Fic notice: In Loco Parentis Part 5 Posted (HP genfic)

[hobgoblinn]

Well, part 5 of my EIP (Epic in Progress) is now up on ff net: here.

I'm pleased with how it's going, even as I despair of getting any further or fixing the glaring deficiencies every time I sit down to it. I owe a huge debt to my betas, not only on this work (research_girl and sahiya) but also on other work, past and present. You all know who you are. I'm too afraid of missing any to list you all out. It's weird though-- I really have written a lot over the past year and a half.

slaymesoftly posed an interesting question about betas recently on riters_r_us. How do you deal as a beta with a writer who really is Bad? I'm not that bad, but I am painfully aware my imperfections must also be painful (or painfully funny maybe at times) to read. But I noticed going through the beta notes on this part, that after I cleared away the things they noted, it somehow gave me insight into things they hadn't complained about. I added some things, tweaked some others, and I can just feel that it's better than it would have been. It's almost like clearing away the dead wood let the rest flourish.

And it also let me pull my focus away from some things I thought were bad that they didn't mention, to see other things. To trust that they were okay enough to move on and see something I hadn't before. Not sure I can explain it any better, but I am quite grateful for how it worked out.

Happy Holy Saturday to all.

Comments

[sahiya.livejournal.com]

Bad for beta reading is not the same as bad for regular reading, for me. Things that would make me hit the back button in a posted fic are things to flag in a beta read. But bad for beta reading for me means . . . well, sometimes it's grammar, because bad grammar makes me want to weep, but more often it's just this indefinable not right feeling that's much, much harder to fix. And it takes a lot of work to pinpoint exactly where the problem is and help the writer work it out (if the writer is interested in working it out - some writers aren't in fandom, but that's a different issue).

[bemoan1000.livejournal.com]

I have to say that I’m probably on the opposite side of the fence when it comes to grammar. I can deal with misspelled words here and there, misplace commas and other mistakes, mostly because I don’t see them and do it myself. Not on purpose.

For me a story can always be improved. I don’t have a beta and hope some day I do, if I continue. I think that it is important for each to know what to expect from each other. I think there are some writers who want the betas to do all the correcting, and to me that is not right. A writer has to learn to look at their own work. I personally think that a writer should look at their own work at least three times before handing it to a beta.

And as for that not right sometimes, for me, has to do with style. I know there are a lot of stories that have great ideas and are grammatical correct, but I don’t like how it is being told.

[sahiya.livejournal.com]

I think a good beta/writer relationship is key - and makes writing a lot more fun, as it happens. The loneliest I've ever been in fandom was after I fell out with my long time beta.