...Ah. I don't often use it (and actually quite dislike it), but since "So I herd u lyk ..." is an internet joke, I figured it was okay. If you say it's bad, though, I guess it's bad. ^.^; You've been here longer than I have.

Ooh, shiny rock. Is that garnet I spy? I like garnet. Ish pretty~

Yeah, Garth Nix is awesome. I prefer the Abhorsen books to most of his others, but Keys is pretty good, too. Have you read Abarat by Clive Barker? /Amazing/ fantasy. Absolutely amazing. Among the best alternate-universe series I've ever read. Book 3 comes out this year; I can't wait.

Well, if they make an error, it's entirely their fault. I have no sympathy for spelling and grammar mistakes. It happens when you're an editor's kid.

Anyway, that wasn't so much my point as when it's perfectly correct English and even a reasonable bit of figlang. You've made a very good point ^.^ True, it can be overdone, but if it's for the sake of humor, it doesn't really matter.

Welcome to the PPC! Have this shiny rock (pickax not included). It is useful as emergency punctuation, can be either a projectile weapon or a blunt instrument, and makes a very good paperweight. Use it well.

Ooh, Garth Nix! Glad to see another fan!

--anamia
P.S. As an aside, I'd avoid chatspeak, even as a joke. Some of us (myself included) are... not exactly rational on the subject of chatspeak.

Hellooo~

I like my parrots. I am named after a parrot. The parrot after which I am named is very pretty and (in my experience) generally sweet-tempered, and I luffle them and want one for a pet. Also they are lovely and soft and fluffy and warm... ~squee~

Actually, the same goes for almost all birds, including the ones that would gladly bite your face off if you tried to snuggle them. (I'd do it anyway. Eyes are overrated, and it's not like mine are good for much anyway. 20/800 vision sucks.)

Anyway. I like fantasy, sci-fi and manga. I like Naomi Novik's Temeraire series (imagine the British RAF; give them dragons. That kind of awesome) among many, many others; but I've been getting back into Temeraire recently, so that' the first one that comes to mind. Also LOTR, Isaac Asimov, the Abhorsen and Keys series... I read a /lot/.

I tend to pick Favorites (as I call them) rather than Lust Objects. Case in point, Sai from Hikaru no Go: I don't want to /kiss/ him, I just want him to teach me Go. I don't believe I've ever fangirled off a movie or novel character.

So hello, PPC! Let beefsteaks abound!

There are times when I've felt it was spurious, especially in cases where the expression in question was something in common, every-day use.

However, as others have pointed out, it can be incredibly funny to take figurative language literally, and we ARE a parody society. There are certain times you almost have to laugh at it if you're really paying attention. In the case of speech tags, it may be all well and good to write something like: "'Stop that right now,' he barked." The problem happens when the writer gives us something like: "Stop that right now.' He barked." Improper punctuation takes a perfectly good speech tag and turns it into something laughable because the connection between the speech and the descriptor is lost, forcing the figurative language to stand alone and giving the sensitive reader no choice but to read it as written. Cue people barking like dogs.

Another example is something from one of my newer missions: "A skirt, bright with swirls of emerald, violet and royal blue floated around the floor, stopping at the toes of black boots." Now, you and I know that the writer MEANT to say the skirt floated around the wearer's feet, but the fact is that the writer did not say that. The writer said it floated around the floor. For humor, I took that to mean the skirt actually floated around the floor, leaving the character's lower half uncovered. ^__^ Also, one of my agents picked up the stray skirt, which to this day will always come to a halt if there are black boots in its path. {= )

So, yes, criticizing figurative language can be taken too far, but I say if the writer isn't using it properly it's fair game.

~Neshomeh

I'll need your contact info to send you my Agents' profiles, though.

Omnomnomnom.

Ow. Metal pretzels are bad for nomming.

You said you'd need to look at the A/V Division, so I figured you would have more to say after you'd seen the links I provided.

I'm really okay with it either way. I'd love to see a pre-existing concept like A/V revived, but I also stand by what I said about a Songfic Department before.

One caveat, though: if you do end up making a new department, try to name it something that won't make the acronym "DBS," because that's the Department of Bad Slash. {= )

~Neshomeh

Also, I was kinda joking about being a fangirl in the first place, being well-aware of the drooling, glomping connotations as I am. ^_~

Perhaps fangeek would be a better term for the non-drooling type, combining the fan's obsessiveness with the geek's deep knowledge of subject matter...?

~Neshomeh

1 is definitely a mini. However, I would say that precedent suggests that the answer to #2 is no.

The main reason for this is that minis are OFU things, not PPC things, and there would be no point in mini-Sue-things turning up at the OFUs. Also, since Sues are defined by a source outside the canon, then they can be defined and re-defined however that source chooses without the canon having to be bothered about it. Canon characters, on the other hand, are defined internally, so if an outside source doesn't invoke the character properly, the canon isn't going to supply said character. Kinda like a bad HTML tag.

