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Obsolete: Fic/Author of the Month

Re: Fic of the Month - The Barefoot Fighting Genius!-Kyuuketsuki

At long last, here is the interview for our latest Awards winner--Kyuuketsuki's "The Barefoot Fighting Genius"!

How were you inspired to write the story?

One of my inspirations was my love for Maylene, who was such a compelling character in my play-through of Platinum that I decided to write a story about her rise to become a Gym Leader; she’s a character that strives to be better, which resonated with my second inspiration.

I wanted to write the story to get over my fear of canon characters, and not being able to do them justice. I found that fear seeping into others of my own fan-fictions, when I was worried that I would somehow write my original characters wrong. I decided to take on a story that would include many canon characters, and Maylene’s potential caught my eye.

What were you considering early on that got taken out?

Very early on, I wanted Maylene to travel to Hoenn with Brawly, but I realised that there’s nothing that Maylene could learn there that she couldn’t in other regions. At that point, I had worked an integral part for Brawly in the story, so my sentiments prevented me from cutting him out completely, and I settled for having him as a supporting character. Bruno was also supposed to have a larger part in the story, but he got cut out when I realised that there was no way I could repair his relationship to Maylene. Moreover, I wanted to include Janine in the story, as I found her to be very similar to Maylene.

The original plan was for Maylene to realise that her friendship with Candice and Gardenia was very shallow, which is foreshadowed in the first arc, and to be close friends with Janine. I felt that that was not only unfair to Candice and Gardenia, but also to Maylene’s character; giving up that easily isn’t something I see Maylene doing, especially considering that at that point in the story, I had planned for Maylene to have suffered many shocks and obstacles, and for her to come close to giving up so many times, and doing it once more was going to be unreasonable.

Lastly, there was an arc of twenty chapters planned, all to fill the gap between facing her as a Gym Leader is Platinum, and battling her in the Battleground. The arc was also supposed to offer more character development for characters that already appeared, such as Roark. Ultimately, that arc got taken out because it would have detracted from the actual end of the story, which is to happen at §50, and only served as a very long epilogue.

Do you have a particular favorite character?

Other than the previously mentioned Maylene, I found myself strangely enamored with Crasher Wake and Pryce. Crasher Wake was a character I looked down on at the start, and only came to like him halfway through the story, when I realised that his loudness was the only thing I didn’t like about him. His role in the story remained the same, but I found myself enjoying it whenever I had to write him.

Pryce wasn’t a character I had given much thought before, but his appearances raised him to be one of my favorites, and the way he was so distant with the kids was a surprisingly nice change when all the other Gym Leaders welcomed them. He also served as great character development for Candice, and I feel it was enough to justify cutting away the 20-chaptered arc for her.

Were there any scenes you enjoyed writing? What was the most challenging scene to write?

The three chapters so far from Battle Arc were fun, and I am most proud of them in the story. All the scenes were very enjoyable to write, as I had been building up to them for two years, but the scene between Maylene and the old lady wasn’t something originally planned, and I added it into the chapter as I was writing it, and it quickly became my favourite scene of the arc so far. I feel that it neatly summarised many aspects of Maylene’s character development to that point, although it was passive. If that scene had happened at the start of the story, it would have played out very differently.

When I decided to cut Bruno from the story, I knew that there had to be a final scene with him in order to conclude his character, as his appearance before that built up to something that can’t be just waved away. Ultimately, his scenes in the Knot Arc became a task to complete, and a chore more than anything else. Considering that it was also Brawly’s final scene, I found it very hard to do both of the characters justice, and it ended being a lackluster goodbye that not only damaged their characters, but also Maylene’s.

If you had to write the story over again, what would you do differently?

I’d completely eliminate Bruno from the plan. His first encounter with Maylene and the effect he had on her could easily be replicated in her encounter with Riley; it would only be emotional, but ultimately, that is what became of Bruno’s effect of Maylene. His scene with Gardenia was unnecessary, and his final appearance was only there to tie off his first one, and by association, it would be unneeded.

Any advice for aspiring authors?

As always, keep writing and trying to improve yourself. It gets repeated a lot, and I didn't take that advice seriously at the start, but when I came to accept it, I had more fun writing with minimal reviews that I did at the early stage of the story. But still, appreciate all the comments you get, and read them over many times, because no matter how meaningless you may perceive it, you'll end up finding a gem in it that will immensely help you.
 
Re: Fic of the Month -Jim: The Hero's Journey-TPrower

Our Fic of the Month this month is TPrower's "Jim: The Hero's Journey"

What made you decide to base the fic on BW as opposed to BW 2? That said, will there be any elements from BW 2 at all?

I've been trying for ages to write a good Pokemon fic, but this is the only one that I've been able to make progress on. Generation 5 is one of my favorite generations thus far. As for elements of BW2, yes, later into the story, there will be some elements of that.


Which of your characters is your favorite, and why?

That's hard to say, as on the board, we haven't met too many of them, but the favorite I've written up to this point (even if it's not posted) is Oshawott. His personality is a lot of fun to work with.

What were some things you considered early on that didn't make the cut?

The possibility of the Guy being Jim's father, but he isn't.


If you had to write the fic over, what would you do differently?

Start off as I did with the newly edited version, and leave little room for mistakes.

Any advice for aspiring authors?

I'm not sure what I can say, except to go with what you love. Even if the critiques become a little harsh, don't throw in the towel because of that. Learn from your mistakes, adapt, amend
 
Re: Fic of the Month -Jim: The Hero's Journey-TPrower

Zce here doing FOTM while LT writes our Academy lesson for the month :) When I looked through past interviews, I was stunned to see that this story had never been featured despite being around for such a long time. So for this month I thought I would give some special attention to one of our longest running fics, a feat few authors on here seem to reach. So join me in celebrating Flaze's epic, Pokemon Academy Year II: Second Year Rhapsody


What made you want to write a sequel? Did you think it would be difficult trying to follow up on your previous story?

I definitely did think it was difficult, I always planned for it to be more than just one though; but yeah I spent a long time wondering about how I was going to go about it, it’s not like books don’t try and pull off sequels but it would be difficult for new people to get into it without reading the previous one, it’s not like it’s a famous book it’s just a fic and I can’t expect people to read the first one.

So with that in mind I decided to try and make it so that it relied the least on what was done before, obviously there are things that are mentioned here and there but with that I decided to just give a quick explanation of it rather than break into expo speak or just keep going and ignoring the fact that the people reading probably don’t know about it.

I think the key to writing a sequel in a series is to just know what you’re gonna do and how it’s going to affect things, for one I wanted DR’s plot to be mostly standalone so that SYR wouldn’t rely so much of it, aside from that because DR was more plot heavy while SYR is more character focused the characters weren’t as develop so people could still see how they are and how they grow.

What inspires your storylines and characters?

That’s actually a tough question to answer xD

Obviously everyone has something that just jumps at them and they think “oh I should do this and that” I’m a bit different in a way, when I think up of storylines I usually think of something that I would really want to do or see, I do want every storyline to influence the story and the characters in its own way. So what I think of when I make a storyline is how it’s going to affect the characters as a whole.

There are a lot of storylines that I thought up back when I first started DR such as the Celadon City arc, I mostly came up with that after I started to think of how much it bothered me that the male and female leads of stories usually don’t get together till the end and I wanted to get them together at a spot where it was nowhere near the end; I wanted this story to not just be about two people that like each other but how those to people deal with life when they’re together.

One thing about my storylines is that nothing is certain. One day I may think up of something to do and then the next day I’m changing it around or adding something else. The Enforcers, the recent “antagonists” in my fic were an idea that I came up with on the spot, like a week before I first started writing about them or so, originally they weren’t supposed to appear and their arc itself was nonexistent.

Memento Mori is another special case, while I had decided that I wanted to go with an evil organization from the start I didn’t quite started to think up the kinks for it till I actually had to include them, and the name itself is something I decided to use after I found the phrase online and it just screamed at me.

As for how I think of my characters…I honestly don’t know, back when I started Dragon’s Roar the only characters that I had actually thought up were Reggie, Miko, Marie, Jack, Zivok and Darren everyone else was someone that just sort of came at me at a moment’s notice.

The biggest example of this case is Fin who ended up becoming one of my favorite characters to write, originally Fin was only a character that I decided to introduce on a whim while Reggie was off trying to catch some Pokemon in chapter 2 of Dragon’s Roar, but I liked writing him so I decided to keep him as supporting character; then as the story went by I just began to use him and include him more and more till he ended up becoming the de facto leader of the group, even though he’s not the protagonist.

This applies to other characters like Valerie, Claudia and Allison who all three came to me on the spot. Kevin Samuels is another interesting take since I originally created him so that he would be a false romantic interest for Miko in SYR, which ended up working out better than I thought.

Why did you want to come up with your own original Pokemon? How difficult was that process of creating one from scratch?

Honestly, I probably should’ve spent more time thinking up Chigon than what I did.

When I first came up with the idea for him I was still planning what I wanted with my story. The problem was that the idea I had for an academy story was too…ordinary, even cliché, so I though that I wanted to do something that was out there and unique. Now originally that’s what led me to create Reggie and his all underdog/useless trainer feel, but it was actually half way through the prologue that I thought up of the idea of Chigon. Basically I figured that if I used a fakemon it would already be different.

Now originally I based Chigon off (appearance and sort of ability wise) this creature from an anime called Dragon Drive, I was currently watching that anime at the time and I actually got Reggie’s and Miko’s names from there too (I was 15, sue me) Anyways after I had created him it all just started coming to me.

I did realize that if I was gonna go with a fakemon I had to do it right, after all it is a tough concept to handle. So I tried to work Chigon’s kinks out as best as I could, even in regards to his different evolutions; with that I put most of my focus on making sure that even if he was a fakemon with a special ability that he would still be…a Pokemon.

So in the end the factor that came to my head at the last minute ended up becoming the life of my story, it’s really funny but it’s a fact I enjoy.

Do you think writing a story in arcs is a more beneficial way of writing?

Hmmmmm….well I wouldn’t really say it’s more beneficial, I think that when it comes to fanfics most people write in arcs since it’s a bit easier. With an arc it gives you more space to develop your characters, of course this isn’t something you see in books or movies as those rely on an ongoing plot or drama, while an arc is a situation that is solved in a short amount of time and is usually seen more in normal tv shows, cartoons and anime.

I think that splitting the story in arcs gives me a better chance to focus on the characters and how they react to different situations. Aside from that, it fits more in terms of the type of story, in this case since it’s a school life story the arcs symbolize the daily life of the characters and as we all know daily life is composed of different situations that happen all at different intervals, one day you may meet one person and one year later you may end up getting into a fight with said person. While my fic isn’t exactly that realistic either I do like to make it so that the arcs don’t exactly close in a sense, some arcs are left with an open conclusion that is settled in a later arc, others introduce elements that won’t come up till later such as the Enforcers.

Essentially I think that it makes it easier for me to keep track of things and to space it out more, I worked with a consistent plot in Dragon’s Roar while also splitting it with arcs and yes it did work but at times it felt strange when you had one action arc followed by a simple slice of life story arc.

On that note, doing it on arcs fits better with my idea of what I wanted. The subtitle is Second Year Rhapsody and a rhapsody in music is different types of music combined to make one sound, similar to how I combine different events in the character’s life to create the story.

What is the best thing about writing Dragon’s Roar?

Hmmmm…it gave me a chance to really work on a story and actually put my mind into things. Back before I started working with Dragon’s Roar I wrote a journey fic called Pokemon New Generations; but the thing is that fic was just crazy. It wasn’t crazy like a lot of weird fics that do whatever they like, but I definetily didn’t think things through as much as I did with Dragon’s Roar; where I spent hours and even days thinking of what to do, how to do it and how it was gonna work out.

It was also the first time that I can say I actually grew to love my characters. Before that every fic I’ve done was as if the characters were just…things I wanted to use, even now I can’t say there was a character in New Generations or any of my pre Academy fics that I enjoyed writing as much as Reggie, Darren, Valerie or Fin.

It was also the fic that officially put me on the map, before that I was just some guy that posted fics and never kept up with them and the only fic that I did keep up with was a fic no one even saw. I can’t say I have a lot of people following but I’ve got a lot more people that have read and enjoyed my fic compared to when I first started.

What can be some of the challenges?

Well no story is easy to write that much is obvious. One of the biggest problems I find myself in when writing for this fic is that sometimes it’s hard to choose what I want to happen in the chapter. There are times when I decide I want to do something but then end up changing it and then there are other times where I end up wanting to do something else and then have to change some of the others things I’ve planned.

Aside from that because I have a lot characters, it’s sometimes tough to decide who’s going to be in the spotlight along with Reggie or any of the other “mains” on that note another thing I have problem with is deciding what the characters should do, sometimes I have to think through things and try to decide if what the character is doing will actually match with who they are.

An example of me changing things around a lot would be the Enforcers as I mentioned before, after I decided to go with them I had to change things around as a way to fit them in and since they became important I can’t just push them back either.

Another difficulty is one all of us have, which is life. I like to write, I really do but when my studies and my course get in the way and I finally get some free time I can’t say writing is the first thing on my mind, it’s there, it definitely is but it’s not the first time I wanna do (the first thing I wanna do is nap fyi)

Do you have any favorite scenes from the series?

I have a lot of favorite scenes to be honest. Amongst my faves is Reggie’s first meeting with Claudia in chapter 5. I tried to make the chapter as emotional and heart felt as possible as it was a sort of break through in Reggie’s character to meet someone that had been an outcast like himself.

Honestly, every scene involving Fin counts as a scene I enjoy, the character is just something that comes natural to me and I never know what he’s gonna do. Whether it’d be chasing Darren around cause he thinks he has a girlfriend, chasing down a bunch of Black Knight grunts so that he could rescue Skyla or stealing the answers to a test only to end up failing anyway or just how he’s always there to encourage the others and even yell out in the middle of a crowd like he did for Reggie in chapter 35…or sweet talk his way into a girl’s pants…that’s just Fin all the way.

