Mr Cat Dog
Frasier says it best
- 11,344
- Posts
- 20
- Years
- Age 34
- London, UK
- Seen Sep 29, 2017
I'm sure if you have been on any other vB Pokemon board with a Fan Fiction Lounge, you will have seen this somewhere. It's basically a guide for people who need help in writing fanfiction. Anyways, here it is: I have to do it in parts because of the character limit.
THE BASICS
1) Proper Use of the Keyboard.
There are several useful keys on the keyboard:
Enter/Return: This is one of the most useful keys. Use it whenever you have finished with one idea and are ready to move on to the next paragraph. Use it when one person has finished speaking, and another is about to start. When doing so, hit it twice, to produce a blank line between paragraphs. This makes it a lot easier for your readers to tell where your paragraphs start and end. Large blocks of uninterrupted text are hard to read.
Shift: Another important key. Hold it down when typing the first letter of a sentence, the first letter of a name, or the letter 'I' when using it as the first person singular subject pronoun.
Caps Lock: Often used as a substitute for the 'Shift' key. Don't do it. Text should not be in all capital letters unless someone is SHOUTING!
The Spacebar: Hit it once after every word or comma, twice after a period.
Tab: Unfortunately, this does not work to indent paragraphs on these boards. This is why a blank line between paragraphs is essential.
Other Keys: Your keyboard, unless it is defective, comes with a full complement of letters. Don't be afraid to use them. There is no reason to type 'u' instead of 'you', or indeed to use any abbreviation you learned in a chat room. There is no penalty for taking a few seconds longer to type complete words.
--------------------------------
2) Tips on Composition.
Paragraphs: Use these as your basic unit of composition. Each paragraph should be used to set forth a single idea. If a paragraph seems to long, it probably contains multiple ideas, and should be split up for clarity. If it seems too short, expand on the idea.
Sentences: A sentence should contain exactly one action or statement of existence. If it contains more than one, split it into two or more. If it contains less than one, finish the sentence. Run-on sentences are often confusing, while fragments make the reader feel that something is missing.
Description: Make sure that your reader can visualize what is happening. Don't just say something like "Joe walked along enjoying the scenery". This gives no indication of whether the scenery he is enjoying is a redwood forest, a beach at sunset, or the Grand Canyon.
A description is not just a list of attributes. When describing a character, don't just list their name, age, height, weight, hair color, and current pokemon team. Bring this information out gradually when the person appears in a story. Don't have Joe meet a trainer named Fred who is 12 years old, has green eyes and red hair, is three and a half feet tall, and whose pokemon are squirtle, pikachu, butterfree, grimer, tauros, and krabby. Have Joe see a short, red-haired kid with startlingly green eyes, and talk to him. Have names mentioned early in the conversation. The pokemon may be either revealed in a battle, or introduced individually during the conversation.
3) Other General Advice.
Plot: Try to be original. "Joe is 10 (or 11 or 12) years old and about to start his pokemon journey. He goes to Professor (insert tree here) and gets a (insert pokemon here)" has been done too many times already. "Joe is a 10-year-old from Pallet Town and about to start his pokemon journey. He accidentally sleeps in, and by the time he gets to Professor Oak's lab, all the starters have been taken, so he gets a Pikachu" is so old everyone is sick of it.
Try to be reasonable. A new trainer is not going to start with a legendary, or even rare, pokemon. The standard starter pokemon were selected for a reason: They are easy for professors to obtain whenever new trainers are about to start, they can be controlled by beginners, and with proper training, they can become quite powerful. Likewise, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to catch any of the legendary pokemon. They are simply too powerful. If you have seen either of the movies, think about it. Mew or Mewtwo can deflect any attack you try with minimal effort. Consider the scene in The Power of One where Ash's Pikachu (which has been known to defeat rock and ground types) meets Zapdos. Compare their relative power levels. Now think about how hard it would be to defeat Zapdos. This can be applied to any of the legendary pokemon. No trainer will have one unless it has a good reason to want to accompany that trainer.
Characters: Make your characters real. Give them strengths and weaknesses. Inherently superior trainers who win each battle effortlessly are boring. So are incompetent members of Team Rocket. So is the gym-leader-who-can't-stand-being-defeated. The stock "Rival" character is also getting old.
