A Birthday Wish, and Then I Talk About Betas
Wow, May and June contain a vast amount of birthdays, don't they? But that's okay. Birthdays are awesome, and this a fact which will soon be verified by Science. I'm going to commission a study from meresy and she'll prove, with 99% certainty, that birthdays are indeed awesome. There will be test tubes and beakers and autoclaves and shit. You'll see.
Today we're talking about jamethiel_bane, and I really don't need Science to demonstrate that Jame is a pretty damn admirable human being. She was one of my first friends in this fandom, and she has always been a source of snark, wit and humour. She has also given schooled me many, many times in how to project self-confidence. From her support and encouragement, to the fine example she offers of that elusive take-no-shit attitude (um, it may be handed out to Australians at birth, but we Canadians seem to have missed the boat) Jame is always an object lesson in how to live without apology. I wrote Price of Distance for her last year, and I'm sad to say I wasn't on the ball enough to compose a birthday fic this year, but then PoD was a month late, so hopefully Jame will understand that I work in erratic and mysterious ways :-)
Jame and I connected first through feedback (we bonded over my response to her wonderful F/K story Ice Snakes) and I immediately tapped her to beta. Jame insists that she's a "harsh" beta, but that was never my experience. She's just as good at pointing out what works in a story as identifying what doesn't, and in the long run it's that second part that makes a good beta so essential. Her birthday has inspired me to talk a little bit about betaing, and how a good editor is more precious to a writer than gold. So, here goes.
I'll start off with a caveat or two. I'm not a good writer. I'm a lazy writer. I'm also undisciplined, I don't understand how to convey theme, I'm a mess when it comes to plot, and I tend to recycle phrasing and reuse the same imagery over and over again. And I'm not saying any of this to invite contradiction to build up my ego; my ego is perfectly healthy, I assure you. I'm saying this to drive home the point that even an author of limited skill can seem like a genuine talent if they have the right beta help.
Excellent betas like jamethiel_bane, ignazwisdom, secretlybronte, llassah, dessert_first and j_s_cavalcante have taught me to unlock my own potential. They've coached me on everything from word choice to sentence structure to how to fix major characterization issues, and JS has spent endless hours and many thousands of words in email to teach me how to bring forth theme and ensure the structure of a piece is sound. secretlybronte consistently provides insightful, complex examinations into the story behind the story - she sees what a story can be, and unfailingly helps me find it. ignazwisdom, dessert_first and llassah taught me how to beta: they were some of my first friends in the fandom, and they showed me what it meant to beta, and how to do it with grace, skill, competency and humour.
I've worked with many, many other extraordinarily talented writers in the fandom, and they have all helped me improve my writing and saved me from painful embarrassment. Folks like sageness, arrow00, meresy, vienna_waits, debris_k, mondschien1, lamentables, bertybertle, sprat, theantichris, slidellra, omphale23, isisocolo, china_shop, brynnmck and zabira have all gone above and beyond, in so many ways, to help me out with a tough story or a difficult scene or a bit of dialogue that refused to ring true. All of these women have spent countless hours of their own time (time they could have spent on their own projects) to coach me and provide mentoring and assistance. Being a good beta is half personal relationship, as so many of these people are my very dear friends, and half professional relationship. And it is necessary to be professional as a beta: you often have to cultivate some distance and authority in order to offer the kind of advice authors sometimes don't want to hear.
Just as a brief example, I've been working on an enormous post-CotW kidfic for nearly two years. The story is about 40,000 words long at this point, and contains multiple characters, events and storylines. I'd written the whole piece in first-person RayK (eeeek!) and in one round of beta, j_s_cavalcante recommended I change the story to third person RayK. I think I might have stroked out. It definitely wasn't something I wanted to hear, and for a while it killed my enthusiasm for the story. Even now I find it hard to open the document. Ultimately I didn't take her advice (the story is just too far advanced for such a radical change) I appreciated what JS said very much because it showed her absolute commitment to the story, and to helping me improve as an author. She recognized that something wasn't working, she assessed the story, and she offered a way to fix it. It was an incredibly tough thing for her to do, and I think she was worried I wouldn't ask her to beta anything ever again. (Ha!) But that was her way of honouring all of my hard work and showing me how to finish the story. Bravery is essential in a good beta.
