I would love to have a beta reader on retainer.

I used to have two or three people that I chatted and collaborated with all the time. But I quit writing for quite awhile after college. Now that I’m inching back in, I’ve lost contacts and/or switched fandoms. I probably won’t produce a lot of works, but I hope to have a few fics a year. It would be awesome to know there is someone out there that I can shoot stories too and chit chat with over plot ideas. If it matters, my creative juices a only flowing through the MCU.

I signed up for the Marvel Big Bang this year. And I’m disappointed to say that I didn’t succeed. My posting date is tomorrow and I’m sitting on 4,000 words of un-betaed Netflix Daredevil fic. I have so much of the story in my head, but I can’t seem to get it down on paper. It sounds great in my mind but stupid on paper. I am doing my best to use previously given advice of writing without editing, but because I’m so disgusted with what I’m writing I find myself avoiding the process altogether.

Anyone ever try and create an original work? My ultimate goal is to someday write my own novel. I have absolutely zero original ideas. Not even an original spin on a popular genre, but if I ever come up with one and I’m going to give it a go. I’ve jokingly asked my husband if I could quit my job and try to be a writer. He says I need an idea first. Haha.

Anyway...those are the creative ideas floating through my head tonight. Hope to hear from others.

Me me me! I'll be on retainer. *g*

Except I don't know Daredevil. Gah! But I know you like Laura and the fam so if you ever want to bounce ideas about them off me or the regular Avengers crew, I'd love to help. Also available for betaing. Hit me up whenever!

Have you tried just bullet pointing or writing out the key details of each scene that's in your head for your big bang? And then going back in and making them real sentences/paragraphs after? Seeing it in your head but not being able to WRITE it SUCKS. Big time.

Thanks so much for the offer! I’ll definitely take you up on it.

I haven’t tried bullet pointing particular scenes. I’ve bullet pointed fics as a whole, but never specific scenes. I’ll give that a try. Thanks for the suggestion.

I do this too and it helps, despite the fact that when I look at them afterwards I feel terror. They're less articulate than my two-year old niece's sentences and I'm like "you can't even put two words next to each other and you think you can make a story out of this?". I even thought about writing in my native language first and then translating to English, but this definitely won't work.

I have written two short fics so far. I sent them both to my beta feeling very much like I was telling her "here's a bunch of crap, try to make some sense out of this" (she did, and her input on the first story helped enormously when I was writing the second). So yes, feedback is very important, because this whole process is in many ways a test: of your skill, of your limits, and ultimately of your dedication - and it's nice to have someone to help you through it.




Edited 2017-11-17 08:16 pm (UTC)

Willing to offer:
I can beta and brainstorm! If anyone wants. Also good at cheerleading! Chat me up on twitter or tumblr (details in the other post)


Looking for:
Help with Russian. Or probably more like a good online translator? Relevant to a Secret Santa treat but it has come up in other things and I'm a crappy languages person.

For Russian, maybe Little Details on LJ? They've had some Russian asks in the past it looks like that might be worth going through and suggests a new ask might also get some attention.

I find the use of other languages really interesting to talk about in fic. If a character is overhearing a language that they don't understand I like when it's in that language and I don't understand it either, as the reader, or like in the Fraction Hawkeye comics where it's squiggles or 'something Russian' when Clint can't hear or understand. But then when I'm writing and the character knows the language I'll cheat/be lazy and put it in italics or explain what was. I'd love to try something with languages properly some day. Good luck with your Russian!

Oooh! Thank you! I will have to check it out. (Currently, writing it as "no one knows what she's saying" and planning on not translating since it's easy enough to infer what's being said.)

I'm happy to brainstorm and act as an Unpaid Consultant (TM) on matters pertaining to international relations, crime, terrorism, armed conflict, politics and law, if you want to add a touch of realism to your fic.

So here's a pet peeve: lack of research. Few things kick me out of a fic faster than to hear people casually referring to things like "that mission in Stalingrad" or that "seedy bar in Kuwait". If you choose your exotic locale, Google Is Your Friend. Shakespeare had an excuse for referring to the "sea-coast of Bohemia"; we really don't... :P

OH NOES! I DO THAT ALL THE TIME. MEEP. (but I usually just do a very simple throwaway and give no details at all, so I hope it isn't awful? Help me be better!)

I haven't actually had that experience with your fics ... :) But I'll happily whisper in your ear when I spot something.

My exhortation to do a spot of research wasn't meant to be a nasty swipe. It's just a reminder for people to pause, and maybe check, before using references. Maybe I'm a tad obsessive, but I actually pull up Google Maps when I have Clint and Natasha running through, say, Abidjan or Manhattan.

Ah ok! I think I misunderstood. I never give details. Mine is usually "It's a lot like that time we fought the Hydra goons in Stalingrad, right?" and then... nothing else. Not other references to it in any way.

No details is good ... But (psst): Stalingrad has been called Volgograd since 1961... ;-) (It's allowed to be referred to by its former name only on days celebrating the WW2 battle, or something.)

I can offer beta, discussions or simply a shoulder to cry when you think you're going nowhere with that thing you've been working on. I look for exactly the same things. :D

I love a good ideas natter! I mostly treat beta reading as an extension of that, although I can a flat check of spelling, grammar, read-ability etc. It's great to be able to enable someone else in being creative. And as a bonus often I'm having a conversation with someone or reading someone else's fic and suddenly, OH, there's a thought that leads to the answer to a problem I was having with something I was thinking about :)

I'm a bit busy now until the new year, but next year if anyone would like to have a good chat about the music scene in America, specifically types of venues and touring and stuff, I'd love that.