JX Valentine
Ever-Discordant
The Non-Pokémon Fic Catalog
Welcome to the Non-Pokémon Fic Catalog, an index of works-in-progress in the Non-Pokémon Fics forum! Whether you’re in the mood for a very specific type of fic or looking for ways to make sure your fics reach the right audiences, this thread is dedicated to organizing fics in this forum for easy reading.
Want to add your story to the list? You can! Just copy and paste the form below, and a mod will be around to edit your story into the thread. Please make sure you read the rest of the post, though, to guarantee that your listing will be added to the right list!
(Simply replace all content in parentheses with stuff that describes your fic. Feel free to use the tag listing to mention trigger warnings as well!)
Please note that this list is only for fics posted to or currently located in Non-Pokémon Fics. For Completed Fics or to request that your fic be moved to Completed Fics, please see this thread. Pokémon fics have their own archive as well. Posting a submission to the wrong archive thread may result in delays in getting your fic listed, so please double-check which thread you’re posting in before hitting the submit button.
Additionally, while all archives have a category for the romance genre, it’s exclusively for fics containing romances between original characters, as romance fics between canon characters are considered shipping fics. For shipping fics, please visit the shipping-specific forum. Yes, that applies even if you're posting non-Pokémon fics.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to use this thread to ask!
Thank you!
To save on space, we’re allowing all fics to be categorized by up to three genres. Most of these genres are based on the Fanfiction.net system, with a few specific to our forum. Because these can get pretty vague, each genre is listed below the spoiler cut, with examples. Feel free to use this as a guide, but as always, if you’re still confused, don’t hesitated to ask!
THE NON-POKÉMON FIC CATALOG
Welcome to the Non-Pokémon Fic Catalog, an index of works-in-progress in the Non-Pokémon Fics forum! Whether you’re in the mood for a very specific type of fic or looking for ways to make sure your fics reach the right audiences, this thread is dedicated to organizing fics in this forum for easy reading.
Want to add your story to the list? You can! Just copy and paste the form below, and a mod will be around to edit your story into the thread. Please make sure you read the rest of the post, though, to guarantee that your listing will be added to the right list!
HTML:
[b][i][url=(your fic’s URL)](your fic’s title)[/url][/i][/b], by [b](your name)[/b]
(summary of your fic in 350 words or less)
[b](up to three genres here)[/b]
[i]Tags:[/i] (keywords or short phrases that also describe your fic—please separate each tag with a comma)Please note that this list is only for fics posted to or currently located in Non-Pokémon Fics. For Completed Fics or to request that your fic be moved to Completed Fics, please see this thread. Pokémon fics have their own archive as well. Posting a submission to the wrong archive thread may result in delays in getting your fic listed, so please double-check which thread you’re posting in before hitting the submit button.
Additionally, while all archives have a category for the romance genre, it’s exclusively for fics containing romances between original characters, as romance fics between canon characters are considered shipping fics. For shipping fics, please visit the shipping-specific forum. Yes, that applies even if you're posting non-Pokémon fics.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to use this thread to ask!
Thank you!
THE LIST OF GENRES AND THEIR DEFINITIONS
To save on space, we’re allowing all fics to be categorized by up to three genres. Most of these genres are based on the Fanfiction.net system, with a few specific to our forum. Because these can get pretty vague, each genre is listed below the spoiler cut, with examples. Feel free to use this as a guide, but as always, if you’re still confused, don’t hesitated to ask!
ACTION
Although frequently listed in conjunction with the adventure genre, the action genre is something slightly different. Whereas adventure focuses on a quest, action focuses on, well, action. If you’re thinking fight scenes and explosions, you are definitely on the right track. A lot of the plot of an action thriller is structured in a way to highlight the fast-paced fight scenes, so any fic in which most of the plot is driven by physical conflict and violence is probably an action fic.
