Fanfiction Lounge

[Misheard Whisper]

Whenever I get stuck, I just ask my characters what they're thinking about etc.

 

[bobandbill]

How far do you guys go when imagining your characters?

I basically just run through my head how my characters would react in situations, what they would say, etc but I haven't actually 'talked' to them. Maybe it's because talking to, say, Miror B is too great a concept for me to actually imagine properly or something, idk. XD

 

[King!]

How far do you guys go when imagining your characters?

I....don't know....I don't talk to them...I just....go with it......xD

 

[Grovyle42(Griff8416)]

How far do you guys go when imagining your characters?
I put myself in their skin/scales/exoskeleton/etc. Sometimes even for battle scenes just to make sure the movement will be fluent with the attack.

It helps quite a bit.

 

[Incinermyn]

How far do you guys go when imagining your characters?

Full-on character emersion. Usually, I play scenarios out in my mind, but I sometimes role-play to work out character quirks and understand why I have them the way they are.

 

[An-chan]

How far do you guys go when imagining your characters?

Uh, yeah, sometimes my characters don't ask me before they start doing things I didn't really plan for them to do. And I am dead serious about this. When my stories reach a certain point, the characters have their own minds. I can just suddenly notice I'm wiriting about Cimi passing out, for example, even though she wasn't supposed to. It's just very Cimi-like to pass out on inappropriate moments, so she's going to do it anyway. Or, say, some character get into an argument that wasn't really planned beforehand.

So, I'd say I usually go way too far. Sometimes I get to a point where they're actually the ones telling me what's going to happen next. Is that healthy? Uh, I sure hope it's healthy... I've also never been able to control my dreams in the slightest bit. Not even if I realize it's a dream. Seriously. My imagination is just that stubborn. Not that I mind, though.

 

[Lana.]

How far do you guys go when imagining your characters?

Uh, yeah, sometimes my characters don't ask me before they start doing things I didn't really plan for them to do. And I am dead serious about this. When my stories reach a certain point, the characters have their own minds. I can just suddenly notice I'm wiriting about Cimi passing out, for example, even though she wasn't supposed to. It's just very Cimi-like to pass out on inappropriate moments, so she's going to do it anyway. Or, say, some character get into an argument that wasn't really planned beforehand.

So, I'd say I usually go way too far. Sometimes I get to a point where they're actually the ones telling me what's going to happen next. Is that healthy? Uh, I sure hope it's healthy... I've also never been able to control my dreams in the slightest bit. Not even if I realize it's a dream. Seriously. My imagination is just that stubborn. Not that I mind, though.

That happens to me, as well. xD My stories are all character driven in a very literal sense.

 

[Misheard Whisper]

Wow. It seems I am normal after all. ^_^ Just last night, I was stuck with my main character standing outside a house carved out of a hillside with a raving lunatic inside. I didn't know what he was going to do next, so I asked him. ^-^ It worked, too. I now have 10,000 words written.

 

[Dragonfree]

How far do you guys go when imagining your characters?
I... don't talk to them. They feel like separate entities in my head, but they don't actually do anything unless I'm writing about them, answering questions as them or taking personality tests as them. All of which I do, but just talking to them? Nah. When I'm alone and bored, I'll be rehearsing scenes with them :P

 

[Venia Silente]

Talk with our characters

How far do you guys go when imagining your characters?
I... don't talk to them. They feel like separate entities in my head, but they don't actually do anything unless I'm writing about them, answering questions as them or taking personality tests as them. All of which I do, but just talking to them? Nah. When I'm alone and bored, I'll be rehearsing scenes with them

Oh, Dragonfree, you almost broke my heart: I for a moment seemed to misread the underlined word as missing and though to myself, "take arbitrary tests as my characters? Cool!" I mean, come on, having your (mine, in my case) characters asking for help to fill their tax revenue forms, launch their campaign for Senate Spokesperson, do an anachronic interview for the History Channel hosted by Sander Vanocur, or answer a marketing survey... from Nintendo! --- all of this sure could be fun! :classic:

Right?

...Right?

Well, I admit I use one of my character's names when I go to a particular restaurant. Don't know why. Maybe I am a bit more insane than I thought.

 

[.Ozymandias]

How far do you guys go when imagining your characters?

As far as necessary; with Elise, she was easy to slip into and I knew her quite well, because she has been bobbing about in my head for a while, but generally I'll roleplay as them, write a little from their pen and have been known to stand up and say the lines to check they actually make sense.

 

[Archangel Valeria]

Uh, I'm new here, and I'm not sure what to do. I like writing things, but how do I get started here?

 

[txteclipse]

Uh, I'm new here, and I'm not sure what to do. I like writing things, but how do I get started here?

Well, if you have pokémon fanfiction written, you can check out the Beta Place to try and have it reviewed, or you can just post your work on the main page of the fanfiction section and dive right in. If you have other stuff that isn't about pokémon, you can toss it up in the Other Writing section.

If you have nothing written, then welcome to the club some good places to help get you going would be the Fanfiction Writing Guide, an example of a good fanfic, and the Writing FAQ.

 

[Dragonfree]

You just... post a thread in the main forum and put your written work in it. o.o If you mean the Lounge, you just enter the discussion and answer some of the topics we've been having (which people generally bold in their posts).

 

[JX Valentine]

I'd suggest a body change then :P XD

But I like being an ambiguous entity. :(

How far do you guys go when imagining your characters?

