petronia

24 – Betaing – How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren't any major flaws in your fic? Do you have a Beta horror story or dream story?

I'm pretty casual about betaing. It used to be I didn't have betas at all (particularly if the story was short or written quickly); or I would fob a printout off on the nearest IRL person, just to make sure the action wasn't confusing. At one point I started posting partial first drafts to

carnetdevoyage, that anyone who had access to that LJ could read and comment on, if they liked - this actually worked really well. The last few things I wrote,

sub_divided read over; and

ayalesca read the last Yuletide one too.

I want to give

sub_divided a shoutout here, but I can't really explain why she's a good beta. XD; Maybe she's the kind of beta I need/like? When we read the same book or watch the same movie we often come away with completely different explanations of what the thing was about - different, but not contradictory. I ignore her advice half the time XD; but that's the same with any feedback I get, and is why I usually didn't have betas. I also have a pretty solid idea of when a story needs an outside opinion, and when I just have to sit there and plug at it until a breakthrough happens.