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- Nov 11, 2011
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EDIT: I've received enough offers to beta this for now. Thank you so much, to everyone who responded 
...and I don't really know what to do with it.
Lately I have been thinking the answer is "nothing," because, while I think the concept was good, I'm not sure the execution is good enough to warrant anything else. But I don't know how to judge these things, so...hi...*awkward wave*
Who I'm looking for: Someone I've seen around the forums, whether or not we've interacted much... I mean, if you're here some, or a little, I've probably seen you, you've probably seen me, and that way both of us have some idea what to expect. Nothing personal if you're new, I just prefer a bit of familiarity.
If you read YA that's a bonus but it's not strictly necessary.
What it is and what I'm looking for: One of the reasons I'm confused about it is it's kind of a weird story and a weird arena for me--it's YA and has no speculative elements, which I have never written before and don't foresee writing again, just because I almost never have non-speculative YA story ideas (I mean, never say never, and I've got no opposition to it, but...hasn't happened before or since). Also I haven't read much YA so I don't uh...I dunno. It just came out.
It's about a girl and there are weird barely-plausible things occurring in it. Nothing is magical or science fiction, but it's slightly surreal, I've been told, although I didn't do that on purpose.
I had queried it a little, but only to agents who rep both YA contemporary and adult speculative fiction, and I ran out of those. So now it's sitting on my computer and I have been wondering whether I should a) leave it there and forget about its existence or b) see if it's good enough to self-publish, or at least close enough to good that I feel I can fix it.
So that's why I'm here...
It has had beta readers before (before the querying). I tried to fix what issues were brought up, but don't know if I was successful. Namely, the MC might still be super annoying. Or there might be entirely different issues that weren't brought up. Who knows
It's 63,000 words. I think. Somewhere around there. I don't think it needs sentence-level editing, though you are welcome to do it if you want to. I am mainly looking for big-picture reactions--if the story is stupid, unbelievable in a bad way (if that makes any sense), or boring; if the MC puts you off, and so on.
Reciprocating: I will do it if you want. And I will try with whatever, though I'm not sure I'm very useful in some categories and genres. I mostly like books that might be called "quirky" although I don't like the word itself. Mostly low fantasy and soft SF and occasionally mystery thrillery sort of "general literature" by the bookstore's designation. Other genres are sort of hit or miss; there's so much variation from book to book it's hard to generalize. I will say there's a lot of stuff I don't read of my own volition (romance, erotica, Christian, children's, high fantasy, women's fiction, literary fiction, things with vampires) but I will also say I have been surprised sometimes when I venture out of my comfort zone, so. I do think a good story can be anywhere. I just won't be familiar with genre convention thingydings and may be out of my depth some places more than others. (And it's worth mentioning I'm an areligious aromantic asexual so that may affect, uh, my reading of romance or sex or religious works. Lol.)
If you want to do a swap, but you're unsure whether I'm a moron or not (and no offense taken if you do end up coming to that conclusion), we can swap a first chapter and feel each other out before committing. If you like.
Also about committing: If you start reading and then decide you hate it or don't feel you can critique it or Life Happens and you don't have time, just let me know; it's not a big deal to me at all and I won't take it personally.
I also don't have a time frame I need it done by, since it's just sitting there being useless at present.
And um...I think that's it? Is this post long enough bleh.
Anywayyy um. Yuppers. *burbles back to the swampdesert and hides*
...and I don't really know what to do with it.
Lately I have been thinking the answer is "nothing," because, while I think the concept was good, I'm not sure the execution is good enough to warrant anything else. But I don't know how to judge these things, so...hi...*awkward wave*
Who I'm looking for: Someone I've seen around the forums, whether or not we've interacted much...
I mean, if you're here some, or a little, I've probably seen you, you've probably seen me, and that way both of us have some idea what to expect. Nothing personal if you're new, I just prefer a bit of familiarity. If you read YA that's a bonus but it's not strictly necessary.
What it is and what I'm looking for: One of the reasons I'm confused about it is it's kind of a weird story and a weird arena for me--it's YA and has no speculative elements, which I have never written before and don't foresee writing again, just because I almost never have non-speculative YA story ideas (I mean, never say never, and I've got no opposition to it, but...hasn't happened before or since). Also I haven't read much YA so I don't uh...I dunno. It just came out.
It's about a girl and there are weird barely-plausible things occurring in it. Nothing is magical or science fiction, but it's slightly surreal, I've been told, although I didn't do that on purpose.
I had queried it a little, but only to agents who rep both YA contemporary and adult speculative fiction, and I ran out of those. So now it's sitting on my computer and I have been wondering whether I should a) leave it there and forget about its existence or b) see if it's good enough to self-publish, or at least close enough to good that I feel I can fix it.
So that's why I'm here...
It has had beta readers before (before the querying). I tried to fix what issues were brought up, but don't know if I was successful. Namely, the MC might still be super annoying. Or there might be entirely different issues that weren't brought up. Who knows
It's 63,000 words. I think. Somewhere around there. I don't think it needs sentence-level editing, though you are welcome to do it if you want to. I am mainly looking for big-picture reactions--if the story is stupid, unbelievable in a bad way (if that makes any sense), or boring; if the MC puts you off, and so on.
Reciprocating: I will do it if you want. And I will try with whatever, though I'm not sure I'm very useful in some categories and genres. I mostly like books that might be called "quirky" although I don't like the word itself.
Mostly low fantasy and soft SF and occasionally mystery thrillery sort of "general literature" by the bookstore's designation. Other genres are sort of hit or miss; there's so much variation from book to book it's hard to generalize. I will say there's a lot of stuff I don't read of my own volition (romance, erotica, Christian, children's, high fantasy, women's fiction, literary fiction, things with vampires) but I will also say I have been surprised sometimes when I venture out of my comfort zone, so. I do think a good story can be anywhere. I just won't be familiar with genre convention thingydings and may be out of my depth some places more than others. (And it's worth mentioning I'm an areligious aromantic asexual so that may affect, uh, my reading of romance or sex or religious works. Lol.) If you want to do a swap, but you're unsure whether I'm a moron or not (and no offense taken if you do end up coming to that conclusion), we can swap a first chapter and feel each other out before committing. If you like.
Also about committing: If you start reading and then decide you hate it or don't feel you can critique it or Life Happens and you don't have time, just let me know; it's not a big deal to me at all and I won't take it personally.
I also don't have a time frame I need it done by, since it's just sitting there being useless at present.
And um...I think that's it? Is this post long enough
bleh. Anywayyy um. Yuppers. *burbles back to the swampdesert and hides*
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