Subject: Gosh, I'm sorry! I don't know how I missed that line . . . (nm)
Author:
Posted on: 2019-02-27 12:28:00 UTC
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First Mission! by
on 2019-02-23 19:55:00 UTC
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We canon now baby! In their riveting first adventure, Agent Phil of the Department of Mary Sues has "graciously volunteered" his time to mentor the Autobot Vending Machine Spensor in proper Mary Sue disposal. They encounter a Sue in a Transformers Prime fic that claims divine heritage and has with her an entourage of angel sibling OCs that steal the spotlight from the giant transforming robots. Featuring references to obnoxious 90s pop culture, colour changing body parts and a special guest appearance from a demon named "Jim". All that and more inside this exciting first mission, available now at your nearest link below!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZzQV8UQafIip06aGCVLOY7e0qOjZbB6DMJN8vI9Jikg/edit?usp=sharing -
Some technical advice (actually, a lot). by
on 2019-03-03 17:44:00 UTC
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Good thing first: I really liked this mission, although I’m not acquainted with the Transformers franchise. You are a good story-teller, but you need to pay more attention on reading what you wrote, or specifically ask for a beta reader who is good at the proof-reading part of beta reading (unfortunately, Skarmory isn’t, while I’m not good at the concrit and positive feed-back part of it). I’m sorry that I couldn’t respond to your beta request; I was in a hospital at the time, with my writing arm heavily bandaged.
Now the bad: If comments point out mistakes that escaped your beta reader(s), you are supposed to correct them (letting it stand as it is while we complain about bad SPaG in badfic would be hypocritical). Since you didn’t do this yet, and I don’t read the comments before I read the story, I was forced to take lots of notes that already had been taken, mostly by doctorlit. So here is what I got on first glance that has not already been reported to you:
The man got up and stretched a bit, scanning the room until his eyes fell upon a rather thick book next to the closed-door.
I don’t think that "closed door" needs a hyphen (what doctorlit calls a short dash), but apparently doctorlit doesn’t agree with me, or he missed this one.
Grant this boy, my son,/may be like me, first in glory among the Troj-.
This may be a minor issue, but if you want to be really good at SPaG, you should know that a mid-word-interruption is marked by an m-dash (like this: "—") rather than a hyphen. Unfortunately, you won’t find it on your keyboard, but you can find it in the GDoc menu (choose something like "insert" – "special character" – "punctuation" (left combobox) and "dashes" (right combobox); note that I don’t know the exact titles you will see because Google talks German to me).
It’s a short one but-wait do I smell spray paint?
Seeing a hyphen trying to separate words rather than connecting them is much more disconcerting than seeing a hyphen for a mid-word-interruption, so this should definitely be a dash. Doctorlit’s long dash would be the abovementioned m-dash again, but doctorlit is American. Since spellings like "colour" or "internalise" imply that you are writing British English, an interruption between words is actually different from an interruption mid-word and should use an n-dash – slightly shorter than the m-dash and surrounded by spaces – like I did here. (You can find the n-dash in the GDoc menu, too. Also, you may experiment with two consecutive hyphens to see whether and to which type of dash they may be transformed. Actually, my German installation of MS Word transforms a single hyphen to an n-dash when it is surrounded by spaces.)
doctorlit already noted the confusing paragraph structure that looks like Spensor finished is meant to be a dialogue tag attached to "How’s that concerning?". Since I guess that actually Phil speaks there, you may try something like:
While Spensor was speaking, Phil began gathering things for the mission. "How’s that concerning?" he asked.
Spensor finished, the readouts on his visor disappearing as he turned to his partner.
But then I’m not sure whether "Spensor finished" would need a callback to the action Spensor finished. Maybe you could just drop it and write something like The readouts on Spensor’s visor disappeared as he turned to his partner to lead into what Spensor said next.
Luckily we’re I’m going I don’t need feet!
You probably meant "where".
Why-oof!
This should be "Why – oof! " (British) or "Why—oof! " (American).
... he stammered as Phil handed him a bottle as he wrote down a charge for introducing ridiculous mythos.
We mock this kind of As Disease in badfic. It appears that Phil would need three arms to simultaneously hand a bottle to Spensor, hold a notebook, and type on the notebook’s keyboard or hold a pen to write into a notebook of the other kind. If Spensor is meant to be he-who-wrote-down-a-charge, we got a case of pronoun confusion, because "he" usually refers to the last male person mentioned; and I don’t believe that you meant this anyway. Replacing "as he" by "and then" would work much better here.
“Bleeprin kid. It ain’t my first rodeo.” Spensor gladly accepted Phil’s gift and began chugging. “Woah, save some for later.”
