#they trimmed a lot of plot and characters etc to make it more streamlined

[kickassfu]

i've now watched 3 episodes of the live action one piece show and.....

i'm not a fan?

i just feel like reading the manga instead of watching it????

maybe i'd like it if i hadn't read the manga. but i just keep comparing it and it falls so short to what i expect from it.

but everyone loves it and i wanna love it too, which is why i'm still trying to watch it. because it's not a bad adaptation like most adaptations are.

BUT I JUST WANTED MORE FROM IT

[sholiofic]

Helloo I love your fics a crap ton and was inspired to start writing again after a couple years bcs of your fics and how great they were. The one I’m working on at the moment is a bit of a monster in terms of length and complexity but I would reAlly prefer if it wasn’t. I find that I get bogged down by detail a lot and have trouble streamlining the plot. Do you have any tips for resolving main plots/conflicts and sort of trimming the fat, so to speak? Once again, excellent fics, keep up the good work, thank so much

Hello! I'm so delighted and flattered that my fics inspired you to write. I hope you keep it up!! <3333

Honestly, I don't know if I'm the best person to ask for helpful advice because I have this problem too. 😂 But here are some things that are helpful for me:

Subplots can always come out and be their own fics. So can individual events (like, say, if you have a whole digression with someone getting a fever right after they broke their leg, you could just take out the fever and let it be its own fever-fic so it can grow and expand and not be taking over this one where it doesn't really fit). Sometimes when I'm really struggling with a fic that feels floppy and bloated, or like the different subplots are disconnected from each other, it's actually that it needs to have some parts of it taken out and made into their own story or incorporated into other ideas that I have. This is also psychologically easier than simply cutting them, because if you feel that it's this fic or the delete key, then you don't want to cut out things you genuinely like - but if you're only cutting them to put them somewhere else, it's easier.

Aftermath can also be its own fic. One thing I struggle with often is that simple ideas just get epic at the end, but actually, as long as the main plot is tied up, you can just cut it off at some kind of punchy ending, take all those bits of aftermath and dump them into a fic where the aftermath is the entire story.

It's also helpful to go back and look at why you wanted to write this fic in the first place. If it's a specific emotionally punchy scene, an image, a casefic idea, etc - then this can help you see where you might have gone off track and started writing a story that isn't really the story you wanted to tell. Then you can cut out the parts that aren't getting you to the part you really wanted to write (perhaps saving them for something else in the future).

You don't have to know the end when you start (although it helps, but tbh I often don't), buuuut if you are starting to flounder, that's a good time to stop and decide what the ending is going to be, and then start gearing the rest of it towards that ending. If, say, you've decided now that you've thought about it that this is all headed toward a dramatic confrontation at the Eiffel Tower, and they've gone off on a side trip to Mozambique, can you just have the Mozambique thing happen in Paris so they're already where they need to be and you don't need to spend extra time getting them there?

Oh! That reminds me of a useful trick, which is making sure (within reason) that you don't have characters do the same thing twice when they only need to do it once. Going to and from locations is a particular source of dragging down your plot. Basically - you have a character do a thing at their apartment, and then they have to go somewhere else for more Plot Stuff to happen, but then they need to pack for their upcoming trip (or deal with a Plot Thing that's at the apartment, or whatever), so you realize they have to go back to their apartment and do that. You can actually cut a *lot* of plot deadweight by minimizing scene changes, within reason, of course, but it feels tighter and more streamlined if you have the character do everything they need to do, or have everything happen to them that needs to happen, while they're already in the location, rather than going back to it later. This also applies to similar scenes of other types - like, if you're going to have two knife fights, can you combine them into just one knife fight that does everything the two separate scenes needed to do?

I hope you come back and see this, anon, and I also hope it helps! Good luck with your writing. :)

[eliaspsuedo]

Making Pokemon Adventures an Anime

“Pokemon Adventures needs an anime” is definitely a phrase you’ve heard before if you’ve been to any discussion on PokeSpe. It definitely deserves more attention, that’s for sure, and an anime definitely brings so many eyes to it. Just look at all the manga series that exploded in popularity once an anime got made of it!

On the other hand, I can see why The Pokemon Company wouldn’t really make one for a number of reasons.

