Advice and Recommendations Wanted

[redridinghood]

Hello Zapdos Zulu,

Sorry if this is a touch personal; you are free to ignore this, or if it is in bad taste, I am willing to delete it. I suffer from my own demons and insecurities, as many people do, so I’m reaching out to this community for opinions and suggestions on how I can improve myself a little and feel more comfortable with myself. I welcome input from anyone willing to share.

I know it's a bit vague, but I’m overall looking to learn new things and expand my mind. Topics that pertain to writing would be nice, but it doesn't have to be! Books are highly wanted, especially if it's one you find interesting. But, I’m down to experience anything though—articles, videos, or otherwise.

Thank you.

[Caramell 🍬]

After my cruise, I can hunt up and offer you many of the resources I use. And I want to preface by saying, I love your writing currently. Though, as we can always all improve, I can't fault you for wanting more feedback.

For most of my environmental effects I actually just Google. I look up the types of clouds that form in the weather I'm experiencing or look up an image that shows many cloud formations at once as a visual, for example. Then pick and describe the one I want. I do this with leaves too, if I want to get technical on the type of leave (serrated? Dentale? Scalloped?) Or what plants are found where (such as Elephant grass being abundant in African Savannas for Zaiden's Safari trip).

For writing my characters, especially Mishu, I rely on this: www.tumblr.com/writingwithcolor/96410340176/wwc-rules-guidelines-faq?source=share It's a "Writing with Color" guide to help you branch out and get good at really painting your character as who they are, while also avoiding and hurtful stereotypes or blandness. Can take a bit of personal fine tuning to find the ways to craft it naturally into your story, obviously, but really helps beyond just writing their name basically and letting people assume. We *all* have a skin tone after all, so there's no "default" type.

[Tiki]

Took a skim of your character's profile.
I might not be the best person because sometimes I just write 100+ words.
But the writings I've seen in your thread were great and fine.

If you're looking for ways to fluff, here's how I do it:

1) Had my character encounter this Pokemon before, or from a region/city that this Pokemon spawned naturally in before? If it's a rare Pokemon, then obviously not. How would your character react?

What about when your Pokemon learned a new move? do they want to show it off after a battle? or your character wants to see how it played out? Do they feel stronger from it? more arrogant? more confident? or bold?

Alex is a grass/bug specialist so any other types would be mostly foreign to him.

2) I like using weather or season change to incorporate in my writing. My characters don't like getting soaked and every time it rain they gotta stop whatever they're doing and find nearby tree or shade and put on rain coat. Some Pokemon I made them like certain weather so they stayed outside and have fun, like dancing or running excitedly. My characters also hate trying to talk in sandstorms and would cough out sand from entering their mouth.

3) I look up Pokemon height difference sometimes. Is my Pokemon bigger or smaller than the other one? The size difference makes their conversation more fun to write or how they execute their attacks. "The Oddish looked up the opponent three times its height and was scared/wasn't deterred."

4) For fluffs, I also use their train of thoughts. Technically they're not spoken. If it's a kinda tough battle, he might be brainstorming strategy. I know you, as a writer know what move you want to use (quick attack over tackle now, for example). So what I do is like, walkthrough thought process like, should I use an item? Switch? stay and give it one more attack? Should I use another attack? Go for offense or defense type of move? By the time I write them, it's like 100 words

5) Does anything remind your character of Saffron City or compare something to Saffron City? We do this in IRL conversation too.

6) Take it easy on yourself. Not all posts or thread need character development. Give it some splice of life. Maybe your character wanted to try out a restaurant or go shopping in the NEXT city so they're excited. Or they need to go to the bathroom or need a shower after this hot muggy weather or walking so much. Sometimes we're just tired after a day of IRL and would like to write and make some progress.
Sometimes I pre-planned an outline and then even on tired days, I just use the outline to guide my writing so it's easy to hop on.

7) Sometimes I joked in cbox about describing every hair follicle and step toward the attack. Caramell also covered writing the environment. Use Simile, hyperbole, pop culture/cultural references. Uses the five senses. Smell, sight, touch, sound.

8) Remember to have fun. Be silly, be goofy.


Source:
I'm a laid back spontaneous writer.

[Caramell 🍬]

So, I have returned and planned on making a collection of guides to help all of us when we're trying to roleplay. Tiki has mentioned wanting ways to expand the fluff of his roleplays (for egg counts), along with you (Red) wanting some advice from others. Mind you, I'm always re-googling all of these thing myself so this is just going to be an easier link to find things. xD I wanted a place for a guide for something like this anyways, and figure by trying to make a full list of things it can help us all. Who want to have a million Google tabs everyday, am I right?

