Fanfiction Lounge

[Dragonfree]

*pokes around* I wonder if anyone notice how Frosty disappeared again...

Yeah, college resumed so I won't be here until Feb 17-23 or so, which is my one week break. ^^; So, until then... :D Try to keep the lounge alive!

:o It's my birthday on the eighteenth! You'll review one of my fics for that, then? *wink wink*

 

[Scarlet Weather]

Yes, Butterfree, I will review one of your fics then!

Char: .... ACC, she wasn't talking to-

ACC: Shut up.

Anyway, weird question. What do you all think about fics that turn classic literature into some kind of fan genre? (Ex: "Romeo and Juliet" written with two Pokemon characters in the main roles.) I have my own opinions about that, but what about your alls?

 

[Orange_Flaaffy]

I think that the fanfics that do that have a really bad habit of writing everyone OOC to make them fit into the setting :(. And often they just rewrite the book word for word with what the characters are saying and only really rework the setting to make it their own. sometimes just using script format:P.
I think if you are going to do that, most of all a story people all know, you have to bring something new to the story.
The only fanfic where I did that (and it has been years since I added to it, but I might still someday, it still gets a million hits on FF.Net) is in my AU retelling of Planet Of The Apes starring the anime characters called The Waters Reflection...

 

[Frostweaver]

For my philosophy regarding any AU fanfics, including classic literature rewrite or most importantly those "throw xxxxx anime characters into high school" type, I really don't care as long as characters retain their original personality. They can have a new background or whatever, but they really should retain their original personality, or else it's just an original character who happens to have the same name and physical appearance. If a character really changed from the original character (let's say, Ash turned into a cold blooded emo high school kid), then there better be from darn good reasons or an explanation for it...

Really, just like fanfics in the original fandom's universe. If a character changed in personality, it better be explained... With that in mind, there's hardly any AU fanfics that I really liked, actually...


Now, IMHO, humor or comedy fanfics ought to be excluded from this :x however, I find a scene to be more hilarious if the joke pulls through within the character's original personality ;p




Now if it's really word for word translation or barely any change compare to some existing famous literature, then it's time to hit the "back" button in your internet browser and go find something else to read o.o; Actually, just call it plagarism.

 

[Scarlet Weather]

Really. Actually, I'm writing a weird version of the first scene of Cyrano de Bergerac, just for fun, where all the main characters are Pokemon. No, Cyrano is not a Nosepass. I doubt I'll ever post it, but I may end up posting my version of "A duel between Cyrano de Bergerac and an Imbecile Outsite the Hotel Whatever-it-is" in the poetry section. It's basically the same type of poem with the same subject, but written from the point of view of my rewrite's Cyrano. Bizarre? Yes. Actually, I do mind the "Insert xxxx anime characters into highschool" because people use it as a blatant excuse to insert a random shipping in that isn't possible in the anime. I hate that...

 

[Fox♠]

I've being thinking about writing up a Metal Gear Solid fan fic, I won't reveal too much at this stage, other than it doesn't feature Snake that much.

 

[Dragonfree]

I'm not much for Pokémon fics involving the canon characters in general, whether they're AU or not, but as for adapting classic works to the Pokémon world in general, I think it's an interesting idea. I remember reading one a couple of years ago that was a Pokémon version of The Ugly Duckling (the "ugly duckling" being a Feebas in a school of Magikarp who evolved into a Milotic at the end); otherwise I don't think I've read much of that, though. But yeah, it's an interesting concept that can probably make for great fics when done well (i.e. not as a simple rip-off of exactly what happens in the original with Pokémon randomly inserted).

 

[Alter Ego]

Yes. Actually, I do mind the "Insert xxxx anime characters into highschool" because people use it as a blatant excuse to insert a random shipping in that isn't possible in the anime. I hate that...

