When you get and accept a beta request, how thorough are you, if it's someone you don't know and have never heard of before?

I tend to gauge what's needed by the quality of what I get, I'm afraid. If it's full of spelling errors and has no grasp of grammar, I correct that as gently as possibly and try to find a couple of good things to say about the plot/characters. I don't worry about little plot holes. If it's correct on the surface, then I dig deeper, looking at plot, structure, characters, whatever. I do try and find something good and something bad about it, because it's the beta readers who tell me 'this is good, but you could improve this' who help me most.

If it were someone I didn't know and was likely not to know, I might be a bit harder, though I hope I would encourage. If it's someone I know who I can tell is on the right track, I'd probably encourage more and be very diplomatic about improvements (unless I knew they weren't likely to hunt me down for criticizing their cosmic dictation, which is always my first reaction when someone points out my errors).

Has anyone ever received something from a writer with lots of enthusiasm and no talent or skill whatsoever? I don't know what I'd do if some perky person with all the hope and excitement in the world handed me a piece of hopeless writing. Except be envious of their self-confidence.

Has anyone ever received something from a writer with lots of enthusiasm and no talent or skill whatsoever?

That's the point at which I plead over-commitments and bow out gracefully.

Connie, you're the opposite of me. I'm softer on people I don't know as well, and harsh as hell on my regulars. They're my regulars because they can take it.

Has anyone ever received something from a writer with lots of enthusiasm and no talent or skill whatsoever?

Just once. I corrected spellings and grammar, very gently, and pointed her (or possibly him-- I only had a one-word screen name) in the direction of some websites and books that were about learning to write. The story in question went out, uncorrected, on a list, got one or two bits of feedback that were mildly positive, and I never heard again.

I have been very hard on everything I get, because I am a veritable Vince Lombardi of fanfic. After I endured three versions (each submitted before I'd finished reading the last) of the same stupid ending of an hilariously overdramatic and completely nonsensical story, and mentioned in all three beta sessions that it didn't make any sense at all, I got a curt "thank you" and the story ended up going out with not a single one of my edits, even the spelling ones.

She never asked me for help again, but by God, I never had to endure her again either.

I try to be tactful, but I have no use for gentleness when it comes to quality. I'm hard on people because I think they can be better.

I love feedback. All kinds of feedback. My favorite is the kind where people point out specific things that they loved or quote me back to me. It gets me all kinds of giddy.

I don't mind constructive criticism if it's done in a respectful manner. If someone says, "This part didn't work for me because of XYZ," it gives me something to think about. If someone says, "Okay and this part was just dumb because you should have done XYZ," it gives something to bitch about it LJ.

I haven't been flamed to date. The closest I came was an email I received from another writer. Apparently, she had written a story that shared some narrative parallels to one of my stories. Someone called her on it and she was emailing me to apologize. Of course, as her email went on and on, she got more and more hostile and finally ended it with something like, "So yeah, I'm sorry even though I totally shouldn't be."

I really had no response to that.

Has anyone ever received something from a writer with lots of enthusiasm and no talent or skill whatsoever?

Dude. Many, many times.

Just ask Dana about the strange girl from LFN who -- totally unsolicited I might add -- sent me one of her stories and told me that I could post it to my personal fanfic archive.

Not only was it one of the more egregiously awful Mary Sues I've ever seen, but... why would she think I'd post anyone else's stories to my person fanfic archive?

Just finished "Seeing the Light." Happy happy, joy joy, whee. Angst, true love, and the Weasley Twins being gits.

It's fun, isn't it? She's not wholly happy with it, because the mix of comedy/not comedy didn't work out as well as she'd hoped, but I do like it lots.

When Harry remembers the green light on Draco's face, then strides across the room to get rid of Eliot ...

Damn, that sounds so soap opera-y, but, damn! Wibble. I t heart the mush.