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louiseluxA comment in ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
snowballjane's journal got me thinking - how many betas do people like to use?
Two is about the right number for me, any more than that and I tend to get a bit swamped with other people's opinions. Basically, I get confused and distracted, especially if people tell me conflicting things. Making objective decisions about what works and what doesn't in my own fiction is very difficult. It's so much easier with other people's!
But I've seen people thanking whole strings of people for beta'ing and wonder how they manage the process. I can see that having betas for different things makes sense, not only because it splits the work down into smaller chunks for them, but also because I can attempt to mentally parcel things off, as in 'these are grammar comments, these are plot comments, etc'. Not that things ever work that smoothly, really.
Also, the length of the story seems to make a difference to me. Shorter things I tend not to bother getting checked. If you choose not to get something beta'd, what's your reason?
[Poll #330108]
snowballjane's journal got me thinking - how many betas do people like to use? Two is about the right number for me, any more than that and I tend to get a bit swamped with other people's opinions. Basically, I get confused and distracted, especially if people tell me conflicting things. Making objective decisions about what works and what doesn't in my own fiction is very difficult. It's so much easier with other people's!
But I've seen people thanking whole strings of people for beta'ing and wonder how they manage the process. I can see that having betas for different things makes sense, not only because it splits the work down into smaller chunks for them, but also because I can attempt to mentally parcel things off, as in 'these are grammar comments, these are plot comments, etc'. Not that things ever work that smoothly, really.
Also, the length of the story seems to make a difference to me. Shorter things I tend not to bother getting checked. If you choose not to get something beta'd, what's your reason?
[Poll #330108]
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no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 08:53 pm (UTC)it's not that i don't think my work is that good, but that i rarely find competent betas.
i mean my last thing i got beta'd the only thing the person said was that my dialogue was hard to read because i removed the "he said" and "she said" after a point..
like this:
he said, "why hello there, my fine miss"
she said, "lay off it, tom"
"what's wrong with a guy hitting on a fine young lady like youself marie?"
"i'm just not in the mood for it."
you know, you're one tough cookie to crack. i love that."
"george and i had a fight last week.so i'm really not in the mood for your jokes today."
"wow... i thought you two were inseperapble. i mean you two have always been a coulple. how long have you two been going out?"
"seven years."
"damn."
i mean this isn't the text but something i made up on the spot, but it's kinda obvious the girl broke up with her boyfriend to me and the other guy is a friend to me.
*shrugs*
i asked three other people and they all got it.
i don't know.
anyhow, point is i reccomenrd three betas.
it sounds odd, but one peron may be wrong, two and you have issues on whether to change something or not if they disagree, and three gives ya a tiebreaker.
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