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-   -   Slice of Life Scenarios (https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=356985)

VisualJae October 11th, 2015 7:36 PM

Slice of Life Scenarios
 
I'm working on a Pokemon visual novel. Can see info and progress here.

Anyway, the project is less than a month old as of writing this thread so I'm still in the middle of writing different scenarios, routes, endings, etc. on top of coding everything myself.

The TL;DR of the story is all the core series characters we know and love are enrolled in a Pokemon academy. The protagonist is Red and he'll be interacting with all the different characters he comes across. By going through different character arcs, you grow with your classmates, make your share of friends, engage in some romance, live the school life, and be on your way. There will be a plethora of unlockable routes and endings based on player choices.

Since much of the content will be slice of life material, I'm curious what other writers do to come up with clever scenarios. Sure we have our standard tropes or—dare I say, clichés—e.g. rushing through a hall and crashing into a future love interest, pissing off a character but eventually end up bonding and leading to everlasting friendship/romance, etc. We can milk those to our hearts' content.

But what else? I wouldn't mind some inspiration here :P

Bay October 11th, 2015 8:59 PM

Coffee shop AUs are the best slice of life scenarios. =P

In all seriousness, though, I think this could be a fun discussion on slice of life in stories and not just in visual novels. Since your visual novel relates to school, some scenarios off the top of my head:

-A school festival. That ALWAYS seems to happen in the few visual novels that has a high school setting I had played.
-School friends going on a road trip/vacation together, main character and love interest either start falling for each other or take their relationship to the next step.
-Main character and love interest in an extracurricular activity together (though you mentioned that in your post).
-First date, main character nervous making a good first impression.
-Main character thinking of a gift for love interest's birthday (or another event)
-One character making breakfast/lunch/dinner for another

I haven't written any stories that takes place in high school, but I've written many slice of life scenarios. A lot of those are moreso the characters being domestic like staying home to eat, read, cuddle (and a bit more further than that *cough* ), that kind of thing. Sometimes I'm a sucker for fluffiness, lol.

VisualJae October 11th, 2015 11:45 PM

Fluff is just fine. I'll need to incorporate some fluff at some point or another.

I completely forgot about the school festival. Actually I'm not entirely sure if or how I can script one. First of all, my artists will hate me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bay Alexison (Post 8962676)
In all seriousness, though, I think this could be a fun discussion on slice of life in stories and not just in visual novels.

This is true. There was a time when I couldn't stand random slice of life stories or scenarios thinking they were all filler material designed specifically to delay plot progression.

I've come to enjoy some of the moments, though... if they lead to real character development. Or if they're just ridiculously funny :D

EmeraldSky October 12th, 2015 6:59 AM

Two words: Talent show (and its cousin, the school play)

Extra points if you can make a play that's not Cinderella or Romeo and Juliet with a happy ending

VisualJae October 12th, 2015 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EmeraldSky (Post 8963097)
Two words: Talent show (and its cousin, the school play)

Extra points if you can make a play that's not Cinderella or Romeo and Juliet with a happy ending

Hmm. Coincidentally the artist was working on Sabrina last night. If I can make him design her Pokestar Studios Bellelba outfit and expand the script to fit a school play...

Wow. This could be interesting. I intend to make Sabrina a reclusive girl, too, so there are a lot of different options here.

Psychic October 13th, 2015 8:47 PM

I personally don't tend to seek out self-described slice-of-life narratives, but my experience is that, as mentioned, there tend to be a lot of tropes around which the whole arcs are based. It's great if you want to stick with those, but there's really no reason not to expand and go further.

We've all been to high school, so if you're setting a story in a high school, just think about your own experiences and draw inspiration from there. Some possible scenarios off the top of my head:
  • Where the heck to sit (both in class and during lunch) on the first day of school
  • Deciding which art class to take (physical art/drama/film/etc)
  • Whether or not to lend school supplies to a classmate in need, or mooch off a classmate when in need
  • Whether to be the teacher's pet/class clown/smartypants who always knows the answer/etc
  • Choosing who to work with for class projects, then doing class projects (should you do your idea or your classmate's?)
  • School field trips to both fun and boring locations
  • Deciding what to do when noticing a friend cheating/getting caught cheating on a test
  • Joining the school musical, fashion show, debate team, Model UN, robotics club, LGBTQA alliance (because it's 2015), etc
  • Going to tutorials/becoming a tutor
  • Joining a mentorship program for new students
  • Volunteering (my school mandated 5-15 hours of "community service" per year)
  • Being embarrassed by their parents/siblings
  • Attending school sporting events
Obviously pretty much any of these scenarios have potential for students to bond, either platonicly or romantically.

Also, if this features Pokemon characters, what's the deal with Pokemon? You haven't mentioned them at all, and setting a story in the Pokemon universe without actually featuring Pokemon seems silly. Are they allowed on school grounds? Are they allowed outside their Pokeballs? Are Pokemon battles allowed on school grounds? How many Pokemon do students tend to own? Does the school give them Pokemon? How can Pokemon generally be incorporated into this world in a way that doesn't feel forced, while also making it feel more vibrant?

On another note, I'm seeing the word "filler" get thrown around in this thread, but how would that be defined in a slice-of-life narrative? Usually filler is something that's referred to more in plot-heavy stories where the plot doesn't really progress and we don't see much character development, but slice-of-life stories don't necessarily have overarching plots, and they usually rely on character development to drive the narrative forward. So...how exactly would you define filler here?

~Psychic


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