OT Guide Part Two
Feb. 11th, 2010 10:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
farlaBefore you start writing the story itself, you'll need to do a bit of planning. If you've started off with a character idea or an opening scene, that's okay, but now that you've done that, it's time to take a step back and work on the overall story. Once you've done that, you should end up tweaking your original idea because you've thought of something better or you realize there's a plot hole.
Go get some paper. I know you're reading this on a computer, but we're going to be brainstorming, and this works a lot better with physical paper where you don't have to line everything up and can scrawl arrows all over the place.
Jot down your main ideas and any minor ones you can think of. Minor ideas that connect to a main idea should be put next to or under the main idea (so "Suzy steals a lab pokemon from Team Rocket" might have "Suzy ambushed by Team Rocket after they hear about her winning a gym battle in a town" next to it.)
Try to connect your ideas. They should all have something to do with each other. You don't want "Suzy is charged by Articuno to collect the McMuffins of Doom by defeating the Seven Guardians" and "Suzy becomes the best coordinator ever" in the same story, because they conflict (if Suzy is wasting time by stopping off to participate in contests rather than save the world, then she's kind of insane and Articuno is probably going to eat her and find someone new.) "Suzy steals a lab pokemon" doesn't conflict with Articuno, but it doesn't have anything to do with it either. And it's hard for a lab pokemon, even one with freaky powers, weird coloring and whatnot to be impressive next to Articuno and the McMuffins of Doom that have the power to destroy the whole world. A lab pokemon is generally more mundane than a saving-the-world destiny. The two plots are fighting for space, and really need their own stories. On the other hand, a lab pokemon and contest don't have this problem - maybe instead of it being a gym battle, Team Rocket come after her after she uses her odd pokemon in a contest.
(An important note here: Yes, you can shoehorn your plots together and say something like "Articuno picked Suzy because Destiny Said the chosen one would have a weird lab pokemon she found". But that's not the issue. There's no narrative reason to connect the two things (destiny could just as easily have said a girl born on Tuesday who sat on the third white rock, and you know it) and so the plots simply don't fit together very well.)
A couple things to consider at this point:
What's the main plot?
What's the first point it begins?
Does anything else major happen before then?
When's the next plot point after that?
Pacing is a key issue in OT fic. A lot of stories involve ten or more chapters of a trainer being a trainer, followed by a plot appearing. You want to avoid that.
You've probably see a bunch of OT fic before: generally, the character wakes up, says meaningless things to their family, meets up with any friends they might have and exchange more chitchat, and gets their first pokemon from a professor. You want to begin at the first point your story does something different.
If your story involves a completely different society than the one we're familiar with, you might want to start shortly before they get their first pokemon so your readers can see how different it is.
If your story involves a different way of getting pokemon, then you want to start with them getting their first pokemon, so your readers can see that.
If the first different bit is going to involve an event, you should start after they get their first pokemon. If something goes wrong at their first battle, pick up the story there. If they see something odd while they're looking for the second pokemon for their team, begin there. If Articuno descends from the Poke-Heavens to tell them they've been chosen to save the world, etc.
After you've started, continue to follow this rule for the rest of your story. If something happens that's basically the same as in the average OT fic and is what the readers expect, then you don't need to go into detail. And yes, this can include major events. If your gym leaders are all decent people who use ordinary, well-adjusted pokemon of completely appropriate levels for polite battles, and your trainer has perfectly restrained gym battles ending in a win, you don't need to write it out. If you think you need gym battles, then make sure things happen in them. Stories are about someone who has interesting things happening around them. You don't have to make everything they come into contact with full of drama, but you need to focus on whatever does have drama.
For example, if you want to write about Suzy and her quest to become the best coordinator ever, make sure you can think of some really interesting things happening during those contests. It doesn't have to be an outside force (Team Rocket attacks, trying to steal Suzy's taillow!), it can be her own internal issues or her fellow competitors or the judges or interpersonal issues with her pokemon. Anything. But you can't hang narrative tension on Suzy ordering a string of moves and you describing what they looked like.
On the same principle, if you want a story where the gym leaders and gym battles feature prominently, have things happening in the various battles. Have things go wrong, have people be jerks, have your trainer run into problems with their own pokemon.
Go back to your list.
You probably want battles, so write down some things that'll happen in them. These can tie into your plot or be part of developing your characters or both. Write down other minor things that you imagine happening during the journey, or places that you'd like to have the character explore, or anything else you think of.
Next section: Planning the team, route, and plot.
