POPULAR: Simple Questions, Simple Answers

[AetherX]

Re: The Trainer's Journey: Writing it?

And, I don't dislike all fanfiction! But sometimes, it's a chore to read, especially when I'm only doing it for research, an especially when I have to dig through all the crap myself, in order to find "the good ones."

If I understand your advice correctly: the Journey is really only a grid, a measurement of time, an added, but secondary, set of challenges for the characters to overcome. The Gym battles are landmarks that cut the story off into bites, and the real story falls between them. Yes?
Rather, I get that that's not the way all Journey fics must go, but this one specifically, it sounds like that's the sort of way it'd work.

Sorry if I came across a little strongly there Like I said, I've encountered people who write but hate reading and that kind of makes me angry. In general, most of the stuff that I've read on this site is actually pretty solid.

Anyway, yes. That's the general structure of most of the Journey fics that I've read (including my own). But as Ace pointed out, it's important to have a real reason for the gyms to be in there, otherwise there's no reason to have it be a Journey fic in the first place. It's all about balance.

 

[Beth Pavell]

@Truly, I'd also advise watching the series at least a little - even if you don't take any ideas from it it will at least get you in the mood to write all things pokémon

 

[Beth Pavell]

Handling multiple Gym Battles

Supposing a story has more than one main character challenging the Gyms at once - as a reader, how would you prefer to see it handled? Would you feel cheated if you didn't see both battles played out in full? If the character's battle style is sufficiently different, is repetition of a battle with the leader even an issue?

 

[Soulmaster]

Re: Handling multiple Gym Battles

Supposing a story has more than one main character challenging the Gyms at once - as a reader, how would you prefer to see it handled? Would you feel cheated if you didn't see both battles played out in full? If the character's battle style is sufficiently different, is repetition of a battle with the leader even an issue?

It really depends how the characters differ. If they have major battle style differences(eg one is headstrong and charges straight in, the other is more defensive) than I would say give both battles. But if they are pretty much the same styles, save yourself some time and effort and skip the second, and maybe giving a short recap at the end when the badge is or isn't given("well done on ____" or "you could work on ___"). Just my two cents.

 

[AceTrainer14]

I follow the method Soulmaster uses, partially; in Galactic, as I have four characters challenging gyms, I show them each battling two and the others are either given in summary or will be done off screen, while for The First Warriors, as I have three, I am having all of them battle the first gym to get an idea before giving them two each.

 

[Autofire]

I'm writing a story, and I have a couple of questions... I'm planning on writing something which is somewhat large scale, and I've never done it before.

When editing a story, what techniques do you use to find issues? I'm finding that I can usually take out more flaws by stepping through a paragraph at a time and staring at it. Once I make it through all the paragraphes, I skim the whole chapter/work and then go through the paragraphs again. I repeat until I can't find errors. The only issue here is that it takes quite a while...while this isn't an issue in itself, and I do value quality over quanity, I would still like to know if there is a better way.

From past experiences and observations, I can tell that motivation is vital. Is there any tricks to keeping motivated? Or is it just love for your work and positive feedback?

This one is related to these forums in particular: If I want to post my first chapter in the near future but plan to change it (a lot or a little) afterward based on feedback, should it go in The Written Word or The Fiction Fairground? (This is mainly to make sure I get early feedback to steer how I might write things. It would be near impossible to make certain changes at a later time, so I'd rather start in the right grove.)

I've been wanting to write a Pokemon story for a long time now. I'm simply hoping it goes smoothly. :-D

 

[AetherX]

I'm writing a story, and I have a couple of questions... I'm planning on writing something which is somewhat large scale, and I've never done it before.

When editing a story, what techniques do you use to find issues? I'm finding that I can usually take out more flaws by stepping through a paragraph at a time and staring at it. Once I make it through all the paragraphes, I skim the whole chapter/work and then go through the paragraphs again. I repeat until I can't find errors. The only issue here is that it takes quite a while...while this isn't an issue in itself, and I do value quality over quanity, I would still like to know if there is a better way.

