so we're all familiar with the cliches...

everyone knows how most pokemon stories begin: the main character, often a kid, is beginning their journey, they get their pokemon and set out to become teh pokemon mastah(woot!)!

just wondering... how did you start off your fic? im just wondering how many different views people have on pokemon. for example, i began my fic with the whole cliche thing, but i also had two other trainers; one who was a champion (or more precisely hes pretty much the main chracter in Red and Blue) and another who was sort of in-between.

Of course, you could've just read the fics, then this thread wouldn't need to exist.

But I'll answer, for the sake of not being called the Negative One.

Picture a dark room. Nine Pokemon Trainers enter, not bad, nor good. All working, not together, but towards the same goal. Then the murder happens, and you're plunged into the single greatest fan fiction of all time.

Yes, the last line was what we call a joke.

There's really no call for an attitude, Oni Raichu. Give the new guy some time to adjust, eh? Besides, there's no guarantee that everyone here has posted their first work here on PC. (not to mention that this way we get all the additional creative process comments) The topic itself is far from pointless. However, I do think that it would be better suited for the Fanfiction Lounge, just to cut down on the number of topics here (and probably ensure a bigger audience for the question too). I'll leave that call for Hanako-sama to make, though. :3

Anyways, what you've described here is really only the basis of an average OT fanfic, but there are other archetypes too (shipping and dark fics come to mind), each with their own set of clichés. It also bears noting that most of the people here have already started multiple fanfictions of their own.

Myself...well, I haven't gotten anything to the point of posting yet, but my first fanfic draft started out with a character's death (suicide in the first one, murder in a later one). After that, I had a lighter one in the main characters' shared childhood where they all get together one last time before being separated to different parts of the region (it's part of the local educational system). Then I had one where a single main character was contemplating a very important decision in front of a mirror. What can I say? I've still got a lot of plot points open, so I've been browsing different starting points (and moods) for my fic in search of the right one. :3

My fic started out with the traditional trainer waking up. Then it cut to a flashback which ties into the chapter following it where he gets a pokemon.

Well, I never really written an OT fic yet as I don't think I can make a really good story out of that yet. :X However, pretty much the fics I have so far start out moreso of what wil happen next. For instance, in my prologue of "Nothing, Everything" I started off with a few events like the main character reading a history book (she's a history buff) and another main character suddenly woke up from being unconcious for some time from one incident, but eventually those two events will connect together.

As of cliche beginnings, well I always keep hearing of beginnings the hardest to pull off. To tell you the truth, I don't mind cliches that much as long as things go smoothly later on. (shrugs)

Actually, a lot of the topics in here could have been merged with the Lounge. So I'll just leave this one alone. xD;

Of course, you could've just read the fics, then this thread wouldn't need to exist.

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He wouldn't have gotten an answer from me, since my fic isn't posted.

I'm writing my OT (and wrote a few paragraphs for it today) and my beginning is somewhat clichéd. I have my trainer wake up to get her first Pokemon, but then I mix things up a bit. She first goes to school, which is required by law in my fics that all children until they turn ten must go to school. (Of course, they also have to finish the year of school.) And she doesn't get her first Pokemon from the professor, but rather as a birthday present.

She also doesn't go out into the world to become a Pokemon master. She becomes a trainer because again it's required by law. But she also has the reason of finding her two older siblings.

But yeah, I agree with Bay. Clichéd beginnings are all right. It's what happens afterwards that makes a difference. (Come on. The kid has to get their Pokemon somehow.)

My fic actually started off with a scene that only included the bad guys. When it finally got to my main character, you find out that he lives in a town where anything Pokemon-related is looked down upon.

My prologue features an attack on the professor's laboratory by a group of operatives after some research. The mission isn't a total success because the research is not there and only a handful of Pokemon are seized.

As for how my character starts out - She's working on a big math research project when her dad practically forces her to begin training Pokemon, as a way for her to step outside her comfort zone. After she complains a bit, she eventually sets out to the lab, where she finds it in shambles and the professor tied up in a closet. After freeing the researcher, my character is given a Pokemon that she's already developed a friendship with over previous visits to the lab. Feeling somewhat better that her Pokemon isn't a total stranger, she sets out on her journey, only to have a parolee and former employee of her father's try to kill her...

Ahh, my fic started off in a somewhat generic way, however it had a semi-flashback/tv show somewhat telling about the battle at the Lake of Rage with Gold and Silver. However, I didn't explain too much of it.

Most of my characters already had some Pokemon with them, but they ended up getting their starters and such.

Yeah, pretty generic but it got better, in my opinion, as the story progressed. It drifts away from the typical "Get Starter, Capture 5 More Pokemon, Beat All Gyms, Beat Bad Guys, Beat Pokemon League, etc" fic.

I have many openings. In one, the kid wakes up, ready to be a pokemon master and all, but then tries to beat his sister to the lab and hangs off a roof gutter :)

In another, it is the generic diamond opening. The kid watches TV, he goes to the lake, then finds a special pokemon. However, the pokemon then is stolen by a Staravia

The beginning of the fic is always the hardest for me to write just because I've been left for a while that the audience expects something like the supposed traditional stuff. Because of this, I try and spice stuff up a bit by not having it be so simple.

