Thread: General Writing Questions

The Whismur line, maybe? They use sound-based attacks, like Uproar and Hyper Voice, and they got the ability, Soundproof.

EDIT: Nevermind, I forgot to see your first post about it.

Another question concerning "Pokemon: The Song of Jewels"--Brock and Wendy are about to brave their first dungeon for the first Gem of Song--the Tower of Runes. I have Brock with a bow with the Pokemon serving as magical support, so should I give Wendy a backup weapon as well in case neither team of Pokemon can help? (seriously leaning towards giving her a sword)

I say give her a sword. Since the guy having a weapon but the girl not seems pretty sexist.

Okay--I had an idea as to how she gets said weapon anyway

Does anyone have any tips for writing a good crack/comedic Pokemon fic, or knows of a place to find some good examples? I've had two ideas for two different one shots, and while it is obvious stuff has to be funny, I am a bit uncertain about how to write one :S

Well, my pokemon fic is meant to be a comedy. You can try reading it and see if makes the cut or not.

I will say that scientifically-speaking, laughter is sort of a form of shock. It's a reaction to something that's perceived as a little 'bad' or 'absurd' or 'crazy' or 'surprising' but not so bad that they don't still feel safe, and the comedian and audience are sort of 'in' on it together. So I think the keys to comedy are to be clever, to be unexpected, to skirt the boundaries of what is 'proper' or 'accepted', and to have interesting characters and situations. It's also important to alternate comedic elements with some seriousness (if every line is trying to be a joke, it's no longer surprising when you hear one. It's why old jokes are no longer funny, they lose that sense of surprise and absurdity, since they become accepted and expected with familiarity.) It's also important that at least some characters react appropriately, as in how a real person would react, in the situation where the absurd stuff is going on (if it's a world where the absurd is expected than again you lose the elements of surprise).

What I actually find most amusing myself are characters that do the craziest things with complete seriousness, not realizing that they are ridiculous. I personally find the contrast hilarious. Possibly even more hilarious is how more straight characters go insane trying to fit the crazy characters in a box they can understand. Or when the usually serious characters do something unexpectedly wacky and you're like, "Ha! I knew you were just as crazy as the rest of them!" I also love embarrassing the shit out of my characters. That's just me, though.

Looney Tunes are an inspiration goldmine if crazy slapstick comedy is what you're going for.

By the way, "Live from the Fireside" is approaching its hundredth tale, and I want to do something special--any ideas?

Thanks for the advice @NoirGrimoir, I will make sure to keep that in mind :) I think it is quite difficult to really portray good comedy in writing outside of the occasional joke and that, and I have only ever really had a few funny moments in my stories, nothing really continuously side splitting or anything...


And LT, why not try going for some sort of shock twist? In the 50th chapter of Eight Easy Steps I went for a twist that I used to shake things up and bring my character semi-full circle, and in many 100th episodes of dramas they centre around big incidents or deaths (ie Buffy). You could try going down that kind of path, like bringing a storyline to a close?

LT, maybe another character can do a "live from the fireside" story about Brock. What a twist~!

Yeah, like maybe welcome a new character to the lineup of costars

So I had this crazy idea just now. Would it be viable for me and my fic, Flames of a Revolutionary, to write side stories as one-shots, telling about events that happened in the background, while keeping the main story moving forward? Let me give you an example underneath the spoiler:

In the second chapter, it was revealed that Roger and Rose could no longer see each other anymore by Rose's father because of the event that happened in the first chapter. I could write from Rose's perspective after she was told she was no longer allowed to see her friend, Roger, what she was doing and how she was handling it.

If I were to do that, I might have to call it a 'verse', like the GalaticVerse, just to give you an example. How does RevolutionVerse sound like?

So what do you guys and girls think?

I think that would be very interesting actually, it'll help expand the universe in which your story takes place and it makes for great world building. Plus focusing on different characters will also allow you to become better in how you develop them, so I for one think that it's a really good idea.

Not sure where exactly to put this, but here seems appropriate!

Can anybody give advice on writing with emotion rather than writing straight-forward, if that makes sense? I've heard the expression used before countless times, all across the internet and real life too, but I've never really understood how to make writing emotional. And I'm not just talking about the story/plot -- I'm talking about the writing style. Maybe this was in an Academy article or something, but I definitely would like some pointers with this.

Thanks!

Basically, describe the person, not the emotion.

For example, if someone's sad, describe how their sadness affects them physically. Talk about how their eyes tear up, how their body hunches over and trembles, how their voice cracks, how they feel like the bottom has just been pulled out from under their world. If someone's depressed, talk about how worthless they feel, or how they slouch and slump because they feel like there's a constant weight pressing down on their body, or they talk in a blunt and monotonous tone because don't seem to care about anything because what's the point? If someone's happy, talk about how they feel like they're walking on clouds, describe the bounce in their step and the sparkle in their eye, their upright and confident posture, the higher than normal pitch in their voice.