Oh, HECK YES! Military camp (and, for that matter, all formal military training) is now been there done that as far as I'm concerned, and with only nine days to go before ultimate liberation comes around (At least...I think it's nine. My grasp of time isn't what it used to be. x.O) I figured it was about time I dragged my sorry arse back here. Former victims of mine (Jax, Griff, DarkPersian, I'm looking at yooouuu) may expect reviews within the next few weeks, though I can't give any exact dates as it depends on how fast I manage to catch up and how much interference from other sources there will be. There WILL be reviews, though.
Goodness knows I might even get around to getting a proper version of my fanfic's first chapter one of these days. xD In the meantime, however, it's time for a little topic near-necromancy.
What was the first fanfic you've ever read, and what was it about? If you can't remember what that first fanfic was, what's the earliest one you remember?
Well, my memory is a bit fuzzy on this stuff, but I think it was either "An letter of compaint!!!!" (can't recall the precise spelling xP) or "Glass Half-full". The former was a scarily well-written depiction of a bad fanfic writer (and the reviewers who are trying to set him straight and/or bash him, as the case may be), while the latter was an actual OT fic, though the focus seemed to be on the main character's ability to grasp bits and pieces of pokéspeech rather than the usual beat-the-gyms tour. But yeah, both concerned OT fics one way or the other. xD
Two: If you didn't start writing fanfiction with the Pokemon fandom, what was your first fandom? As in, if you wrote for a fandom (or multiple fandoms) before you discovered Pokemon, what was it (or were they)?
I...think I used to do some horrendously bad fanfiction stuff for another fandom when I was small (You know, like, ten or something) but fortunately my memory is merciful enough to have erased the name of the abused fandom(s) from my mind. In terms of serious, committed, focused fanfic-writing effort pokémon is my first and - to date - only fandom, though.
While reviewing a fic, do you find yourself mainly looking for flaws, good qualities, or something else?
Well, when I review I usually read through the fic two times. The first is my enjoyment round, in which I'm basically just looking for a good story and hence focus on the positive aspects as far as possible. I make note of places that stick out in a negative way, but I don't go any further with them until I get to my second readthrough, which would be the analytic/nitpick round. Here, I'm basically looking to see why the spots I noticed in the first readthrough looked awkward to me (and what could be done to get rid of that awkwardness) as well as looking for typos, grammatical errors and other nits to pick. So yeah, I strive to maintain a healthy balance between the two, but because it's so much easier to analyze a wrong (since there are usually clear rules for why it's wrong) than a right, my review tends to look a bit criticism-heavy if you look at it in terms of paragraphs devoted to each.
What cliches of the OT genre do you "embrace" in your OT story, and how do you avoid making them sound repetitive?
Ahh...how to answer this without becoming guilty of prattling about my ideas instead of actually executing them? Well, my main character does get her starter from the lab, but this is because of family ties to the institution (Older brother working as an aide at the local lab. She's also run some errands for them to earn spending money, so there's another connection) and the starter is not a pokémon of the generic set, not to mention that it was actually previously owned. The good-starting-relationship-with-starter element is there to a degree, but it's actually residue of the starter's relationship to his previous owner rather than super-special Sue attraction power.
On the less subverted side, I have the feeling that the big bad (and, to my everlasting shame, their masterplan) is rather clichéd in some ways, but I'm hoping to compensate for it by doing my characterization in proper depth. Big bad and big plot are still subject to change too, so it may turn out quite different in the end. The boring morning routine is there, complete with the bathroom mirror, though I'm trying to mesh in some character development with the usual clothing/morning activities thing. I will most likely also be doing the whole 'first-meeting-with-starter' scene, though I'm still toying with the idea of doing it from the starter's viewpoint.
Overall...I seem to enjoy subverting (or otherwise twisting) my clichés rather than playing them straight. xD But then, none of this has reached its final written form yet, so anything is still possible.
Which set of canon takes precedence: Video game or anime?
When it comes to canon, I usually follow the hierarchy of manga, games, anime, in that order. Usually, when it comes to determining some non-combat related traits of pokémon (like their place in folklore/mythology, Spoink's bounce-induced-heartbeat, etc.) I go for the pokédex since the other two don't tend to have much to say on the matter one way or the other, and when movepools/learnsets are concerned I certainly go for games. When it comes to portrayal of canon characters/locations and battle strategy then manga comes first. The anime pretty much lost my respect with the baby Lugia and 'aim for the horn'. xP
What things have you tried in an attempt to force yourself to write?
Inner guilt trips, shutting away other activities in an attempt to focus, reading random wiki articles and pokédex entries in search of inspiration, the old headdesk, erm...yeah, I think those are the main ones. Sadly, the biggest result of my toiling is creative phobia of empty word documents, hence why I relegate my writing to the advanced reply box whenever I can these days and just write when the mood strikes me. I've learned that my muse is a vindictive little cow who doesn't appreciate being pushed. xP
Plus, that way I can send my scribbles to myself as PM so I can view them from the mili computers too, not that that will matter in two weeks' time, of course. xD
In fanfiction, do you ever have a character you absolutely adore one day and then hate the next?
Well, I wouldn't say 'hate', but I've certainly found myself passively disliking many of my earlier character ideas for a main protagonist. Painful thing is, I can tell just by looking at the draft that it was a character which I really liked at the time, but looking at them in retrospect I find them to be rather bland and soulless with very little potential in terms of character development. I can only hope that my current cast will avoid that particular fate. x3
Do the lyrics of some songs change the way you write or motivate you to write?
As other before me have said...the lyrics, not so much, but the music definitely does. There's no inspiration for writing my more disturbing characters and scenes like the old Higurashi opening theme (Arguably, a few things may inspire me better, but there's still nothing precisely like it) and I've also assembled a small collection of other music to accommodate whatever mood I want to write my scenes in.
When it comes to Pokemon learning new moves, do you go strictly by game canon or do your own thing?
As I said above, game canon is god as far as movepools are concerned. I'm more liberal about when the pokémon learn their moves, however, as well as the source of those moves (It's not like I'm going to be running an elaborate backstory of each pokémon's parents to establish a breeding chain justifying their egg moves or anything. xP). Usually, I just try to maintain a general power level for each pokémon in my head and then give them attacks matching it (so, for instance, a newly hatched Charmander would not be spewing Fire Blasts about) unless I have a proper explanation for them knowing stronger attacks than that. To me, a prematurely learned move is a far lesser sin than a dull battle scene.
When you complete a fic, how does it feel?
Wish I could answer that one, really do, but with exactly zero finished fics to my name I can not. Heck, I'm only just starting to go through the feelings of writing a fic and completing a chapter. xD
