Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related What's all this "Beta" business anyway?

I'm going to submit The Big Debut and Louisa and Mark: The New Adventures of the Hulk to the archive, and it crossed my mind that I should probably have a beta check them over. So I have a few questions:

1. Are my stories so short that they don't need to be beta'd?

2. Am I doing this in the wrong order? (I think I heard somewhere that the procedure for fanfic was write/beta/post/submit)

3. Does number 2 really matter?

4. Just how does this whole "Beta" thing work, anyway? I just...email it to somebody?

5. If the verdict is that I could and should have the stories beta-read, are there any volunteers?

Also, (going back to number 4) I have a longer WIP in the works. I've heard referrences to authors sending chunks of their works to their betas, so do I

A. Write the story, then chop it up and send it to a beta bit by bit?

B. Write a chunk, send it, write another chunk, etc.?

C. Write whole thing, send whole thing?

D. Other?

As you can see, I'm quite confused.
(I probably shouldn't have mentioned the WIP; now I'll be obligated to finish it! )

There is no one set way of doing things, so don't worry that you've done something wrong.

In general, the relationship between an author and a beta-reader is something that evolves. You ask someone you know if they'd be willing to read your story, or you ask for volunteers if you don't know anyone off the top of your head (which you've kind of done in your post above ). Some people use the same BRs for every story; others have a group of people that they chose from, maybe based on the type of story or how busy people are. You could use one BR or a few at once, combining and comparing the responses you get.

To answer your first set of questions, yes, most people have a BR look over their story before they submit it to the Archive or post it to the MB, but it's not a requirement, especially for short stories that don't involve extensive plot twists or detailed characterization. Some people use the MBs as their BR as far as thing like plotting and characterization go -- if people raise problems or questions in the comments folder, you know what you have to address before finalizing the story. So I'd probably say that you don't *have* to have a BR for your shorter ones, but if you get some volunteers out of your request, it can never hurt to have a fresh pair of eyes look for typos before submitting the story. But for your longer WIP, I would definitely suggest you find someone you trust to look at it.

The second part of your question -- about how to work with a BR on longer stories -- really depends on how you and your BR chose to work together. Some people wait until they finish the whole story and send it all at once to their BR. Others might send it off every time they get to a certain number of pages or to a certain point in the plot. Still others might combine these two -- they'll write until they hit a roadblock, then ship what they have off to their BR in hopes of doing some brainstorming about where to go next or how to fill in a certain plot hole. I, personally, have done all three of these at various times, with various stories and various BRs.

Kathy

Thankyou, Thankyou, Thankyou!

Of course!!!

Jose