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Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

I find that history can be a bit hit and miss. A lot of history authors are obviously too used to writing academically, and so don't know how to construct an engaging narrative from the history. Or sometimes their prose is ok, but the overall book is unstructured. I remember Silk Roads: A New World History was a lot like that. According to the author it was supposed to be a world history told from an eastern perspective (Fair enough), but in practice he was still half enamoured with Rome, and the other half was a rather fawning look at the Middle East
 
The fight between Dialga, Palkia and Giratina was a bit short, but I suppose it makes sense since all Giratina really had to do was get rid of the Red Chains.
 
Well, with most of the others it's somewhat justified. Team Rocket have many interests, Team Plasma are engaged in stealing as many pokémon as possible, Team Flare uses the membership as funding. Even Magma and Aqua might have ballooned up in an arms race against one another.
 
I figured were security and assaults on facilities for their research. I recall two Grunts attack Professor Rowan for his and they attack the Valley Windworks for the same reason.
 
I return from New York, and I am happy to report that Meshuggah did not disappoint. That was, without a single, solitary doubt, the greatest concert I've ever seen in my life. Demiurge as the encore made me scream at the top of my lungs, as did everybody else in the venue! XD

And to think I was about to just cancel the trip altogether. So glad I didn't!
 
I'm not doing a proper NaNo, but I am using it as encouragement to try and get some stuff done. I've written a bit more of each of my stories and really hope I can get them up before the end of the year.
 
Beth Pavell said:
I always wondered about the logic of Team Galactic. Why does Cyrus' plan require such a huge organisation? You've got to wonder what it is all those grunts are actually doing all day
Click to expand...

As someone who's put far too much thought into understanding Team Galactic and Cyrus... I have no idea. The other orgs at least seem to be semi-typical organized crime syndicates that happen to have a secret agenda. Galactic doesn't really do anything beyond tech-based initiatives. I guess they steal Pokemon and I guess its Cyrus' personal army, but it's never quite explained how that translates into making money or why he actually needs lots of Pokemon or an army in the first place. Maybe for storming a handful of important locations (windworks, the lakes) but those can't have much security in the first place...

In short, Team Galactic is almost nonsensical and I think if I wanted to do a Sinnoh fic set in the time of DPP I'd spend a lot of it trying to explain that away.
 
It might make some sense if Galactic had to raise money through illegal means - quickest money is always the riskiest, sort of thing. But as you say, Galactic surely doesn't need a huge membership to achieve its goals. I haven't looked up the story in a while, but as I recall their necessary criminal activities could be carried out by a small number of relatively elite agents. It certainly doesn't need two BAD GUY HQ buildings either, for that matter
 
Beth Pavell said:
It might make some sense if Galactic had to raise money through illegal means - quickest money is always the riskiest, sort of thing. But as you say, Galactic surely doesn't need a huge membership to achieve its goals. I haven't looked up the story in a while, but as I recall their necessary criminal activities could be carried out by a small number of relatively elite agents. It certainly doesn't need two BAD GUY HQ buildings either, for that matter
Click to expand...
Like I said, they were running around gathering information from various sources. Smart money says the Grunts are there to gather and scout research, equipment and locations for the team or otherwise maintain things for the base. I doubt a leader, 3 admins and a scientist would have found Spear Pillar, developed the Red Chains and gathered Pokémon, probably in case certain trainers took offence to the whole 'wiping out spirit' thing they were doing, all within the time period shown. Plus, can you imagine Cyrus cleaning out a toilet and otherwise maintaining equipment for living? They wanted to keep everything enclosed so information didn't leak out, so they're not exactly going to call in janitors to clean up the place. That's what the Grunts are for.
 
But this is the point - just how many people do you really need to do those kinds of tasks? I mean, a base of some sort to manufacture the Chains makes sense, but building it with big TEAM GALACTIC architecture sure as hell doesn't - at best, it just requires ballooning staff to keep the place secure. It might make more sense if Cyrus wasn't prepared to do the research slowly and secretively, or if a lot of the information wasn't easily accessible (Though if Galactic were systematically pinching super secret poké-lore it does render the actions of the authorities really lacklustre)

Put it this way, if I were to rewrite Galactic for prose, I'd do this - Galactic would be a cult-like organisation where members are promised specific grand rewards in the new world. Rank would be controlled by access to the plans for the new world (Invariably false, to disguise Cyrus' true goal). It would operate with the minimum staff, both to increase the perceived value of being a member, and to keep the authorities unaware. The majority of Galactic recruits would be people in key positions who could directly give access to important materials or information. Only when absolutely necessary would Galactic commit criminal acts. Any sources of income or special facilities would be, where possible, entirely innocuous and legal.

What you'd end up with is less an army of space men at a rave storming around, than a lurking threat that could be everywhere and turns the authorities against themselves by prowling just within the law
 

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