Advice for Aspiring Authors

[Zephyr Flare]

Well how the heck wold a reader know otherwise?

The best way to do it however is drip feed the clothes descriptons, link them in with actions like the shoes with their pace for example, stops one solid block of text.

Sandra

 

[Iveechan]

Unless the clothes are really important, don't put too much emphasis on their description. Really, I can never remember what a character is wearing in a fanfic, even when there's 5 paragraphs lovingly devoted to color of their socks.

 

[SBaby]

Unless the clothes are really important, don't put too much emphasis on their description. Really, I can never remember what a character is wearing in a fanfic, even when there's 5 paragraphs lovingly devoted to color of their socks.

I couldn't have said it better myself. Usually, I give a very general description of a character and let the reader's imagination fill in the blanks.

Classic example, Elnius (a new Pokemon in one of my Fics). She is human-sized, has light blue skin, long blue hair, and she wears a helmet over her eyes (it might have been a visor). She also wears a silver and blue breastplate, and seems to have small panels on her arms and shoulders, in an almost robotic fashion.

I don't explain the particulars of whether the breastplate is spiked, or whether the helmet is removable or not. I leave those details up to the imagination of the reader and only explain the important things (that'll be used in the story). That way, I don't bog them down in small details that detract from the battle that might be going on at that point.

 

[BirthdayPirate]

I couldn't have said it better myself. Usually, I give a very general description of a character and let the reader's imagination fill in the blanks.

Classic example, Elnius (a new Pokemon in one of my Fics). She is human-sized, has light blue skin, long blue hair, and she wears a helmet over her eyes (it might have been a visor). She also wears a silver and blue breastplate, and seems to have small panels on her arms and shoulders, in an almost robotic fashion.

I don't explain the particulars of whether the breastplate is spiked, or whether the helmet is removable or not. I leave those details up to the imagination of the reader and only explain the important things (that'll be used in the story). That way, I don't bog them down in small details that detract from the battle that might be going on at that point.

Well, that's all fine and dandy with Pokemon, but with humans you can pretty much just ignore clothes. Unless you're trying to show that a man is gay or a woman is poor or something like that, clothes don't even really need to be mentioned...

 

[Zephyr Flare]

But in some situations can help build up their character, a scene, a motve or even suspense in some cases.

'Pends how you wrangle it.

Sandra

 

[DANdotW]

I agree. If there is just a general description, then it's all gone.

However, if you slow it down, it'll be taken in better. Also improving your writing.

