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EVERYONE: - Complete A Fourney Jic

Clare

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EDIT--I'm keeping the fic up, but the preface was borderline flaming. Just watch yourself.

--Blackjack

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Once upon a time, there was a boy named David who quite fancied himself as a Pokemon fanfic author. Unfortunately, the only fics he knew how to write were the same old rehashes of the Pokemon journey theme.

One day, David sat down at his computer and, in about half-an-hour, dashed off the following:

One day a trainer called Tom was going to get his first Pokemon. He had been looking forward to this day for weeks, but he'd overslept and, by the time he got to Professor Thorne's lab in Yellow Town, all the Pokemon were gone except one. It was a . . .

David paused at this point to flip through his game guide for ideas. Then, he continued:

. . . Sandshrew. But Tom thought it was a start at least. So he left Yellow town and set off on the road to Purple City. Along the way, he caught lots of Pokemon. He caught a Pikachu, a Weedle, an Eevee, a male Nidoran, a Sentret, a Teddiursa, an Octillery, an Elekid and so on. He also had battles with lots of trainers and beat them all.

Finally, Tom reached Purple City and went to challenge the Gym Leader. Her name was Cassie and she had a Marrill and a Seadra.

Sandshrew beat Cassie's Pokemon easily, although Tom did have to use a potion once. Then, Sandshrew evolved into Sandslash and Cassie gave Tom a Pretty Badge.

Tom moved on to Brown City, where he would challenge the next Gym Leader. But he hadn't gone far before . . .


David knew exactly what was going to come next; his fics never varied:

. . . two Team Rockets members appeared and chanted their motto.

"Prepare for trouble!" said the female.

"Make it double!" added the male

"To protect the world from devastation."

"To unite all peoples within our nation."

"To denounce the evils of truth and love."

"To extend our reach to the stars above."

"Kelly!"

"Ned!"

"Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"


David paused at this point to read what he had written so far. He liked it - Kelly and Ned (named after a famous Australian outlaw) sounded cool and an encounter with Team Rocket was the perfect cliffhanger. He got on the Pokemon fanfic site he had found not long ago, and whose rules he hadn't had time to read yet, and signed in. His screen-name typified his ego - Mr Talented!!!!

David uploaded the story he had just been working on and sat back to wait for the accolades to flood in.

-------------------------------

When David next got on the site, he saw that his story - which he'd titled "Tom And His Pokemon Journey" - had received fifteen replies. Scarcely able to contain his excitement, he clicked on the link to his reviews.

Then, his face fell; instead of praise, all he had received was criticism and comments which seemed to say to him, "Ha! I can write a story and you can't!"

I suggest you stop writing this and try something more original.

advised Electric Soldier Porygon

Too short - and the less said about the plot, the better.

was Master of Fire's contribution.

I don't think Tom's Sandshrew would have evolved so quickly and it would have been weak against Marill and Seadra

commented Magideen

Work on adding a bit more detail.

suggested Sensational Sister Sophie

-----------------------------------

David didn't bother to read all his reviews, but he read enough to know that NO-ONE liked his story. And, after all the hard work he'd put in.

He decided to teach the offending authors a lesson and sent all of them the following "review"

Hi! It's Mr Talented!!!! here to say . . . your story sucks and so do you! You don't run this site so you can't tell me what to write and what not to write! I'm gonna report you for harrassment and I think you are a STUPID PIECE OF CRAP! So screw you! And screw your crummy story! They don't call me Mr Talented!!!! for nothing you know!

-------------------------------

In another city, a girl named Katie was online. She was a mod at the site David had posted his "story" on - her screen-name was Pidgeot - and, if there was one thing she couldn't stand, it was arrogant jerks who thought they were above the rules of the site.

She set to work painstakingly deleting the rant David had sent the people who had criticised him, before going to "Tom And His Pokemon Journey" and clicking on the Comments button. In clear concise language, she began to make it clear exactly how stories like David's were regarded.

I agree with all the above comments and also wish to point out that there is a rule here which says any story less than three printed pages long is Spam. Therefore, I strongly urge you not to post any more chapters and to try something a little more original next time.