But my favorite scene of all would have to be Reggie’s confession in chapter 25. I had thought of that scene since I first started the story and when I finally got a chance to write that chapter, to finally be able to convey all those emotions I just…I just couldn’t think of what to write to be honest. That scene remains to be my favorite scene because it’s the biggest point of growth for both characters, especially when I think to how they were when the story started and how much they had changed and how much they will change afterwards.

On Darren’s point my favorite scene was actually the scene in chapter 17 when he’s shown to be taken down and defeated by Keith from the Enforcers. Till that point Darren had remained as the strongest character in the series and had a mostly perfect record, and to just have a character that I had created to be that way lying on the ground defeated was new to me.

What are your tips to any up and coming writers?

My tip….do whatever you want.

Really, just write whatever you have in your head, when it comes to story it doesn’t really matter. I remembered I spent a long time wondering about what story I should write, but not because I wanted to write it but rather cause I wanted something to get myself noticed and that was my mistake. Back with New Generations I always tried to pull something off to attract more people and every other fic I started and never finished before academy was an attempt to just attract more people.

Cause honestly I was jealous of writers like Legacy and Gastly’s Mama, I didn’t understand and I was just dumb. That’s when I came up with this story. It was when I finally realized that all I needed was to just write what I wanted and be happy with it, it wasn’t till I put all of my work and love into this story that I was able to really see what writing was about, and I admit I was an idiot for that.

I can give you tips on how to create a character, or a world, or a plot, or how to better your grammar and stuff but you can all those things anywhere. What I am going to say is that if you want to write, seriously want to write then just start…by writing, throw caution to the wind and just type what comes into your head, create the characters and plot you want and enjoy yourself because at the end of the day that’s what counts…proofreading also counts by the way.
 
Re: Fic of the Month - Super Luigi: Battle Star Legend-Kelleo

LT here with our first non-Pokemon fic in some time--Kelleo's "Super Luigi: Battle Star Legend"!


Why focus on Luigi? (besides the fact he needs a bit more love)

Oh, a few different reasons. First being that he's my favorite character in the Super Mario series and one of my favorite video game characters of all time. I grew up with him, in fact, since my very first game was a Mario title, if memory serves. And I played as Luigi any time I could because I favored his abilities and design over Mario's. Then came games like Mario Party, Mario Golf 64, and Luigi's Mansion and that's where I really started to love him. He's funny, a bit cowardly, yet very courageous, and the Mario Party manual also states that he's quite bright, and even smarter than Mario. Which makes sense to me because Mario has the brawn and that leaves Luigi to have the brains. Another reason is that Luigi is easier for me to write because he has a more defined personality than Mario. I also wanted to flesh out the idea that he doesn't like being in Mario's shadow (which is actually true) by having him grow quite jealous and determined to take his brother's place, especially since we really don't see Mario thanking Luigi for his aid very often. Lastly, I believed Luigi deserved a full adventure of his own, something bigger than Luigi's Mansion (this was before New Super Luigi U existed, of course).

What inspired you to write the story?

The biggest inspiration was Luigi's Mansion for the Gamecube. Another inspiration was my belief that Daisy needed to be in more mainstream Mario titles instead of just the sports games. Lastly, the Super Mario Galaxy titles, which I've taken several power-ups and a few other ideas from.

What did you do to have Luigi's adventure be unique and not a carbon copy of Mario's adventure?

I made it different by also incorporating elements from Luigi's Mansion, like having to use a Poltergust once again to capture ghosts and help Professor E. Gadd. I also made it more adventure-like than a platforming game. You can think of it as taking the basic adventure style of The Legend of Zelda series and sticking Mario characters and settings in it, just without true dungeons as in The Legend of Zelda. It's pretty much the reverse of what The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures is, in fact. It takes Zelda characters and settings and places them in a Mario-esque 2D game style, just with a top-down point of view in the levels.

What was the most challenging part to write? The most fun?

Actually starting the chapters is the most challenging part, if you ask me, haha. I always seem to have trouble getting a piece of writing started. Designing some of the locations Luigi explored was a bit of a challenge at times too.

Any advice for aspiring authors?

Yes! No matter what kind of stories you write, keep going! Don't give up because a few people say it needs work. Keep practicing and following advice and you'll be just fine. And if you find you need help revising and editing, there's nothing wrong with recruiting a beta reader or co-author to help add the finishing touches.
 
Re: Fic of the Month - How to Conquer Kanto in Eight Easy Steps-AceTrainer14

LT here with our Best Story winner, Ace Trainer14's "How to Conquer Kanto in Eight Easy Steps". You may remember it was a FOTM in the past, but it emerged the very clear winner during judging.

The interview:

Alaska's been through a lot since I last saw her--what steps did you take to be sure her response to traumatic events was realistic?

I just thought that I had to make her as realistic as possible but also stick to the character I have been crafting ever since the first blog. Some of the things, such as being manipulated by the rich and wealthy and seeing horrific acts of crime, require a very passionate response, and you also have to take into account that Alaska is a 13 year old girl who wants none of what is happening and only ever ends up doing these things by chance really, unlike in the games where the main character quite willingly goes after terrorists and criminals. From a real world perspective, that is rather unrealistic, so I am trying to make Alaska a realistic person in an unrealistic world, which is one of the smaller themes I have been trying to develop throughout the story.

If you had to write the fic over again, would you change anything? Why or why not?

I think if I went back to the start, there are some of the recurring elements I have not included as much so I would like to get those in sooner. Also, I think some of the earlier chapters were rather disorganised and did not have a lot of substance or make a lot of sense in the wider scope of things. I think in the earlier parts of the story I felt that I needed to make things dramatic in order to make the series interesting, but I can see now that having massive explosions and such every chapter is not necessarily the best way to move things along. My most recent arc was a nice departure from that with a more slowed down story that focussed more on Sandy and gave her story more substance, and I would like to have more slow chapters as the story progresses. The upcoming arc will feature a nice mix with character development mixed in between a cat and mouse game, and I look forward to being able to slow but still dramatic sequence.

What were some things/characters you considered, but didn't make the cut?

Most of the smaller storylines or conversations didn't make the cut due to time and length. For example, I was going to have an in depth conversation about Alaska and her family at some point, but there never is really a good time for that to be brought up, and I have long wanted a big dissection of events between Alaska and Sandy, but again that would take up a whole chapter of people simply discussing things we have already seen, so I need to split it up and find a better way to handle it. There have not been any characters I have cut, though Mitchell and the reality stars have had less focus than I would have liked.

Do you plan on writing more about these characters when the story is complete? Why or why not?

I don't want to give anything away, as there are some characters fates I have left undecided, but as my stories take place within the Galacticverse, surviving characters will be featured in other stories though I have not fully decided on anything in stone yet. My Unova stories are set after this, and I think if Alaska ended up there it could be a pretty interesting.

What is your favourite chapter of this story? Why is it your favourite?

I think there are various things that worked together so well, so I will have to run through them all:
- The first blog captured the real sense of humour that I hoped to have running through the whole story, and I am still amused by it to this day.
- Chapter 50-52 where great to write, with Alaska having to make several tough choices and do something I have never done before (had a trainer release a Pokemon), as well the most epic gym battle I have written so far that was genius to write (though I ended up getting a bitchy review on FF.net about it, in which the person got the entire gym set up wrong and told me all my characters should have died, and got offended when I told them they were wrong :p)
- The recent combo of Chapter 59 and the latest blogs and interlude were great to write from the sense that we had Alaska and Sandy laying their heart and soul (referencing FTW) on the table and increasing their bond, and then we had a snapshot into the lives of six other characters, bringing one of my favourite characters Kris Soul into the game, as well as giving both villains and heroes a chance to show off their thoughts.
Then there are just some small scenes I have enjoyed, such as Sandy's first appearance, Alaska, Paige and Darwin jumping off the top floor of the Pewter Museum on a shield, the brain switching saga, and anything to do with Charlotte (the most insane character I have ever created, which is probably why Im the only one that likes her :p) and Clyde, who is the perfect comic relief character.
BUT, the most fun I have ever had writing for this was about Chapter Thirty Six/Seven, where Sandy gets drunk and Alaska and Chloe have an epic cat fight; it got to write several insults that had been swirling around my head for months, and it was just so bitchy and hilarious and got a great response which made it even better.
 
Re: Fic of the Month -Some Rise By Sin-kintsugi

LT here with this month's FOTM--kintsugi's "Some Rise By Sin"



What was your inspiration to write the story?

I got the general inspiration to write Some Rise By Sin after playing The Last Of Us (which, for the uninformed, is an excellent videogame about killing zombies that you should all start reading right now). Granted, there's a general dearth of mushroom-infected humanity in my story, but I really liked the world that TLOU had created--among other things, a world without electricity and filled with people who want to kill the protagonist. While TLOU ended up bypassing a lot of their powerless situations with convenient generators or shake-powered flashlights, there is (no spoilers) a pretty excellent part where one of the characters basically runs around with nothing more than a lead pipe in the middle of a blizzard, trying to survive (while being attacked by various enemies, at that!). I tried to imitate the feel of utter desolation that TLOU created, while still maintaining a radically different storyline that was impacted by my own ideas. In the end, however, Some Rise By Sin boils down to a lot of the same themes that The Last Of Us had--namely, the balance between humanity and survival in the face of an apocalypse.

There's also some heavily Doctor Who-related reasons, but that spoils almost the entirety of the final arc, so I think I'll be playing that hand of cards closer to my chest. I have to admit, though, I'm heavily inspired by what I watch--you are what you read, they say? ^^

What were some things you considered, but didn't make the cut?

One of the most difficult decisions was in my choice of main character--she doesn't have a (revealed) name, for instance, and there's no solid confirmation of what her gender is until the sixth chapter. My first drafts featured a much looser third-person narration, along with a constant travelling companion. I eventually switched to first person because it gave us a much closer view into LeNar's (Le Narrator) mind, and the travelling companion got ditched for plotty reasons and replaced with the loudmouthed, obnoxious Icarus (a murkrow).

But I mean, originally, this was going to be Johto with zombies, so those aren't even the major changes.

What chapter was the most fun to write? The most challenging?

You guys only have five (perhaps six, depending on how well I get my act together) chapters to choose from right now, so I really can't name a chapter that you guys have seen, bwahaha. I've got a ton of raw draft material on my harddrive that is chock-full of spoilers, though, so I guess I'll vaguely reference the nebulous mass of un-edited stuff that I've got going.

There's a ton of deaths coming up, although they won't be coming for a while, but beware: when this story gets dark, it gets really dark. There was one traumatic scene in particular that I was fearing--when I'd originally planned the scene, which called for the death of a character, I hadn't really considered it much. That scene became integral to the plot, impacting the behaviors and personalities of a bunch of other characters, and I found that useful and moved on. However, when I got to writing the scene itself, I'd grown quite attached to that character, and killing [it] through writing was intensely difficult--and yet, as I'd already planned, quite integral to the plot.

However, the scenes that come after the aforementioned scene (neither of which will be published for quite a while, lol) are where I feel my story really starts to shine, and my characters start to come into their own. There's also a particularly badass scene about fifty chapters down the road that I hammered out while jamming to the soundtrack of The Dark Knight, both of which I found particularly epic.

If you had to write the fic over again, what would you do differently?

Again, I'm still early in, so I have the benefit of being able to change a lot of things. One of my biggest problems so far, as with many journey-esque fics, has been pacing. The main arc of the story takes a while to get started, and, if I had the chance, I'd hit the ground a lot faster.

Granted, I only have five or so chapters up right now, so restarting hadn't exactly occurred to me. Yet.

Any advice for aspiring authors?

WHEN PEOPLE TELL YOU THAT YOU SUCK, THEY'RE OBVIOUSLY TELLING THE TRUTH, SO YOU SUCK SO STOP WRITING.

^That's a complete joke, by the way.

I would repeat the advice not to give up, no matter what kind of criticisms you get, but I hear that all the time. I guess my advice would be more of an extensions of that--don't take things too seriously. You're writing because you love what you do, not because you want reviews or fame or babes. If you don't like what you're doing it shows, and you're also having a terrible time. If you get stuck, walk away and eat some chocolate or something--don't be a quitter, but don't be afraid to put a project down for a while in the name of making things better.
 
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Re: Fic of the Month - Wind and Rain - SuperTrainStationH

For January's Fic of the Month, I present to you with a rather unique entry in that this story is written in a screenplay format, one of the few, possibly the only one, to be hosted within the Fairground. Without further ado, I present you with SuperTrainStationH's 'Wind and Rain'

Unlike most writers on this site, you write in a screen play format. What do you find are the benefits of writing in such a manner compared to the more traditional novel style?


Writing in screenplay format was originally a challenge to myself, as I have a lifetime of experience and instruction working in prose, which I am very comfortable with. For me, I found that after failed attempts at kicking Wind & Rain off in a novel format, that the characters and events I had in my head flowed very freely in a screenplay format.

As I plan episodes beyond the current 14 that have been posted at the time of this interview, I’m actually considering occasionally interspersing segments of prose with the screenplays, almost like video game cutscenes.

I gave up on Wind & Rain as prose until I discovered a lot of the action I wanted to depict worked great as a screenplay, but some other moments I’m conceiving of in episodes soon to come, more emotional ones maybe, might work better as pose. Since the scripts will obviously never be animated, some key elements that would come across well in actual animation would be better realized for this fic in Prose.

I experimented with it a little in Episode 5 of my fic and for the needs of that scene I thought it worked very well.

On a technical level, the added step of posting the chapters as PDF files to preserve the extensive formatting is something I’m forever grateful to my readers for embracing in order to read each chapter.


What is it like writing a story based in the anime world? Do you at all find it a challenge writing within a world that has an ever-increasing canon?