I’m confused about who is saying what here. Actually, I guess this should be three paragraphs, implying the shift of focus from Phil speaking to Spensor acting to Phil speaking again.
Phil paused and took a minute to internalise what she just witnessed, his suspicions confirmed.
Is Phil suddenly female? Also, Phil witnessing the events should have happened in past perfect, before he took a minute to internalize it. I’m not sure whether the correct word order would be "just had witnessed" or "had just witnessed".
He should have just come here himself and saved the bot some sanity…
This sounds to me as if Phil hadn’t come there at all and had just sent Spensor. "by himself" might work, but why not just write "alone"?
Unfortunately the were clipped by the POV change.
You probably meant "they".
Welp I’m at a loss. Maybe your fresh eyes-
Either "eyes—" (American) or "eyes –" (British; since it’s not mid-word, there’s a space and an n-dash, but not another space before the quotation mark).
Spensor thought for a bit, then gingerly took the the notebook from Phil and scrawled something down in it.
Repetition.
The the sue woke up.
Repetition again.
Spensor quickly transformed into the control panel form he scanned earlier ...
Should be "had scanned" (past perfect).
...or some kind nebulous generic area.
Missing word "of", but since this is in dialogue, it might pass as being Spensor’s fault intentionally written by you, if he hadn’t been talking quite accurate until now.
If all they plan on doing is going for a drive they’ll think nothing of a random dude dune buggying in the desert.
I think this should be "dune-buggying", but I’m not sure here. (For a moment, I wondered about a random dude-dune – as opposed to a gal-dune – buggying in the dessert, but that may really just be me.)
The sue’s replacement OCs all began talking about Lucifer their family’s relationship with him and the war in heaven.
You need a comma after "Lucifer".
“I don’t get it.” came his cybernetic friend.
If "came his cybernetic friend" is meant to be a dialogue tag, the period after "it" should be a comma. But it doesn’t actually work as a dialogue tag, and it can’t stand alone as a complete sentence, so I don’t have any idea what you are trying to do here.
With a reserved sigh he and his partner go to the next scene.
Should be "went" (past tense). The badfic’s present tense affecting the agents is not unheard of, but if this is what happens here and in other instances where your narration suddenly switches to present tense, it should be lampshaded in some way.
With renewed vigor they enter partway through the following chapter.
Should be "entered" (past tense).
Decepticons Starscream and Knockout introduce a human to their leader.
Should be "introduced" (past tense).
They read on as Jim informs Megatron about the current angel situation and mentions the names of Paige’s parents.
Should be "informed" (past tense) and "mentioned" (past tense).
I ever tell you about my friend Erector?
I think this should be "I ever told you" (past tense) or more grammatically correct “Did I ever tell you”, but then that may just be like Spensor talks?
They arrive at a generic beach. Oddly all of the Autobots are using holograms.
Should be "arrived" (past tense) and "were" (past tense).
Like one of those high end Japanese figu-hey wait!
Another instance where you need an m-dash for mid-word-interruption: "figu— hey wait!" (I’m not sure whether British English inserts a space after the m-dash, but it certainly looks better to me.)
Phil goes back to the Words.
Should be "went" (past tense).
The pair watch on as the Sue’s family reenacted a scene from Spongebob and Paige gets reunited with her girlfriend.
Should be "watched" (past tense) and "got reunited" or just "was reunited" (past tense).
They both wretch at the term...
Should be "wretched" (past tense).
By the power vested in the Protectors of the Plot Continuum, you, Pai-Spensor wait!
This is another instance where you need the m-dash for mid-word-interruption.
Hot plasma ripped through the Angel Sue as her lifeless, burned corpse floated to the ground, her non-canonical family disintegrating along with her as her influence slowly disappeared.
There may be other instances of As Disease I didn’t take note of, but here it sticks out to me. Since "as" implies simultaneousness, it appears as if the Sue was already dead when hot plasma ripped through her lifeless corpse, so what did actually kill her? Using "and" instead would work much better. The second "as" is okay, though.
HG -
A note or two (for both of you!) by
on 2019-03-04 16:48:00 UTC
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- HG, that sounds painful. If you're not fully recovered yet, I wish you a speedy, easy, and full recovery. (Also, I think I can safely speak for the Board when I say we're glad you're back.)
2. My version of Word does that too! Odds are it's in every version, though who knows.
3. “Bleeprin kid. It ain’t my first rodeo.” Spensor gladly accepted Phil’s gift and began chugging. “Woah, save some for later.”
