I'm a reader rather than a writer but I've often been tempted to offer my services as a beta and then pulled back at the last minute because I've never been sure what a beta actually does and how much more there is to it than just checking spelling, grammar, tenses and checking the story makes sense.
With this advice and the resources you've provided, which I'm going to look into as soon as I've caught up on some sleep, I'll hopefully be better equipped to offer to help someone in future.
I don't feel I do enough for this fandom which gives me loads of wonderful stories to read and this is an area I feel I can contribute to, with a bit of research and practise. Goodness knows I'm rubbish at the commenting aspect *face/palm*
I, too, am sometimes lacking when it comes to commenting on stories I've read (and as a some-time writer, I appreciate the validation any feedback gives a writer), so you are not alone in that boat!
I don't think there could ever be too many betas out there in the fic world! I hope I see your name attached to fics as an editor in the future!
Betaing is like writing: the more you do of it, the better you become :)
And the non-fandom beta thing was a revelation. I couldn't rely on explaining the characters or their UST as being 'Well, it's Fraser!' or 'Ray always yells at his Mountie!' because my Beta didn't know the players. That aspect really helped me when it came to writing a Fraser/RayK fic.
I wish I felt more comfortable using betas. The few experiences I've had with them have been great, and definitely improved the story, but I don't think I've developed a thick enough skin for it (and after all this time posting, that sounds terrible...).
Do you have your beta check every story, or do you pick and choose which submissions yousend her way?
No, that doesn't sound terrible at all. I used to cringe when I printed off my Beta's corrections, flailing and pacing at all the red ink I would see on the pages. Early on, it was sheer torture for me, but not because my Beta is horrid to work with, but because I would think I was an idiot to try to write, that the red ink was validation of my suckitude and I should stop wasting my Beta's time. And whenever I'd express that to my MRVB, THAT was when she'd get hard on me, because if I didn't have the belief that I could do it, all her corrections and advice would be useless. So, I had to trust her, push forward, and hey, I learned I don't suck at writing :) I also learned that the amount of red ink on an edited draft does not directly proportional to the quality of the writing (a very good thing to remember if your betas, like mine, tend to write you notes within the draft
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Actually, I meant to say in #3 that a god-like, ideal beta does both. Realistically, we all have our strengths and this is another reason why it's great to get more than one set of eyes to proof your fic. I suck at punctuation (though I TRY, honest) and paragraph breaks...so I'm a better story editor than copy editor. And I totally use Word's Grammar Check whenever I remember to. Even though telling it to ignore my stupid sentence fragments gets really annoying! :P
This was a very interesting take on some of the pros and cons of beta reading. I love to beta but I'm a lousy speller and, despite my MA in English, I don't have the technical ability to be a good copy editor. What I can offer writers is a good sense of structure, pacing, flow, characterization, etc
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Great feedback :) I think I did touch on the non-fan v fan beta with this wee bit:
If you need someone to read your fic to vet it for characterisation, canon or voice, that is when I would put a shout-out to fandom friends for a quick read-over.
I have all my dS fiction vetted by a fandom friend, but for the beta business, it is all my MRVB!!
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I'm a reader rather than a writer but I've often been tempted to offer my services as a beta and then pulled back at the last minute because I've never been sure what a beta actually does and how much more there is to it than just checking spelling, grammar, tenses and checking the story makes sense.
With this advice and the resources you've provided, which I'm going to look into as soon as I've caught up on some sleep, I'll hopefully be better equipped to offer to help someone in future.
I don't feel I do enough for this fandom which gives me loads of wonderful stories to read and this is an area I feel I can contribute to, with a bit of research and practise. Goodness knows I'm rubbish at the commenting aspect *face/palm*
Thank you :D
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I, too, am sometimes lacking when it comes to commenting on stories I've read (and as a some-time writer, I appreciate the validation any feedback gives a writer), so you are not alone in that boat!
I don't think there could ever be too many betas out there in the fic world! I hope I see your name attached to fics as an editor in the future!
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
Betaing is like writing: the more you do of it, the better you become :)
And the non-fandom beta thing was a revelation. I couldn't rely on explaining the characters or their UST as being 'Well, it's Fraser!' or 'Ray always yells at his Mountie!' because my Beta didn't know the players. That aspect really helped me when it came to writing a Fraser/RayK fic.
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Do you have your beta check every story, or do you pick and choose which submissions yousend her way?
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Thank you for expanding on those beta points! You delineated the traits between a 'good beta' and a 'nice beta' wonderfully!
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If you need someone to read your fic to vet it for characterisation, canon or voice, that is when I would put a shout-out to fandom friends for a quick read-over.
I have all my dS fiction vetted by a fandom friend, but for the beta business, it is all my MRVB!!
Reply
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