-------------------------------

Needless to say, David took it as a personal attack on his writing. "I'll show you, Pidgeot!" he muttered as he found the story she was currently working on - a horror story called "The Tale Of Gengar" - and sent her the following reply:

YOU'RE MEAN AND HORRID AND I HATE YOU! IF I WAS A MOD I WOULDN'T GO ROUND TELLING PEOPLE OFF JUST COS I DIDN'T LIKE THEIR STORY! AND I'LL CONTINUE MINE WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT! SO SHOVE OFF!

True to his word, he got straight on the site's New Topic page and began to type the second chapter of his "story":

Tom easily beat Ned and Kelly, but they said they'd be back. They wanted to steal his Sandslash.

But Tom made a friend. He met a girl called Anne who was also on a Pokemon journey and they decided to travel together. Anne's Pokemon were Dratini, Corsola and Ivysaur and she was very pretty.

They reached Brown City and Tom went to fight the Gym Leader. Anne didn't because she already had this Gym Leader's Badge. The Brown City Gym Leader was called Mike and he had a Fearow.

"Sandslash, Sand Attack!" yelled Tom.

This Attack lowered Fearow's accuracy by one point.

"Fearow, Drill Peck!" yelled Mike.

It was a critical hit, but Tom knew exactly what to do. He quickly gave Sandslash a potion and Sandslash was soon ready to continue the battle.


David decided to leave it there for today. He clicked the Send button and the chapter swiftly entered the realms of cyberspace.

---------------------------------

Needless to say, this chapter also got bashed. Katie/Pidgeot left a long reply, in which she let David know how angry she was that he had continued writing a journey fic when he knew she'd told him not to.

Why didn't you take my advice and try a different story? This is totally unoriginal, even shorter than the previous chapter and lacks any kind of detail. What's more, you posted this even though I'd clearly told you I didn't want the story in question to continue.

Is it just me, or are you trying to push it as far as you can? Because, if you continue with this story and keep flaming people who are only trying to steer you away from such cliched plotlines, I will recommend you for a ban.

Just look around this board and you'll see which kind of stories people like. And is ANY of them a journey fic? No!

In future, I suggest you think before starting a story. Don't just dash them off and steer clear of plots which have been used several times before.

Annoyed by know-it-alls who won't listen to advice
Pidgeot


-------------------------------------

But David stubbornly began to write the third chapter, trying to convince himself that all the flak he'd received was just teething troubles and it would be all right once the story really got going. However, he hadn't banked on developing a severe case of writer's block.

Tom and Anne . . .

David stared at his computer screen, struggling to come up with ideas for the next stage of Tom and Anne's Pokemon journey. All of a sudden, he felt himself shrink as he was mysteriously sucked into another dimension via the computer screen . . .

-------------------------------------

David found himself in a barren grey landscape. Two children, a boy and a girl, stood nearby - or at least David assumed they were children because all he could see of them was their shadows.

"Hi," he said, feeling he'd better at least try to strike up a conversation with them and wondering if they'd been sucked into their computers as well. "Who are you guys?"

"I'm Tom," said the boy.

"And I'm Anne," added the girl.

"My name's David," David told them.

"We KNOW - you created us, remember?" retorted Anne.

"But why can't I see what you look like?"

Anne stood with her hands on her hips. "Because we're imaginary characters and we only take on an appearence when someone creates us. But YOU couldn't be bothered to say what we look like!"

David thought for a moment, struggling to come up with a description for his two characters on the spot. "OK," he said at last. "Tom, you've got red hair and you're wearing a black t-shirt and navy blue trousers. Anne, you've got blonde pigtails and you're wearing a red dress. And we're in a . . . forest."

As if by magic, Tom and Anne began to materialise, taking on the appearences David had invented for him. Tom emerged with a shock of red hair, dressed in a black t-shirt with a skull logo on the front and navy blue trousers. Anne wore a red summer dress and had matching ribbons in her hair.

"What now?" asked David when his two characters had materialised fully and he found himself standing in a shady forest complete with a Pidgey perched in a nearby tree.

