Subject: Verification request: Interview link.
Author:
Posted on: 2013-05-21 17:13:00 UTC
http://www.englishchick.com/badfic/msinterview.htm
It appears to make quite a bit of sense, but how correct is it really? To which extent can it be made to conform with the PPC 'verse?
I don't know that I can comment on the "correctness" of the piece, since everyone's definition of Mary Stu, canon, and where the two intersect, is different - but it is a helpful dialogue, and a useful one for writing. As far as PPC canon goes, I don't know that it could be made to conform with the PPC 'verse, but I don't think that makes it any less interesting, or important, or even correct - we're hardly the arbiters of everything right about fanfic.
(Having poked at their main site, I must say I also rather like it overall. Interesting stuff!)
And to gain the attention of one of the site's local Old Ones, eh.
(Or at least, two of them, since Neshomeh has been around far longer than me. :P)
What is this.
Quite exactly what the title says, else I can only give you directly obvious answers.
I laughed in a few spots. {= )
I think the main problem with it as far as meshing with the PPC definition goes is that we don't define Mary Sues as necessarily being author-inserts. Sure, they might be, but making the accusation means making assumptions about people we've never met based on a piece of fiction, which is kind of not cool and also debases our claim that our problem is the writing, not the author. If we can't separate the Sue from its author, how do we expect the author to do so?
Also, not all author-inserts are necessarily Sues, which I think the article demonstrates without meaning to. A self-insert that keeps to herself and doesn't muck with the plot or characters, as seems to be the case with Ophidia, is not a Mary Sue by our definition. In fact, she seems like an interesting original character to me.
By the way, I don't think I've seen you around before. Are you new to the Board?
~Neshomeh
I've been lurking, reading every material I could find (except, of course, the badfics themselves - sanity is wanted intact), and will later be attempting to convert some of my own OCs into prototype agents to acquire Permission for.
On something rather different: Modifying the main canon line by extrapolation is difficult, but has goodfic potential.
Writing AU might be easier, but also has goodfic potential.
What about writing EU (just in case: Expanded Universe)?
Asking this mostly for my own use, since I've created a relatively large group of characters that exist in a 'verse without making contact with the protagonists (one of which, by the way, happens to be my agentification candidate, simply because he recognises that remaining in a 'verse where the author's wish fulfillment concerning hugs, kisses and nookie with an obscure, AU main character LO conflicts with his characterisation as psychotically unemotional and therefore is likely to lead to filibuster.)
That was a chunk of meta, I fear. Haven't been writing much self-deprecation as of recently, so forgive the practice attempt.
Eh, anyway, what were we talking about? Writing credible characters? What's that?
Have a bumper sticker! It says, "Got Bleepka?"
I think exploring what's going on somewhere else in the world has great goodfic potential. Most stories have a lot more people in them than just the main protagonists, after all; we just don't always see them or know their names.
As for agents, "psychotically unemotional" is not something that we typically want to see in a permission request, but I think I saw something in your actual introduction thread about putting him in FicPsych until he learns to be a human being, so that's reassuring. Agents are our proxies in the missions, so they need to be somewhat relatable, and most of us have some emotion regarding badfic. {= )
~Neshomeh
One of my agents is a background character in Lord of the Rings; if you watch the coronation scene in the film of Return of the King she's supposed to be somewhat behind Legolas.
So yeah, characters-that-exist-in-a-'verse sort of agents aren't exactly new around here. :'D And I know the Time Lord Agents I've got have some backstory details that pull from the Doctor Who expanded universe, so yeah.