Tag: beta reader

On By nightmares06In UncategorizedLeave a comment

Aww, you’re very sweet!

I have to decline any offers from people I don’t know too well, because of a bad experience with our former beta reader. We had a rough falling out after some disagreements over editing A Lich of Sense and the story after.

Needless to say, after having my story messed with I have a few trust issues.

What we look for in beta reader:

  1. People we’re familiar with and are willing to trust with our documents (friends, fellow writers, ect…)
  2. Knowledgeable about writing and grammar, preferably someone who writes themselves so we can see for ourselves

You’ll notice that a lot of the people who beta for us are also our cowriters. @neonthebright and @creatorofuniverses have their wonderful Trust universe ( @alittleblogoftrust ), @kimstaticchild wrote Myth meets Myth with @neonthebright, and has a story in progress with myself.

I’m always open for IM’s ( @nightmares06 ), so feel free to send me a message if you’re up to talking about some spn or gt or Sherlock! (I do not ship anything, of course, so any chats about that will go nowhere)

On By nightmares06In UncategorizedLeave a comment

From Wikipedia–

An alpha reader or beta reader (also spelled alphareader / betareader, or shortened to alpha / beta), also pre-reader or critiquer, is a non-professional reader who reads a written work, generally fiction, with the intent of looking over the material to find and improve elements such as grammar and spelling, as well as suggestions to improve the story, its characters, or its setting. Beta reading is typically done before the story is released for public consumption. Beta readers are not explicitly proofreaders or editors, but can serve in that context.

Elements highlighted by beta readers encompass things such as plot holes, problems with continuity, characterisation or believability; in fiction and non-fiction, the beta might also assist the author with fact-checking.

For the Brothers Apart multiverse, we have three beta readers who will go through the stories after we’ve edited them. They make sure the story sticks to its plotline, look for mistakes we might have missed while editing (a new set of eyes does wonders) and yell at us if the story stresses them out (the more yells, the better we’re doing).

@neonthebright beta reads Brothers Apart itself (unless she’s cowriting the story, in which case @creatorofuniverses takes over for her), and agreed to help us with Brothers Consulted when it’s ready. Bless @creatorofuniverses, she agreed to read through and beta Brothers Found as well, leaving her with the massive horror story to trudge through, and @kimstaticchild is kind enough to stress her way through Brothers Asunder, Brothers Adopted and Brothers Lost.

As of this time, Brothers Unexpected and Brothers Together do not have beta readers, nor does the giant Jacob story.

Examples of the feedback we get:

  • You use “collapsing” twice in two sentences- maybe change.
  • Sentence appreciation: “The lamp was, on principle, tacky as sin” 
  • Nnnnnnnnnnnnng I am only stressssss 
  • I am intrigued and terrified

New Co-Admin!

On By nightmares06In UncategorizedLeave a comment

With the release of A Lich of Sense, I’m proud to announce that @neonthewrite is the official co-writer of Brothers Apart and the new co-admin of the Brothers Apart tumblr! We got a hugely positive response to the introduction of Bowman Leafwing and look forward to everyone’s thoughts on the cowritten story as it posts! This was the first story that we worked on together as a team!

She is also the official beta reader of Brothers Apart as well as of Adventures at Bobby’s and will be assisting with editing on the stories that I write alone. When we write a story together, we have the lovely @creatorofuniverses for a beta reader.

If anyone ever has any asks or prompts that concern her characters in the stories, they will be answered by her. I’m sure you’ve noticed the Oscar shorts and answers she’s done so far on the tumblr, and now she’s officially a part of the team. You will see neonthewrite on the posts that she contributes (I try to remember to put nightmares06 on mine, but I always forget). Give her a warm welcome!

For anyone unfamiliar with her work, she has accounts on the following sites:

Feel free to send her any prompts you think of for her characters!