Writing in the anime world is a fun challenge because it allows me piece things together in ways that add to the anime universe rather than rewrite what’s actually seen in the episodes and films.

For instance, Episode 7 of Wind & Rain takes place in between Episodes 2 and 3 of the Diamond and Pearl anime and is basically a starting point for the Hunter J and Team Galactic arc of the Sinnoh-era, but at the same time, the actual action of that episode still revolves around the story of Cruise’s kidnapped Flygon in my fan made regions of East Unova and Munia.

I use that example because it reflects how I enjoy telling stories that may enhance reader’s enjoyment of the canon, without having my original characters actually interfere with or infringe upon the existing official storyline in a contradictory way.

Even as Wind & Rain develops, I’m not too concerned with conflicting with the canon Pokémon anime universe, since the story depicted in Wind & Rain will very rarely intersect with the adventures of Ash and his friends.
Long term, the conclusion of the story I’m envisioning with Wind and Rain would coincide with the fall of the original Team Plasma at the Unova League as depicted in the games, so I’m likely to end up working with an interesting mix of game and anime canon in which the events of Wind & Rain are a massive “side story” to the storyline of the Pokémon Black & White games.

That being, I won’t have to worry about my work contradicting any post-Unova developments in the Pokémon anime continuity.


What have been your favorite parts about writing Wind and Rain? What parts would you change if you could go back and start again?


My first favorite part about writing Wind and Rain is the locations, and the chance to include Rockaway and Long Island into the Pokemon world as East Unova, and Munia. As explained in the fic’s topic post, East Unova is a place that could have actually existed in canon had the developers expanded the Unova map very slightly to the east, and I grew up in Arverne, or Arverna City as it’s called in East Unova, so anchoring it to a fictional world I care so much about is immensely pleasurable.

I especially enjoy writing scenes at the Pokémon Castle and the castle garden in Arverna City. They are based on a very large, castle-like public school building and its adjacent playground which I lived across the street from growing up.

My other favorite part of writing Wind & Rain has been the characters, the Trainers like Cruise and Shania, and especially the Pokémon. Since we get to see the Pokémon’s dialog, and because they’re so devoted to their Trainers, there’s room for a lot of emotion that I look forward to exploring. I really want to explore the love between Pokémon and their human companions in this story and I get deep enjoyment from that.

As for what I’d go back and change, I’m lucky enough to have already had the chance to do that. The very short lived original version of Wind & Rain which I posted in a long since abandoned prose incarnation actually introduced readers to Cruise and his Pokémon more than a year after the kidnapping of Cruise’s Flygon by Hunter J, which was mentioned only in passing.

When I realized that the kidnapping of Sophia is where this story needed to begin, I rewound the “entry point” of my story back a year and that became the TV script version of Wind & Rain that I’m working on today.


Do you prefer writing for villains or heroes, or a mixture of the two?

I love writing for villains, writing Hunter J’s dialog during her brief appearances, writing for Giovanni and the Team Rocket execs in their cameo appearance in Episode 7, writing for Grings Kodai from the 13th movie, (who serves as a major villain in Wind & Rain, my fic is somewhat of a combined prequel/sequel to the Zoroark film), they all are such a blast to write for.

To me the villains are the fuel in the tank of the protagonists, unless everything they say and everything they do is potent and meaningful, the protagonists have no motivation to show the audience why they should find them to be worth rooting for.

When you have a villain that poses a real threat and makes you really hate them and what they’re doing, it makes it all the more satisfying when the heroes make some kind of awesome entrance to show that while the villains are powerful, they aren’t invincible.

Even in scenes where the villains aren’t present at all, I’m conscious that everything the protags are saying and doing aught to be in some way informed by the villains and the threat they pose, so for me antagonists drive everything.

My most interesting experience writing antagonists so far was in Episode 7 when I realized I had a unique excuse to have Jessie, James, and Meowth make a one-off guest appearance.

Without even realizing it I started writing their dialog in rhyme and emoting comedic, anime-esque directions into the script, when my fic normally plays it very “straight faced” as though it were in the “real world” rather than a cartoon. I suppose it came especially naturally since the actual Pokémon anime is written in a screenplay format for the voice actors and animators. Years and years ago I remember trying to write comedy anime-esque elements into prose fics, and it seemed very awkward, but here it seemed very appropriate.

Since that particular episode starts off very tragically, the comic relief villains were a huge blast to write for and literally an actual relief to me emotionally. I actually came to appreciate what the writers see in the Team Rocket Trio as comic relief, even though part of the fanboy in me still longs for their experimental foray into becoming more “serious villains” early in the Unova era of the anime.


What advice do you have to any upcoming writers out there? Would you recommend the screenplay style to them?


My advice to upcoming writers is to simply write. Just write anything that comes to your mind, it doesn’t have to be a multi-chapter story or anything “ambitious” or “epic”, and even when something ambitious or epic does come to mind, don’t be afraid to keep it simple.

A grandiose storyline with many twists doesn’t automatically make a story good. I think what helps the most is for writers to think of a story they know that they’d love to read themselves, and just go with it. Trying to match up to, or outdo whatever other story may have inspired them generally just proves to be a distraction and may make the one writing feel inferior or worry they won’t measure up. They key is imagining something that’s fun to write even in spite of the difficulties that arise when creating any sort of work.

The very best part of writing of course is that you are never obligated to share or publish anything, there’s no need to be afraid, just go for it and have fun, and if you create something worth sharing in the process, all the better!

Oh, and try to be familiar with basic English grammar.

As for the screenplay format, it’s definitely a unique challenge to work in, especially in regards to fanfiction. Doing it properly requires familiarity with fairly complex formatting, which is why I have to use forum hosted PDFs to post the Wind & Rain episodes here on the forum.

Not only are many message boards unable to support screenplay formatting natively, Fanfiction.net specifically bans the screenplay format due to it having negative associations with fics which are often perceived as being lazily written, which sometimes actually is the case unfortunately, so fic writers should keep that in mind if publishing on Fanfiction.net is an important part of their plans before starting a project.

There’s a great (and fairly recent) thread in The Written Word regarding the ups and downs of writing in screenplay format I’d recommend anyone considering that format should check out.

I’m primarily a prose writer and that continues to be the format I’m most comfortable in, but Wind & Rain has been a fantastic exercise in a different kind of writing and has given me a great appreciation for it.

The main thing I’d say both to potential writers and potential readers of screenplay formatted fics is to remind them that the format isn’t a substitute for writing descriptively or an excuse to write with minimal detail. To the opposite extreme, a well written screenplay must be able to give the reader all the information needed for them to vividly imagine what would be a fully produced episode of a TV series or film.
 
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Re: Fic of the Month - Striking Back: Memoirs of a Clone-Dai

At long last, I am proud to give you your overall Awards winner and our second two-timer--Dai's "Striking Back: Memoirs of a Clone"!


You mentioned in your first feature that you read both the English and the Japanese versions of the script--was it hard to try and blend both versions?

It was definitely an interesting challenge, to be sure. One of the ideas that I kept seeing in discussions about Mewtwo Strikes Back was the idea that there was a lot more going on in the original Japanese version of the script—discussions about God and other ideas deemed too complex for an American audience, as well as a number of subtler motivations for Mewtwo’s actions that all kind of got simplified into the idea of “purpose” in the American version—as well as a similarly more complex characterization for Mew. Fascinating stuff, so it was a real stroke of luck when I happened to come across a translation of the Japanese version of the script.

Having read it, I think all those ideas are in there, but I think they tend to get overstated sometimes when people are making comparisons between the two versions. Some of them appear as briefly as in one line—this is the case with Mewtwo’s mention of God, for instance, and Mew’s line about the clones not being “real.” So I think it’s important to be aware that it’s often in the small details that the scripts differ. A lot is left open to interpretation there, and there are a lot of different directions one can go with the ideas that the script alludes to.

On top of that, I think the American version also has a lot of strengths, which can be easily overlooked. True, there’s more kid’s-show dialogue (which I parodied slightly) and awkward moral platitudes. On the other hand, though, I think the version of Mewtwo we know and love owes a lot to some snappy writing in the English dub. He has an affably evil, intellectual quality to him (I love the way he turns phrases) that isn’t nearly so present in the Japanese version. I’ve always loved the idea that not only is this character intelligent and powerful, but he’s also putting on a show, trying to demonstrate that his ideas are this beautiful, reasoned truth.

So both scripts have a lot of interesting ideas, and I wanted to explore as many as I could. Ultimately, I think blending the two scripts was more than anything about giving all of those ideas room to breathe. This I did by expanding short dialogues into longer conversations, in which thoughts and phrases from both scripts could be present. I tried to figure out the commonalities between them, too: what does it mean for a creature who seeks his own purpose to be interested in God? The connections there are very compelling. I keep both scripts easily accessible while I’m writing so that I could can about them both on a thematic level, figure out what the underlying ideas were, and then write my own version of those ideas onto the page. (I also tend to keep a window open with the film itself, so that I can accurately describe certain sights and sounds.) It’s a fun way to write, actually.

Of course, the end result of making everything larger and more complex is that it comes out like 8000 pages long, but at this point I’ve just kind of learned to grin and accept it. ;)

How did you decide which aspects of which version to use?

I tried to bring in as much as possible from both (if you look, there are all sorts of little hidden references to some obscure turn of phrase or notion from the Japanese script), but sometimes I did have to choose between conflicting interpretations. More than anything, my choices in those cases were based on this question: What ideas here are most important to Pokémon fans? I knew there were some very big ideas from the Japanese script that I didn’t want to miss out on, because they’d shaped a lot of discussions and inspired a lot of people.

One of them was the mention of God, and in general the idea of Mewtwo-as-philosopher. I took that idea and ran wild with it, basically. I’ve always found religion—both inside and outside my own beliefs—to be utterly fascinating. And it seemed to me that a creature who spends so much of his life evaluating the nature of his own existence would be similarly fascinated by the idea of God. I got to have a lot of fun with that when he launches on his own grand crusade—he gets to see himself as a kind of Messiah, which is made all the more interesting by the fact that he really does have godlike powers, and he gets to play with so much apocalyptic imagery in his campaign. It’s a ton of fun. Plus I’ve always liked religious worldbuilding in the Pokémon universe—figuring out how an entity like Arceus fits into theology, how Mew itself does. Tons of fun. So I’m glad the Japanese script gave me an opportunity to play with those ideas, which weren’t present much in the English version.

Then there’s the issue of Mewtwo’s own motivations. There’s a lot of stuff from both versions that’s interesting here. The English version, as I’ve noted, focuses heavily on purpose. That’s pretty fascinating: it’s the big existential question that all kinds of philosophers have discussed. Mewtwo here is interested in it in the abstract, but also on a personal level: what is his identity within the world? What should his goals be and why? I think that’s pretty compelling, once he starts to get specific and starts really trying on these identities.

Pretty strong in both versions of the script is the idea of revolution. Mewtwo calls humans “weak and cruel,” a “dangerous species.” To him, humans are oppressors that need to be cut down so that a more deserving group (Pokémon) can rise. From his very negative experiences with the human species, this is a natural thing for Mewtwo to conclude. He builds this huge ideology around that in a way that’s reminiscent of a revolutionary movement, complete, eventually, with the mentality that enemies of the revolution must all be extinguished. Eventually this turns into an “out-with-the-old, in-with-the-new” mentality that borders on something like the idea of a master race. Definitely a huge thing in both versions, though I especially like it through Mewtwo’s articulate posturing in the English version.

Now, in the Japanese, there’s a strong emphasis on the notion of Revenge. Mewtwo here is acting not just because he seeks a better world, but because he wants to inflict pain upon a world that gave him great suffering. “Revenge on you who made me,” he says. It’s suffering for its own sake, it’s a very base and gut-level motivation. I think that’s true of this version of Mewtwo, too. The difference here is that I decided to make it more of a subconscious thing. Underlying all the flowery talk about revolution is this need to punish, to hurt others, because he has been hurt so severely. He gives himself a cause to work toward, but deep down, on a gut emotional level that he isn’t even fully aware of, it’s a way of having this satisfying experience of inflicting vengeance. He can justify it to himself, but that’s what it’s about, and until he realizes that, he’s capable of intense hypocrisy and cruelty.
So, as you can see, all of those motivations are present, but some of them are used in different ways, and in general I tried to bind them together into one picture, which I think makes for a pretty complex and dynamic character, with a lot going on inside his head.

It was similar with Mew’s motivation, which was a more difficult thing to tackle. The Japanese script is famous for taking a different approach in this. Mew’s line, basically, is that the clones should be fought not because the originals “have strength in their hearts,” as the dub says, but because the clones “are not real,” and “the true ones will not be beaten by their copies.”

Hmm. Well, Mew doesn’t entirely explain what it means by that, and it could mean a lot of things. It could be this sweeping condemnation of the entire idea of cloning and clones, a light jab at Mewtwo’s grand ambitions, or just simply differentiating between the clones and the “originals.” It’s hard to figure out the tone, especially because it’s coming from two translations of the language of a cute little pink cat-thing.

I think it’s easy to overstate. For instance, some have suggested that Mew is the villain of the story based on that line. I don’t know if I buy that. I’m not sure there’s a very strong case to be made that Mew is a diabolical force, manipulating everyone around it. What’s more interesting to me is that Mew may be as flawed and prone to error as Mewtwo is, that it sees the world through its own set of preconceptions, if in an entirely different way. That it’s not in the least bit harmless. And that there’s a lot of unsettling ambiguity surrounding it, that we can’t be entirely sure if we trust it. We want it to be this perfectly good, heroic figure (as it clearly is in the English version), and it may not actually be. It might just be a mirage.

