Betas
In this chapter we will talk about the importance of Beta readers, and other fun stuff.
What is a beta reader? A beta reader is basically an editor, and although in the real world they only do writing conventions and suggestions to improve reader understanding, in this FanFiction world they're just editors that do whatever they wanna do. Being a beta reader is important—so important that there requirements (and FF made these up, I didn't).
1. You need to be a FanFiction member for at least a month. (So basically a test to make sure you know how to get around the website and stuff.)
2. Either 5 stories or a total of 6000 written words.
But remember, the 5 stories can be oneshots. Don't freak out.
And if you honestly believe you aren't a good editor, just don't write up your beta profile. (Which reminds me to talk about beta profiles next….)
Beta profiles! (And you can skip this if you already know it.)
There are going to be several little boxes. In the first one you write a little note for when you decide to go on vacation. (Example: Sorry, people. But because I need to focus my time on training my army of munchkins to defend me from the ninjas, I'm not accepting beta requests anymore. Sorry.) That one's easy. But afterwards there are five more boxes.
1) FIRST: Explain a little about you and your writing. Don't list what you're good and bad at yet—instead just rant about you as an author. I first began writing when I was six, then found FanFiction and discovered my passion of fan-girling. Why do YOU think you are an awesome beta reader? Talk about some original stories. Who inspired you to write? (Not that I'm actually asking you to do this. I HATE it when adults ask this.) What are your favourite books? Authors? Who is the best guy in One Direction? Et cetera.
2) SECOND: Strengths! What are you good at? Making characters not Mary Sues? Catching grammar mistakes and fluidity of sentences? Be truthful!
3) THIRD: Weaknesses! Be honest, what are you not that good at? Like, I for example create run-on sentences horribly. It isn't apparent in my fanfiction writing because I have a mostly-dialogue style, but when I'm writing essays for school or whatever these mess me up really bad. But maybe you're bad with dealing with writer's block. Or perhaps you add too many unimportant details. Everyone is different.
4) FOURTH: Preferred! What do you prefer to beta? Action? Romance? Maybe you can beta any movie you have ever seen, or only movies you know really well.
5) FIFTH: Not Preferred! What do you really don't want to beta? For example, I don't like to beta stories where the writer has no idea what will happen, and asks their beta for ideas. (You are the author! You should know what happens! [Of course, writer's block is different.])
Remember, it's important to answer all these questions. Maybe the writer needing the beta has all your strengths, but all of your weaknesses as well. They know that even though you are a good author, you can't help them.
After that you go to beta preferences to choose a list of fandoms you're okay to beta for. (Because obviously you don't want someone asking you to beta something you have no idea about.) Then choose your genres and rating. (Because obviously you do NOT want to beta for an M rated story.) Finally language. You can choose up to three, but make sure you know that language well. For example, I speak Spanish (because of my parents) and French (because I'm Canadian, duh) along with my natural English. But am I 100% fluent in these two languages? Eh, not really. Thus, I wouldn't be a good French or Spanish beta reader.
You can find all the details on the site somewhere. Probably in the beta-reader section.
ALSO! If you want to FIND a beta you go to the little menu things on the top of the screen. Click 'Beta', choose for which fandom, and voila! A list appears. Then you decide who you want to pick based on their profile and whatnot!
Now I wanna talk about my own experiences.
I'm not gonna say who I beta for, or which stories I've beta-ed for, (but for some reason the majority are for the Rise of the Guardians), so don't bother ask.
Anyway, every beta-reader betas in a different way. I'm just gonna say how I do it, and later on explain the two types of editing there are in the world.
How I do it is that I choose three colours (yellow, blue, and purple) and give them a purpose. The yellow is for a mistake, blue for something I've added, and purple for a suggestion. These colours cover almost everything (for copy-editing), which is why my technique works so well.
YELLOW
I highlight that part that needs fixing in yellow (BTW this'll only work on Docs) and beside it add a little bolded note saying what needs to be fixed.
BLUE
Blue is the only colour I don't leave a note for. If something is missing somewhere I add it in and highlight it blue to make sure the author knows what I did. And if it's really big I add a little asterisks (*) and add a note at the bottom of the story.