The Pokemon Anime is still very popular and profitable, so another Pokemon anime on TV would just be cannibalizing their returns and skew the audience. Not to mention eat up resources like animators or budgets.

Upcoming products like Pokemon Masters are much higher priority to make a promotional anime out of, rather than something that’s promoting out-of-date things, like how cool Steel-types, Zorua, etc. was.

A number of prominent Pokemon and even moves are embargoed from appearing in other media besides the games. Notably Kadabra, Earthquake-like moves, and especially Porygon. Maybe you can get around Sabrina’s Kadabra by just making it an Alakazam, but how about Blue and Gladion’s Porygon?

This a bit more speculative, but I imagine there has to be some form of royalties for the writer and artists for using their versions of the characters, not just the OC’s, but the specific versions of the dexholders found in the manga.

And many more reasons why it probably won’t get a full length TV anime any time soon.

But what if it did get an anime? What would be the format? How would they condense a 50+ volume series, with multiple main characters and interconnecting plot points, and all to boost sales and show what makes Pokemon Adventures a great piece of the Pokemon franchise, into an anime?

The most realistic option: A 2-3 minute PV promoting an upcoming arc like SwSh, or better, the whole series for an omnibus rerelease. A basic sizzle reel of various scenes, with a narrator for minimal voice work, is what’ll mostly be.

The ideal option: A promotional anthology web series in the vein of Pokemon Generations.

Now this definitely has been suggested before, but I want to get into the specifics. Here’s how I imagine it:

One 10-12 minute episode will be devoted to a specific character or, for the remakes, one arc (Episode Red, Episode Diamond, Episode HGSS, etc.), covering roughly 2-3 rounds or chapters. This is so that there will be enough material to see who this character is, the basic plot of their arc, and the basic plot of this particular generation. It’s short, straight-to the point, and can easily sell Pokemon Adventures. Let’s not forget, it has to be an inviting and exciting episode for newcomers!

Now there has to be a lot of changes to fit the runtime, so certain scenes and dialogue has to be cut or skimmed. Some original parts has to be put in to for the episode to flow better. Plus, I imagine getting into the exciting Pokemon battles will be more appealing than earlier chapters, which are very exposition heavy. So cold opens or going from the introduction scene in the opening chapter to an “In Medias Res” battle is some later chapter, is one of the many tricks to keep the flow going.

The reason why I say 10-12 minutes is because of the amount of episodes it will take to cover all the Dexholders and the remakes alone! At least 21 Dex Holders + 3 remake arcs. The amount of resources it’ll take would be pretty large, even with a reduced runtime, and I don’t think TPC would shell that much cash. Even then, most promotional anime series clock in at around 6-8 mins, not enough time to properly show off a character or a cool battle. So if it can go above the usual time, 10-12 minutes is what I think it could be stretched too, while keeping the costs to make it low. I also want to see an episode devoted to the evil teams or villains, as that too is one of PokeSpe strengths. It’ll bump up the episode count for sure, unless the series is broken up into chunks by generation and released months apart.

But which chapters? Well here’s a few examples on how I see it being adapted:

A basic adaptation with bits and pieces of later chapters.

Episode Red: Round 1 & 2 and maybe a bit of Round 3 or 4.

The introduction chapter starts things off, of course! The basic structure of the two chapters can remain the same. A few bits of dialogue can be trimmed, most notably Red explaining what Pokemon are, and some scenes can be altered, like Blue being seen with a Pokedex when fighting Mew, to streamline the story. For the ending bit, Prof. Oak’s narration at the end of round 3 while Red and Blue argue, establishing their rivalry, is a good way to cap it off. Alternatively, the part in Round 4 where Red is trying to befriend Pikachu and Blue challenging him that he’ll get the boulder badge first, is also a good cap to the episode.

A two-parter with original material.

Episode Gold: Round 91-95

We can better start out with Gold playing billiards, and listening to the radio, and getting Elm’s bag. The Hoothoot part can be offscreen, with a quick shot of Team Rocket stealing his bag. During the end of his and Silver’s battle, where he gets knocked out by Elekid, we save Silvers part for his episode. Gold wakes up, gives his account to the Police, and goes after Silver. Ending Prof. Oak appearing and giving him the “What are Pokemon to you?” Question.

Episode Silver: Round 94, 95, a bit of original material.