Julie had blonde hair and a yellow shirt and blue jeans and black shoes.

~~~~~~~~~~

Julie flicked back her long, blonde hair.

Her green eyes flashed with emotion.

The rain soaked through her yellow shirt, mixing with the dirt already on there and becoming an off cream.

She kicked the tree, scuffing her black laced boots.

Gives you a lot more, you see?

Iota

 

[~*Mudkip Fantastic*~]

In most fics I have read people start a new paragraph when someone new speaks. Is that a requirement?

 

[Zephyr Flare]

It's generally considered good gramar which is why many do it, also stops it being lost in text blocks.

Sandra

 

[SBaby]

I consider seperate paragraphs for new speakers to kind of be a general rule of thumb in really any type of writing. It's not technically a requirement, but those two extra key presses really make Fics look way better. I personally think it just makes the story easier to read.

 

[Negrek]

It's actually a rule of the language, and you should abide by it for the sake of everybody's eyes and sanity. If you've ever tried to make sense of a conversation where four different speakers are discussing something in one paragraph, you'll know what I mean.

 

[Dragonfree]

Well, I can think of a couple of exceptional cases where it would definitely be appropriate to put them on the same line (or at least inappropriate to insert a paragraph break), but that would be some unconventional use of the language either way.

 

[CrystalSaurTower]

Well, that's all fine and dandy with Pokemon, but with humans you can pretty much just ignore clothes. Unless you're trying to show that a man is gay or a woman is poor or something like that, clothes don't even really need to be mentioned...

I don't see how clothes could describe whether a person's gay or not. It depends on how you describe situations around other people. My super goth anti-hero could be dressed in all clad pink but you still have no idea whether he's or not hes gay, unless your thinking about gays as a whole as stereotypes, which isn't advised in writing anyway.

 

[SBaby]

I don't see how clothes could describe whether a person's gay or not.

Two words: Seymour Cheese. Do I really need to explain that one further?

Anyway, describing the clothes is fine for fan characters and anyone else you add to a Fic, such as enemies or whatever. But describing Pokemon, especially new ones, is extremely important and should not be overlooked, especially when they're performing an action (that's the perfect time to make the description really creative).

As for anyone else, it's your decision, but you don't necessarily need to describe them in an overabundance of detail. For instance, everyone here knows what Ash looks like. This wouldn't be much of an official site if that wasn't the case.

So a brief description (one to two sentences) should suffice for the initial introduction in that case, unless they're doing something at that time (hair blowing in wind, etc...), or have different outfits or the like (in one of my older Fics, Ash had a different outfit, since he was older).

 

[CrystalSaurTower]

Two words: Seymour Cheese. Do I really need to explain that one further?

Since I have abseloutly no idea about who or what that is, yes please. And mind telling what people who er' gay where, since you so strongly think of clothes as an option.

 

[edwardel]

Where? What do you mean where?

Yes, with fakemon, you should decribe all important aspects (clothes if need be) because nine chapters down you may think to yourself you want your pokemon to blend in to the pimp suit you're wearing. If that is the case you should have already described any important aspects ahead of time.

Don't have the 16 year old that is the most bueatiful and the smartest girl in school and both of her parents died then followed by her brother but she never shows any hints of a loss. This is more of the mary-sue character that was talked about earlier in the thread.

And a question if I may. In terms of what would be frowned upon by comments once it was up would a crime syndicate motivated by some uber,
training at academy, and journeys with the purpose being to stop a handful of crooks all be too cliche?

 

[Griffinkit]

Well, I have a story where the four main characters (based off me, my sister, and two of our friends) all started out with legendaries. However, each of them only knows a very weak attack (long story). Also, I made the professor evil...(long story again)

I think an eccentric character or one who doesn't know much about Pokemon can be interesting. In this one online RP, I have a charrie who is basically crazy, wears all white, has never seena Pokedex, and thinks Starly are Dark-types. And she uses rather superfluous language. And there's another one, a demon, who calls Pokemon "vassals" and has never seen one before. She's rather fierce and a bit scary, and has "no use for emotions."

So, yeah. Charries knowing nothing about Pokemon=coolness.

 

[GinnyFishy]

I have a character in a story (hasn't been posted on serebii yet) where she has defeated Team Rocket sometimes with the help of her friend Silver. But she also has no pokemon, and has no clue who are her parents. Would this be a mary-sue character?

 

[Zephyr Flare]

The best way to give a rough idea, try that Mary Sue test in the Author's Cafe sicne you know far more about the character. it won;t be eprfect but should give you a rough idea

Sandra

 

[nashie1]

It's not a mary-sue (at least not from what you've said so far) However, the whole 'I don;t know who my parents are' thing is kind of cliche and overused.
(So is finding out the long lost parents are the big bad guys just for the record.)

 

[Orange_Flaaffy]

What makes a Mary Sue is not so much your character's past as it is how you write that character. Aka, a character could be pretty and nearly everyone could be in love with her but as long as that does not have other characters acting like they would never dream of to win her love (like say, Ash jumps off a cliff in grief, or kills Pikachu), it could make an okay character. Basically, if the world changes for the character (say they are in space and she just happens to know how to work a rocket for not reason without having any training) rather the character being changed by the world (a spoiled rich girl has to learn to cook on a camp fire to be a pokemon trainer, the shoes she never goes without are awful for walking give her blisters etc)

Basically, a Mary sue is a character who is never wrong, and the only things that hurt her are things that aren’t her fault. A good character's growth comes from mistakes that they made and have no one else to blame for but themself (Of course, they can blame others but it would not be true . Everyone loves to blame someone else).

Example:
A character gets kidnapped by..Team Rocket. (These are just samples, I don't really write like this)
--------------------------------------------
Mary Sue was just sleeping in her tent when The Big Evil Rocket Member, seeing how pretty she was, decided to steal her away! A moment later her friends woke up, no longer feeling Mary Sues golden glow, Oh no, who will save Mary Sue?
---------------------------------------------------------

Alice had gotten up in the middle of the night from her friend's tent...If you could call them friends, she was sure at least half of them only looked after her because her parents made them promise to.
Her reasons for not sleeping were perfectly clear: All she cared about was getting the best pokemon and the best of the best only came out at night here.
She was chasing blindly after the HootHoot in a power hungry rage moments later (never mind that she forgot to bring any pokeballs), when she lost her footing in the grass and triped.

"Well, well, what do with have here?" Remarked the Rocket sleepily.

"A new trainer your going to let go like this never happened?" Peeped Alice

"I don't think so." He replied

The next morning the other trainers only took a moment to call Alice's parents and journey on....

*lol* Bad I know, but I hope that helps just a little.

*suddenly feels like writing a much better verison of the Alice character story*