Beta Bio: general description as a beta reader Hi! I'm Saulie. I'm a little odd. Approaching a story, I prefer to look at it as a whole before getting down to the nitpicky details--treat it as a fluid thing, something maybe half-alive, and I poke & prod it while observing its behavior. I guess you could call my betareading style 'impressionism first, precision later'. I'll go through the piece several times. The first time I'll give you my gut reactions. The second I'll point out where specific changes & choices (technical or artistic) might be made. & I'll also want to ask you, the author, if there's anything specifically you wanted to know--"Does this conversation successfully foreshadow Kurogane's marriage proposal in the next chapter?" "I wondered what I could cut in the eight-paragraph description of Watari's collection of model WWII aircraft to make it shorter." etc. so I can reread with such issues in mind.
My suggestions in uninterrupted paragraphs may occasionally stink of academia with the language to match, so to avoid sounding horribly pretentious I prefer a more conversational alpha-beta relationship. Talk to me. I'm reliable via e-mail and instant messaging. We don't have to swap our Innermost Secrets (especially since I haven't got any) but I'd like to know something of who's behind it all and ask/answer questions casually, rather than in a Spanish Inquisition sort of exchange. Contact me @ vazavati@gmail.com (email & Gtalk) or on AIM (outleaping). I vow to be honest. | My Strengths: beta, writing, or reading strengths Hmmm. I'm pretty decent at pinpointing what within a story seems to interrupt or derail it, or any/all character inconsistencies. I guess my beta strengths lie in the same areas my writing strengths do: zippy dialogue, maintaining vividness or intensity when appropriate, and using narrative voice to exacting effect. & though I'm a bit lamentable at coming up with Intricate Plots on my own, I'd be useful at telling you how plausible yours sound. | My Weaknesses: beta, writing, or reading weaknesses My grammar is a little like my room: it's a tornado. I'll betaread accurately for blindingly obvious sentence awkwardness, but don't expect me to stomp on, say, fragments or comma splices--my weakness for stream-of-consciousness writing has left me with skewed standards that lean towards unconventional. Can't help you out with great amounts of Action, either, particularly not of a sexual nature. I don't object to reading it, but I've no idea how to write it!
Also my experience in betareading in fanfiction's very limited, lying generally in original fiction or academic stuff. | Preferred: types of entries I prefer over others I like character-centric stories best, though fanfiction as a whole seems to tend that way. I don't have a great preference in terms of genre--if anything, I like stories that make attempts at artfully combining a few, just since it's more realistic. Oh, & if you're throwing together characters that wouldn't necessarily have spoken overmuch in canon but show promise of Awesome Dynamic, I'm your woman. | Would Rather Not: types of entries I do not want to beta for Romance is lovely but I don't like being hit over the head with it--if the entire point of your fic's to display how much So-and-So adooooores Such-and-Such, I'll probably have issues giving you decent suggestions. Like I said, variety. I also have an aversion to sensationalism. If violence must be there, it must be there, but gratuity does not fly. |
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