Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

[Greninjaman]

Let's say one is writing a story that centers around rescuing a person. Would the kidnapped person be a main character or a supporting character.
Here is what I have in mind: Erik's sister is kidnapped by monsters. Erik goes to rescue her, joined by his friend. The story will end with the sister being rescued.

 

[BackSet]

Usually the people rescuing the kidnapped person are the main characters. Obvious examples being Mario and Link.

 

[Greninjaman]

well yeah. That makes sense. Would peach be considered a main character even though most games have Mario rescuing her?

 

[BackSet]

Only in games where she’s playable.

 

[Greninjaman]

So she is a supporting character in games where the end goal is to rescue her?

 

[BackSet]

Pretty much.

 

[Greninjaman]

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

I have a concept for a pair of OCs: two humans who have never met before are transformed into a Galarian Slowbro and an arm cannon Shellder. Since they're stuck together, they're forced to get along with each other; the Shellder is assertive and agressive, while the poor Slowbro can't keep up with what's going on. Problem is, I can't think of what kind of story to put them in, besides that it will involve many humans being transformed into Pokémon. Any ideas?

 

[Ihsan997]

I suppose you could approach a story about such characters from two angles:

1. They’re from the real world but knew about Pokémon, or
2. They’re from the real world and have no idea what Pokémon are.

The latter would be a real harrowing journey of discovery, and very tense; the former opens a lot of doors for comedy. The two themes end up being very different.

 

[Greninjaman]

How would a Pokémon story work if I took out the Gyms and only focused on the evil team(s)?
Sure for Galar, I would HAVE to have the Gyms or change the group to something else since Team Yell is pretty much connected to the Gym Challenge since they want Marnie to win the League.

 

[Ihsan997]

How would a Pokémon story work if I took out the Gyms and only focused on the evil team(s)?

Do you mean like a story which focuses on the antagonists as the main characters, or in which the gyms actually don’t exist?

 

[Greninjaman]

Do you mean like a story which focuses on the antagonists as the main characters, or in which the gyms actually don’t exist?

Like, like there are no Gyms.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

This year, I want to break out of my comfort zone of only writing Pokémon and My Little Pony fanfics. I wrote 400 words about Doctor Who a few weeks ago, but now I'm going through a mental block where thinking about doing anything creative makes me feel tired. Any advice?

 

[Phosphene]

Thought I’d jot this (barely developed) idea down before I forget it and hopefully writing stuff down will mean it’ll be closer to being realized unlike almost all my other ideas.

Anyways, I was thinking of a story idea that’s sort of a similar situation to the thing with Grovyle and the human in the backstory of PMD Explorers.However, the world isn’t in the PMD universe—the humans were far more advanced and there’s a greater emphasis on the structures and things (like sentient robots) that they left behind—and I don’t think I’d include any PMD mechanics or items outside of maybe the seeds. I remember seeing some mention of a PMD-lite genre where it’s similar to PMD but with notable deviations—I think that would apply. As for the story, in the ultra, ultra rough draft I have in my head, basically, the protagonist is a young woman working together with a (male) Sigiylph doing... things... like investigating some ruins of some sort. I was thinking the girl would have amnesia, which would be caused by the Sigiylph himself because she was so distraught over the loss of everyone she cared about and possibly being the last human alive. Though, overall, I haven’t put much thought into the story besides the basic premise of girl + Pokémon. Maybe at some point they’ll be transported the main series Pokémon world or their world’s past and have to pretend to be trainer and Pokémon partner.

Edit: After thinking about it a bit more, I’ve come up with a bit of plot. Basically in the past the humans killed/captured one or more members of the Creation Trio and essentially used the bodies to build cyborgs that still fulfilled the Creation Trio’s original purpose while providing energy and resources to the humans. Now, in the present where humans are long gone outside of the protagonist, these machine-god hybrids have broken done and/or deactivated and the world is destabilizing as a result. The two protagonists are essentially working together to try and fix/reactivate these in order to prevent total destabilization.

 

[AetherX]

How would a Pokémon story work if I took out the Gyms and only focused on the evil team(s)?
Sure for Galar, I would HAVE to have the Gyms or change the group to something else since Team Yell is pretty much connected to the Gym Challenge since they want Marnie to win the League.

I think it would work a lot better than keeping the gyms in. Gyms make for a pretty weak B-plot in pretty much every journey fic I've read (or written). The other stuff is almost always more interesting, to the point where sometimes it feels like the gym challenge is a distraction.

This year, I want to break out of my comfort zone of only writing Pokémon and My Little Pony fanfics. I wrote 400 words about Doctor Who a few weeks ago, but now I'm going through a mental block where thinking about doing anything creative makes me feel tired. Any advice?

I've been there before. For me I blame it on depression, for which there is as of yet no definitive cure, so I think you just need to learn to cope with it. Two ways to do that come to mind. The first one is to learn how to write even when you don't feel up to it. Establishing a habit by setting aside dedicated writing time on a regular basis can help with that. The other option is to learn what puts you in a writing mood (music, drinks, watching/reading something beforehand, etc.) and using that to encourage yourself to feel creative.

 

[Greninjaman]

I think it would work a lot better than keeping the gyms in. Gyms make for a pretty weak B-plot in pretty much every journey fic I've read (or written). The other stuff is almost always more interesting, to the point where sometimes it feels like the gym challenge is a distraction.

Of course, I would need to give a reason for Ash (or that region's protagonist if I choose to have each region have its own protagonist) to travel around the region.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

@AetherX Yeah, my biggest motivation-killer is mental health issues. Not helping matters is that I've been mind-numbingly bored for most of this month.

 

[Zaphod Scotsman]

After seeing the latest episode, as well as The reviews, I feel like I’m ready to make a journeys rewrite. Any advice on what I should do?

 

[Nitro Indigo]

One of my vague ideas for AUs is a version of the Pokémon gameverse where everything is... off. Regional variants are swapped with their originals, Leaf is the canon Kanto protagonist, and maybe the type chart is inverted. I'm not planning to write this anytime soon, but I just want to get the idea out. A possible plot for a fic in this universe is a matter-of-fact gym battle where Ice beats Fire and no-one questions it.

 

[Greninjaman]

Could a Prologue work if it takes place right before the final battle of your story?