From past experiences and observations, I can tell that motivation is vital. Is there any tricks to keeping motivated? Or is it just love for your work and positive feedback?

This one is related to these forums in particular: If I want to post my first chapter in the near future but plan to change it (a lot or a little) afterward based on feedback, should it go in The Written Word or The Fiction Fairground? (This is mainly to make sure I get early feedback to steer how I might write things. It would be near impossible to make certain changes at a later time, so I'd rather start in the right grove.)

I've been wanting to write a Pokemon story for a long time now. I'm simply hoping it goes smoothly. :-D

Everyone has their own way of proofreading. I tend to read the whole chapter up to where I am every time I sit down to do some writing. Right when I finish I read it all the way through out loud. Then I let it sit for a day before coming back and doing another couple of out loud read-throughs. If I really want to be sure, I'll give it another day and do it again. In the end, if you're unsure of yourself, you can always get a beta reader. It depends on what works for you.

I am a firm believer that motivation and inspiration are made up mindsets. Sit your ass down and write. That's the only way anything is going to happen. If you feel motivated, then make the most of it, but if it's been nine months since your last chapter (like me) some mental fortitude is required. I have never detected a difference in the quality of my "motivated" writing and my "DO IT ANYWAY" writing.

All stories go in The Fiction Fairground. You are free to make edits after your chapters have been posted, although I would suggest letting your readers know in case they want to go back and check out the changes.

Welcome to the forum! We have an awesome community here that I'm sure you'll love being a part of. I urge you to make the most of the Review Game for feedback and the General Chat for off-topic shenanigans with the cool kids your fellow writers.

 

[AceTrainer14]

@Autofire: For any further questions about how things are done, reading the Rulebook and Welcome Hub is a necessity, and if you want tips the Writer's Academy should be of use. Welcome to the forums

 

[Autofire]

Thanks for the answers! I post again because, well, I have another question... :ksmile:

Spoiler

In my story, which is going to be losely based off the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series. I want to have a poll that will go for about a week, with a different question each day. This will work like the personality quiz in the PMD series. What I want to know is: Where do I put this? I (unintentionally) structured the story in a way that I can actually work a bit out of order, and I could possibly post the first chapter before the quiz is finished, but I want to have the quiz before I have the story up. Should I put it in the same thread I intend to put my story in? (Which would go in the Fiction Fairground.) Or should the polls go somewhere else?

 

[SylveonLover]

Help Me, Please

I've never written a creepypasta, I want to know what "standards" are and things like that.

 

[LightningTopaz]

So I'm approaching Parfum Palace in "The Kalos Connection", and I want to make the Furfrou chase a bit more crazier, culminating in the in game puzzle. Any ideas?

 

[Autofire]

So I'm approaching Parfum Palace in "The Kalos Connection", and I want to make the Furfrou chase a bit more crazier, culminating in the in game puzzle. Any ideas?

Make the Furfrou know how to dig, and it will dig up parts of the garden and/or try to tunnel away.

Or make it know double team. I don't think I have to go into more detail...

 

[matt0044]

Tournament or straight to the Elite Four

This is something I've been mulling over for a while for my BW journey fic: should I let their be a tournament to see who faces the Elite Four or take it out in favor of skipping to the Elite Four? Maybe Victory Road could serve as a sort of elimination to weed out the weak (like N and the Main character would be the only two to make it out undefeated) but... I dunno how I could work that out.

Anyone care to help?

 

[Beth Pavell]

Re: Tournament or straight to the Elite Four

It depends on the 'verse, I feel. In journey fics based on the games I think it works best to go the Elite Four, especially from plots like Black and White where the villains and the Elite Four go hand-in-hand. I generally prefer a league tournament - the games paint a lot of the world in broad strokes, while in fanfiction we get a chance to expand and show the world as the games can't. Either way, be it Elite Four or a tournament, just writing out crucial battles one after the other is likely to get tiresome. Working in a sub-plot that's not necessarily about the battles would go some way to mitigating that, I think

 

[AetherX]

Re: Tournament or straight to the Elite Four

Having written a tournament before, it can be quite exhausting. I would not recommend writing one and then immediately going on to the Elite Four battles. Both you and your readers would get burnt out.

