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shinneth · 4 years

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For the fic author meme (different one from the other I sent), I would ask 12, 5, 6

12. What punctuation do you hate with a passion?

Hm… I kinda have a bizarre relationship with all forms of them, but in terms of general contempt, I really hate semicolons and ellipses. Both of which I regularly abuse, but I hate them because they’re usually the ones that give me the most pause when I feel like I’ve fucked up a sentence.

For the longest time in my life, I didn’t use semicolons at all; I don’t believe I ever formally learned what they were for in class. I don’t remember how I even learned they were a thing. That’s probably the root of my contempt, because when I do use them, I’m never 100% sure if it’s warranted. This past year I’ve gone over paragraphs where it felt like every other sentence had one and kinda subconsciously retooled it to take the semicolon out because it suddenly rubbed me the wrong way. They’re very odd creatures.

Ellipses are obviously something I inherently know what they are and what they’re for. I just have a bit of a habit of leaving them where they shouldn’t be, or at least don’t need to be. I’m thinking it’s a case where my own cognitive narrative is trailing off that I feel the subconscious urge to put an ellipsis in, even if the story itself would be just fine or better off without it. So, it’s very representative of my struggle to separate my jumbled thoughts into a proper final product that everyone else can see.

5. How do you know when a story is “done”?

Not something I really struggle with very often, honestly. Before I even start writing, I usually have a clear Point A and Point B. How I get to Point B often deviates from the path I envision and very often takes longer than I project to reach it, but once I’ve established everything on my mental checklist, I know it’s time to start winding down. This applies to ending chapters and overall stories. Since my MO is all about putting characters through absolute hell in order to overcome and achieve what they’re going after, there’s always been a pretty clear understanding between me and my writing on where to cut things off. The second I check the final task off my bucket list, I’m mentally prioritizing what kind of line to mark the ending. Sometimes it’s witty dialogue; sometimes it’s just the lemony narrative, but whatever it ends up being, I want it to really punctuate where everyone stands in the story compared to where they were when it began.

6. Where do your titles come from?

AHAHAHA. I have made an entire goddamn post on this very subject for my 3-act Gem Ascension series, which has 25 chapter titles plus three act names and the overall GA title itself. I have also made several stories since then, so I’ll properly answer this. Titles are very weird for me because they can come from just about anywhere. When in doubt, I’ll likely go with song titles or a certain lyric. But I’ve also gone the route of using some paraphrased quotes from video games, wrestling, anime, you name it.

And then are are some times when I just whip up a title all by myself. And a little quirk especially with my self-made titles is that they inadvertently end up holding a lot more meaning to them by the time I’m finished with the story than they did when it began.

Gem Ascension, for example. As a Steven Universe story where SU itself often has episodes that start with “Gem”, I did the same. Ascension referred to Peridot’s role “ascending” from kidlike comic relief to a legit leader protagonist. Then in later acts, the ascension refers to where Peridot evolves after proving her worth as a leader; she ends up becoming far more than that, and she literally ascends to a level far beyond what any gem has ever gone before, and never will again. When I started GA, I did not plan for Peridot to go that far. But when it came to mind, it was just eerie how it gave the overall title more meaning to it.

Same can be said for Travels of the Trifecta, actually: I deliberately made the title something the dubbers of the Pokemon anime would come up with, but it was also centered on three characters: the family of Brandon, Reggie, and Paul. As the story expanded, it established that Brandon in his youth traveled with a pair of friends much in Ash-like fashion; said friends were Byron and Palmer. All three of which are significant characters who all achieved some degree of success and fame. The story’s second arc is planned for Paul to be in his own little Ash-esque travel trio of him, Conway, and Barry. Those three would be the centric focus of Arc II, and all three have had time to shine and interact with one another (save for Barry and Paul; I haven’t gotten that far yet, but I’m going along with canon where it did happen). While Paul is ultimately the protagonist of Trifecta, the story itself has a lot of heavy focus on three sets of trios where there is some degree of overlap happening across all three groups in terms of members. I was set to make a separate Trifecta prequel that would focus on Brandon, Byron, and Palmer as well.

So, yeah. My titles come from every friggin’ direction. I can be equally creative and unique as I can be a total hack. :P

And that’s that! Hopefully those are satisfactory answers worth the wait. Just in case it slipped through the cracks, I answered your other meme ask late last night.

#answered asks #nobynaga #writing #fanfiction #meme #grammar #gem ascension #gem re:ascension #travels of the trifecta

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shinneth · 5 years

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What Myers-Briggs types do you think the main Trifecta characters would be?

