So You Say You Want Gabe To Beta Your Story, eh?
Everyone is doing these wonderful "how I write" entries lately, and really, when you're in such wonderful hands as furiosity, pushdragon, pir8fancier, minisinoo, calanthe and others, you can rest assured that you're in good hands. There's is little to nothing li'l ole Gabe can add to the mix that wouldn't simply be recapitulation of their ideas, only stated much less eloquently
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I may be an anamoly, but when I get something back from a beta, the more different colored fonts or highlights on the return copy the happier I am. It says to me, the person really read it, and found enough of interest to make comments rather *oh my god this is the worst sentence ever*, or *this is great stuff, pulitzer prize winning stuff* and no I've never had either one of those particular sentences said. Since the mechanics of writing is something I have difficulty with, I like it knowing why what I did, or didn't do was wrong. Hopefully if told enough it will eventually sink in to the muddled brain. I won't do it again, or at least not as much.
I also like the give and take, back and forth, commenting and exchanging ideas part. I may not accept and use everything the beta suggest, but I'll give reasons why, and on the other hand if I decide to keep something the beta totally disagrees with I expect them to fight me on it. Ultimately as the writer we have final say, but I've had some really, really good ideas come about due to beta suggestions.
No wonder you're behind on your own stories if this is your normal beta process. That's a lot of work.
But I do love the results of your process.
I should have had a beta on the first draft of this.
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I should have had a beta on the first draft of this.
thank gawd for the edit button, yeah? ;-)
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