Sweet Veil
Bright Days
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2010
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Dialogue, I'm curious how you all handle it.
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Have you ever seen a pokemon fanfic that dodges the journey/trainer/pokewar idea in favor of stylized pulp, perhaps swords and science?
I'm having a little trouble with my fic. So the MC for my second act is already on his way to getting his 7th badge. Up until this point, he has been traveling alone. He will meet 2 traveling companions but I'm having issues trying to make it such that he is portrayed as socially awkward due to not having any real friends other than his Pokemon. (My main idea at this point is "I don't need social skills, I'll seduce you with my awkwardness.") Any ideas as to how to write the dialogue between these 3 here would be greatly appreciated.
I'm having a problem writing the opening scene in the third chapter of my fic. The story just moved to a new location - a school, and is introducing a new main character. This character is trying to push his way through a crowd of his fellow students, and they all wear a similar uniform (although if you take the three different colors away, they would be perfectly identical) (four if you invert the color from {color} with white trim to white with {color} trim), and everyone's trying to get to the same place. I know what it looks like in my head, but I've got no idea how to write it.
Now, one thing I've been problems with is the pacing of my fic. I have a journey fic in the works that happens in Unova and a lot of the early chapters happen in east Unova where there are little to no gyms. On one hand it gives an opportunity to instead focuse on the characters and how they interact with other and there's still going to be a good amount of action, but I'm worried it might be boring for the readers. It's sort of like an initial "training" arc before moving on to most of the gym battles, but I'm not sure if that would work out well.
Yes, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. It's a cool concept.
I'm having a little trouble with my fic. So the MC for my second act is already on his way to getting his 7th badge. Up until this point, he has been traveling alone. He will meet 2 traveling companions but I'm having issues trying to make it such that he is portrayed as socially awkward due to not having any real friends other than his Pokemon. (My main idea at this point is "I don't need social skills, I'll seduce you with my awkwardness.") Any ideas as to how to write the dialogue between these 3 here would be greatly appreciated.
To start, what I would do is have the MC not say much at all, just letting the conversation play out between the other two. At the rare times he does talk, he would say things that are oddly private or personally invasive. Depending on his personality, he could be either incredibly friendly to the point of discomfort for a pair of strangers (uncomfortable jokes are a great way to show this), or coldly disinterested. If he ends up saying more than a couple sentences, he would get carried away and start to ramble and go way off topic, like he was narrating his thought process more than trying to actually participate in the conversation.
More overtly, you could also have a scene where he talks to one of his Pokemon in private, venting the issues he's having with dealing with other people in a social context.
Source: real life awkward person.
I was wondering when it's okay to write numbers numerically (ie. 49) or alphabetically (ie. forty-nine). Can they be used interchangeably, or are there conditions to each?
I got a couple questions, plus a few ideas to run by y'all.
1. So, I have virtually the entire first chapter written for my series Lamb to the Slaughter, but it's kinda stagey, mostly involving the main character's inner monologue, and then two long conversations (the first chapter's location is a hospital room where the main character's recuperating from a severe injury). I'm considering starting instead with an action-packed, mysterious prologue, as an interest hook. Should I go ahead and do that, or just post the first chapter?
2. How common or uncommon is it for people here to have gay characters in their fics? 'Cause mine's going to have quite a few. I assume Bulbagarden's chill about that, but you never know.
3. I'm going to have a naming gimmick for my chapter titles, probably. They will all be, or at least incorporate, the names of Pokemon attacks. Like, there might be a chapter titled "The Sweet Scent of Success" or "The Sky Drop". Does this sound like a good idea?
also, I was looking back at earlier in the thread, and there was talk of different villain groups. I'm creating my own, which is sort of if Team Rocket was essentially in charge of a region, and governed it how they saw fit. It's government by criminals. Which is to say, within that region they aren't criminals at all, because they make the laws that define who a criminal is. Also, they're not really unified by a powerful central leader. They have a "boss", sort of, but they're not particularly hands on and care very little about what goes on down below so long as a profit is made. So this organization, known informally by people not part of it as "the Syndicate", is run by five people who each have their own turf, and are not always on the best of terms. The main character, rather than having to stop an evil plot of a cult or gang, has to dismantle an entrenched system that brutalizes Pokemon and people as a matter of course.
I got a couple questions, plus a few ideas to run by y'all.
1. So, I have virtually the entire first chapter written for my series Lamb to the Slaughter, but it's kinda stagey, mostly involving the main character's inner monologue, and then two long conversations (the first chapter's location is a hospital room where the main character's recuperating from a severe injury). I'm considering starting instead with an action-packed, mysterious prologue, as an interest hook. Should I go ahead and do that, or just post the first chapter?
