The (un)importance of names.

Subject: The (un)importance of names.
Author: Huinesoron
Posted on: 2016-03-10 16:21:00 UTC

A name is the least important thing about a character. Jossk Noda, former Trandoshan bounty hunter, is no different to me than Bassk Ralo, former Trandoshan bounty hunter. Or, for that matter, than Galaro, former Rodian bounty hunter.

If Natalie's older brother is called Bartholomew, or 'Erbert, or Michel-Saint-Germain, it makes very little difference.

A character is about their personality first and foremost. That can be informed by their species, abilities, and whatnot, and those attributes may even come first ('Trandoshan' does give a very clear idea there), but when you're trying to develop them into a useable character, you need to think about their personality, not the other stuff.

hS

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What do you do when you have many appealing ideas for agents by Silenthunder on 2016-03-10 03:06:00 UTC Reply

...and you're trying to decide which ones to use? Especially for multiple agents that go into different Departments.

See, I have about five ideas for different agents I want to create in the near future, and I feel strongly about all of them. If you want more details on the agent ideas, just ask and I'll post them, as long as you promise not to steal the ideas.

Agents are rather confusing. by Ivy-M-Blue on 2016-03-12 12:34:00 UTC Reply

If it's not too aggravating, I have a question. When a Boarder writes their first story, are their agents also shiny and new?
In the sample Agent bios on the wikia, it said that one of them had worked in the Department of Implausible Crossovers (I think) before transferring to another one. Clearly, all agents must have lives before and/or outside of the PPC. Is developing an agent a bit like taking a Generic Bit Character and turning them into something more?
I'm probably totally incorrect, but I've just been wondering this for a while. My apologies for irritating you guys.

They don't have to be... by JulyFlame on 2016-03-12 22:10:00 UTC Reply

But it can help. :)

When I first went about writing my spin-off, I made a conscious decision to make both Agent!July and Library completely new; this meant that I after I made sure I knew the tools and basic concepts that I had to know, I was giving myself wiggle room in case I messed up on procedure somehow- because a vet would know what they're doing! Newbies wouldn't!

And as far as developing an agent, it's just like developing any other character: You start off with the basics and then add more and more as you go along. To use an example, think about the Harry Potter series. We get introduced to our main characters and all the secondaries, and we learn more and more information about them as time goes on after the basics are established. That's how you go about characterization, because if you throw everything at the reader at once, it's a bit of an info dump and overwhelming.

Not to mention, characters can change things up on you or decide to do something else that you hadn't exactly expected in the first place! I started off with very general ideas about what I was doing with July and Library, and they ended up going in far more specific (and more than somewhat different) directions than I had expected- July became more erratic and slowly more and more reactionary in missions and in interludes, while Library ended up being the calmer one, but also the one who ended up starting to steer things around and make the plans.

-July
Not necessarily. by Desdendelle on 2016-03-12 16:36:00 UTC Reply

"Two newbie agents" is a possibility, but it isn't a must. Off the top of my head, Wobbles the clown used to be in the A/V division (and worked in the Nursery) before transferring to Floaters; by the time we first see Agent!Des he's been around for a while (how much time, I'm not certain — I'm still toying with that); and, of course, Jay and Acacia weren't newbies at the start of TOS.

Take it one pair at a time. by JulyFlame on 2016-03-10 08:51:00 UTC Reply

Overal, the vast majority of boarders who ever write a spin-off only get a relatively small number of missions done. People who have very long spin-offs like Indemaat, Iximaz, Trojie (and even hS) are a very, very small minority.

I'd suggest working with just one pair at first, and then if you want, start introducing the rest into that spin-off a bit at a time as supporting characters. Eventually you can start writing missions for them, too, if you really want.

Try focusing on one mission at a time, one spin-off at a time and see about getting a pace and rythym going there first.

I've been around for awhile, and it's only relatively recently that I've really explored actually setting up new agent pairs. There's nothing wrong with waiting on the rest.

That said, we put a lot down on trying to assume good faith in others on the board, which includes not needing to ask people to not steal ideas.

-July

:( I'm an 'and even'? by Huinesoron on 2016-03-10 10:21:00 UTC Reply

I agree with the gist of this: write one agent-team to let both us and yourself get to know them. It's worth remembering that Iximaz wrote a lot of Rina-Randa and Rina-Zeb missions, and that my Dafydd-Selene(-whoever) missions were almost all written before I used any other agents. Stick with one team, and let them reach their potential.

hS

Reorganisation and Crashing Down are... by JulyFlame on 2016-03-10 12:06:00 UTC Reply

...hardly mission-featuring spin-offs. :P My point of focus was, after all, on agents doing missions. You're prolific and influential elsewhere, don't you worry, hS.

But yeah, let them reach their potential first, like hS said. If you scatter yourself all over the place, you won't be able to give any single character or agent pair as much attention as you would otherwise and figure out what makes them tick sooner.

So, in other words, stick with the pair I have for now. by Silenthunder on 2016-03-10 12:13:00 UTC Reply

Until I get the to where I want them character-wise.

Something I feel worth mentioning... by Iximaz on 2016-03-10 13:39:00 UTC Reply

Don't bring in any new agents until you've developed them well enough to be able to write them. I spent several months tweaking Zeb's character before I brought him in, and he's stuck around; nobody remembers these guys because I went "ooh, shiny new idea, let's try it out!" and rushed in to write them without really thinking them through. They've been left to sit and gather dust ad infinitum as a result.
Okay, got it. But how do you decide between many ideas? (nm) by Silenthunder on 2016-03-10 13:21:00 UTC Reply

P...pick the one you like most? by Huinesoron on 2016-03-10 13:30:00 UTC Reply

Is this a trick question? [Worries]

hS

No - all of the ideas I have are favorites. I can't decide! (nm) by Silenthunder on 2016-03-10 22:40:00 UTC Reply

When all else fails, toss a coin. by Desdendelle on 2016-03-10 23:24:00 UTC Reply

It'll either give you a direction or make you realise that you prefer a certain idea after all.