Whatever you do, don't just refer to people by labels from the GameBoy games (Rocket, Cooltrainer, Lass, Bug Catcher, etc). Remember that these are real people you are working with.
Spelling/Grammar: Write your story in a word-processing program. Use the spellchecker, but don't depend on it completely. It can tell whether your word matches the spelling of a real word, but it cannot tell whether it is the word you wanted to use. Use grammar checkers with extreme care. They cannot actually understand what you are saying, and often make mistakes.
--------------------------------
4) My Personal Advice:
Note that the contents of this section reflect my personal preferences. Other good writers may disagree with me.
Battles: I generally dislike sentences of the form "(pokemon species) used (name of attack)". You are describing what the pokemon does. In a real-world battle, the pokemon would not "use Bite on" its opponent; it would "bite" its opponent. There are, however, exceptions to this. If there is no verb for the action, go ahead and say "Bulbasaur used Leech Seed". Still, try to avoid "used (name of attack)". Better options would be "fired a hyperbeam at (enemy)", "hit (enemy) with (attack)", etc.
Additionally, the GameBoy battle format makes no sense in the context of a real battle. A pokemon in a real battle would not just attack, then stand there waiting for its opponent to attack. In a real battle, you would have no time to go in and administer a potion or antidote to your pokemon. Watch the TV show for a reasonable depiction of what battles would be like.
GameBoy Terminology in general: Try to avoid it. In the real world, referring to something as "Level 17" is meaningless. Pokemon have varying levels of power and experience, but don't just summarize all of this with a single number. In the world of your fanfic, pokemon are real, living creatures. They are individuals. They have their own strengths, weaknesses, and skills.
The only thing worse than referring to "levels" is referring to "hit points", "power points", or any of the "statistics" (attack, defense, "special defense", etc). Avoid use of these terms at all costs.
-original text by Murgatroyd
CHARACTERS
Characters are fun, aren?t they?
The characters of a story determine much of whether or not the story is likeable. If a story has a killer plot, but has unbelievable characters, chances are that it?ll fall. People like to be able to connect with the characters they read about. It?s what keeps them tied into the story. Most people feel that they need to know what happens to the characters. If they die, if they succeed in their quest, etc.
Character development doesn?t always have to be deep, but readers definitely appreciate a good character. How about some tips?
-Unbelievable Strength
Don?t make a character unbelievably strong. If you have a normal kid, he acts and reacts like a normal kid would. You can?t have a normal kid get shot and get over it in half an hour. A normal kid isn?t going to forget a bullet wound? If the kid is even conscious.
This is true with trainers, too. They cannot have an unbelievably strong amount of power. If you have a story about a kid, it usually doesn?t work if the kid has eight legendaries.
-Believable Strength
It is quite possible to have a strong character. Sometimes the strength can be attributed to special powers, if you work with fantasy. These are the easiest to deal with, perhaps because they can be there because they were inane.
With ?real people? in fics, this can be somewhat hard. There can be characters who have unbending will to go on, or even derive pleasure from pain (Anyone seems ?Tomorrow Never Dies?? Stamper is a prime example of this?). To make a character like this believable, the characteristics must be hard and strong.
As an example? Salvador is a strong guy with a hard will to continue. He never fails to work hard, especially when it is for his work (he works for the Rockets). He is willing to take any and all pain necessary on the way to achieving his goals. Throughout the story, Salvador has sustained minor injuries, and kept his strong will. When he is faced with an agent of another Team, however, he will sustain a much larger one?
"Salvador narrowed his eyes in concentration, debating whether or not he should leap forward and attack or not. There were certainly other alternatives. He could try to throw his empty gun at the man. He could hold back for a few moments, though it would most likely lead to being shot.
After a moment, Salvador decided that he could take it no more. His way of doing something was to go ahead and do it. He wasn?t going to change that because a guy had a gun at his head. If he was killed, that was it. He wanted to go down fighting.
He leapt forward with a speed that surprised him, but, unfortunately, failed to surprise the dark man. Even as Salvador lunged forward, reaching for the man, he could hear the gun being fired. Salvador felt the dark man step back, and then felt the force of the bullet piercing into his chest.