 

[kintsugi]

Re: Tournament or straight to the Elite Four

Can't speak from personal experience or anything, but I think having a full tournament and then Elite Four would be far too much battling for my taste, and writing it would be difficult (even just writing that many battles, let alone making them all interesting and different from one another, sounds exhausting).

Probably not what you had in mind, but the idea of a Victory Road Free For All, wherein everyone enters at the same time and you have to battle everyone else to get out/it's filled with dangerous pokemon who are all trying to kill you/sort of like the Hunger Games but minus the death and with (potentially?) more survivors would be really interesting if done well?

 

[LightningTopaz]

Re: Tournament or straight to the Elite Four

Plus, why stop with just battling? True, Pokemon battles are the main event, but what if some rounds had a different challenge besides "defeat your opponent's Pokemon?"

 

[matt0044]

Re: Tournament or straight to the Elite Four

Probably not what you had in mind, but the idea of a Victory Road Free For All, wherein everyone enters at the same time and you have to battle everyone else to get out/it's filled with dangerous pokemon who are all trying to kill you/sort of like the Hunger Games but minus the death and with (potentially?) more survivors would be really interesting if done well?

Dunno about the wild Pokemon but I had in mind that Victory Road would be a system of caves that constantly intersect and at those intersections, Trainers are likely to meet and battle. The loser is eliminate while the winner moves forward (with a map of the caves installed on their Town Map). Those who make it out can go straight to the Pokemon League and it doesn't have to be just one Trainer who makes it out. Maybe two or three. They just come out, heal their Pokemon and get ready for the Elite Four, challenging them in any order

Spoiler

(so Hilda goes to Shauntal while N faces Grimsley, Hilda goes to Marshal while N face Caitlin, Hilda goes to Caitlin while N faces Shauntal and Hilda goes to Grimsley while N faces Marshall. N makes it to Alder first as Hilda manages to just watch the whole match).

 

[kintsugi]

Re: Tournament or straight to the Elite Four

Probably not what you had in mind, but the idea of a Victory Road Free For All, wherein everyone enters at the same time and you have to battle everyone else to get out/it's filled with dangerous pokemon who are all trying to kill you/sort of like the Hunger Games but minus the death and with (potentially?) more survivors would be really interesting if done well?

Dunno about the wild Pokemon but I had in mind that Victory Road would be a system of caves that constantly intersect and at those intersections, Trainers are likely to meet and battle. The loser is eliminate while the winner moves forward (with a map of the caves installed on their Town Map). Those who make it out can go straight to the Pokemon League and it doesn't have to be just one Trainer who makes it out. Maybe two or three. They just come out, heal their Pokemon and get ready for the Elite Four, challenging them in any order

Spoiler

(so Hilda goes to Shauntal while N faces Grimsley, Hilda goes to Marshal while N face Caitlin, Hilda goes to Caitlin while N faces Shauntal and Hilda goes to Grimsley while N faces Marshall. N makes it to Alder first as Hilda manages to just watch the whole match).

I think that would be cool, but wouldn't the most obvious solution be to camp out and avoid challenges altogether until all of the good trainers beat one another out? What would make trainers battle one another in the first place?

 

[matt0044]

Re: Tournament or straight to the Elite Four

I think that would be cool, but wouldn't the most obvious solution be to camp out and avoid challenges altogether until all of the good trainers beat one another out? What would make trainers battle one another in the first place?

No, because:

1. That'd be seen as cheating and highly discouraged.
2. There's a time limit as to when you can make it to the end of the road.
3. Most Trainers will want to toughen up their teams as a warm up for the Elite Four. Those who care about their skills will be more inclined to test themselves.
4. Just so things go quicker (and because I'm so damn keen to cut corners), the matches are three-on-three.
5. Hilda and N make it just as time runs out and are both allowed to go face the Elite Four.