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What's the most objectionable thing you plan to add to your story (if you haven't done so already)?

Spoiler:
 
Chaptered fics would be a little much for these sort of prompts. Usually for this type of thing, short one-shots(1,000-2000 words) or drabbles (50-500 words) are the way to go. Not that you should limit yourself to that length if you feel like going over, but in livejournal communities that do these type of things, this drabble/shot one-shot limit seems to be favored by the majority of writers.
 
Hanako Tabris said:
That's why I was leaning more towards the latter choices, Jax. Since it would be less restrictive to the author. If the prompt is "Bulbasaur" then they have to include a Bulbasaur even if they really don't want to. But with a prompt like "growth" it's more open to interpretation.

And I was thinking of along the lines of a prompt community. Just hand out a prompt, say that the writers have X amount of time to write a story, and then post. More fun that way.

I'll wait to see about other options, and possibly post the first topic tomorrow. :3

And no contests. Since finding judges will be hard, and it will be more fun.

Oh, and how long should it be between prompts?
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Well, as nearly everyone has said that one-shots should be the way to go, would you not just need one prompt?
 
Oni Raichu said:
Well, as nearly everyone has said that one-shots should be the way to go, would you not just need one prompt?
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If this is prompt-community-style, that means that there's one one-shot for every prompt. In other words, it probably won't be just one single challenge. For an example, I'd recommend checking out Fanfic 100, a prompt community that functions on this sort of system.
 
YunaDances said:
I really am glad to see so many people interested in this =3
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You kidding me? I love prompt challenges. I'm currently working on a set of fifty prompts over at LJ. Not exactly my best work, I admit, but it's always fun to look at a prompt and try to come up with a story that stems from the idea.
 
I participated in a one-shot contest on another board that limited the writing to 1000 words and that felt really comfortable for the time frame we were given (I think it was like 10 days or so). Those were fight scene one-shots however, which tend to be short-ish, so we could raise the word limit here a bit.

I'm thinking the prompts would either be to write a story centered on the ideas surrounding one word, or to develop the idea of a quote. Or, we could post a picture, and make that be the setting, which could be really interesting.
 
I was dumb and forgot that this was a leap year. xD So I'm waiting for March 1, only because I'm slightly obsessive about that.

You know, if you guys want a prompt to be used, send it my way. No matter what it is - a word, a quote, a picture, whatever - we'll use it.

The way that I have this planned is that I'll sticky a thread in the main forum with each prompt having it's own post. Then, when all the fics are in for that prompt, I can run through and link them all.

Organization. Yay.

I'm also thinking either two weeks or one full month between prompts. I would prefer a month, since I take a long time to get something polished for publication. But I can change it if need be.
 
Well, today seems like a good day to get this thing started. Is it going to be like those contests at SPPf or are we doing this just to make a thread full of creative one-shots (either way, I'm in).
 
Gummy said:
Well, today seems like a good day to get this thing started. Is it going to be like those contests at SPPf or are we doing this just to make a thread full of creative one-shots (either way, I'm in).
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No, no contests. This is just for fun.
 
Alright, I today is a great day to get this started!!

I think that a month would be the best for it. So that it can be polished, or if you have writer's block, it gives you time to get something written.
 
Geez, I get banned for three months and you guys add 100 pages. Ahahaha. I'll just answer a random question.

What's the most objectionable thing you plan to add to your story (if you haven't done so already)?

Probably to have my main character cheat, I haven't done many fanfics.
 
What's the most objectionable thing you plan to add to your story (if you haven't done so already)?

Well, so far I've had a bullying scene, some slightly bloody fighting scenes, and some dark themes. I'm going to have a few emotionally charged fighting scenes, which will probably make them fairly intense. Other than that, there is a small chance I will have some alcohol/tobacco use (it's set around the middle ages).
 
What's the most objectionable thing you plan to add to your story (if you haven't done so already)?

Spoiler:
 
What's the most objectionable thing you plan to add to your story (if you haven't done so already)?

Well, since I haven't released anything, it's all on the drawing board, but a few of my more controversial ideas include:

1) A young main (early teen) developing a naive crush on a considerably older woman (think, crush-on-a-teacher type situation) which the latter - incidentally, a main villain - quite ruthlessly exploits to drive her own agenda.

2) A character dying in a very bloody kind of way. Thought to be fair, the level of gore-in-writing isn't high because that part is described from the viewpoint of the victim, who is in shock and doesn't realize his situation until just before his consciousness fades. The brutal murder is heavily implied, though.

3) Pokémon killing people. Sort of controversial given the generally happy, go-lucky image of the franchise, I suppose.

4) A character getting driven mad by the big bad and eventually committing suicide under the delusion that it will stop the big bad's evil plot.

5) A main character spending the better part of her life locked up in an insane asylum.


I think those cover the general gist of things, though I might have forgotten some. :3

Why do you use Pokemon nicknames?

Umm...because I feel like it? xD Dunno', I guess it really started with RPing, where giving nicknames was the only way to assure that my character's pokémon wouldn't get mixed up with the x amount of others from the same species lounging about. Makes them feel more like proper characters too. If the character really isn't the type to name their pokémon, I don't push it, though.

How important is the title of a fic?

