confessions of a snarky beta (#4)

[isiscolo]

A lot of fairly sophisticated writers who are relentless self-editors don't see the need for a beta editor. Their stories are usually free of the grammatical and spelling errors that mark the work of poorer writers; they certainly don't need someone for the technical fixes. But really, this type of editing is the least interesting (and least

Comments

[blue_gryphon]

You have such good betas *sighs*. Where did you find them? The only ones who found me have worse grammar so nothing gets done at all. It really is nice to find stories that are grammatically perfect and read well - they're so rare on some sites that it almost makes you give up (note the almost) and then you find something like this and suddenly it's all worth it again.

[isiscolo]

I think the best way to get good betas is to be a good beta; all of us mutually beta each other's work. All of us are good with grammar, so there are only tiny changes grammar-wise that need to be made. It's very difficult to beta someone who has very poor grammar skills, and it's frustrating, so soon the writers and betas aggregate into skill-level groups, I think, where the good betas are really only betaing those of approximate equal skill. This doesn't help the writers who are pretty good but still have problems, though. I don't know.

Sorry about the ramble. Just thinking out "loud".