Month: July 2011

Want to know what makes me cry?

I mean seriously…  Cry, or want to harm someone, I forget which.  And that’s people that IGNORE constructive criticism.

I found a McShep comment ficlet and read it.  It definitely needed some touchups, and there was a commenter that said as much.  The author blew them off, though they apparently did make the change that needed to be made (“Rodney was exited” versus “Rodney was excited”).  Nobody brought up the “loose” thing (which the author used incorrectly – twice), though they should have.  And don’t get me started on Sheppard being way out of character…

Then there was the second person, also offering constructive criticism.  At that point, apparently, the author had enough – because they stopped answering their comments.  I mean, when authors write for free, their payment is comments from the general public.  Why not even just acknowledge them back?  Ugh.

You were SO close…

Okay, so I can usually take a word or two out of place.  You know, the mixup of “your” and “you’re” and the like.  It’s not too bad.  But when you couple a bunch of them with such an out-of-character description of John Sheppard?  Yeah, that makes it pretty bad…  That’s how I feel about the SGA/Sentinel fusion story “For Me“.

Now don’t get me wrong.  The premise of the story is good.  It’s just – I don’t know… REALLY hard to swallow when John Sheppard is so blatantly out of character it’s not even funny.  This is the very first passage that includes Sheppard:

He wiped at his eyes hurriedly as he went in search of the enticing aroma his nose was sniffing appreciatively.

He found it in the Gate room scattered in with the new recruits that’d just gated in. Rodney went up to it and buried his face in its neck, sniffing happily.

“What the fuck?”  A startled voice exclaimed.  But the person it belonged to didn’t try to push him away.  Rather strong arms pulled him closer.

After a long moment of ecstatic sniffing Rodney looked up.  “Hi,” he said shyly.

Gentle hands cupped his face.  “Hello.  Mind telling me what you’re doing?”

Seriously.  John Sheppard, as emotionally repressed and standoffish as he is, would never willingly let a stranger, who’s suddenly attached to him at the neck, just stay there, much less pull him in closer.

I think there’s so much you could do with an SGA/Sentinel fusion story (and honestly, I think this story could be salvaged by being rewritten to be more in character, etc).  I mean seriously – go read esteefee’s “A.W.O.L.“; it’s incredible!