Now, the idea of Mew as some diabolical chessmaster definitely went into the way Mewtwo sees Mew. I played on people’s tendency to demonize one at the expense of the other—very fun there. Mewtwo wants Mew to fit into his preconceptions, wants it to be his grand Adversary, a hateful bigot, condemning his kind. But that’s not entirely clear from what we see of Mew. It could just be misguided—another mirage. And Mew wants Mewtwo to fit into its own preconceptions, too, of how the world works, that these clones are ideas, fictions, rogue and dangerous thoughts. In the end, recognizing that Mew meant a lot of different things to different people (thanks especially to the script changes), I decided to leave it very open to interpretation. Mew and Mewtwo both have their own viewpoints and biases as they tell the story. Do you trust one? The other? Both? Neither? That’s your call as a reader. There’s a lot of mystery in that feline face.

So, those three big issues were most important to me in adapting the two scripts. Around that, everything else could be adjusted as needed. Naturally, though, I tried to have as many snappy lines of dialogue from both versions as I could.


If you had to write the story over again, what would you do differently?

Looking back, I think I’d tone down some of the intellectual pontificating and focus on the emotional core a bit more. It’s a cerebral story, to be sure, and Mewtwo is definitely a pretentious character, but I think I went a bit overboard when I was first writing it. During the first few chapters, I was kind of posturing a bit, trying to demonstrate that this particular riff on Pokémon was Important and Serious by making it the Most Cerebral Thing Ever. But honestly, I was trying too hard, at the expense of readability. These days, as you might be able to tell from later chapters, I try to keep things as streamlined as I can, especially in terms of the prose style, without losing the most important ideas.

Same with the quotes that serve as headings for each part. I used to have them there partially as a way of being very literary, but now I see them as ways to allude to works and ideas that influenced the writing of Striking Back, if my readers are interested in following those trails.
I’ve considered going back and doing a thorough revision of the whole thing to streamline it a bit, especially at the beginning. That might be something I do after it’s all finished.

Ah, and I just thought of another thing. if I was really, really starting from scratch, I probably wouldn’t make each of the individual “Parts” so long. Instead I’d probably break it up into a series of smaller chapters. I’m kind of committed to the current structure at this point, but I’ve learned that while long Parts are all very well when you’re reading the whole thing, it makes it a bit difficult to interact with your readers on a regular basis. If I’m ever working on another work of this length, it’ll probably be updated in much smaller chunks.

What were some things you considered that didn't make the cut?

Most of what I planned ended up in the final work, but there were a few things. In particular, I thought quite a few conversations were going to be longer. I had some notion, before writing Part Three, that Mewtwo and Dragonite were going to have many more conversations about their whole philosophical outlook, and I thought that Mewtwo’s conversations with the island Pokémon were going to go on much longer. But I found it wasn’t actually necessary, and stayed focused on the most important conversations between them. I think that was a good choice.
I also really wanted to insert a reference to Veilstone's Myth, in which a Pokémon tells a greedy human “If you bear your sword to bring harm upon us, with claws and fangs, we will exact a toll.” It would have been very interesting for Mewtwo’s philosophy, a mission statement, possibly, for him to rally around. But in the end, I couldn’t find a really compelling reason for him to be familiar with it, and I concluded he was doing well enough on his own, really.
Another thing I’d probably do if I started all over is cut more! XD

Any advice for aspiring authors?

For sure! Three things:

Always ask a lot of questions. This is so important in developing a compelling fantastical universe, and if you’re writing about the world of Pokémon, that’s definitely something you’ll want to do. It’s great for developing your characters. Who is this person? What do they really want? What makes them want that? How do they think of themselves? What do they know about themselves? What don’t they know?

And in fantasy, it’s a great tool for taking a setting—perhaps Pokémon, the Legend of Zelda, Classical Mythology—and giving it a new twist. How do things work in this world? Why are the people and creatures of this world the way they are? What’s it like to be a god? A person living in a world full of gods? A Goron? What’s it like to live in a world where there are superpowerful creatures that can eat you or kill you or be your closest friend? What’s it like to be a creature that digs tunnels deep underground? Or one that lives beneath the ocean, whose wings can stir up the fiercest storms? Or one that eats dreams and emotions? If you’re a horse whose mane is literally made of fire, what does “normal life mean to you?” What do you do in an ordinary day? Do you live in a herd? Do you have friends? Family? What are those bonds like? How does it change when you’re traveling with a human? Do you want to travel with a human? Is there something you’d lose that way? Is there something you’d gain? Would it be worth it?

Keep experimenting. Try new things in your writing and be open to new challenges. You’re always learning when you’re writing, and it’s perfectly okay for your work to not be perfect. In fact, it’s never going to be absolutely perfect. But you should always be having a conversation with what you’ve already written. Thinking, in a positive way, about what you’ve learned, and where you still need to go. Then challenging yourself to try something you haven’t before—a new voice, a new kind of character, a new setting, a new technique, you name it. Learn from criticism, but remember that you get to make the final call. Be open to the possibility of changing, of being wrong. If you find out you are, that’s an opportunity for growth, and if you decide that you’re sticking with the original plan, that’s an opportunity for growth, too, because you begin to see more clearly why that idea was valuable in the first place. It’s all growth, if you keep an open mind.

Enjoy yourself. Seriously, because it’s just not worth it if you can’t enjoy yourself somehow. Don’t get caught up in an idea of being powerful or well-known or even recognized, because the fun is in the making of interesting things, offering some kind of gift to people. Making things that make you happy. Everything else, surrounding that, is secondary. Have fun, meet interesting people who like to read and write the same sort of things you do, and have wonderful conversations with them. Enjoy being part of a great community, and treasure the experiences you have through writing, whether you do it for a short time or you go on to make a career out of it. Get caught up in the magic of it. It’s a great thing to have in your life.
Good luck!

Thanks for all these great questions! It’s been a real pleasure being spotlighted. Thanks again to everybody for the honor.
 
Re: Fic of the Month - The Turning World-System Error

May's FOTM Is System Error's "The Turning World".

What was your inspiration to write the story?

The concept of this fanfic dates back way way, to a Christmas Contest sometime, or some other event here that compelled me to write. The basic concept was one foreign "Blair West" taking on a renound trainer (Ash Keetchum himself in the beta) with a few wrestling-themed influences (including him cutting a heel promo before the battle) and taking place on Christmas Eve. This would've been spun off a fic that reeked of a wrestling promotion. I never finished it, though.

As a bonus for this interview, here's a pastebin with what I _did_ write for it

Anyway, eventually, a little roleplay called Knight Pokemon University came up. I felt like jumping in, so I retooled Blair into Frisco "Fritz" Carlos Westmyn, but kept the concept of a trainer attending a university who is way out of his league and much of the personality. Many of the basic concepts were ironed down at this point. However, I was banned from this RP for messing around with its IRC channel during a Netsplit. I was already planning a fic/bits for his off-days at the University, and decided to turn it into a full-fledged adventure for him.

But it fell off, and too much time came to pass to really continue. I kept the planning going, though. At first, I was going to treat KPU much like I was going to do in the proto version. It was too ingrained into the story. But I decided it was best if the school visit was in the story itself. So I again started writing, eventually, but couldn't get anywhere. As another bonus, this is what I wrote, with some commentary for each scene.

It was deciding to read Flaze's Pokemon Academy that gave me motivation and ideas to get off my ass and start up. I completely changed the direction of the first part in the process, also having Fritz undergo a dramatic personality shift for convenience purposes. I came up with the first three additional characters: Reika and Thatcher to serve as Fritz' friends, and Cronus Aporon to serve as a rival. The general skeleton of Part 1 was created. The school itself got named Rukh's, as a subtle chess-based nod.

The characters and world expanded from there. I came up with the staff for the school, of course. Dean Howard Finkerton was especially fun to design; he could've well been a supervillain under other circumstances. I thought of Aporon having a posse, and decided to further prove his influence, put together three characters from totally different cliques. Somebody to oppose him, who came forth in the form of Muriel. A rival for Reika...well, a "main" one. Who actually started as something between Ina and Premala, but either was was intended to be an antithesis to the cynical, chubby Reika. A whole town for the school to be placed in. And so on as necessary, combined with my habit of character expansion.

Eventually, after enough writing ahead, I was ready. And so on August 9th, 2012, 11:16 AM Pacific Daylight Time, I finally posted the first chapter. And that's the story behind this fanfic and how it finally came to be.

What was the most challenging scene to write? The most fun?

The most difficult to write? 2-8. Screw that chapter, seriously. It was half a slog of exposition I had to do, but had nowhere else to do. And half mental fixation, that was equally necessary. The only other standout, and a distant one at that, was the parody of the Red/Blue opening scene in 1-5. I dealt with others in appropriate ways, such as cutting them a bit short if need be. That said, I managed to find a creative way to help with writing: RP cameo characters. Basically, RP with someone and a character they made up to write a scene.

The first of these was Elyna Dragomir, played by AiedailEclipsed. Who slotted in to deliver some news in place of faceless dude. And became a semi-important character in the process. The second was Markus Lake, played by Flaze. Who helped expand on something I was having trouble expanding on. The experiment was a smashing success, I'd say. And they helped to fill in gaps I was missing amongst my cast of characters.

Those were naturally fun to write. Besides that, the most enjoyable are battles in general, and any back-and-forth exchange between two characters. Dean Howard Finkerton's scenes, too. They actually took some creative thought, but the end result speaks for itself.

If you had to write the story again, what would you do differently?

You mean I already haven't wrote it again and again like I just described? There's only one thing I'm dissatisfied with: not as much Dean Howard Finkerton. I also kinda slipped up by not including something I should've put in sooner, but there's still time to do it. It even works out in its own way, so no huge loss there. As the fic goes on, I'd probably be actually able to answer this one.

Not as much focus on other characters could be desired, but I think given the circumstances, I did the best I could. But it's still a thing. Which is why I'm considering a spin-off that would consist of the ongoings of Rukh's beyond Fritz' perspective. The narrator would be Kokuro Yotogi, one of the first students to enroll in the university, and the first to leave...in a manner of speaking. Make of that what you will.

That aside...maybe make even better and immediate use out of the Atlas than what I was doing and spread the word about what I was planning with it more, in hopes that the section wouldn't have been shut down? I dunno. Not technically part of the fic, though...

What were some things you considered initially that didn't make the cut?

That is a horrible, horrible question to ask me, as just about everything not only made the cut in at least some form, but several things were introduced and got expanded as well. In fact, there is exactly one thing that was completely cut from the fic. There was originally going to be a character who would serve as a rival for Premala's affections. He got the axe because it would just make Fritz go "screw it" in regards to her, given his outlook on her in the first place. She was too important a character for that to happen...even though she wasn't originally planned at all.

A few small scenes of no significance were moved or removed here and there. A good example was a small scene in 1-7, where Fritz sits with others due to his friends' absence. It was originally a little more specific, but I cut it. It still exists in some form though, as the characters are in 2-4, albeit with only William named.

Now the opposite...things I didn't plan that I ended up introducing...that's probably a more amusing list. As said, I have a hilarious habit of putting in new things, sometimes just as a way to give faces to otherwise faceless characters, then expanding on them. Teiko and Teikō perfectly exemplifying this trend. They basically only came about to help make a point (and joke) in 2-4, but I made mention of them every now and then, until getting more serious use out of them in 2-11.

And if you want to talk even small changes, have a complete list, no matter how minor or insignificant. It would've been a feature of the Atlas, but RIP that.


Any advice for aspiring authors?

Good luck. You'll need it~



...just wanted to say that. :p What may help is to write in the style that you would want to read about. For example, I enjoy catching little details in fics, so mine is chock-full of them. Writer's block can easily be overcome by writing ahead in the meantime, or just plain breaking up the monotony of writing one chapter. Getting noticed is easily the hardest part, I'd say. If I knew what to do beyond knowing people who would be willing to read/review, I'd say it here. Of course, appealing to the lowest common denominator is a way to get ahead...though I'm not going to advise it. You really shouldn't be afraid to break from the norm. That's about all I can think of that isn't just encouragement...
 
Re: Fic of the Month - June: The Magical Resistance by lucarioknight56

Apologies for the delay in getting June's FOTM up, but the FOTM this month is lucarioknight56's "The Magical Resistance"

1. What inspired you to write the story?

Well, that will take a bit of explaining. It all really started with a game called Dofus, which you can learn about here DOFUS, the strategic MMORPG. I was impressed by the world that this company created, with the lore and the amazing abilities. I always wanted to make a world, but it never really took off before this. But when I got the inspiration, I was going to make this a firm fiction.

Besides this, there were numerous other things that inspired me. There was the Avatar series, the Shannara chapter book series, and of course my friends at school who read and supported my ideas. There were other things, but I can't remember them all.

2. What part of the story was the most challenging to write--the most fun?

The most challenging was where I had to figure out how to get to my idea of an end. Sure, The Magical Resistance is not finished, but I do want to get back to it. This problem still is in effect of course, and I want to see how I can improve the story. But the most fun was figuring out how my villains, Krain and Vason, would act ridiculous in an evil way. It is fun controlling characters like that.

3. If you had to write the story over again, would you do anything differently? If so, what?

If I was to rewrite it, I would try and make it more detailed. Details are like the whipped cream on top of the pancakes. The nice things that make the story all the more enjoyable. I gave myself a minimum of 1000 words a chapter, and I have held firm to that. But even with 1000 words, it still isn't detailed. Even a picture has detail, and a picture is worth 1000 words :).

4. What were some things you considered early on that didn't make the cut?

Well, at first I did consider making some pictures to go along with the chapters, but I am a terrible artist, and I think it is better for the readers to imagine the characters in their own way. Another thing that didn't quite make it was my original prologue. It didn't quite detail the ins and outs of the beginning of the world and the start of the story.

Another thing was the names. SO many choices for the names! I wanted them unique, but easy to remember. And the names I made seemed to match my characters, even the mysterious Mage, who is my personal favorite, besides Jeremaeus. I can't remember my previous choices, but I don't think they would've been as nice.

