Would it help if I said that I like the direction Kala and Valon are going to? Because I do. They're interesting characters, and your missions with them are not too shabby (read: enjoyable). As Nesh said, not every mission is OMFGBQQ brilliant. A lot of mission are 'OK, I had a good laugh, I enjoyed the banter, even though it's nothing out of ordinary'. To use a somewhat confusing metaphor, it's a bit like Beethoven and Bach. Beethoven is all about NEW THINGS! AND PASSION! AND MUSICAL LARGE HAM! Bach, on the other hand, is about as musically conservative as you can get, but he took the conservative forms of his time and worked them so well to deserved the title of Master.
I think that you're trying to be Beethoven and getting down because you don't seem to succeed; I'd suggest trying for Bach, instead, and if the fates will smile on you, you'll get to Beethoven anyway.
(Disclosure: I prefer Bach. Beethoven's a bit too messy for me.)

I'm tempted to quote Thomas Edison here—I haven't failed, I've just found three hundred things that don't work, or however that goes. I sorta feel like it might be a wasted effort, though, since you seem hell-bent on refusing any of the advice people have been trying to give you here.

Here's another quote: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." Instead of immediately shooting everything down, try things. They may not work, in which case you won't be any worse off than you are now, but then again, they might.

The thing you're doing here that really bugs me, though, is that you're basically making us responsible for your happiness, which is not fair. You say you're just naturally gloomy, but you COULD be having fun writing if only people enjoyed your work. To me, that translates to "If you give me positive reviews, I'll have fun and be happy! So why oh why won't anyone say nice things to me?" And the answer is that it's not our responsibility. Absolute power over someone else's happiness is a power too great and terrible for me. I don't want it, and I refuse to accept it. If you want to go on being gloomy and negative forever, that's your decision and yours alone. If, however, you want to knock it off and see where a positive outlook gets you instead... that's still your decision and yours alone. And if it works, it's your success, not ours, which is why taking responsibility for yourself is always the best choice.

~Neshomeh

The PPC is a community, first and foremost. There are quite a lot of people here that didn't write any missions, or write them very slowly, or whatnot, and they're PPCers exactly as the most prolific members of the community.

Namely, "I put all the effort I can". I'm well aware that people sometimes give me hard criticism when it comes to some of my missions, and the point I was trying to make was that there are often good things to find in my missions even if some other things throw off the readers. Sorry! ^^;

Instead of weird music, why not listen to solid music and see what you get? Try an Oboe concerto, for example.

Without missions, Valon and Kala aren't really agents. They're just random characters in a PPC wrapper.

"You overreact."
Harry Potter yelled: "It's SPRIIIIIIIING!!!"
"... never mind. Charge now."

hS

(Yes, I know 5/7/5 isn't the precise original Japanese structure shaddup)

My stories are the same way. Most of the time they follow the pattern of 'go in, snark, charge, kill, leave'. Sure, I have my moments of spice, like Rose Potter and Little Miss Mary, but for the most part, my guys are just another pair of agents doing their jobs and having weird, traumatic stuff happen to them.

Try looking at those writings of yours and seeing if you can pick out what makes them different, what makes them stand out. See, a lot of what makes good writing is how you string the words together: done well, it can leave your readers laughing, crying, with a sense of wonder. It's an art form like any other, which means you only get better with practice. (Of course, if you practice too much, you can burn yourself out...)

... are you actually looking for advice, or are you just wanting people to pat you on the head and say 'There, there, you're wonderful actually'?

Because this... isn't a response to what I suggested. In fact, with your 'moments of spice' line, you ignored what I suggested and repeated the idea that I said was wrong. You don't need to add fabulous new things all the time. It would be far better to take something old and do something with it.

The PPC has a Quartermaster. She's a Morning Glory, and for a decade that was literally all we knew about her. Now? She's the one who's turned down countless promotions to other departments because she'll only accept the Head of Operations position. She's the acting Head of Finance, though it's distinctly possible that she doesn't know that. She's a character who was nothing more than a footnote in a very early mission, but has now become a full-fledged (if minor) part of the PPC.

So drop The Message on your agents. Have them read the Multiverse Monitor. Run them through the middle of a Quiddich match. Send the Sunflower's Witness to their door. Even better - read through the early missions of the PPC and find something yourself which you can play with.

hS

The more you write, the more practice you get, the better you will become. Trying too hard is just hard on you.

