beta appreciation

Beta Appreciation Day? Cool idea!

My betas are:

1. My friend Quetzle, who doesn't believe in online life, but has been my friend since we were both six and as such will tell me flat out when I'm being an idiot or rambling on about irrelevant stuff. (I figure she owes me for the hours I put in editing her original stories back when we were in junior school and high school. *grin*)

2. The amazing lasultrix, who Brit-picks, fixes my grammar, and points out my really dumb plot holes -- especially the ones where my characterization or narrative skills desert me and things start happening for no reason whatsoever. Recently she's taken to giving me plot bunnies as well.

3. The fabulous Miss Cora, who fixes my grammar, points out my moments of idiocy, offers suggestions, and reassures me that, yes, the story is actually pretty good.

4. Laucia Siandel, who Brit-picked Wearing Thin for me.

5. And last, but definitely not least, my sister, Vicky, who gets first read of the stories I'm really unsure of so she can rip them to pieces before I have to show them to anyone else.

Since we have wildly different approaches to story-telling -- I'm all about internal reactions while she's all about description and external relationships, and I focus on angst and ordinary life while she prefers romance, comedy, and high adventure -- this is particularly helpful in showing me places where my writing is weak. (Vicky is the person who told me, about one of my original stories, that she felt the action was taking place in front of a blank white piece of paper; there was no reality to the setting. Heck, there almost wasn't a setting! She was absolutely right, and I've tried much harder to include description since then.)

She's also an excellent critic of narrative voice and plot holes.

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Am now officially on the Kelly payroll. Apparently I can type over 80 words per minute when I'm really motivated, which is nice to know -- I tried timing myself once and estimated somewhere between 60 and 70 wpm, but since I had to keep glancing down at the second hand on my watch, as I have no stopwatch or timer, I didn't think it was the world's most accurate test.

I'm going in Monday morning for training/testing in Microsoft Excel, which should then make me eligible for some clerical job openings. *crosses fingers*

beta appreciation

Beta Appreciation Day? Cool idea!

My betas are:

1. My friend Quetzle, who doesn't believe in online life, but has been my friend since we were both six and as such will tell me flat out when I'm being an idiot or rambling on about irrelevant stuff. (I figure she owes me for the hours I put in editing her original stories back when we were in junior school and high school. *grin*)

2. The amazing lasultrix, who Brit-picks, fixes my grammar, and points out my really dumb plot holes -- especially the ones where my characterization or narrative skills desert me and things start happening for no reason whatsoever. Recently she's taken to giving me plot bunnies as well.

3. The fabulous Miss Cora, who fixes my grammar, points out my moments of idiocy, offers suggestions, and reassures me that, yes, the story is actually pretty good.

4. Laucia Siandel, who Brit-picked Wearing Thin for me.

5. And last, but definitely not least, my sister, Vicky, who gets first read of the stories I'm really unsure of so she can rip them to pieces before I have to show them to anyone else.

Since we have wildly different approaches to story-telling -- I'm all about internal reactions while she's all about description and external relationships, and I focus on angst and ordinary life while she prefers romance, comedy, and high adventure -- this is particularly helpful in showing me places where my writing is weak. (Vicky is the person who told me, about one of my original stories, that she felt the action was taking place in front of a blank white piece of paper; there was no reality to the setting. Heck, there almost wasn't a setting! She was absolutely right, and I've tried much harder to include description since then.)

She's also an excellent critic of narrative voice and plot holes.

--------------------------------

Am now officially on the Kelly payroll. Apparently I can type over 80 words per minute when I'm really motivated, which is nice to know -- I tried timing myself once and estimated somewhere between 60 and 70 wpm, but since I had to keep glancing down at the second hand on my watch, as I have no stopwatch or timer, I didn't think it was the world's most accurate test.

I'm going in Monday morning for training/testing in Microsoft Excel, which should then make me eligible for some clerical job openings. *crosses fingers*