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Stuck in story and wanting help to sort through it all

62
Posts
15
Years
I am in the process of writing a prequel fanfic centering around the never seen/named/only mentioned once in one episode father of Ash Ketchum. Most of what I've already wrote can be found on my site (which has more chapters/stories than the thread I had started to post but stopped since I don't have the next chapter ready). The thing is, I'm stuck. I have a vague idea as to how I want the general plotline to go, but coming up with things for the main character to over come & such is a major blocking point. I'm wanting to fill up approximately 11 chapters (more so if needed) covering 7 gym battles, an event at Mt Moon and at least one situation in which the main character & his companion take up fake names. It doesn't all have to fit into the 11 chapters, but I don't want to just go through the 7+ cities/gyms/ect with no drama et al.

The story and chapters are mostly on the site Pokemon Amber (the first link in my signature).

I have a few ideas, but I would like input, suggestions, comments, ect about them and any other possible story plot points.

Chapter 9: Tony & Delia have to get past Mt Moon - all the while possibly helping a hiker that's either claustrophobic or just affraid of caves to get some Moon Stones to evolve her two pokemon (I'm thinking them to be a Clefairy and a Jigglypuff... though I'm not sure if I should change them to a Nidorino and a Nidorina)... and I'm thinking that the hiker would either be a contest trainer or an occational performer...

Chapter 10: Then in Cerulean City, since Seaking's still pretty new to Tony's lineup, the water pokemon disobeys orders in the gym battle and Tony tries out Chikorita.... and I'm not sure if Chikorita should evolve mid-battle or them all loosing the battle and then with some training or at least a bit of ego boosting, Chikorita evolve, then a re-challenge and win at the gym. I'm not sure for either way, other than Chikorita getting nervous because most of the Cerulean City gym arena is a swimming pool due to a prior event where Chikorita fell into a fast flowing stream and needed to be rescued.
 

Feathing

Water Gym Master
252
Posts
16
Years
Well, I would like to help you ;)
The story is set 20-30 years before Ash's, isn't it?
So, Gym Leaders wouldn't be the same (excepting Blaine). Would be interesting that the father of Brock were the Gym Leader, and also he make a friendship with Ash's father.
A young Giovanni would fit in the rival character (for making things more special ;) )
The plot could be the usual: the boy wants to go in the adventure because he loves pokemon and wants to be a PKM Master (would you like to add that he does that in order to make Delia fall in love with him? )
In the adventure, he meets Giovanni, a reckless boy who will be his nemesis for all the story. Then he discovers that a rich person (think of it as Hunter J) wants to take advantage of the Pokemon Safari Resort and capture and sell the rare pokemon (of course he would have to discover all this progressively) when he found that this, he accidentaly meets with delia and declares his love, she didn't say anything, but agrees in helping him to enter to the main building of the 'evil team' (there is when they uses fakes names).
They eventually captures the man and delia finally declares her love too..
Epilogue: the man scapes and meet with Giovanni, who got inspired from his ambition to create an evil corporation... delia and tony have a son, but in a journey, giovanni attacks him and makes him dissapear (did he kill him, did he lost him in the sea??) lefting delia and baby ash lonely, moment when samuel oak appear and confort the family. The gym battles are set to take place in the middle of the adventure, some of the leaders (as brock father) could help the hero in the adventure (specially the leader of fuchsia, given that the safari zone is near fuchsia). And remember Pokedex were not invented...


I hope you like my suggestions ;)
 

yuki3056

Grass Types own
239
Posts
15
Years
Man this sounds good....I was going to do this too but now that I know someone else is there is no point.....Goodluck on it and why only 7 gyms and not 8?
 
62
Posts
15
Years
Feathing; It's not set 20 - 30 years before Ash's, more like just over 10 years (closer to 11 or 12) - since the anime starts on or shortly after Ash's 10th birthday. Most Gym Leaders would still be there except some of the younger ones - Brock's still a young kid and his father, Flint, is the Gym Leader of Pewter City (one of the two gym battles already wrote). Sabrina, Erica and Misty aren't in the picture yet for obvious reasons (too young or not even out of diapers). I'm not too sure about much of a friendship between Flint and Ash's father (from here on out refered to his regular nickname of Tony)... other than being more of an aquaintance than anything.

Giovanni's already got a role in the whole mess as I have borrowed some of the storyline from the Pokemon LIVE! 'cannon' and some plot twists from a Japanese audio drama CD.