I don't know why you write; but I write because it's fun, because it's something I've been doing since I figured out how, because I feel off-kilter if I stop for long enough.

How do characters become beloved? Look. Yes, there will be some--like, say, the Notary, or Zeb, perhaps--who become instant favorites through some quirk of personality or whatever else. But there are also characters who grow on you only after you've read more about them, or who only grow on you once they've gone through some character development. (And no character is universally liked, I don't think.)

Try writing some interludes, character studies, things like that. Develop your characters, work with them, love them. Write things with them, missions or otherwise. Focus on what makes a good story, on what the characters are telling you to do, on what feels right. Practice writing description, dialogue, whatever you think would be good. You want more spice? Well, banter is often in that category: how do your characters talk to each other? How do they talk to themselves, to badfics, to random people making too much noise in the hallways? To their minis? Think about it. Let scenes play out in your head. Spend some time with your characters.

Another thing you can do, is try rping or co-writing. That would give you the opportunity to figure out how your characters would speak to other agents, how they'd respond to different people. I don't know how Kala would react to Dawn; I do know that Dawn might well scream if she saw Kala at a point before she became immune to things like randomly appearing Balrogs (of the non-attacking variety). At this point, she would probably gape for a bit, and then keep a respectful distance.

Why do I know this? Because I've spent rather a lot of time in Dawn's headspace lately. I've written dialogue, I've thought about how she would react to many, many situations, and I've given her the opportunity to play around in some of them, AU or otherwise. But even with that, I'd need to actually plunk her down into a situation where she was speaking with Kala in order to know how they'd get along--and for that, I'd need you. One thing I've found is that characters who are being written by someone who is not you, in the same story as your own characters, can lead to many surprises. They don't always react the way you think they will, for one thing.

For another? Let's say I'm positive that Dawn and Kala will get along, so I convince you to co-write an interlude. But then, we begin writing, and suddenly--they're arguing. It wasn't planned, it just...happened. Something in Dawn's characterization made her react to something Kala said or did, and vice versa, and suddenly--completely unplanned--we have a slice of drama. And that can be pretty fun.

I'm not entirely sure how useful any or all of this is to you, but my advice is--when boiled down--to spend time with you characters, not stress too much about making a mark (focus on what makes a good story for your characters instead), and to try out writing with other people (even if it's just an rp or an interlude!) The last one will expose you to different types of characters, and different writing styles, in a different way than simply reading about them will do. And it's also just plain fun: case in point, Iximaz and I have been co-writing for just about the past week, and have discovered that two of our characters actually have a *lot* in common--and are prone to drama when put together, simply because of certain events in their shared past (which, of course, didn't exist until we started talking)! It's been rather a whirlwind, in the fun sort of way.

One more thing, though, in response to your last line: nothing separates your work from anyone else's? If you say so, but I'd like to disagree. If that were the case, I probably wouldn't remember the names of your characters, or tiny bits of their interactions. I'm not saying there's nothing you can improve, but honestly? Your characters are not boring. Continue developing them, and I think you could end up with some pretty great results. And that's not nothing.

~DF

PS: Lastly, if all that wasn't enough, I'd like to point you to article 28 of the PPC Constitution, which might be a good thing to bear in mind:

28. Remember to have FUN. FUN is good.

And, honestly, that's a main element of the PPC. That's why we write missions and so on, apart from wanting to provide concrit and make a good story out of a badfic and so on.

We write, and we discuss, and we have fun doing it. I understand wanting to make a mark, all of that--but if you focus only on that, your stories suffer, your characters suffer, and it just gets less fun for everyone.

Just write, with an eye towards fun, good stories, and skill development, and you'll be on the right track.

Good luck!

I know it's hard, but try not to compare your work to other peoples'. Write for yourself.

I'm in "The Arts" in real life, and I can tell you that there is no faster way to burn out than constantly worrying about what other people are doing. Is my King Lear as good as that guy's King Lear? Does my original play feel too much like The Odd Couple? If you worry too much about it, you're not going to have any fun and you're going to burn out.

So go out, write what makes you happy. If other people like it then it is a bonus.

-Phobos

It's not necessarily bad. You don't need to be a special snowflake. You wrote something and a bunch of people enjoyed it? Everything else is a bonus.