Fandom question

[dragonimp]

Those of you who have a beta, how did you connect with them? I feel like I'm missing something here. Also, how does the process work? Do you send over in-process work, the finished product only, what? I'm kinda getting the impression that most fic writers aren't as isolated as I seem to be. Anyway, I'm curious.

Comments

[nochick-fics.livejournal.com]

*proudly isolated*

I'm not precisely sure how these partnerships come about. Sometimes it's just as simple as asking a friend to look something over, and I've seen entire websites dedicated to the process.

I've only ever officially beta'd once, and she sent me her story in chunks. Personally, it was a bit less cohesive for me to read it over this way, so I guess each beta would have their own personal preferences on the matter.

Good luck.

xoxo

[dragonimp.livejournal.com]

It's usually my inclination to wait until I have a section completed, but it seemed other people sometime sent things off in chunks; I'm not used to discussing stories with people anymore, though, so I wouldn't know where to start with that kind of thing.

[beautifulfic.livejournal.com]

*pimps* Perfect Imagination is deisgned to help connect writers and beta readers. I think we have 13 in the FMA category right now. As long as you've got a first chapter, a rough iea of what its about ans all the basics, then you're good to go.

At PI you put a preliminary email in first, that's like a proposal, so that the beta can get a lot of information and check out their current workload etc. If they accept your project, then you can get started.

You'll be given their email address, and basically, you send your story off a chapter at a time, they suggest changes (and you can tell them what you're looking for, spelling and grammar or deeper input.)

You can also scout around elsewhere on the web of look for a beta on some of the lj writing comms.

PI tests our betas, so they DO know what they're doing. To give you some idea, 18% of people who take the test pass.

Its at www.perfectimagination.co.uk if you want to check it out :)

B xxx

[dragonimp.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking about it, but I'm hesitant because - and this is probably stupid - part of me feels like that would be "giving up." Like I should be able to do this the same way everyone else does. So I'm trying to figure out what "everyone else" actually does. It seems like most people get their work beta'd by friends with whom they also can discuss plot/story direction/etc., but I seem to be missing something there.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, I have someone who reads through my work as her therapy, and helps me out with plot direction and things. I met her through fanfiction and started sending her previews. It was kind of spontaneous.

Basically, P.I. was set up for the HP fandom, where there are a lot of very picky archives who don't care how good you and a million other people think your story are if you can't use apostrophes (this is just an example. I'm sure you CAN use apostrophes :D)

It's always there if you need it!
B xxx

[dragonimp.livejournal.com]

I may end up using it ^^. I haven't completely given up on seaweed_fma yet, though.