And one last thing that I thought of at the last minute: Jeremaus. That name was invented with my best friend's and I's favorite make-believe game. Just some magical name I invented for myself. BUt, I do like writing myself into the story. Like Lemony Snicket, in a different way.

5. Any advice for aspiring authors?

If I was going to say anything to help anyone to write a story, I would say it is a good idea to branch off of a fan fiction, and start your own world that might eventually become like Mario, The Legend of Zelda, or even the reason this site was created, Pokémon. And in terms of creating a land, it is fine to borrow ideas from other series, just make sure it isn't obvious. ;)
 
Re: Fic of the Month - August-Wind and Rain by SuperTrainStationH

After a break for July, let's kick off August with the overall winner for the Awards--SuperTrainStationH's Wind and Rain.

Why a screenplay format over a traditional style or other types of script?
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Years back I attempted to start this project as prose and it just didn’t work out. Even though I had the story in its entirety planned out and I cared dearly for it, I ended up losing interest in actually writing it before Cruise even got his other Pokémon returned to him on Far Island.

I actually adapted the first chapter of the prose version of Wind & Rain into a screenplay as practice for a Writing for Television class I was preparing to take at college, and it flowed so well that I ended up adapting more chapters, eventually adding on to the story as episodes written from scratch as screenplays.

As I mentioned long ago, I discovered a lot of the action I wanted to depict worked great as a screenplay, but some other moments I’m conceiving of in upcoming episodes, more emotional ones maybe, that might work better as pose since the screenplays will never be animated. I already toyed with this in Episode 19, nearly a page and a half of that breaks from the screenplay format and turns into prose, and I felt it worked very well.



2. How were you inspired to write the fic
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I grew up in Far Rockaway and Long Island, and the setting of the 5th Generation of Pokémon gave me the chance to include those areas in the Pokémon World by closely linking them to the canon region of Unova.

In a more general sense, I found that many plots in Pokémon games and anime concern themselves with child Trainer protagonists traveling on a badge quest, while using their Pokémon to successfully prevent an evil team or other villain from taking over a region.

I thought it would be interesting to have a setting where we have a world where the traveling Trainer protagonists (in my story, Cruise, Shania, and Chase) have defeated a typical evil team (Team Quasar) as children, and moved on to Pokémon related careers in their adult lives.

Now these adult Trainers have to face a more credible threat than a traditional Evil Team. They’ll have to deal with what happens when actually Pokémon DO get stolen, actually DO get hurt, and how to live in a world there the bad guys actually DO successfully seize control of their home region.

It ultimately lets me explore a setting where the Trainers actually get to exhibit what they learned and how they matured as adults thanks to what they experienced during a typical childhood Pokémon journey as we see in the games and anime.




3. What did you consider early on that didn't make the cut?
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I was tempted to begin Wind & Rain with Cruise, Cary, and Chase as ten year old notice Trainer going on their first Pokémon journey in Munia, and how they came to help disband Team Quasar back when they were trying to take over Munia.

As I mentioned earlier, I instead started the story years later when the trainers were adults, with that experience having molded them to face a more severe threat, and the concept of depicting Cruise, Cary, and Chase going on an anime-esque badge journey fighting Team Quasar basically got turned into the flashback seen in Episodes 15 and 16.

Maybe each season from now on I’ll have a two parter flashback episode to the protags as children or something.

In earlier outlines for the first two seasons I wanted to establish the relationship between Cruise’s Flygon, Sophia, and Shania’s Dragonair, Merzie more, as it becomes important later on. I decided that beginning the story with Sophia’s kidnapping was too valuable, so since we start there we’ve seen very little of Sophie, though the story of how Merzie and Sophie met did get a flashback mini-arc in Episodes 15 and 16,.

I also would have liked to spend some more time establishing my protagonists “normal” lives before the takeover of the Munia League, but it judging by the reader response I suppose I found the right balance as to what was needed, and when.

Originally I thought that the story should begin at a point where the villains of my story, Team Patriot, had already taken over the Munia region, and my main characters were already engaged in opposing them. In that sense that change actually gave me the chance to write a lot of things that otherwise may have been only flashbacks.

Instead I decided the characters and settings needed a lot more context and buildup for a conflict like this to have emotional impact for the readers, and I ended up beginning the story at a point so early that Team Patriot doesn’t exist yet, and as of the end of Season 2 (when I’m being interviewed for this) that group is still in the process of being founded from several other groups already featured in the episodes joining forces.






4. What is the process of writing an episode
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So far what I’ve done is keep a list of things I need to have happen for the next five episodes or so. I’ll cross them off the list as I go on writing, and at some point I’ll get a feel for “okay, this episode is about long enough now” and wind it down, then move on to the next episode.

I’ll usually keep a separate document open beside my screenwriting program with a list of the character and place names and their current Pokémon teams to try to keep everything consistent, but things slip through the cracks, especially in some of the earlier episodes. I think one thing I hadn’t noticed till someone pointed it out was that in the first couple of episodes I hadn’t decided if I wanted to call the sport Pokémon Airball or Pokémon Skyball. That was a REAL slip up.

I also recently noticed that I called Skip “Drift” in Episode 5, that was a pretty big oversight too.

Since the board can’t support the screenplay in text format, I have to upload it as a PDF. To make up for this I’ll prepare a preview version, usually the first two to four pages of the episode as image files to post as part of the update to lure people into clicking the forum hosted PDF link for the full episode.

Since I only have a few pages to work with, I might slightly alter the dialog in the preview from what readers will see in the actual episode.

Most of these changes are things only I’m likely to notice, but one major example is Episode 20. In the preview images I called the Titan organization “Team Titan” so that it was obvious to someone who never read a Wind & Rain episode before that “okay, this is a bad guy group along the lines of Team Rocket”, without me having to waste time explaining this.

In Episode 21, while preparing the preview, I re-wrote the dialog between Shaw, Cary and Journey to take up less page space and make what was going on more obvious for first time readers, and I actually liked it so much that I made the preview version the final version of the scene.



What would you tell someone that wants to try writing in this style?
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I’m gonna cheat here, and repeat what I said in a previous interview on this subject, as I don’t think I could possibly improve on what I said back then.

Regarding screenplay format, it’s definitely a unique challenge to work in, especially in regards to fanfiction. Doing it properly requires familiarity with fairly complex formatting, which is why I have to use forum hosted PDFs to post the Wind & Rain episodes here on the forum.

Not only are many message boards unable to support screenplay formatting natively, Fanfiction.net specifically bans the screenplay format due to it having negative associations with fics which are often perceived as being lazily written, which sometimes actually is the case unfortunately, so fic writers should keep that in mind if publishing on Fanfiction.net is an important part of their plans before starting a project.

There’s a great thread in The Written Word regarding the ups and downs of writing in screenplay format I’d recommend anyone considering that format should check out.

I’m primarily a prose writer and that continues to be the format I’m most comfortable in, but Wind & Rain has been a fantastic exercise in a different kind of writing and has given me a great appreciation for it.

The main thing I’d say both to potential writers and potential readers of screenplay formatted fics is to remind them that the format isn’t a substitute for writing descriptively or an excuse to write with minimal detail. To the opposite extreme, a well written screenplay must be able to give the reader all the information needed for them to vividly imagine what would be a fully produced episode of a TV series or film.
 
Re: Fic of the Month - September: Unpredictable-AetherX

September's FOTM is AetherX's "Unpredictable"!

The interview:

What was your main inspiration for the story?

It all started as the most boring of Pokemon fanfiction ideas: the R/B game rewrite. Then I had an idea for how to make it a bit different (that I unfortunately can't share at this point since it's a pretty big spoiler). I started writing about some guy named Keith who was totally not the main character from the games without much of an idea as to where I was going or what I what the overarching plot would be. Ideas simply came to me over time. Take Criss, for example. She just kind of showed up when I started writing what was at the time Chapter 4. I cannot honestly remember where I got the idea for her, but she has had a serious effect on the plot. I was just writing Keith looking around Pewter City and suddenly he saw this girl who inserted herself into the story and became a major character. I can't imagine what the story would be like if that random spark of inspiration hadn't happened. But I'm rambling.

At this point my biggest inspiration is probably still the games. The little story that they had, snippets of NPC dialogue, all mashed together with my knowledge of the rest of the franchise. Some people say that Unpredictable seems like it's in the anime 'verse, and others say that it's straight from the games. In reality it's both. I consider Unpredictable and it's future follow ups to be a huge collage of various versions of canon combined with my overactive imagination. Hell, I even borrowed some from other fanfics.

What scene was the most challenging for you to write? Why was it challenging?

Spoilered for anyone who hasn't read past Chapter 40 (and means to at some point):

Killing Harry, hands down. I created him on a whim. I had an idea of some freedom fighters who had been in occupied Saffron since the beginning. His purpose from the beginning was to die. I wanted Reese to kill him to give the reader a concrete reason to hate Reese. But then I started to come up with his back story, which I eventually wrote down in full as Unsung Heroes, a one shot that I posted here to some success. I grew attached to his character. I started to wonder what would happen if he lived. Would he meet Keith? Would he meet Criss? Would he get along with them? Would he stay for a while, or head home to his love in Unova? I still want to write these situations, but the plot dictated that he had to die, so I killed him. Maybe I'm an overly emotional romantic (I am), but I will proudly admit that my eyes began to tear up when I wrote his death scene. He's still one of my favorite characters.

It was kind of a cheesy death scene, and not nearly as good as he deserved, but that's forgivable given it was the first death scene I ever wrote.

and it won't be the last DUN DUN DUN

Suppose you had to write the story over again--what (if anything) would you do differently?

All of it.

Like I said above, so much of the plot was seat of my pants writing. Now that I have a concrete idea of where I'm going, I have so many things that I would do differently. Better foreshadowing, for one. More consistent characterization is another. As far as specific things go, I would definitely change how I handled Keith's psychic powers. I do genuinely have (in my opinion) a pretty cool plot point based heavily around them, but I really screwed up how the powers play in to his character. There are so many cool ideas I had that I didn't make full use of.

Not to mention, Unpredictable is the first major story I ever wrote, and I have improved considerably over the past four years. The first couple arcs are somewhat cringe-worthy, but fear not! I am currently in the process of rewriting the early chapters. I may, in fact, go so far as to rewrite most of the story and make the changes I mentioned. Or maybe I won't. Forward progress is much more important to me. We'll see how things go.

What did you consider early on that didn't make it in the final story?

There honestly isn't a whole lot that I cut from the story, since I've always tried to add things before I took things away. Almost all of my original ideas are either intact or improved upon over time. There are a couple of exceptions.

The first three chapters of Unpredictable originally had Keith starting from Pallet Town and catching his first Pokemon and all that cliche journey fic nonsense, but when I saw the quality of work on this site, I realized that wasn't going to cut it. So instead I started after Keith exited Viridian Forest, just so that I could begin with the first actually exciting part of the story.

I also originally had each chapter be about one specific location, Chapter 1: Pallet Town, Chapter 2: Viridian City, etc. When the Cerulean City "chapter" hit 20,000 words I figured out that wasn't really going to work. You can see the remnants of this in the naming scheme of the chapters in the table of contents.

Of all the characters in the story, which one is most like you?

None of them? All of them? I don't really know. All of the main characters are somewhat like me. Keith is me when I'm afraid, Tim is me when I'm excited, Criss is me when I'm angry or frustrated. I've gone out of my way to add character traits that shift each character out of author-avatar territory, but all of them draw from my own personality. I guess Keith is most like me, but that's almost an inadvertent side effect of writing in first person. A lot of my emotions and insecurities get fed in to Keith. Both of us aren't very aware of the limitations of our abilities, we overestimate ourselves regularly, and we tend to subconsciously look down on our friends even though we know we should respect them. We're also both fond of glomming on to people who seem like they know what they're doing. At the same time, I make Keith act like more of a dick than I am.

That comes across awfully negative doesn't it? I guess most of my positive traits are reserved for the other characters.

Do you have a particular favorite part of the story (a character, a scene, a concept, etc.)? Why is it your favorite?

My favorite thing I've ever written is Unsung Heroes, but that doesn't really count.

I definitely have some favorite ideas, but they haven't really come in to play yet and I don't want to spoil. For example, I have this idea for a murder mystery subplot for the sequel, as well as the reasoning for Keith's psychic powers.

The whole of the Battle for Saffron was really exciting to write since I'd been planning it for so long, but I think I had the most fun writing the chapter where Criss helps Tim catch a Gyarados off the coast of Fuschia. It's refreshing to change POVs after so long looking through Keith's eyes, and I really like the dynamic between Criss and Tim. It was so much fun to write their back and forth. Tim hasn't gotten nearly as much screentime as I think he deserves, which is why I liked that arc so much.

Any advice for aspiring authors?

It seems like everyone these days is an aspiring author. Everyone and their mother has a great idea that they'll put down in writing... eventually.

Quit aspiring and do it. No one cares about how grand your ideas are if you don't actually write them. Planning helps, and I heartily recommend it, but ultimately it doesn't matter. What matters is that you write the story. You could spend years carefully crafting a world and characters to inhabit it, but if you never write the story, you're still no more than a slightly more organized version of all the other aspiring authors.

Don't wait for motivation or inspiration. Those are manufactured feelings, and fleeting at best. Sit down and write, revise, and write some more. Once you've got something that you're not embarrassed by, get feedback on it. Respect your reviewers and act on that feedback.

Critiquing others' work will also help considerably.
 
Re: Fic of the Month - Fic of the Month-October-Beth Pavell-The Long Walk

October's FOTM is Beth Pavell's "The Long Walk"!

1. Why Nurse Joy? Was there any particular challenges to writing a non-traditional hero?

Why Nurse Joy, well … I remember watching the anime when I was a kid (Being old enough to remember watching the Indigo League on CITV practically makes me a grandfather in this fandom) and thinking that they'd missed a trick when it came to the Joys. All that “Ohh, you must mean my second cousin in Vermillion City” stuff, it was pretty much used as a throwaway joke, usually in connection with Brock. Anyone remember EP92 (The Joy of Pokémon), during the Orange Island arc? There's this flashback where a bunch of Joys are hanging out on a boat and it got me wondering what the Joys do when they get together, away from the Pokémon Centre. Eve, I think, was born out of that kind of idle thinking.