I'm pretty much in the same boat as Dragonfree here. I don't really talk to my characters. They're there in my head, but they usually don't actually do anything unless I'm actually writing or otherwise trying to mentally imagine how scenes should go (i.e., mentally planning).

'Course, it's probably better that I didn't develop those kinds of relationships with my characters, considering what I do to them on a daily basis.

Also, hi, guys. I'm back from Florida. And I have a small army of geckos.

 

[Misheard Whisper]

Geckoes? *shudders*

I like to talk to my characters. They're more inclined to talk about interesting topics than ANYONE I know (barring you guys here), and they're sensible. Well, except Deroh. He's an ass.

 

[An-chan]

Geckos? *squeal* I love geckos! And small snakes, too! And frogs! In my world, you don't have to be fuzzy to be cute ^-^ I like fuzzy animals, too, though. Ahem, and this is relevant because...?

I actually don't really interact or think about my characters unless I'm either planning or writing. Sometimes, though, if I've been writing the same thing for a really long time, they start invading my personal space. For example, when I see something, the first thing that pops into my mind is "oh my, character x would so not be pleased about this" or something like that. Also, there's usually only one character in every story that I actually step into. I kind of sort out the other characters from that "me"-character's point of view. In one of my stories, the "me"-character isn't even the protagonist...

But, as I already said, they gain a will of their own pretty soon. I concider that a good thing, because that way I can never force them to act completely out of character even if I tried to.
...Then again, why would I try to?

 

[Misheard Whisper]

I have a new topic. I for one have posted at least 4 replies to the last one, I'm sure.

What is your view on using NPCs and lesser known canon characters in fanfiction?

Because you see, I for one would much rather write a fic about somebody who appeared in one or two episodes. CODs and minor recurring characters offer a little snapshot of their life and personality, without covering too much ground. Gym Leaders are included. Yet I see so many fics about Satoshi, Hikari, Haruka, Kasumi (TOO MUCH KASUMI!!!!), and Takeshi. What do you think?

Part b) Is it easier to write about a well-established character, like Ash Ketchum, or an unexplored one, like any one of the hundreds of CODs?

 

[JX Valentine]

Geckos? *squeal* I love geckos!

♥♥♥

They're indeed very cute. XD

What is your view on using NPCs and lesser known canon characters in fanfiction?

Hi, Bill, star of about 90% of all of my Pokémon fanfiction.

Seriously, though, I say that lesser-known canon characters are really just like any other canon character in the fandom. They're free to use too, and if anyone thinks they can handle those characters, by all means, do it. While I don't discourage using the tried-and-true casts (like Ash and whichever main female companion the author feels like pairing him up with), it's always nice to see someone remembering those little guys too.

While, incidentally, remembering that they do stuff. (Guys, the teleporter thing was an accident. *facepalm*)

Part b) Is it easier to write about a well-established character, like Ash Ketchum, or an unexplored one, like any one of the hundreds of CODs?

To be honest, they've both got their own separate problems that touch on the same basic idea. This sounds a bit confusing, but let me break it down like this:

For main characters, you have more of an established personality. While Pokémon's not big on characterization (and is notorious for this), you see Ash in every single episode except in Chronicles. Therefore, you have a lot of time to analyze the character and figure out how they're supposed to act. For that reason, the characterization is really done for you; all you have to do is take it and use what the show gives you.

However, the downside to this is that the character's pretty much already made for you, and on top of that, the main ones are the most recognizable. Your readers will go through your fic with the image of Ash that they know in mind, and if your portrayal doesn't match up with the image the majority can easily get from the show, it'll be more glaringly obvious than if you used someone people don't remember as well.

On that note, side characters like, at the risk of being over fangirly, Bill aren't as easily recognizable. Hence, not everyone knows their characterization if they're lucky enough to get any at all. People don't study those characters as intensely as any other one, so you can pretty much get away with coloring outside the character lines. As in, you don't have to be as spot-on because people won't be calling you out as often on OOCness because not everyone actually is as familiar with those characters as they are with ones that appear in every episode. So, for example, not everyone remembers "Mystery at the Lighthouse," and even then, Bill got fifteen minutes of screen time in which he was probably the blandest person ever. Hence, I can get away with making him more emotional than he was canonically (in the anime, at least), and people would be none the wiser.

However, as a downside to this, because I want to do justice to his character, this means I have to really study. Just because the character's obscure, after all, doesn't necessarily mean that you can have them be a polar opposite to how they actually are. This means that if you want to get a better image of the character, you'll have to work closely with the episode they appeared in or the manga chapters or the brief moment they had in the games. This also means, going further down this route, that you have only a blip of information to help you in building who these characters are. In other words, it takes a bit more effort because you're basically trying to piece something together from scratch. You don't have the same safety nets that you have when working with the main characters, and you end up having to BS a lot of stuff (so long as it's logical) just to get the character to work and make sense.

In other words, I'd say they're equally as difficult. Main characters force you to pay close attention to the massive amounts of information that already establish their characterization, and side characters force you to work to develop them. On the other hand, they're also equally as fun. Main characters tend to let you work on other elements of the fic instead of focusing attention on building them up, and side characters are like new territory that's just begging to be put together.

 

[hanhyejinaddikt]

I need help for describing places. Strangely, i feel lost for words everytime i tried solidifying what's on my mind. Can someone help me?