Ehh...this topic has pretty much been explored to its full extent, so I'll just second what's been said. Quite often (especially when I'm low on time) the title is what determines whether or not I open the thread. So yes, titles are very important indeed.

Is it okay to cut down on the description when you're trying to add a mysterious atmosphere to your chapter?

Definitely. At least, I'd like to think that it's okay seeing as how I'm doing it all the time myself. Oftentimes what's not being said has far greater impact than what is being said. Heck, if you really want mystery then you'll pretty much have to cut down on the explanations at some point or the other.

How do you feel about "n00b" comments about your fic?

Haven't had the chance to enjoy this yet, but n00b comments in general bug the heck out of me, so I probably wouldn't like it much. >.< Might have myself a laugh if they're suitably ridiculous ones, though. xD

Do you welcome the use of legendary Pokemon in your fic(s) or try to stay away from them?

Ehh...depends. I usually try to make use of the less known and obscure species, to which legendaries obviously don't belong, but at times I just need to draw on that divine/semi-divine status they possess, and in those cases I won't shy away from doing just that. In general, they don't tend to be my first choice, though.

As a side note, but does anyone else have difficulties in writing a first chapter? For the aforementioned planned fic, I've thrown out about four different chapter beginnings because not a single one of them seems to work. So, how do you write a first chapter, and what sort of elements (in medias res, detailed descriptions of the setting, et cetera) do you use to do it?

Yes. HECK YES. I've tried so many opening chapters now that I've lost count, everything from hectic chases and ominous, horrorish scenes to moments of quiet contemplation and cutesy-happy, innocent ones. I'm absolutely horrible at pinning down beginnings for things (right now, I have like three or four separate ones that I could pursue, each one of which would branch out into a distinctly different fic x.O) and I seem to have too much of a tendency for just pushing backspace and starting out from scratch again. >.< So yeah, it's just lots of experimental typing (sometimes just doing whatever pops into my head) with occasional saves of better attempts onto text documents for later judgment until I'm finally satisfied, pretty much like what I do with my RP plots except that the process is slower.

Mostly, my opening chapter (well, the drafts for my chapters) tend to be split into two types. The first is a confusing kind of scene that the reader won't fully understand until its context is laid down (something which won't happen until a few chapters later). The main character is introduced, but only by their mannerisms and their actions (in some of them I don't even give a name at the beginning) with no background for how they got to doing what they're currently doing, why they're doing it, where they're doing it, or indeed even what precisely they're striving for. The other type is pretty much your standard, textbook-model fanfic opening, where I lay down the basic background and current life situation of the character along with the basics of their current goal and - usually - some foreshadowing of conflict to come. Lately, I've been leaning towards the former type, though. I don't like tipping my hand too early on in the game, though of course I'll have to take the necessary precautions to ensure that I'm not being too selective. After all, I do want my readers to understand what the heck is going on in the story; I just want to make them work a little for it. x3

Scythekid said:
Geez, I get banned for three months and you guys add 100 pages.
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Well, I was gone for a week and this already grew two pages. Ahh...there's no place like the lounge, eh? x3 Welcome back, by the way.
 
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As a side note, but does anyone else have difficulties in writing a first chapter? For the aforementioned planned fic, I've thrown out about four different chapter beginnings because not a single one of them seems to work. So, how do you write a first chapter, and what sort of elements (in medias res, detailed descriptions of the setting, et cetera) do you use to do it?
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Hmm. Generally the beginning is one of the first things that come to me about a new fic, actually (such as with Morphic, where the idea of a scientist coming on a talk show to try to justify the abortion of hybrid fetuses was literally the first thing I thought of). But I've had this problem with one fic, in particular a one-shot. It's basically a horror interpretation of the move Curse as used by non-Ghost Pokémon. I originally wrote one version of it which I wasn't really satisfied with, and then I've been attempting to rewrite it but can't possibly figure out where it would be best to begin it. ><;
 
Ohh...this sounds like fun indeed. Reminds me of that time when I decided to write a pokémon fanfic using the poem "The night before Christmas" as my prompt and only...well, the night before Christmas as writing time. Didn't get very far, but it was a fun exercise all the same. XD

So yeah, I'm going to be playing around with this, though if I ever get anything finished before the deadline remains to be seen. This is looking to be good, clean fun regardless. :3

And yeah, seconding a month as regular writing time. It's an easy way to keep track of the deadline too. That way, those who really want to polish get to do that while those who have slower creative processes or constricting real life commitments (*Points at self*) get a fair shot at finishing their work in time too.
 
Alter Ego said:
Ohh...this sounds like fun indeed. Reminds me of that time when I decided to write a pokémon fanfic using the poem "The night before Christmas" as my prompt and only...well, the night before Christmas as writing time. Didn't get very far, but it was a fun exercise all the same. XD

So yeah, I'm going to be playing around with this, though if I ever get anything finished before the deadline remains to be seen. This is looking to be good, clean fun regardless. :3

And yeah, seconding a month as regular writing time. It's an easy way to keep track of the deadline too. That way, those who really want to polish get to do that while those who have slower creative processes or constricting real life commitments (*Points at self*) get a fair shot at finishing their work in time too.
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Sounds like a fun excercise XD.

I think a month is good too, for the reasons that everyone else has pointed out before me.
 
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