[ SECRET POST #2272 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2272 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 06 pages, 140 secrets from Secret Submission Post #325.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

14. http://i.imgur.com/UwdUxJt.png

[forgottenjester]

Some writers really only shine after quite a few rounds of editing. So I'm not surprised?

[(Anonymous)]

And some writers don't need their writing to shine as long as the contents of their story and characterization and all that resonate with the readers. And since this if fandom, people are pretty much guaranteed to like the characters. Toss in a few fandom favorite tropes and you're the golden child.

[(Anonymous)]

I know you don't mean this as a particularly positive thing, but sometimes it is for me? I've been thinking about how on particular BNF is one of my all time favourites, even though I can find her writing style grating. It's because she is genuinely fantastic at giving her characters complex emotional lives and then drawing the reader into them while keeping an edge, and never becoming melodramatic or cloying. I don't think she doesn't deserve to be popular just because her writing lacks something.

[(Anonymous)]

I think in fandom we all learn to settle for something that's not quite as good as it could be. I'm forever reading fics with interesting concepts that are pulled off very poorly.

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

I disagree, I think we do this with everything. And we're all more sensitive to some things than others.
Some people can enjoy Teen Wolf for the aesthetics and interesting characters. Some people can't get over how little sense it makes and how terrible the werewolf makeup is. Same difference.

[(Anonymous)]

da

I know what you mean

there is this author in one of my fandoms, who is atrocious at pacing, character development, pacing, finishing anything ever, etc.

...but who is fantastic at worldbuilding, which is something I love! they really expand on the canon in some very interesting ways, enough to make me keep reading

[(Anonymous)]

Fandoms in general have a really low threshold for quality. There are BNFs in my fandoms that I wouldn't read if you paid me because their writing is atrocious (not always in terms of skill but OOC to the max because they want to write porn instead of the characters). At least for me, I judge my fic not based on how many people read it but on *who* reads it. If other fanfic writers that I respect give me kudos/comments, I'm in review heaven :)

But... yeah, sometimes the revision process is where things really get good, although I generally try to super revise before giving to a beta. For me, a beta reader is the very last step before publication.

... and then there are "alphas"

[silverr]

I agree with your last comment, but there are times I've had betas who are willing to be more "alphas" - meaning, I give them very rough stuff just to see if the general skeleton of the plot is working. ~ because to me if the plot progression or the characterizations or the motivations are crap, I'm not ready to start draping on pretty sentences.

[(Anonymous)]

This is a common thing for me. For instance, in the Harry Potter fandom there's a few BNFs whose fics are mediocre at best. I seriously don't see the appeal AT ALL, but eh.

To be honest, I think a good chunk of a BNFs fanbase is predominantly attributed to how much/how often they interact with their followers. For instance, even if a fic is bad, I think their fans would worship the hell out of it anyway just because they're loyal/"friends"/etc.

[(Anonymous)]

OT
I have always wondered what betaing work looks like. Do you pass word documents with annotations back and forth? How do you point out errors?

[cadremage]

Well, I can't speak for how the OP does it, but I beta for a friend of mine, and this is how it's gone for me:

She sends me a draft. I read it in Word with Track Changes turned on and make edits/add notes as necessary. I send it back to her with general comments on the plot/characters/organization/etc in the body of the email. Sometimes, she asks me for further clarification; sometimes, she just says "thanks" and works on another draft. The cycle continues from there.

[alexi_lupin]

When I've done it we've used Google Docs, and I've highlighted any changes and added notes if I think things needed clarification. You can IM right there in the document so we often talk about any changes there.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not surprised. Fanfiction tends to lower the bar for writing quality in the first place, and then you have to take into consideration the fact that-- much like professionally published work-- what rises to the top isn't always cream. People get popular for many reasons, and the quality of their writing is just one factor among many. That's why every fandom can cite a BNF work that is embarrassingly mediocre.

[meadowphoenix]

According to someone who works in the publishing industry on ONTD, this happens in the real world, too.

[cadremage]

Man, you don't even have to be in the publishing industry to know this to be true. You just have to flip through a bestseller.

[littletown]

I don't call first drafts shitty for nothing. At least they have a beta?

[netbug009]

It seems like you're missing the point of being a beta reader? Even professionals have horrific first drafts. That's considered the norm and many pros will specifically talk about what garbage their first version was. If you're just there to judge them and not respect their work/help them polish it, please tell them to go find somebody else. ._.