Up ‘til now, I have beta-read for my friends and they reckon that I'm quite a pedantic beta, with focuses on continuity, spelling and grammar. My friend's stories have been very varied - I've beta-ed an ItachixOC fanfic and even quite a hard-core eloquent 13-page-a-chapter ItaxOro, bizarrely. Because of this, I reckon I'm pretty prepared for anything you choose to throw at me (I hope).br /Preferably I'd like the author to email/pm me about how they think they're writing the story. For example, both Artemis Fowl and Harry Potter are very good series, but they have distinctly different writing styles, and as I generally lead towards the Harry Potter/long writing with eloquent vocabulary style, you'll need to tell me for example whether you want to make your story purposefully sarcastic or give it a poetic lilt, etc. so I can beta with that in mind.br /
I am half British half Japanese - the best of both worlds! :D I've heard that especially American authors like to have the word of a British beta when reviewing their Harry Potter fics to make sure everything is realistic. Likewise, if you want to add a semblance of realism to your anime fic, then I'll do my best to see if there's anything I can point out.br /
Also: I notice that a lot of authors on here like to write stories for the fangasmic response it will generate due to pairings and whatnot. This beta proudly states that she has never supported a pairing in such a hardcore way, and that fangasmic squeezing will not happen unless I am that happy with what you’ve done, and will not get in the way of much-needed constructive criticism. I am especially unfavourably disposed towards pairings that most likely would not happen in canon or does not make sense.br /
Partly because of time reasons (important): my policy for accepting fics to beta at the moment will be a cursory read through of your first chapter and a vague synopsis of what you think is going to happen with the story (don't include massive spoilers if you don't want to) so I know where you want to go. I'll try and do a detailed review of what I think about that fanfic as a whole - if there's something I think you should really work on (e.g. characterisation or the general plot; not spelling, that can be improved over time :D) then I'll ask you to rewrite that chapter and generally rethink your story. If I think I'll be able to beta more effectively with your story, then I will stick around for other chapters! (Of course with one-shots, this won't be a problem...)