Hmm. Well, I had a hard time settling one a single type for most of them, so I tried to find at least two for the six Trifecta “mains” - Paul, Reggie, Brandon, Conway, Barry, and Maylene.

(REALLY stretching it calling Maylene a “main”, especially since Chapter 13 is where she peaked; once Arc II happens, she’ll be in Out Of Focus territory for sure… buuuut she’s made her mark and a lot of readers take notice to her, so I threw her in)

Interestingly, I had no one pegged as INFP (Mediator/Idealist), which is where I fall in. Some characters fit half of it but I couldn’t justify the other half not befitting them (Paul and Conway were the partial contenders - and Brandon to a lesser degree… but Conway’s too charismatic and sociable, while Paul and Brandon aren’t deep thinkers to the point where they’re completely delusional like I am :P).

Paul - INTJ (The Mastermind) or ISTJ (The Inspector)

Safe to say if I had to pick one only, it would be INTJ. Definitely would sooner work alone than a group any day (and if Conway hadn’t been there for him like he’d been so much in Trifecta, this would likely still be the case for him - and Barry is more a result of Trifecta Paul’s character development). Much more comfortable doing things his own way and proving to the world he can handle himself. Even with Trifecta development, Paul still finds social activity a huge chore. Trifecta 21 has Paul go out of his way to be receptive to Conway’s friendliness, and it does take a toll on him physically and mentally. Also a master strategist, as per canon, and questions everything. And god help him if Paul is unsure of anything. It’s why he hates being indecisive in Trifecta; he believes even a wrong choice or a bad idea is better than none at all. And knowing his legendary levels of “patience”, he’s definitely not going to wait all day to find the right path.

With ISTJ… well, this was a Brandon contender, surprise surprise. Intimidating? Comes off that way. Serious? All the damn time. Formal, proper…? Well, he DOES respect his elders, for the most part. If he thinks you’re shit, he’ll treat you like shit, but Paul’s not nearly as eager to start shit as he was in his Trifecta youth. You can definitely say, either in canon or Trifecta, Paul’s a strong worker who follows his own moral code. For all his controversial shit, Paul has never once cheated or tried to take the easy way out. Now, he sure as hell isn’t PATIENT, and he doesn’t really put much stock in going out of his way to upholding social or cultural responsibility (especially the former). But Paul is typically quiet and reserved; while he’s prone to anger, he’s fully capable of keeping calm when he needs to. Even Trifecta Paul can pull this off unless he’s just physically about to break down. Often misunderstood? Ohhhhhh, yeah.

Reggie - ESFJ (The Provider) or ESTJ (The Supervisor)

ESFJ might actually be the lesser of the two here. Mostly because Reggie isn’t really an attention-seeker outside of his own family members. He doesn’t desire the spotlight; he just wants his daddy and lil bro to love and accept him! But Reggie IS an active young man, very social, way more thoughtful than he makes himself out to be, and totally IS the organizer for any family event that happens in the present-day and has been since his mother’s death. He’s the guy that everybody loves. It’s been a common theme in some AUs of his Trifecta persona where he ends up being one of the most popular kids in school with legions of girls who’d drop everything to date him and he just never notices.

ESTJ covers him more uniformly. Reggie doesn’t want to be the star of the show, but he does want to help and offer advice to absolutely anyone who needs it. And he checks out on the listed traits: honest, dedicated, dignified, and traditional. You could definitely see him as a role model (even if Paul doesn’t) and he’s a good fit for a leader role.

Brandon - ENFP (The Champion) or ENTJ (The Commander)

One of Brandon’s defining traits (that might’ve not been showcased in Trifecta yet since we’re not yet at the point where it’s mega-relevant) is that he will decide his own destiny and what path to take, damn what anyone else says. So there’s what wins him the ENFP brand. His intuition is pretty top-notch; terminal disease aside, Brandon can totally read Paul like a book even though he’s spent the better part of Paul’s life operating from a great distance and not really being around for his kid. He’s way more perceptive than most give him credit for, and though he’ll never admit it, Brandon does act on his feelings a lot. Even taking an overseas job shortly after his wife died while leaving his kids behind - he can say that’s solely because it was the best way to make up for the income difference, but really, it doubled as his desire to just remove himself from everything of Andrea’s influence. He had a harder time coping with her death than he’ll ever care to admit. Plus, Brandon’s unprofessional abandoning of his post that resulted in his return to Sinnoh? Totally impulsive. He also wasted no time making a detour to Reggie when Brandon learned he was in the hospital, so there you go.

