Subject: Thanks!
Author:
Posted on: 2012-08-22 16:10:00 UTC
I'll just go put that missing apostrophe in.
Subject: Thanks!
Author:
Posted on: 2012-08-22 16:10:00 UTC
I'll just go put that missing apostrophe in.
I've started working on this several months back and now I finally got around to finish it.
Mini-Dragon found: Paraval. If it does not belong to anyone else, my agents will adopt it.
http://rc170.wordpress.com/2012/08/16/the-vampire-the-ice-queen-and-the-wardrobe-aka-enter-the-fictionary/
The mission was well-paced, and I really liked the "Kill it with fire," part. It was funny.
I just wanted to point out that you're missing an apostrophe near the end:
Right,” the RMC said. “Bella, you have never met Edward and wont for some years to come.
(Terri's on holiday in, er, looks like some sort of computer game, not sure what that's about, so I'll have to do my own concrit for once)
To start off: your characters are definitely characterised. I couldn't quite tell who was talking without checking the tags, but it came pretty close. It's nice to see characters who aren't interchangeable, neh?
I have to address, though, the remarkable foresight they portrayed. It comes from reading the fic before writing the mission, of course, but: before that line about the Pevensies, they made a lot of comments about the events not matching either canon. Well, no - but it seemed to be intentional, as if the author was creating a sort of collision-universe (like, say, a pretty good fic I once read where the characters and locations from the Discworld were used to play out the plot of Star Wars - it didn't make the blindest bit of sense in either canon, but it wasn't meant to). Obviously she(?) /wasn't/, it was just very bad writing - but it did seem that way.
(Oh, and did you notice the brief Harry Potter crossover? Professor Cedric > Cedric Digory > Digory Kirke? Mini-Aragog and mini-Dragon protection fields erected over this aside as I'm not sure on the spellings and have no way of checking - most of the internet is blocked here)
On the MST thing: it was a /funny/ MST, it has to be said. If you want to make your later missions less MST-y, my advice is to use less direct quotes. I can't access my missions to check (internet, blocked, etc) but I tended to paraphrase the action most of the time, only quoting when some particular turn of phrase warranted it. That way you can slot your agents directly in.
Hypothetical example: fic says, 'I leapt into the tree, my feet barely touching the ground'. You could quote that directly and then write '"She didn't jump very high, then," said Agent One', or you could miss out the quote and write something like this:
The agents watched, bemused, as Marysuewen knelt down, leapt high in the air - then grabbed a branch only just above head-height, leaving her feet about an inch above the grass. "Huh," said Agent One, glancing at the words. "I guess that's what you get for not checking your idioms."
(I enjoy writing, so I pepper my reviews with bizarre examples. Does this surprise anyone?)
I do like the way you integrate PPC locations and tech into your story. The mention of the Canon Library got me smiling (as always), but I liked even more the fact that it didn't have to become A Big Thing: it's just like going to the shops, just one of those things you can do. In a different way, I liked the consistant use of the Fictionary: specifically the fact that you remembered it was there, rather than having your agents default to Just Knowing after half the mission.
So hey. Good job. Fun stuff.
hS
About the foresight ... I find it a difficult line to walk. It's about keeping it realistic versus just getting the charge made and getting it over with.
And occasionally (in other missions) I have had my agents erase a charge when it turned out later that something actually did make sense.
But now that I think about it, maybe in the future I could smooth some of it over, by sending the agents much more detailed Intelligence Reports and having them refer to those. "Oh, the Intelligence Report mentioned that the fic had not even bothered to look up the names of some of the characters," Mittens said. "This must be one of those cases."
I did in fact notice the HP crossover, but I didn't have any great ideas except to drag Cedric Digory in for a cameo, so I let it slide. So no minis there. Not like the Agents need another mini-Aragog anyway.
I've thought long and hard about how many direct quotes to use. I think that there's even a bit of a school of thought among some Boarders, that direct quotes should be kept to an absolute minimum. And the Original Series certainly got by without using a lot.
So why I am so fond of them? Partly because my missions and way of making fun of the badness are very much influenced by the Nostalgia Critic and since that show is about movies and clips from the actual bad scenes are shown, it spills over into my form of missionwriting and the natural thing for me becomes to show the clip, rather than paraphrase it.
And I suppose I also simply have a twisted sense of justice. I want to the evidence out there for people to see for themselves, that no, I did not make it up and I did not exaggerate it.
But yeah, that is a balance as well and something I will have to mull over.
Oh dear, I hope it doesn't sound like I'm making a lot of excuses, because I know how annoying that is. I'm merely trying to explain how I think when I write and that there are still some things I am struggling with finding the balance in. I admit I'm far from perfect, but I try to improve with every mission and I'm grateful for your and Ellipsis Flood's comments.
(At least I've gotten over my fixation that every single charge must be witnessed and written down (and later read). I did that at one point and it made for incredibly long missions.)
“You can write the charge list.
You missed the closing quotation mark here.
In general, though, I have to say you fell into the MST trap. You mentioned that the mission was turning into one and poked fun at it, but still didn't really do anything to loosen it up. The fic bits were nicely timed, but I feel like there could have been scenes you could have skipped. The parts out of the mission looked good, making me want to look up the characters.
All in all, not the perfect mission, but not bad either.
Thanks, but I didn't miss the closing mark. The RMC keeps talking, but as he addresses a new person, it is on the next line.
Thanks for your concrit as well. I will consider it.
Excellent work. Thank you for killing that abomination. Narnia is one of my favorite continua, and I hate Twilight pollution.
The we could applaud the whole team.
And thanks!