#beta'ing

Hello, Fandom Trumps Hate creators and prospective bidders! We are very excited for this year's auction! While we're busy building bidding sheets and forms and generating offer posts, we took some time out to put together an overview of our fan labor offers. Here are some quick numbers to give you an idea of what kind of fan labor offerings will be available this year:

Betaing - 52

Culture Picking - 27

Sensitivity Reading - 20

Specialist Expertise - 22

Translation - 8

We will be posting some more details about each category, so stay tuned. Who knows, maybe you will find a perfect beta or translator to help you with your own fannish endeavors through FTH this year!

Hi!! It’s just something silly we came up with. Cat (SaintDionysus) and I alpha and beta for @lovesbitca8, so we call ourselves the Alphabet. 😂

Have you listened to our podcast recapping Ch. 29? We talk a lot about the writing process in it, and it helps clarify what alpha’ing (vs. beta’ing) is. 

Cat and I have unique roles: she has a high-level view close to the reader, and I am an “ant” helping Juls build each hill. But we’re both alphas, since we both weigh in on themes, plot points, character arcs, pacing, and tone. Juls decides whether to incorporate our feedback, which can be mild to major. 

Cat and I also beta for TA. Cat talked about encouraging Juls to get rid of her “stage directions” (😂), i.e., fragments-- that’s an example of beta’ing. It’s also focused on clarity. So I’ll leave notes if something confuses me and ask her to reword. Another beta’ing task I do is review for repetitive words and phrases. 

When I purely beta for a fic, such as for @monsterleadmehome‘s Don’t Threaten Me With a Good Time, I'm usually not involved in plotting or pre-writing. (That said, there are always exceptions, because again, Cat takes each chapter of TA mostly fresh, but still makes suggestions consistent with alpha’ing). 

Also, while purely beta’ing, I generally don’t suggest major changes. Sometimes I’ll leave somewhat significant notes, such as, “I’d really love for you to dig into his motivations here,” or, “I’m not sure if she would be thinking this-- earlier she said XYZ.” But I generally stick to my lane and focus on SPAG and clarity. 

I. What is a Beta? Britpicker? Cheerleader?

A Beta Reader is a person who reads a work of fiction before it is published in order to mark errors and suggest improvements, typically without receiving payment.

A Britpicker is somebody who reviews a fic set in Britain (or the UK) to ensure conformity to British English and accurate portrayal of British characters, settings, and culture.

A cheerleader is pretty self-explanatory. This is a person, who reads your fic and gives you encouragement and support to string you along in creating it.

Some fics cover delicate topics or topics that you have little or no experience with. If you feel you need somebody to look over your story specifically in regards to a certain theme, sensitivity issue (e.g. race, sexuality, gender issues, ableism, etc.), age, time period, or anything that may require experience or in-depth knowledge, there will be somebody who can help you with it.

II. How to go about finding them?

Looking for the right person to beta-read (or brit pick or cheerlead) your fic can be tricky. Here’s a quick list of things you should let potential candidates know before you start working together:

   —    pairing/s

   —    estimated length

   —    general themes (maybe a short summary to entice them)

   —    what you look for (grammar/typos/punctuation and/or comments/suggestions, help with plot and structure)

   —    set the parameters for what you expect from a beta (time frame, ways of communication etc.)

Once you’ve considered all of these things, you can take a look at our master list of betas, britpickers and cheerleaders and contact somebody from there. (Click here if you want to be added to that list.) You can also make a post on your blog and tag/link us so we can boost it, or submit a post to us and we will post it for you.

Here’s a post by @ao3commentoftheday with even more specific parameters to consider before you start working with somebody.

III. Making sure they know their work is appreciated.

i have no idea when i last did one of these. I know it’s been a few weeks, but don’t know how long nor do i care enough to go searching.

Coffee Shop Familiar

might have a title. I’m not as in love with it now as I was 2 weeks ago, so high likelihood i’m going to go searching again.

finished writing it

editing is... continuing. I’m up to chapter 5 (so much green...)

Dorkily handed back chapters 1-3 earlier today from beta, so I still need to go poke at those.

Bible on the Dash

has something that I can call an outline. It’s not really, but a general roadmap is useful.

I’ve started writing it, currently it’s sitting at 3287 words. Super short chapters so far, well, short for me.

I need to do some more research for the 3rd major section, but i’ll get there

Everything else:

There’s a coldest hits fic out and about. Not linking it until after scoring is done (because... there’s no chance in hell i’ll win, but it remains a fond ambition.)

Started beta’ing Wheel in the Sky again. 

Randomly started working on Dust in the Wind again, well, went through beta edits that have been sitting around since like January. Which is almost like working on things.

i’m pretty sure i’m not going to do the SWBB for Sam Browning. I looked at the fics from last year and... I don’t think it will be a good fit. 

Are you interested in finding a beta through the 2023 Fandom Trumps Hate Auction? Looking for someone who can help you improve or polish up your writing in certain areas, or someone who can cheer you on? This year, we have 52 beta fan labor offerings, which include:

characterization

cheer

continuity

flow

pacing

plot development

sentence structure

SPAG

world-building

and more!

So... i’ve been trying to figure out why my list of things accomplished is so small, but then i did math. And, oh yeah, if i only open 2 documents, that’s where all my words go.

Canon Big Bang:

Added 2425 to chapter 3, finishing it at 5703 words

and wrote all of chapter 4, for a total of 7396 words. 

totaling 9821 words (holy crap, no wonder i’ve been feeling brain dead by the time i go to bed each night.)

I also have the layout i’m using for Lisa’s house and am starting a cheatsheet for myself for who’s who. 

I don’t think my next chapter is going to be as long? I hope not anyway.

Lol. np.

As far as beta’ing goes, a beta is someone who looks over the writer’s fanfiction to help smooth it over, usually by correcting grammatical errors. That doesn’t mean it has to be limited to just that though. The extent of what a beta does is something the writer and the beta works out before they begin their partnership. If the beta is familiar w/ the chars, they may be able to tell if something feels out of character.

In my case though, I’m dependent on my beta for so much more, which is why I feel helpless w/o her and rarely post anything if it hasn’t been beta’d first. She not only does what I previously stated, but she also helps me brainstorm, determine synopses, titles, tags, ratings, etc. if I need it. That might also be her being generous b/c we’re friends. I feel comfortable asking her to do those things, and she feels comfortable going the extra mile and helping me out that way.

So it is both actually wednesday and I had a decent week in terms of words and editing. I have a meeting for work in about 45 minutes, and i’m going to go ahead and trust that they’re not firing me (company got bought), so hopefully I’ll get a bit more done, but I’m ok with calling it good for the week here.

Sam Browning AU:

Realized this can be my backup for Canon Big Bang if necessary, although I don’t think it will be. 

Edited chapter 2 and started on 3. I’m now getting to the point in chapter 3 that I stole wholesale for chapter 5, so... that’s going to go quick. After I rework the entire fight scene at any rate

SPN Canon Big Bang

playlist created and outlined, currently to 13 chapters, but that might change, it gets really rough towards the end. 

(many many many thanks to @dorkilybeautiful and @thayerkerbasy for listening to me prattle on about this thing and offering suggestions. So many thanks. <3 you guys.)

Chapter 1 is done-ish (I think. I hit all my bullet points, but part of it is pretty weak) at 2201 words

Chapter 2 is actually my second attempt, but is currently sitting on 1068 after only one scene. (The first attempt, that totally counts because i’m stealing the bits that can be stolen, is at 751 and falling.)

Dust in the Wind

On pause until I get further in on my BB. Trying to keep too many things canon compliant gets confusing.

Other