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Reasons for Journey Badge Quest Fanfics to be Abandoned

Greninjaman

Greninjaman

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I am quite guilty of this myself. Um... For what reasons are these types of stories abandoned, and what are some ways a new writer (or any writer of these types of stories) can prevent that?
 
I think with any sort of journey fic or campaign story having characters move smoothly across large amounts of areas without it seeming like a list of events is very daunting. It's also time consuming. With stories which require something like that it might be worth dedicating a certain amount of space in the fiction to certain aspects. It might make it slightly easier to manage.
 
Cavespider_17 said:
I think with any sort of journey fic or campaign story having characters move smoothly across large amounts of areas without it seeming like a list of events is very daunting. It's also time consuming. With stories which require something like that it might be worth dedicating a certain amount of space in the fiction to certain aspects. It might make it slightly easier to manage.
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The sheer size of the region can indeed be a problem. Of course, if you limit the areas to what's in the game, then it would be a bit easier.
Pace is also a problem. From what I have seen, new writers seem to rush through the story as fast as they can. Like, Chapter 1 they get their starter. 4 chapters later, they already are challenging the first gym.
 
Greninjaman said:
The sheer size of the region can indeed be a problem. Of course, if you limit the areas to what's in the game, then it would be a bit easier.
Pace is also a problem. From what I have seen, new writers seem to rush through the story as fast as they can. Like, Chapter 1 they get their starter. 4 chapters later, they already are challenging the first gym.
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I've certainly found while writing my own fiction, that there are some chapters where I don't really need to even mention a pokémon at all, and that feels awkward.

I suspect that new writers find it the same which may be why they rush through chapters, to get the "obligatory" pokémon battle in there. It is okay to not have a battle or a pokémon central to a chapter. Sometimes trainer time is important too.
 
Cavespider_17 said:
I've certainly found while writing my own fiction, that there are some chapters where I don't really need to even mention a pokémon at all, and that feels awkward.

I suspect that new writers find it the same which may be why they rush through chapters, to get the "obligatory" pokémon battle in there. It is okay to not have a battle or a pokémon central to a chapter. Sometimes trainer time is important too.
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You know, you are probably right. Not every chapter has to feature a Pokemon (wild or owned). Heck, there are episodes of the anime where the only one of the group's Pokemon to appear is Pikachu (plus any other following Pokemon [like Misty's Togepi]).
I do also agree that not every chapter has to have a battle in it.
 
LightningTopaz said:
Think about what your characters do besides Pokemon. Think about the culture and lore of your Pokeworld. Both of those can give the audience a chance to breathe after an intense arc.
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Honesty, I don’t think I ever considered that. I feel that a lot of writers would feel the same.

I can see why it’s hard: every pokemon media (the games, anime, manga, and so on) involve battles in someway, whether friendly, part of a competition, or fight to stop evil people.
 
LightningTopaz said:
Think about what your characters do besides Pokemon. Think about the culture and lore of your Pokeworld. Both of those can give the audience a chance to breathe after an intense arc.
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I absolutely agree with the need to place a gap between intense sections. Sometimes you just have to stop with action to give room to breathe. It is very easy to get lost in the moment though and just add more and more...
 
Cavespider_17 said:
I absolutely agree with the need to place a gap between intense sections. Sometimes you just have to stop with action to give room to breathe. It is very easy to get lost in the moment though and just add more and more...
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Another thing to keep in mind is handling the team. You don't want one Pokemon hogging all the spotlight. All the Pokemon should get an equal chance to shine in battle. Also, spacing out obtaining teammates and evolutions, so they don't happen all one after another.
 
@LightningTopaz
Another thing I thought of regarding teams: Not only do you want to make sure one Pokemon is not hogging all the spotlight when it comes to battle, but one Pokemon isn't getting all the character development and a full on character arc.
Like, if you have your character catch a seventh Pokemon, but you end up not using it, why did you have your character catch a seventh Pokemon?
 
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Also don’t forget the scaling issue.
Scaling power or “levels” can be super hard.
Personally I like to say the average level for an adult to have their Pokémon be is somewhere between 30-45. Because they have to work etc, they can’t spend every waking moment training. And most teens or younger somewhere between lvl 5-25

Thus most adults would have gotten between 4-6 badges, which is pretty reasonable and kids between 1-3. The I know how to battle if I have to badges.

I don’t know, I hope that logic makes sense to people or is helpful.
 
Cavespider_17 said:
Also don’t forget the scaling issue.
Scaling power or “levels” can be super hard.
Personally I like to say the average level for an adult to have their Pokémon be is somewhere between 30-45. Because they have to work etc, they can’t spend every waking moment training. And most teens or younger somewhere between lvl 5-25

Thus most adults would have gotten between 4-6 badges, which is pretty reasonable and kids between 1-3. The I know how to battle if I have to badges.

I don’t know, I hope that logic makes sense to people or is helpful.
Click to expand...
Of course, this would not be an issue if the teams were smaller. Like one or two Pokemon.
 
Greninjaman said:
Of course, this would not be an issue if the teams were smaller. Like one or two Pokemon.
Click to expand...
screams in having written a 24 actor battle

The more actors in a battle the much harder it is to manage. Not just in terms of the action, but the level spread. Not every Pokémon will be dead on level with the others. And not every Pokémon will listen to orders.

The stuff going on in the battle can be overwhelming if you are just starting out, but the stuff going in to the battle is the icing on the cake.
 
Cavespider_17 said:
screams in having written a 24 actor battle

The more actors in a battle the much harder it is to manage. Not just in terms of the action, but the level spread. Not every Pokémon will be dead on level with the others. And not every Pokémon will listen to orders.

The stuff going on in the battle can be overwhelming if you are just starting out, but the stuff going in to the battle is the icing on the cake.
Click to expand...
I think a good piece of advice for new writers is having small teams of, like, two or 3 Pokemon.
 
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