Hello, and welcome to my profile! Thanks for stopping by.

Scroll halfway down if you came here for the Hunger Games SYOT character building guide.

Name: PinaColadaFox/PCF/Colada. Whatever you want!

Favorite Games: Legend of Zelda Series, Earthbound/Mother 3, Okami, Pokemon, Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart, Banjo Kazooie, Portal, Chrono Trigger, Metroid Prime, Ace Attorney, Pikmin, Animal Crossing, Dangan Ronpa.

TV Shows: LOST, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra, Teen Titans, My Little Pony (I am not a brony, mind you. I am a girl who likes girly things), Seinfeld, The Middle, Impractical Jokers, Running Man.

Anime: Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Higurashi, Princess Tutu, Fruits Basket, Wolf’s Rain, Death Note, Card Captor Sakura

Books: Lord of the Rings, Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Watership Down...some other stuff...this list is kind of sad, isn't it?

Movies: Lord of the Rings (diehard Smeagol/Gollum fangirl), Hunger Games, Phantom of the Opera, Coraline, Toy Story, Groundhog Day, Back to the Future, Tangled, Anything by Hayao Miyazaki. Except Howl's Moving Castle. I don't know what in the heck was going on with that one.

Some info about me

1. My main fandom is Legend of Zelda. There's so much potential to create good stories, by fleshing out characters and filling in the gaps the developers left for us. Majora's Mask and Skyward Sword are my top two games. My favorite is whichever one I happen to be playing at the moment.

2. My favorite genres to write are humor and mystery. I'll read just about any genre so long as it's well written.

3. I am a perfectionist and a mad planner. I always know how my stories are going to end before I begin them, and I never have a shortage of ideas. When I run into issues is when I'm trying to translate those ideas into something people might actually like to read. It takes me forever!

4. Everything I know about storytelling I learned from LOST. If you really want to get some ideas for how to construct plots and develop characters effectively, watch that show.

5. I mostly write and help edit other peoples' fanfics more than I read stuff on here (because let's face it, most of it is garbage), but if I come across a story I like, I make an effort to review. As for my review style, I am a huge fan of the compliment sandwich...i.e.:

Nice hair.

You're a piece of crap.

I like your shirt.

only not as harsh.

6. I welcome constructive criticism on my own work, as I am always looking for ways to improve my writing. I may not act on every single suggestion (nor do I expect others to take all of mine), but I appreciate the input nonetheless. You'll find I'm reasonable; in fact, I almost always take concrit into account unless it's a personal nitpick or preference I happen to respectfully disagree with.

7. I also welcome flames, because I enjoy laughing.

8. If someone is generous enough to leave a [thoughtful] review on one of my stories, I reciprocate and review one of theirs. This is just my way of saying thanks for taking some time to go the extra mile. And it's a good way to find decent stories to read since sifting through the archive is a pain. I usually won't do it right way because I'm busy and I don't have loads of free time. And I like leave comments that are worthwhile. But I try to get around to it within a week. If I don't do it, it's for one of these reasons:

-You haven't written any stories.

-You don't write in any fandoms I'm familiar with.

-All your stories are M-rated or contain yaoi/yuri/genderbending/twincest/all of the above and anything in between that I neglected to mention. So long as you tag that stuff, I'm not judging you. Much. :)

-I forgot. Unfortunately, I am a scatter-brained, forgetful person and this just happens sometimes. Please forgive me.

Also, I'm more inclined to read one-shots than multi chapters...even though I write mult chapter fics. Dang, I'm a hypocrite.

9. Feel free to drop me a PM if you want to chat! I'm actually pretty nice and easy to get a long with. I just have no tolerance for idiots, that's all.

Quote of the Week: "Forgive and file away for future reference."

STORY STATS

The Customer Is (Not) Always Right, Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Main Project, IN PROGRESS)

This is a slice-of-life comedy starring Rupin from Skyward Sword, told in 1st person sarcastic-stream-of-consciousness. And of course, it spotlights many of Skyloft's lovely residents. It was going to be my "side project" to help keep me fresh while writing Masquerade, but it ended up being the most fun thing I've ever written in my life. Ever. So now it's my main project.

