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[Cantina]

So, this is a little OT, but I need some advice on beta-ing. 

 

I found this really cute fanfic on FF.net, and saw that the author was looking for a beta. Her writing was not bad, only the grammar was a little off. Thinking that I would probably not have to spend too much time helping out, I volunteered as a beta. And now she is in the middle of a complete overhaul of her initial fanfic. She sent me the first chapter (10k words), and editing has been very slow so far. The quality of the writing appears to be below what I have initially seen, so I needed to do very heavy editing. I do not kid you. I pretty much had to rewrite every sentence. At this rate, it is going to take me forever to get back to her... AND... I am probably putting in almost as much effort into this as she is - which I wouldn't mind if I would actually have the time for such an effort. The other problem is that I feel like this is becoming my fanfic rather than another's...

 

I have emailed her a part of my edits. I made the page bleed, so I felt really bad, but she said that was precisely what she was looking for. 

 

What should I do? Plough through, or make my edits more superficial?

 

Well IF it was me and someone tasked me to something like that, I'd put on a pot of coffee and just keep going. I'm not one for short-cuts especially when someone asked for my help and I accepted to do so.

 

But then I get enjoyment out of helping people, doing it half-ass makes me feel dirty inside and NO Ceru not the good kind of dirty,

[R2s Muse]

So, this is a little OT, but I need some advice on beta-ing. 

 

I found this really cute fanfic on FF.net, and saw that the author was looking for a beta. Her writing was not bad, only the grammar was a little off. Thinking that I would probably not have to spend too much time helping out, I volunteered as a beta. And now she is in the middle of a complete overhaul of her initial fanfic. She sent me the first chapter (10k words), and editing has been very slow so far. The quality of the writing appears to be below what I have initially seen, so I needed to do very heavy editing. I do not kid you. I pretty much had to rewrite every sentence. At this rate, it is going to take me forever to get back to her... AND... I am probably putting in almost as much effort into this as she is - which I wouldn't mind if I would actually have the time for such an effort. The other problem is that I feel like this is becoming my fanfic rather than another's...

 

I have emailed her a part of my edits. I made the page bleed, so I felt really bad, but she said that was precisely what she was looking for. 

 

What should I do? Plough through, or make my edits more superficial?

Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I've run into that before, so I feel for you. My $0.02? Make your edits more superficial. If it's really that bad, you can't rewrite it for her. All you can do is give her some general guidance and encourage her to find her own way. When that happens, I downshift to comments instead of track changes, and point out things that don't make sense and why, maybe marking the stray misspelling or typo. This happens to me editing undergrad essays. And it's hard not to help more. But there's only so much you can/should do if you're not also an author. 

[timebean]

So, this is a little OT, but I need some advice on beta-ing. 

 

I found this really cute fanfic on FF.net, and saw that the author was looking for a beta. Her writing was not bad, only the grammar was a little off. Thinking that I would probably not have to spend too much time helping out, I volunteered as a beta. And now she is in the middle of a complete overhaul of her initial fanfic. She sent me the first chapter (10k words), and editing has been very slow so far. The quality of the writing appears to be below what I have initially seen, so I needed to do very heavy editing. I do not kid you. I pretty much had to rewrite every sentence. At this rate, it is going to take me forever to get back to her... AND... I am probably putting in almost as much effort into this as she is - which I wouldn't mind if I would actually have the time for such an effort. The other problem is that I feel like this is becoming my fanfic rather than another's...

 

I have emailed her a part of my edits. I made the page bleed, so I felt really bad, but she said that was precisely what she was looking for. 

 

What should I do? Plough through, or make my edits more superficial?

Gah!  This is exactly how I feel at work, when I spend hours and hours editing a lab-mates paper (especially the newbies).  After a while, I feel like I am writing the damned thing, yet authorship is a different in science (as many of you know).

 

Maybe just be honest?  If you feel like you should get recognition after spending so much time, they may actually be willing to add you as coauthor (especially if it is obvious how much work you are putting into it).  If you would rather drop it, I am sure they will understand. Life takes precedence, after all!  And the edits you already provided may be enough to make them think about the rest of it in more detail...

 

It's hard right?  Cause after a while, what is an editor's (or beta's) job?  Ya know?

 

good luck!

[Tishina]

I rather agree with those who are suggesting giving her some direction, but don't do the work for her. She needs to do the work herself if it's going to be presented as her writing. Pointing out where she needs to work is one thing, but don't make yourself an unpaid copy editor.

