Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

[Tophat Dragoneye]

If it is a journey fic, I mostly assume that trainers often wears the same clothes on a regular basis, as changing clothes every day, for example, or getting new haircuts would be impractical for them to do so on a daily or regular basis. And as Bink said, hair and clothing staying consistent makes the character more recognizable.

In other news, I think I came up with a silly little way for trainers to carry around bikes without breaking their backs. I'm thinking that some bikes might come with a small container that uses technology similar to a pokeball. It sucks in the bike like it does with a pokemon, and then its small and easy to stuff in the corner of your bag. Maybe they can do this with tents and diving gear and other bulky and heavy things too. I dunno.

Ever heard of folding bicycles?

 

[Vivillon]

I challenge anybody and everybody here to a game of chess on chess.com. My name is sir_qwertz there.

 

[BinkVallen]

If it is a journey fic, I mostly assume that trainers often wears the same clothes on a regular basis, as changing clothes every day, for example, or getting new haircuts would be impractical for them to do so on a daily or regular basis. And as Bink said, hair and clothing staying consistent makes the character more recognizable.

In other news, I think I came up with a silly little way for trainers to carry around bikes without breaking their backs. I'm thinking that some bikes might come with a small container that uses technology similar to a pokeball. It sucks in the bike like it does with a pokemon, and then its small and easy to stuff in the corner of your bag. Maybe they can do this with tents and diving gear and other bulky and heavy things too. I dunno.

Ever heard of folding bicycles?

I have, but those are still heavy. I don't know how many young teens could handle hiking around a country carrying that plus all the other supplies they'll need for a journey. plus my characters are going to be carrying a lot of crap and I don't want to deal with the logistics of that because I'm a lazy bum

 

[Lord Kyuubi]

Sometimes, I feel characters have a particular iconic look, to the extent that it becomes almost wrong to picture them too differently. I mean, it's a valid and important point that they obviously more than one outfit, but if you reach a stage where a character's clothing becomes too iconic, I guess all you can do is stick to more minor variants of a similar sort of thing? Though I'll confess this is all improvised rambling, and I never gave the subject much thought.

I don't have to worry about this, myself, because all my characters are pokemon, and therefore they don't wear anything beyond perhaps some accessories of some sort. A few of them have tattoos, not that that counts, and there's a leafeon who wears a headband with a black feather in it. That's about it.

I challenge anybody and everybody here to a game of chess on chess.com. My name is sir_qwertz there.

I'm making an account, I'll play with you sometime! I'll lose, but...

 

[Beth Pavell]

If it is a journey fic, I mostly assume that trainers often wears the same clothes on a regular basis, as changing clothes every day, for example, or getting new haircuts would be impractical for them to do so on a daily or regular basis. And as Bink said, hair and clothing staying consistent makes the character more recognizable.

In other news, I think I came up with a silly little way for trainers to carry around bikes without breaking their backs. I'm thinking that some bikes might come with a small container that uses technology similar to a pokeball. It sucks in the bike like it does with a pokemon, and then its small and easy to stuff in the corner of your bag. Maybe they can do this with tents and diving gear and other bulky and heavy things too. I dunno.

Ever heard of folding bicycles?

I have, but those are still heavy. I don't know how many young teens could handle hiking around a country carrying that plus all the other supplies they'll need for a journey. plus my characters are going to be carrying a lot of crap and I don't want to deal with the logistics of that because I'm a lazy bum

Yeah, but if the characters are on the journey, most of the time they'll be using the cycle rather than carrying it. Actually, if I were to have another go at a traditional journeyfic, I'd have my characters travel on tour bikes, complete with panniers full of their equipment

As far as appearance is concerned, I had my characters change their clothes slightly to match the Spring temperatures. It would make sense in many stories for this to happen, but it comes down to conserving detail. In an anime or manga you could show this visually with very little effort - in prose it so easily becomes extraneous words

 

[Tophat Dragoneye]

If it is a journey fic, I mostly assume that trainers often wears the same clothes on a regular basis, as changing clothes every day, for example, or getting new haircuts would be impractical for them to do so on a daily or regular basis. And as Bink said, hair and clothing staying consistent makes the character more recognizable.

In other news, I think I came up with a silly little way for trainers to carry around bikes without breaking their backs. I'm thinking that some bikes might come with a small container that uses technology similar to a pokeball. It sucks in the bike like it does with a pokemon, and then its small and easy to stuff in the corner of your bag. Maybe they can do this with tents and diving gear and other bulky and heavy things too. I dunno.

Ever heard of folding bicycles?

I have, but those are still heavy. I don't know how many young teens could handle hiking around a country carrying that plus all the other supplies they'll need for a journey. plus my characters are going to be carrying a lot of crap and I don't want to deal with the logistics of that because I'm a lazy bum

Consider this: If the Pokémon world's technology is so advanced that it is able to change living being into pure energy to be contained in tiny orbs, you would think that they would also create bicycles that are both durable and light for traveling trainers.

