Two unrelated subjects
This weekend was a lot of fun! Easter weekend, of course. On Friday, I got a package in the mail from Mom with a whole bunch of junk in it. Peeps, jelly beans, chocolate eggs, and other yummy things. And a kaleidoscope! I'm not easily amused. At all.
Then, con. Yeah, con on Easter weekend. Whatever. I was supposed to play Aishiteruze Baby in the afternoon, so I was able to sleep in, which was good. One of the two dealers there was selling some cool stuff. I got a chocobo pin! It's cute... Also picked up the Outlaw Star soundtrack. I didn't know that it was even available (though I'm not surprised at all), and, yay for Outlaw Star. That's still one of my favorite shows.
Mom and brother came up, too! Jack won the DDR contest. Very cool. I have bragging rights on my brother now. Whoohoo! We went out to dinner and out to lunch (was slightly surprised there were places open today, really). I got leftovers for the fridge! Yay! No yucky school food for a day or two! Actually, the food here's pretty decent. But not as good as, say, leftover Chinese or shrimp or the like.
How many cough drops can you ingest before they begin to eat your soul? I fear I'm fast approaching the limit, if not there already.
Don't get me wrong; I love betas. I wish I had a good one or two. But, alas and all. No editor for me! This is fine, for now, as I'm not currently sharing or posting anything I write. I have no plans for it, either. Personally, I think my writing all borders on the clinically bad. So, no, of course I'm not going to post any of it for the general public to read. (Ecco haiku on ff.net do not count.) (...Stuff I put on here does not count, either, as it's put here solely for me, even though it is open to anyone who happens to be on my friends list.) Were I going to post something, I'd make an effort to find someone to beta it for me. It just seems like a good idea.
However, sometimes I feel somewhat okay about my writing. When that happens, I poke someone and ask them to read it. I fully expect them to tell me if they don't like a part about it, or did like a part of it, and their general reaction overall. I'll usually send them a few questions with it. (All fic is sent and read online. If I'm in the same general area as someone reading something of mine, I get freakish and start talking about everything and trying to justify, say, my use of the world "he" in the eighth sentence of the third paragraph on the twelfth page. As such, it's beneficial to my health and others sanity for me to be far away when they read it.)
I suppose now would be a good time to mention that I, when asked, am more than willing to beta things for people, so long as I know the universe/fandom being worked in. Even if I don't know the characters, I'm willing to edit it for spelling, grammar, and just general flow.
When I beta things, I'll mention things that don't sound right, like when a word is repeated multiple times in the same sentence or paragraph, unless the repetition of word is being used to make a point or something (this is something I usually pick up on). I also offer other ways for things to be written, as well as I can. Word replacements and the like. If I can't think of a different way for it to be written, I'll say as much. I also make a point to complement the writer whenever there's something that I really like; maybe it's something that's very in-character, or something is just written really well.
Long and short, I tell them what areas I think need improvement, offer tips on how it might be done, and tell them what I like.
Alyssa, whenever she's read anything, gives me nothing worthwhile. She'll tell me she loved it, and everything in it was perfect, and on and on. However, a few weeks (/months/however long it takes me to write something else she actually sees) later, she often tells me that whatever it was she'd read was actually terrible, and she just didn't want to hurt my feelings, but this one she's reading now is much better. Rinse, repeat.
But I never asked or expected Alyssa to be a beta reader/editor.
Liz, however, at one point, volunteered to beta my stuff, or at least check the readability of it, considering she's completely unfamiliar with my fandoms. ...However, I soon discovered, that doesn't stop her from trying to tell me whether or not the dialogue works. I understand that sometimes something reads funny, but the thing is, some people talk funny, and you can't tell a writer to change the character, not when you're not familiar with them.
My main gripe, though... Betas need to have a heart. If you beta something, you must remember that you are hacking apart something the writer worked hard on (in theory) and may be very proud of. If the thing is a piece of crap, try not to outright say it's a piece of crap, unless you have ideas for them on how to change it. Telling something "this here sucks" and leaving it at that is not good beta-ing.
Don't only address the bad areas. If they're doing something right, be sure to mention it. I know from experience that there aren't many things that hurt more than getting something back and seeing nothing but "this is bad," "this is stupid," "this is cheesy," and "no one talks like this" written all over what I've worked hard on. On one occasion, I nearly completely scrapped something because the editor would not get off one line I had. The editor obsessed and obsessed and obsessed over the one line. They just wouldn't get past it, and wouldn't go on with the story. However, they also refused to make any suggestions as to how I could reword it. They then copied the thing, printed it, and went around asking everyone we knew if it worked or not and, yeah, taken completely out of context, it makes no sense. When I said that, they pounced on it, since that's what they're been saying all along, apparently. ...Forgive me, but, when a sentence is in the middle of a paragraph in the middle of a story, that generally implies you aren't meant to read that one sentence and expect it to make sense.
But I'm done having that person beta or edit anything for me.
Maybe I'm wrong in my idea of what a beta reader/editor is supposed to do, but... I just can't believe that their job is to tell the writer only how much the story sucks.
There may have been more I wanted to say, but it's late and I'm tired. ...Because I'm finishing this thing at 1:30 in the morning. Don't believe the time the entry says. It's lying.