Examples: The Matrix, Die Hard, The Avengers/MCU, every kung fu/martial arts film ever
ADVENTURE
When it comes to the adventure genre, there’s a lot of overlap between this and the action genre and the journey fic concept, but the main idea is that the protagonist is taken out of their ordinary life and undertakes something extraordinary (be it a journey, a quest, a task, a series of events, or so forth), typically involving a lot of physical danger.
Examples: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pokémon itself
ANGST
Angst—not to be confused with tragedy, drama, or hurt/comfort—is a fic that focuses on a character’s sadness and the struggles they undertake to keep going forward. These fics are typically introspective in nature, meaning they spend a lot of time in a character’s head, discussing what it is that’s keeping them down.
Examples: Neon Genesis Evangelion, pretty much anything written by Franz Kafka or Leo Tolstoy
CANON CHARACTER-CENTRIC
Exactly what it says on the tin. Any fic that features canon characters as main characters or focus elements is a canon character-centric fic. Please note that special species or occupations in a fic's universe (e.g., Gatomon, Sailor Scout) do not count as canon characters, but specific members of either could. So for example, if you wrote a fic about a character who happens to be a Gatomon, that’s not necessarily a canon character-centric fic. If, however, you wrote a fic about Kari’s partner, Gatomon, then that fic would be a canon-centric fic. Otherwise, in general, the character has to be a canon one (as in, the character has to have appeared in canon) in order to count.
Examples: Most fics on Fanfiction.net
CRIME
Not to be confused with the mystery genre (although there is a lot of overlap), crime fics are fics that center around characters involved with crime or a plot revolving around crime. This is where you have your stories about organized crime, con artists, murderers, and so forth. Please note that in order to be a proper crime fic, you need to have criminal activity actually happening; fics about members of an evil organization aren't necessarily crime fics.
Examples: The Godfather trilogy, Sherlock Holmes, Scarface
DRAMA
Fics are srs bsnss. Or at least fics in this genre are. Drama deals with serious themes. It focuses a lot on emotion, largely because, regardless of how outlandish and fantastical it might get, it ultimately deals with characters tackling heady, realistic issues such as prejudice, poverty, addiction, relationships, illness, morality, and other fun elements of the human condition. While not every drama ends up being or involves a tragedy, many do, and the genre as a whole ultimately deals with the survival of whatever terrible thing a character faces. Please note that while soap operas are dramatic, they’re typically over-the-top and aren’t necessarily what you’d need to model your fic after in order to fit in with the drama genre.
Examples: The Fault in Our Stars (or anything by John Green in general), Citizen Kane, Titanic, Faust
FAMILY
Yet another one of those genres that are basically exactly what they sound like. In this case, the fic is written like a family-friendly movie. As in, it’s one of those pieces that the whole family can enjoy, not just the kids, but it’s also a piece that you can share with small kids as well. Think Disney (especially the live-action films of the 90s), only in fic form. In other words, this is our most kid-friendly genre, for fics written especially for general audiences.
Examples: Pretty much every Disney film of the 90s, most Jim Henson movies, Home Alone
FANTASY
Magic! Dragons! Legends! This is a genre that challenges writers’ imaginations. At the very core of the fantasy genre is magic—or supernatural elements that can’t necessarily be explained. Likewise, it’s about folklore and mythical beings and creatures that simply go beyond the realm of reality. In short, fantasy is any fic set in any time period that focuses on things that don’t exist and typically cannot be explained via science.
Examples: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Discworld
FRIENDSHIP
It’s shipping for the platonically inclined! No, but really, these are fics that focus on exactly what you’d imagine them to: the friendship between one or more characters. As in, the relationship is the focus of the fic, and it’s completely, unshakably, 100% platonic.
Examples: The Babysitters Club, Toy Story, How to Train Your Dragon
HORROR
If you’re up for a scare, head to horror. Horror relies on themes—including but not limited to violence, supernatural phenomena, stalking, and so forth—in conjunction with darker atmospheres and settings in order to make a reader feel uncomfortable or afraid.
