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Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

You know what drives me nuts? When people get mad at you and message you because of a fic not being updated.

Completely failing to take into account that writers have LIVES, and fanfiction isn't a paid job, but rather a thing for fun.
 
You know what drives me nuts? When people get mad at you and message you because of a fic not being updated.

Completely failing to take into account that writers have LIVES, and fanfiction isn't a paid job, but rather a thing for fun.
Look at it this way: someone likes your fic enough to message you angrily about not updating.

Doesn't make them right, but does mean you're probably doing something right.
 
What is this "life" you speak of?

I'm kidding, but yeah that sounds annoying. On the bright side, at least you know that your fic has fans.
 
For me, it's the writing part I can get past, the inhibition is in writing indulgent content for myself without feeling self-conscious.
 
I've wanted to write a fanfic involving my favourite Pokémon as a present to myself for a while, but I've lacked the inspiration.
 
I got a question. I am writing a prologue for my Pokemon story. In it, ancient Poke Balls are mentioned and used. How do I justify the existence of them? One idea is that they use special crystals as the core of the ball.
 
@Greninjaman
Personally speaking, I'm not sure that I could really take the idea of Poké Balls existing far in the past very seriously. The best example of an "ancient" Poké Ball that I can remember would be from the Celebi movie, with takes place 40 years in the past. When said Poké Ball was shown, I remember my reaction being less like: "wow, that's so cool!" and more like: "oh, so they decided to write a weird ancient Poké Ball in here; it's kind of weird but also kind of cool, I guess". Actually, I've found that I've had that kind of reaction with any inexplicably advanced technology that pops up in an ancient context in this series. How is one seriously supposed to explain, for example, how the DMA (with a touchscreen!) from the fifth movie is able to exist, or the magic door-opening bracelets — among other things that can be implied from the mere existence of those — from the Manaphy movie? (And those probably aren't even the most egregious examples available...)

Although having things like that around can create a legitimate "cool factor" from the perspective of a reader (at least for a while, anyway), they're also a worldbuilding nightmare for a writer because, again, you have to explain how they're even able to exist that far in the past, and what the implications of their existence are for the rest of the universe, including previously established canon (especially since we're talking about fanfic here, rather than an original universe that can be planned from the start). Handwaves like "lost ancient technology" or "technology really is that incredible" can only get you so far if you abuse them too much, or if you go too far with one idea as I think has a high chance of happening here. You'd have to be a pretty clever writer, I'd argue, to make something as extreme as ancient Poké Balls work in a coherent way, and honestly, I don't think that most writers would be that clever (I know I certainly wouldn't be).

Also, in the case of Poké Balls especially, remember that they're essentially the entire reason that the premise of the series is even possible; it's a revolutionary piece of technology that allows you to literally keep monsters in your pocket! Pokémon themselves are named after the fact that they can be caught in one, and the idea of "pocket monsters" is so engrained in society that practically everything in life revolves around them (even the money is named after them!). If Poké Balls existed thousands of years — or even a hundred years — than they actually did in canon, then the Pokémon world as we know it would almost certainly be completely different in every conceivable way, no matter what time period you start your story from. Be prepared to keep that in consideration should you choose to go forward with this idea.
 
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@Greninjaman
Personally speaking, I'm not sure that I could really take the idea of Poké Balls existing far in the past very seriously. The best example of an "ancient" Poké Ball that I can remember would be from the Celebi movie, with takes place 40 years in the past. When said Poké Ball was shown, I remember my reaction being less like: "wow, that's so cool!" and more like: "oh, so they decided to write a weird ancient Poké Ball in here; it's kind of weird but also kind of cool, I guess". Actually, I've found that I've had that kind of reaction with any inexplicably advanced technology that pops up in an ancient context in this series. How is one seriously supposed to explain, for example, how the DMA (with a touchscreen!) from the fifth movie is able to exist, or the magic door-opening bracelets — among other things that can be implied from the mere existence of those — from the Manaphy movie? (And those probably aren't even the most egregious examples available...)