Agreed. Especially when they take the sudden placing of a character in high school as self-evident and not needing any explanation. I've even seen Sapphire put into one of these. I mean sheez, the girl can barely read for pity's sake! (As was proven in Rustboro gym) How someone like that even gets admitted to a high school is beyond me, and let's not even get me started about the probability that a wild-child like that going along with it. xP Really, some characters just don't belong in the classroom, regardless of who you want to ship them with. <.<


As for mimicking the works of great authors. Well, it's only fun if it's done right (I.e. Keeping all characters IC) rather than downright copying the original and gluing on Pikachu to make it pokémon. On its own, though, it's fun. Ahh...this reminds me of the time I rewrote Cinderella from the viewpoint of the prince's nose as a school assignment. It was kind of bizarre, but really fun to write. Good times. xD

 

[Frostweaver]

I don't even want to figure out how a story works out from the point of view of a nose. o.O;

Some stories *can* actually use the high school setting even if the original canon got no such thing as school. Random pairing is not impossible, I'll give it that... but it'll take a lot of the explanations within the story to convince me why it is all logical and in-character for the desired pairing to become a reality. (all those yaoi Shi-Shi fanfics out there, I'm talking about you)

PS: Eh, it's tough to make Ash/Satoshi go with *anyone*, let alone making it worse with Gary/Shigeru.

Manga characters easily fit into shippings a lot better... they actually got brains, living in a world where the bad guys are actually frightening (though still being bad guys for the most ridiculous reasons. Neo-Rocket's reason of reforming is so... anticlimactic ><)

 

[Alter Ego]

Heh, it's called olfactory description, I think. You'd be surprised how much there is to write about smells. xD Of course I had to take some liberties with the nose's sentience, but it was all explained with foolproof fairy tale logic. I mean sheez, if we're ready to accept a magical tree providing a dress, then a thinking nose isn't too far-fethced, is it? It was a rather snotty little thing too, as I recall, but I swear that punniness was not intentional.

And yeah, virtually anything is possible in fanfics, but the more far-fetched it gets the more elaborate your explanation has to be. ^-^

 

[Orange_Flaaffy]

Chapter 5 of Fable is betaed and finally posted here *hops*
I'm not sure if I like my new beta but he is very good at spelling, something I really needed help with ;)

 

[Frostweaver]

*revives dead thread*

What's there to hate about a beta? In reality, if I'm writing a story, I actually want a beta who can catch grammar mistakes more than everything else... I can pick off theme/etc and that kind of stuff decently well, but since English is not my first language, English grammar can be a bit tricky ><; (especially since there's nothing wrong in chinese if you drag a sentence on and on with a billion verbs in there, even if you don't have any conjunctions. Plus, there is no tenses too =D)

 

[pokejungle]

Chinese is all kanji though. Absolutely impossible for me to learn x-x;

No offense Frosty, but I prefer Japanese =P

 

[Frostweaver]

Chinese is all kanji though. Absolutely impossible for me to learn x-x;

No offense Frosty, but I prefer Japanese =P

More like, Japanese made up Kanji and stole the characters from Chinese as Kanji~ XD

Each language has its own difficulty, really... oriental languages rely on characters which are way harder to learn, but most of the time they usually don't have as many rules and exceptions when it comes to grammar in comparison with English and other European languages. So yes, beta reader for me = pick off those grammar mistakes.

(OT: When is the last time you and I talked, pokejungle XD)

 

[pokejungle]

(OT: Not for forever XD Sad, isn't it? And I mean...I've become so liberal now after going to Japan. It's weird.)

But you're right Frosty, each language has it's difficulties. I love how flexible the order of things is in Japanese. With joshi, you can arrange words in just about any order as long as the verb is last. English though...has strict rules.

On the other hand, English has so many *words*. You can't even say something like 'I missed you' properly in Japanese, yet, there are so many ways you could express your emotions through English.

