One Fish, Two Fish, Alpha Fish, Beta Fish
In which we discuss what is a beta, what does a beta do and do you need a beta?

There are times when one reads an author’s note, that they come across in bold or italicized letters “thank you to my lovely beta, so and so,” and then tends to continue on praising this beta person. And, if one doesn’t know what a beta is, one is often left wondering why this is so important it deserves bolded letters and what does a colorful fish have to do with anything?

A beta (not to be confused with the Siamese fighting fish of the same name or an unfinished program or the Greek letter) is a person that an unfinished story is sent to for proofreading, editing and other feedback before the final version is published. A beta can be the first source a writer turns to for constructive criticism. I’m not entirely sure where the name came from, however I always felt it referred to the second letter of the Greek alphabet signifying that the beta was the second reader after the alpha, the writer. A beta is a person that the writer generally trusts to tell them the truth when the rest of the Internet is singing their praises.

Betas can do a lot of things. It all really depends on the skill and knowledge of the writer and the skill and knowledge of the beta. Different writers tend to want different things from their betas. So, for a good beta relationship, clear, polite communication is absolutely necessary. It needs to be a back and forth and a give and take. For them to be able to help you, they must know what you want and need to know what they can do.

The most common duty of a beta is as a proofreader. Sometimes, no matter how many times a writer re-reads their work, they will still miss a misspelled word or that comma splice. A beta reader is like a pair of fresh eyes. They can see and correct spelling and grammar for you.

Betas can also be editors. Editing deals with many different parts of the story. It can be help with point of view, tenses, the active versus the passive voice and the other nuts and bolts of writing. It can be more geared towards refining the characters and keeping them in character to the story and to the canon world in or keeping the setting accurate. Then there are the editors who are there to help you fine tune the story, and your writing style.

Nuts and bolts editing tries to take the talent of the writer and push it forward into something more polished. This type of editing is not very opinion based and deals with the knowledge of what works when writing and what doesn’t.

Character and setting editing is much more opinionated. In the fandom, everyone is going to have a different interpretation of what the character thinks and how a character would react in a new situation. The presentation of the character in the source material should be a basis for the character and should be kept as close to the basis as possible no matter if one is writing a story within the source material’s current setting or in an alternate universe. The character should still be recognizable as the character, and a beta can tell you this.

The same goes for a game setting. It is one thing for the setting to be an actual or historical city on Earth and another for the setting to be some semi-fantastic world with entire new continents and technology. If the setting is a present day or historical setting there is less room for interpretation of culture and social rules than say, if it is a completely made up setting. In a made up setting there is much more leeway to play within the information that you are given. A beta that knows the setting can tell you whether or not your interpretations are reasonable within this framework of information.

A fine-tuning editor can be the most helpful and at times the most unhelpful of editors. Fine tuning editors help rephrase awkward sentences and paragraphs, keep the plot on track, they tell you if you are conveying things in a clear manner so that the reader who doesn’t have all the information that you, the writer does, can understand or tell you if you’ve given too much information and other fun things. As the writer, it can be hard to look at your own work impartially. You have all the information worked out in your head and because you know everything, you can forget things easily. A fine tuning beta can stand apart from your work and tell you that you need to input more information so the readers can understand what is going on in the story and what is coming up when you finally get there. Or they can tell you to subtract information if you have shown too much, so the readers won’t guess what your ‘surprise’ or ‘twist’ ending is going to be. They can tell you if you repeat phrases or themes or even situations over and over in your work and suggest ways to change. Sentence structure and word phrasing and plot advancement are a matter of style and a writer’s style is a very personal and opinion laden thing. Sometimes, a beta can see that you aren’t conveying information clearly, but they always can’t tell you why. It can be very frustrating both for you and for them.

A beta can also be someone to bounce ideas with. Talking with a beta can lead to new thought paths that lead to new turns in a story or even a new story. Bouncing ideas with a beta and a beta telling you what you should do are two different things. A good beta should never tell you exactly where you should take your story without it being their opinion and only their opinion. This is different than a beta telling you to try different writing techniques to convey mood and tone better. Otherwise, you never know where you might find an idea for a story and a beta can be a good person to work on developing the idea into something more solid.

There are different types of betas. Some betas only want work with the nuts and bolts, the grammar and spelling of a story. These types of betas are very hands off. Other betas are willing to do more and actually help improve your writing. Then there are betas who are no holds barred, will rip your work to shreds (sort of like two male fighting fish going at it in a bowl). This is a matter of editing style and is subjective to what you want and what you need in a beta.

A beta is generally not a requirement for writing in fandom. Whether or not you really want or need a beta is up to you, the writer’s discretion. If you don’t see the need for one and think you get along just fine without someone else to read your work for errors before posting, then by all means, don’t look for a beta. That’s okay. It’s perfectly acceptable. Fandom is supposed to be fun! And if you’re happy, then no one else should have a say in the matter.

Some writing communities might require that you have a beta to post there. If this bothers you, don’t join that community. Because this is fandom, you can choose what to write and where you post it. It doesn’t mean that you can’t use that communities’ challenges and prompts, it just means you can’t post it there. If there is another community for your fandom, you can post the un-betaed story there, all fandom fiction communities love new stories.

If you do want a beta, remember, communicate, communicate and communicate. It might take some time to find the beta that is right for you. If having an editor to help you improve is that important to you, don’t give up.

As for how to edit, that falls under the purview of constructive criticism. Read what that is and my rules for it, here and here.

For another good take on betas and the betaing process see synecdochic's post about this very topic.