When is it plausible to use the canon setting and when it is plausible to just use your own settings? If using canon setting, is adding/taking out a few features (say buildings, cities, etc.) breaking canon, expanding canon, or something else?
Generally the pokémon world is large and flexible enough to accomodate any sort of circumstances. The game, additionally, is almost a sort of representation of a larger implied universe; the animé itself "modifies the canon" when it shows a million buildings in Celadon city rather than the thirty-odd that the game tells us about. Some modification will always be needed: expansion in the best cases, but breaking if nothing quite fits. As long as it can still be principally called a canon base, breaking canon is a forgivable offense.
It follows from there that if the break does indeed turn out to be too great, we can easily create a setting distant enough from what we know. If the modifications are minimal, the very interesting canon world is always there.
Miror B. from the Pokemon colosseum and XD games is the one I'm kind of having a hard time justifying. In my rough draft, I had him as kind of that guy who's motives aren't clear until near the end (kind of like he was in XD). But now, I'm just not sure if I should have him at all. In the original version, he battled my hero at some points and he had this one shadow Pokemon with him called Destail, but after thinking it over, it just doesn't seem like he adds much to the plot... So, anyone got any advice as to whether or not I should just edit him out?
You may also want to consider the threshold of relevance to the plot you've set up in the story. If it's very tightly knit, with a fast-paced plot and every detail meaning or contributing something, Miror B can be scrapped. But it you feel a nice side-detail can be tossed in there, it's perfectly all right to keep him.
I sound like I just replied to the question: "Can I keep'im, mommy? 'E's a good dog."
"I'll be really nice to him..."
Ahem.
How far do you let others have a say in the workings of your fiction? Do you hire armed mercenaries to guard over your manuscripts or welcome co-writing projects?
The last time I asked anyone for advice, I think, was two months ater my introduction to fanfiction. About two years ago.
So, yes, I don't trust another's influence on my work, aside from (of course) the menial grammar or flow nitpicks. And the issue doesn't often come up, since I guard spoilers with state-of-the-art burglar systems and for some reason make muddled plots heinously difficult to sort through. It doesn't really feel
right. It feels like using someone else's clothes.