"How should I know?" retorted Tom. "We're just characters, remember? You're supposed to tell US what to do!"

"But - but I don't know what's gonna happen next!" David said desperately.

"That's your problem!" said Anne, speaking with an air of contempt. "You should have thought before starting to write such a lame story. Come on, Tom - we're out of here! Let's go find an author who'll treat us with a bit more respect."

"No! Wait!" David yelled. But it was too late - Tom and Anne were out of earshot and he was stranded in his own shoddily written fanfic.

------------------------------------

Moral: Don't just dash off stories without thinking them through and don't skimp on describing your characters and locations. Most importantly, learn the difference between constructive criticism and a flame.
 
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*applauds wildly, jumping to his feet to start the standing ovation*

I think more spelling errors would have been appropriate, though. :-D


~Rocky :019: Cliffs
 
:-( Hmmm...Is some of this aimed at me? It seems so, although I know I do more description than that. My only concern is if my story seems overdone. I definitely wouldn't feel good if I've been trashed simply because my story isn't original. I really tried to make it original, really I did. I haven't seen a single AG ep, I only have the game cart to work from. I did, however, read a few ep synopses, and I copied their take on Roxanne, and in a later chapter, I merely mention that Brawly surfs. In the chapters I just finished, I even did Wattson. No one has done that yet to my knowledge. There is no ep of that yet, not even in Japan. I know this was meant to be aimed at Red, but I can't help but think it's bashing ppl like me with their trainer fics, even if they're well written.
 
Jukain, calm down. She's not bashing people with journey fics, she's bashing people with the typical fic of "Boy wakes up late, gets Pokémon from Professor (insert name of plant or tree here), and goes off to collect badges in the (name of league) League. Oh, and Team Rocket chases him."


~Rocky :020: Cliffs
 
Ok, just making sure.:-D Point well made. I've never seen any fics like that. Good thing I haven't. *salutes the authors that made me what I am*
 
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Jukain, don't be like me. I was always paranoid. Maybe I still am, but I don't let everyone else know that. ^_~

*worships Clare* Now do one where a talented person makes an RPG, and David makes a contribution with zero effort.
 
Heehee! That's classic! However...I'm worried about if it could be considered a flame against Red...

Oh, and there's one little detail...the length of stories. The rules *say* it has to be a page long, but...there's been fics that have gotten around that.
 
Originally posted by Blackjack Gabbiani
Heehee! That's classic! However...I'm worried about if it could be considered a flame against Red...

I enjoyed this, and I thought it was pretty funny. I'm not a big fan of Journey fics, and the predictability/lack of effort that sometimes is found in them. And you did a good job of showing the results of where that could land an author of such a story. ^_^

However, I agree with BJG. I don't think mentioning Red's name at the top was appropriate. It seemed like you were taunting him. Perhaps it's best if you delete that from the post.
 
*builds a shrine to the Fourney Jic and sacrifices a Pepsi to it*

I'm one of those people who got sick of the cliche journey fics quite early. It takes a big twist or original hit to the fic to get me interested. And high quality writing, which is unfortunately very difficult to find in the world of pokemon fictions. No wonder I don't read them anymore. X_x
 
Heh. It's funny, very funny, in how damn true it is. Poor Tom and Anne...Mr. Talented, how damned ironic. Except you forgot the part where someone over-describes a character.
 
XD!!! I was JUST thinking of this story of yours (I read it yesterday at your site, heh. I LOVE your stories!) when I saw the "red" person in the Art Lounge.. @_@; meh
 
You also forgot the part where the kid create five different accounts just to flame up the writers who criticized him, pretending they're his "friends" and "fans".
 
O.o A very creative idea to teach a few people that making fanfictions will enslave them hours of insomnia trying to grab that one piece of a creative idea. Bravo! I admire your stye and to as of this, people should learn more about writing stories rather than rushing of to make a fanfiction.
 
And flygon's not lying! I just stayed up until 3 AM last night trying to write! >_<


And even if this is a flame, it is one of the best constructed flames I have ever seen and should be considered an exception.


~Rocky :026: Cliffs
 
Please note: The thread is from 23 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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