201 version not yet written. I'm not even sure if this should be the second section, or if it belongs elsewhere else, and I can't shake the feeling I'm probably making too many leaps.
First part, has been severely edited.
Go get some paper. I know you're reading this on a computer, but we're going to be brainstorming, and this works a lot better with physical paper where you don't have to line everything up and can scrawl arrows all over the place.
Jot down your main ideas and any minor ones you can think of. Minor ideas that connect to a main idea should be put next to or under the main idea (so "Suzy steals a lab pokemon from Team Rocket" might have "Suzy ambushed by Team Rocket after they hear about her winning a gym battle in a town" next to it.)
Try to connect your ideas. They should all have something to do with each other. You don't want "Suzy is charged by Articuno to collect the McMuffins of Doom by defeating the Seven Guardians" and "Suzy becomes the best coordinator ever" in the same story, because they conflict (if Suzy is wasting time by stopping off to participate in contests rather than save the world, then she's kind of insane and Articuno is probably going to eat her and find someone new.) "Suzy steals a lab pokemon" doesn't conflict with Articuno, but it doesn't have anything to do with it either. And it's hard for a lab pokemon, even one with freaky powers, weird coloring and whatnot to be impressive next to Articuno and the McMuffins of Doom that have the power to destroy the whole world. A lab pokemon is generally more mundane than a saving-the-world destiny. The two plots are fighting for space, and really need their own stories. On the other hand, a lab pokemon and contest don't have this problem - maybe instead of it being a gym battle, Team Rocket come after her after she uses her odd pokemon in a contest.
(An important note here: Yes, you can shoehorn your plots together and say something like "Articuno picked Suzy because Destiny Said the chosen one would have a weird lab pokemon she found". But that's not the issue. There's no narrative reason to connect the two things (destiny could just as easily have said a girl born on Tuesday who sat on the third white rock, and you know it) and so the plots simply don't fit together very well.)
A couple things to consider at this point:
What's the main plot?
What's the first point it begins?
Does anything else major happen before then?
When's the next plot point after that?
Pacing is a key issue in OT fic. A lot of stories involve ten or more chapters of a trainer being a trainer, followed by a plot appearing. You want to avoid that.
You've probably see a bunch of OT fic before: generally, the character wakes up, says meaningless things to their family, meets up with any friends they might have and exchange more chitchat, and gets their first pokemon from a professor. You want to begin at the first point your story does something different.
If your story involves a completely different society than the one we're familiar with, you might want to start shortly before they get their first pokemon so your readers can see how different it is.
If your story involves a different way of getting pokemon, then you want to start with them getting their first pokemon, so your readers can see that.
If the first different bit is going to involve an event, you should start after they get their first pokemon. If something goes wrong at their first battle, pick up the story there. If they see something odd while they're looking for the second pokemon for their team, begin there. If Articuno descends from the Poke-Heavens to tell them they've been chosen to save the world, etc.
After you've started, continue to follow this rule for the rest of your story. If something happens that's basically the same as in the average OT fic and is what the readers expect, then you don't need to go into detail. And yes, this can include major events. If your gym leaders are all decent people who use ordinary, well-adjusted pokemon of completely appropriate levels for polite battles, and your trainer has perfectly restrained gym battles ending in a win, you don't need to write it out. If you think you need gym battles, then make sure things happen in them. Stories are about someone who has interesting things happening around them. You don't have to make everything they come into contact with full of drama, but you need to focus on whatever does have drama.
For example, if you want to write about Suzy and her quest to become the best coordinator ever, make sure you can think of some really interesting things happening during those contests. It doesn't have to be an outside force (Team Rocket attacks, trying to steal Suzy's taillow!), it can be her own internal issues or her fellow competitors or the judges or interpersonal issues with her pokemon. Anything. But you can't hang narrative tension on Suzy ordering a string of moves and you describing what they looked like.
On the same principle, if you want a story where the gym leaders and gym battles feature prominently, have things happening in the various battles. Have things go wrong, have people be jerks, have your trainer run into problems with their own pokemon.
Go back to your list.
You probably want battles, so write down some things that'll happen in them. These can tie into your plot or be part of developing your characters or both. Write down other minor things that you imagine happening during the journey, or places that you'd like to have the character explore, or anything else you think of.
Next section: Planning the team, route, and plot.
201 version not yet written. I'm not even sure if this should be the second section, or if it belongs elsewhere else, and I can't shake the feeling I'm probably making too many leaps.
First part, has been severely edited.
