The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

Does anyone know the best way to download entire webpages from geocities? I have some hosting space, so I'm trying to back up the PPC Handbook: http://www.geocities.com/thequendi/handbook.html before geocities dies, but simply going 'File -> Save As' gives a very broken webpage when loaded :/

Also: Agents *can* work across multiple fandoms, right?

Yay, at least I feel ready to make a request to start PPCing.

Whilst I do have character bios around, they're also quite long, so I might as well summarise them here.

Department of Mary Sues Daniel Anders and Luciana Taylor.
The two are rescued bit-characters from a Sue-fic, recruited by the Assassins sent to kill said Sue. In the story, Taylor was a mercenary and Anders an English Language scholar (the irony is deliberate), but due to a slight... 'glitch' in the parent fic's writing, Anders always looks somewhat vague (having lacked any physical description at all) whilst Taylor has become narcoleptic from staying awake for *four weeks* straight in the story. Yes, narcoleptic. It's not as fun as it sounds.

The two very much have to work together. Whilst Anders (being a linguistic scholar who takes badfic as something akin to a personal affront) is certainly enthusiastic, Taylor is the only one with any real combat experience, but of course has the problem of simply falling asleep at inopportune moments. The combined efforts of Medical and the Department of Fictional Psychology has alleviated this somewhat; she now only falls asleep on the spot when exposed to spectacularly bad writing. This is still quite a problem however, and the full effects of narcolepsy can easily return if she doesn't/can't take her medication in time. As such, their takedowns are always a bit chaotic, and prone to going to horribly wrong at inopportune moments. By and large, Anders takes care of the chargelist (seeing as Taylor will miss most of it due to her condition) whilst Taylor will try and manage the actual kill, assuming she's sufficiently conscious at the time. When she isn't (quite often), things get interesting...

The two have an interesting history in terms of how they came to be: Daniel is basically my inner snarky bastard (I'm an English Language student), whilst Taylor was spawned from a one-shot joke I dreamt up involving a character going catatonic at a spectacular piece of badfic. Fridge Logic popped in to point out that, for an Agent, losing consciousness at badfic would be a serious problem, and thus Taylor was born. As for their names, they're both from a story I wrote ages and ages ago. It was quite bad. Given that they're rescued characters, it seemed appropriate.

The two also have a fair number of quirks (Anders wields an armoured copy Cambridge Encyclopaedia for the English Language in a sling as a sort of flail, Taylor has a variety of neuroses related to her condition and a lot of expertise in the misuse of explosives, and you must never, EVER call her by her first name in full) as well, but I'm trying to keep this fairly short...

To sum up the character dynamic between them:
Anders is a headcase of the funny / awesome variety, Taylor is a headcase of the sympathetic / pitiable variety. Offsetting this, Anders is the least capable of actually taking down targets, whilst Taylor's sole area of expertise is dedicated to this. Taylor is also the saner of the two, likely because she is saved from the horror of badfic by simply nodding off at it, whilst Anders tends to start frothing at the mouth at such points.
They also have serious trouble completing missions without each other; they very much have to work alongside one another to get things done despite their various weaknesses and strengths. Naturally, breaking this dynamic separating them and making things generally go to hell quickly is something I'll be doing a lot. It'll be fun. Plus, trying to portray a genuine psychological problem and do proper justice to it will be a interesting challenge.

The first target is this: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4918474/1/FreedomLoveTillDeathNeverDoUsPart - A Left 4 Dead fanfic featuring a Mary/Marty-Sue couplet of the Twilight variety (he is an amalgamation of all the Special Infected types, with all the strengths, none of the weaknesses, a sodding huge BFS that accidentally defies physics on occasion and also an Author Avatar of massive proportions; she is... very flat and uninteresting, but their love is EPIC! and HEARTRENDING!) chosen for, despite having technically accurate grammar/spelling, being an absolute travesty of a story and an insult to its host Canon (pay special attention to the dates and times mentioned in the 'fic. Draw own conclusions. Laugh, cry or go insane. Pick two)

As for writing samples, I don't have that many. I've written some fanfic (hopefully in the 'goodfic' category) which you can find here: http://www.fanfiction.net/~mrcj, but in terms of being understandable without having to understand the original Canon first, this would probably be your best bet: <a href="http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5103813/1/ParallelRunning">http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5103813/1/Parallel_Running

Another thing worth noting is that I believe PPCs of actual fanfic should be kept self-contained; that is to say that they should be accessible to anyone, regardless of their familiarity with the PPC or even the Agents involved. As such, I have every intention of using out-of-mission vignettes whenever I want to do something that revolves heavily around the characters rather than their missions. As for the missions, they'll (hopefully) be a mix of snark, righteous Sue-hunting and the characters' various weaknesses and neuroses throwing them for loops to keep things interesting. I blame Evangelion for that; I seem to be incapable of writing characters without at least one major problem now...

Hoping he'll be accepted,
Guessmyname

... to have various characters not believe he's dead. Dialogue something like this has run through my mind a number of times:

"Oh, yes, it's broken -- you'll have to take it to Makes-Things."
"... Makes-Things is dead."
"Is he really? Well, suit yourself."

I haven't done it yet because I haven't managed to finish the thing I wanted to use it in. But we'll see.

hS, who thinks messing with the status quo is all very well so long as he can mess with the mess afterwards

I already have my next mission in mind, and I'll try to take some of Sara's advice (and maybe even some of July's rather loud advice) to heart. One of July's complaints was that Chliever's diseasy nature doesn't seem to have any ramifications, and, well, you'll see. I've had this planned for a while, actually. Stay tuned!