Starting off when Gold was knocked out, we get Silvers battle with Team Rocket. A bit more original scenes may be needed after Silver makes his escape and maybe talks to Green. Actually seeing Prof. Oaks account of how he stole the Pokedex can also be included. Ending with Gold getting the Pokedex after giving Prof. Oak a good answer, cutting out the part where he saves Ratata for time.

Opening scene then cut to an “In Medias Res” Battle

Episode Emerald: Round 303-304, 306-307 Emerald calming down Sudowood will open things up. After his declaration of conquering the Battle Frontier, the title card appears, and we move to Emerald moving up the Battle Tower, showing off his skills and strategy. A “How did we get here?” Narration from Todd can quickly explain the time skip. The episode ends with the discussion over Sceptile, brief flashes of Wally, optional.

And that’s just a few examples I can show! I actually did write a list of what rounds are suitable for this sort of adaptation, but I think a few will do.

If there’s one thing PokeSpe definitely needs, it’s more promotion. As part of the marketing machine that is the Pokemon franchise, it’s actually surprising how much less love this branch gets is in comparison. I think it has to do with a lot of factors, Viz not printing the series past Vol 7 for the longest time, Not wanting to overshadow any of the other manga series, Being over 50+ volumes long, etc. Recently, it’s been getting a bigger push both in Japan and the US, so things are looking up. 

At the end of the day, it’s all about seeing the world you love and thought you knew, come to life in new and different ways. Pokemon Adventures has the love and spirit through and through, and it’s better shared with familiar and newer faces.

It’s like when Red got his Pokedex, he thought he knew all there is about the Pokemon world, and revealing that maybe he didn’t quite knew everything, showed him there’s a whole world out there to explore. One filled with mystery, danger, and friendship.

Plus, showing that the Arbok lived might finally shut most people up.

[phynali]

4,5,6?

AHHHHHH I JUST REFRESHED MY PAGE AND LOST MY LONG AND GLORIOUS ANSWER WHEN I WAS ONE LINE SHY OF FINISHING IT. Q.Q

(seriously I’m so sad but I will re-type it)

4. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?

... so many. too many. always too many.

one fic i’m working on behind the scenes is a pretty violent story, actually. it involves a villain who can control people with just her voice (i.e., the power of suggestion, think Kilgrave from Jessica Jones). that power is devastating and she gives our heroes absolutely hell. she’s cruel and in many ways a bit childish, doing things for the hell of it because she’s never really had much in the way of consequences in her life. basically, she’s a spoiled brat and the picture of entitlement. 

in many ways, i’m guessing my subconscious came up with her as a commentary on... something. fandom, in some ways, and fan creators, like a serious self-dig. i’ve decided not to explore her motives much though and not bother with the sob-backstory, but rather focus on the heroes overcoming her through teamwork (it takes some serious teamwork from a lot of different people). we’ll see if i get around to finishing the story, because it is pretty dark in places.

another narrative i’ve been daydreaming up in the past week or so is an original story loosely based on coldflash. not surprisingly, it involves a hero (college-aged, around 21) and a villain (about 7-10 years older than that?). the hero’s had powers since he was about 16 but only joined the hero game within the past year, and the villain specializes in taking out powered people. as you can imagine, he’s targeting the “new player” in his city, going after our hero.

the catch? 

the hero and villain know each other outside of their alter-egos, they just don’t know it. the villain was bffs with the hero’s older brother, who died about 10 years back (maybe 5-7 years back idk), and probably died specifically saving the villain. the villain promised him he’d look after his younger brother (the hero) though they don’t have much contact, really, not since the funeral. but the villain checks in once a year or so and helps pay the hero’s tuition and knows his mother etc.

of course, when the hero discovers that the villain is him - is this person he kind of idolized and feels indebted to and kind of crushes on, he’s left reeling, and pulling away, and trying to refuse his tuition help etc. he’s left with crushing questions about his brother and what kind of person he actually was. 

but the scene i’ve been most focused on in my head is when the villain gets a crew and manages to actually take down the hero and dampens his powers and decides that before killing him, he wants to see his face, only to discover it’s the person he’s promised to protect (like, as a life-debt). of course, that throws a wrench in things too.