Jerry Seinfeld is my biggest inspiration for the humor in this fic. I like to think of it as a "story about nothing", only customer service style. Another neat thing about this fic is it's readable even if you don't know the fandom. Yes, there are some fandom-specific jokes that might fly over non-Zelda peoples' heads, but most of the humor can be appreciated by anybody. If you're going to read just one of my stories, pick this one.

Current Status: Writing Chapter 7.

Updates: Every 1-2 weeks, though right now things are slow due to end-of-semester mayhem. Count on this returning full force in summer.

MASQUERADE, Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Side Project, IN PROGRESS)

This is a Majora's Mask retelling, but despite following the plot of the game it's largely made up of original content (such as flashbacks detailing Link's life between the end of OOT and the beginning of MM). Though seeing as the latest chapter I wrote was all about the flipping Bomber's Secret Society of Justice, I don't really have much to rave about at this point.

Actually, my interest in MM has faded in recent months, so I've shoved this story to the back burner. And to be honest, it's viewership has been pretty poor. A bit of a motivation killer. :/ I didn't used to care about that back when this was the only thing I was working on, but I guess once I started up another, more original story that I'm more passionate about (and readers are more passionate about) that one took precedence over this one. If you do happen to like this story, I'm sorry for my lousy attention span.

Current Status: On Hold

I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm discontinuing this; my MM obsession is kind of a cyclical thing that sparks again every couple years, so there's a chance of me picking this story up again the next time that happens. I just need to wait for my fire to relight or something.

A Series of Unfortunate Events, Tokyo Mew Mew (aka garbage from my 7th grade weeaboo days)

Because I'm a strong believer in not deleting old stories, no matter how stupid and embarrassing they are. That being said, DON'T READ THIS IT'S A PIECE OF CRAP. The conception of this story is an unfortunate event in of itself. Seriously, unless you're looking to kill off some brain cells, don't click on it. I'm warning you. It's not worth it.

I tried to delete it once. I really did. I was one click away from doing it, but I just couldn't. And now you're going to click on it because your curiosity has been piqued. Shame on me. And you. I'd also like to add that this...thing...is NOT an accurate representation of my writing skills when I was in 7th grade. I like to think I was better than that. It'd be more fitting to say this is an accurate representation of my convoluted sense of humor at that time. What on Earth was I thinking.

And I will not change "monkery" to "monastery".

FUTURE STORIES

I don't put my ideas here any more because I'm paranoid of people stealing them. It happens. Well, it hasn't happened to me, but it's happened to my sister. Like, twice. What the heck.

Mostly, I just have ideas for Zelda one-shots at the moment, and possibly a multi-chapter Hunger Games SYOT type of thing if I ever feel like writing it. Although, I will not start another lengthy multi-chapter until I reach certain milestones on some of the stories i already have going because I don't know...commitment? It's just something that's kind of important to me.

BETA READING

The Disastrous 42nd Hunger Games (Complete)

Fire and Ice: The 43rd Hunger Games (Complete)

Final Judgement: The 44th Hunger Games (In Progress)

These are 3 marvelous Hunger Games stories authored by my sister, Hoprocker, an impossibly talented writer who produces chapters at a lightning fast pace, yet maintains great quality. I highly recommend giving them a read if you're a fan of Hunger Games.

Tips for Creating Good SYOT Characters

I wrote this specifically for anybody planning to submit an OC to Hoprocker’s 44th Hunger Games Fanfic, which is done accepting tributes, but I'll keep it up in case anybody still wants to refer to it for other SYOTs.

Often, when a profile is rejected, we receive questions such as, “what was wrong with my character? How can I make the character better?” Well, here I’m going to help answer those questions for you before you even start making your profile. For some of you, this guide will just be a review. But for others of you...well, let’s just say you might really benefit from reading this. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to put myself on a high horse or insult anyone’s intelligence or anything. Believe me, I was there once. Writing stupid crap that I’m ashamed to look back on (coughseriesofunfortunateeventscough). But since then, I’ve learned a lot about characterization over the years, and I thought I’d to share a bit of what I’ve learned. Hopefully, these tips will help you increase your odds of nabbing a spot on the tribute list.

