Back for reals this time. Not that anyone possibly missed me, but.
Anyway....
One of my planned projects is a hentai (a non-rape hentai, at that).
My God, that exists?! *is shot repeatedly*
Do you use Pokemon nicknames? If so, any particular examples?
Generally, I don't. The reason I give is the "canon does it" crutch: only a handful of trainers in the anime canon nickname their Pokemon, so I aim for a similar feel.
There are, however, three
actual reasons:
1. Everyone and their mother nickname Pokemon in fics. One of the ways I try to separate my writing from Ye Olde Pokemon Fic is by having my Pokemon be
named after their own species. For example, Viola's Haunter is called Haunter. Sebastian's Lapras is Lapras.
1a. And even then, other people's nicknames never really impressed me all that much, and I didn't want to risk making the mistake of, for example, naming yet
another Charmander "Blaze."
2. I can never come up with nicknames that would logically come from my characters.
3. None of my characters are particularly creative with names anyway.
The exception to this is my rendition of Bill, who seems to have a penchant for giving his Pokemon random names for the sole reason that he sees them as his equals (and therefore, they deserve names). That and it's out of a force of habit, as I RPed as him not too long ago, and his Pokemon all have nicknames. So, for example, his Alakazam (raised from the Abra he first caught) is named Voltaire, and his Venusaur (taken from Ono-verse) is Diderot. This does not apply to
all of his Pokemon, though, as not all of them particularly appreciated his efforts to name them. (For example, Farfetch'd is Farfetch'd, only because he refused to respond to anything else.)
Do you intend to give your characters any accents or dialects?
A number of my characters
do have accents or dialects (such as Imogen from Midsummer Knights speaking with a distinct Jamaican accent, and the version of Bill I write with speaks with a refined English accent), but I only mention them in passing when they first speak and have the reader try to remember that they do. The reason why is because I know that it tends to be annoying to both write
and decipher something written as if to mimic someone's speech patterns, so to avoid that, I let the readers' imaginations take care of that for me.
How important is the title of a fic?
I personally feel that a title is
generally important. It's the first thing your readers learn about your work. The more alluring a title, the more likely they are to read whatever it is you've published. For example, people will want to read something called
The Rosewood Prophecies more than they would
The Adventures of Tommy the Charmander because the first title conveys a sense of mystery and poetry already. The reader can tell from the first title that the work will probably be fairly descriptive and intriguing, and they will be tempted to pick up that work just to find out what the Rosewood Prophecies
are. However, the latter title just gives the reader the idea that the work is more cartoonish, and in the Pokemon fandom, that cartoony feel sometimes tells the reader that what's inside is actually badly written.
Also, yes, if you misspell your own title, you'll probably turn someone away for the sole reason that they can tell whatever's inside is most likely badly written.
Judging a book literally by its cover? Yes, unfortunately, it is, but it's also the unfortunate truth. Imagine going into a bookstore. You don't have too much time to stand around and read (unless you spend hours in bookstores), so you'll want to pick up something that sounds interesting because you don't want to buy something that
isn't. So, you'll most likely look at covers or spines of books
first, which means that the
first thing that grabs your attention would be the title. To avoid having readers just pass over your book, then, you really need to make a title that will grab their attention long enough to at least glance at the blurb on the back or a few pages inside.
Who/What inspired you to write your fic?
It depends completely on the work you're talking about. For Midsummer Knight's, it's a combination of Shakespeare (quite obviously), the manga
Dream Gold (which follows a similar plotline), and the anime
Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna ~. It's
Dream Gold, though, that inspires me to write the most and keeps me going, and I blame this fully on Kurorat Jio Clocks, the main character. Seriously, Kurorat is possibly one of the most intriguing characters I've ever read about, even though I've only been able to get my hands on the first (and only translated) volume of the series. He's a coward at heart but brilliant, and he's thrown into a world of danger for the sake of his partner. He looks like a pushover, but in actuality, he's ruthless when he's cornered, capable of smiling in the face of his enemy just before his plans destroy them. I wanted to write about a character just like that, the average and ordinary thrust into a world of danger and mystery, just because it sounded like
fun. So, as a result, I created Viola, and the rest of Midsummer Knight's Dream just sort of happened around her.
For other fics, I tend to draw a lot of inspiration on various media. For example, an upcoming fic I'm working on has a lot of basis in B-movie sci-fi flicks, like
Alien and
The Fly. Another fic I'm writing was inspired completely by a line uttered by Tamaki Suou in
Ouran High School Host Club. Certain short fictions were inspired by songs or soundtracks.
Alternatively, I get inspiration from events. Fish Musings and Goldfish Funerals, for example, were inspired by a friend's cat and the death of a goldfish, respectively.
However, I just don't get too much inspiration from other people except when I'm doing requests. I really don't know why. *shrug*