[R2s Muse]

I blame Steve Blum for my choice in romancing this guy. Lol We talked about it last year at a convention, and he mentioned Greg to me and told me Cullen should be my first romance choice! I told him he didn't have to tell me twice! 

OMG! Was that by chance at fanboycon or whatever it was called last year, where Steve and Greg were both there? Loved watching the video of their little panel together. They were adorable.

[Char]

Well, in my case, Bull put it there

Haha! I just finished my Bull-riding playthrough yesterday. I was surprised, he's actually quite the sweetie. Not a dynamic I'd go for in my own life, I'm fanatically dominant, but I thought it played out very nicely for the Inquisitor

[Cerulione]

Rather OT question about fanarts & artworks in general... is it better to make the signature very visible or discreet ?

[Teshayel]

Well, with "Dream" it stays general so you can do that "What Dreams may Come", Seph can probably do the phoenix thing with "Cullen's dream of atonement & reborn from the ashes..."

 

...or a smutty "Cullen's Animalic Dream".

 

Nah.

 

 

 

OMG I know this, I beta'd my BFF's thesis, it's horror...

 

IMO you can simply read & tell her to "work on the grammar"? Explain to her that there's too much & you can't do all by yourself, considering that it's VERY long?

 

 

Well IF it was me and someone tasked me to something like that, I'd put on a pot of coffee and just keep going. I'm not one for short-cuts especially when someone asked for my help and I accepted to do so.

 

But then I get enjoyment out of helping people, doing it half-ass makes me feel dirty inside and NO Ceru not the good kind of dirty,

 

 

Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I've run into that before, so I feel for you. My $0.02? Make your edits more superficial. If it's really that bad, you can't rewrite it for her. All you can do is give her some general guidance and encourage her to find her own way. When that happens, I downshift to comments instead of track changes, and point out things that don't make sense and why, maybe marking the stray misspelling or typo. This happens to me editing undergrad essays. And it's hard not to help more. But there's only so much you can/should do if you're not also an author. 

 

 

Gah!  This is exactly how I feel at work, when I spend hours and hours editing a lab-mates paper (especially the newbies).  After a while, I feel like I am writing the damned thing, yet authorship is a different in science (as many of you know).

 

Maybe just be honest?  If you feel like you should get recognition after spending so much time, they may actually be willing to add you as coauthor (especially if it is obvious how much work you are putting into it).  If you would rather drop it, I am sure they will understand. Life takes precedence, after all!  And the edits you already provided may be enough to make them think about the rest of it in more detail...

 

It's hard right?  Cause after a while, what is an editor's (or beta's) job?  Ya know?

 

good luck!

 

 

I rather agree with those who are suggesting giving her some direction, but don't do the work for her. She needs to do the work herself if it's going to be presented as her writing. Pointing out where she needs to work is one thing, but don't make yourself an unpaid copy editor.

 

Thank you all for the kind suggestions I think I am going to plough through it, and be as thorough as I can be. She said that she'll be using my edits and guidelines as a model for future chapters - so I think the more thorough I will be now, the less help she will need to improve later on. But I will restrict myself to comments in the future. Then her own voice can shine through the writing.  

[Teshayel]

Rather OT question about fanarts & artworks in general... is it better to make the signature very visible or discreet ?

 

I am not a fan of big flashy banners in the sig. That being said, they do attract attention. Depends on how important it is for you to attract attention, I guess

 

Edit: I have my head in the clouds... I totally thought you were talking about forum signatures O.o. I'd suggest just having a watermark placed in such a way that to try to remove it would mean ruining the drawing Doesn't have to be big, but it has to be there.

[Char]

Rather OT question about fanarts & artworks in general... is it better to make the signature very visible or discreet ?

If you're fond of your creations, put the watermark somewhere it would take a lot of effort to crop out/remove. People are more likelt to leave it in place if they need to do more than crop out the bottom cm of your image. If you keep it fairly translucent it won't interfere much with the image. Other people might have a different opinion, but I had a nightmare of a time with my photos being nicked a couple of years ago and watermarking across the image sorted that problem right out.

[Caja]

For the 6k milestone, how about we go for Introspection as a theme?

 

What goes on in Cullen's mind? How does he view the world? What are his demons? What makes him happy? What are his hopes and dreams? What are his fears?Etc.

 

Any takers?

I second this! Sounds like a great theme and it's broad enough for all sorts of interpretation.

