⚠️ WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE ISLES OF GRACIDEA ⚠️
this is also really long bc i have a lot to say lol

I've always loved the fantasy genre. The idea of fantastical worlds full of magic and wonder enchants me like no other. This pulled me towards franchises which focused on problems larger than life whether it's defeating a great king of darkness or uncovering the truth behind a cursed treasure which was best left forgotten. Fantasy pushes the bounds of imagination and lets writers do as they please. It's amazing.

It was only a matter of time before my love for fantasy made its way back into my fanfiction, honestly. I always thought it would've been in the form of a traditional hero's quest about a heroic knight from a castle going out to save the world via contacting a legendary Pokémon like Lugia or Xerneas. But I was wrong. Instead of having a fic inspired by Lord of the Rings, I had a fic inspired by a different series that I had only gotten into because of my sixth-grade obsession with Orlando Bloom—I got inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean.

As I've mentioned before, GOLDENDUST-/MAGICK- was the one who gave me key ideas for TIOG. Floating islands. Airships. Pirates. Magicians. These ideas struck me with a type of inspiration I've never felt before. I wanted to use all of these concepts and more to create a fantasy world of my own. This project wasn't one I was writing for an audience. The Isles of Gracidea was a story I was writing for myself. And since I was writing for myself, I was unapologetically going to include every single idea I could think of.

When I first began outlining TIOG, it was a simple pirate story with elements heavily borrowed from PotC with a dash of magic. It was supposed to be about a male pirate named August who stole a treasure map from his evil captain and ran away to find it for himself. Along the way, he was supposed to pick up a magician love interest who was being hunted by the magician hating government whose name I never got around to. Together, they would've basically reenacted Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl with obvious changes here and there (but the premise is basically the same).

But that idea changed. A lot.

While doing the world-building for Caelum, I started coming up with alternate ideas. The biggest ones which changed the entire course of the story were: What if August was a girl? And, what if instead of being born a pirate, she was made into one?

The creation of August's true character created a snowball effect. With August came her family conflict and Shannon. With the family conflict and Shannon came the ties to the royal throne. The Underground was built on the idea of August having to one day rescue her sister which led to the idea of bloody, steroid-pumped battle rings. Pokérus became rabies, and Parasect became a straight-up zombie.

Finally, I had all of TIOG's ideas written down and in an outline. Then came the problem of actually writing it. How could I present such a complicated alternate universe full of so many characters and detailed world-building to an audience without making it too overbearing? I... still don't have the answer to that. I tried my best to make it digestible through my descriptions and glossary terms, but I know it's still way too much for a casual reader to take in. It's rough lol.

Yeah, that's the right word. Rough. Making TIOG was rough because it was by far the most challenging thing I've ever attempted writing. It shows considering how it took me nearly two years to complete it. But I think it worked out in the end.

Why do I think it's a half-decent story? Well, let's dive into specifics for that.

Main Characters

You see, TIOG is a very busy story. There's a whole alternate universe to world-build full of its own lore and history. Describing why things work the way they do from the magician genocide to the effects of Pokérus-turned-rabies takes a lot of time. Naturally, I wanted my characters to be on the simpler side. Having overcomplicated characters on top of an overcomplicated world is a lot.

It, uh, it didn't really turn out that way, though.

Something I've always enjoyed about writing long works is seeing how my characters change over time because 9 times out of 10, my characters become new people who I hadn't originally planned for. TIOG's cast definitely fits the bill for this.

also, don't be mad but i talk about august in like every single one of these bc the cast was made around her

August Gold

In the very beginning, each of my characters started off with maybe three defining personality traits. August's was that she was shortsighted, volatile, and morally gray. None of these traits reflect my own self which made her hard to write about. I started off writing about August like someone who was an outsider who knew her but didn't really know her.

Through August I learned that the best way you can write about your MC is to understand their motives and where they're coming from. That seems obvious, right? I didn't realize how true it was until I was stuck trying to figure out how to write her before I decided to place myself in her shoes and see where her mental state was.

August was born to a rich family in the shadow of her older sister who was a prodigy at everything she did. Her parents vowed to marry her to a stranger's yet to be born son, after all. Her well-being wasn't at the forefront of their concerns. Not even her sister who was too busy focusing on her own life. The only person August thought liked her for her true self was a Combee/Vespiquen. This made August needy for validation. She needed to find a place where she was wanted and loved for herself. She needed to feel like she belonged somewhere.