He cringed in agony, almost screamed. He felt bones shatter around his organs, felt a bolt of heat near his lungs. For a moment he tottered and nearly fell to the floor. However, he was able to hear his earlier thoughts, those that had stated that he didn?t need to worry about being killed. These thoughts kept him standing.
Salvador saw the form of the man in front of him. Though it was becoming blurry, he knew he could attack, maybe even hit. Maybe he was going to die, but he didn?t care. Once more, Salvador lunged forward."
Of course, a character doesn?t need to be strong all the way through to have moments of strength. A person can definitely find courage during a traumatic moment, before a possible death or the like. Strength lies deep in everyone. Depending on the character, it can be found at different levels.
The main point is, don?t make a weak suddenly character act strongly all of the time. Readers won?t swallow that too well.
-Alternate points of view
These are very useful when developing a character.
While one character is thinking about his or herself, you realize what he/she feels about the traits he/she has. A reader can also make insights about the character by what he/she thinks of others.
For example:
"Lydia knew that she didn?t like Chad very much. The truth was that she hated him, loathed him. The boy always seemed to be in some sort of trouble, whether it was because he had been caught talking one too many times in class or because he had been caught stealing from the local convenience store.
Maybe it?d be better to say that Lydia distrusted Chad. She didn?t know him very well, and didn?t want to. He seemed to be the kind of guy who would stand in a dark ally, smoking a cigarette and waiting, just waiting for some innocent bystander to walk by and?
Lydia shook her head vigorously. Of course Chad wasn?t doing that, he was too busy with homework and the cross team. Still, it was a feasible idea, one that could happen in the near future. She felt this strongly, and couldn?t shake her dislike for Chad."
In reading this from Lydia?s POV, you should be able to realize that she dislikes Chad. You can see that she distrusts him because of his actions. She seems to be stuck on certain ideas, and has a sort of prejudice towards those who seem ?untrustworthy.? She judges before she understand anything. You can also see that she has some sort of imagination.
To carry development even further, it?s good to write what other characters observe about their fellows. For example?
"Julia didn?t understand why Lydia always seemed to walk on the other side of the hall when Chad walked by. It was always a movement that could almost be absent-minded, a simple move to the other side. Julie didn?t think so, though. Not when it was always done.
Julia didn?t think Chad was a bad guy at all. He certainly didn?t deserve to be avoided like he was some sort of disease. Although Lydia was her friend, Julia sometimes had trouble understanding Lydia?s short-sightedness"
This further pushes the fact that Lydia doesn?t look below the surface. It also shows that she has perhaps made wrong judgment of Chad.
Obviously, you can do a better job of conveying information by using various POVs than I just did. It is a very useful technique, and I recommend it.
-Names
Name can be quite helpful in defining a character, too. A character?s name can reveal certain traits about him or her, contradict his or her traits, have a strong meaning to the story, or mean nothing at all.
Using a variety of names can be helpful. While it?s fine to use names such as ?Rob?, ?Jim?, and ?Amanda?, it?s good to mix these in with less common names. I suppose this isn?t quite ?character? information, but it stays here because I don?t feel like putting it elsewhere.
Names such as ?Angel? can be used to either contradict or convey the characteristics of a character?
"Angel fit her name to a level of perfection that seemed undeniably firm. Her practical, caring behavior, along with her endless amount of forgiveness, seemed to fit nearly everyone?s idea of angelic. Her hair seemed to be spun of gold, and her body had been shaped to a soft faultlessness."
Or?
"Angel?s eyes blazed with anger as she watched the man before her. She had a short temper, and certainly wasn?t the most mild-mannered person in the world. Both Angel and the man knew that she could kill him without a second thought. For a moment, however, she simply glared, piercing eyes glaring out from under her black bangs, standing with an intensity that seemed to scream that she was a murderer."
So? I really have no way to wrap that one up.
I guess, while names can mean something, convey a characteristic, or symbolize something, it?s perfectly fine to have them be meaningless.
-Actions
A character must, obviously, stay constantly in character.
By this I mean that you should make sure that if a character does something, it is befitting of him/her. It?s fine for a character to do something that SEEMS out of the ordinary? as long as you explain the reason for the actions.
For example, if you have a character who seems to be the perfect angel, you can make him/her do something ?bad? by a number of methods.
First, you could use a traumatic happening. Have a close death, or a near death experience.
