Thread: Chat Fics?

Occasionally you'll find a fanfic which shows the characters as if they were chatting in a chat room. Some can be quite amusing at times, while some utterly suck. I was wondering what do people think about these types of fanfics? Plus what would you use for a screen name for characters like Ash, Misty, or Brock?

When I have an IM scene in my work I use PokeMaster01 (Ash), LadyCascade (Misty), and PewterSong (Brock)

I'd probably read it if it was funny. I can't see any real good storytelling being done solely through IM though. But like you said, it would either be hilarious or absolutely terrible.

I prefer my stories to be... well stories. Chat fics don't quite cut it for me.

How would you write one anyway?

One problem with IM, is it's hard to pick up emotion, whereas if it was face-to-face you could break it up a bit by describing the tone, or a particular expression they make, such as:

"What do you mean I can't take a camera there?" Ash asked confusedly. Misty rolled her eyes; her face going red in embarassment.
"Y-you just can't." she replied nervously. Ash however, noticed that the young girl was looking at the camera from the corner of her eye.
"Oh?" he asked suggestively. Misty noticed and quickly turned away.
"What about mine?" Brock asked cheerfully as he presented his state of the art camera. At this point, Misty replaced her embarassment with anger as she slapped Brock across the face.

Now, take that into IM, and you get:

[Ash]: What do you mean I can't take a camera there?
[Misty]: You just can't.
[Ash]: Oh?
[Brock]: What about mine?
[Misty]: *slaps*

You could try and mix the two up, by having it as a scene where one of them is based at the computer though, like:

[Ash]:" What do you mean I can't take a camera there?"
Upon reading this message, Misty rolled her eyes, but as the thought continued in her mind, she had to look away as she became rather flustered; her face turning into a deep red.
How do I answer something like that? she thought as her fingers twitched over the keyboard. Her forefinger hit the "Y" key, before she panicked, thinking perhaps that wasn't the right thing to say, so she quickly deleted it. However, she decided to continue her sentence.
"You just can't." she posted.

Ash was sat at his computer looking at the current conversation. He noticed Misty was taking a rather long time replying, and when the short message was submitted, it was fairly obvious that she didn't take all her time typing it out. A rather mischievous grin emerged on his face as he quickly typed:
[Ash]: "Oh?"

Brock, sat at his desk, was busy comparing Ash's video camera to his in his internet browser. He smirked triumphantly as he concluded that his was the greater model.
[Brock]: "What about mine?" he typed.

Misty, not understanding Brock's intention, slammed her hand against her desk in anger. She wanted to slap him in person, but had to opt for the next best thing:

[Misty]: "*Slaps*" she furiously typed.

Needless to say...I wouldn't like to read too many of those kind of scenes xD

Chat fics are not something I like or prefer to read, in all honesty. Even if they're good (I have the same problem with script-format fics, by the way).