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eponymous_roseGosh, I love this. :D Anyone want a beta? Ever? I'd be happy to oblige.
I think I'd really benefit from sitting down and treating my own fic to a wholehearted beta. From, uh, myself. I shy away from editing my own stuff beyond the bare necessities, because it really does become a matter of either editing or writing - you can't do both. But after the fact? That would probably help a lot. Also, it would make me a feel a little less hypocritical. ;)
So, open question time! How do you go about an editing/beta session? For your own work? For others?
When I sit down to write a beta for someone else, I just completely turn off my brain and skim the fic quickly, to get an idea of what works and what doesn't without having to worry about specifics. Then I scroll up to the top, and start from the first sentence, reading slowly. The instant my mind snags on something, even if it's perfectly benign, I attempt to justify that snag, in writing, to the author. 99% of the time, it's nothing technically wrong - but there's nearly always an issue with the flow of the piece. Two short sentences that have similar structure and style. Unintentional alliteration distracting from the action and meaning of the sentence. Amusing connotations that may not have occurred to the author.
And when I look again at the sentence to try and justify my unease with it, sometimes really strange things will happen. The words will suddenly look better if arranged just so - putting the word "death" at the end of a sentence, for instance, or letting a quick staccato of harsh consonants describe a series of gunshots, or letting the description of a bird's flight soar on and on with open vowels and no concessions to punctuation. Alexander Pope knew what he was on about.
Someday, I really hope to be able to apply this level of criticism to my own writing - for now, it feels like critiquing and writing are two entirely separate processes, and that I've come so much further in the former than the latter that I can't help but enjoy it wholeheartedly. :D
I think I'd really benefit from sitting down and treating my own fic to a wholehearted beta. From, uh, myself. I shy away from editing my own stuff beyond the bare necessities, because it really does become a matter of either editing or writing - you can't do both. But after the fact? That would probably help a lot. Also, it would make me a feel a little less hypocritical. ;)
So, open question time! How do you go about an editing/beta session? For your own work? For others?
When I sit down to write a beta for someone else, I just completely turn off my brain and skim the fic quickly, to get an idea of what works and what doesn't without having to worry about specifics. Then I scroll up to the top, and start from the first sentence, reading slowly. The instant my mind snags on something, even if it's perfectly benign, I attempt to justify that snag, in writing, to the author. 99% of the time, it's nothing technically wrong - but there's nearly always an issue with the flow of the piece. Two short sentences that have similar structure and style. Unintentional alliteration distracting from the action and meaning of the sentence. Amusing connotations that may not have occurred to the author.
And when I look again at the sentence to try and justify my unease with it, sometimes really strange things will happen. The words will suddenly look better if arranged just so - putting the word "death" at the end of a sentence, for instance, or letting a quick staccato of harsh consonants describe a series of gunshots, or letting the description of a bird's flight soar on and on with open vowels and no concessions to punctuation. Alexander Pope knew what he was on about.
Someday, I really hope to be able to apply this level of criticism to my own writing - for now, it feels like critiquing and writing are two entirely separate processes, and that I've come so much further in the former than the latter that I can't help but enjoy it wholeheartedly. :D
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Date: 2007-11-14 01:54 am (UTC)Well, I'm not you, but if that Delgado!Master & Martha fic ever materializes, I will be happy to treat it to a beta. Just sayin'.
for now, it feels like critiquing and writing are two entirely separate processes
I find I'm much more productive when I deliberately try to keep it that way, because if I edit as I go along—and I can give things a rare reaming indeed (<---ex-TA)—it's completely paralyzing, and it just makes things choppier. YMMV, as they say.
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Date: 2007-11-15 02:57 am (UTC)I've never had much trouble keeping writing and critiquing separate (they're two entirely different skill sets, IMO), but I've somehow wandered into the habit of writing without so much as editing afterwards. I need a happy medium!