There?s always the ?hidden character? method, too. The angelic personality could be a cover-up for the character? and as the writer, you don?t have to reveal this fact until you want to.
Isn?t that fun?
-original text by Crimson Rose
THE BASICS
1) Proper Use of the Keyboard.
There are several useful keys on the keyboard:
Enter/Return: This is one of the most useful keys. Use it whenever you have finished with one idea and are ready to move on to the next paragraph. Use it when one person has finished speaking, and another is about to start. When doing so, hit it twice, to produce a blank line between paragraphs. This makes it a lot easier for your readers to tell where your paragraphs start and end. Large blocks of uninterrupted text are hard to read.
Shift: Another important key. Hold it down when typing the first letter of a sentence, the first letter of a name, or the letter 'I' when using it as the first person singular subject pronoun.
Caps Lock: Often used as a substitute for the 'Shift' key. Don't do it. Text should not be in all capital letters unless someone is SHOUTING!
The Spacebar: Hit it once after every word or comma, twice after a period.
Tab: Unfortunately, this does not work to indent paragraphs on these boards. This is why a blank line between paragraphs is essential.
Other Keys: Your keyboard, unless it is defective, comes with a full complement of letters. Don't be afraid to use them. There is no reason to type 'u' instead of 'you', or indeed to use any abbreviation you learned in a chat room. There is no penalty for taking a few seconds longer to type complete words.
--------------------------------
2) Tips on Composition.
Paragraphs: Use these as your basic unit of composition. Each paragraph should be used to set forth a single idea. If a paragraph seems to long, it probably contains multiple ideas, and should be split up for clarity. If it seems too short, expand on the idea.
Sentences: A sentence should contain exactly one action or statement of existence. If it contains more than one, split it into two or more. If it contains less than one, finish the sentence. Run-on sentences are often confusing, while fragments make the reader feel that something is missing.
Description: Make sure that your reader can visualize what is happening. Don't just say something like "Joe walked along enjoying the scenery". This gives no indication of whether the scenery he is enjoying is a redwood forest, a beach at sunset, or the Grand Canyon.
A description is not just a list of attributes. When describing a character, don't just list their name, age, height, weight, hair color, and current pokemon team. Bring this information out gradually when the person appears in a story. Don't have Joe meet a trainer named Fred who is 12 years old, has green eyes and red hair, is three and a half feet tall, and whose pokemon are squirtle, pikachu, butterfree, grimer, tauros, and krabby. Have Joe see a short, red-haired kid with startlingly green eyes, and talk to him. Have names mentioned early in the conversation. The pokemon may be either revealed in a battle, or introduced individually during the conversation.
3) Other General Advice.
Plot: Try to be original. "Joe is 10 (or 11 or 12) years old and about to start his pokemon journey. He goes to Professor (insert tree here) and gets a (insert pokemon here)" has been done too many times already. "Joe is a 10-year-old from Pallet Town and about to start his pokemon journey. He accidentally sleeps in, and by the time he gets to Professor Oak's lab, all the starters have been taken, so he gets a Pikachu" is so old everyone is sick of it.
Try to be reasonable. A new trainer is not going to start with a legendary, or even rare, pokemon. The standard starter pokemon were selected for a reason: They are easy for professors to obtain whenever new trainers are about to start, they can be controlled by beginners, and with proper training, they can become quite powerful. Likewise, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to catch any of the legendary pokemon. They are simply too powerful. If you have seen either of the movies, think about it. Mew or Mewtwo can deflect any attack you try with minimal effort. Consider the scene in The Power of One where Ash's Pikachu (which has been known to defeat rock and ground types) meets Zapdos. Compare their relative power levels. Now think about how hard it would be to defeat Zapdos. This can be applied to any of the legendary pokemon. No trainer will have one unless it has a good reason to want to accompany that trainer.
Characters: Make your characters real. Give them strengths and weaknesses. Inherently superior trainers who win each battle effortlessly are boring. So are incompetent members of Team Rocket. So is the gym-leader-who-can't-stand-being-defeated. The stock "Rival" character is also getting old.
Whatever you do, don't just refer to people by labels from the GameBoy games (Rocket, Cooltrainer, Lass, Bug Catcher, etc). Remember that these are real people you are working with.