1. The Name!
Believe it or not, this is actually really important. This is the first thing everybody sees on the tribute list. The first impression! So please don’t give them a Mary Sue name. Really. 90% of the time, we can immediately identify a Mary Sue by looking at the character’s name. If you don’t know what a Mary Sue is, I advise you look that up right now and avoid making anything that vaguely resembles one. There are some decent surveys out there you can use to test your character for Mary Sue disease. Filling one out might help you become better at designing characters, so I recommend trying it at least once. Here’s a good one:

h t t p : / / www . onlyfiction . net/ms-test . html

This first one is the best because it intersperses questions that give you positive points with ones that give you negative points. So if you’re not the most experienced at building characters, you won’t be to tell the difference and you won’t be tempted to skew the results!!! >:D

Here’s another test that I don’t like as much because it’s obnoxiously long, but it has a good section on naming that’s worth checking out:

h t t p : / / www . springhole . net/writing/marysue . htm

Keep in mind that these tests aren’t 100% accurate, so don’t take the results too seriously! Also, I’m in no way implying that you should avoid the qualities listed on these tests all together (THAT would be hard). These so-called “Stereotypical Sue Traits” are fine in moderation and can actually help spice up your character. It’s just bad to have too many of them! You want to gently sprinkle some salt on your steak, not dump the whole freaking can all over it. Another thing I feel I should mention...this is only a test to check if your character is a Mary Sue, not a gauge that will tell you whether they're actually a good character or not. A really low score can mean one of two things: 1. Your character is really polarizing (a nice mix of good and bad traits), or 2. Your character is really really boring. So yeah. Just because you don't have a Mary Sue doesn't necessarily mean you've got an awesome character on your hands.

Ok, sorry for the digression. Back on topic...creative/weird District-related names are wonderful! If you can think of a good one, bring it on! But note that there is a fine line between a Mary Sue name and a punny District name, so beware. Rather than attempt to explain, I’m just going to throw a few good and bad examples out there to help illustrate this.

The Good
Gadgette Langlee (D3)
Kelsea Cutthroat (D4)
Roam Ramble (D6)
Adrenaline Rush (D2) - This one is special. The first time HR and I saw this name we were like, “LOL Adrenaline Rush?! Are you freaking kidding?” but then it really grew on us. We realized that considering Addy’s D2 upbringing...her parents are the type of people to do this to their child. The fact that other characters drew attention to the name by making fun of it made it better too.

The Bad, from elsewhere on the internet to avoid offending anybody.
Sora Skye - If either of these words are in your character’s name...please please reconsider.
Arwen Worthington-Smythe (My Mary Sue name, courtesy of of the Mary Sue name generator!)
Katherine “Kitty” Valentine.

Those bad examples were pretty exaggerated, but you get the point. For more good examples, look at character names from the actual Hunger Games. For more bad examples, go on the FF.net front page for any popular series and skim the summaries for horrendous OC names! I’m sorry if I was vague on this topic. I guess what I’m trying to say is, actually put a bit of thought into this. Shoot for that ring that just makes the name jump off the page, and roll off the tongue nicely. Just make a name that, even though it sounds a little weird, seems like it could be an actual name! It’s hard to describe, but there’s just this click. Like when you say “Saffron Le Bel!” in a dramatic French accent and you know that name was always meant to be. In addition, please make sure you give names to any parents/siblings/family/friends that are important to your character. You know how you get more attached to your pokemon when you nickname them? Yeah. It’s the same concept.

2. Don’t Base them off a Hunger Games Character
This one is pretty self-explanatory. No one wants to read about Finnick or Foxface or Johanna again; they want to read about NEW characters! Knock-offs of actual Hunger Games characters will be immediately rejected. Likewise, characters who are too similar to 42nd or 43rd characters won’t be accepted either.

Basing your character off a pre-existing character from something else is fine, as long as you effectively integrate them into the Hunger Games setting. Heck, Hoprocker and I have done this with every one of our characters except Hip. When I say, “integrate them into the Hunger Games setting” I mean try to give them an interesting district-themed backstory, and make sure people won’t immediately notice that you just flung a younger, mildly handsome version of the Happy Mask Salesman into Panem. And if you decide to name the character after their original inspiration, be sure to disguise the name a bit, especially if they’re from a really well known series. If you base your character off Seamus Finnigan and you name him Seamus Finnigan, everybody is going to be like, “Hey-o Seamus! What nasty spell backfired on you and brought you to Panem?” because I can guarantee you the vast majority of people on this site have read a Harry Potter Book at some point in their life.

