be interested in your work. Besides, even this is just a fanfic but not professional work, but since you are writing a fictional narrative prose but not game scenario, story should then be the main focus, hence don't just come up with some excusable half-assed plot for the mere sake of making a crossover. BTW, do you even really know what is Excuse Plot? Judging from your planning, this is rather more like a silly slapstick fic then minimal scenario made for mere gameplay purpose.

Dimensional canon travel is not the most creative method, but I generally don't find it problematic as long as it's done within reason. That is, dimensional travel needs to be an established or implied possibility in one of the series involved. That should be easy for Pokemon fics since the series features alternate universes, dimensional transportation technology and several Pokemon with the ability to warp time and space, including one that seems to do it for kicks.

May be let me rephrase my opinion about dimensional canon travel. I said I don't favor crossover fics where writer uses dimensional canon travel as the foundation to establish crossover, that is because writer uses dimensional travel merely as a plot starting device for the mere sake of making a story into a crossover, but didn't think of the logic behind such phenomenon of dimensional travel, nor the necessity and importance of it within the plot itself. So in this context dimensional travel is simply a gimmick to establish a crossover, nothing more and nothing less.

Especially if there doesn't exist any sort of interdimensional travel device, whether that is something already existed within the canon material or fanfic writer make one up from thin air, then plot of such crossover fic will just seems rather impractical and implausible.

 

[NoirGrimoir]

Not a fan of crossovers, personally, especially when the physics and tones of the two universes don't line up. 99% percent of them suck and contain no depth. They are basically an excuse to throw a bunch of characters together and write boring conversations where people from each universe ask about everything that's happening.

BUT, if you don't care about that and are going to write one anyway, the first plot is by far the superior one, IMO. I have seen Kill La Kill. Personally I'm way more interested in Ryoko as a protagonist in a pokemon story, then Team Rocket tromping around Kill La Kill earth, doing the same stuff they always do, just with Kill La Kill Characters exclaiming about it. Having it take place in the pokemon world at least means it's more accessible to the readers on this site as well. Protags in pokemon pretty much start off at ground zero with a mysterious past anyway, so it won't be that strange or unexpected a story for our readers. Also, it has a clear beginning-middle-end written into the concept, whereas TR bumbling around doesn't. Without clear goals it's hard to shape a story into something coherent that someone might want to read, much less you actually finishing whatever it ends up being.

Also, I scanned a couple of the other post about this, and "via mad scientist" is a VERY lame way to hop the dimensions when you have DIMENSION CONTROLLING POKEMON BUILT INTO THE CANON. If you aren't going to take advantage of what each universe actually has going for it in the story, then I think you should think a little harder about what exactly you want out of this kind of fic.

 

[zoroarctic]

Forgive me if this has already been asked, but I don't feel like going through 30+ pages. What is the best way to narrate Pokemon combat? I don't read any of the manga adaptations and haven't really watched the anime since the Deoxys movie, so I don't have much to use as a reference.

Not a fan of crossovers, personally, especially when the physics and tones of the two universes don't line up. 99% percent of them suck and contain no depth. They are basically an excuse to throw a bunch of characters together and write boring conversations where people from each universe ask about everything that's happening.

Even though I like the idea of crossovers, you are unfortunately right. The vast majority of crossover fics I read fall into this category, and most of them never go anywhere because the author didn't plan anything after the exposition.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Best I can suggest is - and I know people don't like hearing this - to just read. Read as much combat from as many different authors as you can, and study the way they put the scenes together

 

[Lord Kyuubi]

Forgive me if this has already been asked, but I don't feel like going through 30+ pages. What is the best way to narrate Pokemon combat? I don't read any of the manga adaptations and haven't really watched the anime since the Deoxys movie, so I don't have much to use as a reference.

I doubt I have anything hugely insightful or valuable to contribute, but...

A point worth raising is that it's important to avoid the trap of 'listing attacks'. A written action scene is obviously very different to an ingame battle. Describing what a pokemon is doing is a lot more important than slapping a label on it. Writing, for example, 'the zigzagoon rushed forwards and pounced, slamming against the patrat and knocking him down' obviously reads more dramatically and descriptively than 'zigzagoon attacked patrat with a powerful Take Down', even if the latter was still a little more than just stating the move.

This may be more my own approach, and I'm not sure how many other people write like this, but I don't think it matters if you can't label explicitly what move a pokemon is using, as long as you can describe what they're doing. I try to avoid naming moves, except for specific things like a Shadow Ball, where there's nothing else you can really call it.

Another thing to bear in mind is that fights will typically be too fast for the trainers to keep track of everything. They won't be reasonably able to keep out a constant stream of orders and directions, so pokemon to an extent need to be taught in advance about fighting and strategies and things, and then the trainers can try to give whatever remaining advice, including specific commands and finer points, as necessary in battle. You may want to have them work out specific techniques or sequences of actions for situations in advance, so a trainer could call out something like 'standard attacking set', and their zigzagoon would know that meant to feint a pounce, dodge around them and bite the enemy pokemon's backside, or something.

Well, that turned out longer than I'd expected. Hopefully something of use came out here, and not totally inane rambling. Probably the latter, though.

 

[CrystaI]

Forgive me if this has already been asked, but I don't feel like going through 30+ pages. What is the best way to narrate Pokemon combat? I don't read any of the manga adaptations and haven't really watched the anime since the Deoxys movie, so I don't have much to use as a reference

Maybe these threads could helps you out. Sorry but you need to read like 30+ pages, because all of these are just important yet merely the basic knowledges:

http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/f455/writing-pokemon-battles-146245/
http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/f455/adapting-game-moves-mechanics-stories-162187/
http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/f455/lessons-21-planning-writing-action-scenes-169602/

And finally my advice. There just doesn't any "best" way to write battles. Writers write in game-verse tended to follow game mechanics systematically and mechanically. Writers write in anime-verse tended to make battles light-hearted where no one may get hurt, but yet many creative strategies are implanted. Writers having their own mix of both the game and anime tended to do both. And for me personally, although I'm writing a crossover between Pokemon and Digimon, but inside my head I imagine it to be action-packed, fierce and aggressive, realistic and yet a bit coolness-exaggerated according to the Rule of Cool, somehow like watching battles of Sword Art Online, or the superpower Dragonball, or even something super-remote such as battle animations of Super Robot Wars Original Generation games.

 

[KrspaceT]

I am considering for my story (which is a Peggy Sue Ash readventure) for Ash's Goomy to show up in Kanto. I have a way it can easily do so, I just am not sure if I should. Would Goomy/Goodra's battle abilities and moves be of any use in Kanto or would it just be a pointless tag on.

I'm thinking Goomy/Sligoo vs Erika or Janine. Sounds doable?

 

[Misfit Angel]

So, 'photoshopping', a term broadly accepted in modern English, defined as the act of doctoring a photo. Would this term fit in well in the Pokemon franchise, assuming the Photoshop software probably doesn't exist, at least not by that name? You could draw parallels between photoshopping and chopshopping, I guess. Or am I worrying the small details too much, again?

For reference, the plan is to introduce a character who's main expertise is photography, which would manipulation of the photos he took. He will play a major role (most likely? I don't know how much 'screen time' he'd get) and his profession is important for the purpose he'll serve. So while it may seem minor, it might not be. Or maybe I'm just worrying about the term too much.