Editing is largely an act of faith: you're hoping that an author will take your advice because you might be able to see the story in ways they cannot. It's that distance issue, I think, since authors are so close to their own work they often miss the one thing (a POV change, cutting out a plot element to which they're really attached *cough dildo cough*, altering their approach to a particular issue) that will make the difference between an amazing story and a garden variety fic. Your task as a beta is to help them make that leap, and the best editors find a way to do so that honours the author's original vision and stays true to the author's stylistic and thematic choices.
I love to beta, and I try to devote as much time and energy as I can to helping other people with their work. Unfortunately I'm in short supply of both right now (summer was supposed to be such a relaxing period!) but readers and betas really are what makes or breaks an author, and I try to place a priority on beta work. Feedback for a story, even if it's something short and sweet ("Eeeee!" or "\o/"), is always welcome: even a short response tells an author that the reader engaged with the story, and that they liked it enough to acknowledge that fact. Of course, we live for long, in-depth bits of feedback, and this is where the true beta gold lies. Betas are the first responders, in a sense: they're first on the scene, they often perform life-saving procedures and provide transfusions of creativity and assistance. They also operate as a sounding board for ideas, and they let authors know what's working and what isn't.
As you can tell, betaing is a tough job, and it's definitely not something that should be rushed. I've taken up to a month to return a beta (sorry, zabira!) and given RL obligations and the fact that fandom is supposed to be a fun, stress-free leisure activity, I hope that authors will understand why it takes an extra day or two (or a week, or a month) to return a beta of their story. Unless I'm given a specific return-by date by an author who is writing a story for a challenge or who needs to make their edits very quickly, I try to promise a quality beta in exchange for the extra time. Granted, sometimes the quality is a bit dubious - I think I sent back one beta to isiscolo that consisted entirely of, "Oh, well, this is AWESOME! I can't think of anything to change!"
There's been a bit of a kerfluffle lately about giving betas their due credit: most betas do much, much more than simply fix a couple of typos and read a story over for basic plot coherency. j_s_cavalcante wrote most of the ending of Up Against It, including the dialogue, for example; dessert_first gave me an entire plot outline, from start to finish, for Bingo. I think it's up to an individual author to decide how they want to acknowledge their beta. I wasn't specific in either of the above cases in my beta acknowledgements, but it is essential that you do say "Thank you" and nod to their contributions when you post the story.
Nearly everyone reading this probably recognizes how essential this basic courtesy is, but I think it's good to keep in mind that your relationship with your beta is a relationship. If you make unfair demands on their time and their energy, and if you don't acknowledge their hard work and the sacrifices they've made in order to help you, you're in a lousy relationship, and you might be an abusive partner to boot.
I try to put the beta thanks in the author's notes right below the story headers like "Summary" and "Word Count," and in the comments and subsequent meta posts about any of my stories (yeah, I talk about myself a lot), I'll specifically mention my betas and explain exactly how and why they rule. And I'll also return the favour, and beta for them when they request help or shoot me a story in the middle of the night. I also try to beta for newcomers to the fandom as much as possible, as a sort pay it forward system. After all, you never know where you'll find your next beta/writing partner/favourite author, and by taking that first step you're welcoming someone new into the fandom.
In the end, we're a community of readers and writers and vidders and artists who share a love for storytelling. If you haven't done so already, I'd recommend offering yourself up as a beta. It's such a worthwhile and rewarding experience. If you're already an author it'll make you a better writer, and if you're a reader (or a viewer) you'll have an extra chance to help an author or vidder or an artist craft a creative work that you (and they) will really enjoy. Fandom is entirely dependant on the gift economy: make a gift of yourself, of your energy and effort and creativity, and you'll see that gift returned a thousandfold.
