Subject: Permission stuff!
Author:
Posted on: 2019-06-13 07:21:00 UTC

Aight, so, first off, Novastorme has given some real good critiques up there and it's all good stuff that's worth looking at, though I don't necessarily agree with all of it (I don't think the PPC regulates its employees to such an extent that folk who like plants wouldn't be hired into DoGA, and I don't think you necessarily need to note the theoretical agents who adopted Kit, though, of course more specifics in a backstory are always good.)

Second off, I do also know who you are! I've seen you about, posting stuff, mostly in the Discord and all. G'day!

The central issue here, I feel, is that I really don't have a very good sense of your characters. They have their central emotional states (enthusiastic versus sane/calm) and they have their hobbies, likes and dislikes. These are all very good things to have--small details like this are essential to rounding out a character, and I'm fond of Kit's vanity and the almost irony of a vampire, in DoGa, being a gardener--but they don't feel like they have a central character to tie to, as it were. Why do they actually have those hobbies? What central characterisation are those hobbies an extension of, as it were? For what reason is Quantum interested in gardening and 'chemistry'? Why is she so constantly distracted, and what would make her go into 'the zone'--and why?

I'm especially curious about Kit's relationship with Kyubi--the scene of her tiredly facepalming at witnessing another shipfic was a real highlight of the story and one of the moments where she really shone. I'd be interested in seeing that refined!

Right now it seems that the only real distinguishing features between them is that of one being enthusiastic and one being sane except, I admit, I can't really tell them apart very well in the stories, either! They both speak in the exact same vernacular, using the exact same terms and types of sentences.
This, on top of your lack of dialogue tags and description during scenes of dialogue (as Novastorme pointed out very well) means that there are long stretches of samey dialogue pinging back and forth in a vague and undescribed landscape. It's quite confusing--those bits feel like weird grey spots in the middle of your stories!

I was very confused within the prompts, especially the control prompt. I feel like everything before 'Elsewhere, Kit...' was unnecessary--while I get that it's establishing Quantum's character, and all, it feels like the story has two separate introductions! I'm not, er, sure what Quantum is really doing, also, so far from her RC, in a hallway, just mixing stuff.
You do have a bit of a spark for funny descriptive work: 'The ceiling looked all the same whether her vision was blurred or not, but as her eyes finally decided to start working again she could finally tell what she had been hit in the head with' could be cleaned up a little, but it got a grin out of me.
The sentence 'Kit... was being dragged along at speeds she did not realise were possible' completely lost me. Who's dragging her? Quantum? Why? When? Is Quantum just really excited to show her the RC? You should probably give a couple sentences to clarify this.

What you really, really need to work on is your characters, and your moments of dialogue. While I like the details and hobbies you have for them, I feel like I can only ever consistently tell them apart when you mention those very specific hobbies! I just can't really figure out any central core to their characters--the whys for what they do, their motives, ambitions, fears, and so on.

As I mentioned earlier--you need more description within your segments of dialogue, and you need to distinguish the way your characters speak more--ideally in accordance to their backstories and central characters, so on.
I actually recall this test I tried doing, myself, a while ago--you had to write a whole short story using only dialogue, without tags. You had to be able to tell the characters apart only through their dialogue, alone. After all, the way somebody speaks says a lot about them--where they're from, how seriously they're taking the situation, how educated they might be, so on! Maybe it ought to be worth trying out, yourself? It's fun, anyhow.

I won't be giving you permission right now, sorry man. You made a good effort, though, popped this up on the Board and all! Keep working at it, hey? You've got a lotta good stuff going on in these stories, and you just need to keep working at it to dig them out, as it were. This is a real good step for you, keep at it mate!

Reply Return to messages