The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

"Cool, your Agent is a taller-than-average man who can't be beat at fights physical or magical"

Mine's a woman who can do that (except the magical thing). Is that original? :P

In all seriousness, though, I think I agree with you. I've actually become more and more hesitant about joining the PPC as I discover more and more of the crazy history behind it. Fortunately, Pads is helping me draft my character profiles. So if I screw them up, it's all her fault. *scampers away*

*returns* As for Sue/Stu Agents, are we allowed to have missions where we kill them? *scampers away again*

despite never having read any EU novel ever. God, do we not want to go into what emerged (*shudders*). Then I got into Harry Potter badfic, hit a bout of plagiarism (*turns tomato red*) and then died on the Internet. Then I returned, deleted everything and all became good in the world as the plagiarism incident ironically made me better. If I'd never done it, I'd probably still be writing crap (though, I guess that depends on your POV) and I'd hate you all for mocking my stories. Yeesh. Sounds crazy written like that.

seem to be the perfect candidates then. *is intrigued by what OFU they might write together*

All these recent dramas haven't even come close to catching my interest, and I have no interest in reading missions that are predictable and more concerned with "great" new things than the agents and the awfulness of the badfic - because that's what the PPC is about: Badfic.

If I recall correctly, in the notes of one of their early missions, Jay made a comment about how she and Acacia were finding that their agents were getting a lot of screentime, and was concerned that the readers weren't interested in the agents. They were, thankfully, and that's why most of us are here, but the point is that the PPC's own founders did not start this wonderful place in order to write about themselves - the intention was always to deal with badfic.

Let's keep it that way, 'kay?

The overdrama, overacting, overkill has been stifling lately. We need to tone down, slow down, and think before we do things. Is it gratuitous? Is it self-serving? Is it funny? Is it in keeping with the spirit of being the hard-working, everyday Agent just doing their job? If the answers are anything but no, no, yes and yes, then why are we doing it?

Go on, make my day. I've been missing the humor around here.

Only minor apologies for the snark.

I have some confessions to make.

Firstly, I don't care about your drama. Your "epic" story arcs, your ZOMG SOOOO AWSUM Agents, your OMG THAR IS AN EMERGENCY WE GOTTA FIGHT AN HAVE AWSUM STUFF HAPPEN...did you ever stop to consider that PPC missions are meant to be...well, normal life for an Agent, as normal as the whole thing can be? You go in, you rant a bit, you snark, you kill the Sue, you leave. It's what we do. We're not here to attract attention; we're here to get the job done.

Secondly, I am not impressed by your big weapons. Please remember that we do this for the comedy and for the 'verses. And you know what? Being the underdog is funny. We're not supposed to be superior. It's why we call it the Duty. Because that's what it is...a duty, something that we want to do not because we get to be all flashy and use big weapons, but because worlds that we love are all the better for it. The job itself...we hate. But we do it for the effects that the work we do has, and people seem to have forgotten that.

Thirdly, I'd like to beat some sense into whoever decided that we should have Emergencies every other month. One of the things that makes something special is that it is few and far between, and this applies greatly to Emergencies. Once they happen annually, or even bi and trianually, they're not special anymore. They're boring and become trivial...which goes completely against the whole concept of an Emergency. It ties back into the comedy versus drama thing: drama is great, but it's not what the PPC is all about. Not to mention that it completely messes up the status quo. Sure, the death of Makes-Things was sad and plot-driving, but we needed him.

Fourthly, I understand that you really, really want to add to PPC canon, but don't forget that you do that just by writing missions. Consider leaving major decisions, like what Flower is going to be Head of which Department/Division up to the people who are directly affected by said decisions. Namely, the people writing for said Departments and Divisions. Think about it this way: you add a Flower to a Department that you don't evern write for. Good for you, you've just added to the canon, but you're not doing anything with it. But then someone wants to write in that Departemnt, and they're the first to do so. Wouldn't it maybe be their right, as authors actually working with that Flower, to decide the specifics of said Flower? They're the ones feeling the affects of the decision. Now, I'm not saying that only certain people should be allowed to add to the canon. I'm saying that certain things should be left to the people that they directly apply to.

Fifthly, I really don't care how many tropes you have in your mission. I don't care if your Agent has a BFG or CMOA...it's a mission, frak it, and frankly, for all of your tropes your sporkings are lacking. Bear in mind that there is a reason that something is on TVTropes: it's cliche and used all the time. So when you write it just like you see it on TVTropes, that's what your mission becomes: cliche and boring.

Finally, your originality stinks. Cool, your Agent is a taller-than-average man who can't be beat at fights physical or magical, and is also a very experienced Agent that nothing surprises anymore who is somewhat angsty because he has a bad past. Does he have any character flaws? Any little quirks that liven him up a bit? Does he have a unique personality? No? Then why should I care about him? And why is he any better than the Stus that we try so hard to kill? There's been a sudden influx of Agents that are more Sue/Stu than person, and it's not only saddening but bloody hypocritical. Take another look at your Agents...maybe you'll see that their originality is only on the surface. If so, I hope you'll do what you can to make them a true character.

There you have it. I hope it's been enlightening, because, at the moment, I want very little to do with the PPC community and where it's heading. I'm not saying that you're terrible people, I'm just saying that the actual PPCing itself is looking pretty shabby compared to how it was a few years ago when I first joined. So now I'm challenging you to look at yourself, to say, "I can do better than this," and then to proceed to do better than this (and don't think that I consider myself exempt from this, because I definitely don't).