Examples: It, Dracula, Goosebumps, House of Leaves, H.P. Lovecraft’s body of work
HUMOR
As a sharp contrast to drama and horror, humor plays with a reader’s emotions as well but does so in a way to make them laugh. Whether it’s ridiculous scenarios or simply well-placed wit, the focus is more on a light-hearted tone that a reader will find funny.
Examples: Discworld, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Mark Twain’s body of work
HURT/COMFORT
Not to be confused with drama, hurt/comfort is basically angst with a happy ending. Like angst, it’s a very introspective genre, focusing more on a character’s inner thoughts. However, unlike angst, rather than dwelling on a character’s sadness, a hurt/comfort fic focuses on their healing process. Hurt/comfort fics usually feature two or more characters wherein at least one party is the hurt party (hurt being either physical or emotional in nature), and the other is the one that provides moral, psychological, or medical support in order to coax the first party towards a satisfactory resolution.
Examples: This is a specific fanfiction-exclusive concept with no comparable literary or movie genres, so there are unfortunately no available examples. Sorry!
MYSTERY
There’s a question, and eventually, there’s going to be an answer. A genre that frequently crosses over with thriller or crime, mysteries are all about the hunt. Characters work quickly and closely to unravel whatever question is hanging over their heads, whether that question has to do with the murder of another character, the theft of something important, disappearances, strange circumstances … you name it.
Examples: Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie’s body of work, the Millennium trilogy, Memento, Blade Runner
PARODY
Parody is an imitation of another work, typically for comedic effect. This can extend from parodying characters in a larger work to parodying the genre or work as a whole. Sometimes, this imitation is also used to make a comment, even if that comment is, “You know, this genre is really kinda stupid if you think about it.” Point is, it’s a challenging genre to master, not only because a good imitation is difficult to do but also because although a good parody is hilarious on its own, some of the work’s meaning may be lost in translation for audiences who aren’t entirely familiar with the source material.
Examples: Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Gulliver’s Travels, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Onion
POETRY COLLECTION
Poetry—or poems—focus more on the expression of an image or emotion, rather than on telling a story. They’re not necessarily told via traditional paragraphs (i.e., prose), either. Basically, they take whatever form the author feels would be best to convey a concept, rather than a particular plot.
Examples: Nursery rhymes, beat poetry, idk waaaaaay too many out there.
ROMANCE
When Character A and Character B (and idk maybe Character C if they’re into that) like each other very much, they do something called fall in love. That’s the basis of the romance genre in a nutshell. Two (or more!) characters meet. Two (or more!) characters fall in love. Shenanigans happen. Please note that for the purposes of these archives, we are not talking about shipping, which is a romance in which all parties involved are canon characters. Those go in Shipping Fics, not these lists.
Examples: Romeo and Juliet, Jane Austen’s body of work, and—say what you want about it—Twilight.
SCIENCE FICTION (SCI-FI)
Shiny things FOR SCIENCE! Sci-fi is one of those genres that’s pretty easy to define—probably even easier than a lot of things—because while one could say “yes, this is a given” to a lot of genre names, science fiction is pretty literal about what it is. It’s a story that focuses a lot on science. As in, while there might be monsters or futuristic inventions or what-have-you, the main point is that it, in some way, is grounded in science … even if the science being used in the fic is more like pseudo-science. Long story short, there’s science somewhere in here.
Examples: Sci-fi covers an array of topics. For a sampler platter, try Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, We, The Time Traveler, Frankenstein, and even some good ol’ fashioned Godzilla.
THRILLER
Or in other words, suspense. This isn’t a subgenre of action or horror or even crime. It’s more like the lovechild of one or more of those ideas. Thriller focuses on hitting its readers’ adrenaline buttons. It makes you anticipate or dread what’s about to come next—but not necessarily in a way that makes you fear for your own safety (as in the case of horror). Cliffhangers, plot twists, and so forth are all the hallmarks of this genre. If your readers aren’t guessing at every turn, you’re probably doing it wrong.
Examples: Alfred Hitchcock is the king of this. Watch Rear Window, Vertigo, or Rebecca for perfect examples. Don’t like Hitchcock? The Count of Monte Cristo and Heart of Darkness are also fine examples. So is Silence of the Lambs and Psycho.