Although having things like that around can create a legitimate "cool factor" from the perspective of a reader (at least for a while, anyway), they're also a worldbuilding nightmare for a writer because, again, you have to explain how they're even able to exist that far in the past, and what the implications of their existence are for the rest of the universe, including previously established canon (especially since we're talking about fanfic here, rather than an original universe that can be planned from the start). Handwaves like "lost ancient technology" or "technology really is that incredible" can only get you so far if you abuse them too much, or if you go too far with one idea as I think has a high chance of happening here. You'd have to be a pretty clever writer, I'd argue, to make something as extreme as ancient Poké Balls work in a coherent way, and honestly, I don't think that most writers would be that clever (I know I certainly wouldn't be).

Also, in the case of Poké Balls especially, remember that they're essentially the entire reason that the premise of the series is even possible; it's a revolutionary piece of technology that allows you to literally keep monsters in your pocket! Pokémon themselves are named after the fact that they can be caught in one, and the idea of "pocket monsters" is so engrained in society that practically everything in life revolves around them (even the money is named after them!). If Poké Balls existed thousands of years — or even a hundred years — than they actually did in canon, then the Pokémon world as we know it would almost certainly be completely different in every conceivable way, no matter what time period you start your story from. Be prepared to keep that in consideration should you choose to go forward with this idea.
I see your point. Do you have alternatives for a person -5,000 years in the past- going on a journey with Pokemon. The context being that there is an evil person who has the land under his iron fist. The man goes around, defeating his powerful minions, who also use Pokemon. The the person goes to where the evil person is located and takes him on, again using Pokemon.
 
I got a question. I am writing a prologue for my Pokemon story. In it, ancient Poke Balls are mentioned and used. How do I justify the existence of them? One idea is that they use special crystals as the core of the ball.

Not "ancient," but I LOVED the wind-up, steampunk-esque Poke Ball shown in the Celebi movie.

173


I do agree that Poke Balls are a revolutionary bit of tech, but you could still probably make something work. And in Gold/Silver games, they do say that nut shells used to be used for Poke Balls. If magic exists in your world, you could use the nut shells + a crystal.

Or maybe ancient people didn't use Poke Balls, but had other ways of winning over a Pokemon and ID-ing it to others are being with a person already, like how dogs were domesticated.
 
Rather than try to just make an ancient version of a modern pokémon region, I would treat the worldbuilding constraints as an opportunity. In a world where you can't conveniently carry a pokémon in your pocket all the time, some pokémon are going to be rarer and more prestigious because it takes that much more money and resources to deploy them. Maybe the hero has to exploit this in order to win, giving battle where the environment doesn't favour the enemy. Maybe the hero sabotages supply lines so the enemy pokémon simply can't be fed the proper diet
 
Not "ancient," but I LOVED the wind-up, steampunk-esque Poke Ball shown in the Celebi movie.

173


I do agree that Poke Balls are a revolutionary bit of tech, but you could still probably make something work. And in Gold/Silver games, they do say that nut shells used to be used for Poke Balls. If magic exists in your world, you could use the nut shells + a crystal.

Or maybe ancient people didn't use Poke Balls, but had other ways of winning over a Pokemon and ID-ing it to others are being with a person already, like how dogs were domesticated.
Well, what I had in mind --probably should have said this in the first place-- was that the Pokemon does not go into the ball like they do with modern balls. Rather, a beam shoots out and hist the Pokemon, bounding it to the ball.

Rather than try to just make an ancient version of a modern pokémon region, I would treat the worldbuilding constraints as an opportunity. In a world where you can't conveniently carry a pokémon in your pocket all the time, some pokémon are going to be rarer and more prestigious because it takes that much more money and resources to deploy them. Maybe the hero has to exploit this in order to win, giving battle where the environment doesn't favour the enemy. Maybe the hero sabotages supply lines so the enemy pokémon simply can't be fed the proper diet
Well, chapter one of my story acually takes place 5,000 years later in the modern world, with the events of the prologue being expanded having an effect on it.
 