3. Don’t Base the Character off Yourself
This is one is more of a recommendation then an absolute rule you should follow. I just want to warn you of some of the dangers that come with basing a character off yourself. Of course, Mary Sue and self-insert are two things that often to go hand and hand, so Sue tendencies are one factor to be wary of when designing a self-insert. I’m not saying all self-inserts are Mary Sues, because many are not. Actually...the biggest problem we have with self-inserts is that almost all of them end up being just plain bland.

I think the reason for this is...we all want to think of ourselves as good people, so we limit the characters’ actions to what we would do if we were put in these situations, and we don’t give them enough flaws. As I’ve grown older and less egocentric, I’ve found it’s much much more fun to base characters off other people (NOT your best friend. Friend inserts are getting to be just as bad as self-inserts!) or characters from other things. Why? Because these self-imposed limits we put on ourselves (sometimes subconsciously) disappear! You’re free to do whatever the heck you want! But If you do choose to model the character after yourself, there is a right way to go about doing it. My biggest piece of advice would have to be to exaggerate your personal flaws! Be willing to admit your faults and poke fun at yourself. If you do, your character will far more interesting.

4. Personality and Strengths/Weaknesses
I mashed these two sections together since they tend to overlap quite a bit. Again, I reiterate, GIVE YOUR CHARACTER FLAWS! And I mean legit flaws that will actually affect them in a negative way. One “flaw” you might see Sue-ish characters possess is clumsiness. But in actuality, all this petty flaw does is make the character more cute or endearing to others. *coughBellaSwancough* If your character is clumsy, actually make them get in trouble for it! Have them screw up at a crucial moment! Maybe they accidentally bomb their training session or their alliance partner. Maybe other people find their clumsiness incredibly irritating, or maybe the character is a little biscuit who acts clumsy as a cheap way to get attention. Then it’s a real flaw! The reverse is also true. If you create a heavily flawed character that leans more toward the “bad” side of the moral spectrum, a few redeeming traits will make them more likable! Take Saffron for instance. He’s a terrible person! But he has redeeming qualities such as loyalty and chivalry that make him a sympathetic character. Flaws make characters more relatable to the audience, because in reality, nobody is perfect.

As for strength and weaknesses, that section is specifically for physical ineptitudes, mental limitations, personality flaws, etc. that could hinder the character’s performance in the games. So anything that doesn’t have to do with the games can just stay up in the personality section. To often, people submit overpowered godtributes who have weaknesses that really don’t matter. Be aware that Mary Sues can come in various shapes and forms, not just that perky, goody-two-shoes girl many of you might have in your heads. There’s the angsty sue...the action sue...the hardcore little girl who can strangle a full grown man underwater with her bare hands (I’m looking at you, Sienna). So please, be sure to give the character a significant physical/mental weakness or two that could potentially be a real problem for them. (Hint: “Bad at identifying edible insects” is not a significant weakness. “Reluctant to trust” is not a big weakness because it could potentially work in the character’s favor). Weaknesses help the author determine how the character should interact with arena hazards and other characters, and how their death should go down. It’s the freaking Hunger Games and chances are, your character’s going to kick the bucket.

Am I suggesting you should make your character some average Joe Schmoe who’s not particularly good at anything? No! Not necessarily. The most important thing is to strive for balance. If your character has a lot of strengths, balance those out with a couple blaring weaknesses. I’ll use Hapi as an example, since he’s probably the most unique and dynamic character I’ve created. He had a ton of strengths and good qualities. He was (at his core) a genuinely good person. He was smart, artistically talented, proficient in knife throwing, and he even made a little bit of name for himself prior to the games. But he also had some major issues (mental illness, poor physical aptitude/stamina, nasty temper, trouble letting go of grudges, etc.) that really screwed him over in the end. Out of curiosity, I put him through that first Sue test I posted up there, and I actually ended up clicking an awful lot of boxes I knew were getting me Sue points. But you want to know what his final score was? -5. All his bad qualities ended up outweighing his positive ones in the end.

5. Background
A person is a product of their experiences. Mold the character’s background into their personality. Think cohesion! If you’re having trouble with this, take a moment and consider how the authoritarian society the Capital created would have specifically affected your character’s life. If Hapi hadn’t been forced to work a four-hour shift after school thanks to crappy child labor laws (or lack thereof), the whole tragedy with his mom probably wouldn’t have happened in the first place.