TRAGEDY
Rocks fall and everyone dies. Pretty much literally. On a serious note, tragedy (not to be confused with angst) is a genre in which bad things happen to occasionally good people. This is the genre where characters die, where characters get knocked out of their social status, and, in general, where characters end up really, really miserable. Additionally, whereas angst focuses on characters feeling miserable, tragedy focuses on the act of making characters miserable. Or dead. Mostly dead.
Examples: Every Shakespeare tragedy ever (including and especially Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet), Les Miserables, Puella Magi Madoka Magica
WESTERN
How can you have a Western Pokémon fic if the Wild West isn’t a thing in the Pokémon universe? Easy! Westerns don’t necessarily have to involve the Wild West; they simply need to involve a Wild West-like setting. At their hearts, Westerns are all about the freedom and lawlessness of the frontier. They’re typically period pieces focusing on the pioneers who struggle for survival in a desert or prairie setting, and as such, themes such as good versus evil (i.e., law versus lawlessness) or the boldness of discovery tend to be prevalent in a good Western. In short, fill your fic with plenty of cowboys, natives, and outlaws, and you’ve got yourself a Western.
Examples: The Lone Ranger, Once Upon a Time in the West, Firefly, Trigun
OTHER
Do none of these seem to fit your fic? Feel free to use this catch-all genre! This genre is for fics that include elements that aren't quite any of the above. Maybe they're kinda like an angst but not really, or maybe they're a House of Leaves-like un-novel that literally belongs to a genre that isn't even listed here. Whatever your reason for going with "other," just remember that the more descriptive and specific your tags and summary are (to help define what "other" means), the easier it will be to catch the attention of potential readers.
Although frequently listed in conjunction with the adventure genre, the action genre is something slightly different. Whereas adventure focuses on a quest, action focuses on, well, action. If you’re thinking fight scenes and explosions, you are definitely on the right track. A lot of the plot of an action thriller is structured in a way to highlight the fast-paced fight scenes, so any fic in which most of the plot is driven by physical conflict and violence is probably an action fic.
Examples: The Matrix, Die Hard, The Avengers/MCU, every kung fu/martial arts film ever
ADVENTURE
When it comes to the adventure genre, there’s a lot of overlap between this and the action genre and the journey fic concept, but the main idea is that the protagonist is taken out of their ordinary life and undertakes something extraordinary (be it a journey, a quest, a task, a series of events, or so forth), typically involving a lot of physical danger.
Examples: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pokémon itself
ANGST
Angst—not to be confused with tragedy, drama, or hurt/comfort—is a fic that focuses on a character’s sadness and the struggles they undertake to keep going forward. These fics are typically introspective in nature, meaning they spend a lot of time in a character’s head, discussing what it is that’s keeping them down.
Examples: Neon Genesis Evangelion, pretty much anything written by Franz Kafka or Leo Tolstoy
CANON CHARACTER-CENTRIC
Exactly what it says on the tin. Any fic that features canon characters as main characters or focus elements is a canon character-centric fic. Please note that special species or occupations in a fic's universe (e.g., Gatomon, Sailor Scout) do not count as canon characters, but specific members of either could. So for example, if you wrote a fic about a character who happens to be a Gatomon, that’s not necessarily a canon character-centric fic. If, however, you wrote a fic about Kari’s partner, Gatomon, then that fic would be a canon-centric fic. Otherwise, in general, the character has to be a canon one (as in, the character has to have appeared in canon) in order to count.
Examples: Most fics on Fanfiction.net
CRIME
Not to be confused with the mystery genre (although there is a lot of overlap), crime fics are fics that center around characters involved with crime or a plot revolving around crime. This is where you have your stories about organized crime, con artists, murderers, and so forth. Please note that in order to be a proper crime fic, you need to have criminal activity actually happening; fics about members of an evil organization aren't necessarily crime fics.
