Absolutely Nothing!
Oct. 7th, 2002 06:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cherryI have absolutely nothing happening today. Yay!
... Yes, that may sound strange. But it's the first time I've had nothing other than school and servery and dealing with Coke in a very, very long time. Well, okay, only a few weeks, but it feels much longer.
I got in a nice work out. I could write fic. I could practice my oboe. I could do my math homework. But, instead, I'm luxuriating in my nothing-ness. Yay for having nothing going on!
And I'm sure that this is fascinating to read. It's been the same old, same old. Football, volleyball, taekwon-do, band. There were streakers at the football game, and at volleyball it was a fairly informal tournament. It couldn't have run the school much money because they didn't even get real refs in. They just stuck us in a gym, and instead of formal substitutions, we just got to run on and off of the court.
That was the biggest school I've ever been in, and it was just a highschool. They had three gyms, and a locker room. Actual locker rooms, two for each gender. From what I hear, they have something like 700 students for three grades. I have 20-odd kids in my entire grade. Which probably seems rather small to some people, but... 700. For three grades. And three gyms! And locker rooms!
Ahem. I'll be quiet about that. Yes, there are times that I do realize that I'm a hick.
*
Random writing things: I'm thinking of pulling my crossover out of retirement. Heaven only knows that it can't get any worse, and I think that somewhere in there I may have a good idea, though it probably shouldn't have been the first piece of writing that I attempted. I have a Smallville fic at the beta-reader.
Which brings me to beta readers. ::G::
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nute has a post about beta readers. This isn't posted there, because it's just a little mememe note, and really doesn't contain anything terribly debatable. And it's blather-y.
I love my beta readers. My beta readers are awesome. They make sure I finish stories, and they supply me with enough confidence to actually *post* the things that I write. I realize that I have things I need to work on within my own writing, and honestly, I don't think that there's anyone who's above editing.
Reading my own work depresses me, quite honestly. When I do it, all I see are things that need to be fixed, and I work on them one at a time until it turns into a jumbled mess. It's something that I'm working on.
Beta readers point out to me where things I think are kind of clear are too trippy. And the point out where words are missing or misplaced but I cannot see them anywhere but where I expect them to be; because when you *know* a word is supposed to be there, sometimes you just see it where you want it to be.
I need that second, and third, and sometimes fourth opinion, because I realize I am not a good judge of the quality and flow of my own work. I need that check because it's possible to get caught up in where I want the story to go, or I slip in little, personal quirks of speech that I myself have. I'll use local slang or terms from rural Saskatchewan that would stick out like a sore thumb to anyone from any place else, and I wouldn't even realize it. (Hand up, everyone else who actually knows what a bunny hug is. And it doesn't count if I've already explained it.) There are some mistakes that if you make, you will likely not catch then on another read through.
To me, the thing is... Another opinion or a once over can't hurt. You take the advice, or decide against it. A beta reader can't hurt you, but not using one can.
I'm just not comfortable enough in my own writing to make due without an editor. I don't think that an editor is necessarily a cowriter, or there would be two or three names on every book ever published.
... Yes, that may sound strange. But it's the first time I've had nothing other than school and servery and dealing with Coke in a very, very long time. Well, okay, only a few weeks, but it feels much longer.
I got in a nice work out. I could write fic. I could practice my oboe. I could do my math homework. But, instead, I'm luxuriating in my nothing-ness. Yay for having nothing going on!
And I'm sure that this is fascinating to read. It's been the same old, same old. Football, volleyball, taekwon-do, band. There were streakers at the football game, and at volleyball it was a fairly informal tournament. It couldn't have run the school much money because they didn't even get real refs in. They just stuck us in a gym, and instead of formal substitutions, we just got to run on and off of the court.
That was the biggest school I've ever been in, and it was just a highschool. They had three gyms, and a locker room. Actual locker rooms, two for each gender. From what I hear, they have something like 700 students for three grades. I have 20-odd kids in my entire grade. Which probably seems rather small to some people, but... 700. For three grades. And three gyms! And locker rooms!
Ahem. I'll be quiet about that. Yes, there are times that I do realize that I'm a hick.
*
Random writing things: I'm thinking of pulling my crossover out of retirement. Heaven only knows that it can't get any worse, and I think that somewhere in there I may have a good idea, though it probably shouldn't have been the first piece of writing that I attempted. I have a Smallville fic at the beta-reader.
Which brings me to beta readers. ::G::
nute has a post about beta readers. This isn't posted there, because it's just a little mememe note, and really doesn't contain anything terribly debatable. And it's blather-y.I love my beta readers. My beta readers are awesome. They make sure I finish stories, and they supply me with enough confidence to actually *post* the things that I write. I realize that I have things I need to work on within my own writing, and honestly, I don't think that there's anyone who's above editing.
Reading my own work depresses me, quite honestly. When I do it, all I see are things that need to be fixed, and I work on them one at a time until it turns into a jumbled mess. It's something that I'm working on.
Beta readers point out to me where things I think are kind of clear are too trippy. And the point out where words are missing or misplaced but I cannot see them anywhere but where I expect them to be; because when you *know* a word is supposed to be there, sometimes you just see it where you want it to be.
I need that second, and third, and sometimes fourth opinion, because I realize I am not a good judge of the quality and flow of my own work. I need that check because it's possible to get caught up in where I want the story to go, or I slip in little, personal quirks of speech that I myself have. I'll use local slang or terms from rural Saskatchewan that would stick out like a sore thumb to anyone from any place else, and I wouldn't even realize it. (Hand up, everyone else who actually knows what a bunny hug is. And it doesn't count if I've already explained it.) There are some mistakes that if you make, you will likely not catch then on another read through.
To me, the thing is... Another opinion or a once over can't hurt. You take the advice, or decide against it. A beta reader can't hurt you, but not using one can.
I'm just not comfortable enough in my own writing to make due without an editor. I don't think that an editor is necessarily a cowriter, or there would be two or three names on every book ever published.
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Re: YAY!
Date: 2002-10-08 03:29 pm (UTC)I avoided doing anything of any impact at all. Was much fun.
Got to love that feeling.