More for SillyPhilly than HG, but unless I'm missing something from the context and Spensor or Phil could be termed a "Bleeprin kid" (which admittedly sounds interesting, if concerning), there should be a comma between "Bleeprin" and "kid".
4. Re: "dune buggying", there should be a hyphen if we're going American and probably no hyphen if we're not.
5. "I ever tell you about my friend Erector?"
That's a common speech pattern in certain parts of North America (it just drops the "did" at the beginning, and trusts intonation to take care of the rest. Interestingly, Hebrew does a similar thing, though I think it's a lot more common than this is. Certainly, we were outright told to use it in a language course that put a lot of emphasis on speaking well and correctly--I think the other version just went out of style at some point).
6. "They both wretch at the term..."
'Should be "wretched" (past tense).'
*retched. Wretch and wretched are a noun and an adjective, not verbs (a pair of synonyms would be "miserable person" and "miserable").
And that's what I've got! In a perhaps weird order, I've read the comments before the mission (which is admittedly not in a canon I'm familiar with), so I'm afraid I haven't much else to say.
Beyond, of course: SillyPhilly, don't get discouraged by the amount of technical concrit--the comments on the mission itself seem to be pretty favorable overall, and that's equally important. Just add another beta or two for SPaG next time (and allow time and patience for thorough editing), and you'll be on the right track :)
~Z
- HG, that sounds painful. If you're not fully recovered yet, I wish you a speedy, easy, and full recovery. (Also, I think I can safely speak for the Board when I say we're glad you're back.)
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Thank you. by
on 2019-03-05 09:32:00 UTC
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- My arm is not fully serviceable again yet, but it’s getting better.
5. I never stop learning something new here.
6. That’s what I get for becoming lazy. I should have looked up what "wretched" actually means rather than going by the gut feeling, "besides the wrong tense, it looks right".
HG
- My arm is not fully serviceable again yet, but it’s getting better.
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Cool fic! by
on 2019-02-27 20:55:00 UTC
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I don't quite understand the sentence 'As the Sue gained consciousness the agents would about to get a massive bomb dropped into their laps.' Is this a grammar error or am I missing something?
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Re: mission by
on 2019-02-25 23:23:00 UTC
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I like that each agent had a moment where they showed a bit of emotional depth beyond their "presented" personalities. Phil, despite being serious and responsible, has his internal moment of losing his bearings in the void of unconsciousness, and not wanting his partner to find out.
Meanwhile, Spensor seems utterly careless and unfocused, but starts to get legitimately angry about hos his source canon is being treated.
I also love that, during a Transformers mission, you find an excuse for your two protagonists to form the "transformed car plus human rider" combo that appears so much in canon!
I do need to ask: Did you have a beta reader look over this before posting? I don't see one credited in your opening notes, and there are quite a few basic typos in this mission, of the sort a beta reader would normally catch. We do expect missions to be betad before releasing them publicly; not to do so is hypocritical of us. I'll be going over typos and such below:
"A scruffy looking man in a red hoodie and sweatpants was sitting on his couch, flipping through a large stack of paper. Occasionally he would hastily scribbled some notes down before placing the paper on another stack next to him that was gradually increasing in height."
1. "Scruffy-looking" is a two-word phrase being used here as an adjective, so it gets a short dash in between the words to show it's functioning as one.
2. "Scribbled" should be "scribble" since the whole verb is "would scribble."
"'Oh hey, I should probably take this opportunity to put a dent in my second read through.'"
"Read-through" is being used as a noun here, so it too gets a short dash to show it's a single concept within the sentence.
"'It’s a short one but-wait do I smell spray paint?'"
On the other hand, since this is one sentence interrupting another, it gets a long dash (—), which can be represented by two short dashes in a row. (Some word processors will automatically turn two shorts into a long after entering the space after the second word.)
"'Prime Universe, located in the Uniend cluster. This could be problematic. This one strikes a happy medium between the edginess of the Bayverse and other, more lighthearted continuities.'
While Spensor was speaking, Phil began gathering things for the mission.
"'How’s that concerning?' Spensor finished, the readouts on his visor disappearing as he turned to his partner."
Spensor is talking to himself here.
"'Where are we?' his optics adjusting to the surroundings.”"
There's an extra quotation mark at the end. Also, "his optics adjusting to his surroundings" doesn't contain any dialogue tag to link it to Spensor's words, so it's an incomplete phrase just kind of floating there at the end of the sentence.
"'Brace yourself, I have feeling we’re about to enter the realm of consciousness. The sue complained about the light . . ."
1. "have a feeling"
2. The quotation mark is missing after the period.
"As the Sue gained consciousness the agents would about to get a massive bomb dropped into their laps."