Alright, that was my public service announcement for today. If you've got the time and the inclination, why not share a story about a fantastic beta experience in the comments below? We've all benefited from an amazing beta, or two, and so let's celebrate the awesomeness. Tell us about your betas!
Today we're talking about jamethiel_bane, and I really don't need Science to demonstrate that Jame is a pretty damn admirable human being. She was one of my first friends in this fandom, and she has always been a source of snark, wit and humour. She has also given schooled me many, many times in how to project self-confidence. From her support and encouragement, to the fine example she offers of that elusive take-no-shit attitude (um, it may be handed out to Australians at birth, but we Canadians seem to have missed the boat) Jame is always an object lesson in how to live without apology. I wrote Price of Distance for her last year, and I'm sad to say I wasn't on the ball enough to compose a birthday fic this year, but then PoD was a month late, so hopefully Jame will understand that I work in erratic and mysterious ways :-)
Jame and I connected first through feedback (we bonded over my response to her wonderful F/K story Ice Snakes) and I immediately tapped her to beta. Jame insists that she's a "harsh" beta, but that was never my experience. She's just as good at pointing out what works in a story as identifying what doesn't, and in the long run it's that second part that makes a good beta so essential. Her birthday has inspired me to talk a little bit about betaing, and how a good editor is more precious to a writer than gold. So, here goes.
I'll start off with a caveat or two. I'm not a good writer. I'm a lazy writer. I'm also undisciplined, I don't understand how to convey theme, I'm a mess when it comes to plot, and I tend to recycle phrasing and reuse the same imagery over and over again. And I'm not saying any of this to invite contradiction to build up my ego; my ego is perfectly healthy, I assure you. I'm saying this to drive home the point that even an author of limited skill can seem like a genuine talent if they have the right beta help.
Excellent betas like jamethiel_bane, ignazwisdom, secretlybronte, llassah, dessert_first and j_s_cavalcante have taught me to unlock my own potential. They've coached me on everything from word choice to sentence structure to how to fix major characterization issues, and JS has spent endless hours and many thousands of words in email to teach me how to bring forth theme and ensure the structure of a piece is sound. secretlybronte consistently provides insightful, complex examinations into the story behind the story - she sees what a story can be, and unfailingly helps me find it. ignazwisdom, dessert_first and llassah taught me how to beta: they were some of my first friends in the fandom, and they showed me what it meant to beta, and how to do it with grace, skill, competency and humour.
I've worked with many, many other extraordinarily talented writers in the fandom, and they have all helped me improve my writing and saved me from painful embarrassment. Folks like sageness, arrow00, meresy, vienna_waits, debris_k, mondschien1, lamentables, bertybertle, sprat, theantichris, slidellra, omphale23, isisocolo, china_shop, brynnmck and zabira have all gone above and beyond, in so many ways, to help me out with a tough story or a difficult scene or a bit of dialogue that refused to ring true. All of these women have spent countless hours of their own time (time they could have spent on their own projects) to coach me and provide mentoring and assistance. Being a good beta is half personal relationship, as so many of these people are my very dear friends, and half professional relationship. And it is necessary to be professional as a beta: you often have to cultivate some distance and authority in order to offer the kind of advice authors sometimes don't want to hear.
Just as a brief example, I've been working on an enormous post-CotW kidfic for nearly two years. The story is about 40,000 words long at this point, and contains multiple characters, events and storylines. I'd written the whole piece in first-person RayK (eeeek!) and in one round of beta, j_s_cavalcante recommended I change the story to third person RayK. I think I might have stroked out. It definitely wasn't something I wanted to hear, and for a while it killed my enthusiasm for the story. Even now I find it hard to open the document. Ultimately I didn't take her advice (the story is just too far advanced for such a radical change) I appreciated what JS said very much because it showed her absolute commitment to the story, and to helping me improve as an author. She recognized that something wasn't working, she assessed the story, and she offered a way to fix it. It was an incredibly tough thing for her to do, and I think she was worried I wouldn't ask her to beta anything ever again. (Ha!) But that was her way of honouring all of my hard work and showing me how to finish the story. Bravery is essential in a good beta.