Did August know this, though? No, she didn't. She thought she wanted wealth because wealth came with glory and relevance. I paired this internal conflict with her transition from selfishness to selflessness because I thought it worked nicely hand-in-hand. Internal needs are just as important as external goals for protagonists. August's arc worked great for her role.

(As you can probably see, I've been trying to incorporate more "advanced" storytelling into TIOG to practice things I haven't before. August's character is just a big part of that lol)

August is definitely the most complicated character I've tried to write yet. I think I did an alright job with my execution. She's memorable. I like that.

Is August a strong female character? I want to say yes more than I want to say no. I'm well aware of that stereotype where people think "strong female character=emotionless female character who just punches everything" and August kinda acts like that off and on throughout the story. Part of her character arc is learning how to accept that her emotions aren't signs of weakness and that she should laugh and cry and emote, but it takes a while to get there.

Is August a good person? It depends on what you think a good person is. She's a murderer, thief, arsonist, and borderline alcoholic. Like, come on, she's a pirate. Moral grayness is a big part of her shtick. She does what she thinks will help only herself, and later on in the story, those few people around her. One of her defining characteristics is that she's willing to fight dirty if it means she can get what she wants. That determination is both good and bad. It's up to each reader to decide for zirself if they consider August a good person.

At the end of the day, I'm happy with August. I feel like I went on this journey alongside her. What was supposed to be a plot-driven story became a character-driven one thanks to August who demanded the world revolve around her. And so it did. My drunken arsonist who'd stab someone if they so much as looked at her precious Shaymin baby the wrong way has a dear place in my heart.

Briley Calico

I realized early on in outlining TIOG that I was growing way too attached to every character. You see, I have these giant character bio sheets that I fill out for every major player (see •writing is hard• for the template). A big part of the bio is deciding the character's history which leads to zir motive. This makes the character more interesting, more engaging.

And honestly, no character's backstory is more engaging than Calico's.

I have one chapter (Ch 3. First Mate) that touches on Calico's tragic backstory. For those of you who don't remember, she was raised by what were essentially voodoo doctors who completely neglected child!Calico and child!Wes, so they had to learn to fend for themselves in port towns. Their port townhome was then destroyed by pirates who took the twins for labor where they grew up. When she became an adult, Calico overthrew the captain and took her place as the leader while renaming the ship the Zoroark's Deceit.

You might be thinking that her upbringing sounds familiar, and you're right. It is familiar. Calico is what August would have become had she stayed a pirate longer on the Zoroark's Deceit. From letting power corrupt her to assigning Martim as the first mate, Calico was what August could have been if she'd taken the darker path. The main difference between the two is that August didn't let her self-interest ultimately corrupt her character such as Calico had. It was through Calico's self-centered ways that August learned to be unlike her so she'd be a better person.

Another key aspect of Calico's and August's relationship was their stance on power. Calico gained power through fear and brutality which led her to live a lonely life. August found herself at her most powerful when she was kind and earned the friendships of her companions. These two characters are so similar yet so different. It's what makes their conflict so entertaining—or at least for me, it was.

I had a lot of fun with Calico, and I think she was a perfect fit to be August's endgame antagonist. What's more frightening than facing the worst version of yourself, knowing you could've become that monster had you acted slightly differently?

Gracie

Something that nagged at the back of my mind throughout this whole project was that TIOG wasn't Pokémon-y enough for a Pokémon fanfiction. It's a (mostly) human conflict resolved (mostly) by humans who barely own any Pokémon due to world mechanics. Part of this is due to how I want to actually rewrite this story as original fiction, but that's a conversation for another day.

Let's talk about the world's most precious Shaymin: Gracie.

I mention TIOG not being a Pokémon-y Pokéfic bc I think a big part of that rests with Gracie. She should've been included in more scenes, but she wasn't on the excuse her growing body needed rest. The problem I faced was how to make more August-Gracie scenes without making them filler. Because, like, I do have a few scrapped scenes of the duo talking in Google Drive that weren't included because they add nothing to the story.

Gracie's purpose was always to reconnect August back to her humanity and have the pirate lower her walls to embrace others. The easiest way to do this was to give August the most adorable Shaymin I could imagine, thus creating the ball of sunshine that is Gracie. I never really thought about Gracie having a character arc since she was essentially August's prop until I began developing one for her without realizing it. Luckily my subconscious had my back.

