Luffy in fics or your writing-related whine for today

[rainsometimes]

Writing Luffy in fics often feels like a constant struggle between making sure he's not too dumb and making sure he's not too normal. If a line satisfies me in one of those regards, it often makes me anxious for the other one instead.

And then there's also the worry of making him too wise - only in other people's POV, though./random venting

ETA: This is a silly thing to post.

Comments

[schneefink.livejournal.com]

It´s not silly! I wouldn´t know how to write him, either, and I think he´s definitely a difficult character to get his voice right. (I think the only time I did write him was as a tiny kid.)

[serrende.livejournal.com]

Difficult and frustrating./nods

Now that I think about it, the one time I wrote him like a kid may have been easier. Although that was way before his canon flashback so it's totally Jossed now. ^_^

[elle-white.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's silly at all. I've only briefly written Luffy, while featuring him in ficlets. If I ever wrote a fic that focused more prominently on him, I don't think I'd know how to write. He's a character that's much more nuanced and complicated than he first seems.

I'm going to write a story involving Anthy soon. I've avoided writing her character for a long time. Just the thought of it is very intimidating to me!

[serrende.livejournal.com]

He really, really is! It's not easy to get a handle on him. When I try writing dialogue for him I often realise I've dead-ended as the stuff the other person says might be easy to reply to for most characters, but not so for Luffy, so I have to either figure out something else for the other person to say or think really hard to find a Luffy answer that works.

Ooh, that sounds cool! Are you writing from her POV or only from the outside? Is it in series time or post-series?

The very first Anthy I met in fic was in the multicrossover Hybrid Theory which I helped do beta for, right after I'd finished watching the TV series. (In fact I watched the series for the exact purpose of not getting spoiled by reading the fic.) It was from her POV and pretty dark and gruesome (pre-liberation). She kept referring to herself as "the witch".

[elle-white.livejournal.com]

It is tough to write his interactions with others. I wish you luck, but I'm sure you'll come up with a solution soon!

That sounds like an extremely interesting fic!
I want write it from the outside, post-series. I've wanted to write a fic that focuses on Anthy's life post-series for a while. I'm mostly concerned about showing Anthy adjusting to her freedom in a way that's realistic to her character. She'll probably still have many of her old tendencies, while slowly learning to let go of everything she carried with her for so long.

[serrende.livejournal.com]

Well, it was in many ways, although I'm always a bit hesitant when reccing it because it has a ton of darkness in it (in part due to having imported lots of evil villains from various series) including mass death, important characters getting killed, torture and abuse, etc. So I feel it's best to be prepared. As for Anthy, she comes in pretty late but winds up having a pretty important place in the overall plot towards the end of the fic, though I don't think she shows up terribly often.

Your fic idea sounds very cool to me. I'm looking forward to reading it once it's done.

(I wonder how Chu-Chu will adapt... ;))

[dethorats]

He drives me insane, hence I barely write him because I feel like I'm failing at every turn. I've always felt you do a masterful job with him.

[serrende.livejournal.com]

...wow, really? *stunned* That's high praise indeed. I constantly worry about the above things. Especially if he comes across as too simple-minded to others (he's not so in my head, but trying to get that across...)

I don't feel that I've had any trouble with your Luffys in general and in the Luffy/Usopp fics in particular.

Huh, I wonder if the difficulties in writing Luffy has had adverse effects on One Piece fic writing as a whole? For one thing, it can't be that common to have the juggernaut ship in the fandom not involve the main character... /idle speculation

[dethorats]

Luffy in your hands always feels very natural to me - the turn he takes in your current ongoing fic, while extreme in some regards, honestly feels totally possible for him and the way you've handled it has been excellent! And I've always felt you've struck a good balance between the profound and the inane, which is kind of how Luffy is from day to day depending on the situation.

I dunno, now that we know his past, it's hard to know just how much of his personality has grown up around him as a form of protection versus how much is still carried over from the basically happy-go-lucky child he was. I mean, he's still pretty carefree about most things, but Oda's let that other side slip more and more.

As for your theory, I suspect it may come into play to a fair degree and I think you're right, too, that many series DO feature the main character more prominently in pairings, although the easiest example for me to think of off hand are Naruto and Ranma, which are very different sorts of series...I dunno, it's AWESOME that Luffy is so multi-faceted but it makes it so much harder to put him down on paper at the same time...

[serrende.livejournal.com]

It has become a little easier to write Serious Luffy POV after the flashback arc (though some of the earlier stuff I've done has been Jossed, but that's only to be expected). But only a little.

I think Oda did a wise choice for the manga in never showing us Luffy's thoughts directly (at least not in words... and even thought-images are rare). But it doesn't help much when it comes to fics...

[alice-and-lain.livejournal.com]

You do a good job with Luffy, I think!

[serrende.livejournal.com]

Um, thanks! That is very nice to hear.

[knarz.livejournal.com]

He is superhard to write, so I try not to. A good way is probably to see him as a little kid - playful and naive; and then something very insightful and clever comes out of his mouth.

Being as naive as Luffy and writing that way is probably hard for us modern people. Luffy sees the world as easy to conquer if you just try; how many of us are that brave? *lol*

It's probably easiest to describe how he fools around with Chopper and Usopp and then has a serious talk with Zoro or Sanji or the girls where the other goes "Huh? How is he so clever to understand that?" Then you don't have to find things Luffy could say to sound not-too-dumb-but-a-little.

[serrende.livejournal.com]

Something like that can work when writing Luffy from the outside, but not Luffy POV. Though I'm not sure if the others would be that surprised anymore... also I don't like implying that Usopp or Chopper can't be used for more serious stuff. (Probably not what you meant at all, but it reminds me of many fics where one gets that impression...)

I definitely think you're right about Luffy's mindset being hard for us mere modern mortals to understand!