Example, Biohazard (a PMD fic of mine) could easily have started as the basic human-turned-poke main character being woke up by his partner Pokemon and then immediately forming a rescue team. To avoid this I tried starting it with his partner finding him.

There are problems, though, with other techniques such as these, namely you may do something that is so ridiculous or boring that no-one replies to your work at all... And that's why I gave up on Biohazard...

Anyways, the point of this rant: Sometimes abstaining from the stereotyped format of your story-type can actually hurt your peice more than help.

Skunter, I was going to review Biohazard, but work got in the way. D:

I guess that is true. Sometimes, when you break out of the comfort zone of readers, they freak out. I think that happened with one fic that doesn't gain a lot of attention but yet it's really good. The prologue makes you wonder if it actually is a Pokemon fic, and the first chapter only has a brief mentioning of Pokemon names.

Readers like their comfort zones, perhaps. Which is a shame, because most of the fics that are different in plot are much better in various ways then the clichéd "three trainers (one girl, two boys) go out to be Pokemon trainers but then save the wrold!!11" And yes, intentional misspelling of "world".

Heh. I got to thinking about my fics for other fandoms, and those also start out in the clichéd way. For my Digimon fic, my OC gets sucked into the DigiWorld and learns about Digimon. And I won't talk about the other fic, since no one knows that fandom. D:

In my fic, I start with my main character going to town on his thirteenth birthday to get food for his poor family. Not cliched necessarily (there's that dang word again) in the pokemon world, but the whole "poor boy" thing is probably used a lot. Anyways, on his way back from town, he gets beaten up and all of his food gets stolen, so he goes home hungry. He kind of inadvertently (sp?) "inherits" a pokemon around this time, except he doesn't know it at this point (he gets something that allows him to find the pokemon that becomes his partner). Anyways, the reader then discovers that the character's brother died two years before, and he's generally had a rough time of it since then. More bullying happens later, but then the kid stands up for himself when his oppressor is trying to steal something dear to him. He still gets beaten up and his things still get taken, but he feels good about himself for the first time in a long time and manages to hide the thing he wanted from the bully. This leads to him having enough courage to seek out something he's been having recurring dreams about, and he leaves home to look for it.

That's the beginning in a nutshell, but everything I talked about actually spans about three or four chapters. I didn't jump right into the "I better get a pokemon and start training!" thing because (a) no one does this in the time period I'm writing in and (b) I wanted some background for my human characters first.

I don't write about People when I write Pokemon fics. But I do however have a Roleplay I wrote the plot of. In it 5 trainers start off on a boat and then they are given their Pokemon. A while later the sailer is murdered and the boat crashes into an island XD
If you want to avoid cliche make something interesting like that happen.

Hanako Tabris said:

Skunter, I was going to review Biohazard, but work got in the way. D:

I guess that is true. Sometimes, when you break out of the comfort zone of readers, they freak out. I think that happened with one fic that doesn't gain a lot of attention but yet it's really good. The prologue makes you wonder if it actually is a Pokemon fic, and the first chapter only has a brief mentioning of Pokemon names.

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Oh... (looks at feet, embarassed to say the least) Sorry, Hanako... I didn't realize that... And, I know how work can get in the way a lot of the time...

It also didn't help that I was getting frustrated with trying to make sense of how the second chapter was turning out either...

Anyways, what you said about how the prologue makes you wonder if its even a Pokemon fic kind of strikes close to my Feral Twilight project. I mean, I have it start with a scene that has a signature thing from the Pokemon world in it, but the rest kind of seems like it'd be from some type of conspiracy story. Still, that breaking away from the confort zone could do a lot more harm than good, like I said before.

I started my fic with my character and his mom on a boat, searching for signs of a legenary pokemon, in this case, moltres. Then, a certain spazzy collector we all know captures it, and, to prevent anyone from blabbing, blows up the boat.

I'm working on an OT as well; my very first trainer fic out of all the cruddy old fanfics I've made and never posted. It starts with the main character during her last days of trainer school, and she finds an emancipated "stray" Growlithe on her walk home. It also switched between the viewpoints of trainer and Pokemon often for whole chapters or part of chapters which is kinda the point of the fic.

Well I can't really say how mine started, with the number of characters in it it's kinda hard to tell.

It really started with one of the main character, Willer, going into the land of Aruma in search of someone (Who has yet to be revealed). He meets Lukas, another young trainer they fight and go their seperate ways. Now that I think about it it was a crappy start, but from there each character's adventures branch off in different directions.

I have yet to actually post my fanfic due to the fact I'm doing A ton of repair work on my laptop. However, I can honestly say the common clichés are minimal. At the start of the fanfic, the young boy (cliché #1) doesn't even want to be a trainer, breeder, etc. He mostly just wants to live his life. However, he is an orphan. (#2). At least his name, Malsen, is original. (I hope.)

I'm starting a a fic about a new Trainer. It's ridiculously close to the games, the only things that change are a few ideas that pop into my mind when I play the games, which I just started over again for the sake of the whole fic.

My fic started with a brief description of Pallet Town, the switched to the main character's room, where the packing takes place, blah blah blah.

I'm still in the beginning of the third chapter, and I'm not planning to post it anywhere until I'm done. I know that if post it somewhere, I'll lose interest or something.