I think that it is more productive to ask in a more targetted way, than it is to broadcast an appeal for a beta reader. I have scrolled right past broader requests on LiveJournal, but will volunteer at certain forums. And when specifically asked, the closest I have come to saying no is "I'm up to my ears in something right now, so I would not be able to get to it until next week - if you can't find anyone else who can do it sooner, let me know.'" Which is how I have come to beta read for one or two projects that I really did not like. Of course, not liking something because I don't like the main character or the pairing but otherwise well-written is a different animal than not liking something because it is very badly written indeed.

So, the moral of the story is "be the change you want to see in fandom." Fair enough. I can post a beta offer when I get back to a real computer, once I figure out where.

It's why I beta. Well that and I get to read stories early from authors I adore sometimes. It's not all altruism.

I come from a workshopping and group background, and I've been told I'm a good beta. I've been working with a writer for more than a year whose grammar issues are *legion*, but who's an amazing yarn spinner. I just got her BB draft a few weeks ago, and I just sat there grinning like a loon. It's not perfect, but she's actually absorbed all the stuff I've lobbed at her, and is using it. She's had an amazing attitude, and it's really paid off.

There's another writer whose BB I beta'd, almost not worth the candle, except as Cass says, getting to read a good writer's story early. A half-dozen tense lapses and typos, a couple of re-ordering of phrases in a sentence for flow and sense-making, and a minor discussion about intensity. A joy, really.

One or two betas I've had have been so enthusiastic about my fic that they killed my writing process. They wanted to deconstruct everything and plumb the depths of character motivation for everyone and I haven't been able to write a word since.

I don't know if it was legitimate muse-killing or they hit me hard with the reality-stick that what I was attempting to write was so far beyond my capabilities.

Although, I'd rather have been able to put out a subpar fic completed than an abaondoned WIP. I know readers might disagree.

My WIP is nearly collapsed under the weight of expectations as well. I keep trying to drag it along.

I feel that if I'd kept writing with a vague outline and no in-depth thought, I'd have been able to finish. Now, even the thought of starting to write the next chapter I feel under-prepared.

I realize now that having a beta during the actual writing process can be bad, even if they're awesome. Because my awesome doesn't level out with theirs. And they see so much potential in me that I just don't have.

I'm definitely in a place where, if I were to seek out a beta again, it would be after everything is written.

I don't know if it was legitimate muse-killing or they hit me hard with the reality-stick that what I was attempting to write was so far beyond my capabilities.

Juliebird, I'm going to go out on a limb and say your muse was cruelly murdered. It sounds like some of your boundaries got more than a little trampled. I have left reviews for fic that were soul-crushingly bad and gotten enthusiastically thanked by the writers because I made a point of wording my suggestions for their improvement carefully enough. And now I count myself even more blessed to have had a marvelously sympatico beta for my one novella-length, took me six months to write, fic.

I really prefer, and ask, to have the whole draft sent, and preferrably at least a second draft. You can't really have a decent grasp of progression and direction if you don't know where you're going. I've retracted notes on a chapter when I got later chapters.

I work better chapter by chapter. There is a value in seeing the whole picture, but I prefer to break things down to more manageable chunks. Also I have definitely gotten to the point where I don't send out notes on chapter two until I see the revisions on chapter one (posted or resent to me, whichever). Not interested in giving tons of notes and edits if 50% of the run-on sentences are still stringing themselves along.

One of my all time favourite authors just complimented my comments (I leave about one per timestamp) and said she was afraid too. I...I was going to be surprised she had noticed a pattern, but not that many people commented on AO3, plus--she's a human being. I am not invisible. I was very touched, but I noticed that she replied to my comment way after everyone else's--my comment was first, but she replied to it weeks after replying to most of the others.

I feel kinda bad. I mean, I wonder if I'm all shamelessly gushy and OTT, but I LOVE YOUR WORK, SCARAMOUCHE--YOU CONVERTED ME TO Α/Β/Ω.

But it was silly to think there was no reason she'd remember a commenter from comment to comment--I'm not dealing with much volume at dA, but I do track two or three of the consistent commenters. At LJ it's all people I know from elsewhere (not gonna lie--when petitemadame compliments my work, I make unseemly noises) so it's a different ambience.