Beta Reader Profile
Name: Elyaeru
Beta Experience: I have been beta reading Harry Potter since 2007. Outside of fandom, I have proofread formally for friends.
Ratings I Will Beta Read : PG-13 and under.
Categories I Will Beta Read: Angst, Drama, Humour, Hurt/Comfort, Mystery and Romance.
'Ships I Will Beta Read: Draco/Ginny, Draco/Hermione and Other Male/Female.
Additional Ship Information: I beta read exclusively for Draco/Hermione and Draco/Ginny. I am also interested in reading Scorpius/Rose.
Lengths Of Fanfiction I Will Beta Read: Under 5,000 words and 5,000 to 15,000 words.
My Strengths: Briticisms, Canon/Consistency, Characterisation, Grammar & Spelling, Plot and Point of View.
Additional Strength Information: BRITICISMS
Before I begin: vocabulary contamination IS a universal issue.
As a Briton, I am probably better than the non-Briton to look over your story and help with the Briticisms. I can help with vocabulary, dialogue, society/culture and general political structures of Britain. However, as stated before, contamination is ever-frequent and universal. Being a Briton does not make me an expert in all things British, so I am unable to guarantee you the "perfect British story". I do have many people and communities to ask if I am doubtful, though.
Additional point: I'm much more familiar with the North of England. While I'm good with spotting foreign concepts/constitutions, some vocabulary/regional dialect may be lost on me!
CANON/CONSISTENCY
I'm slightly anally retentive with canon terms. I use the potter_words LiveJournal community (Mrs Muggle's) as a reference guide. This means that "muggle" will be replaced continuously as "Muggle". In addition, I'm a book purist and read British editions, so this also means: Muggle-born, pure-blood, &c. I like canon spelling. I do not follow film or game canon.
For plot canon and consistency, I rely heavily on the Internet. If something sticks out like a sore thumb, then I will research it and give feedback. For story plot consistency, I am much better at this when the chapters are coming continuously after each other, i.e. not in the state of a work-in-progress basis. Why? Because I'm human and prone to forgetting things I haven't read in a long time.
CHARACTERISATION
I am "well-read" in fanfiction containing the characters: Draco, Hermione and Ginny. I have both read and written enough to be able to ask questions: "Is this plausible?" "Would they really do this?" I operate on a canonical characterisation basis, so stories containing OCs will have to state this.
As time progresses, my opinion and view of each character may differ from strict canon (purely out of reading influential fanfiction). I'm part of the group who believe J. K. Rowling only touches the surface of the majority of characters -- and even so, allows us only glimpses from Harry's small glimmer of characters not personal with him. I'm happy to see character deviation when logical!
GRAMMAR & SPELLING
I spell and follow the rules of British English.
Beta Style: Flexible With Comprehensive Critique
Time Taken To Return A 4000 Word Document: a week
Additional Comments: Please read the following before sending a preliminary:
In your preliminary e-mail, state which category (listed below) you and your story fall under. Please give me as much information as you can on what type of beta reading you need and expect of me. This will save a lot of time and get things moving quickly!
- FOR FINISHED STORIES: This generally involves line-editing, and alerting you to anything that I think is wholly wrong and inaccurate. (I don't think it's particularly useful to complain about the plot 100,000 words in!) However, bear in mind this will take more than two days! For example, my process with a 50,000 word story would be: preliminary thought and action (reading through the story and correcting obvious errors), comprehensive critique (comments on the flow and plot aided by my prior knowledge), and the conclusive stage (simply catching any other errors). It's very easy to skip over errors, and familiarity with the text can also hinder error-improvement; therefore, this will take about two weeks or more, with progress every stage.
- FOR UNFINISHED STORIES WHICH REQUIRE COMPREHENSIVE BETA READING: I require a detailed, thorough outline of the story, or, if it is nearly finished, of the last chapters/events. If you decide to apply on PI, then a semi-detailed outline of what will happen will be enough -- I won't have enough time to read the "detailed, thorough outline" until I accept it. What is an outline? It is a run-by-chapter, or a detailed synopsis; it is not a summary.
- FOR UNFINISHED STORIES WHICH REQUIRE SIMPLE LINE-EDITING: If your story follows a rather simplistic plot, and requires no heavy thought, then I am happy to line-edit (spelling and grammar) if the summary still makes an impression on me! These are generally light-hearted, romance/humour/general and not-heavy fics.
Notes:
(i) I do not accept OC-orientated stories. Original characters are fine as side-characters, but I do not find myself comfortable with reading and criticising original characters. (e.g. a romance between Draco/OC? I'm not really the biggest fan!)
(ii) I'm much better at beta reading light-hearted stories than I am at angst, tragedy and mystery. Parodies? Love them. Pop culture references? Adore them. I promote "bad" literature! ;)
(iii) In the summary field, please enter your summary! I do not have the time, unfortunately, to read through a chapter to understand what your story is about. Use the summary for a quicker response.
(iv) Epilogue characters I like: Scorpius, Albus, Rose.
(v) Please, please, please use the additional comments field! Tell me which weaknesses you want to match to my strengths. Tell me about your story: the ins and the outs; justify your pairing or plot. Anything. Let me know you are enthusiastic and devoted to this project and I will be too. :)
(vi) As my time is limited, I would prefer not to work with stories which require major editing and/or reconstruction.
(vii) As for editing, I use a combination of the Track Changes (primary) and comments (secondary) features on Word, and sometimes mark other edits in red to beta read. So far, I understand this method to be workable in Word 2003-2007 and OpenOffice. I cannot accept .docx for the very simple reason of not having Word 2007.
(viii) If I have worked in the queue at Hawthorn & Vine with you (i.e. bouncing back chapters), please do NOT request me as a beta reader. I consider this as conflicting and would not be comfortable with the arrangements. My apologies!
Additional Help I Can Offer: None
Contact Information: Please make sure that you have read the beta profile thoroughly before you send a preliminary email to Elyaeru. Failure to do so may result in disciplinary action.