Sidestepping from this subject for a moment, anyone seen this article on Polygon? What's your general thoughts about it?

 

[Beth Pavell]

Consider this: If the Pokémon world's technology is so advanced that it is able to change living being into pure energy to be contained in tiny orbs, you would think that they would also create bicycles that are both durable and light for traveling trainers.

I think it's better to quietly ignore that logic - lest the hackneyed old question of why Poké Balls technology is relatively cheap and commonplace but all other technology is basically modern day comes up (takes a breath). That being said, I think it's definitely fair to say that the industry for Trainer's accessories would be very big indeed - so maybe things like folding cycles would be more advanced as a result of that

 

[BinkVallen]

My line of thought was that if pokemon technology can change living beings into energy to store in tiny orbs, then doing the same thing for a non-living bicycle or tent would be relatively trivial. Although Pavell raises a good point about riding bikes around most of the time. Maybe trainers mostly ride their bikes on routes, but there are little bike parking lots that they can keep them in while they're walking around cities. Hmmm.

Anyway, if I'm going to have pokeball-like supply storage tech in my story I have to decide fast, because I'll want to introduce it in the next chapter. They wouldn't be used for everything because they would cost extra money and because you would have to permanently pair one storage ball with one object (just like how each pokeball can only hold one specific pokemon), so that wouldn't completely eliminate the use of regular backpacks. You still have to carry food and medicine and stuff. And maybe the object going into the storage ball would have to be specially (and expensively) modified to interact with it, making it more of a luxury item than a common necessity that every trainer has a ton of. I don't know, maybe I'm getting too attached to the idea...

 

[Beth Pavell]

My line of thought was that if pokemon technology can change living beings into energy to store in tiny orbs, then doing the same thing for a non-living bicycle or tent would be relatively trivial. Although Pavell raises a good point about riding bikes around most of the time. Maybe trainers mostly ride their bikes on routes, but there are little bike parking lots that they can keep them in while they're walking around cities. Hmmm.

Anyway, if I'm going to have pokeball-like supply storage tech in my story I have to decide fast, because I'll want to introduce it in the next chapter. They wouldn't be used for everything because they would cost extra money and because you would have to permanently pair one storage ball with one object (just like how each pokeball can only hold one specific pokemon), so that wouldn't completely eliminate the use of regular backpacks. You still have to carry food and medicine and stuff. And maybe the object going into the storage ball would have to be specially (and expensively) modified to interact with it, making it more of a luxury item than a common necessity that every trainer has a ton of. I don't know, maybe I'm getting too attached to the idea...

Personally, I wouldn't. The Poké Ball is already an easy solution to the problem of carrying around pokémon. Solving all luggage problems by just shoving them aside into a capsule's a bit too easy. There's nothing really wrong with the logic of it, but once you start going down that route the problems just multiply out. With a relatively simple story like yours I'd hate to see the tone get buried under a lot of speculative science-fiction.

The thing is, if journeyman trainers were as common as they are in the canon, I think industries that support them would spring up a lot faster than capsule bags. If there's money to be made from renting rooms out to trainers or selling pokémon food and medicine, you can bet somebody would be making it. For someone in small village it would be relatively easy to make some extra money here and there by charging a small amount for bed and breakfast. Or by selling pokémon food, in the style of a farm shop. All those businesses would be set up and spreading a lot faster than travel capsules could be invented, manufactured and distributed. And then there'd be the question of whether they would be worth inventing, compared to setting up a chain of rural convenience stores instead

 

[Tophat Dragoneye]

Cities could possibly also adapt more to trainers who travels a lot, Celadon Department Store being made for Pokémon trainers/breeders only for example. I can imagine bigger cities having underground bicycle parking systems to save space for them, something like in this video below:

[video=youtube;pcZSU40RBrg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcZSU40RBrg[/video]

Speaking of trainer accessories, it gave me an idea about the possibilities of magazines that specializes in bringing the latest news in accessories, equipment or necessity for Pokémon trainers, breeders or coordinators in my journey fic.

 

[Misfit Angel]

I have, but those are still heavy. I don't know how many young teens could handle hiking around a country carrying that plus all the other supplies they'll need for a journey. plus my characters are going to be carrying a lot of crap and I don't want to deal with the logistics of that because I'm a lazy bum

Perhaps have the bike frame be made out of a special metallic alloy that's both durable and lightweight?

Also, what kind of stuff are your characters going to be carrying? Essential survival supplies typically aren't that heavy outside of water and tents/bedrolls. Most trainer accessories seem like they'd be lightweight enough to be carried in pockets. Also, never underestimate the ability of a person to 'bulk up' to the challenge of carrying a lot. I remember when I first started a job as an electrical apprentice, I could barely carry 25 pounds for ten feet, but two weeks later I was able to do it with ease without changing my strategy for carrying stuff. A trainer who's on her feet all the time will probably get used to travel under heavy conditions fairly quickly.