Editing is largely an act of faith: you're hoping that an author will take your advice because you might be able to see the story in ways they cannot. It's that distance issue, I think, since authors are so close to their own work they often miss the one thing (a POV change, cutting out a plot element to which they're really attached *cough dildo cough*, altering their approach to a particular issue) that will make the difference between an amazing story and a garden variety fic. Your task as a beta is to help them make that leap, and the best editors find a way to do so that honours the author's original vision and stays true to the author's stylistic and thematic choices.
I love to beta, and I try to devote as much time and energy as I can to helping other people with their work. Unfortunately I'm in short supply of both right now (summer was supposed to be such a relaxing period!) but readers and betas really are what makes or breaks an author, and I try to place a priority on beta work. Feedback for a story, even if it's something short and sweet ("Eeeee!" or "\o/"), is always welcome: even a short response tells an author that the reader engaged with the story, and that they liked it enough to acknowledge that fact. Of course, we live for long, in-depth bits of feedback, and this is where the true beta gold lies. Betas are the first responders, in a sense: they're first on the scene, they often perform life-saving procedures and provide transfusions of creativity and assistance. They also operate as a sounding board for ideas, and they let authors know what's working and what isn't.
As you can tell, betaing is a tough job, and it's definitely not something that should be rushed. I've taken up to a month to return a beta (sorry, zabira!) and given RL obligations and the fact that fandom is supposed to be a fun, stress-free leisure activity, I hope that authors will understand why it takes an extra day or two (or a week, or a month) to return a beta of their story. Unless I'm given a specific return-by date by an author who is writing a story for a challenge or who needs to make their edits very quickly, I try to promise a quality beta in exchange for the extra time. Granted, sometimes the quality is a bit dubious - I think I sent back one beta to isiscolo that consisted entirely of, "Oh, well, this is AWESOME! I can't think of anything to change!"
There's been a bit of a kerfluffle lately about giving betas their due credit: most betas do much, much more than simply fix a couple of typos and read a story over for basic plot coherency. j_s_cavalcante wrote most of the ending of Up Against It, including the dialogue, for example; dessert_first gave me an entire plot outline, from start to finish, for Bingo. I think it's up to an individual author to decide how they want to acknowledge their beta. I wasn't specific in either of the above cases in my beta acknowledgements, but it is essential that you do say "Thank you" and nod to their contributions when you post the story.
Nearly everyone reading this probably recognizes how essential this basic courtesy is, but I think it's good to keep in mind that your relationship with your beta is a relationship. If you make unfair demands on their time and their energy, and if you don't acknowledge their hard work and the sacrifices they've made in order to help you, you're in a lousy relationship, and you might be an abusive partner to boot.
I try to put the beta thanks in the author's notes right below the story headers like "Summary" and "Word Count," and in the comments and subsequent meta posts about any of my stories (yeah, I talk about myself a lot), I'll specifically mention my betas and explain exactly how and why they rule. And I'll also return the favour, and beta for them when they request help or shoot me a story in the middle of the night. I also try to beta for newcomers to the fandom as much as possible, as a sort pay it forward system. After all, you never know where you'll find your next beta/writing partner/favourite author, and by taking that first step you're welcoming someone new into the fandom.
In the end, we're a community of readers and writers and vidders and artists who share a love for storytelling. If you haven't done so already, I'd recommend offering yourself up as a beta. It's such a worthwhile and rewarding experience. If you're already an author it'll make you a better writer, and if you're a reader (or a viewer) you'll have an extra chance to help an author or vidder or an artist craft a creative work that you (and they) will really enjoy. Fandom is entirely dependant on the gift economy: make a gift of yourself, of your energy and effort and creativity, and you'll see that gift returned a thousandfold.
Alright, that was my public service announcement for today. If you've got the time and the inclination, why not share a story about a fantastic beta experience in the comments below? We've all benefited from an amazing beta, or two, and so let's celebrate the awesomeness. Tell us about your betas!