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Christmas Wish of a Non-Native Writer ( who travels a lot between fandoms)
If suddenly a little Christmas Elf appeared on my writing desk, and told me he'd grant me one major fandom-related wish for 2007 (but really just one, so I'd have to chose carefully), I wouldn't ask for one of the big things. No sudden disappearance of all soulless badfic. No sudden and unexpected rise in the popularity of my own pieces, caused by mighty BNF wizards praising and reccing my work wherever they go.
What I'd really like instead is a good, trusty beta-reader. One who shares all the fandoms I write in. Who is a native speaker of English and has a good feeling for punctuation and language. Who instinctly gets how I write. That I want my stuff to be efficient and honest, with a small spark of beauty, but not necessarily "easy reads".
Someone who only asks me to elaborate or to change that bloody semicolon into a full stop where it is indeed neccesary and an actual improvement.
One of my all time favourite sentences is "The sight of her whale bone corset was enough to unman him completely." (Bruce Chatwin, On the Black Hill). This is what I, theoretically and within the limits of my own capabilities, strive at. The whole tragedy of a Welsh farmer's marriage to a vicar's daughter wrapped into no more than fifteen well-chosen words.
I know that other writers could and would pull an amazing, breathtaking two page scene out of that. But I couldn't. Because it simply wouldn't be me. And some beta-readers get this at once, while others just don't, simply because their own reading tastes and experiences happen to differ (which, of course, is perfectly normal and 100% legitimate ;-)).
Probably, the best way to avoid the problem of differing tastes and preferences would be to stay patient and to try finding the one beta you really "click with". But if you switch between fandoms a lot, this one true trusty beta just doesn't happen. In my experience, at least; other folks may have been luckier.
More often than not I find myself in a situation where I have to rely on the generous offers of strangers, which is nice, on one hand. Over the years I've met some amazing people that way. (I'm waving at you, you know who you are :-)) But on the other, it is a nightmare. Whenever you send off a story for beta-reading, you send it into the unknown, never knowing what you will end up with.
There have been cases in which I disagreed with the original beta's assessment of my story so badly that I tried to enlist as many other folks to read the damned thing as I possibly could. Only to end up with a more balanced idea of where the true strengths and weaknesses of my story might lie.
It's becoming more and more of a habit lately, and more and more of a burden. Too much trouble to go through with tiny little ficlets, seldom longer than 1000 words. If I as a German weren't so dependent on native speakers to correct my language and grammar, I'd probably give up on betas completely, at least with the shorter stories.
On my hard drive, there is this tiny 850 word vignette I wrote out of a sudden mood, during lunch break, in less than an hour (yes, I seem to be getting quite fast these days *g*). No idea whether the text is any good. What I know, however, is that if that tiny little thing had been written for a German audience, I would have published it on the very day that I wrote it. Maybe with a pause of five or six hours to ensure I catch most of the typos and odd wordings with the second re-reading. Then I simply would have lent back and enjoyed the reactions, regardless whether they would have been positive or negative.
But as the text was written in English, as a spontaneous answer to a very specific request, the whole act of writing, revising and posting has turned into a process of several days. (Haven't gotten the story back yet and am fearing the worst in terms of 'story will probably come back turned all upside down and thus cause only more unnecessary trouble for anyone involved'. To tell the truth, I actually don't really feel like publishing the damned thing anymore at all, because the sheer joy of the moment has ceased sometime between Monday morning and now.)
Please, Christmas Elf. I want that trusty, multi-fandom, English speaking beta so badly.
***
ETA: Just got back the story in question. And based on what one can see at a first superficial glace, it hasn't been butchered at all, but quite to the contrary, skillfully edited. I might not take all of my beta's suggestions, but certainly most. Phew, so at least with this ficlet all my usual beta-angsting was totally unecessary. Yay :-)
What I'd really like instead is a good, trusty beta-reader. One who shares all the fandoms I write in. Who is a native speaker of English and has a good feeling for punctuation and language. Who instinctly gets how I write. That I want my stuff to be efficient and honest, with a small spark of beauty, but not necessarily "easy reads".
Someone who only asks me to elaborate or to change that bloody semicolon into a full stop where it is indeed neccesary and an actual improvement.
One of my all time favourite sentences is "The sight of her whale bone corset was enough to unman him completely." (Bruce Chatwin, On the Black Hill). This is what I, theoretically and within the limits of my own capabilities, strive at. The whole tragedy of a Welsh farmer's marriage to a vicar's daughter wrapped into no more than fifteen well-chosen words.
I know that other writers could and would pull an amazing, breathtaking two page scene out of that. But I couldn't. Because it simply wouldn't be me. And some beta-readers get this at once, while others just don't, simply because their own reading tastes and experiences happen to differ (which, of course, is perfectly normal and 100% legitimate ;-)).
Probably, the best way to avoid the problem of differing tastes and preferences would be to stay patient and to try finding the one beta you really "click with". But if you switch between fandoms a lot, this one true trusty beta just doesn't happen. In my experience, at least; other folks may have been luckier.
More often than not I find myself in a situation where I have to rely on the generous offers of strangers, which is nice, on one hand. Over the years I've met some amazing people that way. (I'm waving at you, you know who you are :-)) But on the other, it is a nightmare. Whenever you send off a story for beta-reading, you send it into the unknown, never knowing what you will end up with.
There have been cases in which I disagreed with the original beta's assessment of my story so badly that I tried to enlist as many other folks to read the damned thing as I possibly could. Only to end up with a more balanced idea of where the true strengths and weaknesses of my story might lie.
It's becoming more and more of a habit lately, and more and more of a burden. Too much trouble to go through with tiny little ficlets, seldom longer than 1000 words. If I as a German weren't so dependent on native speakers to correct my language and grammar, I'd probably give up on betas completely, at least with the shorter stories.
On my hard drive, there is this tiny 850 word vignette I wrote out of a sudden mood, during lunch break, in less than an hour (yes, I seem to be getting quite fast these days *g*). No idea whether the text is any good. What I know, however, is that if that tiny little thing had been written for a German audience, I would have published it on the very day that I wrote it. Maybe with a pause of five or six hours to ensure I catch most of the typos and odd wordings with the second re-reading. Then I simply would have lent back and enjoyed the reactions, regardless whether they would have been positive or negative.
But as the text was written in English, as a spontaneous answer to a very specific request, the whole act of writing, revising and posting has turned into a process of several days. (Haven't gotten the story back yet and am fearing the worst in terms of 'story will probably come back turned all upside down and thus cause only more unnecessary trouble for anyone involved'. To tell the truth, I actually don't really feel like publishing the damned thing anymore at all, because the sheer joy of the moment has ceased sometime between Monday morning and now.)
Please, Christmas Elf. I want that trusty, multi-fandom, English speaking beta so badly.
***
ETA: Just got back the story in question. And based on what one can see at a first superficial glace, it hasn't been butchered at all, but quite to the contrary, skillfully edited. I might not take all of my beta's suggestions, but certainly most. Phew, so at least with this ficlet all my usual beta-angsting was totally unecessary. Yay :-)