Examples: The Godfather trilogy, Sherlock Holmes, Scarface
DRAMA
Fics are srs bsnss. Or at least fics in this genre are. Drama deals with serious themes. It focuses a lot on emotion, largely because, regardless of how outlandish and fantastical it might get, it ultimately deals with characters tackling heady, realistic issues such as prejudice, poverty, addiction, relationships, illness, morality, and other fun elements of the human condition. While not every drama ends up being or involves a tragedy, many do, and the genre as a whole ultimately deals with the survival of whatever terrible thing a character faces. Please note that while soap operas are dramatic, they’re typically over-the-top and aren’t necessarily what you’d need to model your fic after in order to fit in with the drama genre.
Examples: The Fault in Our Stars (or anything by John Green in general), Citizen Kane, Titanic, Faust
FAMILY
Yet another one of those genres that are basically exactly what they sound like. In this case, the fic is written like a family-friendly movie. As in, it’s one of those pieces that the whole family can enjoy, not just the kids, but it’s also a piece that you can share with small kids as well. Think Disney (especially the live-action films of the 90s), only in fic form. In other words, this is our most kid-friendly genre, for fics written especially for general audiences.
Examples: Pretty much every Disney film of the 90s, most Jim Henson movies, Home Alone
FANTASY
Magic! Dragons! Legends! This is a genre that challenges writers’ imaginations. At the very core of the fantasy genre is magic—or supernatural elements that can’t necessarily be explained. Likewise, it’s about folklore and mythical beings and creatures that simply go beyond the realm of reality. In short, fantasy is any fic set in any time period that focuses on things that don’t exist and typically cannot be explained via science.
Examples: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Discworld
FRIENDSHIP
It’s shipping for the platonically inclined! No, but really, these are fics that focus on exactly what you’d imagine them to: the friendship between one or more characters. As in, the relationship is the focus of the fic, and it’s completely, unshakably, 100% platonic.
Examples: The Babysitters Club, Toy Story, How to Train Your Dragon
HORROR
If you’re up for a scare, head to horror. Horror relies on themes—including but not limited to violence, supernatural phenomena, stalking, and so forth—in conjunction with darker atmospheres and settings in order to make a reader feel uncomfortable or afraid.
Examples: It, Dracula, Goosebumps, House of Leaves, H.P. Lovecraft’s body of work
HUMOR
As a sharp contrast to drama and horror, humor plays with a reader’s emotions as well but does so in a way to make them laugh. Whether it’s ridiculous scenarios or simply well-placed wit, the focus is more on a light-hearted tone that a reader will find funny.
Examples: Discworld, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Mark Twain’s body of work
HURT/COMFORT
Not to be confused with drama, hurt/comfort is basically angst with a happy ending. Like angst, it’s a very introspective genre, focusing more on a character’s inner thoughts. However, unlike angst, rather than dwelling on a character’s sadness, a hurt/comfort fic focuses on their healing process. Hurt/comfort fics usually feature two or more characters wherein at least one party is the hurt party (hurt being either physical or emotional in nature), and the other is the one that provides moral, psychological, or medical support in order to coax the first party towards a satisfactory resolution.
Examples: This is a specific fanfiction-exclusive concept with no comparable literary or movie genres, so there are unfortunately no available examples. Sorry!
MYSTERY
There’s a question, and eventually, there’s going to be an answer. A genre that frequently crosses over with thriller or crime, mysteries are all about the hunt. Characters work quickly and closely to unravel whatever question is hanging over their heads, whether that question has to do with the murder of another character, the theft of something important, disappearances, strange circumstances … you name it.
Examples: Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie’s body of work, the Millennium trilogy, Memento, Blade Runner
PARODY
Parody is an imitation of another work, typically for comedic effect. This can extend from parodying characters in a larger work to parodying the genre or work as a whole. Sometimes, this imitation is also used to make a comment, even if that comment is, “You know, this genre is really kinda stupid if you think about it.” Point is, it’s a challenging genre to master, not only because a good imitation is difficult to do but also because although a good parody is hilarious on its own, some of the work’s meaning may be lost in translation for audiences who aren’t entirely familiar with the source material.
