#i will add that i think pokemon aus just really lend themselves well to things

[prosebushpatch]

Hi, I'm a huge fan of your Detective Pikachu AHIT au, so much so that you've inspired me to try and make an AHIT au of my own. I was wondering if you had any tips or advice for me though because I've never really written an au before, let alone a fanfic. I'm not sure how to word it well, but I'll try my best. I guess what I'm wondering specifically is how do you find the balance between standing apart from the original media and making the two blend together in a way that feels natural? If that makes sense? And/or general advice. I've been wanting to write this story for a long time but actually writing (and posting it for others to see) is very intimidating. Sorry if this is a lot to ask for though. I really look up to you a lot when it comes to writing stories. You do such a good job of making the characters easy to relate to and I can almost physically feel myself in your stories when I'm reading them because of how full of life they are. If the advice thing is too much, I understand. If nothing else I wanted so say thank you for all the AHIT stories you've written. They've helped me through some difficult times. Still are. It gives me something to look forward to when everything else is unclear. Thank you very much <3

Oh gosh, first, thank you so much, this is so kind and I’m so glad and grateful my stories can do that for you ;o; <333 It means a lot! I’m happy to share my thought processes for writing! Under the cut because I get a little rambly, but I hope it helps a bit and feel free to ask me to clarify anything!

For balancing aus, what I usually do is pinpoint the main pieces of the original media that I think are most important to the media itself and then if there are any matching themes/vibes with the media I’m working with, I latch onto those too. For example! The main thing I zeroed in on in the Detective Pikachu au is how the dad gets turned into a pokemon, gets amnesia, and has to team up with his kid to unravel the mystery surrounding his predicament. That’s the part that, I think, makes it a Detective Pikachu au first and foremost and it’s where I’m the most faithful to the source, and then I deviate quite a bit, like how I keep the prince/snatcher a lawyer and turn him into an eevee instead because I thought it fit the character more.

And then with that au, I threw in the shadow pokemon mechanic because I thought the artificial corruption of hearts and closing them fit how Vanessa and the prince in ahit are corrupted/overshadowed by their heartbreak. And a smaller thing I did to combine Detective Pikachu with the prince was how, in the movie, detective pikachu is obsessed with coffee and since I made the prince’s partner a polteageist, it made sense to have him have an affinity for tea. And then from there it was a matter of just playing around with how the characters and the world of ahit would change with pokemon!

The most important advice I can give is to write the moments/tropes/emotions that you most want to! For as much as I can justify my choices for the story above, I also just really wanted to write them like that, haha. Like I just adore the shadow pokemon mechanic and wish it was utilized in games more, so I brought it into the story so I could play with it!

I totally get nervous posting stories too. And, looking back, there are a lot of ways I could improve the aus, like I feel that my majora’s mask au could have more influence from majora’s mask itself, but also I do love the story I ended up with! So I think, just writing things that make you happy/call to you is the best place to start. There are a lot of moments in those aus that I was certain no one else but me would enjoy, but then they ended up being some favorites of readers! (Like Wuka ;w; I wasn’t going to keep him in as long but I was delighted to find others loved him too, so I indulged in more shameless owo moments hehe).

This got a little long, but I hope it helps and I hope you start writing your story soon!!! I think my favorite thing about stories is how many ways you can tell the same one, or similar ones, or ones that start in the same place but branch into different paths, and how they all matter. In some way, big or small, stories matter. And your story matters! Wherever you start it, and however you guide it through its journey, it matters! And I most certainly look forward to reading it when it’s ready! <333

#rose and rambles #anonymous #prosie's writing adventures #ALSO THANK YOU AGAIN ;O; <333333 THIS MEANS SO MUCH YOU ARE TOO KIND #i will add that i think pokemon aus just really lend themselves well to things #like i basically took Mafia town and thought about how to put pokemon in there AND when i was thinking about the geyser #holding up the mafia headquarters #i just remembered seeing in the anime where psychic pokemon used psychic powers to hold up bubbles of water for water pokemon to perform in #i think it was the manaphy movie #so then i used water/psychic types to hold up mafia headquarters #i was reading a lot of pokedex entries for that au and just sorta thinking about which ones melded well with ahit #i had a lot of fun with it ;w; should probably write for it again someday.... still gotta work on other things first tho #anyway thank you so much for reading! both my stories and my rambles <333 #i hope you're doing well and enjoying many soft and lovely moments