On: Writing

Good morning, afternoon, or evening, as appropriate. The guide contains advice on various aspects of writing in brief, with examples for each. I’ve divided up each aspect of writing into one of four categories: rules, guidelines, matters of style, and matters of plot and characterization. Hopefully this guide will be helpful to you in one way or another.

Rules

There are virtually no ironclad rules in writing; these aspects of writing come close, however. Even in dialogue or internal monologue, which is normally a space where the writer is free to do as they please, misspelled words are problematic. As such, it is important to master these aspects of writing, and do so early in your time as a writer.

Spelling. It’s always jarring to encounter a spelling mistake in the middle of an otherwise well-written story. Because some spelling mistakes will not be caught by a typical spell checker, and because you should be editing your story anyway, it is a good idea to proofread your work or ask someone else to proofread it as well.

Example #1.1: Thought he shawl was not very long, it still tickled her feet.

That obviously can’t be right. Your average spell checker will think it’s fine, though.

Example #1.2: Though the shawl was not very long, it still tickled her feet.

This is correct. The spell checker will also think it’s correct, only this time, it’ll be right.

Grammar. Although it’s obviously important to avoid grammatical errors, it’s also a very good idea to familiarize yourself with various punctuation marks, what they’re used for, and why they’re used. Because many very useful punctuation marks, such as the semicolon, are often used improperly, and because some aspects of punctuation, such as the serial comma, are not universally agreed upon, it helps to do a little research on punctuation marks you don’t know much about.

Example #1.1: The lawyers hand’s shook. “Its time,” he said.

This example has two obvious problems. The misplaced apostrophe in the first sentence (called a “grocers’ apostrophe”) is the first. The lack of an apostrophe in the second sentence is the second. “Its” is possessive and primarily used with reference to objects, as in “its size”. “It’s” is not possessive, and would be appropriate for use in this context and many others.

Example #1.2: The lawyer’s hands shook. “It’s time,” he said.

Much better.

Example #2.1: That; was all. She stood; and moved on.

This is not correct (which is probably obvious, but bear with me here). The semicolon is a punctuation mark used, fundamentally, to differentiate. It can be used to separate two contrasting but related statements, such as statements that could be two small sentences on their own. The semicolon is also used to separate items in a list where each item contains commas.

Example #2.2: PK was a Kecleon; Anana was also a Kecleon.

Example #2.3: There stood Dmitri, a Zangoose; Gunpowder, a Gabite; and Shroomsworth, a Breloom.

These are more-or-less correct. The semicolon is very finicky, and the fact that other punctuation marks are often usable in its place makes using it even more of a headache. It’s useful for adding variety to sentence structure, and important for making lists readable.

Formatting. It is important to ensure that a story is properly formatted. To do that, it is advisable to start a new paragraph for each character’s dialogue, to add a second line break between each paragraph, and to avoid making a single paragraph too long (seven lines is a fair maximum).

Example #1.1: The girl named PK and her friend are loitering in the square. The girl named PK and her partner are selling shoddy goods. The girl named PK and her guard are chewing out a thief. The girl named PK and her rival are heckling each other. The girl named PK is stealing precious heirlooms.

This is a paragraph without line breaks. It seems fine as it is. But in other circumstances, it would be highly advisable to break it up, such as if some parts of it contained dialogue, with two or more pieces of dialogue from two or more different characters.

Example #1.2: “The girl named PK and her friend are loitering in the square. The girl named PK and her partner are selling shoddy goods. The girl named PK and her guard are chewing out a thief. The girl named PK--”
“Shut up! Just shut up! I haven’t even done half of that!”
“The girl named PK is stealing precious heirlooms.”

This is an example of using a single line breaks to separate dialogue (or paragraphs). In paper media, using a single line break is common. But elsewhere, including for PMDe, you should use two line breaks.

Example #1.3: “The girl named PK and her friend are loitering in the square. The girl named PK and her partner are selling shoddy goods. The girl named PK and her guard are chewing out a thief. The girl named PK--”

“Shut up! Just shut up! I haven’t even done half of that!”

“The girl named PK is stealing precious heirlooms.”

This is dialogue spaced with two line breaks. In many kinds of writing, it looks better. Did you know that line breaks are sometimes referred to as “hard returns”, after the term used with typewriters?

Guidelines

There’s a saying that rules are made to be broken. While that’s not strictly true, these guidelines, while helpful, are. If it would make sense for a character to use simpler words, and the story is written from a first-person perspective, there’s less need to think about what words you’re using. If you’re writing a postmodern story, you don’t need to worry as much about immersion. It is good to keep these guidelines in mind, but also to understand that they don’t need to be followed constantly, letter or spirit.

Careful word choice. The English language is so complex that sometimes it contradicts itself, and no one can agree on most of its rules. With that in mind, it’s a good idea to push your vocabulary to its limit when writing. Especially when writing highly emotional or important scenes, consider if the words you have chosen to describe the situation, or any part of it – the characters, the scenery, the little details – are the best words you could use to describe that situation, or merely the second best (or worse). This is such a subjective art, because every writer wants something different, that there is no good way to provide examples of how this process works. Expand your vocabulary, edit thoroughly, and expose each word to a little scrutiny.