Writing with a Joy as a protagonist tends to present more opportunities than challenges, I've found. The biggest challenge, actually, is stopping Eve from taking over the story. Her bloody-minded insistence on living life on her own terms is fun to write about, but also one of those things that could easily get tiresome without some balance. I suppose that keeping her personality straight can be tricky. I always wanted her to recognisably be a Joy – she might not quite be a sweet and gentle yamato nadeshiko like her extended family, but I wanted that compassionate side of her ancestry to shine through anyway. I reckon it's about not pigeonholing characters based on tropes, so the feisty girl can still be emotionally available without it seeming like a complete out-of-character moment.

Or to put it another way, Eve knows how to cuddle.

2. What led you to place a non traditional character in the heroic role?

Originally, I intended Eve to be a recurring rival for Josh. She'd be the trainer who was better than Josh, to turn up at key points in the story as a kind of narrative yardstick for Josh's own progress. About two hundred words into writing Chapter Three I realised that she was far too interesting to be a supporting character, and so she became the secondary protagonist.

But Josh, too, is a non-traditional character. Forget his age for a moment – his motives for training pokémon are pretty unsual. He's not especially interested in the glory of winning. He's not trying to escape poverty (The Cooks aren't what you'd well off, but they're not dirt poor either). In fact he's not really got a goal at all, beyond succeeding as a trainer to spite his father. The reason for that is simply that in my experience, practically no-one knows what to do with their life at twenty-one. I sure as hell didn't. So I suppose it was to subvert the common theme in Pokémon that everyone has their burning dream to fulfill.

3. Is there any symbolism in the title?

I'm glad you asked me that! I'm rather partial to symbolic titles, or at least titles that mean something. If a symbol has to be explained, however, it's failed. The Long Walk, superficially, is the literal long walk around the Johto region, trainin' and battlin'. In a way, though, that's just window-dressing – the real journey is the one the protagonists take in themselves.

The story is if nothing else a coming-of-age story (Or bildungsoman, if you really must). This is doubly reflected in the titles for each Part – Growing Out for Part I. So far, the story has been about freedom, finding space to be your own man (Or woman, in Eve's case). As the story continues, you'll see the overarching theme. I promise ;)

4. If you had to write the story over again, what would you do differently?

I think I probably would have written a completely different prologue. Instead of focussing on the psychology of captured pokémon, I think something set before Josh set out would have been more sensible. I still stand by the logic of Josh's first conversation with Christine Joy (You'd be surprised what people will tell a sympathetic stranger), but it was admittedly an inelegant way of setting up Josh's motives.

I'd probably re-write Chapter Four, now that I think about it. I started off with the notion that I'd need a chapter where Magnemite disobeys Josh in comic ways, but my imagination ran away with me on that one. I still like how it keeps Josh very much in realms of the fallible (Sharp readers might notice that Eve gets the wrong impression of his account of the chapter in Chapter Six), but there wasn't enough Magnemite in it, in hindsight.

5. What did you consider early on that didn't make the cut?

As I said above, Eve's character sort of crept up on me and ended up sharing the stage. She was originally far more energetic than she is now. Once I made the decision to upgrade her to protagonist the fizzy personality had to be toned down to bouts of nervous energy, lest she exhaust the readers and annoy me.

The biggest change though, was in Josh's character arc. I thought about making him a Coordinator for quite a while, but I don't know, it just didn't work well enough. I liked the idea of a male Coordinator who was neither camp as a treeful of Aipom nor a bishounen (An annoying persistent stereotype in the anime). The problem was that it just seemed to neat and obvious a solution to his lack of ambition. Let's face it, that's basically May's story rewritten for a bloke. Besides, there was something so … Billy Elliot about it (“But I wanna be a Coordinator, Dad!”).

6. Do you think the story would be as effective with a traditional Ash clone as the hero?

No, in short. I think this way of looking at the pokémon world could have some interesting applications with the hero who wants to be the very best – but in them realising that once they've hit that goal they'd have no idea what to do next. The experience of not knowing what to do with your life is something that I think a LOT of twenty-somethings will be able to relate to. Teenagers, too, come to think of it. We are encouraged to start planning for the rest of our lives by the time we leave school, and it's too soon, far too soon.

Pokémon has another option though, with adventure and independence and achievement. What I wouldn't give to have been able to do what Josh is doing! This isn't something that an Ash Ketchum would understand.

7. Any advice for anyone that wants to attempt a story like this?

Don't try and zazz it up. The real appeal, the enjoyment that comes out of a slice-of-life is in relating to what you're reading. It doesn't matter that the protagonists are twenty-somethings training magic monsters to do battle – it's their humanity that makes them interesting. Some people don't like reading that kind of stuff, and need drama and explosions and the like. That's fine, but it won't appeal to them, or to slice-of-life fans to try and tack on that kind of excitement onto the story.

It's like observational humour. An observational comic takes the apparently mundane, boring world and makes it funny because people see themselves in it. The same applies to a story like this. Kooks like Sir William might turn up from time to time, but the story is built upon mundane, everyday dramas that are interesting because everyone is the star of their own drama.
 
Re: Fic of the Month - November-Storm Island-Eliza Prescott and Caitlin

November's FOTM is Eliza Prescott's Storm Island.

The interview:

1. Is there any significance to the title?
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There is not. Storm Island's title is simply the name of the island this story takes place on. However, Storm Island itself got its name from the various ferocious storms that tend to batter the area from time to time, does that count?

2. How were you inspired to write the story?
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When Caitlin and I first started the story, we were working on creating an traditional JRPG engine, in hopes that we could finish and license it to game developers, rake in the cash and retire to a pleasure palace in the middle of the Pacific ocean. After we finished many of the core features, we started toying with potentially using the own engine to create something of our own as a showcase, as a sales pitch to other developers. We decided on a quick Pokemon tech demo, which eventually began to bloom into a fully fledged game. As such, we needed a story. It was basic at the start, with practically none of the current story arcs. Eventually, we both lost interest in that project, and we couldn't really continue it any way due to legal reasons.

But that wasn't the end. We wanted to continue that project in some form, so we decided to write it out. We had spent so much effort crafting a region, deciding who the gym leaders were going to be, etc. that it felt like a waste to not further develop and begin writing the proper, current incarnation of the story.

3. Do you have a favorite character? If so, who?
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My personal favorite character is one who has not been introduced yet. She will play a major role in the storyline later on, with her own ideals, plans and all of that. I already have so many plans for character development for her, more so than I have for Andrea and Kamin, the current main characters.

As far as characters who have actually appeared, Raven is probably my favorite, and he was a blast to conceptualize and write for. Getting his broken form of English perfect and maintaining consistent with it throughout his lengthy appearance was a bit of a challenge, but one I enjoyed. There is a lot of depth to his character, some of it which has already been explained, while more remains to be revealed alongside his future planned appearances.

4. What did you consider early on that didn't make the cut?
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One early consideration that didn't make the cut was having Larson as the male lead, who would travel the region alongside Andrea and challenge the gym leaders. Caitlin and I felt that this took away from Andrea's unique story as a traveling research assistant, who we decided early on would be the main character without question.

Another early consideration that didn't make the cut was having Andrea travel with a female companion that she eventually developed romantic feelings for. Our very, very first incarnation of the story (which is unreleased and will remain so) featured this idea, but we quickly axed it because neither of us had the experience to do this idea any justice. The female companion eventually morphed into the character we now know as Kamin, though he and that character share so little in common that the comparison would be lost on the readers.

5. What was the most challenging part to write? The most fun?
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The most challenging part of this story to write so far has got to be the chapter I'm currently writing, which focuses on a coordinator contest. To put it bluntly, I'd rather lovingly embrace a belt sander than continue with it, but I've written myself into a corner and I must finish it.

The most fun (and probably the second most difficult) was Andrea's experience in the Blackwood Forest. I had a real fun time throwing the book of modern, urban experiences my characters tend to have out the window, focusing more on fantasy, magic and the impossible. I'm looking forward to the conclusion of the cliffhanger left at the end of the Blackwood Forest storyline, but I fear that may never happen considering how much I have planned for this story.

6. What's the most frightening scene in the story?
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The most frightening, I'd hope, was the unfortunately brief confrontation in the depths of Wolftree Keep with the cultists and their leader. I wanted to get a sense of real danger for the characters, as the cost of failure was their lives and likely their eternal torment as subjects in a twisted and evil ritual. Another frightening scene I'd nominate is when the undead bone dragon attacked the group just before they reached Wolftree Keep.

7. If you had to write the story over, what would you do differently?
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I wouldn't write the story over. It's already been rewritten once, and that was due to quality concerns. Right now, I am happy with where the story is and where it's going. If I had to choose something, however, it would probably be to make the characters' Pokemon much more important. So far, several of them have not featured Pokemon at all, even in a passing mention. That's kind of strange for Pokemon fanfiction.

8. What would you tell someone wanting to write a story like yours?
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This is going to be a long answer, so strap yourself in. Storm Island, at its heart, is a black sheep. It's got long, drawn out chapters that most readers run in fear from, it's not a carbon copy of a game plot within a game region with one poorly thought out mix-up to make it 'unique', it's not a drippy romance story. That already cuts out about 4/5th of the standard audience who reads Pokemon fanfiction.

If you like to write for fun and not for praise, which is what Caitlin and I have done for Storm Island, then go for it. It's good practice for a potential future in writing, be it as a novelist, a playwrite, or even someone who writes for a journalism website/magazine. It's good mental exercise, especially if you use your own region which has no established background.

A solid foundation is crucial to a story written in an entirely new region. Knowing what cities and towns are where, what is special about these places, why the characters should go there and how long they should stay for is important. Each major city should have more to it than just a Pokemon gym, or a throw-away plot point. They should be vibrant, with their own history, their own landmarks, their own special characters... only once you have all of that can you truly begin the story and move on with conventional writing tasks, such as defining your main characters.

And finally, my main advice is to never give up. While a huge crowd of adoring fans may not be your main goal, don't let the lack of readers get to you. We didn't get any feedback, or any attention at all really, until a few years into the project. We didn't let that defeat us, and now here we are, nominated as a story of the month. I think that says something for perseverance and love for our story.
 
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Re: Fic of the Month - Decemberr: Live From the Fireside by LightningTopaz

Hello! For December's FOTM, I thought it would be nice to do something a bit different and let LightningTopaz be the star of the show for once! The Live from the Fireside series has been around for a long time now, so this interview celebrates it and looks into LT's writing process. Enjoy!

What was the inspiration behind the Live from the Fireside series?

I've always believed the Pokeworld has millions of possibilities--this includes what the world's lore is like. Since I figure with all those siblings running around, Brock might know how to tell a good story, he was my natural choice for the storyteller. This version of Brock has since taken on a life of its own.

You use a lot of anime characters in these stories. Why did you choose to use them? Why did not use game characters?

In my eyes, since there's a wealth of possibilities in the Pokeverse, the anime cast (and some characters from the games), are a bit like the Looney Tunes or classic Disney shorts--an ensemble of characters for any purpose--so this means they are not quite the anime cast you remember!

How do you find the inspiration to write the fables and tales that get told during this series? Do you know all this stories already or do you have to go out and search for them?

I mainly have to find them--books, Google, folklore TV shows, and digitized public domain books are my friends. I do have a few rules when searching:

--not too many concepts and people that don't translate to the Pokeworld, or don't yet have a Pokemon counterpart
--not too much gore--Brock is telling for a family audience. (although I do have him give a warning if a tale is scary despite this)
--Be respectful of all cultures when Pokemonizing--I have had to change and cut stereotypical portrayals of African Americans and people with disabilities, for example.
--If a story could easily be two or more stories, find a point where it could feasibly end and end it there.
--The more opportunities for Brock to sing, dance, act, play his many instruments, or perform stage combat or stage archery, the better!

What have been your favourite scenes to write during the series?

Off the top of my head:

--The Ballyhoo Revue from Season 3
--Ash telling a tale in Season 4
--"The Miko and the Shiny Mightyena", Season 4
--Brock singing "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea" during "Reinosha and the Bucket Maker", Season 5 (he alternates between that and "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" every time he performs that story)
--"The Legend of Kaitou", Season 5
--"The Water Lily and the Gold Spinners", Season 6

and more!

What have been the biggest challenges?

Finding a suitable story to adapt that adheres to my rules that doesn't repeat what I have told already.

Are there any elements you considered that have since been cut?

Originally, there were going to be backstage plots akin to "The Muppet Show"--remnants of this idea appear in the early seasons.

If you could restart this franchise, what would you do differently?

Expand it to include a complete show--songs, sketches, and the weekly tale.

The series has been running for a while now. Do you see an end date in sight, or have you not considered that yet?

It will never end so long as I can find stories to adapt.

What would be your advice to any up and coming authors?

Write what YOU want to write--no matter how hairbrained and off the wall it is.
 
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Re: Fic of the Month -February-Best Story Winner: Dawn of Darkness-AceTrainer14

LT here, with the interview for Best Story: AceTrainer14's "Dawn of Darkness"

How did you get the inspiration for this story?

I thought it would be interesting to write the story of how one of my villains got to where they are, and since I was very much into Galactic at the time, I decided that writing something about Cyrus and his backstory would be fun. A few bits and pieces fell together, such as how you can’t visit Sunyshore until the end of the games and the hints of him being from there, so that is where it came from. The idea of involving Cynthia and then establishing certain elements of my world added to my enthusiasm and transformed it into what it was at the end.

Are this story and Eight Easy Steps connected? If so, how?

