Looking for Beta-reader/copywriter for personal project
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 12:28 pm
It's 2 AM as I write this, so... hello, various people perusing this forum. How are all of you? Hope you're doing well. As for myself, I've got a lot on my mind, and I hope you'll indulge me as I share some of my thoughts with you.
So, a little under two years ago, I started penning a very, very long fanfiction ... partly for practice, partly for personal challenge because of the length of the story and the particular format chosen for it, and mostly because there was a huge gap in the fandom this story was inspired by that needed to be filled. I talk about the fic and a possible audionovel based on it in this video... oh, and pay attention to the annotations because I don't like being rude or worse.
Long story short, I put the whole project on hiatus due to a combination of writer's block, haphazard organization, and life generally rising up and biting me in the rear end non-stop. So, a few weeks ago, I tried to get back into trying to make some headway into the story... and to do that, I tried to read through what I had already published and had my team of handpicked copywriters edit. [Warning! Read at your own risk. Though censored to a degree, there is a lot of swearing and intense imagery. You have been warned.] Don't worry. I'm not planning to post that story here in its own topic thread because I know its contents are all against the rules.
I'll be frank, I personally think the whole work is totally unreadable now. A lot of the meaning and imagery, in my own opinion (biased it might be because I am the creator and lead author) has either been disguised, dumbed down, or cut out altogether by my current team of beta-readers/copywriters for the sake of making it 'palatable', especially for the particular audience I thought I was aiming the story towards. Forgive me for saying this, but I think the current members of my beta-team (picked out because they were a cross-section of what I thought was my intended audience) are a bunch of politically-correct pansies with their own agendas muddying up what I once believed was a set of clear and thought provoking messages.
Which leads me to why I'm here. I'm looking for new blood to help revitalize the this project, and I'm looking for a special kind of person to step up and pull this off.
Why?
Lately, I've been of the mind to make a definitive 'Director's Cut' version of this story that is unhindered, pulls no punches, and no-holds-barred... just as I had originally envisioned this story to be. It is not a story that supposed to be 'palatable', 'soft', or 'easy to take'. It's brutal, bloody, and base. Because of the nature of material the story is derived from and the semi-realistic setting I developed for it, the characters involved aren't going to see the end of this tale unscarred; mentally, physically, or both. They will find combat, torment, madness... and death. It's dark, gritty, vicious, and unrelenting... and I wouldn't want it any other way, because in the midst of the abject horror and darkness, there is hope.
I'm looking for a beta/editor that won't flinch when my writing gets heavy, unforgiving, and riddled with profanity (the last bit can't be helped with the characters being what they are...) and are willing to be a backboard to bounce ideas off of. It takes a special kind of person to make sentences that are readable and still honoring the original intents of the original author, to the point of being so trusted they're basically a second mind. I've found these qualities in another copywriter that I've worked with for years, but she lacks one crucial aspect I desperately need now: I need a beta-writer that is also a believer. ... because I want to involve mentions of God and His involvement in this fictional world with utter and abject shamelessness, because He is involved in everything I do, and it feels wrong for me to sweep Him under the rug no matter how bloody, base, or high-profile this fiction may wind up becoming.
I pray that beta-writer I'm looking for is here among you gentle lot. I realize that my personal tastes in writing are a little more 'metal' than what most people here are comfortable with, and I'm hoping that whoever steps up to help me make drafts a bit more readable are just as 'metal' and can keep up once I start getting this ball rolling again.
TL;DR -- I'm writing a story that would be classified as upper PG-13/lower R, and I need a Christian beta-writer that can handle content at that level of dark and uncomfortable.
*looks at clock* Now it's 4:30AM and I should be resting for Worship in a few hours. Better sleep. Thanks for indulging me, guys and I hope I didn't scare y'all off.
Stay Awesome,
~Lioness
So, a little under two years ago, I started penning a very, very long fanfiction ... partly for practice, partly for personal challenge because of the length of the story and the particular format chosen for it, and mostly because there was a huge gap in the fandom this story was inspired by that needed to be filled. I talk about the fic and a possible audionovel based on it in this video... oh, and pay attention to the annotations because I don't like being rude or worse.
Long story short, I put the whole project on hiatus due to a combination of writer's block, haphazard organization, and life generally rising up and biting me in the rear end non-stop. So, a few weeks ago, I tried to get back into trying to make some headway into the story... and to do that, I tried to read through what I had already published and had my team of handpicked copywriters edit. [Warning! Read at your own risk. Though censored to a degree, there is a lot of swearing and intense imagery. You have been warned.] Don't worry. I'm not planning to post that story here in its own topic thread because I know its contents are all against the rules.
I'll be frank, I personally think the whole work is totally unreadable now. A lot of the meaning and imagery, in my own opinion (biased it might be because I am the creator and lead author) has either been disguised, dumbed down, or cut out altogether by my current team of beta-readers/copywriters for the sake of making it 'palatable', especially for the particular audience I thought I was aiming the story towards. Forgive me for saying this, but I think the current members of my beta-team (picked out because they were a cross-section of what I thought was my intended audience) are a bunch of politically-correct pansies with their own agendas muddying up what I once believed was a set of clear and thought provoking messages.
Which leads me to why I'm here. I'm looking for new blood to help revitalize the this project, and I'm looking for a special kind of person to step up and pull this off.
Why?
Lately, I've been of the mind to make a definitive 'Director's Cut' version of this story that is unhindered, pulls no punches, and no-holds-barred... just as I had originally envisioned this story to be. It is not a story that supposed to be 'palatable', 'soft', or 'easy to take'. It's brutal, bloody, and base. Because of the nature of material the story is derived from and the semi-realistic setting I developed for it, the characters involved aren't going to see the end of this tale unscarred; mentally, physically, or both. They will find combat, torment, madness... and death. It's dark, gritty, vicious, and unrelenting... and I wouldn't want it any other way, because in the midst of the abject horror and darkness, there is hope.
I'm looking for a beta/editor that won't flinch when my writing gets heavy, unforgiving, and riddled with profanity (the last bit can't be helped with the characters being what they are...) and are willing to be a backboard to bounce ideas off of. It takes a special kind of person to make sentences that are readable and still honoring the original intents of the original author, to the point of being so trusted they're basically a second mind. I've found these qualities in another copywriter that I've worked with for years, but she lacks one crucial aspect I desperately need now: I need a beta-writer that is also a believer. ... because I want to involve mentions of God and His involvement in this fictional world with utter and abject shamelessness, because He is involved in everything I do, and it feels wrong for me to sweep Him under the rug no matter how bloody, base, or high-profile this fiction may wind up becoming.
I pray that beta-writer I'm looking for is here among you gentle lot. I realize that my personal tastes in writing are a little more 'metal' than what most people here are comfortable with, and I'm hoping that whoever steps up to help me make drafts a bit more readable are just as 'metal' and can keep up once I start getting this ball rolling again.
TL;DR -- I'm writing a story that would be classified as upper PG-13/lower R, and I need a Christian beta-writer that can handle content at that level of dark and uncomfortable.
*looks at clock* Now it's 4:30AM and I should be resting for Worship in a few hours. Better sleep. Thanks for indulging me, guys and I hope I didn't scare y'all off.
Stay Awesome,
~Lioness