Gracie's aging process seems weird because I based that said process off of a dog's. When she's first picked up, she's a few weeks-old puppy. As the months go by, she ages into that naughtier stage which results in her acting and speaking like a first grader because mentally she is one. I tried to make her arc coincide with this rapid maturity process with Gracie trying to grow up quickly and August fighting her every step of the way to keep her Shaymin baby a, well, baby.

Then you have the other part of Gracie's arc: wanting to find the other Shaymin. She longed for a home she knew existed and then found it. It'd be so much stranger for Gracie not to want to stay on Shaymin Island rather than to join it. She had somewhere she belonged, polar to August who has been searching for that her whole life. Gracie parting from her because she doesn't need to rely on August anymore is a huge blow for the pirate and is the reason why August went through that massive mental breakdown.

Even when I'm supposed to be talking about Gracie on her own, I can't help but talk about August since they're connected so closely together. I suppose that says a lot about Gracie's character. She's just not that interesting alone. I wish I could've found a way to develop her more without lengthening the already massively long story. Still, I adore my chia pet.

Omar Durka

Hoo boy. I am (not) ready for the angry mob of readers coming after me for what I did to everyone's favorite character.

Let's address the elephant in the room concerning Omar: his death. At the beginning of the story, Omar was so secretly scared of death and violence that he avoided it at all costs. The way I challenged his passive standpoint was to put something else he loved in harm's way: his friends. He had to choose between staying passive like how he'd been raised or becoming active, even if it meant being violent, to save those he cared about. Unfortunately, luck was not on Omar's side when he decided to lay down his ways of peace to defend those he loves through violence because the first foe he had to battle was Martim. By indirectly killing the pirate's companion Pokémon, he invoked the wrath of a pirate who has no problems killing.

Omar's death—like Wes' and Ves'—were put in place to stimulate the character growth of the remaining cast. These three, in particular, are key to August's arc as they cause her to reflect on her morals then change to become a better, more selfless person. They all still managed to bring about positivity even after death. I think that suits Omar best of all.

Random tidbit, but Omar used to be my least favorite main character to write about. He was just so simple that I could barely stand it, but then I realized that's not a bad thing. You need some vanilla ice cream in a world full of crazy flavors like cilantro-lime sherbert and olive oil gelato. But honestly? Omar's sweeter than vanilla could ever be.

Cyryl Nosek

Unlike my other characters who I went back and forth loving/hating to write, I've always adored writing Cyryl. It was never hard to think of what zie would say or how zie would act because it always came naturally to me. August's and Cyryl's conversations are some of my most favorites because I loved, loved, loved exploring their mentor-apprentice dynamic.

Something I suppose I should talk about is Cyryl being agender. Way back when I was still working on my outline and all that, I was actually hesitant about writing an agender character because I was worried I would misrepresent and/or disrespect people. I even put out a post asking people for tips on how to write an agender character which I then realized very quickly afterward how stupid of a question that was because it's just writing a normal character. It's not rocket science.

(Sidenote: I've had a, well, interesting time reminding some readers that yes, Cyryl is indeed agender so stop calling zir he/she. There's a huge difference between accidentally slipping up in one comment versus repeatedly calling Cyryl by the wrong pronouns. That's disrespectful, ugh.)

As shocking as it seems, though, I have nothing to complain about when it comes to Cyryl. Zie was hands down the easiest character to work with in this story. What can I say? I love my celery stalk and zir bird-brained bird lol.

Lang Dao

I'm going to go ahead and make the claim that Lang is the most underrated character in TIOG. Contrary to popular belief, she did not appear halfway through the story. She showed up in Chapter 15, not 25. I admit it might've not felt like she wasn't around a lot because she's not the fighting type, but she was still there helping the company in the background.

If you couldn't tell, each of the side characters each got their own mini-episode which focused on their character arcs alongside August's. Cyryl had the whole Angeleyes fiasco in the beginning-ish, Omar had the Underground in the middle, and then both Gracie and Lang had theirs during the Scarlet Court arc. Lang definitely got the short end of the stick with this layout since her screen time was at the end of the story and split with another. And I feel bad about that.

I wish there could've been a way for me to showcase Lang more throughout the story because she was a lot of fun to write. Like Cyryl, I loved writing her dialogue. Lang's and August's bantering were some of my top favorite exchanges in the whole entire story. It's just that I didn't allot myself time to explore Lang more due to the rest of the plot going on, and that kind of really sucks.

It's hard to impress people with a character whose specialty is diplomacy in a story that revolves so much around violent conflicts. Lang deserved better.