This from the Pokemon LIVE!
Spoiler:


And this from the audio drama;
Spoiler:


When all is said and done, ten to twelve years prior to Ash's start as a trainer, a younger Giovanni's in charge of a slightly smaller Team Rocket (which is pre- Jessie, James, Meowth, Butch and Cassidy to say the very least). Tony and Delia eventually fall in love... but not because Tony goes on a journey to gain Delia's love. He goes on the journey because of an argument between himself and his father and his father in a fit of rage threatens to disown him if he leaves - and Tony not wanting to argue further with his father, leaves.

So in the end, Giovanni doesn't show up until Tony and Delia have long established their relationship of boyfriend/girlfriend and show up in Viridian City for the second time before heading out towards Victory Road.

That is an interesting idea about using the fake names around the Safari Zone though... Especially with the gun weilding Warden of the Safari Zone (and Koga the Gym Leader).

As for the 'leaving Delia and Ash lonely' back in Pallet Town, that has an explanation as well since after having beat the Pokemon League and becoming the 'next champion' (and having later on been beat by the next champion - I'm thinking Lance the dragon pokemon trainer that use to show up sporaticly) he gets the chance to be co-gym leader of a gym for a city I came up with (Krustallos City) along side the gym leader, Selene who has the Agyros Badge (and brownie points to those who get the tie in between Gym Leader, Badge and City names).

Yuki; There's always room for another person to write their own version of a prequel... After all, there's bound to be billions of variations for Ash's future and who/if he marries, so why not have many variations of who Ash's father is? As for the gyms, the story I have has the character wind up with nine total badges, but two gym battles have already been wrote, which leaves me with seven more to write.
 

yuki3056

Grass Types own
239
Posts
15
Years
Oh I say, and I do not want to step on anyones toes with a fic so I will write my own....I had an idea for his dad but this one sounds much better than mine....
 
62
Posts
15
Years
Would it help if I say, "I challenge you to write your own prequel! Or even your own interpretation of Ash's father in the present or future timeline!"

I actually want to read something from someone else's perspective. Truth be told, I haven't yet seen any other prequel from others that didn't include some form of shipping (especially eldershipping where it's Delia and Professor Oak... or whatever the shipping's called that has Delia and Giovanni... but then again, I didn't look too hard either...) and/or didn't have that much of a real storyline.

I may be stuck and wanting help for my own story of my own version of Ash's father, but I would like to see a few more variations on the theme.
 

yuki3056

Grass Types own
239
Posts
15
Years
My idea was to incorporate Ash's dad in a present timeline, where Ash goes to a tournament and his dad is in it....I already have the first chapter up on fanfiction.net, it was more of a side plot than the main plot, the bulk of my fic is around an OC but Ash and his dad was a side plot I had in mind....
 

Feathing

Water Gym Master
252
Posts
16
Years
I think both stories can be written without to being 'copies' of each other. Besides, as it was said, it's good to have different points of view.
I hope anything that I said can help you. If you need help for the names, you can check in www.behindthename.com it's a complete guide for the names and the meanings.
 
62
Posts
15
Years
The fake names had long been decided upon... along the same lines of Ash's fake name of Tom Ato (which of course was a groaner pun), the fake names that Tony and Delia use are Hank Epanki and Anna Filactic.

I still want help figuring out the individual chapters. I'm not really good at it alone.
 
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Feathing

Water Gym Master
252
Posts
16
Years
What do you mean with 'figuring out' ?
You have the plot, but you don't know to organize it in chapters??
Well, the method I use is easy. Write in simple sentences and using items all the plot (the main facts and the main feelings of the characters). When you finish, it will be very easy to follow a chapter-line.
This is the way used for script-making ;)

Example:
1-Prologue: a meteor falls near azalea town.
2-sarah wakes up and discuss with her mother. goes out.
3-michael scapes from school and goes to ilex forest.
4-michael and sarah meet for the first time. michael has a crush on her; sarah can't stand him.
5-they walk thorugh ilex forest. pokemon appear.
6-they see a crater.
7-they see a light coming from there.
8-they see a pokemon which don't know (deoxys)

Etc, etc, etc...

this is easy to do. you don't have to think where the chapters could begin/end. simply numerating the main facts you have the strcuture, and you can even mix two items for a single chapter. hope can help
 
62
Posts
15
Years
It's not that easy for me...I can't just put them in order like that unless I'm actually talking with someone in order to figure out if A should go before B but after C or some such thing... I can't just say Mt Moon will only be in chapter 9, Cerulean City in chapter 10 (when it could be chapters ten AND eleven), and so on and so on... without constant feedback, I get stuck and stop writing and I wind up back on square one and back here trying to get help when I've needed it for a while (though this is the first thread I've posted in the writer's lounge... not the first time I wanted to get help figuring things out).

