Guide to Finding & Using a Beta
An essay written by: Gileswench
WHAT IS A BETA?
Simply put, a beta - or beta reader - is an editor. It's someone to look over your fic and tells you how to improve it.
WHO NEEDS A BETA?
I'm just going to come right out and say it: we ALL need beta readers.
It's really that simple.
And no, I don't mean we need them until we know what we're doing as writers or on those rare occasions when we can't find the dictionary. I mean if you write, you need a beta. Without at least one extra set of eyes, it's far too easy to make mistakes, mix metaphors, and lose your audience.
Think of it this way - if a popular author like Stephen King needs an editor, and if an award-winning author like Margaret Atwood needs an editor, what makes you think you don't need one for your efforts?
There are lots of great bells and whistles in your Word program that will help you: Spell Check, Grammar Check, and so on. These are all wonderful. You should use them. In fact, you should use them before you send your story off to your beta. After all, you don't want to have Giles run his hand through his hiar. Spell Check will make sure he doesn't do that.
On the other hand, Spell Check doesn't recognize context. It will not help you pick the correct homonym. If you use Spell Check, but don't use a beta, you could still end up with Giles running his hand threw his hare, or Buffy deciding to come along two. This is something your friendly neighborhood beta can help you with.
Beta readers can also be extremely helpful with other aspects of your writing. For instance, you may have just written a pastfic scene in Giles' apartment where somebody opened the door to his bedroom. A beta who pays attention to architecture and geography of the Buffyverse will be able to remind you that Giles' apartment had a sleeping loft that was completely exposed to the lower floor at all times. A good, on the ball beta is very useful for reminding one of these occasionally inconvenient facts that will pull many a reader out of the story.
Of course, a dictionary, a guide to basic grammar and a decent transcript site will be able to help you with all that. So why do you need a beta?
Because in addition to the technical help they can give you, they can also tell you when your point isn't getting across. All of us have areas of our minds where nobody else can follow our thought processes. All of us make unvoiced assumptions that require more explanation to the rest of the world. A good beta will tell you when the audience is about to get hopelessly lost because you haven't fully explained what's going on. A good beta will keep telling you that until the passage in question makes sense to someone who isn't you.
A good beta will tell you when a character voice is off, when you have a major continuity glitch you need to fix, and when your language is getting too repetitive or obscure.
Note that I said a good beta can do all that. Not all betas are good ones, and not all good ones will be a comfortable fit with just any writer.
HOW DO I FIND A BETA?
A good place to start is the list of beta readers on this site. These are people who have volunteered to make their services available to B/G writers. Contact one of them. That's why they put their names on the list.
Still, as I said, not every beta is for every writer. Perhaps your style of writing isn't a good match for anyone on that list. Maybe you asked them all and find they're all up to their ears in fic to fix. It happens. Does that mean you should give up and post your work unbetaed?
No, it most emphatically does not.
If none of the people on the site beta list can edit your work, look for someone else. The BtVS Writers' Guild site has a long list of betas willing to edit your grammar, catch your continuity glitches, unmix your metaphors and remind you of canon. Try one of them.
Or perhaps you're just uncomfortable approaching a complete stranger to pick apart your work.
If that's the case, go to a friend. Ask someone you know from a list or someone whose writing you admire. That's how some of the best writer/beta relationships start.
Remember, the worst thing someone can say is that they won't beta your work. Most will even say so politely.
HOW DO I FIND THE RIGHT BETA?
This is a slightly more complicated question than the one above. I repeat yet again, not every beta is for every writer. And not every beta out there is any good at the job.
I've seen fics posted (and there are far too many to enumerate here even if I did care to embarrass the authors, which I don't) where the author's beta is thanked profusely, and yet the story itself is replete with spelling errors, grammatical errors, continuity gaps, disturbing images I feel sure the author did not intend to produce, and poorly realized characterizations. I do not doubt these authors' words that the pieces were sent to betas; I merely question what these betas did.
So, how to find a good beta?