Spelling/Grammar: Write your story in a word-processing program. Use the spellchecker, but don't depend on it completely. It can tell whether your word matches the spelling of a real word, but it cannot tell whether it is the word you wanted to use. Use grammar checkers with extreme care. They cannot actually understand what you are saying, and often make mistakes.
--------------------------------
4) My Personal Advice:
Note that the contents of this section reflect my personal preferences. Other good writers may disagree with me.
Battles: I generally dislike sentences of the form "(pokemon species) used (name of attack)". You are describing what the pokemon does. In a real-world battle, the pokemon would not "use Bite on" its opponent; it would "bite" its opponent. There are, however, exceptions to this. If there is no verb for the action, go ahead and say "Bulbasaur used Leech Seed". Still, try to avoid "used (name of attack)". Better options would be "fired a hyperbeam at (enemy)", "hit (enemy) with (attack)", etc.
Additionally, the GameBoy battle format makes no sense in the context of a real battle. A pokemon in a real battle would not just attack, then stand there waiting for its opponent to attack. In a real battle, you would have no time to go in and administer a potion or antidote to your pokemon. Watch the TV show for a reasonable depiction of what battles would be like.
GameBoy Terminology in general: Try to avoid it. In the real world, referring to something as "Level 17" is meaningless. Pokemon have varying levels of power and experience, but don't just summarize all of this with a single number. In the world of your fanfic, pokemon are real, living creatures. They are individuals. They have their own strengths, weaknesses, and skills.
The only thing worse than referring to "levels" is referring to "hit points", "power points", or any of the "statistics" (attack, defense, "special defense", etc). Avoid use of these terms at all costs.
-original text by Murgatroyd
CHARACTERS
Characters are fun, aren?t they?
The characters of a story determine much of whether or not the story is likeable. If a story has a killer plot, but has unbelievable characters, chances are that it?ll fall. People like to be able to connect with the characters they read about. It?s what keeps them tied into the story. Most people feel that they need to know what happens to the characters. If they die, if they succeed in their quest, etc.
Character development doesn?t always have to be deep, but readers definitely appreciate a good character. How about some tips?
-Unbelievable Strength
Don?t make a character unbelievably strong. If you have a normal kid, he acts and reacts like a normal kid would. You can?t have a normal kid get shot and get over it in half an hour. A normal kid isn?t going to forget a bullet wound? If the kid is even conscious.
This is true with trainers, too. They cannot have an unbelievably strong amount of power. If you have a story about a kid, it usually doesn?t work if the kid has eight legendaries.
-Believable Strength
It is quite possible to have a strong character. Sometimes the strength can be attributed to special powers, if you work with fantasy. These are the easiest to deal with, perhaps because they can be there because they were inane.
With ?real people? in fics, this can be somewhat hard. There can be characters who have unbending will to go on, or even derive pleasure from pain (Anyone seems ?Tomorrow Never Dies?? Stamper is a prime example of this?). To make a character like this believable, the characteristics must be hard and strong.
As an example? Salvador is a strong guy with a hard will to continue. He never fails to work hard, especially when it is for his work (he works for the Rockets). He is willing to take any and all pain necessary on the way to achieving his goals. Throughout the story, Salvador has sustained minor injuries, and kept his strong will. When he is faced with an agent of another Team, however, he will sustain a much larger one?
"Salvador narrowed his eyes in concentration, debating whether or not he should leap forward and attack or not. There were certainly other alternatives. He could try to throw his empty gun at the man. He could hold back for a few moments, though it would most likely lead to being shot.
After a moment, Salvador decided that he could take it no more. His way of doing something was to go ahead and do it. He wasn?t going to change that because a guy had a gun at his head. If he was killed, that was it. He wanted to go down fighting.
He leapt forward with a speed that surprised him, but, unfortunately, failed to surprise the dark man. Even as Salvador lunged forward, reaching for the man, he could hear the gun being fired. Salvador felt the dark man step back, and then felt the force of the bullet piercing into his chest.
He cringed in agony, almost screamed. He felt bones shatter around his organs, felt a bolt of heat near his lungs. For a moment he tottered and nearly fell to the floor. However, he was able to hear his earlier thoughts, those that had stated that he didn?t need to worry about being killed. These thoughts kept him standing.