Sometimes it's fine, but without constant feedback (which I use to have, but the person I had got constant feedback from via an instant messenger had less and less time to read/write fanfiction & less time to keep up with Pokemon or anything else for that matter) I get stuck and distracted too easily, which is why I started this thread.
 

JX Valentine

Your aquatic overlord
3,277
Posts
19
Years
Sounds to me like the outline method won't work for you, even if you tried. That's perfectly fine, though. The outline method doesn't work for everyone.

In that case, it may be better for you to simply sit down and write. Split chapters where you think it'd be a good idea to split them, but just write the story from beginning to end. Sometimes, it's okay to not do prior planning before you write, and sometimes, you don't need to know what happens in chapter ten before you write chapter one. However, you still need to write chapters one through nine before you can get to ten either way.

My advice, then, is first to get a beta or a good friend to bounce ideas off of for the chapter you're currently working on. Create a word processing document for you to stick in ideas that you may have for future chapters, but don't rely on it as a list of what you absolutely have to touch on at a certain time. It's your bin for ideas that you can change later if you want to. Then, create another document for your chapter, sit down with that friend, and talk things over about that particular chapter. When you get a thumbs up about an idea, write that part of the story.

In other words, focus on writing one chapter at a time and stick ideas for the future into a place where you can remember them but aren't referring back to constantly. Get a beta or a friend to help you out if you feel like you absolutely have to, but work on it at a pace where you can post your work and get the feedback you need to keep going.

Hope that helps.
 
62
Posts
15
Years
As previously posted, I've already got chapters 1 - 8 online (as well as chapters 20 - 27 & 29) at my site called Pokemon Amber. And also as posted, I had someone who was my beta, but they're no longer able to due to lack of time/interest/etc. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I need a new beta, preferably someone who I can chat with over an IM as well as several times a week to do what you've mentioned (which I've done with previous beta). And I already do have a separate file for segmented writings that don't have a place in any chapters as well as a different file for the general overal plot line (and a vague timeline file as well).
 

yuki3056

Grass Types own
239
Posts
15
Years
I will beta for you, grammer isn't my strong point but I could reveiw your work for you and maybe point out errors. I have an AIM account so if you do I can IM most of the time....
 

JX Valentine

Your aquatic overlord
3,277
Posts
19
Years
As previously posted, I've already got chapters 1 - 8 online (as well as chapters 20 - 27 & 29) at my site called Pokemon Amber.

Any mention of chapters one through ten in your story that I made in my other post is an example. I didn't mean you would literally be working on chapter one. I mean you'd be working on whatever chapter you're looking at now.

And also as posted, I had someone who was my beta, but they're no longer able to due to lack of time/interest/etc.

You realize we've got this thread for writers to select a beta, right? I would suggest going with someone whose work can be looked at themselves (as in, it's currently on the forums so you can see the kinds of fic they produce and how they work with plot), considering you're going for a plot beta. That way, you'd be able to go with someone you're sure knew the basics of plot building and what would and wouldn't work for a story.
 
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Feathing

Water Gym Master
252
Posts
16
Years
It's not that easy for me...I can't just put them in order like that unless I'm actually talking with someone in order to figure out if A should go before B but after C or some such thing... I can't just say Mt Moon will only be in chapter 9, Cerulean City in chapter 10 (when it could be chapters ten AND eleven), and so on and so on... without constant feedback, I get stuck and stop writing and I wind up back on square one and back here trying to get help when I've needed it for a while (though this is the first thread I've posted in the writer's lounge... not the first time I wanted to get help figuring things out).

Sometimes it's fine, but without constant feedback (which I use to have, but the person I had got constant feedback from via an instant messenger had less and less time to read/write fanfiction & less time to keep up with Pokemon or anything else for that matter) I get stuck and distracted too easily, which is why I started this thread.


Well, I'm actually writing a fic, so I'm 'in the mood'
Also I have plenty of free time here in my computer. So, I would be happy to help you. The thing is, I don't know what time of the day you're connected... RIght here, It's 12.30 pm. in my country.. So, when you entered here next time, VM me or PM me and we'll talk ;)
 
62
Posts
15
Years
yuki: Okay, well then since my aim screenname's there, I'll let you IM me first... (since I don't see the link to yours up).

Xanthine: I actually didn't notice it until you pointed it out. Sometimes, I'm just too dense and/or not able to see things that could be right in front of me until someone points them out.

Feathing: I'll try to PM later, though if you have an instant messanger (like AIM or Yahoo!), I can get to you faster.
 
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