However! This does not stop you from having funny things result from a misspelled Sue name. I just don't think it's going to be a mini. At least, not in the same way misspelled canon names are.

~Neshomeh

Besides, I knew all about the name "Estel", too.

I tend to notice it most when it seems especially out of character. For instance, in the mission I'm working on now, the 'Stu is being attacked and has grabbed his attacker's, er, masculine body parts. Being an ice mage, the Stu threatens to freeze said masculine body parts. That's all well and good, except that the actual dialogue tag used is 'cooed.' To me, that doesn't fit at all, and it's annoying. So I have the 'fic take the language literally to emphasize how ridiculous it is.

--anamia

Hooray cats! I shall call her Sulle, after my cousin!

I understand what you are saying. It isn't that we are overly critical of figurative language. I use it often myself. What we may have a problem with is a paragraph that is all about how someone looks or sounds that is so full of figurative language that you aren't even sure what it is about anymore.

Consider, for a moment, that every time a character speaks the word "chirped" is used. Wouldn't a character who only seems to chirp (and they chirp often) become a bird in your mind?

When we make figurative language seem ridiculous in a mission, we are simply saying that the fic has broken the rules of the word world to the point that the world is taking every word literally. It makes a mission funnier, especially if our agents say something that they soon regret.

I hope this helps clear things up.

-Barid

I guess, yeah. You have a point about killing the writing. I've seen works (I dare not call them 'literature') where that happened; they weren't pretty.

And yes, that would be amusing. xD

The thing with figurative language though is that there is only so much you can squash in. Too much of it, and you end up with purple prose and something that's nigh impossible to read. At the same time, metaphors and similes can also be a bit of a crutch when you're writing when you start to rely on overused ones.

My personal stance on it is 1) Too much figurative language can kill the actual writing, 2) using this sort of thing in missions helps to emphasise to readers that some thought should go into it, and also that 3) missions are supposed to be funny, which is where having someone turn into a tiger temporarily while fighing because the Words Said So comes into play.

...but is the debate on the new Department over? The posting just sorta stopped when I said I could maybe do a remake of the A/V division. I don't know if I was unclear - I probably was, knowing me, sorry - but what I meant by that was that I could do it if the Department didn't go through. But so far, I haven't got a concise "yes" or "no" as to the new Department.

I do have a compromise. Maybe I could write a couple of missions for the new Department, on a trial basis. Like, the Flowers have disagreed on the best way to deal with a division like this, so they've made a temporary Department which will police songfics until they've made a decision. It might also give everyone a better idea of where this is going, and where a division like this would belong.

Would that work?

Something I've noticed in a lot missions I've read is that that the agents are incredibly critical of figurative language. Okay, so so-and-so isn't really a tiger when s/he starts fighting (to give a random example), but metaphor happens.

Also, the use of speech verbs. "Chirped", "warbled", "barked" etc. are normal words used to describe a person's tone of voice when speaking (or singing badly, in the case of "warbled"), but they seem to get a lot of abuse... I guess when a fic is bad enough, you want to point out anything you can find, but it just seems like normal writing to me.

Anyone want to discuss?

When I tried earlier, I did get a sort of drop down menu, but there was a gap between the menu and Gallifrey Fanfiction U (caused by that frase not being on a single line). As a result of which the drop down menu disappeared when I tried to get to it.

I agree that it prologues should be linked under prologues. it's more intuitive.

1) Yes, that's a mini. They are about half the height of the usual minis. At least, that's the case with mini-Deckers. I've picked up a few of these minis (face and stockwell).

2) I'm actually surprised this has never come up before, considering how bad at spelling Suethors usually are.

3) Since you'd probably be the first to spot a Sue-mini on a mission, you get to decided how much like a regular mini or like a Sue it is.

As a side note, if I don't feel like coming up with a funny situation surrounding a mini, I don't bother mentioning a mini was created. I don't believe all minis should be saved from badfic; they should be saved when it's funny. A Sue-mini for instance, could be saved at first (with the agents arguing what they are going to do about it), but be lost in the end because it tried to save the Sue and took a bullet for her.

A fangirl is a squeeing, drooling, Suefic-writing mass of hormones. A fan who happens to be female is quite another thing, and quite likely to know more about Aragorn than you can shake a stick at while also having the ability to avoid glomping the poor fellow, which one assumes is an ability that Neshomeh possesses.

That... is even worse, then! Sorry; internet names don't tend to have genders and around here there are more girls than guys, so you tend to assume.

Candi is a famous Mary Sue, not short for your name.

The 'fic in question already has characters turning into birds due to the use of dialogue tags such as 'cooed' and 'chirped,' music notes falling from the sky due to poor phrasing, a randomly appearing man in the canon character's bed, and now a mini-Stormwing with pink eyeshadow and sparkly lipgloss. The saddest thing is that I can actually picture that, and it's not pretty. I feel sorry for my agents...

--anamia