Supporting Cast

This is random, but I realized recently that barely any main male characters survived to the end of TIOG. Wes, Patel, Omar, and Martim all died. Only Pidge, Angeleyes, Loto, and Prince Dedan made it out besides August's dad who doesn't really count.

Vespiquen & Wes Calico

It was a complete coincidence that Ves' and Wes' names rhyme. I didn't realize this until it was way too late lol. Either way, both of them both fulfill similar roles in motivating August to grow as a character. Had TIOG been a longer story, I would've spent more time showcasing August's family strains and her relationship with Ves in Rubrelum. There also would've been more chapters about pirate!August and how Wes helped her navigate those rough days. That's a running theme with a lot of these characters; they're unexplored because I didn't allot more chapters dedicated to them. Blegh.

Martim Vaz

Fun fact: Martim was originally created to be August's friendly rival on the Zoroark's Deceit. Yeah, that didn't last long. Name a more despicable Pokéfic henchman. I'll wait. I'm willing to bet people hate Martim more than Calico because he was the one who killed Omar. I do have something interesting to say about that, though.

I never got to explore it during the story because I didn't want a lot of pirate chapters, but Martim's backstory is a sad one. Similar to Calico, he was born in a port town to a family of criminals where his parents ran a brothel. When he was 8-years-old, his mother was murdered by a drunken gang member, so his dad and his older brothers went to go fight the crew. None of them ever returned. Martim continued to work at the brothel that got taken over by another until the Zoroark's Deceit pulled in when he was 16 and he ran into August. Throughout his whole life, his only companion was his Greninja, Shade.

Well, until the whole Brawler King thing happened. I know it's cheap to add this on in a separate document unattached to the story, but Martim's hatred for Omar was justified. I didn't think this information was important enough to squeeze into TIOG because it's understandable enough already for Martim to be mad at Omar for him killing his Greninja without readers having to know just how close he was to his Pokémon.

Eh. Martim's still the worst.

Shannon Gold

Once upon a time, August's dad was actually the one who was supposed to be in Shannon's place with the whole being kidnapped by Calico/rescuing her from the queen/etc. thing before I realized that was a dumb idea and switched him out for Shannon. Shannon was a dude for a while, but then I decided I wanted to talk about sisterhood and so I switched Shan's gender to female.

I like Shannon because I placed one of my own flaws in her. She didn't pay attention to her sister when she was younger because she was focused on her own achievements which is something I'm guilty of, too. But like myself, she realized she was wrong for doing that and worked to try to mend the hurt she'd caused in the past. TMI, right? Lol.

Loto

Y'all don't know what stress is until you have to perfectly depict your best friend's OC in your story. I'd written Loto into TIOG long before ImberLapis completed My Name is Loto which meant I had to go back and edit the chapters he was in to go and match her story. Maintaining consistency between the books was hard, but I think I did an okay job with it.

Angeleyes

Angeleyes had no right to be as fun to write about as he was. You see, back in the OG outline, the bounty hunter character was supposed to be this nameless nobody who popped up just for August to defeat easily to show off how good of a fighter August was. But then I got attached to this OC who I thought up while walking around Sam's Club, so we ended up with this evil birdman.

I just grew to love the idea of incorporating an evil character whose gentle looks betrayed his ill intention. I'm very on the nose about this irony, too, with the way I named him Angeleyes and described his horrific actions as being demonic. It didn't help that I gave him a snow-white cloak and a black as night trident, either. Gotta incorporate as many literary techniques as I can lol.

Plot

Want a fun challenge? Try to describe TIOG's plot in one paragraph or less. When I describe my story to the poor souls who ask what it's about, I have to sit them down and give them a five-minute lecture just to cover the bare-bone basics. So much goes on in this story. So. Much. So, yeah, I've got a few things to say about the plot.

Arc One: The Runaway Pirate
Prologue–Chapter 9: Poker Face

I have massive respect for fantasy writers because it is so hard to set the scene for a fantasy world and explain how it works. Just the prologue itself was a challenge because I had to:
• introduce my main character and the main villain
• explain the flying isles/airships/sky pirates
• explain what's up with magicians/enchanted weapons
• try to be interesting enough to entice readers to keep on reading and not be intimidated by all this info hurled their way

And then the exposition continues to never stop. The first good 15 chapters of TIOG are chock-full of worldbuilding-heavy content that allows readers to sink themselves into the world of Caelum. It thins out from there, but it's still a lot of information for readers to digest. As I've said before, reading TIOG takes dedication due to all the info readers are required to digest. It's not for everyone; it's niche. Still, I like to think I did a decent job setting up everything.

