I've been writing for quite some time now, and have been reading for even longer. I'm honest and if your piece needs a lot more work, then I'll tell you, but I won't insult you. I try to be fair and I also try to only critique to the extent to which I think your abilities can improve it. I'm not one to give you flowery bits of praise when you don't deserve it, but nor will I insult your work and scoff at your efforts. If you want me to focus on something, I will, but I won't overlook other bits just because one part is particularly strong.I expect you to be respectful of me, but I don't want you to take my word as law, because I can mess up too. I expect you to know how you want your story written - I'm the beta, not your writer. I can help you with plot if need be by giving you various little prompts that might help, but I'm here to edit your work, not mine.
I can catch most grammar mistakes, and awkward sentences. I can help you reword for flow purposes and help you think of ways to improve your writing through exercises and prompts and other such things. Really, I can basically do whatever you need me to do to make you a better writer, because ultimately, I'm not trying to make your story better, I'm trying to make your writing as a whole better.
I'm generally quite cheerful and easy to get along with. I know the line between personal and professional and if you don't want me to, I won't cross it. But, then again, it's more fun when the lines blur, and I'll try to make you as comfortable as you can with me, because I'd like you to respect me and part of that is getting you to like me. And really, I don't have to just be your beta - I can be your friend too.
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For some reason, I actually seem to get a number of beta requests. However, I've decided to disregard ones that don't tell me anything about what the author would want to me to do right off the bat. Sorry, but I'm busy and I simply cannot beta every fic that comes my way. This is just my way of slimming it down a bit.
So before you send me a PM, please make sure your PM has, at the very very least, the following information:
- what story you want me to betaread (asking me to act as beta in general is fine too, just tell me)
- said story's info (fandom, pairing, genre, general plot, etc)
- your contact info (I prefer using e-mail, but if you prefer something else, that's fine too)
I'd also like it if you could tell me how often you expect to turn out a chapter and what you want out of me as a beta-reader, but that's just extra and I certainly do not expect you to know the latter, or even the former if you're new at this.
