Why am I so nice?
Oct. 3rd, 2005 12:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccastareyesOkay, so I agreed to beta a Sailor Moon fic in the name of genfic. Person wanted to do a fic exploring the foundation of the Silver Millennium, since canon only barely touches on it. Well, and good -- I have no objection to heavily OC oriented fics, as long as they explore a setting I'm interested in.
The writer seems to have good ideas, though you can tell he's a political novice and needs a lot of pointers in worldbuilding and writing fantasy -- steered him towards![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
limyaael for her Fantasy Rants. But, still, he has a good attitude considering I'm kindly tearing his story to shreds.
Then I get to this part, and find that Queen Serenity just took some girl off the street arrested for judo-throwing a guy who threatened her, and made said girl head of her Peace Corps (sort of like the UN's Peacekeepers, from what I gather).
Excuse me. My head has the need to have an intimate conversation with my desk.
So, anyway, since I have the guy on AIM, I email him my comments and start talking options. First problem was that he didn't want to tell me what he had planned for future chapters for fear of spoiling me, which lead to the talking about how beta reader != ordinary reader. Overall, I'd say that was the major problem -- he had chapters 3 and 4 planned, so didn't want to majorly change chapter 1. I came up with this good quote...
Don't worry about the third episode. Think of this like a pilot of a TV series. You're selling it to the execs (the readers). Yes, you have to leave it open ended enough to have the second, and third episodes, but the first episode should be able to stand alone, without episodes 2, 3, etc. Because if the first episode doesn't sell, the second episode won't get made/watched.
So, if you have a choice between a plot hole in the first episode, and having to scrap a later episode, go for the later episode.
He's thinking about options now. Hopefully I got through to him.
The writer seems to have good ideas, though you can tell he's a political novice and needs a lot of pointers in worldbuilding and writing fantasy -- steered him towards
limyaael for her Fantasy Rants. But, still, he has a good attitude considering I'm kindly tearing his story to shreds. Then I get to this part, and find that Queen Serenity just took some girl off the street arrested for judo-throwing a guy who threatened her, and made said girl head of her Peace Corps (sort of like the UN's Peacekeepers, from what I gather).
Excuse me. My head has the need to have an intimate conversation with my desk.
So, anyway, since I have the guy on AIM, I email him my comments and start talking options. First problem was that he didn't want to tell me what he had planned for future chapters for fear of spoiling me, which lead to the talking about how beta reader != ordinary reader. Overall, I'd say that was the major problem -- he had chapters 3 and 4 planned, so didn't want to majorly change chapter 1. I came up with this good quote...
Don't worry about the third episode. Think of this like a pilot of a TV series. You're selling it to the execs (the readers). Yes, you have to leave it open ended enough to have the second, and third episodes, but the first episode should be able to stand alone, without episodes 2, 3, etc. Because if the first episode doesn't sell, the second episode won't get made/watched.
So, if you have a choice between a plot hole in the first episode, and having to scrap a later episode, go for the later episode.
He's thinking about options now. Hopefully I got through to him.