With ENTJ, this correlates with Brandon’s leadership skills as head of the Kanto Battle Frontier, as well as being the head of his own travelling trifecta with Byron and Palmer. Ambitious is putting it mildly for Brandon, honestly. And while he can be a slave to his feelings at times, Brandon is more known for acting with cold, hard logic. He’s likened to Paul in Trifecta for a reason. Brandon’s all for challenging himself, not afraid to make the hard calls(as his sacrifice for Regigas proves), and hell no he cannot sit still.

Conway - INTP (The Thinker) or ENTP (The Visionary)

Well, Conway’s pretty damn easy to peg even if you didn’t take his Trifecta traits into account. INTP is Conway’s most well-known traits in a nutshell: absorbs info like a sponge, heavy on the logical, objective side of perspective… he plans, he hypothesizes, he observes, he analyzes, he theorizes, and he can pick up on details most others will overlook. Like, literally everything INTP applies to Conway. He’s the consummate INTP.

ENTP has many of these traits, as well. Only major point of contention is not enjoying small-talk, as Trifecta Conway especially is very much all for that… at least for the people he deems worthy of it. Barry, he might not be much up for the small-talk as he would Paul or Dawn. I wanted to make sure to at least add one E-type here since I think it should be emphasized that despite his many typical nerd qualities, Conway is very much extroverted even in canon. He’s one of the most extroverted intellectual characters I’ve ever seen, honestly. Canon and Trifecta Conway love going in-depth with their thought processes, and he is a lover of learning. Loyal and energetic are also listed traits here, which are definitely more prominent Trifecta Conway traits, but notable ones nonetheless.

Barry - ENFJ (The Giver) or ESFP (The Performer)

While I think we can agree Barry is more of a “live in the now” type than any other character listed here, contrary to the ENFJ type, the other traits fit Barry like a glove. Especially the “living in their imagination opposed to the real world” aspect. Holy shit that is very Barry. But he is idealistic, highly charismatic, outspoken… and in Trifecta, he’s proved to grow like a weed on characters who’d otherwise never associate with him, such as Conway and eventually Paul. Barry’s also much more of an optimistic individual compared to his future travel-mates and much less prone to letting bad shit get him down for any length of time.

ESFP speaks for itself. Barry’s the biggest spotlight whore of the Trifecta cast. Fun and livelihood are Barry’s core essences, and while he’s not the most considerate character to ever be around and thinking is secondary to everything, Barry isn’t a complete dick and will feel bad if he realizes he’s inadvertently hurt someone’s feelings. It may take him a while to understand that, but once he does, he’ll go out of his way to make you feel better. Barry doesn’t want to travel around with a couple of sad-sacks, after all. And while Barry’s an acquired taste who can and will rub people the wrong way… you know, compared to Paul and Conway, he’ll come off as the one most “normal” when it comes to people-persons. Barry’s aggressively extroverted, so even if it yields mixed results more often than he’d like, Barry will always go out of his way to connect with people.

Maylene - ISFJ (The Nurturer) or ESTP (The Doer)

Despite being one of the most developed characters among the gym leader category in the Pokemon anime, she is harder to peg down than the others. But IFSJ feels pretty accurate for her. Sensitive to the feelings of others could link to her identity as an aura-user… plus she was insecure enough to let Paul’s worlds wreck her shit. But she is extremely considerate of others, warm and kind-hearted, and bringing out the best in others is what she aims to do as gym leader. Considerate, loyal, unselfish? All fit Maylene perfectly. For a Fighting-type specialist and martial artist, she’s definitely a modest and gentle soul.

ESTP… I think Trifecta 13 proves how incompatible Maylene is with elaborate planning and handling shitloads of detailed instructions. If left to her own devices, Maylene definitely would have handled the issue in chapter 13 by directly confronting Saturn rather than trying her hardest to feign ignorance of his identity. She’s not hot-headed, but Maylene does far better winging it than adhering to something set out for her. Maylene does always strive to better herself, so she’s open to trying new things. While a little on the shy side, she enjoys being around people and she IS the head of her own damn dojo, so… there you go. While it’s a stretch to say she’s pragmatic or logical, she definitely comes off that way when you line her up with other characters of her type specialty and line of work. She is level-headed and down-to-earth, at least; I’ll say that much.

When you break it down, there are common carry-over traits between the two for everyone:

Paul solidly has Introverted, Thinking, and Judging in his set. Checks out.

Reggie always carries Extroverted, Sensing, and Judging.

Brandon is a sure bet for Extroverted and Intuitive.

Conway is a consummate Intuitive, Thinking and Perceiving man.

Barry is a lock for Extroverted and Feeling. Unsurprising.

Maylene only has Sensing as a consistent trait.

Well, that was more fun than I thought. Hope everyone else enjoys that!

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