Beta Bio: general description as a beta reader
I like to write, I like to read, but mistakes make me cringe. Although I may not be a native anglophone, I have taken enriched English classes for the past twelve years or so, and am a tutor in my school's French class Help Centre. I write British/Canadian English, since I'm a Quebecer. I may not be a genius, but I do my best, and do appreciate kind responses. Nastiness gets one nowhere. I have an immense fondness for the Beatles, so any story containing references to them or their songs gets kudos. |
My Strengths: beta, writing, or reading strengths
French grammar, since that's my mother tongue, and spotting typos. I can betaread both French and English stories, and can deal with stories using a few German words (but not correct German stories, as I am new to this language). I study biology, so I know the exact terms to several concepts pertaining to science, and, being a perfectionist, I do everything in my power to do the best I can. I also have a mother with a bachelor's degree in translation (English towards French), which I consider quite helpful at times. |
My Weaknesses: beta, writing, or reading weaknesses
As a writer, my weaknesses would be the stories I wrote as a fifteen year-old teenager, consumed with her own ego, filled to the brim with angst (which, incidentally, in German, means "fear", not what it's come to mean in English). They're filled with my own emotion, half of the time, and I genuinely think they're mostly crap. I expect I'm more mature nowadays; however, I have not written for quite some time, and hopefully, I shall do better. As a betareader, I've only ever corrected my friends, in French, who were relunctant to criticism, which I gladly dole out. In those regards, I have a very limited experience of being a betareader. |
Preferred: types of stories I prefer over others
I like horror stories, hippy stories, happy ones that aren't too sappy, parodies, and the like. I love war stories above all else, then fantasy, science fiction, action would be my other favourite genres. I do not mind vulgar stories containing an extreme level of violence (gore, blood, guts, it's all good), and swearing, and sex-related matter, but it has to have a plot. Gratuitious violence, while it may be fun, and serve as a punching bag, is useless. Please write plots, or don't call your scribblings stories, and don't send them to me. :)I like stories with cultural references, and with words in German or in French, that have some relevance in the story. |
Would Rather Not: I do not beta for these stories
Stories in which characters are very religion-centered, if that religion is Christianity. I believe in the freedom to choose your beliefs, and to pick your own mental restraints, but I can't root for a fanfiction character whose life revolves around his or her Christian beliefs, if the canon character isn't overly religious. I don't know that much about Islam or Judaism, or any other religion, for that matter, but it's pretty much the same. I wouldn't enjoy reading a story like that, so why would I force myself to read it dozens of times, even to make it better? Same goes for stories sending Nazi, racist, sexist, or homophobic messages, if they do not speak of a certain specific context (for example, a Nazi officer in Ukraine and Russia, during WWII, like in 'Les Bienveillantes'), or if they are not denouncing these messages. |
