• A new LGBTQ+ forum is now being trialed and there have been changes made to the Support and Advice forum. To read more about these updates, click here.
  • Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

April 2019 Trainers of Fanfiction Announcement

Status
Not open for further replies.

Misfit Angel

Normal is an illusion
Joined
Sep 3, 2013
Messages
2,822
Reaction score
1,308
CyC8vMS.png

April is soon upon us, and we're thinking of hosting another Trainers of Fanfiction event! Unfamiliar with the event? Here is the event as it unfolded in 2018, and here is our submissions form for that event to help give you early ideas of how you might like to contribute. This year's event will see a few changes:

Theme
As this is an event designed solely with community participation in mind, we thought we'd let you choose the theme this year! Last year's theme was geared more towards Journeyfic protagonists and characters that travel a lot either for the plot, or for their job. While discussing the idea for this year's theme, us mods put forward the idea of a theme centered around anti-heroes or roguish types, but recognized such a theme might have limited participation as not everyone has such a character in their story.

So, what are your ideas for themes? Suggest below, and we'll pick the most popular! You may suggest a theme already suggested (which is how we'll count "votes") and you have until Saturday March 23 to suggest a theme!

Artwork
Providing artwork for this event is an ongoing effort of mine. But, I don't consider myself a professional artist and my confidence is a little shaky, so I don't have much to add compared to last year. At the moment, we have the familiar pose for male and female characters from last year's event, as well as two additional poses for female characters [seen here, with some familiar faces from last year!]. I'd like to get a bit more variety in (especially for male characters) so I'll be working alongside Cresselia92 to hopefully achieve this in time for the event to go live.

The choice of artwork for the "overworld" portion will likely remain the same, though I do have a new tree design to show off for those who are interested in the Lanark tileset this year.

When do signups start?
Probably the day of or after we tally up the results of the theme poll, which is probably two weeks from now. Signups themselves will last for two weeks, allowing us time to draft some questions and allowing you time to decide which would best suit your character.
 
Guess I gotta post one of those fics with characters I've been keeping in my pocket. This sounds like a great idea! Not sure if I'll be able to qualify for whatever this year's theme will be, but I'd still love to read interviews of other people's characters.

Also, theme suggestion: antagonists! Most people got an antagonist, right? I know in my writing, the viewpoint character tends to be somewhat detached from their adversaries, with the antagonist pulling the strings behind the scene. Thus, antagonists don't get much time to speak. I'm not sure how well this holds up with other writers, but then again, that's what the suggestion process is for. EDIT: Suggestion retracted, new suggestion below (link to post).

This is awesome. I got some impetuous now to publish longer form writing. Huge thank you to everyone involved!
 
Last edited:
Ooh! May I participate in this? This sounds fun!

Here's a suggestion for a theme: How about interviewing minor characters in stories? There's a lot to a person than what's on the surface, and even characters who don't interact with the important ones have lives, too. Like, maybe a classmate someone interacted with on a limited basis, or a distant relative, or even some guy on the street who hangs out at the local pub. We can make interviews of them and ask questions about their personal lives, interests, how they feel about current events, etc.
 
Ah, so it's back. What a wonderful surprise to see another event here again!

I actually think that the two suggestions above me are really good already, and I don't think that I'll be able to top either of them for various reasons... but I'll throw an idea out there anyway, because who knows?

The suggestion I have right now is family members. Why? Well, what I was thinking is that stories tend to place more focus on characters that directly revolve around the protagonists and their struggle, like antagonists, rivals, friends, traveling companions, and the like. But what about characters outside of the main narrative loop, like, say, the protagonist's parents? What do they think about their child's journey, and what kinds of experiences did they have from when they were younger that might inform their opinion? Or better yet, what if a protagonist has siblings... like a younger brother or sister who has to watch their older sibling leave for a journey or some other reason? What are they thinking about... possibly what they're going to do when they're older, and how their older sibling affects what they decide (or not?). Alternatively, what if they have an older brother or sister? What kinds of experiences did they have when they were their younger sibling's age that would affect their view on things? Is their personality drastically different from that of their younger sibling, and how does that affect their relationship and, by extension, what they think about their actions in the main story?

Now, I'm aware that this isn't a flawless suggestion by any means. My initial thought with this was that, hey, everyone has at least one parent in the Pokémon world, so something like a family member theme should be universal for all characters, right? But then there are characters who may not actually have a "family" in a traditional sense, possibly because their parents are missing, dead, or otherwise so estranged from the storyline that randomly bringing them in wouldn't make any sense. Meanwhile, they may not have other family members around like siblings to represent the theme, either. I'm thinking that something like an antagonist or minor character theme as mentioned above might be more universal than my idea for those reasons, but I'd like to think that it still has enough potential to be considered for voting anyway, so... here it is!
 
If possible, I'd like to retract my earlier suggestion of antagonists and second @InfiniteBakuphoon 's suggestion of family members. Partly because it'd break a potential three-way tie if no one else suggests, partly because it's the most literally "liked" suggestion so far, but most because it's really good. I like it more than my own suggestion, honestly. Family members are too often forgotten or relatively under-developed in Pokémon, which is a shame seeing how influential family members are in real life. I mean, whoever you consider your family to be, whether you love them or hate their guts, they definitely had some influence over your character. And I'd love to see fics attempt to flesh out family, so we get a good picture of how other characters developed before the plot started. It's a personal subject for me, and I really want to see it get picked! #TeamFamily!
 
I also rather like the "family" theme.

I had several theme ideas a while back and my favourite of those not yet mentioned was veteran trainers. Folks who've been doing this since before you were born.

Also, separately to the overarching "Trainers of Fanfiction" concept, I reckon Pokémon of Fanfiction has some mileage for when & if we get around to it.
 
As someone who has "family members" as a central theme for a lot of what I write, I can't disagree with the direction things are going~

That being said, if I were to add in another opinion for what could possibly be done, I think another interesting theme could be something along the lines of "the 9-to-5er." In other words... a character in your world, perhaps a minor or an extra or even some unnamed person, who is watching the plot happen from the sidelines, perhaps wholly uninvolved. How do they perceive the heroes? Or is it completely unknown? Seen around town, what're they doing? Stuff like that. And not to mention... what exactly is a mundane job that's done in your world? Could be something unique and not something we'd see in our world or, just as interesting... something that is?
 
Right, the results are in!
  1. Family members with four votes!
  2. Minor characters
  3. Veteran trainers
  4. 9-to-5er
Thank you for the votes, everyone! We'll be back in about a week with the character sign ups!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom