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Interesting things that happen on the road

Personally, I find the best way of thinking when planning journey stories is to assume that the badge collecting is the filler. It becomes easier to plot mini-arcs or overarching arcs that these few chapters interject into, and the overall story becomes better pieced together. A recent example I've read is Unpredictable by AetherX, which does that so wonderfully that the trip to Mt. Moon becomes integral to the plot.

The alternative of having the main character collecting badges with mini-adventures in between them, more often than not, leaves the story broken up. These mini-adventures can play into the character's development, but so can the first option, and personally, I find it better for the overall story, because journey stories don't just deal with being able to collect badges, but the classical formula of growing up as a person, and taking on different responsibilities.
 
When I was still writing Generation 2021, I made the sideplots/things that happen on the road the most important thing (As Kyuuketsuki said, the badges were the filler, and even then they didn't actually get any; Rachel got one, but it was from Lavender Town). Usually it was in the form of people discussing things, or some form of contest, or whatnot. Maybe they went and explored an attraction or two when they got to a city or important landmark, and got into troubles/escapades there.

A list of the things I can recall happening (in order):
  • They get into a tournament for beginners in Viridian Forest.
  • They get into a costume contest in Pewter City.
  • They spend a whole sub-arc on Mt. Moon, climbing over it instead of going through the tunnels.
  • They go to Saffron City and meet Diabla (the ) there. They also blow up the bottom half of the Silph Co. Building.
  • They go to Celadon and both go on a shopping spree and play at the Game Corner.
  • They get bikes and go down to Vermilion City, where the Gym Leader recruits them to race a boat.
  • They have an aerial battle, and get lost for two months in a forest because of it.

Things I had planned for later included:
  • They go south from Fuchsia City, and get lost in the Seafoam Islands. Articuno takes pity on the stranded travellers, and helps them through the cave (although it takes a month to get them back out because Articuno was lonely in the cave and wanted some companions).
  • They meet the costume people back at Cinnabar Island, and stay with them for a while. (Although that counts as a people encounter, the "staying with them for a while" probably wouldn't.)
  • They return to Pallet Town (predictable!) and set out to defeat Diabla once and for all, which is still not about badges. :p
 
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I think Kyuuketsuki has a good idea, actually. It sounds a lot like how I treat the dungeons in my Zelda fic as fillers rather than continuation of the plot. The plot occurs mostly outside of them instead. Same with the battles in my Fire Emblem fic, though unlike my Zelda dungeons, they're not full chapters in themselves, only part of each chapter.

I'll probably do something like this yet again when it comes time for me to start Pokemon and My Little Pony: Keldeo's Equestrian Quest. Any time Keldeo and the ponies get into some sort of battle against an enemy, it'll be a filler.

But I would be careful with how many fillers I include in the entire story. In my FE fic, there are also filler scenes every once in awhile that develop the characters and provide a bit more insight to the plot. While character development and all is great, you don't want to stall too long before continuing the plot or your readers might get bored. I usually limit how long each of these scenes are and place them accordingly so there isn't too much waiting for the plot to continue.

And in the case of my Zelda fic, the dungeons are really the only fillers. I don't need a bunch of filler scenes for characters because it doesn't have nearly as many to focus on as my FE fic, not to mention that each dungeon is a full chapter. I hardly need to stall anymore than that. xP
 
Kelleo said:
In my FE fic, there are also filler scenes every once in awhile that develop the characters and provide a bit more insight to the plot. While character development and all is great, you don't want to stall too long before continuing the plot or your readers might get bored.
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This might just be differing definitions of fillers, but if it provides character development, then it's not filler, in my opinion. Same with plot information.

But what I take issue with is the fact that plot and character development don't get as much importance as each other in some stories. This is in no way a personal attack against you, Kelleo, and I hope it doesn't come across as such. In my opinion, character development and the small changes in personality can affect the plot, and whatever the plot is, it will affect the characters and their development. These two things should go hand in hand, and I object to the idea that the plot is inherently more interesting than the characters and their progression.

If you switch out the plot of any given story, chances are the character progress will not make much sense, and the same can be said for the reverse.
 
Oh, I didn't say that I felt plot was more important than character development. That's why I said you don't want to spend too much time on one and not enough on the other, basically. I agree with what you're saying, really.
 
I keep trying to think of things to spice up life on the road, but I keep coming up with generic plots like bandit attacks and encounters with other mentally insane people or random disasters that don't really fit the scope of my stories.

One idea I've toyed with is an encounter with a boy/girl scout kinda group that one of the characters was in in their youth, and what kind of crazy mix-ups that might throw into the story. Not sure if I like it, though...
 
My fic takes place in Unova and I have my main character when on the Routes, go into the woods with her Pokemon to encounter wild Pokemon to provide training for them and find adventure wherever it may be. Sometimes she has to help save her Pokemon and sometimes vice versa due to a wild Pokemon that poses a real threat to them (like Pokemon Special). I usually write small adventures akin to that of an episodic TV show since writing story arcs for mere Routes are an issue for a lazy bastard like me. Calling it filler is debatable since the first Gym episode shows the Pokemon and the Trainer dealing with their personal flaws displayed up to then.
 
Well, a lot of the non-league things I have happening in my fic revolve mostly around interacting with trainers they meet (both gym leaders and other journeying trainers as well as rivals and friends), catching and bonding with their pokemon, visiting the sights (national park, burnt tower, unown ruins, etc.) and getting into prickly situations (getting lost, losing something, blundering into confrontations, having arguments, etc). I see things in a similar light as Zekurom. For me, the league badges are more the excuse to have everyone journeying, rather than the main goal. My main characters make that pretty clear even from the beginning, I think. They aren't interested in being league champions or pokemon masters, or even testing themselves like most journey protagonists are. They are on personal journeys, learning more about themselves, about each other, and about pokemon and just having fun.
 
Well back when I was writing my first fic Pokemon A New Generation: New Beginnings I did rely on a lot of events that seemed like filler, something I liked to do was move the plot along with these small filler events, like in one chapter the characters participated in a Pokemon Soccer tournament and they obtained at egg at the end, the Pokemon that came out of said egg proceeded to become an integral part of the group. Other events I particularly liked was using other small moments and chapters to introduce important characters or antagonists
 
I had a story idea planned out once, but I never finished it. Instead of having the Gym Badges be a filler, they were, as NoirGrimoir stated, an excuse to journey. But they only started the journey. Eventually, the protagonist focused less on the Gym Badges (eventually deciding to stop striving for them), and more on defeating the antagonist, who was using the world's legendaries to shape the world the way they wanted. In the end, the protagonist got too much power, and Uxie had to give her amnesia to prevent her from abusing it.

Anyway, my story purposely strayed from the initial goal set in the beginning parts, moving on to a new goal as the story progressed.
 
LightningTopaz said:
But suppose you're not going for badges/ribbons, and therefore you don't need to train Pokemon?
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Actually, just the act of venturing outside of their hometown for any reason would give the protagonist reason to raise some Pokemon. At least, if you're still going with the "wild Pokemon jump out of the tall grass and you need your own Pokemon for protection" bit of game canon.

The further you get from home, the more you need to diversify your team, due to more unusual Pokemon cropping up.
 
honostly, a good obsticle, or detailed training, and by obstacle i mean a physical hardship, like climbing a mountain or something. It can give readers a better idea about the the protagonists personality
 
Those are good ideas, but another thought just came to me--since the Pokemon anime builds encounters on the road around characters of the day (or NPCs), you could design a few COTDs and then build your encounters around them.
 
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