Everyone else, feel free to dogpile and help our friend as it can help each other, too! ^^

CTRL + F Hot Links
To jump to a section, please copy and paste the exact terminology by the section you want to jump too. ^^

I. Describing People Physically
      - Nose Types, Hair Types, Eye Shapes, Body Types, etc.
II. Describing the World
      - Biomes, Leaf Shapes, Cloud Shapes, etc.

Describing People Physically

Sometimes, the hardest thing we can do is describe what someone looks like to another person. We have various ways to do this - such as facial shapes, nose shapes, eye eye shapes, skin tones, height, body shapes, etc. And while it can feel easy in the moment to some, it's not as easy for all of us. After all, where does one go from the classic "fluffy" to the more "rotund" figure, or are these terms truly as interchangeable as we try to make them out to be?

1. Nose Types (1) | Nose Types (2) for Surgery | Another Nose Types (3) article
A quick link to different types of noses that you will find on a person. By clarifying this to the reader, you inherently make your character less of a "self-insert" to the reader and more of an actual person they're actively reading about.

2. Ultimate Guide to Facial Shapes
A breakdown of the different facial shapes we have and celebrity references included, along with images. So if you're having a really difficult time narrowing down "the look" of your character, perhaps taking a look through this and really considering which face (along with all the other factors) you want for your character might help.

3. Types of Eyes
This includes eyes based on shape types (such as hooded or almond-shaped) and based on eye color. Eye color is often much easier for us to pin down for our characters, while the physical shape may rarely or never mentioned. If you want to get detailed and creative though, and really flesh out your character for who they are - independent of yourself or the reader - it is a great way to really cement in stone who they are by what they look like.

4. Words to describe body types | Breakdown of the different physical body types | More word descriptors (writing tips)
A great way to get a feel for the overall and general shape of the character. The Breakdown comes with image references as well, though it does break it up by the male/female general form types. However, humans can be varied and different and not everyone fits a "classic mold" (speaking for myself, honestly) so there is absolutely no reason you can't pull from what actually fits your character, as it makes sense for them!

5. Hair Types (including a breakdown from straight to curly and 1A to 4C references) | Hair Styles (Wiki)
The hair style is often the only thing we think of when it comes to hair types. And many of us can take for granted the actual hair type we have (such as 1A for the straightest you can get or 4C for the kinkiest/coiled you'll get). Knowing your actual hair type can be so important, though! There are many online guides and references that will tell you how to find this out from just a pulled strand alone, and can affect the type(s) of product(s) you really should be using for your hair. And if anyone is curious - absolutely, YES. You can have more than one "type" in your hair, especially if your parents had various hair strand types from each other.

Describing the World

1. Cloud Types
This guide offers picture references and physical descriptors of the cloud(s) you're wanting to reference too. Clouds are often broken up based on their height above the Earth's surface. This is a great way to truly break up the monotony of just referencing "storm clouds" generically, or "sunny day" verses "cloudy day". Different cloudy days can have different types of clouds covering overhead, creating some really breathtaking views. Learning to paint that into words will help you bring the reader out of their world and into yours, if only for a moment.

2. Leaf types
Included with images and breakdown descriptors are leaf types! If you're referring to a very specific plant, it is much better to look that plant up itself and refer to the leaf type they're known to have. Some can actually change their leaves dependent on outside factors in their biomes, which is pretty neat as well! So, consider the plant, then consider the leaf. Considering the plant should fall alongside considering the biome as well. But when you're being less specific on the plant, you can get a bit freer with your leaf shapes and truly describe the world as you envision it for your character. You can also use it as a reference guide when comparing to plant-based Pokemon as well, which is fun when you really want to get into the nitty-gritty of how their Pokemon looks and not just how the character looks.

3. Types of biomes
You often already know the biome based on where your character is traveling. This just breaks them down further with breakdowns and links that can further breakdown the different biomes. I honestly recommend looking up plants endemic to the biome you're traveling through to truly paint the picture. You wouldn't want a bunch of palm trees, in a lush and green environment, in say a desert. But a desert can include much more than just cacti and tumbleweeds! consider bushes, grasses, and flowers you might find within a desert environment, as well!

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Ok, my brain needs a break from links and tips, ya'll. ^^ I'll add more to it later. Throw suggestions if you want me to specifically add something to this post.