the themes in my head are... well the story is definitely pretty violent, and there’s some negotiating of what it means to be a hero, but there’s also a lot of... how we romanticize our ghosts, and idealize our heroes (the older brother), and negotiating that, and how we come to terms with our past and our actions (the villain’s) and our own failures and failings.

idk, it’s captivating me, even though it’s an original idea i figured i’d share :)

5. Share one of your strengths.

characterization, most likely.

because i write tv-based fic mostly, i work hard to keep characters consistent with their actions as we know them from the canon (while still giving myself space to explore more), and to keep their dialogue consistent with how they sound on the tv. i do some linguistic analysis on most characters to try to capture their unique ‘voice’ when i can.

one thing i also do is try to let the characters guide the narrative more than forcing their choices and actions to conform to my plot. i’ll re-imagine and sometimes even re-write the same scene from the point of view of more than one character in it to make sure the character really would say what i have them saying, or do what i have them doing. more than once i’ve re-written the same scene from a different character’s pov only to have their dialogue and even actions change. getting in their heads helps me keep their characterization unique to them and also consistent. it might not perfectly match them on screen but it does stay consistent within the narrative i build?

6. Share one of your weaknesses.

wordiness and tangents.

not only am i painfully verbose, but my brain goes in a thousand directions at once. so i tend to write really long stories (unnecessarily so, sometimes) but i also introduce subplots on subplots, and introduce tangents as threads that just get cut rather than being explored in depth. sometimes this works in my favour if i’m lucky because a random thread can come back later as a plot point (or as a nice red-herring!), but more often i add a bunch of stuff because i’m hedging my bets as i don’t have everything figured out yet, and some of it just turns out pointless and would be better off trimmed from the final narrative. 

this happens in part because i work from relatively loose outlines (to give my characters room to change the narrative) and because i post WIPs as i go, rather than waiting till the end or until i have time to revise. i’m working on streamlining a bit, but it’s a work in progress ^^;

[a-classic-fool]

1, 19 or 21 (your choice), 51 for y si pierdes mis huellas, and 54?

1. Favorite place to write: Coffee shops!! There are two near my apartment that I go to a lot and love (and of course I still miss the obvious college fave). I like that they’re private and quiet (in that no one is talking to you and you can listen to music with headphones) but I’m out and about and I’m not isolated or stewing in my own brain. Plus coffee and pastries are life. I do also like writing in my apartment late at night with a whiskey or a beer in my pajamas. Usually at my desk but sometimes curled up like a gremlin on the couch.21. Post the last sentence you wrote in one of your WIPs: I don’t write linearly so nothing I’m working on has a first sentence, per se. So here is the last sentence I wrote for the fic I was telling you about yesterday. It’s not a very interesting line, I’m afraid. : P It’s something John learned early, those first nights they shared a bed, but it’s not something he’s ever gotten used to. 51. Describe the aesthetic of your story in five sentences or words: Literary (because old British man in my head), contemplative, nostalgic, conflicted. And I can’t find the word for this, but that feeling you get when you’re driving down a street you drove down a lot when you were growing up and realizing it’s changed and that the home you've come back to isn’t the home you expected.54. Any writing advice you want to share? Tell your brain to shut up for a little while. If I self-censor or self-edit while I’m actually I writing, I just write five words and delete them and write five more over and over for hours and it’s dumb. Just start somewhere and keep writing and writing and eventually go back and trim in places that feel excessive, streamline images or descriptions that aren’t concise or that got out of hand, etc.Also, plan stuff out (and not just plot). I don’t mean make super detailed outlines or anything, if that doesn’t float your boat, but If I’m writing a long thing (a long story, a full set of poems) I write down what ideas I want to be working with, what image hierarchies I want to use, and a general idea of what should happen narratively and what the narrative arc or trajectory should be. And I think this helps me feel like what I’m writing has a framework or a structure that’s satisfying or full, which is really important to me - if what I’m working on doesn’t have the right shape and texture in my brain, I won’t like it until it does. I think this is related to having synesthesia - I see stories or narrative arcs as physical shapes and the shape has to be right. And finally, if there’s something that you really want to write about (a character, an image, an idea), don’t let it go until you figure out how to do it. Don’t drop it, don’t give it up, just because you don’t know how to approach it right then. Even if it feels dumb - if it’s important enough that it’s stuck with you, someone else will resonate with it too.