I am an avid reader and try my best to be an avid writer. Sometimes, plot bunnies cling to me and nothing will shake them off, so I write them. Most of the time, though, my own stories lose momentum, which is why I'd much rather beta and offer bunnies than to write, myself.However, I am not a 'gentle' betareader. I will red-line all over your work, and I expect you to consider every change (though not necessarily make them). If you're looking for someone to just validate your work, I'm not your gal.
I am currently taking a part-time, year-long editing certification course in preparation to become a professional editor. The course is just for fun and to booster my skill and formally learn all the things-such as grammar-that I knew already but only instinctively. As such, I feel that I can offer a level of beta-reading comparable to the most junior-but still professional-level of editors.
I require the stories to be mostly grammatically correct and have at least gone through spellcheck. If you need help with grammar, I have some good sites I'll gladly share. The chapters should be at least several thousand words long, as I've found that often, stories with shorter chapters are not as good. Of course, if you need help with this, I'm willing to offer suggestions on how to expand and lengthen chapters. This should be without saying, but please have characters stay in character, and avoid Original Characters at all costs unless it's actually good. (And it's usually not.) I expect the writer I beta for to have a clear intention of the finishing the story within a reasonable amount of time and at least have a vague idea of where it's going (e.g. Kagome and Sesshoumaru will live happily ever after, or Draco Malfoy will kill Harry Potter and become immortal).
Still interested in getting me to beta? Shoot me a message with the plot summary and a writing sample. I would prefer the writing sample to be something for the story, but will work with something you wrote for another story of a similar genre/setting.