Moving onto the actual story itself, I love this arc because it allowed me to live out my wildest POTC/Pokémon crossover dreams. Crafting dark atmospheres and depicting cutthroat characters who won't hesitate to stab each other in the back was so much fun. There's no question about my favorite chapter from this arc being Chapter 3: First Mate. I think the fight between Wes and Patel, Wes' funeral scene, and the intense dialogue between August and Calico at the end is some of my best work.

Oh! Speaking of exchanges between August and Calico, if you reread some of their conversations then you'll find some super-serious foreshadowing.

[Prologue]

(August) flinched as the pirate fisted her lengthy hair and held it up, exposing her tender neck.

"You follow directions well," the assailant taunted, stroking the flames of her ire. "Any last words?"

Seeing as she was at death's door with nothing to lose, August snapped through gritted teeth, "Go to the Distortion World."

"Gladly."

This is parallel to their final exchange in the big battle!

[Chapter 34: Ashes to Ashes]

Calico winced as she forced a bloody smirk. "Let it be. I always knew this would be the way I go. You've got more o' me in you than you think, Gold."

August's teeth gnashed. "Stop talking shit," she hissed, readying her cutlass at Calico's neck. "Go to the Distortion World."

Risk's embers licked at Calico's deathly scorn. Not missing a beat, the captain locked gazes with her former first mate and returned, "Gladly."

Also, there's this—

[Chapter 3: First Mate]

(Calico) leaned forward. "We're similar Gold; it's why I 'ave to keep you close. I turn 'round for one moment and the next you stab me in the back like I did Roux."

A heavy silence befell as the two stared at each other, thickening the atmosphere to a suffocating degree... (August) lacked both the plans and motive to murder Calico, but the deadly warning emitting from the pirate struck a chord.

"A single swipe changes a life," she finally said, crossing her arms across her chest. "I was told that a lot growing up. My parents knew I'd find trouble." She managed a half-grin. "That cut won't be through you, Captain."

And then we all know August's promise never rings true~

Arc Two: The Company
Chapter 10: The Red Desert–Chapter 19: Interval

An alternate title for this arc could be "T is for Terror and Teamwork" because that's what it essentially boils down to. There's nothing like getting the gang together to solve a mystery that could potentially save the world. Thank you, Bee Movie, for inspiring the whole Core Gracidea/Shaymin epidemic.

I'll admit that the whole looking for Core Gracideas thing took a backburner to the other conflict I presented. And by "other conflict," I mean the evil birdman himself, Angeleyes. The August/Cyryl vs. Angeleyes fight is tied with the Wes/Patel duel for my most favorite action scene in the whole story. Choreographing the moves for the former, though, was a heck of a ride. I think I went through at least three different scenarios of how the fight went down before I settled on the one I have now. That being said, Chapter 17: Steel & Magic is my top pick of this arc.

Arc Three: The Underground
Chapter 20: Blood Ties–Chapter 27: Three of a Kind

This is actually my most favorite arc out of the four because it incorporates everything I love about TIOG. Criminal conduct? Check. Character bonding? Check. Gruesome imagery? Check. Insane twists on the Pokémon canon? Check, check, and check again because holy crap did I make Pokérus rough.

I got the idea to make Pokérus a nightmare disease one day when I was thinking about what mechanics I could manipulate to fit into my story. In the game, Pokérus doubles your EVs for up to four days like a mega-steroid of some kind. So I decided to take that to an extreme where Pokémon's bodies can't keep up with the Pokérus rush and their bodies get so overworked that once the effect wears off, they die. Rare Candies just make them susceptible to the virus because they weaken the Pokémon's immune system which makes them easier targets, etc.

While my redesign of Pokérus is sick and twisted, my idea involving the creation of Kaso the Pokérus-infected Parasect is downright evil. I'll be honest: I have no clue how the idea of infecting a Greninja with zombie mushroom spores through his scarf-tongue appendage to render him braindead came to me. It's like The Last of Us and not in a good way lol. I actually managed to shock myself with how dark of a concept this was, but I ran with it because it was too good to cast out.

