(ACTUALLY! I'm not accepting new projects right at the moment. Sorry, but I'm just too busy... I'll continue to work with fics I've already accepted, but that's it for now. This profile's going to stay up just so you folks can know I exist.)I'm an all-purpose beta and likely to be able to beta read for any fandom you could think of, just to varying degrees of accuracy.
If I've written a story about the fandom myself, I can definitely feel confident beta-ing for you and offering suggestions on characterization and other details (if ye want). If I haven't written a story in the fandom, I still may be very knowledgeable about it and I'll give it a shot. (For example, I haven't written any Star Wars fiction yet, but you'd be hard pressed to find a bigger fanatic than I. Unless you were at a con, then all bets are off...) If I have no clue about what's going on in the fandom you ask me to beta for... Well, I'll go do some research on it, then try and help anyway. (Though if I do that, I'm pretty much limited to spelling/grammar checking and sentence tweaking.)
Basically, if you need help with just about anything, get in touch via PM. Send me a semi-detailed summary/explaination of your story/problem and I'll see what I can do.
(Did I mention that I'm willing to do one-time help as well? Say you don't want me to beta your entire story, but simply focus on one issue in one chapter, then go away and leave you to write. Can do! Doesn't hurt my feelings in the least.)
The way I like to conduct business is that you send me a chapter of the story you need beta'd attached to an email. (I prefer Text (.txt) files or Wordpad (.rtf) files.) I refuse to work with the DocX because the system has already failed me more times than I'm willing to accept. (Sorry.) Anyway, the chapter... I'll read it, make edits, and send you the version I worked on attached to my reply email with notes on what I think could be changed, strengthened, cut completely, whatever. Then you do whatever you wish with the advice as it's your story, and shall always be your story.
My only expectations are that people asking for help be:
1) Serious about finishing their story. I don't want to work on fifteen chapters only to be told the story isn't working out and has been deleted. (Reasonable, right?)
2) Patient. I try my best to get chapters back on a timely basis with good effort put into each one, but sometimes life gets in the way and it takes (possibly) months to get back to where I was. I hate it when it happens, but sometimes it does. (If it ends up that I get caught up with life and you can't wait for me to get back, go ahead and call someone else to come beta for you, won't hurt my feelings.)
3) Polite. I try to be as civil as possible to the people I'm working with. (In fact, most of the people I've beta'd for are now good buddies.) All I ask is that you try to make the same effort.
Warning one: I will edit and make changes to your story. Be expecting that. Unless your writing style and my sensibilities mesh perfectly, the copy of the chapter you get back from me may well look very little/almost nothing like what you sent out. However, my number-one rule is that whether you want to keep them or not is entirely your choice, I will never pressure anyone I read for to blindly accept my changes, ever.
Warning two: I try to help anyone who asks, no matter how hopeless the story seems; but if I feel I can't help you at all, I'll turn you away (Sorry!) or try and send you to someone I think can help. It may be because I'd be horrible in the fandom you chose (there are a few that I just can't do, like Sailor Moon) or because I can't help in the genre you wrote (like my "no romance" clause), but I never do it without reason.
Warning three: If you prove yourself to be a generally peevish whelp who gets upset upon receiving even the slightest criticism, I'll drop you like an angry skunk wrapped in a hot potato. Of course, peevish whelps usually don't admit they need help and seek out betas, so I don't expect to actually have to carry through on this, I'm just getting the disclaimer out there.
Finally, in exchange for my help, all I ask is that you mention me in your author's notes. (If I only helped with one chapter, in the author's notes of that chapter.) A fair trade, no?
Anyway, that's me. Hope I can help.