 

[diamondpearl876]

I challenge anybody and everybody here to a game of chess on chess.com. My name is sir_qwertz there.

Best name ever.

What's your rating? If you fight my BFF Ph8 on there and win, let me know and I'll give you a prize.

 

[AetherX]

I'm with Pav. Allowing everyday objects to be stored in Poke Balls is dangerous. It could throw your worldbuilding into serious disarray given the amount of problems it would solve (and cause). It's been something I've been thinking about a lot lately, since I'm considering writing a one shot about the invention of the Poke Ball to fill a spot in the Expansion section of the next awards.

I don't think the weight of a bike would really matter, since the average person would be riding it nearly everywhere. Pokemon Centers would probably have plenty of bike racks out front if it was commonplace (or a storage system like Tophat mentioned). If journeying is common, then routes would almost certainly have well maintained, if not paved, trails that a bike would have no problem on.

Somewhat irrelevant, but if anyone's curious, when I've done big backpacking treks our packs were around 30-40 pounds apiece (side note: no one's doing any action scenes with a pack that size). That included three days worth of food, about three liters of water, a change of clothes, half of a tent (we shared two-person tents), rain gear, some personal essentials, and some crew gear (a pot, a white gas stove, a rainfly for our packs at night, a big first aid kit, and a few other things, all split among the individual members of the 10 person crew). You could certainly shave that down several pounds, but it depends on how limited your characters' menus are going to be. You don't get much more than dehydrated or super nutrient and calorie dense food (i.e. kind of gross food imo) with a 25 pound pack. Another solution would just be to make the distance between towns only a couple of days at most. Another note: sleeping under the stars at any point that isn't the middle of summer tends to be miserable as fuck, but a hardy/experienced trainer could get by with just a tarp and some warm clothes rather than a sleeping bag, sleeping pad, and tent.

Now that I think about it, it's odd that people don't get saddle bags for their Pokemon so that they can carry their own weight. I imagine most journeying trainers would want to save their Pokemon's energy for battles, but for non-competitive trainers that would be a very reasonable option.

Kind of considering doing a blog post now on what a realistic journeying trainer's loadout would actually look like.

 

[Persephone]

30-50 pounds, 60 tops for a really big person, is about where a real backpacker would be. On the longest trip I've been on I was carrying ~45 pounds and weighed 120, and that was seriously pushing the limits of what I could carry uphill. And agreeing on the storing stuff in Pokeballs thing. It seems like if you want to take a sci-fi angle to the series exploring the technology: go for it. Otherwise I wouldn't. It just makes things too complicated for something that probably doesn't matter for the actual story's plot and characters.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I did a lot of backpacking research when writing the Longwater - Len Town stretch, most of which @AetherX has summarised in one go. Strictly speaking my characters carry more than a real backpacker would, and I make less of the weight - because it is fiction, and so long as you make an effort to bear what really would be flat-out silly in mind you should be ok.

I still got my ass kicked once for pushing my luck on this issue, but that's what betas are for

 

[AceTrainer14]

Kind of considering doing a blog post now on what a realistic journeying trainer's loadout would actually look like.

You know the one item you definitely have to include in that?

Spoiler

BROWNIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know why I did that. I just felt a sudden urge coming on....


But your post also reminds me, we need some good entries in the Best Expansion round this time! I don't want to have to submit the DoD epilogue just to fill things out there.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Well ... I do have an idea that could fit into Expansion, taking my Taxonomy blogs and using them for an in-universe publication, but the only problem is that it would be kind of spoilery

 

[AceTrainer14]

Well ... I do have an idea that could fit into Expansion, taking my Taxonomy blogs and using them for an in-universe publication, but the only problem is that it would be kind of spoilery

To me, that sounds more Alternate than Expansion, but that is only going by the concept. Do you mean like a fictional non-fiction type thing?

 

[Beth Pavell]

Well ... I do have an idea that could fit into Expansion, taking my Taxonomy blogs and using them for an in-universe publication, but the only problem is that it would be kind of spoilery

To me, that sounds more Alternate than Expansion, but that is only going by the concept. Do you mean like a fictional non-fiction type thing?

Oh, I just realised that Expansion requires the use of canon characters, which I don't intend. The idea was for a kind of "Pokédex" style series expanding upon the biology of pokémon. I hadn't decided quite what form it would take (Whether it would be literal expanded in-universe pokédex, for example)

 

[AceTrainer14]

Oh, I just realised that Expansion requires the use of canon characters, which I don't intend. The idea was for a kind of "Pokédex" style series expanding upon the biology of pokémon. I hadn't decided quite what form it would take (Whether it would be literal expanded in-universe pokédex, for example)

That would make an interesting entry for Best Alternate. If it was specifically related to your universe than it could maybe be Expansion, but we'd have to discuss at that point in time.



Does anyone know where I can find indepth discussion about the Goomy line? Need help for a story.