"were about to"
"Being a place where humans rarely showed up, Phil had to settle for hunkering down behind his partner’s new form. He asked 'Jack is canon, yes?'"
1. This sounds like Phil is "a place." I think you meant to say, "Being in a place . . ."
2. A dialogue tag needs a comma just before the dialogue begins: "He asked, 'Jack is canon, yes?'"
"The sue’s wings had changed to colour to gold, so the pair thought it was 'speshful' enough to write down as a charge."
1. "changed in colour to gold" or even "changed colour to gold"
?. I usually see that spelled as "speshul," but I'm not sure if that's just a personal variant for you or your agents?
"'Cliffjumper-poor Cliffjumper-was brutally murdered by Starscream . . .'"
Another instance of the sentence getting interrupted, so the long dashes are wanted here.
"Since the author doesn’t say her weapons materialise or appear so I’d say we can write this one down as 'unintentional use of hammerspace."
1. One of the bolded words doesn't belong. You can either do, "Since the author doesn't say her weapons materialise or appear, I'd say . . ." or, "The author doesn't say her weapons materialise or appear, so I'd say . . ."
2. You never finished the mid-quote single quotaion marking that started before "unintentional."
"Spensor made panel on his body slide aside, and produced a cold, refreshing Mood Whiplash for his partner."
1. "made a panel"
2. Drink names don't get italicized.
"Phil contemplated counting charges towards canon violations of The Bible but decided against it."
The "the" before "the Bible" isn't part of the title, and doesn't need a capital "t."
"'Y’know, I was really hoping we weren’t going to meet any of her cherished siblings”. Phil suddenly found himself in the driver’'s seat of a miniaturised version of one of the sleak, generic sports vehicle forms that the Vehicons possessed."
1. For dialogue, punctuation always goes inside the quotation marks. ( cherished siblings." )
2. There are two hyphens in "driver's."
"The agent’s made special note that the Sue used the terms ‘dad’ and ‘Father as if they were two different people."
1. "Agents" isn't possessive there, so no apostrophe.
2. Unfinished single quotation after "Father."
"Phil resigned himself to watching the angel family argue a bit more than decide to go to bed and argue over who got top bunk."
"Then" rather than "than." Also, since this sentence is describing something happening in two steps, there should be a comma after "more."
"Switching things up Spensor went for a large, wall-mounted monitor, forcing his Phil to sit on the wall bracket."
No need for "his" there.
"'There was a Hasbro produced Animorphs toyline that had the Transformer branding.” Spensor illuminated.
1. "Hasbro-produced" is another adjective phrase, so it gets a short dash.
2. When the dialogue tag follows the dialogue, the dialogue should end in a comma rather than a period. ( Transformer branding," Spensor illuminated. )
"Spensor crossed his arms and began tapping his foot."
Spensor was in ice cream cart form, last we heard of him. And he seems to transform into robot form two paragraphs after this: "Already back in robot mode, Spensor hauled out his blaster . . ." And both of those sentences make me wonder what happened to Otimus, who was sitting on the top of Spensor's cart form, and is never mentioned again.
"'. . . causing characters to having rather downplayed reactions to knowledge that should fundamentally alter their world view . . .'"
"to have"
Oh, and speaking of minis, you are now the creator of the first official Transformers mini! So let me just ask, for the sake of the wiki: are they all mini-Optimus Primes? Or do they become a tiny copy of whatever character was misspelled? And does that include non-robot characters?
—doctorlit, transforming his afternoon into constructive criticism -
Re: mission by
on 2019-02-27 12:14:00 UTC
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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZzQV8UQafIip06aGCVLOY7e0qOjZbB6DMJN8vI9Jikg/edit?usp=sharing
If you look at the last line of the A/N I said that SkarmorySilver was my beta reader. I'll have to be more careful the next mission I publish. Looking back I feel like I rushed this out and could have given it more time to bake.
As for the minis they each become a mini of the character they are supposed to be and this can include non-robot characters. -
Gosh, I'm sorry! I don't know how I missed that line . . . (nm) by
on 2019-02-27 12:28:00 UTC
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Ok by
on 2019-02-25 03:52:00 UTC
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I liked this mission. The badfic was certainly "unique". I also noticed some errors in your spelling and grammar though. One notable case was a tense shift in mid-paragraph, reproduced here:
They arrive at a generic beach. Oddly all of the Autobots are using holograms. Just as in New York, Phil didn’t feel the need to change. Spensor on the other hand took the form of an ice cream vending cart.
Is this related to the tense shifts in the badfic at that point? If so, make sure to make things like that clearer in later missions. I hope to see more missions from you.