Showing and telling. An important part of writing is showing the events of a story, not telling them. A story should look like a story, not a list of steps. That said, it’s important to note that there are a lot of things that might seem like “telling” that are acceptable – internal monologue is a useful tool, and reflecting on a trait a character has displayed numerous times can allow for less astute readers to notice it and to highlight that trait.

Example #1.1: He was angry.

This is telling. But it could be “told” in a more interesting way, which would be a lot better than the “telling” that is disdained by many experienced writers.

Example #1.2: He was so angry, it hurt. He had no idea what was happening, and he had no idea why. But the only thing he felt was burning hatred.

Example #1.3: He struggled to find words to describe, to the air, what he felt looking at the other. But all that came was choking fire, and warm tears ran down his face onto his chest as he recalled what had really happened.

Naturally, telling the reader what the character is angry at is a very good first step. But even beyond that, this gives a better idea of the anger itself, and tells more of the story. This is “showing”, even though it still makes it abundantly clear that the character is angry.

Example #2.1: She was happy.

Again, this is telling.

Example #2.2: She skipped merrily through the rain, twirling underneath the lemon tree at the corner before running across the road.

This is showing. Body language is another method of showing rather than telling.

Immersion. Immersion is the skill of writing in such a way that the reader becomes involved in your story. In some senses, immersion can be such a skill that the reader is not distracted while reading your story – by outside concerns, or by flaws in the writing. Immersion is a skill difficult to define but easy to practice. Important considerations in creating and maintaining immersion including following rules such as proper spelling, grammar, and formatting, maintaining consistent spelling choices (US versus UK English, for example) and style, and providing the reader with details appropriate to the perspective, to the characters, and to the story itself.

Matters of Style

Writing is a flexible art. There are more guidelines than described above, but many, many more matters of style than I could hope to detail in one article. What unites many aspects of writing is that they are subjective: a writer can just as easily do one thing with them as another, or forget they exist and write as comes naturally to them. These are matters of style.

Adjective use. This is a topic I have seen come up quite often in discussions (or arguments) between writers. Some writers prefer to use fewer adjectives, while others prefer to use more, and writers from either camp often try to convince new writers that one way or the other is superior. In fact, the use of adjectives (and similar aspects of writing that do not fall under the other headings, such as the various forms of third-person perspective), or lack thereof, is up to the individual writer.

Example #1.1: A cold breeze blew the Charmander’s hat off, leaving his bald head exposed to the snowstorm.

Example #1.2: A cold breeze became a wave of hail as it flew down the leeward side of the mountain, and the Charmander’s hat was swept up in it as he took the brunt of the winter’s mood.

These are two different ways of writing what is fundamentally the same piece of text, and the differences are small but numerous. This is primarily a matter of style, secondarily a matter of perspective, and in some circumstances, a matter of tone: if this scene is important, elaborating on it as in the second example may be a better idea than normal.

Monologue and dialogue. A character’s internal monologue, and spoken dialogue, are both times where many rules or guidelines can be safely ignored. Unless a character is also a writer, and a very careful one, they are unlikely to adhere to the sorts of principles that a writer ought to in writing a story when they are thinking or talking in their own words. Rules such as spelling and formatting are still important, but in very specific circumstances, even the rules of grammar can be bent. Use your best judgement, and figure out what the best way to write character text is for you, without being constrained by all of your usual guidelines.

Matters of Plot & Character

While the three headings above describe aspects of the process of writing itself, this heading talks about the planning stage of writing, or at least the plot and story behind it – as such, none of these items fit into any of the above three headings, and it is hard to classify them each as rules, guidelines, or matters of style.

Logic. Stories often defy the logic of our world. That’s just fine: more importantly, stories should not defy the logic of their own world, nor the logic of the story itself. And if our world’s logic applies to the story’s world, then it should be followed just as steadfastly. Breaks in logic should be treated as such, rather than the norm. “Logic” here is a very broad term, but that’s because this guideline is applicable to so many situations in writing.

Example #1.1: As her opponent the Pikachu turned to flee, a flash of light burst from his cheeks and filled the area, blinding the Hoppip. As she stumbled about, she found that her opponent was out of reach – and when her vision returned, out of sight as well.

Example #1.2: As her opponent the Pikachu turned to flee, a flash of light burst from his cheeks and filled the area – one that the Deino only vaguely noticed by the heat it created. She was already blind – there was nothing her opponent could do to block her sight.

In the first version of this example, the Hoppip has no good way to pursue her opponent, assuming (correctly, by the example) that none of her moves would help in doing so either. The Deino, however, has a superior sense of smell, and trying to blind an opponent isn’t going to hinder an opponent that is already blind, and relies more on other senses, much. In that sense, this example follows the rules of the PMDe universe with regards to those species. If the Hoppip managed to pursue her fleeing opponent, or the Deino failed to, that could very well be a break in logic.