 

 

Rather OT question about fanarts & artworks in general... is it better to make the signature very visible or discreet ?

Obviously both approaches have advantages but I prefere the discrete signiture. The visible one attracts attention but I would want that people focus on the art, not the signiture, so it's rather distracting IMO. But with a discreter one your art might be easier to steal.

Modifié par Caja, 06 mars 2015 - 09:34 .

[Cerulione]

I am not a fan of big flashy banners in the sig. That being said, they do attract attention. Depends on how important it is for you to attract attention, I guess

 

 

If you're fond of your creations, put the watermark somewhere it would take a lot of effort to crop out/remove. People are more likelt to leave it in place if they need to do more than crop out the bottom cm of your image. If you keep it fairly translucent it won't interfere much with the image. Other people might have a different opinion, but I had a nightmare of a time with my photos being nicked a couple of years ago and watermarking across the image sorted that problem right out.

 

 

I second this! Sounds like a great theme and it's broad enough for all sorts of interpretation.

 

 

Obviously both approaches have advantages but I prefere the discrete signiture. The more visible ones attract attention but I would want that people focus on the art, not the signiture, so it's rather distracting IMO. But with a discreeter one your art might be easier to steal.

 

Thanks a lot

[Hellion Rex]

The Keep updated DAI!

Not necessarily. For some, myself included, the default was male dwarf warrior.

[riverbanks]

People are getting many mixes, but the untouched default world showed a female human warrior. It's still buggy! And every single Inquisitor you've made is an option. Lol some people have over 100!

 

The default default, that you get with a completely untouched world when you start a new default world state, is a human female rogue, actually. It makes sense, and it's what most people were expecting if I remember correctly from the pre-release discussions, as it ties up the warrior Warden, mage Hawke and rogue Inquisitor RPG holy trinity well.

 

I kept it mind because my own main Quizzie is exactly a human female rogue, and after being told for months that she was so boring, so uninteresting, the "wrong" Inquisitor to play, etc, it felt a little vindicating to see her become the default. I know it doesn't actually mean anything, and the warrior/mage/rogue sequence was predictable from the start. But I guess this is how people who played Dalish Wardens and were told for years that their Wardens were boring felt too when the default world state came up? It's completely meaningless, but tastes embarrassingly sweet.

 

Anyway, default is just default, so it's no big deal. But I do agree with the notion mentioned earlier that Cullen feels like the "default-ish" romance for the default Inquisitor, from all these really suspicious hidden glances and intense stares they exchange throughout all the story that become super awkward when you're not romancing him. With some of my other IQs that don't romance him I don't even talk to Cullen much, because some of his [intense stares] are really like... slow your roll, sir noodle, this Quizzie is taken already.

[kalasaurus]

Oh it's a rogue? lol looked like a Warrior. I love them! I'm going to try this, and romance Cullen!

 

And yeah even when I tried to romance Solas as a Dalish Elf, Cullen has this vibe with her that feels like a bond beyond friendship.

Yeah, I'm getting that vibe too with my current playthrough (Lavellan romancing Solas).  It didn't help that she flirted with him until she started the Solas romance, either

[kalasaurus]

I also picked the heart options during his quest Perseverance, because they were caring things to say to a friend.  So, when he smiled, heh... I have a headcanon that they care about each other a lot.

[timebean]

Anyway, default is just default, so it's no big deal. But I do agree with the notion mentioned earlier that Cullen feels like the "default-ish" romance for the default Inquisitor, from all these really suspicious hidden glances and intense stares they exchange throughout all the story that become super awkward when you're not romancing him. With some of my other IQs that don't romance him I don't even talk to Cullen much, because some of his [intense stares] are really like... slow your roll, sir noodle, this Quizzie is taken already.

Hahah!  I just let out Cullenesqe laugh at this (think card-scene)

 

[R2s Muse]

Yeah, I'm getting that vibe too with my current playthrough (Lavellan romancing Solas).  It didn't help that she flirted with him until she started the Solas romance, either

omg, yes. I loved this particularly at the end of the Perseverence scene, when I told him not to take the lyrium and that he can do it, blahblah, and he just... gave me that ... look of affection and relief. My Lavellan just about melted into a puddle, and I knew in that moment that he's definitely in love with me, even tho I was with Solas. Yuppers. That's my story. And I'm stickin to it.

 

[riverbanks]

Hahah!  I just let out Cullenesqe laugh at this (think card-scene)

 

The nerdy gigglesnort! I need that one as a ringtone or something.