Salvador saw the form of the man in front of him. Though it was becoming blurry, he knew he could attack, maybe even hit. Maybe he was going to die, but he didn?t care. Once more, Salvador lunged forward."
Of course, a character doesn?t need to be strong all the way through to have moments of strength. A person can definitely find courage during a traumatic moment, before a possible death or the like. Strength lies deep in everyone. Depending on the character, it can be found at different levels.
The main point is, don?t make a weak suddenly character act strongly all of the time. Readers won?t swallow that too well.
-Alternate points of view
These are very useful when developing a character.
While one character is thinking about his or herself, you realize what he/she feels about the traits he/she has. A reader can also make insights about the character by what he/she thinks of others.
For example:
"Lydia knew that she didn?t like Chad very much. The truth was that she hated him, loathed him. The boy always seemed to be in some sort of trouble, whether it was because he had been caught talking one too many times in class or because he had been caught stealing from the local convenience store.
Maybe it?d be better to say that Lydia distrusted Chad. She didn?t know him very well, and didn?t want to. He seemed to be the kind of guy who would stand in a dark ally, smoking a cigarette and waiting, just waiting for some innocent bystander to walk by and?
Lydia shook her head vigorously. Of course Chad wasn?t doing that, he was too busy with homework and the cross team. Still, it was a feasible idea, one that could happen in the near future. She felt this strongly, and couldn?t shake her dislike for Chad."
In reading this from Lydia?s POV, you should be able to realize that she dislikes Chad. You can see that she distrusts him because of his actions. She seems to be stuck on certain ideas, and has a sort of prejudice towards those who seem ?untrustworthy.? She judges before she understand anything. You can also see that she has some sort of imagination.
To carry development even further, it?s good to write what other characters observe about their fellows. For example?
"Julia didn?t understand why Lydia always seemed to walk on the other side of the hall when Chad walked by. It was always a movement that could almost be absent-minded, a simple move to the other side. Julie didn?t think so, though. Not when it was always done.
Julia didn?t think Chad was a bad guy at all. He certainly didn?t deserve to be avoided like he was some sort of disease. Although Lydia was her friend, Julia sometimes had trouble understanding Lydia?s short-sightedness"
This further pushes the fact that Lydia doesn?t look below the surface. It also shows that she has perhaps made wrong judgment of Chad.
Obviously, you can do a better job of conveying information by using various POVs than I just did. It is a very useful technique, and I recommend it.
-Names
Name can be quite helpful in defining a character, too. A character?s name can reveal certain traits about him or her, contradict his or her traits, have a strong meaning to the story, or mean nothing at all.
Using a variety of names can be helpful. While it?s fine to use names such as ?Rob?, ?Jim?, and ?Amanda?, it?s good to mix these in with less common names. I suppose this isn?t quite ?character? information, but it stays here because I don?t feel like putting it elsewhere.
Names such as ?Angel? can be used to either contradict or convey the characteristics of a character?
"Angel fit her name to a level of perfection that seemed undeniably firm. Her practical, caring behavior, along with her endless amount of forgiveness, seemed to fit nearly everyone?s idea of angelic. Her hair seemed to be spun of gold, and her body had been shaped to a soft faultlessness."
Or?
"Angel?s eyes blazed with anger as she watched the man before her. She had a short temper, and certainly wasn?t the most mild-mannered person in the world. Both Angel and the man knew that she could kill him without a second thought. For a moment, however, she simply glared, piercing eyes glaring out from under her black bangs, standing with an intensity that seemed to scream that she was a murderer."
So? I really have no way to wrap that one up.
I guess, while names can mean something, convey a characteristic, or symbolize something, it?s perfectly fine to have them be meaningless.
-Actions
A character must, obviously, stay constantly in character.
By this I mean that you should make sure that if a character does something, it is befitting of him/her. It?s fine for a character to do something that SEEMS out of the ordinary? as long as you explain the reason for the actions.
For example, if you have a character who seems to be the perfect angel, you can make him/her do something ?bad? by a number of methods.
First, you could use a traumatic happening. Have a close death, or a near death experience.
There?s always the ?hidden character? method, too. The angelic personality could be a cover-up for the character? and as the writer, you don?t have to reveal this fact until you want to.
Isn?t that fun?
-original text by Crimson Rose