Covante 's Beta Reader Profile
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profile: p User Profile
since: 03-11-12, id: 3806329
Author has written 4 stories | Harry Potter.
β : Covante is a registered beta reader and is currently accepting beta reading requests.
Beta Description
Beta Bio: general description as a beta reader
Have you ever heard a teacher say something along the lines of "You're child is not reading at grade level." The first one of those tests I took I was in the 3rd grade and I got a 12, yes two pluses, I never managed to find out if that indicated I was good to go for 200 level lit classes when I was ten years old or what, which means I have around twenty years experience reading at a college level. I've spent a good chunk of my time during those years reading as well, several years of which I spent over a dozen hours a day reading, (not just cramming textbooks either) my current situation also allows for this and seeing as I'm going to be layed up for a while yet and having basically all day as free time I'd like to do something useful and if I'm not betaing for someone I'll probably be rereading things I've enjoyed in a fruitless attempt to get myself to get back to writing. I'd rather be doing something useful and granting my meagre assistance to you though.
My Strengths: beta, writing, or reading strengths
-Attentive reader, I often find myself correctly anticipating the action of a story.

-Vast amounts of spare time

-Perfectly willing to work retroactively or even go back and just do editing work on a completed story (especially if it's one I haven't read).

-Quite patient and legendarily even tempered (easy to work with)

-Acceptable level of grammar ability, Eng 101 was something I tested out of back when I was in college. So the appropriate use of punctuation near mid-sentence parentheticals isn't really something I'm up to date on but I'll just tell you not to use parentheticals outside of your A/Ns anyway. It makes you look like a poor and uncreative writer.

-I'm still blessed with a rather good memory so I'm quite capable of catching those pesky continuity errors, from the simple mistake of a name spelled differently to the disastrous plot hole; if you need help with this I'm your Butterup.

-I'm in possession of a more than modest amount of skill at describing the connotations of certain words and picking the most applicable choice off a list of synonyms based on context.

-I have a very good Thesaurus in my brain, that kind of links in with the last point. I've also never used an actual Thesaurus, I've found people who do rely on that particular tool tend to use the words they've plucked from it incorrectly for some reason. It also tends to look rather obvious and forced. I can help you with good word choice without making it seem overly played up and pretentious.

-The things I just said I'm good at are coincidentally the things I notice people doing wrong the most often in fanfics. As an aside, if you actually believed that would a coincidental thing and cannot seem to figure out what the joke was in that statement even after reading this and having time to think about it then you're probably the sort of person who could benefit from my help.

My Weaknesses: beta, writing, or reading weaknesses
-I'm American (this only would matter for HP fics), I know a few basic Britishisms, mostly from reading. I'm perfectly capable of stopping you from having Harry Potter say mom instead of mum or call a packet of crisps a bag of chips, change theater to theatre and color to colour but I wouldn't insist on you using programme or connexion, don't expect me to be able to flawlessly incorporate British slang though. (A 'chit' is an adolescent girl I think, but I'm not sure if it's demeaning or if so in what way and to what degree)

-I might just try to change more things than you would like.

-When I couldn't figure out how to make bullet points I spent approximately five minutes debating between hyphens and asterisks or nothing at all. So yeah, there is a possibility I am slightly obsessive. You might class that as a strength though.

-I just noticed it says this is also for my weaknesses as a writer. I've written more on this little profile in an hour than I have on all of my stories I'm working on combined in the past month. This is while making a conscious effort to write more.

-Slight possibility I might just up and die without warning, this would be inconvenient for you.

-I can't figure out how to get rid of these stupid '/br' things in here. I guess that's a weakness. I also have no idea whatsoever why there are more of them on the strengths part than in the weaknesses part. Actually I fixed that bit; now they are equally marred.

Preferred: types of stories I prefer over others
I considered actually doing a good job of filling this in but then I realized that I'm mostly just bored and if you send me something with a bunch of stuff I'm not going to fix because I like it that wouldn't do me any good really. I also considered filling it in with stuff I would rather you didn't do to make sure I have a lot of work, but that seems rather like false advertising. I've never been very picky; if you send me a masterpiece, good I got to read it first; if you send me something I have to put a bunch of work into that'll keep the boredom away and that's good too.
Would Rather Not: I do not beta for these stories
The only things you could do write which might even have a chance of offending me are the kinds of things I'd be too embarrassed to list because someone would read that list and think "How could he even think of something like that? There is something wrong with him." Actually anything that pairs Harry up with Ginny is pretty gross, dont' send me any of that. I'd much rather read about Dumbledore and Grindelwald having a Lemon Party where I can just shrug and get on with it than have to read about Harry and Ginny becoming super duper soul bonded preteens. Getting up to go vomit would be mightily inconvenient.
Beta Preferences
Language: English
Content Rating: Fiction K » M
Categories: categories in black are ones this beta has authored for
Anime Ai Yori Aoshi
Anime Darker than BLACK
Anime Evangelion
Anime Full Metal Panic
Anime Fullmetal Alchemist
Anime Ghost in the Shell
Book Harry Potter
Anime Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple
Anime Suzuka
Genres: genres in black are ones this beta has authored for
General
Romance
Humor
Drama
Adventure
Angst
Sci-Fi
Fantasy
Hurt/Comfort
Friendship