Questions about Fanfics

I have never written a fanfic before this day (all Ive done are original stories, the only one I've read is Cupcakes (holy mother of mew that was bad). I got a few questions.
1. With what frequency would you suggest submitting chapters?
2. What is a chapter? Like what would be considered a "submittable" chapter
3. Should a Pokemon fanfic be happy, or adventurous?
4. My current FanFic is a darker story of the main character's life.
5. Would I have to completely follow pokemon cannon?
5b. If so which cannon is considered cannon, the manga(havent read), games, or anime?
I'd love to get feedback on my current Fic along with the answers to these questions.

Hello Khawill, I'm going to answer your questions, but if you disagree with me or need more info go ahead and ask.

1. With what frequency would you suggest submitting chapters?

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As long as you're updating frequently it's fine. Since I'm weird I like to have one or two extra chapters before I publish anything and try to update once a week, so even in the case where I'm going to be busy for a while I can still satisfy the reader. (Although those chapters are wasted quickly on unnecessary bumps.

2. What is a chapter? Like what would be considered a "submittable" chapter

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Well, your chapter should be following the PC rules to be submitted (not posting something unreadable). As for content, you want to try to have enough so that it doesn't seem like a filler nor so much that it goes on forever.

3. Should a Pokemon fanfic be happy, or adventurous?

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I don't get what your trying to say. Since your writing a dark fic, it really won't. Be that happy. By adventurous do you mean try new things? Or an adventure focused story?

4. My current FanFic is a darker story of the main character's life.

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That's not really a question but, may I inquire what character you speak of?

5. Would I have to completely follow pokemon cannon?

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Well, yeah you have to follow canon heavily. You can't ignore basic stuff like the type chart and say, bugs don't damage ghosts because their more material than elemental. Although, if you write a fic based on a character surviving an incident or something, in that case you are allowed to change the events that occur, mostly due the butterfly effect.

5b. If so which cannon is considered cannon, the manga(havent read), games, or anime?

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All three of them have their own universe. The manga has nothing to do with the anime or the games. The games have nothing to do with the anime and manga. Finally the anime has nothing to do with the games or manga.

The way I have my story planned, I follow game canon. I am going to try to incorporate Ash, just that his journey will be much less significant to the plot, he'll just be a kid going on an adventure solving everything that happens in the movies, as they are not related to the game plot. You could do something similar with the incorporations.

As I said if you need something clarified or have more questions, feel free to ask me.

Oh sorry 4 meant to be an addon to 3. The charcter in question is himself tragic, but you can read the post I submitted "Riseo's story."
The first chapter has less pokemon then future ones

1. With what frequency would you suggest submitting chapters?

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With enough time in-between that possible readers have time to read and comment. Typically, I've seen a weekly posting schedule. Others, however, don't post until they have the chapter ready, so it's a more sporadic schedule. So the answer would be: a week is comfortable for readers and writers, but if you take longer, that's fine.

Don't post too quickly, though. Posting a new chapter every day is too much for someone to handle all at once, especially with a new story.

2. What is a chapter? Like what would be considered a "submittable" chapter

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Best answer I've seen for Pokemon fanfics in particular: think of each chapter as an episode of a television show. But if that's not more of your style (it's what I do with both my 'mon fics), then just make sure that your chapters are long enough to be satisfying (without being massively long) and can maybe do just a little bit to move the plot along, if you really don't want to have BIG PLOT THING happen in every chapter.

3. Should a Pokemon fanfic be happy, or adventurous? My current FanFic is a darker story of the main character's life.

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Whatever the story calls for. If you have an idea for a sad fic, that's fine. A comedy idea? That's fine too. A Pokemon fanfic doesn't have to be happy or an adventure. It can be any genre.

5. Would I have to completely follow pokemon cannon?

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It's best to do it as much as you can. If you want to break from canon, then make sure that you have a really good story reason for it. You can't change something just because you want to. Like a Pokemon can't learn a random attack that it doesn't learn and would have no way of ever learning just to make the story easier to write. Part of the difficulty and fun of writing a fanfic is working in the universe with the rules it gives you.

5b. If so which cannon is considered cannon, the manga(havent read), games, or anime?

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Depends which world you want to write in. I write in the anime universe, so I stick with anime canon. Others stick to game canon because that's the world they write it. Others write canon. Check out the rules of each one and see which one really appeals to you, or which one the story calls for. (Like the reason I write in the anime universe is because a main character doesn't appear in any other canon.)

So first chapter is here: http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=287553
thanks for the advice, I'll post every Monday/Thursday giving 4 days to read between. (I think this sound reasonable)
More questions (sorry)
1. How do I know if people are actually reading the fic? I can see views but other than that there really is no indication.
2. Does this forum only allow pokemon fanfics? (If so it's fine but I do have other stories that I write) It says Fanfics and writing, and the rules don't say not to do that but there is nothing but pokemon fanfics. (The reason behind this question is that my current pokemon fanfic is a bit dark, so I wouldn't mind putting up a happier original fiction)

Khawill said:

1. How do I know if people are actually reading the fic? I can see views but other than that there really is no indication.

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It's hard to tell. Some of your views are from guests like search bots, that just click on your thread because it's new. Other views are from guests. And some views are from members who click on your thread to see what it's about (and to make sure that every post follows the rules, which are my views).

Best thing to do is see how many reviews you get. It's kind of slow right now getting reviews, but that's how it is for the whole forum. It's not just your story that has a small amount of reviews. So long as you keep posting, once activity picks up, you'll get more readers.

2. Does this forum only allow pokemon fanfics?

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You can also post original writing. When you make a new thread, just use the thread prefix "Other" to mark it as a non-Pokemon fic, and then mention in the first post that it's original. This way, people will know that it's not a fanfic for a different fandom.