The first thing a good beta does is let you know what you're doing wrong. A good beta will point out all the flaws in your fic. If you send a piece off to a beta reader and all you hear back is 'this is nice', change betas. Even if your piece is without mistake and utterly groundbreaking in your field, your beta should be able to tell you *why* it's so great. A really good beta will tell you not only what you are doing wrong, but what you are doing right as well.
Look for someone who writes/betas in a similar vein to yours. If your specialty is fluff, don't expect someone whose favorite thing is angstfic to be a comfortable beta for you. If you emphasize the mystical in your fics, look for someone who is knowledgeable in that field. Don't ask someone who won't write anything with a rating over PG to beta your smut-a-thon. If you're doing a crossover with another fandom, be sure to double check that your beta is familiar with the other show before you start sending the story. Just because someone can beta doesn't mean that's the right beta for you.
Don't be afraid to use multiple betas. Many of us only use one beta, and use that one beta consistently. There's nothing wrong with that. On the other hand, some people find it useful to have several betas and rely on them for different things. One beta might be particularly strong on grammar and punctuation, another has memorized entire scripts, while yet a third is an expert on pop culture or British slang. Some of the best writers in fandom use more than one beta for every story they write. It may very well be part of the reason their stories are so good.
HOW DO I USE MY BETA, NOW I'VE GOT ONE?
The first thing you need to do is leave your ego at the door. You've asked this person for advice. Now it's up to you to pay attention to that advice. When your beta sends your piece back to you, make the corrections and send it back to see if it's improved enough to post. This won't always be the case on the first try.
I've had my beta send back pieces to me as many as six or eight times before she deems a section worthy of posting. Mind you, this is not usually the case, but when I need it, she's right there telling me to fix it. And she's almost always right.
Yes, I said almost.
In addition to knowing that you need a beta, and knowing how to listen to your beta, you also need to know when not to listen. On rare occasions, the thing your beta tells you to change is something that is vitally important to the point of your story. In those cases, you need to know that you can simply not make the change. Just beware that it isn't a common occurrence. If you're ignoring your beta's advice in every story, either you have the wrong beta or you need to pay more attention to what your beta is saying. More often than not, you need to open your eyes, ears and mind to what you're being told.
WHO DOES THIS BETA PERSON THINK SHE IS, ANYWAY?
or, WHY CAN'T WE JUST GET ALONG?
Ideally, your regular beta should be your best friend and severest critic in the writing community. This should be the person who heads the cheerleading squad when you're feeling insecure and the person who never lets you get away with pretending Giles has always been a heroin addict because you think it would be cool in your new angstfic, or that Buffy has reached the age of twenty-five and has never slept with anyone because she was saving herself for Giles. Unless you're creating a wildly alternative AU, neither of these things works. And if you're changing things that much, are you really sure you want to be writing fanfic and not something original? Just asking.
Anyway, the right beta for you is someone who can catch your mistakes, tell you what they are in detail, argue points with you, and still be someone you want to deal with. That means finding someone whose style of criticism is one you can cope with. Some writers need someone to be gentle with them, others want someone to come right out and say what they mean, already. Some writers want someone to just clean up the spelling and grammar and send it back to them all ready-polished and prepared for posting.
Be honest with yourself. Really think and decide what approach you respond best to. For me, it's a combination of humor and straightforwardness. If there's no humor to the edit, I can get pretty defensive. Okay, if I'm being completely honest, sometimes I still get defensive; I just don't get offended. And I do want to know clearly what the problem is so I can fix it properly. I also want a beta who isn't afraid to argue with me over a point. Some ideas or phrases I've loved have been edited out in the end because my beta was able to convince me that they were the wrong ideas or phrases on some level.
I now have one beta I go to almost every time I write, and several others I go to on a less regular basis for specific reasons or because I feel I need another point of view on a particular piece. This is an approach that works for me. Now all you have to do is figure out what approach works best for you.
There's an old saying that there's a lid for every pot. Well, I believe there's a beta for every fanfic writer. All you have to do is look.
And listen.