::sigh::
I think before I request a beta for a fest, I need to start giving pre-reqs. The beta I was assigned for the Lucius Big Bang seemed like she would be good, but... she asked me what a WC was. And then told me 'going to the toilets' was too crude a description, and that I should change it to restroom. I don't remember ever hearing a Brit say the word 'restroom', unless there was literally a couch in the toilets. And there most certainly wouldn't be a couch in the toilet of a grimy pub in Leeds.
She also told me I shouldn't "bury quotes in text" because it was "harder to read", which I interpret to mean she's usually too disinterested in the paragraph around text to read the dialogue and would rather have it separated out so she could better skim. I'm a graduate student used to writing page-long paragraphs. My paragraphs are going to be long. Get over it. I'm starting to suspect she skimmed while betaing my story--or at least read very quickly so she could get it back to me, even after I told her I was fine with her taking her time--because a lot of her "corrections" were for not understanding who was speaking, when the dialogue being said makes the speaker obvious. How likely is Gellert Grindelwald to know what the name of Molly Weasley's youngest son is? Really?
I don't need someone to comment on whether or not they like my writing style. I like it, and I know it is grammatically correct, so leave it alone. I need someone to tell me whether or not the dialogue works, whether or not the characters are consistent, if the plot of the story is consistent, logical, and chronologically accurate, correctly fix my dialect fumblings and occasional Britglish mis-step. And also, to make sure my spelling is canon-accurate. This one told me "some people think pepper-up potion should be capitalized". That's nice for whomever that thinks that. What does J. K. Rowling think? It's your job to check.
Does anyone else ever have problems with betas?
Done ranting, off to see HP7!!!!