I don't know if this is the right place to put it, but I have a bit of a writer's block and would like some advice on how to proceed in my fanfiction.

The plot up to this point:
The main character is traveling in Hoenn and encountered a Pokemon that was badly injured.
The Pokemon is a Ralts, and the horn on its head has been cut off.
Since the Ralts is very hostile, the main character has no choice but to put it to sleep in order to take it to the Pokemon Center.
However, since then the Ralts has not woken up.
Using a combination of Dream Eater and Nightmare, the main character enters Ralts' dreams to try and wake it up. (Inspired by Festival of Champions)
Looking at some of the memories, the main character finds out that a Pokemon Hunter is the culprit for Ralts' injuries.
The Pokemon Hunter was after a Gardevoir and used Ralts as bait; in the end Ralts escaped but Gardevoir was captured.
Due to feelings of regret, self-loathing and fear, Ralts decided to seal itself off from the outside world (Again, inspired by Festival of Champions)
Finally, the main character finds Ralts hiding in the deepest parts of its mind.

...and this is the point where I'm stuck.

So what I want to ask is, what can the main character do to open Ralts' heart, or at least make it trust the main character? Sorry for not being able to provide any excerpts from my fanfiction to serve as reference, it's written in Chinese.
 
I don't know if this is the right place to put it, but I have a bit of a writer's block and would like some advice on how to proceed in my fanfiction.

The plot up to this point:
The main character is traveling in Hoenn and encountered a Pokemon that was badly injured.
The Pokemon is a Ralts, and the horn on its head has been cut off.
Since the Ralts is very hostile, the main character has no choice but to put it to sleep in order to take it to the Pokemon Center.
However, since then the Ralts has not woken up.
Using a combination of Dream Eater and Nightmare, the main character enters Ralts' dreams to try and wake it up. (Inspired by Festival of Champions)
Looking at some of the memories, the main character finds out that a Pokemon Hunter is the culprit for Ralts' injuries.
The Pokemon Hunter was after a Gardevoir and used Ralts as bait; in the end Ralts escaped but Gardevoir was captured.
Due to feelings of regret, self-loathing and fear, Ralts decided to seal itself off from the outside world (Again, inspired by Festival of Champions)
Finally, the main character finds Ralts hiding in the deepest parts of its mind.

...and this is the point where I'm stuck.

So what I want to ask is, what can the main character do to open Ralts' heart, or at least make it trust the main character? Sorry for not being able to provide any excerpts from my fanfiction to serve as reference, it's written in Chinese.
I would say, have them talk to Ralts, try to connect with it. Even promise to help it rescue Gardevoir. That tends to work. I have seen examples in the anime where Ash and co would do that.
 
Make your MC recall some story about also wanting to have saved someone/thing but wasn't able to, and feels the Ralts's pain or something, then maybe he/she'll do a monologue of how Ralts still has time to save Gardevoir and doing nothing is pointless or whatever motivational speech you want.
 
I would say, have them talk to Ralts, try to connect with it. Even promise to help it rescue Gardevoir. That tends to work. I have seen examples in the anime where Ash and co would do that.
Make your MC recall some story about also wanting to have saved someone/thing but wasn't able to, and feels the Ralts's pain or something, then maybe he/she'll do a monologue of how Ralts still has time to save Gardevoir and doing nothing is pointless or whatever motivational speech you want.

Thank you both for your advice. I'll try those directions and see if they work.
 
I have a question regarding the length of chapters: Compared to the average amount of words per chapter, how big are you willing to let a chapter get before you try to find a way to split it? How small does a chapter have to be before you merge it into another? Not looking for specific numbers, just a rule of thumb (i.e. stop at 2x the size and merge at 1/2 the size of your average chapter). Thanks!
 
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