Also, character’s an orphan? Character’s mom died giving birth to them? These things are okay. We’re not against orphaned characters or anything like that. What’s not okay is tacking these details on as an afterthought. If this heavy stuff went down, describe how the character’s parents died, and how that experience molded your character into the person they are today. It doesn’t even have to affect them profoundly or completely traumatize them, it just has to have some sort of impact on their person! For example, Chat became extremely street smart because for the majority of her life, she had to look out for her little brother in the absence of her parents. Background details will help readers understand and sympathize with your character. Everyone will think, “dang, this is a real person with a history!” rather than, “oh great another orphan”. Think about what your character went through in their district as they were growing up and write it down! Because if you simply add “their parents died” as a last-ditch effort to garner sympathy for the character, quite honestly no one is going to give a flying feather.

Last, make your character stand out! And I don’t mean by making them some hardcore twelve-year-old career (preferred Career age is 15-18) or making up some unlikely scenario like a D1 or D2 tribute getting reaped against their will. If that were the case, someone would surely volunteer in place of that poor chump! There are countless other ways to make your character stand out, through a three-dimensional personality or a unique back story. As for character development, if you’ve created a 3-dimensional character and not some fugly card board cutout of a person, their development arc will be clear. If you clue HR in on where this character’s coming from, she can get a good idea of where they’re heading, and she’ll be able to determine how the games should bring out their good and bad colors. I’ll give you another example. Zane started out as the self-proclaimed “modest career” but by the end he became quite bloodthirsty and arrogant. When I was editing one of the final chapters, I pointed this out to HR and said, “this is so great! I love this direction you’ve taken with Zane!” but then she admitted she didn’t even realize she was doing it and it just happened naturally. So there you go. A well-written profile can go a long way! If you do have a certain direction you want your character’s arc to take, feel free to note it on your profile. But just remember that the more intricate you are, the less likely you are to get exactly what you want, as there are 24 characters to cater to.

6. Weapons/Skills If you’re creating a character who is supposed to be good with a certain weapon or survival skill, you must indicate how they acquired that skill in their background, preferably through some sort of practical application. Obviously, the careers trained for the hunger games so they’re all set. But if your character’s from an outlying district and they’ve never thrown a knife before, they can’t learn how to sink a dagger into a target in three days and score a 7 or 8 in training. If you want your character to get a high score, they must have prior experience in the area they show off to the Game Makers. Another hint...characters with high scores don't necessarily make it far into the games. Well written ones do.

Some Last Words
-Try to find a happy medium when it comes to detailing your character’s profile. The best way to go about writing is to strive to fit as many details as you can into as few words as possible. The more punctual your writing, the better grasp the author can get on your character. Be definitive and concise, and avoid giving your character contradicting traits that could cause their personality to become nebulous. (Ex: “He’s calm and has an unusually even temper when it comes to arguments. But he gets into a lot of fights.") The recommended length for a profile is no more than 2 pages.
-There’s no need to use complete sentences all the time. Really. Sometimes less is more. A list of carefully selected personality traits can be more helpful than paragraphs upon paragraphs that tell the author...absolutely nothing. If you want, you could combine the best of both worlds; start off with a bulleted list that gets straight to the point (Bang bang bang who is this person?), and then write a paragraph elaborating on some of your points. There’s no absolute correct way to do it or an ideal length your profile should be, just make sure everything you write is meaningful.
-Killing the careers/an alliance/a fake lover off in their sleep is not a good plan, nor is it original. I can’t tell you how many profiles I’ve seen that requested this.
-Build your character’s background in accordance to your first choice of district, and don’t feel that you have to be absolutely perfect on your first try. If the overall character concept is good, a few small problems that can easily be fixed won’t bar you from getting a spot.
-I’ll clue you all in on the writing process. Good stories are formed from good PLANNING. Not making crap up as you go along. This is why there’s no interactive point system, and why Hoprocker’s really picky about sponsors.

Whew! If you read all the way through that, treat yourself to a cookie. If you did something I listed as a big no-no on this guide or you discovered you made a Mary Sue, don’t be discouraged. Just take a step back with this information in mind, look at your profile with an objective eye, and try again. The truth is, creating good characters is not easy! It takes practice to get good at it. I apologize if I hurt anyone's feelings in any way. That was not my intent. If you have any questions about this guide or otherwise, feel free to PM me or my sis. Good luck and happy character creating! :)