"The PPC responds" comments

[araeph]

*headdesk* So, apparently I forgot that the PPC LJ community only allows member comments when I posted this thing. If I had remembered, I would have just posted the response here instead. So, if anyone has any comments but can't reply directly, feel free to do so in this LJ entry.

~Araeph

Comments

[dharma_slut]

As someone who has been sporked for various failings in my own time, I would say that your response, all full of bolded text 'so-theres', is pretty indicative of what happens when anyone gets sporked for any reason.

So, if you can so completely rationalise Boosette's charges as inaccurate, What makes you think your Mary Sue critiques will do anyone any good?

[araeph]

Actually, I wish the PPC had been sporked. If someone had taken one of the missions, even my own, and written an acerbic and amusing commentary around it, that would have been much more engaging. Instead, we just got a lot of wrath in our general direction, so I had to...spruce it up a bit. My fellow PPCers were entertained at my response, so I consider the lengthy reply worthwhile-an “Oh, really?”, rather than a, “So there!”, if you will.

(Looking back, I think you may be right about the bold text. I usually follow the rule of bolding the voice with the least text on the page, as it is easier on the eyes. Originally, that voice was mine, but the paragraphs grew as I went back and incorporated the other PPCers’ ideas along with my own. Thank you for pointing that out…I’ll try to have it fixed soon.)

What makes you think your Mary Sue critiques will do anyone any good?

Like any other entertainment, they cheer up and amuse the audience they were meant for. If you’d like a longer explanation, I would be happy to provide one.

[dharma_slut]

so you do not dissect Mary Sues to help young writers understand how to write better.

You do it to cheer up and amuse your friends.

But that is not a bad thing.

[araeph]

so you do not dissect Mary Sues to help young writers understand how to write better.

Not primarily, no. However, I know that we often do help young writers understand how to write better, those young writers being ourselves. I know I've improved by leaps and bounds as a writer since my teenaged self joined the PPC; there's nothing like dissection to make one understand exactly how something is supposed to work--and why it currently doesn't.

But that is not a bad thing.

Exactly. And while I am sincere about that and you are not, on that disagreement we shall probably have to leave it.

[txorakeriak]

A big fat YES to everything you wrote here