Thank you! Wow, just thank you to all the people who comment and supported me during the release of this first little Nugget. I have been wanting to write something for a very long time now. I've been on RoyalRoad for about 5 years now. Some stories I still think back fondly on while others I still follow today. Pokemon seemed like an easy way to have some training wheels on. I have over a decades worth of experience in the Pokemon games and I know all the game mechanics inside out. This allowed me to be flexible but not fall into any obvious plot holes regarding story. The great thing about FanFic's is that the world is already built for you, and I just added my own flare and writing style.
This will just be a quick reflection on my writing. I think it's important to analyze and look back at what I did well and what I did poorly. This is a basic strategy for improving oneself.
I really liked the way I took Moves, Abilities and lore from Pokemon and turned them into a more “Real Life” feel. Fights feel much more dynamic. and connected less with number and more with reality.
The main structure of the arc went well. I had planned out most of it before even writing the first word. The main theme was a shift from survival to caring about the future. I wanted to show Lilith’s ambition to grow. and I did show that well. The first couple days were focused solely on survival until she branched out from there.
Buoy was meant as a catalyst for change and also happened to fit with my narrative of a Ranger coming to check out the deserted town, starting the search to finally end the arc. It had dual meaning in that the Incin Vs Houndoom came right after, showing her a possibility of what would come to pass. I still feel a little shaky about Stuart. He was meant as a temporary character to fall to the side, but he felt much more when putting words down. His connection with Melinda was planned, but I didn't really stop to consider the impact.
That leads me to Pansage. He was introduced first to add to the ending. He appears and we get to know him, and then his rivalry was built up to finish off with Croagunks death to finish the arc full circle. I had avoided anything too gruesome to add a jarring feeling. I wanted the moment to feel raw and emotional.
I think my Characters were all fleshed out well for the beginning of the story. Everyone has room to grow and my foundation is set. I do have other new characters planned out so get ready for that! I think my syntax is nothing world breaking, but definitely unique. My grammar overall felt read-able.
With that, I move onto some things I disliked. At some points, I purposely used wrong sentence structure to convey different feelings. An example is the run-on sentence of Lilith breathing in and out multiple times leading to a panic attack of sorts. I wanted it to feel wrong to read, but not in a grammatical way.
I definitely think I am not skilled enough to use correct sentence structure to convey the same feeling. Something I need to work on.
Pacing. I think pacing in one full read feels much different than reading chapter to chapter. The way I split everything up is something I’m going to have to figure out how to do better.
There are some minor things here and there, but I want to focus on Croagunk as my last point. This Death was always meant to happen. I had trouble with Onix vs Aggron for this reason. I think death can be a real strong motivator if used correctly. If there is no death in a story about fighting for survival, I would argue that would break the immersion.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Pokemon in the game has no death. So this point will probably generate controversy. If I was good enough, hopefully it will be about the decisions I made up to the poit where Croagunk dies vs defeating him and letting him live because Lilith was leaving the area.
This concludes my thoughts and goes into an important change I will be making.
1. I went back and made small changes to chapters 1-10, nothing story changing, mostly small edits and descriptors.
2. classification of levels will be changed, but nothing will affect the story.
This was my original plan
Levels to Stars
1-10 1
11-20 2
21-30 3
31-40 4
41-50 5
51-60 6
61-70 7
71-80 8
81-90 9
91-100 (10) Legendary
And this is what I will be changing it to.
Levels to Stars
1-10 0
11-20 1
21-30 2
31-40 3
41-50 4
51-60 5
61-70 6
71-80 7
81-90 8
91-100 (9) Legendary
It was just a little hard to keep everything in my head regarding where I want levels. This way, for example, anything regarding a level 34 Pokemon is a 3 Star vs what I originally had as a 4 Star.
Basically, any time I reference Stars, subtract 1 level. The overall power of Each Pokemon is left unchanged. The edit has already happened for the previous chapters.
Please let me know your thoughts on my creation thus far. A Review would be greatly appreciated, but I know there isn't much story to work with yet. Even just a comment would help me out greatly.