Catching a Pokemon: See Battles?

[Act]

Here's an interesting question I'm wrestling with. In an OT, does the reader prefer to see every battle the trainer has with pokemon that will become permanent or semi-permanent fixtures on the team, or is an implied victory okay?

Here's the situation: In 'Misconception' Gina's attempting to catch a corphish; if successful, it would be her second wild-caught pokemon.

The ordeal leading up to the battle with the corphish is pretty fleshed out, and I'm worried that writing out the whole battle would just be too much, too long. I usually go by my own instincts (I'm getting bored writing it = you'll be bored reading it), but I'm not sure.

Is just saying, basically, "She didn't catch it/she caught it,"-- summarizing, as opposed to full-on doing the battle--is it alright, or is it like cheating?

>.<

 

[Dilasc]

Personally, I don't go by the cliche scenario of Jon Doe catches Zubat, therefore Jon Doe has Crobat at championship. Teams change, and may change often as far as I'm concerned. After all, not every trainer is a loving trainer that will reach the top.

As for he caught it, didnt catch it, and ask no more questions... I'd say it's kinda lazy. You can have some pretty wild, fun, and audience captivating things happen in a battle, AND it lets you have something to write up while you come up with the plot for the next chapter or so. It may be a bit drawn out, but its better than:

Zomg! Squirtle fainted Onix cuz it w4 to watur types.

What if the main dude/dudette's Ralts learned Double Team during that battle? Since we get no detail of the battle, we'll never know. If something happens in that battle and we miss it, we wont know if the battle is completely skipped over.

 

[Dragonfree]

Well, I'd say it's pretty much that either you skip the whole part as unimportant, or you write the battle. So basically, if you're writing a bunch of introduction to the Corphish battle, the readership might feel a bit cheated when you never actually show them the battle itself and instead skip to whether she ended up catching it or not. Additionally, if she does catch it you should definitely write the battle, because the capture is somewhat of an important event in the story and just skipping it to mention that it happened doesn't really do it justice.

 

[Act]

dislac

Well, of course nothing is set. I mean as opposed to catch-and-put-in-PC; it's a more important scene than chronicling every battle in the safari zone.

I'm not literally going to be like, oh, BTW, she didn't get it. I was thinking of summarizing it. I tend to draw out battles a lot, and, well... maybe I'll write up what I'd say instead and edit it in.

What if the main dude/dudette's Ralts learned Double Team during that battle? Since we get no detail of the battle, we'll never know. If something happens in that battle and we miss it, we wont know if the battle is completely skipped over.

Well, I'm not that stupid. Naturally, if anything significant aside from the capture or lack thereof, I'd mention it or put it in

Thanks muchly for your input.

dragonfree

Ah, that's true. Don't want to cheat the reader, ne? Again, though, the idea wasn't to totally skip it (which I guess I made it sound like--- my bad), it was to breifly summarize it. The chapter is long already, and I'm wary about boring my reader.

---

I need a beta -.-' It's these kind of decisions you need an audience for.

Thanks again ^^:

 

[Faerie]

Well, it depends, really. If you don't want to have to drag out the battle and write all about it, you don't have to, but if it'll just sound weird if you don't do the battle, do it. It's your choice, really.

Although, I do have some advice for you: don't just say "she caught/didn't catch it". It really dosen't work if you do that; I know this from experience. Try saying something about how the battle went. It'll make it sound better all around, and it'll actually save you as a writer a lot of irritation.

Of course you probably already know this, but I'm just stating this as a suggestion. ^__^

 

[Negrek]

Well, I think you could pull it off either way. Personally, I would write it out because I'm addicted to battle scenes and don't really have a very good conception of decent chapter length (*looks at last chapter of Clouded Sky, then looks away...*)

If you're worried about dragging things out a bit, then I think it would be cool to see it come up later in conversation... it could help with characterization. We might not see her catch it/not catch it, but we'd see how she responded to her failure or success. Perhaps have that kid she was traveling with (apologies for totally not remembering his name) egg her on about it somewhat if she fails, for example? Something like that, I think, would be interesting.