All of my Pokémon stories are set in the same world so they are overall connected, but no, there are no direct connections between these two. When Viktor sees the future, Alaska has a cameo appearance in his vision (which has a slight hint at the 8ES end game), and then he also mentions her while listing a number of my heroes. Because of that, I did initially write a bit in the epilogue where Cynthia says that they are tracking everyone with the name Alaska since it is so rare, but it felt out of place and forced in. This is a prequel to Galactic, after all, and that takes place before Eight Easy Steps.

If you had to write the story over again, what would you do differently?

Definitely would include more Volkner and Flint, I don’t think I built up those characters or their connections to Viktor and Cynthia enough. I was satisfied with how I wrote the Charlotte and Arnold elements, but it seems that some people didn’t get their purpose, so I think I need to make those parts clearer or perhaps define them more. I intend to write a story set in 1945 that details how Arnold received the orbs in the first place, which should explain a number of things.

Really, I don’t think there is anything else I would fix. There are some bits that are not perfect, but I told the story I wanted to tell, and at the end of the day I am just pleased that everything worked. I wouldn’t want to drastically rewrite any parts asides from clarifying a few points.

What did you consider early on that didn't make the cut?

I wrote out a rough guideline of how I wanted the story to go and what would happen, and for the most part the rough idea of how Cynthia and Viktor got to the orbs seems to have stayed the same. The ending has changed quite drastically though looking back over my old notes (I kind of ignored them because they were rather vague and my intentions for the story changed halfway through anyway).

Originally, Flint and Volkner were going to battle Agatha and Bertha, and Cynthia and Viktor would slip away during that fight. Cynthia’s sister and Palmer would have made a small appearance, and after Viktor touched the orbs they simply all went home only for him to snap later and cut all ties. It was a lot less dramatic and intense and probably would have suited the calmer tone of the story more, but I wanted Viktor to truly morph into Cyrus and I felt that couldn’t have been done half hearted: I needed something big to push him over the edge and towards the hatred that fuels his actions between Dawn of Darkness and Galactic, and that was the final betrayal from Cynthia plus Castform being rendered a vegetable.

Most other parts stayed the same from my original plan, though for a while Cynthia was going to chase after Viktor through the league before he hijacked the ferry. This seemed a bit silly and the temporary powers worked better instead.

Do you have any favourite scenes?

I quite liked the descriptions in the chapter where Cynthia fights the bullies in the storm: that was fun to indulge in. I quite liked writing the epilogue and those last few chapters where I got to wrap everything up, lay everything on the table and enjoy the payoff of building all these things up and then bringing them all together. For about a year I had notes at the bottom of the Word document reminding me to bring up all the tiny little details, like Viktor thinking Cynthia had smirked at him during their battle with Volkner, so being able to finally write the big confrontation between the two of them was wonderful.
And it probably wasn’t done that well looking back (something I would tidy up), but their big bad confrontation against Mr Adiem and Carolina was a favourite for the same reasons. Plus it was the start of the end and that is always a great feeling to know this thing you have started is nearly finished – I wish I could feel that feeling more.

What scene was the most challenging?

As much as I enjoyed them, the final chapters were very hard to write. It was difficult to maintain the balance of information revealed, the action and the emotional climax of the two main characters stories. I didn’t want to force things onto the reader but I also had to make it semi clear what revelations Cynthia was facing, so there was a lot of fine tuning that went on.

It was also fairly tricky trying to conclude the epilogue with things feeling open ended but also wrapping up certain elements of Cynthia’s journey: she and Cyrus will face off in Galactic, so I didn’t want to tie everything up in a neat bow, as the only way to really finish their storylines is to have them face each other again, but I knew I couldn’t just leave everything ambiguous and tell the reader to go read Galactic. Getting the right amount in those last three chapters was a huge challenge but one I hope I pulled off.

Which character is your favourite, and why?

Well, I always love writing Charlotte because she is simply entertaining to write, and I kind of enjoy the fact she is the most bizarre element of my world and she is quite a mystery still to the readers in terms of what role she really plays, so I enjoy that part of it.

If I was to choose between Cynthia and Viktor, I think I would have to side with Cynthia. Her arc of doing this horrible thing to someone and then realising too late what she has created and what she has to do to fix it is one of my favourite storylines. The penultimate chapter when she and Viktor face off in the library and she finally realises everything she has done and everything she will have to do was quite emotional for me to write, but I enjoyed writing it all the same and having a complex character.

That is not to say I dislike Viktor: part of me feels bad for taking this lonely and sheltered boy and turning him into a sadistic monster, and I do like him and his storyline as well. However, I preferred writing Cynthia’s realisations over Viktor’s descent, as what Cynthia went through is more in line with the overall tone and themes of my world. Plus, Viktor/Cyrus’ story is still not finished yet, so I haven’t had the satisfaction of him reaching his end point yet.

Any advice for aspiring authors?

Three things:
- Don’t write more than two stories at once, it is not that fun and it holds up all of your work.
- Shared universes are a lot of fun to write and it makes it a bit easier, but really put the thought into things before you start writing and try and plot out as much of it as you can: the history, the geography, the politics, the social order, the timeline of your stories, etc. There is a lot of stuff I have thought of afterwards I wish I had come up with before, and now I need to go back and rewrite large chunks of stories and include more references to certain things. If you wanted to do a shared universe, be prepared to put the work in.
- And in saying that, however much you plan, don’t be afraid to change things as you go along. As long as it all still works at the end, there is no harm in shaking up the plot if you come up with a better idea of how to end something.
Above all else though, have fun with what you are doing and try to feel inspired. Stick with the story even if you get no reviews, because it took me two years to finally get this story noticed and look at where it has ended up. Only stop writing if you don’t want to keep writing.
 
Re: Fic of the Month-March-Vaira: The Legacy of Cyrus-Rediamond

March's FOTM is Rediamond's "Vaira: The Legacy of Cyrus"!

The interview:

Why Cyrus, and not any of the other evil team leaders?

I sat down a few years ago and started brainstorming stories. One, vaguely defined at the time, was about a hero of time, space, and (then) death tracking being chosen to save Sinnoh. So if I was working with Sinnoh Cyrus automatically became the leading candidate for a canon bad guy if I was going to tie in any of them. Then during research I increasingly tied Sinnoh to Wiemar Germany. A dominant theme of that time and place was exploring how a belief in the ability of man to change society and the world was met with great traditional pushback, which roughly matched the story of Cyrus trying to change the universe in a fundamental way while ultimately being overpowered by a coalition of ancient deities. It's not quite the same since the "heroes" of Wiemar are embodied by the villain of Sinnoh, but it made for an interesting contrast to set the story against.

Do you think a story like this would have worked with any of the other team leaders?

Varia's Sinnoh probably wouldn't, no. Cyrus' story of mankind's struggle to change the world is perhaps best mirrored by Archie/Maxie, but their goals were ultimately to submit to their version of perfect nature which is fundamentally different. To Cyrus perfect nature would be fundamentally irrelevant and even undesirable. I haven't played X/Y but maybe Lysandre could hold similar themes from what I know about him. Most other leaders were just clasically evil, which wouldn't really work for Vaira at all. Blake Hall from Shadows of Almia has made an appearance and will pop up in flashbacks from time to time, but his stark evil is meant more than anything to be a contrast to Cyrus' more philosophical descent into evil.

What was the most challenging scene to write, and why?

There's a series of scenes in the as-yet-unpublished Chapter Seventeen that were difficult to write, but for spoiler's sake I won't talk about those. Outside of that I really hated writing the first few Infernape scenes and I'm quite thankful that changing story dynamics mean that I can start fully exploring her as a character in the future.

What was the most fun scene to write, and why?

I actually liked Jane's viewpoint chapters, although doing too many of them could quickly get annoying due to her style of thinking/writing. Thinking of how she would approach the world is interesting, as she really wants to be good and moral... but her version of morality is a little off. So she ends up hurting and distressing the people around her and ultimately being seen as increasingly villainous when from her perspective she's a good girl trying to help and everyone else is being needlessly mean to her. It's an interesting dynamic to write.

If you had to write the story again, would you change anything?

Yes. A lot of things. I probably wouldn't have introduced Tiffany and Raphael until Act II and I probably would have either started the story right after everyone met or spent the first arc introducing each character with their own chapter. I also would have introduced Galactic and the Communists earlier and with a bigger role.

What were some ideas you considered early on that did not make the cut?

Jane was a very, very late addition to the story and Evyrus in his current form only came in a little earlier. Before that a PMDI/III style hero who came from Earth originally took his place (and was the Hero of Space) while a long-dead warrior with a few parallels to Achilles was the Hero of Death. The conflict mainly stemmed from vastly different ideals of heroism: Aracai was a modern revolutionary "hero" who preferred to kill in the most efficient means possible as well as a general commentary as to if it's even possible to be a hero in warfare. The old warrior believed in honor and pleasing the gods as a system of righteousness and the PMD hero believed in The Power of Friendship. I ultimately made the change when I realized that their wasn't a lot of evidence for Giratina being "death" and it was rather cliche, so I flipped some things around and consolidated some of the old warrior's character into Aracai.

What was the most emotional scene to write, and why?

If we count (possibly) unpublished stuff, there's a short scene in Chapter Fifteen that was difficult emotionally. In terms of currently released things, the conversation between Evyrus and Aracai at the end of Chapter Twelve holds the prize. It's actually a partial reprise of another conversation early in Vaira, but this one moved from Aracai questioning the existence of evil in general to admitting that if there is such a thing as good and evil, she's the bad guy. Combined with some other issues on Evyrus' part as to whether or not he wanted to admit she was right, the scene as a whole was difficult to write but I liked the final product.

Any advice for aspiring authors?

Diversify. There is still, surprisingly, potential to break new ground and make a really good fic about a young teenager/pre-teen leaving Pallet Town to fight Team Rocket and become The Very Best. But that gives you a lot of competition to work with and you'll probably just get ignored or lost in the sea. If anything I'd recommend you find some relatively original idea and try to pull that off as a first story. If nothing else, you're (probably cliche and terrible) first drafts won't be recognized as cliche and your ideas can make up for initially poor writing quality. Then when you get better at writing through trial and error you can start to look for potentially new content in the classic fan fic topics.
 
Re: Fic of the Month - April: Psychic Duelist Django series by CynthiaLover

LT here with our first non-Pokemon FOTM in a while--CynthiaLover's Psychic Duelist Django series.

Why Yu-Gi-Oh and not some other fandom or an original world?

While I've done more original ideas, it has become progressively harder to keep making original worlds and such, so using a world that's already in "existence" helped ease that problem and give me more to work with from the get-go. Also, since Yu-Gi-Oh is one of my passions, it was a good choice for me, since I'm an avid fan of the card game and series.

What was your inspiration to write the story?

I guess my inspiration for this story was based off another old Yu-Gi-Oh story I did, but never quite finished, a bad habit I have, unfortunately. Also, the various animes and, on occasion, mangas, of the series gave me more ideas, as well as my own passion for the game itself. And, since I go through routine "interest cycles", meaning my tastes change on a regular basis, and Yu-Gi-Oh was my current cycle at the time, it just seemed like a good idea. Writing is also a stress relief to me, so that's a perk and motivates me to write.

Does the title have any significance? If so, what?

To be honest, the title doesn't really have much significance. While it does reference the nature of the title character, Django, I didn't quite nail it. I try to come up with creative titles, but this one was not one one of my best. I guess at the time my ideas for the series was still new, so I couldn't come up with a more creative title. I've been tempted to change it a number of times, but since the name has been around for a while, it just stuck and I left it.

Have you considered adding in characters from Arc V, or is this strictly set in the Zexal universe?

Since the series uses totally original characters, there will be no appearances of other already established characters, like Yuya or Yuzu. As for the initial Zexal base, while that was the early idea, it has, instead, become more akin to Arc-V over time, as, unlike Zexal, it uses all forms of summoning and many older cards, such as Dark Magician and Junk Warrior. The Zexal base was because, at the time, Zexal was the most current series, along with the backbone of the series: the Numbers. However, like I said before, it's really, more or less, an Arc-V style series at this point, though a number of the characters have Zexal-ish backgrounds (Lucifer = Vector, for example). But in reality the series has evolved from a Zexal style to an Arc-V style, so it may be more accurate to call it more like Arc-V than Zexal now.


What safeguards are in place to keep the duels from becoming too over the top (as Yu-Gi-Oh often does)

Mostly, my own limitations. Even though I've been writing for years, I'm still growing as a writer, so I have to respect my limits in order to make my stories work. In order to make the Duels flow smoothly, I do extensive research on every card and effect I use. I try to limit as many anime-related cards/effects as possible, as I feel that may hamper the Duels, though in some cases, like Magical Hats, it's more "realistic" to use the anime effect vs the real effect. As for any other safeguards, I try to break up longer Duels into multiple chapters in order to ease some of the pressure and plan more effectively. That way if I make a mistake, I won't have to redo the whole chapter. While earlier, long-winded Duels were only one chapter, that was because I was still developing as a writer, so cliffhangers were never a strong suit of mine. However, because of this series, I've become more accustomed to cliffhangers and breaking longer Duels into multiple chapters, as it makes things easier.

What ideas did you consider that did not make the cut?

Well, like most of my writings, past and present, many ideas seem good at first, but then I realize how bad they are when I get them down. So I've had a fair few ideas, and even whole chapters, that I've had to discard and start over due to the idea being either poorly executed or just a bad idea to begin with. While nowadays I do extensive planning (mostly in the form of Duel Scripts, or bare bones blueprints of how the Duel will go), I still have an idea or two that seems good at first but I ultimately scrap due to realizing it won't work or won't fit the context of the series. So there have been a fair few ideas that ended up on the cutting room floor because of either bad execution or simply not a good idea from the get-go.

Do any past Yu-Gi-Oh characters make an appearance? If so, who?