Consistency. Not everything in a story needs to be explained immediately. Not every oddity or trick of magic needs to have a detailed, thorough explanation. These can add to a story, but don’t always. A more important consideration is consistency: if a character is shown to hate beetles early in the story, then in absence of any character development applying to that hatred, they should not be warm and friendly around or to beetles. If they are, the story lacks consistency in that respect.

Example #1.1: An Infernape is trapped in Arceus’s palm and, to escape, swears servitude to a wise monk. Five minutes later, the Infernape angers Arceus again. This time, he leaps out of Arceus’s palm before it closes.

Obviously, there’s something wrong with this story, and it’s not that Arceus has hands now. Virtually nothing has changed from the first time, and “he got lucky this time” is a very poor excuse for the difference in outcome.

Example #1.2: An Infernape is trapped in Arceus’s palm and, to escape, swears servitude to a wise monk. After he finishes his enlightening journey with the wise monk, the Infernape angers Arceus again. This time, he leaps out of Arceus’s palm before it closes.

This makes more sense: enough time has passed, in which the Infernape might have changed to allow himself to escape. Maybe he’s faster, maybe he’s smarter, or maybe there’s something else entirely. This principle works in reverse: if a character becomes weak or out of practice, they might no longer be able to perform feats of strength they could have before. Character development changes the flow of events; the same thing happening twice in a row under near-identical circumstances should not.

Depth and fallibility. A character is not instantly bad if they contradict the rules of the setting in some way, or seem out of place. A character is also not instantly bad if they are extremely powerful, skillful, or otherwise exemplars of some positive trait. A character is bad if, in the presence of those things, steps are not taken to make them more than those positive traits.

Example #1.1: Theia is the strongest Clefable. She is loved by everyone, because she is good at everything.

This is an exaggerated example. But even characters that are not so obviously poorly thought out can suffer from a lack of depth in the same way.

Example #1.2: Theia is the strongest Clefable. But because Clefables are not strong as a species, she grapples with the fact there are many Pokemon that can easily best her, even though she wishes to be able to surmount any challenge, from a fight to a cook-off. She is proud of her link to the moon, and the overconfidence that stems from that often alienates other Pokemon.

Writing a well-loved character is not impossible, but writing a character “loved by everyone” is unrealistic in basically any story’s context. In this example, Theia remains “the strongest Clefable”, certainly a title of note, but by expanding upon that trait and applying it to a character with their own personality rather than an obnoxious cipher, it becomes part of a well-written (or at least better written) character.

Example #1.3: Theia is not a Clefable, but is in fact Arceus.

At this point, because we’re talking about a type of character that is very special in the context of the setting, many guidelines on matters like depth and fallibility that apply to most characters can be bent or broken. That said, I don’t imagine Arceus would have a name quite that plain.

Example #2.1: Lochan the Xatu is renowned for his amazing visions that allow him to find, investigate and close any case of note. He is a detective renowned over the continent for his no-nonsense demeanour and unwillingness to budge on any case. His bumbling assistants, Lugh and Lita, only serve to get in his way. Later on in his career, after he allows Lugh to help the investigation independently, Lugh is killed. He is summarily replaced, and Lochan suffers no consequences whatsoever for his death. Furthermore, Lochan investigated Lugh’s actions prior to his death, and learned that he had committed a horrible crime for which he would never be tried, so Lochan took matters into his own hands.

This is a longer example than the previous examples, but it’s important that it be long so the difference between a fallible character and an infallible one (sometimes a surprisingly blurry line) can be made clear.

Example #2.2: Lochan the Xatu is renowned for his amazing visions that allow him to find, investigate, and close any case of note. He is a detective renowned over the continent for his no-nonsense demeanour and unwillingness to budge on any case. However, he is very poor at any sort of activity outside of investigation, and even his free time is spent, for example, reading old case files or meditating. Following the unexpected death of his assistant Lugh, he is forced to deal with the fallout, with the anger of Lugh’s family, and with his own entanglement in the legal system. His assistant Lita does her best to help him through this trying time, but she finds it even more difficult than he does.

You might have noticed that these two examples are similar, depicting larger-than-life characters who are then given flaws. The two principles of depth and fallibility are intertwined, in my opinion: giving a character depth in creating them makes it much easier to give them true, believable fallibility in writing them. It’s also important to note that even for characters without amazing skills or specializations, or fantastic traits, it is possible to for them to lack depth and fallibility. Generally it is less obvious or offensive in those cases, but even for characters that are made to be bad at a lot of things, depth and fallibility are important considerations.

If you have any questions or comments, or have spotted any errors in this guide, I’d be happy to hear about them. As a piece of advice, I recommend reading often if you do not already, and in particular reading the sorts of stories you want to write. The stories written for PMDe’s canon are a good start, since most people reading this guide will want to write their own PMDe stories. Above all, enjoy writing, and if you can’t enjoy it after it’s written, remember that often, we’re our own worst critics.

Happy writing, and do your best with Mission 7!

~ Gnarl “A Word Meant For Roots, Used By A Flower” Lotus

See also

• Original journal