Oh, and Sara? Sorry If I talked down to you in my rebuttal. Was not my intention to be condescending; I apologize.

Your attitude alone throughout this thread has really impressed me, and attitude counts in my book. I think I gave you Permission in the first place, and I stand by it. You make me proud.

~Neshomeh

Maybe he took the opportunity to go have a much-needed vacation. He has all the brains and the resources to feign his own death, and is just snarky enough to let everyone believe it until he's ready to come back. That's my theory.

~Neshomeh

Chliever got a whoppingly low negative 4 on the Sue litmus test I put him through, but apparently, some take issue with the fact the the PPC would even recruit an agent of Chaos in the first place...

I also tend to fall victim to "someone else will handle it" syndrome and walk away without saying anything, mainly because I don't want to come off as that mean person who's always ready to criticize everything.

At the same time, though, I've been training myself for years to take concrit, and it has gotten to the point where I'm really frustrated when no one has anything to say on the subject of how I could improve. SPaG isn't good enough--anybody can make and fix those mistakes. I wanna hear about continuity, characterization, clarity, and anything else you can possibly think of in the meat of the story, whether it begins with a C or not.

Like hS, I'm not likely to go back and re-write something old, though I will make mechanical fixes if need be, but when I seek out betas, I really want someone who will rip into the thing and tell me what's what.

It has occurred to me that this sounds slightly masochistic, but it isn't. You see, this kind of concrit means that someone was really paying attention and cared enough to offer a critical analysis. That is a huge compliment.

So, there you have it.

~Neshomeh, who feels that she is talking a lot lately.

The difference is: you, quite believably, have everything under control. There is nothing wrong with your Agents, dear. Don't you dare leave.

Especially Krisprolls.

In fact, I learn better with it. The silly reviews on ff.net stories that are always, "OMG I luv ur story! Update!!!1!" bore me to tears. The reviews with constructive critism that point out my flaws and the "good parts" are my favorites. I can't always see what's wrong with my writing and maybe someone else can. So, I don't mind if you give me concrit. Go ahead. That way, when I begin turning out missions, I have a way of knowing what others think of them.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FanFicRecommendations

Got goodfic requests, add them to the list for all (who browse TvTropes) to find! And you can find other recommendations there as well if you're searching.

I'd really like to thank you for giving me concrit. Thanks to you, I've tried to make my missions good without quoting too much of the badfic.

Keep it up.

... can I get you to email me as soon as possible on the address above? That, or leave an email address here -- either works. Thanks.

hS

... can I get you to email me as soon as possible on the address above? Alternately you can leave an email address here if you prefer. Thanks.

hS

Force-users aren't a problem. The problem comes if they're, eg, Force users who use wands to channel the Force (although, considering we've got the Nightsisters, even that's not too farfetched), or if they use the Force to beat the point of the PPC around the head, or just Force-choke every 'Sue from a safe distance, or whatever. If they have full personalities, they're fine.

hS

... what exactly is up with your IP address?

"121.73.66.2 (XFF: 121.73.66.2)"

What's an XFF? And why doesn't anyone else get one? Are you hoarding the XFFs? Is this a secret conspiracy to turn your XFF hordes against those who think themselves secure? Answer, you fiend, lest ye be destroyéd by the Almighty Hand of Fate!

hS, going slowly insaner

Lots of people have been joining up, including me. There was one day when everyone switched genders, but mostly it's been The Duty as usual.

No one hates you or your Agents here. They're from Star Wars, it's perfectly reasonable they'd have the Force.

Only one person was raging, and after she calmed down she admitted that she was feeling ragey before she posted. She apologized.

As for what you say mattering, yes, yes it does. It's in the Constitution, in fact. If you're really that worried, try a Sue litmus test; I ran Chliever by one and he came out just fine.

Please, please, please feel free to concrit anything I put up. While I'm not prone to changing things once they're posted, I will if absolutely necessary, and I always take comments into account in later chapters/missions/etc. So please do.

I'll also echo beta-readers (nor, I would add, PPC writers) are perfect, or even necessarily any good. The difference at the PPC should be not in the quality necessarily, but in the willingness to listen. Given how much of a big deal we make out of concrit, and how annoyed we get at authors who refuse to change, we should be better at listening. Not saying we all are -- but more, I hope, than in other fandoms.

hS

There is sometimes only so much a beta can do.

Giving a long list of things that are wrong with a story tends to make people defensive. Pointing out huge problems in narrative style can be even worse, because it's so personal to the writer. With, say, Trojie or Sedri, I know they appreciate me ripping what they've written to shreds and picking on anything and everything, and I know they'll take it well. With people I don't know so well, a softer approach is needed, with more sort of guiding principles about things that don't need to be said or done in whatever way.

Then, of course, there have also been occasions when I've pointed out problems with agents' abilities or the writer's take on how canon would react to the badfic, and been utterly ignored. It's made even more difficult because I know how I would write the mission, but my way isn't necessarily the best way. When the writer's not listening, there comes a point where I simply throw my hands up in defeat, SPaG-beta the thing, and wash my hands of it.

At which point said author then goes and sticks my name at the top as a beta suggesting I've done an excellent job and the mission has my seal of approval. Which is frustrating as hell, because I'm aware quite a few people round here view me as a good beta.

As for giving concrit to writers with many missions written, IndeMaat - feel free in my case. The more the better, as far as I'm concerned.

And roger that, boss. Shall attempt to write a damned good mission in 25 hours, at which point I am free of uni.