IMPORTANT: I don't beta my own stories, and I haven't written anything to post to this site in years. You can try and judge me by what I have posted on this site, but I wouldn't recommend /br /
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My beta reading style pretty much involves reading through your story one or more times and finding any glaring spelling, grammar, punctuation, or plot flow errors. I'm going to straight out admit that I can't salvage the un-salvageable. I've been on for quite a while and I've seen stories that were probably created out of shoving plot in random places and forgetting all other important parts of a story. Which brings me to say: there are some stories I probably can't help you with. I don't want to be mean about it, it hurts me to look at a story and think, "I can't send this back without a complete overhaul..." There's also the fact that I'm not going to do a complete overhaul of your story. It takes more time than actually writing the /br /br /br /
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So you've made it through the daunting paragraph above and still want me to beta-read your story. Well here are my hates/loves/please read these before you send me your story:br /br /br /br /
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Characterization: I think it would take a couple of years of psychology, anthropology, and sociology courses to create a perfect original character. Then again, some people are just born with the natural ability to create original characters. br /br /br /br /
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So I'm not going to judge you if your story has an OC. What I do have problems with is when your OC becomes the centerpiece of the story. If you honestly have great amounts of faith in your characterization skills and you made the story around a character you created then you can go ahead and send me it. (Though with that much faith I doubt you need a beta-reader) If not, don't bother. Please! I DO NOT want to read about how your character single-handedly saved the entire universe while the show's/book's/whatever's actual character sit back in awe. No. Just /br /br /br /
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ROMANCE: This is important if you are a romance writer. I DON'T CARE IF IT'S BOYXBOY OR GIRLXGIRL! I have no problems with your character's orientation regardless of whether or not I read the coupling. I don't mind sap, fluff, waff, hardcore stuff, or any other abbreviation. (Though I do mind Mary Sues)br /br /br /br /
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The most important point if you're a romance writer and you want me to beta your story: do not warp characters too much. Yes I understand that sometimes to make a romance story you have to change some attitudes, but that does not mean that one of the characters has to go through a complete 180. If you think it's well written but a little out of character, then sure, I guess it's ok. If you think you went too far with the warping, or you made the sweet little lady in the story a complete.. ahem.. then I think you need to look over your story before I /br /br /br /
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HUMOR: Please spare me if you wrote humor. I like the genre, and would hope you don't plan to butcher it by just having random events with no plot. If you wish to write/have me beta a humor fiction, please read up on the definition of humor. Hint: unless you're good at this you probably went over-board with the "humor". br /br /br /br /
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I prefer satire, though a good parody is always nice if I know the /br /br /br /
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IMPORTANT: I like writing. I like reading. This makes me an extremely awful (in my opinion) person when beta-ing someone's work. Please, when you contact me, mention that you are ok with me going all out. There may be times where I feel that a section of text or an idea in your story is utterly ridiculous and for the betterment of your story please let me feel that stating my opinion on the matter wont hurt /br /br /br /
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NOTE: I'd like to think I work at about 1 page a day (12 pt font, TNR), but that may extend to 1 page a week depending on how much you fell in love with imagery. Every 5 sentence paragraph you wrote to describe something is like 20 lines of torture. You've been /
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Thank you,br /br /br /br /
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FP