Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

[unrepentantAuthor]

If I were writing a nuzlocke (not that I would) I would diversify the casualties to include voluntary departures from the team, injuries with long recovery times, and so on, rather than having every fainted pokémon be a death. I just don't think the death thing makes for good prose fiction.

 

[Greninjaman]

If I were writing a nuzlocke (not that I would) I would diversify the casualties to include voluntary departures from the team, injuries with long recovery times, and so on, rather than having every fainted pokémon be a death. I just don't think the death thing makes for good prose fiction.

I never considered those. I mean, it makes sense for some "deaths" to be departures from the team and having to retire due to injuries.

Edit: Also, it's understandable that you don't want to do a Nuzlocke. They are not easy challenges.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

I did a Nuzlocke, it was fine. I just don't think prose fiction adaptations of them are worth my time.

 

[Greninjaman]

I got a question: How can you tell if a chapter should be split into multiple parts?

 

[BackSet]

I had a chapter that had to be split into two chapters once because the two parts were so disparate that putting them in the same chapter would be jarring.

 

[Beth Pavell]

If you've got two distinct story arcs in one chapter, split it

 

[kintsugi]

I think the simplest solution, especially with a more gritty setting, would be to make Pokémon battles like real-world dog fighting or other blood sports where injuries are more serious and can be fatal.

Edit:
Diseases could also factor into the above where a wound might become infected, however, I don't think having every death be the result of a disease would work, in my opinion. To me, it just comes across as... forced. It's hard to explain.

That being said, I think a curse placed on the trainer where each of their fainted Pokémon eventually dies could be an interesting angle if handled well.

Nuzlocke settings definitely open up a lot of messy ethics questions—if pokemon is commonly a fatal bloodsport (either all the time or really at any non-zero rate), then training for entertainment entails willingly participating in a sport that kills its non-human players for fun. You pretty much lose access to the defense that training/battling doesn’t hurt Pokemon + anyone who chooses to participate in that is basically, like you say, endorsing dogfighting, which is arguably a shitty stance to be taking.

And if your trainer is one of the unlucky few who is cursed to have deaths—why do they need to keep training if the end result is that they risk killing? If the reason is just low-stakes “because it’s fun/I want to win”, then your protagonist is explicitly putting their entertainment over lives, which again, interesting angle but the narrative would have to handle it carefully + it’d be hard to make them sympathetic.

Non-death departures were already floated and I think that’s a solid workaround (plus hey, maybe the pokémon just wanna do something else for a bit). Different stakes/non-casual battles could be another angle—it’d be a lot easier to believe that a trainer and their Pokémon are choosing to risk death (of the pokemon) if the consequences are “I might die, but if we don’t fight them, Team Magma will volcano the world” instead of “I might die, but if we don’t fight them, Trainer Tommy doesn’t get a shiny badge”.

But inherently the Nuzlocke challenge rules work when you ... assume that Pokémon aren’t your friends, and are instead just a bunch of pixels, you know? The whole “nickname them so you’re more attached” suggests that the player isn’t really seeing them as individuals/companions by default (which a lot of players might not! it’s a game after all)—whereas adapting to fanfic, you almost have to make the Pokémon characters who are valued on a personal level in order to have an interesting cast. You don’t really *need* the drama of “failure=death” in a literary setting because you can already generate drama through other ways.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Well put as always, Kint! Particularly that last point. The appeal of nuzlocke adaptations is 'there will be some random deaths', and I'm kinda done with that. I like narratively worthwhile deaths. I like crafted narratives. The good ones hold my interest because they innovate on the story in other ways and provide fresh material, and it tends to be comics that achieve this without getting bogged down.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Yeah, the ethics of pokémon battling can be more or less glossed over in most stories, but once you introduce the expectation of pokémon death it opens a can of worms whether you like it or not

 

[Greninjaman]

Yeah. It does. Especially when you get a massive amount of deaths at once.

 

[canisaries]

to decide whether to split a chapter, i have two questions i ask

1. is the length noticeably over the average chapter length for this story, and would splitting it have the the resulting chapter(s) too short?
2. is there a spot where the chapter would be more narratively fitting to end, and does the content after it comfortably fit into the next / its own chapter?

sometimes, though, it is better to accept a longer chapter if the content within really requires it.

 

[Greninjaman]

to decide whether to split a chapter, i have two questions i ask

1. is the length noticeably over the average chapter length for this story, and would splitting it have the the resulting chapter(s) too short?
2. is there a spot where the chapter would be more narratively fitting to end, and does the content after it comfortably fit into the next / its own chapter?

sometimes, though, it is better to accept a longer chapter if the content within really requires it.

Thanks

 

[Nitro Indigo]

My MLP fanfic Silent Wings was originally going to be a oneshot, until I realised that it could go on for longer and that the two perspectives of different characters in different locations at different times warranted their own chapters.

By the way, I'm back! I left for a while because I got bored.

 

[Greninjaman]

What are ways to NOT write a crossover? I have one in mind (legend of Zelda and Pokémon).

 

[BackSet]

I'd suggest that you try to avoid having one series overpower the other but given that I haven't written a lot of crossover fics I'm not an expert.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

@Greninjaman Since your crossover involves two franchises, make sure they get an equal amount of focus, or people will wonder why you made it a crossover in the first place. Also, try to avoid having characters spout exposition about their respective franchises, since most people reading will be familiar with both.

 

[canisaries]

have the characters of one series randomly teleport to another and have the characters of that series react like "oh my god it's glorbo from super adventures dx on the nintendo wii" that'd be really cool i think

 

[zoroarctic]

Have attempted a crossover before, I have a couple of pointers.

1. Before you start, make sure you have a plausible way to bring the franchises together.

2. As others have already said, you need to do justice to all franchises involved.

 

[Greninjaman]

My crossover idea is Pokemon and Legend of Zelda.

 

[BigDocFan]

I've got ideas for a fan fiction series of my own, I'm getting into the swing of things with another fan fiction series so I might think about starting a Pokemon one here