PURPLE
Purple is a suggestion and isn't 100% mandatory. For example, I'd use this for fluidity of sentences. I'd highlight the part I think needs fixing and add the bolded note beside it.
Use this technique if you want! I don't own it! (I would also demonstrate, but apparently you can't use colours on normal pages.)
-o-O-o-
At the end I usually insert a line break and add some comments that couldn't be added in the story. Explain what they did well, and what they need to improve on. But don't fix and not tell them what is going on. This is really important because if you don't do this they won't learn from their mistakes.
And NEVER be rude. Ever. This is one thing that I won't tolerate, and be strict about. You are a beta reader. Someone out there is trusting you with his or her work. Do NOT abuse this power to make them feel bad. That is bullying and unacceptable. Feedback and flames are two different things. I love feedback. It's amazing and helps me become a better writer. Flames are just a horrible thing people do because they don't like something, and feel the world should know about it. If you really don't want to beta, then don't sign up to beta in the first place.
Now that the serious is over, time to continue.
DocX. The wonders about it. You can highlight text, send it to betas… and other than that is the exact same as the story format. What I recommend you do is write out your story on a writing browser like Microsoft or OpenOffice. (Is that two words or one? Or hyphenated? I've never learned.) Then you copy/paste it onto a DocX file, send it to your beta, and wait for it to come back. Read through it and correct your mistakes. Take notes. Learn. Then copy/paste into a story format and publish.
But DocX isn't only for editing—it's for sharing with other authors. I am (was) co-writing another story, for example. I write the chapter, send it, and the other guy posts it.
(Note: both writers have to add the other on their connections thingamajig. If this wasn't so, you'd be getting annoying random blurbs from immature three-year-olds every five seconds… but then again that's what PMs are for.)
That… was surprisingly easy and short. Next topic.
Do your research! Say you are scrolling through the list of beta readers and stumble across someone you deem decent by their profile. What do you do next? RESEARCH!
You need to make sure this guy actually knows what he's doing. He might be on FF for more than a month, and have a surprisingly long oneshot of 6000+ words, but is can he/she actually help you?
I'm not saying that this made up person is a bad writer. What I mean is that maybe he/she lacks in what you lack, and thus can't help you.
And maybe there's just one part of a chapter you're not sure about. If it isn't an entire document, just copy/paste that part into a PM. I did that once. The good thing about this is that you don't have to do the whole DocX connection thing.
Now, for the most mind-exploding work of this chapter. Pay attention. This'll get really boring, but bear with me.
I'm just going to make this real simple. TWO KINDS OF EDITING: DEVELOPMENTAL AND COPY-EDITING. (There may be more—I'm certain of it—but just stick with these two for now. They're the important ones [I think].)
Developmental: basically you make sure it makes sense. These editors have to work a little more than the copy-editing guys.
Example:
Leo screamed in fury and demolished everything in sight with his awesome fire powers.
Leo wouldn't do that. Drop the 'awesome' and 'powers'. Instead of 'fury', try 'frustration and agony'. Two sentences instead? Maybe 'all the monsters' instead of 'everything in sight'.
Copy-editing: 5 C's. Clear, correct, concise, comprehensible, and consistent. (And yes, I did just get that list from the Web.) Make it say what it means and mean what it says. Basically you check for grammar, spelling, punctuation, fluidity of sentences, et cetera.
Example:
Percy, an Annabeth held hands as they walks down the harbor.
Percy and Annabeth hold hands as they walk down the harbour.
Percy and Annabeth held hands as they walked down the harbour.
RECAP
Beta reader = editor. Simple.
2 kinds of editing: developmental and copy-editing.
Explain what the author did well and what they need to improve on. Never correct and not explain what went wrong.
While beta-ing, be nice. Never be rude, and if someone beta-ing your story is rude, leave him or her immediately. They obviously don't care for you or your work, and even if they help you they are not worth your time.
Find a guy who can help you!
If it's short, you can use PMs.
And keep on writing! ;)
-Bookworm