...Oh. While my brother was here, he transferred a bunch of AMV files onto my laptop and they make me very happy.
Then, con. Yeah, con on Easter weekend. Whatever. I was supposed to play Aishiteruze Baby in the afternoon, so I was able to sleep in, which was good. One of the two dealers there was selling some cool stuff. I got a chocobo pin! It's cute... Also picked up the Outlaw Star soundtrack. I didn't know that it was even available (though I'm not surprised at all), and, yay for Outlaw Star. That's still one of my favorite shows.
Mom and brother came up, too! Jack won the DDR contest. Very cool. I have bragging rights on my brother now. Whoohoo! We went out to dinner and out to lunch (was slightly surprised there were places open today, really). I got leftovers for the fridge! Yay! No yucky school food for a day or two! Actually, the food here's pretty decent. But not as good as, say, leftover Chinese or shrimp or the like.
How many cough drops can you ingest before they begin to eat your soul? I fear I'm fast approaching the limit, if not there already.
Don't get me wrong; I love betas. I wish I had a good one or two. But, alas and all. No editor for me! This is fine, for now, as I'm not currently sharing or posting anything I write. I have no plans for it, either. Personally, I think my writing all borders on the clinically bad. So, no, of course I'm not going to post any of it for the general public to read. (Ecco haiku on ff.net do not count.) (...Stuff I put on here does not count, either, as it's put here solely for me, even though it is open to anyone who happens to be on my friends list.) Were I going to post something, I'd make an effort to find someone to beta it for me. It just seems like a good idea.
However, sometimes I feel somewhat okay about my writing. When that happens, I poke someone and ask them to read it. I fully expect them to tell me if they don't like a part about it, or did like a part of it, and their general reaction overall. I'll usually send them a few questions with it. (All fic is sent and read online. If I'm in the same general area as someone reading something of mine, I get freakish and start talking about everything and trying to justify, say, my use of the world "he" in the eighth sentence of the third paragraph on the twelfth page. As such, it's beneficial to my health and others sanity for me to be far away when they read it.)
I suppose now would be a good time to mention that I, when asked, am more than willing to beta things for people, so long as I know the universe/fandom being worked in. Even if I don't know the characters, I'm willing to edit it for spelling, grammar, and just general flow.
When I beta things, I'll mention things that don't sound right, like when a word is repeated multiple times in the same sentence or paragraph, unless the repetition of word is being used to make a point or something (this is something I usually pick up on). I also offer other ways for things to be written, as well as I can. Word replacements and the like. If I can't think of a different way for it to be written, I'll say as much. I also make a point to complement the writer whenever there's something that I really like; maybe it's something that's very in-character, or something is just written really well.
Long and short, I tell them what areas I think need improvement, offer tips on how it might be done, and tell them what I like.
Alyssa, whenever she's read anything, gives me nothing worthwhile. She'll tell me she loved it, and everything in it was perfect, and on and on. However, a few weeks (/months/however long it takes me to write something else she actually sees) later, she often tells me that whatever it was she'd read was actually terrible, and she just didn't want to hurt my feelings, but this one she's reading now is much better. Rinse, repeat.
But I never asked or expected Alyssa to be a beta reader/editor.
Liz, however, at one point, volunteered to beta my stuff, or at least check the readability of it, considering she's completely unfamiliar with my fandoms. ...However, I soon discovered, that doesn't stop her from trying to tell me whether or not the dialogue works. I understand that sometimes something reads funny, but the thing is, some people talk funny, and you can't tell a writer to change the character, not when you're not familiar with them.
My main gripe, though... Betas need to have a heart. If you beta something, you must remember that you are hacking apart something the writer worked hard on (in theory) and may be very proud of. If the thing is a piece of crap, try not to outright say it's a piece of crap, unless you have ideas for them on how to change it. Telling something "this here sucks" and leaving it at that is not good beta-ing.
Don't only address the bad areas. If they're doing something right, be sure to mention it. I know from experience that there aren't many things that hurt more than getting something back and seeing nothing but "this is bad," "this is stupid," "this is cheesy," and "no one talks like this" written all over what I've worked hard on. On one occasion, I nearly completely scrapped something because the editor would not get off one line I had. The editor obsessed and obsessed and obsessed over the one line. They just wouldn't get past it, and wouldn't go on with the story. However, they also refused to make any suggestions as to how I could reword it. They then copied the thing, printed it, and went around asking everyone we knew if it worked or not and, yeah, taken completely out of context, it makes no sense. When I said that, they pounced on it, since that's what they're been saying all along, apparently. ...Forgive me, but, when a sentence is in the middle of a paragraph in the middle of a story, that generally implies you aren't meant to read that one sentence and expect it to make sense.
But I'm done having that person beta or edit anything for me.
Maybe I'm wrong in my idea of what a beta reader/editor is supposed to do, but... I just can't believe that their job is to tell the writer only how much the story sucks.
There may have been more I wanted to say, but it's late and I'm tired. ...Because I'm finishing this thing at 1:30 in the morning. Don't believe the time the entry says. It's lying.
...Oh. While my brother was here, he transferred a bunch of AMV files onto my laptop and they make me very happy.