Random ramblings about life and betas
Last night we had no less than 3 tree branches hit the roof. So I got to go up in the attic to look. There are several problems with this (besides the sprained ankle doesn't like ladders). First, no one (to my knowledge) has been in that attic for at least 10 years. Second, our attic has no floor. Third, it has no light. And fourth and finally, it averages about 3 ft in height and has loads of ducts. I did my best, but so not fun.
In other news, the new D&D campaign starts tonight. AD&D. Wow, a system I have only encountered in Baldur's Gate and other computer games. Should be interesting. And I get to use my dice again. I missed my dice.
And for some reason, people on my lj friends list decided to talk about the same thing (more or less). Lilian talks about starting up a concrit community and Ai talks about the role of betas in a very interesting post here on LJ. It made me start thinking about what I do as a beta. I am not a critical person. I can be, if I make myself, but most of the time I take things at face value and don't think much about them. It is extremely rare for me to sit down and dissect a book or story or movie. On the one hand, this means I enjoy movies like Underworld: Evolution (nifty fight scenes, pretty scenery) without worrying about the plot. On the other, it makes it much more difficult for me to critically beta a fic. I can beta for grammar and tone, and that's what I default to. If you ever wonder why my comments on the fics I read tend to be "This was good." or "Awesome" or "Shiny", that's why. Well, that and the fact that I like to make other people happy, cause it makes me happy. (I pick up emotions from other people so happy people around me generally means I'm happy. Unless I'm depressed, at which point I become even more miserable cause there are happy people and I'm not, and it gets ugly.)
There's also characterization. If your characterization is internally consistent, I don't see a reason to critique it. It may not agree with my opinion of how that particular character is, but that doesn't make it wrong (unless you contradict how the source author charaterizes, which in HP is iffy at best, given that Harry is a flawed viewpoint). I may not like evil, abusive, sociopathic Lucius, but that doesn't make him wrong.
And if this makes no sense, I apologize. Three nights of bad sleep are catching up to me.
In other news, the new D&D campaign starts tonight. AD&D. Wow, a system I have only encountered in Baldur's Gate and other computer games. Should be interesting. And I get to use my dice again. I missed my dice.
And for some reason, people on my lj friends list decided to talk about the same thing (more or less). Lilian talks about starting up a concrit community and Ai talks about the role of betas in a very interesting post here on LJ. It made me start thinking about what I do as a beta. I am not a critical person. I can be, if I make myself, but most of the time I take things at face value and don't think much about them. It is extremely rare for me to sit down and dissect a book or story or movie. On the one hand, this means I enjoy movies like Underworld: Evolution (nifty fight scenes, pretty scenery) without worrying about the plot. On the other, it makes it much more difficult for me to critically beta a fic. I can beta for grammar and tone, and that's what I default to. If you ever wonder why my comments on the fics I read tend to be "This was good." or "Awesome" or "Shiny", that's why. Well, that and the fact that I like to make other people happy, cause it makes me happy. (I pick up emotions from other people so happy people around me generally means I'm happy. Unless I'm depressed, at which point I become even more miserable cause there are happy people and I'm not, and it gets ugly.)
There's also characterization. If your characterization is internally consistent, I don't see a reason to critique it. It may not agree with my opinion of how that particular character is, but that doesn't make it wrong (unless you contradict how the source author charaterizes, which in HP is iffy at best, given that Harry is a flawed viewpoint). I may not like evil, abusive, sociopathic Lucius, but that doesn't make him wrong.
And if this makes no sense, I apologize. Three nights of bad sleep are catching up to me.