The State of the Fandom
Beta’s – The saviors of the fanfic world. Part one in a two part series.
In this first part of the series, we’ll be focusing on what a beta should be able to expect from you as an author. In my years (teehee) in fanfic I have been both beta and author, so I think I have a reasonable grasp on the subject. I’m keeping the snark and sarcasm to a minimum this week so everyone can see what a serious subject this is. (insert maniacal laughter here)
1. Everyone needs a beta. Everyone. The Big 5? Yep, they use betas and you should too. Even if your grammar and punctuation are impeccable, you can always use a second set of eyes to tell you if your concepts are clear. Just because it makes sense inside your head doesn’t mean the rest of us know what you’re talking about.
2. Run spell check before you send your chapter to your beta. Not to do so is just rude. Most of the betas I know beta for multiple people and don’t have time to fix the spelling on the word neccessary nessicary ‘necessary’ repeatedly.
3. Run grammar check before you submit your chapter. Same reasons apply.
4. Don’t submit 60,000 words all together as one document and expect your beta to guess where your chapters end. It can be hard for us to find a good stopping point and that can then slow your beta’s response time.
5. Character names and the names of places should be spelled correctly. Accidents happen and you miss the occasional letter, but if you are consistently spelling Emmett with only one ‘t’, then you shouldn’t be submitting those chapters to your beta. In twific, the ones I see most often are Emmet and Rene. Personally, I will reject for misspelled names.
6. Don’t use text speak. Just don’t. Unless your characters are texting each other, this has no place in fiction of any type. If they are texting each other, make that clear. Center it and make it bold, italicize it, whatever you do, make it obvious.
7. Word tense can be one of the stickiest parts of grammar to master- especially if your story involves Damon retelling a story to Stefan. He’s telling it presently, but it happened in the past. Be sure to check each verb individually as well as the story as a whole.
8. Split infinitives. Certain groups of words need to be together in a certain order or you lose the meaning of the phrase. ”She decided to not let the comment get her down.” That should read as follows. ”She decided not to let the comment get her down.” The ‘to let’ is the infinitive. They like each other. Let them stay together.
9. Wordiness. This is something that every beta I know will harp on. Everyone knows that the Cullens are vampires. Do not end every sentence with ‘because they are vampires’. We already know that Forks is in Washington. You don’t need to mention it every time.
10. Constructive criticism can be hard to take, but remember that your beta is doing this because she loves fanfic. She also loves you and your story. She honestly wants you to become a better writer. So bite your tongue and rethink that retort.
Stay tuned for the next State of the Fandom. I’ll be covering what authors should expect from their betas.
PS – See that little ‘comment’ box below? Write me a comment. We’ll be drawing a name from all comments left to win a super special, super secret prize!
Awesome article, Sarah. I’m trying to get back into writing and am hoping that beta’ing will help me. I’ve already learned a lot and know for a fact I’ll definitely need a beta myself…
Anyway, I can’t wait to read the second part. :)
I tihnk you made some great points here! Hope people find this useful!!
I didn’t know how much work was put in on a story after the author was done. It is good to know that this site has standards it sets its authors to.
Loved the column Sarah! Betas are such an important part of the writing process, and anyone who is serious about writing fan fic needs at least one. As you said, even if you’re confident in your writing ability, we all make mistakes and sometimes what makes sense in my head might not make sense to the reader. Betas are seriously underappreciated. Hopefully your column will make people realize that betas want to help make you a better writer, not make you feel silly for making a mistake or missing a detail.
I can’t wait for the next installment of your column!
I am new to the fanfic world and had never really thought about needing a beta, but this column made it clear that it is necessary!
Thanks for giving me some things to think about!
Very good information for all of us writers. Sometimes we need to be reminded even of the basics, hehe.
I am not a beta, but I read a lot of stuff (magazines, articles, online jabber about pretty much anything.) and I have a tendency to ‘red pen’ anything I am reading. I have to say that all of your points are valid and my personal pet peave is text speak; even in text messages. For goodness sake people what do you think T9 is for? If you don’t want people to think you are an idiot then use the word ‘you’ instead of ‘u’. Sheesh!
This is a great topic to discuss, so many authors don’t use a beta because they don’t know where to find them, or don’t think they need one, or the worst excuse: “I don’t want to wait for a beta to help me clean up my chapters before I post them.” Grrrr, that one gets me every time.
Beta’s are so vital to the writing experience, and it’s important for authors to get used to someone reading their chapter with a critical eye anyways, especially if they want to ever get published where their work will be mulled over by multiple people and dissected by critics. Thanks for this post, it’s wonderful. Can’t wait to read part two!
Great idea to help us writers become better, SarahBella!! I personally have had several betas–all of which would like to have shot me at one point or another!! I think all of these are perfect suggestions, and I hope that most authors would LOVE to have a fantastic beta that would be so willing to help them to grow as a writer.
Another great column, Sarah. You really hit the nail on the head with this one. It’s difficult to be a beta, especially when you really want your authors to grow as writers. And, that is our goal, after all.