Again, like I said before, no already established characters will make an appearance in this series, like Yugi, Joey, or Yusei. Instead, in order to draw in potential fans of the Yu-Gi-Oh series, I mold my characters in a similar likeness to past characters, such as Cody being my equivalent to Joey, Kain to Kaiba, and Maxwell to Pegasus, while still trying to retain originality. Also, some characters have personalities and traits that are a fusion of multiple characters, such as Django being a fusion of Yugi/Atem/Yusei, Tempest being a fusion of Alexis/Akiza, and Lucifer from Yami Bakura/Marik/Vector. So while no already established characters of the series will appear in this series, their "essence", you could say, is still present.

Any advice for aspiring authors?

For starters, always look at all your options. Never doubt any idea at first glace. Sometimes an idea that comes on a whim works out much better than a over-planned one, but keep your mind open to new ideas. While, as I've mentioned, sometimes an idea that seems good ultimately doesn't work, keep it in mind regardless. It's possible to take bits of that idea and use it elsewhere, like in a later chapter or a different series. Also, it's a good habit to jot down anything that comes into your head. You never know if one of those little brain sparks may work out better than initially thought. While planning ahead helps, sometimes it's better to just sit down, give yourself a kick, and start writing. Sometimes, when you do that, the ideas, plot, and characters come more naturally than overcooking your brain trying to get a single chapter down. I've had many story ideas perish due to over-thinking while others, like this one, flourish because I let the creativity juices flow more naturally. And if you're stuck, ask a friend or someone else for advice or suggestions. By getting feedback like that, it can help get the creativity juices flowing again. Some of the characters in my story (Draco, Onyx, and C) are fan-made ones who gave me new options to work with, so never shut your mind to outside help. That should cover any advice I could offer.
 
Re: Fic of the Month - May: Poetry by Vivillon

LT here featuring one of our poets this time--the amazing Vivillon!

Why poetry instead of a story?

I have always been interested in poetry ever since I was in elementary school. I guess something about the flow, the simplistic nature of them has always been a lure for me to write some myself. My other reason is that I just find them an easier outlet for writing when I don't have as much time to write something as I typically require myself for a fully-fledged story. I typically like at least half an hour, though an hour is ideal. For poetry, however, I typically need no more than fifteen to thirty minutes to get the first draft done. I usually don't edit it much more after that.

Do you believe poetry or a story is harder to write?

I personally feel that a poem is easier to write than a whole story. With all poetry bar ones that actually shape a story themselves, poetry doesn't need to hold on to the reader's attention nearly as long. Poets don't need to worry about writing well-paced fighting scenes, developing their characters, or even holding any long-term plans for their works. The magnitude at which one needs to plan a poem is far lower than that of a story. As such, the difficulty is also much lower.

Do you have a favorite poem? Why is it your favorite?

I am not one to have favorites, so I am going to list a couple that I personally love. First off is a less serious one, The Mehoo with an Exactlywatt. This is just a downright silly poem based around wordplay and knock-knock jokes. It's one of the first poems to ever earn a place in my heart. The other poem I am going to give you all is actually by one of our own users and a close friend of mine. Inside MagicNinetales' Thread lies one poem that just tears at my heart each time I read it. It's entitled "I'm Lost, I'm Lost...", and I suggest you all read it if you get the chance.

Are there any recurring symbols and motifs in your poetry? Why did you choose them?

If anything, I have two recurring themes in my poetry. First off is the theme of sorrowful remembrance, which can be found in a few of my poems normally themed around the loss of my sister a few years back. Contrarily, the most common theme found inside my poetry is that of noticing the simple things in life that make life so, well, full of life! These are part of what make me who I am, and if the saying "write what you know" isn't good advice, then I am writing completely wrong.

Have you ever had a poem that was challenging to write? Why?

The aforementioned remembrance poems have almost always been troublesome for me. They haven't really been so in a technical sense, but rather because they draw forth the emotions that so many people try to hide or conceal for so long. Facing your difficult memories, although therapeutic, can be a trying experience.

If you had to write a poem again, what would you do differently?

I would probably rewrite my newest poem, "Just Say It's Okay", over again. I'm not entirely sure what it is I would change, but I would nonetheless give it a reworking to better convey that pained emotion of leaving your family in order to move on in life (or lack thereof).

What kinds of poetry/poets are you inspired by, if any?

I would have to say that I am more inspired by Shel Silverstein than anybody else. His poems were some of the first ones that I have actually heard/read, and they have left an impact on the mood I tend to portray.

Any advice for aspiring poets?

Just write. It doesn't matter just how bad your poems are. You're never going to get better if you just sit there and not write. Don't care about rhyming schemes or any other sort of structure. You don't even have to follow a specific form (though I am very guilty of doing on just that). Part of poetry is writing completely freely, and in order to experience it you need to give yourself as much freedom as you want. Most poetry does not follow a specific pattern. Just keep writing and pour your heart and soul into your works. The end result will always come out better than if you never wrote it.
 
Re: Fic of the Month - June: Pokemon Academy: Second Year Rhapsody-Flaze

After a bit of a delay, here's the interview for June's FOTM: Flaze's "Pokemon Academy: Second Year Rhapsody"

What made you decide to have a Fakemon as a main character? Do you think the story would have worked with an existing Pokemon?

Well the idea of using a fakemon was kind of somethingi that came to me last minute while I was planning Dragon's Roar. Now when I say planning I mean having a general idea and just adding this thing in at the last minute after spending an hour thinking on whether I should write or not (those were the days where I could just sit down and write as soon as I got the idea). Originally I got the idea for Chigon off of an anime I was watching called Dragon Drive where there was a creature that resembled him and I really liked it and thought it would be great as a Pokemon. I ended up adding him in because I thought that it would put an extra twist aside from just making it centered in an academy.

I can't really say whether Chigon being put there instead of a normal Pokemon really change anything in SYR since Chigon isn't the main focus in SYR but it was a big factor in DR since the main storyline revolved around just what was Chigon and where he had come from and the like. Chigon certainly makes my job easier in some parts, I know some people would kill me but while I try my best to avoid relying on him as a crutch the fact that he can evolve in to different types of Pokemon gives Reggie the chance to have a variation of fighters while still sticking to the number of 6 Pokemon, plus it made picking his team easier cause otherwise I'd have to pick Pokemon that accomplished the same things that Chigon's evolutions do.

That being said I think that there were many ways the story could've worked even without Chigon being in there, academy fics revolve more around the characters and the type of daily issues that the characters go through, so it's easy to flesh out a main storyline. I think this is kind of what I wanted to do with SYR and why I made it less Chigon-centric.

How have the main cast changed between the first story and this one?

This is probably the question that stumped me the most. One of my fic's weaknesses is the fact that there are a lot of characters in the main cast, there were already a lot prior to SYR and this fic saw more joining up. As such I do feel bad that there were a lot of characters such as Jack and Marie who were really important in Dragon's Roar but didn't get much focus on them when it came time for SYR.

However, I think that there were a lot of characters that did grow up a lot during the story. Normally I'd say Reggie's the one that had the most growth. He started the story with an air of confidence that he had gained from DR but confidence isn't something that you can keep easily and it can be knocked down by the most fragile of things. Having him deal with issues such as being unable to accept change and having to face himself was an interesting way of deconstructing his character and getting him to improve and change who he is. These are issues I deal with myself in real life from time to time so exploring them was interesting. In general I think Reggie was able to become genuinly more confident in himself not because he believed in himself but because of the people around him. Believing in ourselves can only take us so far when we have no one supporting us from the back after all, the fact that he had Miko, Chigon and Fin among others supporting him helped him out a lot.

I also got to address his problems with his dad as well as his inferiority complex when compared to his brother as well. Reggie's brother is a professional and talented trainer who's always being able to do things easily and it caused him to think that his father favored him. Reggie's dad isn't an easy person to deal with but he didn't actually look down on his son, rather he was so overprotective of him that he worried of what would happen to Reggie if he failed at doing things that were out of his league, I don't think I addressed that relationship as much though but it's something I might go into more in the third fic as a whole.

Lastly in regards to Reggie when it came to SYR I finally got to do something I've been wanting to do for a while. I was able to have Reggie confess his feelings for Miko and got to write out their relationship, I didn't get to focus on their relationship as much as I would've wanted in SYR but the fact that I was able to go against the cliche of having the main characters hook up at the end was nice, instead they hooked up not just in the middle of the story but the middle of the series as a whole. I tend to rely a lot on cliches so the fact that for once I went against them was really nice.

Outside of Reggie though I think that all the other characters that got focus got to grow a little bit, some grew in ways that were more noticeable such as Miko. In DR Miko was Reggie's love interest and while she did get some chances to show off and got involved in the main story she was never much besides that. However one of the undergoing themes in both DR and SYR for Miko was the fact that she saw herself as less compared to the others, she wasn't a strong a trainer and didn't have any type of special things backing her up. The fact that I was able to give her a chance to finally amount to something and grow stronger and break out of her shell was a welcome change for me.

It's funny cause it was so last minute too, chapter 44 and 45 where the chapters that focused the most on Miko by having her go up against one of the strongest trainers in the school, the funny thing is that it was originally going to be Reggie would go up against him but I ended up changing my mind at the last moment. Doing that actually opened my mind to so many things I could do with her character that I hadn't done before and it made me like her a lot more in general as well.

Ugh I'm talking too much >.< I really like my characters see xD but I don't want to make the answer to this question too long either (I certainly have already) so I guess I'll just summarize and say that SYR's point was to expand on the characters, the personalities that had been set up in DR, and flesh them out more, make them understand each other and make the audience understand them better. I think I managed to do that, maybe not as well as I could've but it was good enough for me.

How did you design your Fakemon? What steps did you take to make it realistic?

Well like I said before the general design I got it from that anime xD; so he's kind of a ripoff but let's not get on that. In regards to his evolutions I guess they were just things I thought up when I decided that I wanted him to be able to do more, like I wanted to give him evolutions but the point for Chigon was that he stayed out of a pokeball so if he evolved he would get too big. Instead I kind of went a little Digimon with him and gave him the ability to evolve into multiple Pokemon but also be able to go back to being Chigon in the end. I will admit it was a bit of a cop out and it was certainly hard to get around it without making it seem like a huge asspull, I mean Chigon's already a fakemon so people are going to go in expecting all the cliches associated with it.

In Dragon's Roar I used Chigon's evolutions a lot more but he wasn't the the strongest Pokemon or anything, they were just that, evolutions, they were strong Pokemon yeah but just evolving didn't define the swing of things as much as just give him a general advantage. Even then I made sure to make the evolutions random and have a time limit as a last minute thing.

But if I made him more realistic or not I don't really know, if anything I think that the unrealism and uncertainty aspect of it is what makes him special, I only really focused on making him more like an actual Pokemon, or at least as best as I could.

What are some things you would recommend to an author who wants to try a school life story, or a story with school life elements?

Well if there's something I've learned that I can recommend is to not try and make it something super cool. I mean if you're going with a Pokemon Academy idea in general then I'll say that it's best to try and keep it as simple as possiblle, I mean making a grand setting for it is good too but it can make it a bit harder for people to relate and sometimes that same setting can betray you. I went with an island academy as a setting and while that gives me a variety of things that I can do and places I can put the characters in, it also separates them from the rest of the world and makes it so that there's only a limited amount of things they can do outside of fancy outrageous adventures.

I'd say having a setting that's more mundane can help, it keeps the characters closer to home and you get the chance to try and do other things without having to think too hard, so that's always a nice twist.

Another thing I'd say is don't try to have a really fancy plot. A lot of school life stories think that eventually they should have some kind of big over the top plot. If you want to do that is up to you but remember that at the center of it you're dealing with a school life story, the characters and their personalities and interactions are what matters the most and is what can make or break a school life fic. However this is only if you wnat your story to be recognized as such, but even if the school life setting is only temporary I'd still say to focus on all the characters or at least a core cast as best as you can.

What did you consider initially that didn't make the cut?

Well there were a few things, the biggest one being th efact that SYR ended up only covering half the content I wanted to. Around chapter 35 I realized that the story would be too long if I kept going with the plot I had set out for it so I made th elast arc a more day to day arc and then added a last minute final arc to it. In reality what would be the second half of the third fic is what would've been the second half of SYR or part 3 or something like that. I don't know if doing this change is for the best or not but there's stuff I was able to do that improved the story as a whole thanks to it so I don't really regret i as much.

Other than that there were a lot of characters and events that were added at th elast minute, such as the Enforcers who were somethign I came up with on the spot or characters like Claudia and Kevin Samuels who also came in last minute. Well the case wasn't the same for Kevin Samuels but he wasn't supposed to have as big of a role as he did in the end.

In general I planned SYR as I went for most of it, going off on just a general idea, so you can't say that there weren't any concrete things that were planned and cut off, more like nothing was really set in stone until it was actually written.

If you had to write the story over again, what would you do differently?

I'd probably would've tried to focus more on other characters, maybe not have as many characters either. Aside from that there were other ideas that I would've wanted to do but I think that they would've dragged the story along. The bigger thing is that I would've wanted to not have to take the rest of what was planned into the third story and be able to continue it like I wanted to but making my story get so long wasn't really the best approach either in my mind.

I mean normally you'd expect me to have a lot more things that I would've wanted to do and there are, and yet when I review SYR and compare what I did with what I didn't get to do I kind of feel that at least what happened in SYR is the best of what could've happened, like the only thing I would change is improve upon what was done but everything that was done is probably the best I could've done.

I will admit I would've liked to get deeper into the character's backstories though.

Any advice for aspiring authors?

I think the most important thing I can say is that if you have a story that you want to tell then you should write it no matter what. I mean I don't wanna repeat myself after the last time I was interviewed but I think that writing is actually pretty tough, not writing itself but sticking to it even when life gets tough and you don't find time. If you really want to tell your story then you should keep writing it for as long as you think it's necessary. The important part is that you have fun doing it.
 
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