Beta Bio: general description as a beta reader
Greetings! Well, if you are viewing this, then you are interested in finding someone to betaread for you. Well, in that case, I am not going to beat around the bush; I will get right into a little bit of information.I'm an English Major, currently studying at the University of Central Missouri, though that may change to either Portland Community College or Portland State Univeristy by next fall. We shall see. I enjoy reading other works, and providing constructive criticism. This helps both the author of the work, in improving their story, and myself, as I often find my own mistakes through viewing others. The main reason that I like betareading is that I get to experience many other authors and their respective writing styles. I, myself, enjoy a various selection of styles, and this gives me a select chance to read through other's stories. Browsing through FF is enjoyable, but having a focused place to read something removes some of the chaos of finding good work. Please, please, PLEASE talk to me before I agree to betaread something. I won't do it if I don't understand the basis of what I am reading. I might be able to follow the storyline as a standalone and critique some things, but if I don't understand the world you are portraying, then my advice as far as content is useless, and it wastes your time and mine. I will be stating this later, but I will not be kind with my criticisms. I will be brutally honest, and tell you what I think. I am not being mean, I am not just flaming you. If you don't have a thick skin, don't bother with a betareader, but also don't expect the best reviews of your stories. I am here to help you (and me) be a better writer, not pamper you. |
My Strengths: beta, writing, or reading strengths
I excel at the intricacies of the in depth grammar involved in the English language. This is due to my studies and my attempts to be a teacher. I understand many fundamentals of language that many do not know exist, purely on the basis of studying other languages (namely, Spanish and Japanese). You would be surprised at how much you learn of your own tongue form the observations of others' tongues.I am also rather fond of using a variety of words to describe the same thing, and my knowledge base of the English language grants me a large vocabulary from which to pull synonyms. Thus, I am capable of noticing where perhaps one word might fit better than another. In addition, my own writing revolves a lot around in depth description of actions. Personally, I think it is important that the story play out in the reader's mind, and I like to make sure that they are seeing as close to the same vision as I am when they read what I wrote. As such, I am rather adept at critiquing things such as battle scenes and even to the details of how someone happens to be sitting. The final thing is that as I am a huge fan of character development, I immediately spot things that appear unnatural or out of character. Sometimes, people get caught up in the moment, and the character makes a leap of logic that makes sense to the reader, as an omniscient observer, but the character wouldn't have done it or necessarily even known about it. Smooth character growth is key, they can't just go from meek to awesome with no transition. |
My Weaknesses: beta, writing, or reading weaknesses
I have more of these than I would like. But, we'll get a move on. As a writer, I have a horrible tendency to switch tenses in the middle of a story, paragraph, or even sentence. I really don't notice when I read my work or that of others. I also have problems with physical descriptions; I can envision something, but then expressing that in words is hard to do. I can't describe things such as face structure or lips, and can't go into great details for landscaping either, unless I go into a trance of inspirational awesome.My other big weakness is that I tend to enforce some aspects of characters far too much. Be it the way their hair falls into the face, some tick that they happen to have, or the color of their eyes, the details I view as important, I tend to overstate. I will reiterate multiple times how the mage with the hair that won't stay out of her eyes is constantly brushing it away. This happens more when I roleplay, but it does appear in my writing. Be warned if I mention that you aren't enforcing something enough; I might be trying to cause you to overstate it. |
Preferred: types of stories I prefer over others
Most of my own knowledge falls in the realm of games and anime. I am a huge romance buff, and I also enjoy involved action and drama. These would be good reads for me, and with greater interest would come greater and more productive criticism. I am generally a fan of OC driven stories. |
Would Rather Not: I do not beta for these stories
No slash. At all. I have nothing against it, and I even enjoy reading it on occasion, but I won't betaread it. In addition, please don't ask me to review your pure lemon story. Most lemon plots are just that - lemon. There is no character development or depth to the story, just eroticism, in most cases. Now, in either the case of slash or lemon, if it has a good storyline to it, then I will be more than happy to read it. Eroticism, sensuality, and even sex are important pieces of a believable storyline - whether heterosexual or homosexual. I approve of the use of sex or sexual tension to add to a story, but it should not, in my opinion, be the focus of the story. Lastly, please refrain from asking me to read a story that looks like this: and the the big guy hit the little dude with the thing and the little dude went flying and slammed into the wall.someone yelled and people ran. Even without the ridiculous grammar, try to be creative in your writing style before I read it. I will be quick to return it to you if I honestly feel that the story is a piece of trash. I am here to help, but I won't sugarcoat anything I tell you. |