A bit off-topic by son_of_heaven176 on 2016-03-11 04:35:00 UTC Reply

but was the spelling "realise" purposeful on your part? I thought that Israelis used American spellings...

Israelis are taught American spelling, yeah... by Desdendelle on 2016-03-11 08:17:00 UTC Reply

But I'm used to British English because I learned my English from British telly at first and my elementary school English teachers were British (Scottish and English, to be exact). I also like the way British spelling looks better than the way American spelling looks, so.

Same here. by Badger421 on 2016-03-11 20:45:00 UTC Reply

I've lived in the U.S. all my life, but everything I read as a kid was British. Though since I've started typing on my phone I have started using the U.S. spelling of stuff, if only because I'm too lazy to type it out properly when the autocomplete is right by my finger.

You know I've written 45 missions, right? ;) (nm) by Huinesoron on 2016-03-10 12:09:00 UTC Reply

What do you mean, it's not 2011 still? (nm) by JulyFlame on 2016-03-10 12:24:00 UTC Reply

It's not much of an issue for me. by Badger421 on 2016-03-10 07:35:00 UTC Reply

I write very rarely, and more rarely still write things to do with the PPC, so I've got plenty of time to narrow down the list.

Still, I'd love to hear about your prospective Agents. Character ideas are some of my favorite things to read about. Though I can't promise I'll have anything useful to say.

Here's the list of agent ideas: by Silenthunder on 2016-03-10 13:18:00 UTC Reply

Natalie’s older brother, Matthew - Floaters

A cold, calm, reserved Gray Jedi - Department of Intelligence

Jossk Noda, a former Trandoshan bounty hunter - Department of Mary Sues

Silentflame, a warrior cat, my very own Angst!Sue - Troll Division, then transferred to Department of Geographical Aberrations

Acornleaf, another warrior cat Silentflame's mate - in one of the non-action Departments

I was thinking Za'kiir and Natalie could recruit the last two at some point.

Nice to see some more Star Wars stuff around here. by Badger421 on 2016-03-11 20:30:00 UTC Reply

One of my potential Agents is from Star Wars as well.

Always cool to see some interest in Intelligence now and then, but I'm curious, do you have any more detail worked out for this character? Gray Jedi is awfully vague.

A bounty hunter sounds like it could be pretty interesting, and it's good career for a Sue Slayer to come from. Do we have Wookiees on staff, though? That could get awkward what with the Trandoshan/Wookiee feud thing.

Can't say I really know much about Warriors, I only ever read the first book.

Seems like a pretty fun starting point to me. I look forward to seeing it get a bit more fleshed out.

What I've planned so far on the Jedi: by Silenthunder on 2016-03-11 22:44:00 UTC Reply

I'm still deciding on species and name, but what I have figured out is that the Jedi would be male, and he would be part of the Gray Order, who was training to be an Ice Sage before finding himself in the PPC. His lightsaber would be yellow-bladed.

Reserved and a bit egotistical, he's almost robotic to outsiders with the level his calmness and analytical, factual personality can go to, and while he may crack a joke or two, it takes a while for him to warm up to anyone. He's kind of like BBC!Sherlock in that regard. While emotions normally wouldn't come through in conversation unless you're extremely lucky, they do manage to show a little better in his writing, AKA Reports.

Like all Gray Jedi, he believes firmly in a balance between the Light and Dark Sides; if one side were vanquished completely, then the galaxies wouldn't survive for long. So even though he doesn't like Sues, he will not agree or wish along with the majority of PPC members that they were just wiped out. "Sues help us to learn and see what better writing is," he might say.

Hmm, interesting. by Badger421 on 2016-03-11 23:45:00 UTC Reply

I like the idea of extending his principles on balance to Sues. Could make for an interesting dynamic with the more trigger happy PPC members.

Though I do have a query about the Gray Jedi Order. I looked it up and saw that they're headquartered on Zonama Sekot, and I have to wonder how they found it. As I recall it was rather difficult to pin down what with the whole moving planet thing.

Also, yellow saber high five! One of the characters I'm thinking of using is a Jedi Shadow, so he appreciates his fellow yellows.

They found the planet via the Force, I guess? (nm) by Silenthunder on 2016-03-12 02:52:00 UTC Reply

Hmm, reasonable enough, I suppose, given the setting. (nm) by Badger421 on 2016-03-12 03:15:00 UTC Reply

The (un)importance of names. by Huinesoron on 2016-03-10 16:21:00 UTC Reply

A name is the least important thing about a character. Jossk Noda, former Trandoshan bounty hunter, is no different to me than Bassk Ralo, former Trandoshan bounty hunter. Or, for that matter, than Galaro, former Rodian bounty hunter.

If Natalie's older brother is called Bartholomew, or 'Erbert, or Michel-Saint-Germain, it makes very little difference.

A character is about their personality first and foremost. That can be informed by their species, abilities, and whatnot, and those attributes may even come first ('Trandoshan' does give a very clear idea there), but when you're trying to develop them into a useable character, you need to think about their personality, not the other stuff.

hS

I know, these are just very rough versions. But thanks. (nm) by Silenthunder on 2016-03-10 22:41:00 UTC Reply