Good luck,

Sara

While most people here seem to have had the same problems I encountere when trying to write, there is a bit of a difference; they got better at it before joining the Board. Meh, I'll probably just try to deal with the irony of writing possible badfic while simultaneously condemning badfic here. If I end up writing something absolutely terrible, it's going to be donated to the PPC though.

First and foremost, the torrents of terrible spelling and grammar prompted me to start correcting things, which has turned into a nice little (very little) business.

Other than that; very similar to the others below. It gave me a chance to realise that I could write well without the need for a brilliant original idea (to date, I have never had one), it gives me great sources of humour, and it's a conduit by which I have met several lovely friends.

*while headlocking Zuko* Yes! Yes! An Avatar fan am I! And this is my lovemuffin.

Zuko: ...uhh?

Fanfiction, for me, was a way to really LEARN. I mean, I started when I was thirteen, and it's been a few years. For some reason, I lacked the ability to develop my own ideas. I mean, besides the fact that my writing wasn't all that good, I honestly could not come up with an original story setup that was actually good.

Then I found fanfiction.

Of course, it wasn't an instant thing. I still wasn't a great writer, and my first few stories either crashed into the ground or staggered and twitched for a while before dying. Through fanfiction, I didn't really NEED to come up with an original idea, because I could use other people's ideas to practice my writing style and my plot-developing skills. And I found that, as time went on, my writing improved, and I actually used fanfiction to create my own original plotline. The best part was the fact that complete strangers could take an objective view on my writing, and really tell me how well I was doing.

A particular point of significance was when I discovered that Happy Tree Friends had its own section on the Pit. I don't know why, but it must have unlocked something, and I immediately spewed forth a story that, in hindsight, could probably be much better, but it was still significantly more original than the others. It was also the first multi-chapter fanfic I actually finished. In fact, I think I've had the most success in the HTF fandom.

Currently, I'm writing my own original fantasy. The plot is basically a combination of characters, plot points, and ideas from my Happy Tree Friends fanfics, as well as some issues in the Real World. I'm pretty confident about it.

It has definitely improved my writing. Mostly my approach to plotting and characterizations, combined with a healthy fear of ever writing something sporkable. It's also given me some confidence that I can write humor, thanks to the PPC.

It was also my doorway into the larger world of fandom: fanfic, icon-making, forum discussions, filk, conventions, the lot of it.

... I'm afraid I'm not carrying any sanity on me... I do have some antibacterial sanitizer... And... Shiny!

... but when I was a kid, all I could turn out was poetry. Appalling poetry, I must hasten to point out, but poetry nonetheless. And I sort of dropped the idea.

Fanfiction hit me like a ROCK at the age of seventeen, and I promptly turned out several mediocre-to-poor slashfics, and then the PPC, and then my actual writing declined in quantity as more and more of my time was spent sporking.

However, I credit sporking with teaching me what is and is not good writing practice, and showing me what I like and don't like as a reader, making it easy for me to make judgements on what and what not to write.

My long-term association with Pads started off in fandom, and now we both write and spork together. Fandom/fanfic is thus also responsible for providing me with one of my closest friends :D

Sounds terribly traumatic. Good luck with it!

Thank you, college is next! I've got a nice scholarship at a college in Florida, so I'll be living the tragic, difficult life of beach bumming and scuba diving (oh, and studying).

Well, fanfiction's certainly improved my writing too. Case in point: never used to write anything; Trojie made me write fanfic with her; she always had to write the sex scenes; after four years she gave me a prompt that turned into porn; I realised I couldn't use the word "cock" in fiction; today I managed it for the first time. All through the beauty of fanfiction.

Congrats on the graduation wossname. What's the plan next?

Hello lovely people.

Owing to the small and fancy nature of my high school, my graduation ceremony (yesterday! I finally have my diploma!) included a brief blurb read aloud by the Head of School regarding each graduating senior. Mine was almost entirely to do with my writing which, if predictable, was nonetheless gratifying. I have since been meditating on how the great distance I have come throughout my eighteen years. One of my only kindergarten memories involves the intense jealousy I felt towards my friend, who had won some little award or other for her short story. I did not understand why I couldn't write. Really, writing was a closed book to me up until the age of twelve, despite my love of books themselves.

I'm sure you're wondering where I'm going with this, so I’ll get to the point. The idea that I too could write only really took hold after I began to read fanfiction. Some of it was very bad, some was very good, and all was anonymously critiqued. Naturally, my first attempts at writing my own stories regarding my favorite books were awful. However, with time and practice comes improvement, and my own improvement was rapid, urged along by a solid stream of encouragement, flames, and helpful critiques.

The story goes on of course, but I would be curious to hear some of your responses to this question: What role does/has fanfiction played in your life? For me, it ignited a fierce passion that I've come to rely on immensely; how has it affected you?

- MB

*drops a large stack of books and rushes over* HIIII! I'm PitViperOfDoom, one of the many faces of insanity here at the good ol' PPC. I hope you've disposed of your own sanity already. It won't do you much good here.

I gift you with a weighted companion cube and a sock full of rocks. I'm sure they'll prove useful.

...also known as a Transdimensional Pocket Knife.

Lovely to meet you. You are doomed. Just thought you'd like to know that. :)

I've been on vacation, so I only was just able to check this board... but oh my goodness, I have fans, thank you!! :D :D

Completely made my day.