I'm pretty experienced at editing, having served as editor on a college newspaper and editor-in-chief for a post-grad journal. I've been working mostly through docXchange, but I've done e-mail before, too. With both formats, I do it about the same way -- a color-coded system to indicate changes I'm suggesting.

I'm a bit on the wordy side, so all of my concrit is usually pretty long and detailed. I hate being harsh, especially with people I don't know, so I try to sound not-so-negative on the negative points. I always say something good about the work ('good' and 'bad' being relative - ie, an amazing fic may only have "you forgot a semicolon in paragraph 3" as concrit and a terrible fic may only have "nice, sparing use of adverbs" as a positive note).

Even if my concrit doesn't sound harsh, I'm a harsh reader - I nitpick over grammar, spelling, flow, pacing, style, plot, character, description, and even sentence structure. But I might just not say everything I find wrong, unless asked specifically about it. However, I will always try to say what I find right. I'm big on positive concrit. The more I get to know who I'm betaing for, the more likely I am to be harsh, depending on how well I think the person can take harsh criticism.

What I expect from the beta-ee: ...yeah, I don't have strict demands. Just don't be a jerk about my suggestions, I guess? If I'm making them, I'm doing it with all the loving tenderness of someone who wants you to succeed. After all, if it goes out into the world with the PetertheChameleon Stamp of Approval (tm), then I've got just as much invested interest as you in your fic crushing its enemies and dominating its competition.

Or simply being enjoyed.

I don't expect every fic in this world to be just one metaphor shy of a Nobel, and I don't expect every author to be the next undiscovered Hemingway. Meaning that I'll certainly make suggestions on what I think should be corrected, but I'm not going to get too complicated. It's more important that the fic retain *your* voice (ie, not written by me). Along the same lines, I will be fine if you question my suggestions. I am not the end-all, be-all judge of That Which is Good (I actually don't like Hemingway) and I got my own flaws. So if you disagree with something I say, you're free to say so. I'd rather it be a dialogue than a school-teacher/student relationship. But, again, just be nice. I'll probably relent unless it's something like grammar. In that case, I'll be pretty firm.

At the same time, though, I know that a lot of the people I'll be beta'ing for are just getting their start in the writing world. And while I could be strictly an editor, I don't think simply catching people's mistakes is very beneficial for either of us. I'm big on teaching, too -- showing those I beta for what they're doing wrong, how to make it better, and how to make it better *without my help.* I think if you come out of this being able to beta your *own* work as well as I would, then I've done my job. My point's not just to fix, but to teach, and I'm happy to share what it's taken me years to learn.

Of course, that being said, there *are* people out there who have nothing to learn from me. In which case, I'm happy to act as a strict beta.

While I can beta right now, it often happens that life gets in the way. If it does, it might take me a few days to send back the fic, but it won't make the concrit any less thorough. I'll let you know how long the delay will be, if there'll be a delay.

Mechanics, story, word choice, character, plot. For shorter works, I focus mostly on flow, characterization, and mechanics (primarily the last two). For longer works, I focus mostly on characterization and plot. Mechanics are particularly easy - I can guarantee I'll nitpick over that.

As for my own writing, I have no objective ability to evaluate what I can and can't write. My ability to write has absolutely no impact on my ability to edit, though, as subjectivity doesn't really come into play for me when I'm reading someone else's work (well...of course, it does, but 'good' and 'bad' are easier to define when it's not *my* work). So I'd certainly recommend checking out what I've written to make sure I don't spell 'sucks' with an 'x' (I do, but that's because it's funny) - actually, I recommend checking out what I've written no matter what (seriously, I need the publicity). But keep in mind that I'm not going to beta your work to look like mine, nor do I really want to.

I don't like being harsh and will likely not find fault with something if I think that it might just bother *me* personally. I'm wordy, so I'm not good on deciding how to edit down a work (if brevity is the soul of wit, I am neither brief nor witty). If a fic has more than four major problems to the entire body (bad plot, bad characters, bad pacing, bad wording, etc), I may not identify all the problems that stumped me. The fic might require several edits, in that case.

There's not really a story element that I simply can't comment on. I got opinions on everything.

While I'll beta limes and lemons, I don't read those myself, so you're not going to get much correction in terms of writing. I can tell you if your physics or anatomy are off, and I can probably tell you if a particular scene/sentence is just not good, but I don't have any practice in writing/reading sex scenes, so I'm not the most experienced beta to ask.

I like to use parentheses as asides. Constantly. If you haven't noticed. While I don't put them in fics, I will probably do it in my comments. So if you hate random asides or tangents, you might not think I'm very cool. Yeah...I know. It sux. :(

As of right now, I'm only betaing for Avatar: The Last Airbender. Mostly because it's the only series I really have any interest in reading fic for, right now. This may change eventually. In terms of Avatar, I read Tokka, post-war fics, and stories with OCs. But I'm interested in just about anything; I just pay more attention to those three. I don't have a problem with yaoi/yuri or crack pairings. But if the characterization is off - meaning I can't buy the relationship - I'll mention it.

At this point, I've taken almost all the stuff I said I wouldn't take. So I guess that means I have no preferences. I'm willing to help anyone out, as long as you're serious about writing or serious about hearing me out.

Only thing that's staying in terms of "Do Not Want":

Apparently, fics where the characters are intentionally OOC are common (and acceptable) enough that I need to say I won't do those either. If you actually want your characters IC, sure, I'll beta for you. But if you're purposefully writing your characters OOC, my advice is going to be along the lines of, "Write your characters IC" and that doesn't sound like it'll be helpful for either of us.

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