Examples: Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Gulliver’s Travels, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Onion
POETRY COLLECTION
Poetry—or poems—focus more on the expression of an image or emotion, rather than on telling a story. They’re not necessarily told via traditional paragraphs (i.e., prose), either. Basically, they take whatever form the author feels would be best to convey a concept, rather than a particular plot.
Examples: Nursery rhymes, beat poetry, idk waaaaaay too many out there.
ROMANCE
When Character A and Character B (and idk maybe Character C if they’re into that) like each other very much, they do something called fall in love. That’s the basis of the romance genre in a nutshell. Two (or more!) characters meet. Two (or more!) characters fall in love. Shenanigans happen. Please note that for the purposes of these archives, we are not talking about shipping, which is a romance in which all parties involved are canon characters. Those go in Shipping Fics, not these lists.
Examples: Romeo and Juliet, Jane Austen’s body of work, and—say what you want about it—Twilight.
SCIENCE FICTION (SCI-FI)
Shiny things FOR SCIENCE! Sci-fi is one of those genres that’s pretty easy to define—probably even easier than a lot of things—because while one could say “yes, this is a given” to a lot of genre names, science fiction is pretty literal about what it is. It’s a story that focuses a lot on science. As in, while there might be monsters or futuristic inventions or what-have-you, the main point is that it, in some way, is grounded in science … even if the science being used in the fic is more like pseudo-science. Long story short, there’s science somewhere in here.
Examples: Sci-fi covers an array of topics. For a sampler platter, try Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, We, The Time Traveler, Frankenstein, and even some good ol’ fashioned Godzilla.
THRILLER
Or in other words, suspense. This isn’t a subgenre of action or horror or even crime. It’s more like the lovechild of one or more of those ideas. Thriller focuses on hitting its readers’ adrenaline buttons. It makes you anticipate or dread what’s about to come next—but not necessarily in a way that makes you fear for your own safety (as in the case of horror). Cliffhangers, plot twists, and so forth are all the hallmarks of this genre. If your readers aren’t guessing at every turn, you’re probably doing it wrong.
Examples: Alfred Hitchcock is the king of this. Watch Rear Window, Vertigo, or Rebecca for perfect examples. Don’t like Hitchcock? The Count of Monte Cristo and Heart of Darkness are also fine examples. So is Silence of the Lambs and Psycho.
TRAGEDY
Rocks fall and everyone dies. Pretty much literally. On a serious note, tragedy (not to be confused with angst) is a genre in which bad things happen to occasionally good people. This is the genre where characters die, where characters get knocked out of their social status, and, in general, where characters end up really, really miserable. Additionally, whereas angst focuses on characters feeling miserable, tragedy focuses on the act of making characters miserable. Or dead. Mostly dead.
Examples: Every Shakespeare tragedy ever (including and especially Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet), Les Miserables, Puella Magi Madoka Magica
WESTERN
How can you have a Western Pokémon fic if the Wild West isn’t a thing in the Pokémon universe? Easy! Westerns don’t necessarily have to involve the Wild West; they simply need to involve a Wild West-like setting. At their hearts, Westerns are all about the freedom and lawlessness of the frontier. They’re typically period pieces focusing on the pioneers who struggle for survival in a desert or prairie setting, and as such, themes such as good versus evil (i.e., law versus lawlessness) or the boldness of discovery tend to be prevalent in a good Western. In short, fill your fic with plenty of cowboys, natives, and outlaws, and you’ve got yourself a Western.
Examples: The Lone Ranger, Once Upon a Time in the West, Firefly, Trigun
OTHER
Do none of these seem to fit your fic? Feel free to use this catch-all genre! This genre is for fics that include elements that aren't quite any of the above. Maybe they're kinda like an angst but not really, or maybe they're a House of Leaves-like un-novel that literally belongs to a genre that isn't even listed here. Whatever your reason for going with "other," just remember that the more descriptive and specific your tags and summary are (to help define what "other" means), the easier it will be to catch the attention of potential readers.
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