Beta Discussion

This thread is for discussing betas, not for finding a beta. If you're looking for someone to beta your work, post in this thread.

This thread is for discussing betas.

What are the pros and cons of having a beta?
What do you expect from a beta?
Do you prefer to have individual betas for each piece or a permanent beta who will look over all of your work?
How do you like to communicate with your beta and how do you prefer them to give you feedback?

Any beta stories you'd like to share?

Basically whatever you want as long as it's discussion of betas.

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I actually prefer having one beta to do any work I need and I'm lucky enough to have an amazing one in Sheepy. She's constantly complaining she doesn't have enough to do though so I stopped proofreading my work just for her.

But she's great with pointing out any little thing she notices and then not being offended if I take some suggestions and don't take others. She also notices all of my typos.

One thing I do that I appreciate when I beta for others is point out what changes you made and which you didn't, because I think it shows appreciation for the beta and the work they did.

I also don't get every piece of work beta'd. I can proofread my own work and catch a lot of typos. I mainly send work out to be beta'd if I'm uncertain of tone/consistency/flow/etc.

Bella also beta'd 86,400 Chances because had experience with the content and I deeply valued her opinion.

I also use other betas variously. I've used Lee, Dana, Dani, and various others. I actually sent Vonn Marked which I thought was halfway done, but she let me know it didn't need anymore done to it. And Dani and Lee both read The Aftermath of a Car Crash which is an unfinished piece I'm very proud of, but I'm unsure if I'll ever finish it.

If I'm feeling fairly confident about a piece and I just need someone to review it for proofreading purposes, I usually go to the Editing and Proofreading thread, but when I need "real" beta-ing, Jinxeh's usually the first person I think of (and then bother over on Twitter until she caves and helps me).

The thing I value the most in a beta is, of course, honesty. When I'm looking for someone to beta my story, I'm not looking for someone to tell me my story is great or perfect the way it is, I'm looking for someone who can help make the piece better. I like a beta that fixes the technical stuff within the piece (I trust my betas to edit directly things like spelling and punctuation and grammar) and point out things that I need to work on and make suggestions (on things like word order, ideas, confusing or irksome things within the work...)

I prefer working with someone who's read (not necessarily enjoyed) a few of my pieces before - because I feel like they'll be better able to edit more of the work without compromising my writing style and they'll be better able to tell which kinds of things I'm doing on purpose and which kinds of things are actual errors that need to be changed.

I love a beta that's 'talkative' when betaing a piece. Someone who explains what they got out of something I've written - paragraph by paragraph. It helps me to know if what I'm trying to say is getting across. I like when the person betaing writers down what they're thinking as they're reading and if they think something should be changed, I like when a beta explains exactly why that is and gives me suggestions on how to go about it if they have any ideas. I think it's really important for a beta to speak freely about the piece to the author and not hold anything back.

For the most part I've had pretty good luck with finding betas but I've had some trouble in the past with betas that just didn't pick up enough of the errors, which can be really frustrating. In cases like that, it feels like we both wasted our time.

Audrey T.:

The thing I value the most in a beta is, of course, honesty. When I'm looking for someone to beta my story, I'm not looking for someone to tell me my story is great or perfect the way it is, I'm looking for someone who can help make the piece better. I like a beta that fixes the technical stuff within the piece (I trust my betas to edit directly things like spelling and punctuation and grammar) and point out things that I need to work on and make suggestions (on things like word order, ideas, confusing or irksome things within the work...)

Agreed. I've had that problem with betas in the past, where they just read it, point out typos and go "it's good". But I appreciate it so much more when a beta says "the flow gets a little strange here" and "I'm kind of confused on this paragraph because of the way you worded these two sentences". It just helps so much.

I've just started doing a little beta-ing myself, but all I usually do is fix technical errors and canonical mistakes where appropriate. Unless they've specifically asked me to, I don't make any drastic changes to the actual content of what they've written or how they've written it. I leave that for commenters to point out, as what I enjoy or feel works may not necessarily be what others do.

^
I appreciate it from commenters as well, but I'd like to give the best possible version of my work to the readers so if it's already posted and they're reading it, that's not what I'm aiming for.

I try and have the same beta for the same story when I do try and find one, especially for a chaptered story because then they can keep track of the plot and maybe catch some inconsistancies. I prefer to have betas on finished chaptered stories though, so they're (hopefully) not waiting ages between chapters. For fanfiction though, I do prefer someone who knows the fandom fairly well, but I'm not too picky about it.

I find when I'm beta'ing pieces, unless the author specificly asks, I usually just edit grammar/spelling/typos, point out any weird wordings, and give an overall opinion. I rarely try and change the content itself because, after all, it's their story and not mine.

Cassie (PerfectSecond) is my beta and I am hers. Mostly, she's someone I can bounce ideas off of. She's good with continuity and run-ons and being enthusiastic about my work.

I don't take all of her advice, but I do appreciate it. It makes me think.

I don't really beta stuff that much, but occasionally Alice sends me Sherlock fics and I britpick them for her. I pick out other stuff like SPAG and occasionally wording if it sounds awkward, but mostly I try and leave that as it is because I don't really feel I have the right to interfere with the way people write, to tell them how their own work should sound.

I think betas secretly hate me or something, to be honest. I've had around five the will do one chapter for me and then disappear without a trace. Really, it's just a lot of tense type things that I'd like a beta for, but I don't know why they keep vanishing from me.

I feel like there's a union. And they all don't like me at the union.
:D

I think a good beta is someone who points out the errors you made and tells you how to fix them instead of just letting you make the same mistake over and over.