Thoughts on betaing and misc other things
2) Here, have a piercing insight into my state of mind at the moment: I saw a squirrel hopping across the walkway in front of me and I thought, 'Oh! A kitty!'
3) The podficcer whose podfic I am currently betaing (which, btw, is great) suggested that rather than taking an age and a day writing up my feedback I could record it. This made me boggle and go, 'I could do that!' and 'How did I not think of that as an option previously?!' I'd still have to buy a mic in order to do that and learn how to use a recording software at a basic level (which, the astute of you will note, have traditionally been stumbling blocks to me recording my own podfic), but I'm definitely thinking on it. I also tend to edit my feedback and so I'd have to develop a way to work with that with recording things, but I think it would likely speed up my podfic betaing, which is currently much more time-consuming than fic-betaing (I think this may be in part because it takes me longer to figure out how to say what I want to say about podfic than about written fic?). So more thought is necessary, clearly.
5) In case you were wondering about my preferred way to go about betaing a work:
(i) I always make notes the first time through listening/reading because the average listener/reader will probably be doing it only once, so my initial reactions are important to record. This is usually when the 'squee' comments get written down. It's also when 'So-and-so seems out of character right here' usually gets written down. If there's something confusing I'll note it. Basically, I write down just whichever thoughts I have on my first, casual go-through which I think you may want to know about. I'll also mark passages for further thinking on, if I think I cannot give comments on it until I have seen all/more of the work. After I get to the end of the story, I go back and add any 'I thought A at the time, which is clever because now I see you were really setting up B and that's a lovely twist' or other comments which require knowledge of the entire story at a point earlier in the story.
(ii) The second reread/relisten is much more critical-- now instead of having my 'generic audience member' hat on I am wearing my editrix hat. Comments about structure and flow (and maybe characterisation) tend to come out now. Upon reaching the end of the story, I go back and reread all my comments to check for consistency of *my* opinion. I make sure to resolve those (possibly with rereading things) before I move onto the next step. I'll also mark now sections for pondering/etc in the next step.
(iii) Reread/listen to specific sections that may be particularly troublesome or that I had complicated thoughts about which I had not written out in full previously.
(nb:) Depending on the length of the story or the number of sections marked for reread, steps (ii) and (iii) may become combined
(iv) Reread/relisten story again, this time paying attention to the story as a whole rather than the story as individual parts. Make any comments that that reread/relisten requires. Reread/listen to specific sections/lines if needed.
(v) Rinse, lather, and repeat step (iv) until am satisfied. Satisfaction is usually one of: have reread/listened to it and now have no more things to add, have reread/listened to this sufficiently that I cannot reread/relisten to this version objectively any more (which means any remaining mistakes will have to be corrected in the next round of betaing because I can't see them any more), or I need to get it back to the creator now because of the time.
(vi) Reread my comments one last time to make sure that I am clear and that none of my advice is contradictory (I'm alright with having contradictory opinions, such as 'I see you've done such-and-such here. I'm torn on that for the following reasons...', but I hatehatehate when I am given contradictory instructions when it is my work, so I do my best to not confuse my author/reader.)
(nb #2:) This looks longer than it feels, hmmmm. Thoughts? How do you beta?
7) Goals for the weekend, in no particular order: look over two previously written posts and prep them for later posting, find and write end of FFFA story, get first round of podfic beta comments emailed off, cook, sleep, and I think I'm forgetting something?
11) I hope everyone's new year is off to a good start! I keep thinking of doing an end of year meme and then not really finding one I like. I may or may not do a reflections/resolutions/thoughts free form post eventually.
13) OMFG, the prompts for
you_know_thats_right come out tomorrow, I'm so excited!
This entry was originally posted at http://fish-echo.dreamwidth.org/43151.html.
3) The podficcer whose podfic I am currently betaing (which, btw, is great) suggested that rather than taking an age and a day writing up my feedback I could record it. This made me boggle and go, 'I could do that!' and 'How did I not think of that as an option previously?!' I'd still have to buy a mic in order to do that and learn how to use a recording software at a basic level (which, the astute of you will note, have traditionally been stumbling blocks to me recording my own podfic), but I'm definitely thinking on it. I also tend to edit my feedback and so I'd have to develop a way to work with that with recording things, but I think it would likely speed up my podfic betaing, which is currently much more time-consuming than fic-betaing (I think this may be in part because it takes me longer to figure out how to say what I want to say about podfic than about written fic?). So more thought is necessary, clearly.
5) In case you were wondering about my preferred way to go about betaing a work:
(i) I always make notes the first time through listening/reading because the average listener/reader will probably be doing it only once, so my initial reactions are important to record. This is usually when the 'squee' comments get written down. It's also when 'So-and-so seems out of character right here' usually gets written down. If there's something confusing I'll note it. Basically, I write down just whichever thoughts I have on my first, casual go-through which I think you may want to know about. I'll also mark passages for further thinking on, if I think I cannot give comments on it until I have seen all/more of the work. After I get to the end of the story, I go back and add any 'I thought A at the time, which is clever because now I see you were really setting up B and that's a lovely twist' or other comments which require knowledge of the entire story at a point earlier in the story.
(ii) The second reread/relisten is much more critical-- now instead of having my 'generic audience member' hat on I am wearing my editrix hat. Comments about structure and flow (and maybe characterisation) tend to come out now. Upon reaching the end of the story, I go back and reread all my comments to check for consistency of *my* opinion. I make sure to resolve those (possibly with rereading things) before I move onto the next step. I'll also mark now sections for pondering/etc in the next step.
(iii) Reread/listen to specific sections that may be particularly troublesome or that I had complicated thoughts about which I had not written out in full previously.
(nb:) Depending on the length of the story or the number of sections marked for reread, steps (ii) and (iii) may become combined
(iv) Reread/relisten story again, this time paying attention to the story as a whole rather than the story as individual parts. Make any comments that that reread/relisten requires. Reread/listen to specific sections/lines if needed.
(v) Rinse, lather, and repeat step (iv) until am satisfied. Satisfaction is usually one of: have reread/listened to it and now have no more things to add, have reread/listened to this sufficiently that I cannot reread/relisten to this version objectively any more (which means any remaining mistakes will have to be corrected in the next round of betaing because I can't see them any more), or I need to get it back to the creator now because of the time.
(vi) Reread my comments one last time to make sure that I am clear and that none of my advice is contradictory (I'm alright with having contradictory opinions, such as 'I see you've done such-and-such here. I'm torn on that for the following reasons...', but I hatehatehate when I am given contradictory instructions when it is my work, so I do my best to not confuse my author/reader.)
(nb #2:) This looks longer than it feels, hmmmm. Thoughts? How do you beta?
7) Goals for the weekend, in no particular order: look over two previously written posts and prep them for later posting, find and write end of FFFA story, get first round of podfic beta comments emailed off, cook, sleep, and I think I'm forgetting something?
11) I hope everyone's new year is off to a good start! I keep thinking of doing an end of year meme and then not really finding one I like. I may or may not do a reflections/resolutions/thoughts free form post eventually.
13) OMFG, the prompts for
you_know_thats_right come out tomorrow, I'm so excited!
This entry was originally posted at http://fish-echo.dreamwidth.org/43151.html.