Despite how much I enjoyed writing the Brawler King battle, though, I think my favorite chapter of this arc is Chapter 20: Blood Ties. Specifically, my favorite scene is the part toward the end when August descends into a fit of despair because she realizes her actions have caused Calico to capture Shannon. I think I captured her horrified, guilt-stricken mind perfectly. Not all of the best conflicts have to be physical.

Arc Four: The Isles of Gracidea
Chapter 28: Beyond the Mirage–Epilogue

This arc made me an emotional wreck! Because I have so many feelings about it, I have a lot of things to say.

Firstly, I was pleasantly surprised to see that readers accepted the whole Shaymin Island mini-arc. Gracie's character arc of growing up to make her own decisions melded so well with August's arc of going from selfish to selfless. I admit that it got kind of melodramatic describing how torn up August was over letting Gracie go, but I don't think it got too bad. I was kind of expecting readers to rally and hate on Privet, but everyone (alongside August) realized he's actually a good guy and were nice to him.

Explaining how Caelum functions the way it does was easier to convey than I'd anticipated, too. I was glad to see that nobody complained that it was too confusing how the Core Gracideas/Life Flowers worked.

Secondly, writing the battle between White Lightning and the Zoroark's Deceit was the most chaotic writing experience I've ever had. I don't know how, but I managed to finish the whole battle (yes, both chapters) back-to-back over the course of three days. The entire time I wrote it, I had that big battle scene at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End playing in my head and I think the mental imagery helped me convey the action well.

It's hard writing battles. You have to capture an intense atmosphere, remember the mental states of all those fighting, choreograph sensible moves, and convey emotions between blows all while writing action that's easy to visualize and follow. If anyone ever needs tips on fights, you can hit me up. TIOG gave me more than enough practice on how to write them lol.

Thirdly, there's the pain that came with Omar's death. I teared up describing his end. It was fast, it was brutal, it was unfair. I think that describes a lot of what's wrong with the world of Caelum. Capturing the cast's grief after his passing was a really hard task because I struggle with conveying grieving emotions. Writing the funeral scene actually killed me. Once Omar was killed, I felt the gloom my surviving characters carried and honestly had a hard time finishing the story.

It didn't help that the weirdest arc yet was up to bat.

Fourthly, let's talk about Scarlet. I don't think anyone was expecting the company to get holed up in a dungeon to be summoned before a queen for questioning over how they'd come in contact with the crown prince. It felt like I was in a limbo stage when writing this part because I was juggling my characters' high emotions with gigantic bouts of exposition. Scarlet had to happen, though, to tie up loose ends with Shannon and allow Lang to make the ESA bill public.

The highlight of Scarlet was definitely the breakout scene between Gracie and the Salamence, though. That was a lot of fun.

And last but not least, there's the life montage in Waywyn and the ending. Some people might feel like the ending chapters are way too happy in comparison to the rest of TIOG, but come on, guys. Haven't the characters been through enough? Lol. I hate writing sad endings, so I had to give TIOG a happy one.

As you might have guessed, yes, Eyes of Gold was the alternate title for TIOG. That title comes from a poem I had to do for AP Lang that was inspired by when I first started creating this story. Still, I stuck with The Isles of Gracidea because I believe it captures the wannabe fantasy epic that is this fanfiction.

My favorite chapter of the fourth arc was Chapter 39: Allegiance because it was full of pirate-y action, heartwarming feels, and more. My all-time favorite chapter of the entire story goes to Chapter 3: First Mate, though. To me, there's just something super iconic about that first magician throwdown and the dangerous conversation between Calico and August that follows it. It's just peak performance TIOG writing to me.

...and saying that aloud, I realize it makes it sound like I think TIOG peaks at Ch.3 and everything after it goes downhill lmao

Biggest Boons & Banes

+ The worldbuilding is A+ for a Pokéfic

- Too many things were going on all the time

+ 3D cast of memorable characters

- Too many characters lol

+ Awesome action scenes

- Not enough Pokémon elements

Final Verdict

All in all, I'm proud of The Isles of Gracidea. I'm actually considering paying to have it printed and bound so I can place it on my shelf because I love it that much. And do you know why? It's because I wrote something I would want to read, and that's something I strongly believe all writers should do.

What you write doesn't have to be perfect. Chances are it'll never be perfect, but you know what? That's okay. As long as you put in your best effort in creating your work, that's all that matters. It's better to have actually made an attempt to write the story you want to write instead of letting it sit there in your brain for eternity, never to see the light of day. You'll never grow as a writer unless you write. Push yourself out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself. You won't regret it.