Pokemon Fanfiction OC Cliches

[AutumnFeather]

Hi all, Okay so i'm very new here so please excuse me if I do something wrong or whatever. (Do point it out to me as well)

Anyways, I want to start writing on a Pokemon Fanfic. It's going to include a few OCs, but only a few main ones. I have thought of the whole entire plot and all, and all I need to start writing to complete everything.

The thing is, I know there are some cliche plots out there, and I want to make sure that my plot or anything isn't cliche, I really want it to be unique and original, but I need help finding out what plots have been popping up continuously.

Also, this Fanfiction includes Canon characters inside with one OC of mine paired with one, so I would like only those story kind of cliches to be named.

I'd really appreciate your help in this matter! Thank you!
~AutumnFeather

 

[JX Valentine]

It's difficult to give you advice because I really don't know what your plot actually is. You could, for example, be writing a journey fic with your original characters heading off on a trainer's journey through a region (during which they meet up with canon characters). You could also be writing about a single contest in which the canon coordinator characters all meet up with your OC. You could even be writing about a huge legendary war. All of these would require completely different pieces of advice.

Likewise, I really don't know who your characters are. That could help me suggest plots that could potentially be cliché. For example, as I've mentioned above, I could tell you to avoid ~*~UBER SPECIAL CONTEST EVENTS~*~ because these tend to crop up frequently, usually existing only to pair up everyone (canon characters and OCs alike) like it's some kind of ballroom dance. Likewise, I could tell you to avoid tournament fics or I'm-gonna-save-the-world-because-it-was-prophesized-that-I-would fics if you've got a trainer. Hard to say, really.

In any case, there's been a couple of threads that touched upon the idea of general clichés in plots. Scarlet Weather, for example, created an entire guide to OT (original trainer) stories that covers a lot of the basic possibilities for an original character who's a trainer. Then, there's this thread, which contains a lot of plot elements and whatnot that readers are tired of seeing pop up. Both are a bit outdated, though, but they should give you a very, very basic idea of a few genres to avoid.

So, yeah. I'd like to help you, but I'd probably need to know what the plot and characters actually are before I can really say anything. Sorry.

 

[AutumnFeather]

Likewise, I really don't know who your characters are. That could help me suggest plots that could potentially be cliché. For example, as I've mentioned above, I could tell you to avoid ~*~UBER SPECIAL CONTEST EVENTS~*~ because these tend to crop up frequently, usually existing only to pair up everyone (canon characters and OCs alike) like it's some kind of ballroom dance. Likewise, I could tell you to avoid tournament fics or I'm-gonna-save-the-world-because-it-was-prophesized-that-I-would fics if you've got a trainer. Hard to say, really.

Oh, What I actually mean is to name me some plots that keep popping up in the Pokemon Fanfiction and people are getting tired of them, so I can edit my plot so that it's original in it's own way.

which contains a lot of plot elements and whatnot that readers are tired of seeing pop up. Both are a bit outdated, though, but they should give you a very, very basic idea of a few genres to avoid.

And this is what I need, thank you very much! Do let me know if you have any other advice to give me, and well, about my own plot, I kinda feel like i'm giving out spoilers if I do say it here... so that's why i'm currently not disclosing it to anyone. But if you REALLY need to know, do PM me :)

Thank you once again!
~AutumnFeather

 

[Astinus]

And this is what I need, thank you very much! Do let me know if you have any other advice to give me, and well, about my own plot, I kinda feel like i'm giving out spoilers if I do say it here... so that's why i'm currently not disclosing it to anyone. But if you REALLY need to know, do PM me :)

That's unfortunately a problem. I was going to write up a post to help you out, since all I write is OCs with canon characters, but I couldn't say anything to help you out because I don't know what you're doing.

There are so many canons in Pokemon, where fanfiction based on any one of those canons have their own clichéd plots. I jumped to anime automatically, and was going to say that a plot where the OC meets up with Ash and they travel around a region to save the world/become awesome trainers/fall in love with canon character of choice isn't original.

But...you could be writing a game-based fic where Ash doesn't exist.

So it's hard to help you without at least some basics of what you have planned. Like the characters. Which canon characters? Trainers-of-the-day? Coordinators-of-the-week? Watchers-of-the-Orange-Islands-season? Even with just the characters involved would make a difference with what advice you'll get.

Because there's really not much to say in this thread, since you're just going to be sending PMs to interested people anyhow.

EDIT: I bounce around on forums, so I saw your thread on Serebii.

Contestshipping: The pairing of May and Drew
Ikarishipping: The pairing of Paul and Dawn
Shipping: the act of pairing and supporting two characters in a romantic sense. Prefixes are given to the term "shipping/ship/shipper" to name the couple.
Shipper: People who support romantic relations between characters. Example: "She's a Contestshipper."

Here's the Wiki article for Mary-Sue. It gives the basics on them. Pokemon Sues tend to have strong and rare Pokemon.

Just as long as you keep the canon characters in character around your original character is a plus. And as long as you remember that it takes time to build up a romance between people.

 

[AutumnFeather]

Umms, I still do feel uncomfortable disclosing my fic, but since the situation is like that, I guess it wouldn't hurt right? ><"

Um well, my story is based on the manga (where Ash doesn't exist as well) and it has romance, but I plan to go slowly, instead of just INSTANT, like I have read in certain fics.

It involves the manga canon characters basically, and my OC isn't a trainer, nope she isn't.

So, do you want me to name out the whole entire of my plot?

Oh, one more question before I forget: On FF.net when I read Pokemon Fics, sometimes I see the words" Contestshipping, Ikarishipping, shipping shipping shipping whatsoevershipping...." Could anyone please tell me what those words mean?

Thank you! :D

EDIT: Thanks for the info! :D

 

[Matt.K]

Contestshipping is the romantic pairing between May and Drew
Ikarishipping is between Dawn and Paul

Also, sometimes shipping are named (person#1)x(person#2)
eg. Contestshipping would be MayxDrew

If you want an article on shippings, as well as a basic list of the most common ones, look at the "Shipping" article on Bulbapedia
(I can't post links because I don't have enough posts, sorry)

 

[Astinus]

Contestshipping is the romantic pairing between May and Drew
Ikarishipping is between Dawn and Paul

Also, sometimes shipping are named (person#1)x(person#2)
eg. Contestshipping would be MayxDrew

If you want an article on shippings, as well as a basic list of the most common ones, look at the "Shipping" article on Bulbapedia
(I can't post links because I don't have enough posts, sorry)

Thank you for bumping a thread that's almost three months old to repeat information that was already stated:

EDIT: I bounce around on forums, so I saw your thread on Serebii.

Contestshipping: The pairing of May and Drew
Ikarishipping: The pairing of Paul and Dawn
Shipping: the act of pairing and supporting two characters in a romantic sense. Prefixes are given to the term "shipping/ship/shipper" to name the couple.
Shipper: People who support romantic relations between characters. Example: "She's a Contestshipper."

Thread closed due to being bumped.