To Those Whom I Am a Beta To
But first: Little Nemo. I remember this cartoon from way back when I stayed with before/after school childcare service run out of a home when I was in kindergarten. The lady who ran it had a pretty good collection of animated movies that I never knew existed like Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night (which for some reason I thought was a sequel for the longest time), and the aforementioned Nemo. As best as I've seen it described, it's like if Disney and Japan had sex and Japan didn't pull out. Beautiful animation, not just for it's time, and good mix of imagination and pretty damn scary for kids, it's too bad it wasn't as well regarded as it should have been. But now I can watch it again, and remember back to a time when I thought mac'n cheese with spam was the absolute bomb of lunchtime meals.
Wait, I had that just last week.
Okay, back to a time when I was just entering the public school system and had half-days and and nap time.
***
To those who- wait I already said that. Well then, to those who know who you are, I thought I might give an impression of how my beta/review process works. So that way you know I came about the final product, and so I have a Wed entry to this journal >3<
It's not really that complicated, but here are the steps:
1) I read it. Just read it, no notes, no markers, just read through it, in as close to one go as I can, to get my overall impression of the story.
2) Record overall impression after having read the story.
3) Reread, with this time making notes as I go. This part goes a bit faster, as I've already read the story, so I've already gotten my enjoyment of the material and can focus on the more critical part of the beta process.
4) Another go-through, this time with the intent of "corrections"; mainly the little stuff, like where I think commas may need to be added, or where a word could be changed. Rarely, I may rewrite a small section of a sentence for flow.
5) Final impressions. What I think of plot points, how characters feel and may need tweaking, where things may feel muddled, all that stuff.
I do recognize that the writer has final say on all edits (duh), but want to point this out because I've had people in the past harp on me for offering changes to words or structure that didn't feel right. I'm not changing things, just offering times where changes could occur.
And that's about it. It's not much, the process I go through feels like I'm taking each story as a whole, as well as on the inner finer workings.
I will attempt to get those betas back to you as soon as possible. Also, thank you for allowing me to read your works, and I promise not to print and bind the pages with string so I may hold it to my chest as I rock back and forth my darkened room crackling with giggling glee in a faux-Gollum voice. Promise.
Wait, I had that just last week.
Okay, back to a time when I was just entering the public school system and had half-days and and nap time.
***
To those who- wait I already said that. Well then, to those who know who you are, I thought I might give an impression of how my beta/review process works. So that way you know I came about the final product, and so I have a Wed entry to this journal >3<
It's not really that complicated, but here are the steps:
1) I read it. Just read it, no notes, no markers, just read through it, in as close to one go as I can, to get my overall impression of the story.
2) Record overall impression after having read the story.
3) Reread, with this time making notes as I go. This part goes a bit faster, as I've already read the story, so I've already gotten my enjoyment of the material and can focus on the more critical part of the beta process.
4) Another go-through, this time with the intent of "corrections"; mainly the little stuff, like where I think commas may need to be added, or where a word could be changed. Rarely, I may rewrite a small section of a sentence for flow.
5) Final impressions. What I think of plot points, how characters feel and may need tweaking, where things may feel muddled, all that stuff.
I do recognize that the writer has final say on all edits (duh), but want to point this out because I've had people in the past harp on me for offering changes to words or structure that didn't feel right. I'm not changing things, just offering times where changes could occur.
And that's about it. It's not much, the process I go through feels like I'm taking each story as a whole, as well as on the inner finer workings.
I will attempt to get those betas back to you as soon as possible. Also, thank you for allowing me to read your works, and I promise not to print and bind the pages with string so I may hold it to my chest as I rock back and forth my darkened room crackling with giggling glee in a faux-Gollum voice. Promise.