Why betas are a great thing to have

[erestor]

During Minicon, Nellas showed us how she creates her artworks, step by step. From egg-shaped thingy on paper to lovely Glorfindel. Sounds simple, but it isn't (hell, no! When I draw egg-shaped thingies, they stay egg-shaped thingies!) What we get to see on the internet is not even the finished artwork, it's a scan of it, and many details get lost,

Comments

[half_elf_lost]

I couldn't agree more. I can't ever find my own errors.

[erestor]

If you write something, you completely lose sight for errors. I read my stories through several times before I send them off to my betas, but still I find later on, while going through the corrections, the most idiotic mistakes.

[sildil]

Excellent and really useful! Thanks for sharing :D

*mutters* an' I was going to show my stuff too......*sniffs*

[erestor]

Youu're welcome. And no worries, you WILL show your stuff. :-) I INSIST!

[caduceus]

Wheee! That is indeed very interesting! *^_^*
Amazing how those little things can make the story flow much nicer... I loved reading your original, but every one of those changes/suggestions are good and absolutely fitting. :)

All hail to the amazing beta-ladies!

[erestor]

Absolutely, little things can make all the difference. I tend to be repetitive if I like a word, and sometimes, my "German" shines through and I sound terribly "Swiss". It's a good thing to have someone who catches those things and helps to make the story more readable. :)

[enismirdal]

Oh, fantastic! I haven't had chance to go through a comparison of Eveiya's and my beta styles on the same document yet, but the fic's sitting in my inbox. I love seeing how other betas work - I can learn loads off so many of them, different things that they're more sensitive to that I need to put more effort into peeking at, and so on.

Thank you for sharing!!

[erestor]

You and Eveiya have a very similar style in betaing. She's been there almost since day 1, so she knows my writing inside out and knows where to look for nonsense or grammar crimes. At the end of the day, I AM Swiss, and sometimes, this shows, especially in the way my sentences are built. Some of it is intentional (I'm not overly fond of short sentences) and part of my style, but sometimes, it's just a lot of rubbish. I'm lucky to have betas who kick my butt. Feel free to kick as often and as hard as you want. :)

[eveiya]

As I said, OMFG! :-D

You know, this triggers on my OCBD* - now I want to beta my own comments!

* obsessive compulsive betaing disorder

[erestor]

As I said: at least no "huns" and "luvvies", red roses and cutsie little heartsies. All joking aside, I think it's important to show what amazing work a good beta does. And that constructive criticism is a wonderful thing, not "OMGFLAMESMEANIE!!!!11eleventy!".

This aside, I just posted this to see your Johnny Depp icon. Yes, I'm shallow.