2. How common or uncommon is it for people here to have gay characters in their fics? 'Cause mine's going to have quite a few. I assume Bulbagarden's chill about that, but you never know.
3. I'm going to have a naming gimmick for my chapter titles, probably. They will all be, or at least incorporate, the names of Pokemon attacks. Like, there might be a chapter titled "The Sweet Scent of Success" or "The Sky Drop". Does this sound like a good idea?
also, I was looking back at earlier in the thread, and there was talk of different villain groups. I'm creating my own, which is sort of if Team Rocket was essentially in charge of a region, and governed it how they saw fit. It's government by criminals. Which is to say, within that region they aren't criminals at all, because they make the laws that define who a criminal is. Also, they're not really unified by a powerful central leader. They have a "boss", sort of, but they're not particularly hands on and care very little about what goes on down below so long as a profit is made. So this organization, known informally by people not part of it as "the Syndicate", is run by five people who each have their own turf, and are not always on the best of terms. The main character, rather than having to stop an evil plot of a cult or gang, has to dismantle an entrenched system that brutalizes Pokemon and people as a matter of course.
I got a couple questions, plus a few ideas to run by y'all.
1. So, I have virtually the entire first chapter written for my series Lamb to the Slaughter, but it's kinda stagey, mostly involving the main character's inner monologue, and then two long conversations (the first chapter's location is a hospital room where the main character's recuperating from a severe injury). I'm considering starting instead with an action-packed, mysterious prologue, as an interest hook. Should I go ahead and do that, or just post the first chapter?
2. How common or uncommon is it for people here to have gay characters in their fics? 'Cause mine's going to have quite a few. I assume Bulbagarden's chill about that, but you never know.
3. I'm going to have a naming gimmick for my chapter titles, probably. They will all be, or at least incorporate, the names of Pokemon attacks. Like, there might be a chapter titled "The Sweet Scent of Success" or "The Sky Drop". Does this sound like a good idea?
also, I was looking back at earlier in the thread, and there was talk of different villain groups. I'm creating my own, which is sort of if Team Rocket was essentially in charge of a region, and governed it how they saw fit. It's government by criminals. Which is to say, within that region they aren't criminals at all, because they make the laws that define who a criminal is. Also, they're not really unified by a powerful central leader. They have a "boss", sort of, but they're not particularly hands on and care very little about what goes on down below so long as a profit is made. So this organization, known informally by people not part of it as "the Syndicate", is run by five people who each have their own turf, and are not always on the best of terms. The main character, rather than having to stop an evil plot of a cult or gang, has to dismantle an entrenched system that brutalizes Pokemon and people as a matter of course.
Should really be more involved with this thread. Anyhow:
1. If you are going to do that keep the prologue relatively short. It's probably a good idea not to make it too mysterious - if the prologue looks like a chapter from a completely different story then all you're doing is hooking in readers only to disappoint them. In any case, a first chapter without action need not be a problem if the characterisation is nice and strong. People don't just read stories for the action, and strong characters can be just as good a hook
2. I don't see it often outside shippy fics, and I see it as no bad thing to have gay characters outside that. I doubt I need to warn about stereotyping and so forth
3. I like theme naming for chapters. The only warning I'd have is to be sure that your theme can be repeated through all your chapters, else it'll just become a thorn in your side
See, I wouldn't go for an evil team in government at all if they're not interested in ruling. Governing is hell of a lot of work and even the smallest state has a lot of infrastructure. Yes, it's possible to have a government mostly interested in lining it's pockets, but in my opinion there's always a love of power there as well. I think that your idea would work better using the latter-day Mafia as a template - a very large criminal culture that largely gets along because it's much better business that way
So, I'm having a bit of a tough time figuring out what to do with the next chapter of Storm Island. Basically, the next area the characters are visiting is Slate Valley, a large quarry that's being used to fuel the construction of the nearby city. It's such a massive place that it's basically like a national park, having a visitor's center and stuff.
What I'm wondering is how to actually write the chapter. Not much happens until the end, and I'm thinking of tossing the characters into a tour group aimed at learning about the area. I'm wondering if a really technical and wordy lesson in geology (admittedly not my area of knowledge) from the perspective of a tour group would be interesting, but outside of that I have absolutely no idea of what to put in the chapter. I thought about a training montage, but that doesn't get the ball rolling for the chapter's finale.
So, basically, the question is: would readers of a work of fiction be interested enough in a lesson about something to continue reading to the end? I'm of the mind that learning is a good thing to do (something Andrea stresses in the chapter briefly), but I have a feeling more people are of the opposite opinion. Thoughts?