#shout out to my drawing skills😍😍

[grimelven]

live footage of us during lothering

[st-clements-steps]

📢What advice would you give to someone who wanted to beta read?

🎉Are you more of a cheer-reader or a constructive criticism offerer?

♥️What do you like about beta reading?

🚫What don’t you like about beta reading?



📢 beta reading is a really good way to get involved in fandom and just it makes more fic happen I think, so I’d be super enthusiastic (and the poor potential beta reader would be put off). My main advice is beta read for writers/stories you would want to read anyway. And to find that I guess you have to read (and probably comment on ao3) and start talking to writers you like, like on tumblr, find discord servers for writers (@thecitadelblog) or ships etc. All of which is that whole putting yourself out there thing, which can be quite hard. And when you’re reading for someone, be polite, ask questions, shout about the bits you love. And remember you don’t really need copy edit skills, so much as the writer needs someone to talk stuff over with, I think.

🎉 I think I’m a bit of both, I definitely will say the stuff I love, I might just resort to 😭😍😭😍😭😍 since the crying heart eyes emoji is yet to be embraced by the real world, I will question sentences that don’t make sense and sometimes character’s motivations, timeline anomalies etc. I think my strength as a beta reader is asking questions when writers are stuck or unsure, hopefully.

♥️ the connections you make with people, it’s a kinda a fast track to this trusted relationship with someone to read their writing when they’re not entirely sure/happy with it yet. And it gives you all this reason to hang out with characters you love, to talk about things that inspire you (or frustrate you, weirdly it’s my frustration that draws me into asoiaf/GoT)

🚫 I find I rarely have the energy to comment on stories I have beta-ed and I personally get a real buzz out of commenting. Comments are so important on ao3 but it’s difficult to get that balance right when you already know a story so intimately. I feel like I would have to hold back when I’m beta-ing in order to have thoughtful interesting comments to make (and I just don’t have that level of self-control). Anyway not commenting makes me sad sometimes.

O I come across so serious and pretentious answering these, I’m really tired, let’s blame that. Thanks for the ask, I’d love to know how you feel about beta reading?