 

[Orange_Flaaffy]

*revives dead thread*

What's there to hate about a beta? In reality, if I'm writing a story, I actually want a beta who can catch grammar mistakes more than everything else... I can pick off theme/etc and that kind of stuff decently well, but since English is not my first language, English grammar can be a bit tricky ><; (especially since there's nothing wrong in chinese if you drag a sentence on and on with a billion verbs in there, even if you don't have any conjunctions. Plus, there is no tenses too =D)

The thing is sometimes grammar that is 100% 'right' mixes up the tone of the story, most of all when it is first person POV and their thoughts are, by nature, not always grammatically 'right'. Therefore in some cases, 'fixing' the grammar of one line makes the other two behind it no longer make sense, which makes my beta want to get rid of those two lines, which actually flesh out the story and are there for a reason :P. I don't mean that all of his edits are bad, just a handful :). I'm a native English speaker who can't spell ;), but I never think of editors as gods that can do no wrong :P . All their comments are just sugestions IMHO :)

 

[Astinus]

"To write is human. To edit is divine." XD

But, Orange_Flaffy, you're right. Editors are just humans. The advice that they give a writer isn't set in stone, and no one should be forced to follow it. No one knows a story better than the person who wrote it, and only they can give the final say in how the story is written.

For my beta readers, I just annoy my parents, my brother, or one of my teachers. It's odd, but true. My parents actually do care about what I write, and I can show it to them. x.X I never know why some people that I know don't share their writing with their parents. Oh well.

 

[Frostweaver]

I'll certainly never share my writings with my parents, or else they'll think that I'm more screwed up than I am

Hiring ones with great reputation online does it for me, really ^^; There are a surprising bunch of them roaming around. If I'm not in university this year (still studying for a midterm at this unholy hour of 2 at night), I'll still be reviewing and commenting on fanfics... eh. As long as I don't have to touch grammar, I would've been happy to serve XD;

 

[Kenny_C.002]

Oh wow, PokeJungle and JIG are around here. o_O

Was thinking about doing a plot based off espionage and the idea of using undercover ____ in a tug of war between the "good" and the "evil". Then I thought about what kind of message I want to embile into the story and I didn't have a clue what I would do with that backdrop...

Oh, and I released "Weather" around here too. Interesting little story. The message is probably one of the most difficult messages that I've placed into a story (I should get "Thousand" in here too, though that one lacked a message as far as I was aware of).

 

[Yamato-san]

I'm still alive, and I recently made a new announcement concerning my works.

god damn, I've gone a while without an update on things. I'm still getting to it, so please be patient. I've been kinda busy with things (I finally got a friggin' job ^^), and I've been talking with some very informative people for advice on story depth (also, after one of them gave me some advice on drawing manga, I probably will scan drawings as opposed to my Photoshop method). All I can ask from all of you is to remain patient. I can assure everyone that I'll be hard-pressed to completely drop this after all this time (this has probably been the longest time a story's been on my mind without completely dropping it), and even if it takes me a decade, I'm hoping to see this doujin project of mine through all the way.

Also, I thought I'd let all of you be aware that there's going to be a title change. Pocket Monsters Chronicles really isn't working out for several reasons. For one thing, my brother was being a little bastard about the "rights" to the story (like there was any copyrighting involved in the first place... he still manages to be an annoying little prick nonetheless). His title has little to do with the story (I've always felt awkward about that fact), and I figure I've differentiated the story enough from what little concepts he had that I could call it my own by now (I'll probably change the main character, for that matter), so f*** him, I say. The problem between us has since been resolved, but since I won't doubt he'll bring up this crap again just to be a cheapskate and get something he wants out of me like he always does (hell, he had long-since abandoned this story until he wanted to force me into loaning him money or something, which he has a very bad tendency of never returning, and thus causing the aforementioned argument to come up), I figured this was the best option. There's also the fact that 4kids already used the name "Pokemon Chronicles" by this point and proceeded to give it a bad name like there's no friggin' tomorrow. With that said, I've already got a new title planned, but I figure I'll keep it a surprise from all of you until I make further announcements. ^^ Look forward to it, everyone.

and Frostweaver, I'm giving you the opportunity to hear about some exclusive info. Just PM me if you're interested.

surprisingly, the "boring, slow, plot-less" shopping scene of just buying potions was widely regarded as the best part of that particular arc of the story ;p

I recently watched Evangelion, and I must say, I friggin' loved that scene with Asuka and Rei on the elevator. It was nicely realistic not having anything happen for a good while (sans Asuka sniffing, which I found to be a nice touch).