WTF beta reader?

[digital_opium]

Does anyone actually realize that beta reading actually involves ... wait for it... READING?

Yet another fic where the author thanks so and so for being their *airquotes* beta reader, and within two paragraphs I notice three or four errors.

Dude. Running something through word (or the equivalent) spell and grammar check doesn't count as beta reading. The author should be able to do that much.

Let's not even get into continuity and form.

*mutter mutter grumble*

Kids these days. A good walk five miles to a beta reader in a howling blizzard up-hill both ways would teach them a thing or two.

*grumble mutter mutter*


ETA: It's 'would have', people, not 'would of'. *mutter grumble mutter*

Comments

[kittydesade.livejournal.com]

Or woulda, if you're dialecting it. :)

[digital-opium.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's acceptable. But argh.

Won't someone think of the fiction?!?

[kittydesade.livejournal.com]

Evidently not.

It's shit like that that makes me think I can get published. Especially when I start seeing it in published fiction.

Okay, maybe not that bad, but really.

[digital-opium.livejournal.com]

It's shit like that that make me want to highlight every instance of it in a book and send it back to the editor's with a resume.

Argh.

Do I do things like this? Yes. Do I check, double check, have someone beta read and then check it again?

Yes.

'Course, I could be a little bit obsessive. Heh.

[kittydesade.livejournal.com]

Obsessive is good. I don't do it myself for everything I write or even post, but everything I'm going to submit professionally? Yeah.

Which is why I never submit, 'cause it's never right. But.

[digital-opium.livejournal.com]

Pish. Submit it, dammit. That's why they have editors. Except, you know, good ones. That's why I'm on a mission to rid the world of bad editing.

*dragon snort*

[kittydesade.livejournal.com]

Hee. I'm working on it, slowly but surely. Hopefully the first query letter will go out tomorrow, then the manuscripts to the publishers that want entire manuscripts starting in a couple weeks.

I am so very neurotic by now.

[digital-opium.livejournal.com]

Good girl!

*excited for you*

[kittydesade.livejournal.com]

*tiny smile from beneath piles and piles of red-marked paper*

*hugs*

[digital-opium.livejournal.com]

*hugs right back*

[caoine.livejournal.com]

...editors?

*hides*

*late*

[digital-opium.livejournal.com]

Editors are your friends!

Well, they are if you really know editors...

[will-porter.livejournal.com]

ETA: It's 'would have', people, not 'would of'. *mutter grumble mutter*

Arrrgh! That is SUCH a peeve of mine!

Also:

The past tense of lead is led, not lead. *g*

Something is better THAN something else, not better THEN something else.

[kittydesade.livejournal.com]

I before E except after C or when sounding like A as in neighbor or way.
Unless it's weird.

REIN. You pull on the REINS. You REIGN over a RAINy kingdom. Bloody hell.

There's an icon of a whole bunch of these. Although I'm amazed that I've managed to avoid the usual manifestation of Murphy, wherein every time you write a comment correcting someone's grammar or spelling, you make a mistake yourself. Not a post, never a post, which you can edit. A comment.

Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?

[will-porter.livejournal.com]

It's so depressing.

A huge chunk of my job consists of editing reports written by supposedly educated people. These people make at least twice the salary I do, but they cannot care less about how shitty their work looks. I should just start turning things in and letting them look stupid in front of their supervisors.

Arrgh. "Could care less" is another one that irks. Arrrrgh!!!! "Could NOT," people! You "could NOT care less!" Because, really? Not as effective if you could still maybe care a little less but just haven't gotten around to it yet...

Man, I need a nap.

[digital-opium.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

My current pet peeve is "its" and "it's".

*grumps*

"it's" is a contraction. "It is". "its" is possessive. It is not that difficult.

[will-porter.livejournal.com]

LOL Amen, sistah!

Or what about possessives when they really mean plurals?

"There were a number of officers' at the scene."

Hmm, a number of officers' what exactly? Guns? Buns? Balls?

[digital-opium.livejournal.com]

That bugs, too. *g*

Or, you know. That bug's, too. ;)

*ducks*

[will-porter.livejournal.com]

LOL

You'd better hide, too!

[digital-opium.livejournal.com]

Consider me hiding... ;)

[will-porter.livejournal.com]

:-D

Spooky icon!

[digital-opium.livejournal.com]

Yup!

This one, too...

[will-porter.livejournal.com]

Ack! Creepy!

And why does it look like it's moving when it's not? I haven't had that much Disarono...

[digital-opium.livejournal.com]

Psst... it's maaaaagic...

The scene that it came from was just so very much The Ring. *g* Creeped me out.

[will-porter.livejournal.com]

LOL! Do you know how freaky that flashing is? Of course you do.....hee!!

Jeez. I've got to do the download thing!! Must....see....ring-like...ep...

[digital-opium.livejournal.com]

Go forth, download!

[finishedlast.livejournal.com]

MEEEEEEP! My hot buttons! Here we go with the bastardisation of the language. Someone recently told me, "You should of went..." I just about exploded. Do you suppose there will come a day when it won't hurt so much? And their/they're/there confusion is always good for a hike in blood pressure. Then there's 'Opps' instead of 'Oops'! Why? Why, doctor, why?

And let's not get into the topic of punctuation. There's a book out there called, "Eats, Shoots and Leaves." It's a gripping read. That's all I'm saying!

/rant!

[kittydesade.livejournal.com]

I love that book.

That and the Deluxe Transitive Vampire.

[candygramme.livejournal.com]

Ooh. I must look for that one. I haven't seen it.

[digital-opium.livejournal.com]

Enough to make you want to bring out the cluebat, isn't it? *grumps*

I've read that! It's a very good book. *g*