Beta Bio: general description as a beta reader
Good day! The name's Chris, and I think the first thing you need to know about me as far as Beta-ing is concerned, is that I'm English, and therefore I write in British-English. I'm quite capable of switching over to 'American-English', calling trousers 'pants' and spelling colour as 'color', but I do frown at English characters using American-English or American-slang. I will pick it up.
Anyway, I've been a part of this sight, and an active writing of fan-fiction for nigh on 5 years. Over this time, I've developed my own very wordy style, with many-too-many commas (and brackets) than what's good for me. So far, I've betad only one fic, which the author decided to stop writing, so I'm afraid your only guide at this point in time as to my skill are my own works. I'd recommend contrasting the first few chapters of 'Alex Rider: UNITI' with 'Project UNITI', which is a re-write, so I'm kinda Beta-ing for myself. I'm pleased with the results so far with Project UNITI, and that, I believe, is probably the upper-limit of my own writing.
However, Beta-ing uses a slightly different skill-set, and I hope that the contrast between the two fics shows that my skill, in terms of fine-tuning and editing, far exceed my pure 'writing' skill. |
My Strengths: beta, writing, or reading strengths
I seem to concentrate quite a lot on the non-verbal part of writing. I enjoy writing Prose, and have a great time with light-humoured styles, but the thing that sets my fics, and the fics I read, apart from lesser fics, is the amount of descriptive writing between these lines of prose. It's something that's come with some hard work, but I feel that I could help someone like me, who originally lacked this skill, develop this area of their writing.
Combat is something that I enjoy, and therefore see myself doing well with. Keeping the drama and a sense of movement and excitement during fight scenes is a skill which I'm developing, and I'd enjoy the challenge of a fic that sees combat a lot.
Magic, especially exploring the 'physics' behind all the different sorts of magic that we see in books, games, TV and religion, is a personal interest of mine. It's something that I've looked at in-detail away from writing, and feel that this knowledge is a real strength of mine.
The categories that I've chosen to beta (see the bottom of the page) have all been picked because I know the stories behind them back-to-front. I consider myself an expert in terms of the storyline and characters, and I have written small pieces (mostly un-posted) for all of them. |
My Weaknesses: beta, writing, or reading weaknesses
One major weakness of mine is spelling. Obviously, I use a spell-checking tool, but as we all know, they're not infallible. However, this is an area that I've been trying to improve, and therefore I tend to be extra-vigilant for spelling and grammatical errors. |
Preferred: types of entries I prefer over others
See my preferred Categories and Genres for all that information. However, to make this a little more informative, I enjoy action and realism. So, fics where the main character(s) are meant to be exactly as they're originally depicted, in terms of intelligence, 'power' and sexuality.
The obvious exception to this (except to the 'sexuality' clause. That, I'm afraid, is a sticking point with me) is the Alternate Universe fic, which I'm rather partial to.
Romance is 'optional', but I'm an old softy at heart, and I can't deny that I enjoy a well-written relationship within a fic, especially if it has a direct link with the main plot. |
Would Rather Not: types of entries I do not want to beta for
I mentioned above that slash-fics aren't really my 'cup of tea', and that's something that I simply won't budge on. It's not that I think there's anything wrong with it, it's just I don't enjoy reading them, and I have no experience writing them. There are many other writers who could help the slash writer better than me.
One other stipulation that I'd have to add is that chapter lengths are over 3000 words (on average). Some of my fics, I'll concede, have chapters of under that amount, but this is more to stop those annoying little fics where there is no need for a side-scrolling bar. They just annoy me. |
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