Subject: A Question Regarding Mission Writing
Author:
Posted on: 2015-06-12 02:12:00 UTC
I went through and picked some portions of the badfic I choose to use for reactions and all that, but now I fear I picked too many. Any tips on how I can cut the number of badfic snippets down to a reasonable size?
Unless the fic you're sporking is a) really short (less than four thousand words) and b) really beige, you'd want to quote as little as possible.
That said, it's a case-by-case thing and I can't say anything else without knowing what you're talking about. That said, what I usually do - with any fic I come to spork - is C/P its text to a GDoc, read it thoroughly, and note charges in comments; afterwards I try to figure out which charges are important and which charges are so heinous they deserve a quote.
My general feeling is that if the fic is beige, there's little point in quoting it, because you're just making your readers look at something boring; better to restate what happens in your own words and make it funny.
My principles for what to quote are more or less as follows:
1. Does the passage illustrate a point I'm making about why the fic is bad?
2. Does the audience need to see this nonsense to believe it?
3. Is the passage inherently funny?
If the answer is no to all three, it probably doesn't need to be quoted. If the answer is yes to at least one, you may wish to quote it. If the answer is yes to all three, it's probably good to put it in. On the other hand, there are fics like "Blood Raining Night" where just about every line is absurdist comedy gold, so numbers two and three don't help at all and you have to use more discretion with number one. Don't want to hammer on the same points too much, after all.
In the end, you can always fall back on a principle that goes for everything you write: "Does including this help me tell a better story?" If the answer is no, don't do it. If the answer is yes, go for it.
~Neshomeh
It's really hard to judge what's too much and what's balanced without actually seeing it. If you have someone with more mission-writing experience go over it, they can give you more specific advice.
If I had to give a general suggestion, it would be to restate some of it in your own words, and try to only quote really bad instances that you want to make sure the reader sees.
I thought maybe she could be challenged to single combat, but then there's the problem that, being a Sue, the Fellowship won't want her out of their sights. And at the point in the badfic I'm at, she hasn't shown her Warrior!Sue side yet. She's demonstrated the sides of Angst!, Speshul-Relative!, Chosen One!, Prodigy!,Magical!, and Nice!Sue. Right now, the Fellowship just left Rivendell, but they are out in some faraway forest, a Generic one.