Beta Bio: general description as a beta reader
Hi, I'm Gweniveve Skyes, but you can call me Gwen for short. I like to help people, which is why I'm a beta (cheesy yes I know). It's like being an editor, but you don't get paid :(, but you get the satisfaction of helping people. As for my beta style, I look at a story overall, then find the weaknesses to help improve the writing. I feel that there are two sides to fictional writing: the storytelling side and the writing side. It may seem odd, but one may be good at one, but not the other. You could have the most imaginative story out there, but if your writing is not the best, then nobody will read it. Vice versa for the writing part of it. I myself lean more towards the storytelling side, but now I'm more towards the middle.br /br / I apologize if I may seem harsh, but I don't mean it in a cruel or malicious way. But sometimes you have to break before you build, get what I'm saying. So have a look around and I hope that I'm good enough for ya'll! One more thing, PLEASE PM me before you accept me as a beta reader. I want to know you before I beta you, like what your story is about, what you like to write, things like that. Then, we can make a decision as whether I'm the right beta for you, which I hope I am. :) ~Gwen |
My Strengths: beta, writing, or reading strengths
My strengths are:br /br / Grammarbr / br / Plot generationbr / br / Description(especially with action and battle scenes)br / br / Characterizationbr / br / For the Yu-Gi-Oh writers out there, I am well versed in Ancient history and world mythology, especially Ancient Egypt For Pokemon writers, well...I just know a lot of random stuff, including biology, snippets of psychology, ancient weapons and warfare. |
My Weaknesses: beta, writing, or reading weaknesses
I do have some problems making dialogue flow and sometimes my writing can sound a little awkward. Sometimes my stories seem slow with the plot (at first), but they pick up pace later. I'm also not that fantastic with fluffy romance. Yeah. . . br /br / And sometimes I'll miss a spelling error or two, but only if it's something like "Better"/"Batter" and what not. |
Preferred: types of stories I prefer over others
In the pokemon fandom, I like OC stories and certain pairings, like Poke-, Contest-, Ikari- and Caviler-, among others; I'm pretty flexible about pairings, so long as they are believable :). Tournament fics are fun for me too. Other than that for the Pokemon fandom, go nuts, just as long as it's not cliche :). I especially love adventure and fantasy styled stories Cliche is bad, breaking new ground is good and I'm more than happy to be a part of it.br /br / In the YGO fandom, I'm pretty loose with the couples and story genres, but I really go for Polar. It's like my drug or something (lol). Bonus points if you write it well. And like the Pokemon fandom, have fun. I love adventure and fantasy stories and things that involve complicated magical systems and mythology and making connections where none were seen before |
Would Rather Not: I do not beta for these stories
I do NOT do yaoi, yuri, incest and explicit sexual content, so let's not go there, shall we? In fact, if your story even thinks about becoming explicit, don't page me. Sorry, I probably seemed old fashioned to some but that's my story and I'm sticking to it br /In pokemon, I'm wary of the whole second-gen spiel, mostly with the TV characters because there are no Canon pairings in the series. I'm also tentative of the Ranger and Mystery Dungeon stories, because I haven't played the Ranger/Mystery Dungeon games enough to help with characterizations and the plot. And unless you have a lot of confidence and faith in me, or you're doing something so radically different with the series that you just HAD to send it here, I would advise going to a different, better author. For YGO, second gen fics and vampires/werewolf stories I normally avoid, simply because they can be really trite and cliched, but if the idea seems unique enough, shoot it my way, I might just do it, so don't be scared off because of what is written here. I've only liked one 'vampire' YGO story, so be warned though. I can't duel my way out of a paper bag, so don't send dueling centric stories my way. A story with one or a few stories is okay, stories with fifty bajillion duels are a bad idea, unless you want to see it crash and burn. I also haven't figured out how Synchro summoning and XYZ summoning work either, so don't use those if I'm beta-ing, it will probably break my brain and then where would we be? For couples, Conquestshipping/Puppyshipping is an antithesis for me. Kind of like matter and antimatter. Something will explode in the process, probably my head. I like my head where it is, thank you very much. |
