auroracloud: a fountain pen against a sheet of paper and writing (writing)
Aurora ([personal profile] auroracloud) wrote2017-06-15 09:30 pm

Beta-reading, anyone?

Since last year, I've returned to writing fanfic - I haven't finished anything since January, true, but I have been writing a lot, and hope to finish something, too. I've been meaning to ask for a while: any of my friends available to occasionally beta-read my fic for me? This is a kind of an ongoing request, even if I do have a couple of things coming up fairly soon (see below).

I'd rather ask around for a few potential people than expect the same person to always do it. I could especially use a native English speaker who's good at checking all the language stuff, because I'm not a native speaker, am a bit out of touch with writing English regularly, and I need someone to make sure that my grammar, punctuation, vocabulary etc. are fine and English. But I could equally use a canon check, beta for story flow, writing, etc. Anyone want to volunteer to sometimes beta me for any of these things? Doesn't have to be the same person for everything.

Fandoms: At the moment I mostly write Doctor Who and Torchwood. Pairing-wise, I've mostly written Doctor/Jack and Jack/Ianto (though I generally like shipping Jack, and have already written one Jack/Martha for the last Fandom Stocking). I also have hopes of eventually writing Torchwood team fics, more Martha, Bill etc. Currently I have fests coming up I'm writing fic for: [livejournal.com profile] wintercompanion for Doctor/Jack (deadline June 25), and Torchwood Fest where the posting is in July. Am especially looking for anyone to beta my stories for these (I will check out the community beta posts, too, but they're not that active). But I've got a whole slew of unfinished fanfics in both fandoms, so if anyone wants to beta but can't do it in June or July, I'm sure I can find something for you later. Oh, and let me know if you have limitations, with regards to characters, pairings, ratings, content, etc. Wouldn't want to ask anyone to beta anything they're not comfortable reading.

Smaller fandoms I may write for include Becky Chambers's Wayfarers, Gail Carriger's various series in her Parasol Protectorate universe, and goodness knows what else I'll find myself obsessed with.

And so that I'm not only taking but also giving: I am tentatively willing to offer my beta services for general writing/story things in fandoms I know and characters I feel comfortable with, or just generally being someone to bounce ideas off, though I can't promise I'll always be up for it because of real life. I'm not particularly useful for language beta (except that I'm good at catching spelling mistakes) or in most cases canon check, being relatively new to my most active fandoms.

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/ 2017-06-15 07:39 pm (UTC)(link)
I can beta-read for Wayfarers, I've read both now. :-)

[identity profile] auroracloud.livejournal.com 2017-06-18 07:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Yay, good to know! I haven't yet got anything for the second book (for the first, however, Rosemary/Sissix is in the tagset for Rare Pair Fest, and I'm thinking about signing up, so we'll see). But some day I will write a story where Sidra and Tak geek out. :-D

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/ 2017-06-18 09:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Rosemary/Sissix are my fave. <3 I was hoping for a cameo in the 2nd book, but sadly it was not to be.

[identity profile] auroracloud.livejournal.com 2017-06-20 07:35 pm (UTC)(link)
I would have loved that, too, but maybe next book! I hope...

[identity profile] enkanowen.livejournal.com 2017-06-15 10:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Torchwood used to be my number one jam. How long are the fics and what are some of the more exact dates?

[identity profile] auroracloud.livejournal.com 2017-06-18 07:45 pm (UTC)(link)
As far as I can tell by the rules, [livejournal.com profile] torchwood_fest is actually not any more specific than that about the dates - basically posting is all of July until the 29th of July. But for what it's worth, for the two fics I've currently got in progress, I'm hoping to have one in beta-able shape by the beginning of July, and the other by mid-July, if I indeed end up finishing both. And after that, well, however long it takes to beta and for me to do the edits, as long as I get the posting done before the end of the month. :-)

I'm not sure about the length as they're still in progress, but the first is around 1,000 words now and I doubt it will go above 2,000 words (that's short for me :-P). The second will probably be between 2,000 and 5,000 words depending on how much plot it ends up having. I'm still kind of unsure about its plot so I can't be more specific yet. How does any of that sound?

[identity profile] enkanowen.livejournal.com 2017-06-20 09:53 pm (UTC)(link)
It sounds good to me timewise. I tend to read quite quickly. Do you work with google docs or open office/word? And any TWs attached to any of the fic?

[identity profile] auroracloud.livejournal.com 2017-06-25 08:37 pm (UTC)(link)
I currently use Pages, the word processing program for Macs, but I can either convert it to Word/RTF/whatever and send it, or upload it on Google Docs, or whatever works best.

So far no TWs. But if something comes up by the time I've finished writing the stories, I'll let you know beforehand so you can tell me if you're comfortable reading it.

[identity profile] enkanowen.livejournal.com 2017-06-26 11:22 pm (UTC)(link)
I edit with word on my tablet or google docs on my laptop (I use Open Office), so whichever works better for you. I find comments a bit nicer to navigate with google docs but in the end it's up to you