Speak to me of betas

[secretsolitaire]

I have blathered about the writing process in this journal on a few occasions, but today I was thinking about editing (or in fandom terms, beta-ing). Although I've only beta'd a few works of fanfic, I do edit a lot at work and am always looking to improve and to better understand the process

Comments

[secretsolitaire]

Wow, I can't believe that person rewrote your fic like that for an archive posting -- that's crazy! As you said, it's one thing if it's a professional article that needs to fit a certain publication's style or something, but not for amateur creative writing! (Not that I'm saying your work is amateur, but you know what I mean.) I don't blame you for taking your fic elsewhere.

I think "their voice, not mine" is an excellent rule of thumb. The job of a beta/editor is to help the author write the best fic he/she can.

I ask them beforehand what they want me to do. Some people don't want that I want. But regardless, I try to be tactful about how I say things, I'm very longwinded about explaining why I think something doesn't work, and I'll make suggestions, too, if I have any. I also ask lots of questions back in case I'm interpreting something wrong.

On the few occasions I've beta'd for people, this is pretty similar to my approach -- ask if there's anything I should know beforehand, find out what they want me to look for, explain every bit of criticism in painful (and hopefully tactful) detail, ask questions to be sure I understand, and make suggestions when I can. (In general if I'm saying something doesn't work, I make an attempt to offer a solution -- I feel more useful that way, although often the author comes up with a better solution in the end.)

And hee, I'm amused at your comment about commas; they are a bit subjective, aren't they? :-)