Sophie is Unavailable

[The owl]

Unavailable until July

Winner of the Best Beta FQSQ 2012!

Hello, new prospective client! (I like how professional that sounds…) I’m Sophie, and I may soon be your beta reader. I think that I am fairly flexible as a beta, but there are certain things that I might not be able to help you with, so please read the information below before you request my services. In general, I prefer things that could be canon (i.e. they don't have to have been mentioned in canon, but they don't contradict canon either) so please bear that in mind. Also, there is a nice little form at the bottom of this post. Please do use it for your requests. I will respond to all requests in this thread and, if I accept, PM you my email address afterwards.

Turn Around Time: In normal circumstances, under a week, usually under four days, and less for drabbles. If I have a backlog or a lot going on IRL which will slow me down, then I'll make sure to let you know. If you have a deadline, then I can probably accommodate you. (Incidentally, I would appreciate it if you would also keep me up to date, especially if I'm working with you on a chaptered fic. I don’t mind having to wait a while before receiving your story/next chapter, but I'd prefer to know what’s going on so that I don’t have to worry about you.)

Permanent? I'll do as many stories/chapters as you like, providing I have the time. I am willing to pick up chaptered stories part way through if necessary.

Style: I use track changes in OpenOffice, which is effectively a free verison of MS word, and I can save documents in the .doc format to make them work with MS word. I am willing to send a story back and forth as many times as you like to get it perfect. In fact, I would prefer to see a story multiple times if I have suggested you make any big changes. I tend to pick apart every little thing and leave a lot of comments for you. This isn’t because I dislike your story; I just want to make sure that you’ve thought everything through and that the story is as good as it possibly can be. Also, if you ever have a question about my comments, please ask. I like to help (Hufflepuff to the core, and all )

Strengths: I think my SPaG is pretty strong. I am the type who cares about the Oxford Comma, and who can give a detailed explanation of the correct usage of “whom”. I will give you explanations on any grammar point you’re struggling with too, rather than just correcting you. I am an obsessive Brit-picker. It’s something I can never resist doing, so if you want me to leave American spellings as they are, you had better warn me. I can’t claim to know every little canon detail by a long way, but if I read something in your work that I am unsure of, I will always go and look it up. If there is anything I am unsure about when I'm editing your story, I will tell you so that you can decide for yourself whether or not to change it/trust me. I wouldn’t want to write the story for you.

Weaknesses: I highly doubt that my comma usage is perfect, but I think it’s acceptable, and it’s certainly getting better. I have been known to forget to check canon capitalisations, but I am working on that. I’m currently without copies of QTA and FB, so if you need facts checked from either of them that aren’t available on the internet, then there’s not a lot I can do. I don’t read or write OCs that often myself, so I’m probably not the best person to help you out with them, although I’ll give it my best shot.

Categories: I am not fond of AU, but if you have a particularly interesting premise I would be willing to take a look on a case by case basis. Other than that, I will take on anything. I will even do poetry if required. I don’t often write it myself, but I think I have enough knowledge of form, structure, imagery etc. to be able to make a suggestion here or there.

Ships: I dislike Snape/most people (except unrequited Lily), Dramione and Drinny, but I would be willing to take a look if you are desperate for help. I will do just about anything else without a problem, though. Slash, rarepairs - anything goes.

Ratings: There shouldn’t be a problem with any.

Warnings: Here goes…

Abuse: Yes, but only if you treat the subject with respect. I may have to withdraw my services if I feel that you are mistreating any sensitive issues.
Alternate Universe: I’m not a fan, but I will take it on if it is an interesting premise. You would probably be better off asking someone else, though.
Book 7 Disregarded: Preferably not, unless it’s just for incredibly minor details. I like canon, and I don’t really want to read a rewrite of DH. Sorry!
Character death: Yes
Dubious Consent: Yes, but see abuse for my reservations
Epilogue? What Epilogue?: Yes (this is the one part of canon that I don’t mind you disregarding so much.)
Mental Disorders: Yes – see abuse
Mild Profanity: Yes
Non-Consensual Sex: Yes – see abuse
Self Injury: Yes – see abuse
Sexual Situations: Yes, although I don't have much experience of writing smut myself.
Slash: Yes
Strong Profanity: Yes
Student/Teacher Romance: Yes, as long as it’s not Snape related
Substance Abuse: Yes
Suicide:Yes – see abuse
Violence: Yes

A selection of stories I have beta’d (available on the archives):
Deceptions by Equinox Chick
Rest in the Bed by welshdevondragon
Scorpius Malfoy and The Missing Girl by Hotrav
Taken by Aida Luthien
Butterbeer Bottles by xxbabewithbrainsxx
Human Debris by iLuna17
Eastern Dawn Stars by Ginny Weasley Potter

The form for you to use is as follows:

Username & Preferred Name: (Please specify if your username is different on the archives)
Story title: (If you know it)
Genre: (Which archive category your story will most likely fall into)
Ships: (If applicable)
Rating and Warnings:
Estimated Length: (Is it a drabble/one-shot/short chaptered/long chaptered, and what is your estimated word count?)
Permanent Y/N: (Would you like me to beta the whole of a chaptered fic, or work with you on future projects?)
Preferred Return Time? (How long are you prepared to wait, and are you on a deadline?)
Summary: (Just give me a rough outline of the plot if you haven't finalised your summary yet.)
Anything you particularly need help with? (iIf you're unsure, I'll easily figure it out myself on receipt of the story)
Anything else I should know about? (Previous rejections? Other betas involved? A prompt you're using? Specific file format you'd like me to save in?)

And I think that's everything! If there’s anything else you want to know then go ahead and ask when you request me, or drop me a PM.

[BrokenPromise]

Username: BrokenPromise (on both)
Story title: Forget Me Not
Genre: Romance
Ships: Other Pairing – Trelawney/Quirrell
Rating and Warnings: 3rd – 5th, Student/Teacher for one kiss, Sexual Situations for a few more (kisses).
Estimated Length: One-shot, but not sure on Word Count as not finished yet. So far I've only got about 200 words, but I've not even introduced Quirrell in Scene 1 yet...so I've got a long way to go...
Permanent Y/N: Not for the moment.
Summary: Well, it’s split into sort of scenes. Scene 1 is Trelawney’s first year teaching and Quirrell’s First Year. Scene 2 is her teaching him in Third Year. Scene 3 is her persuading him to continue at NEWT level. Scene 4 is towards the end of the Seventh Year, includes a sort of farewell kiss. Scene 5 is two years later, when Quirrell comes back to teach Muggle Studies and they start getting a bit more romantically involved. Scene 6 is two years after that, when he’s about to go on his ‘Grand Tour of the world’. Scene 7 is when he gets back and begins to teach DADA and he leaves her again to go on ‘his mission’ (getting the Philosopher’s Stone). Scene 8 is after he dies and his body is brought up from the Underground Chamber. Hopefully that’s all comprehendible.
Anything you particularly need help with? Probably everything, but you can make up your own mind about that. It’s for the Great Hall Rainbow Mini-Challenge.
Also, as I kind of want to bounce some ideas back and forth, is it possible for me to just send it in chunks over PM?

[The owl]

I'd love to do this A new rarepair is always a treat. Send it over whenever you're ready. The summer holidays mean I have plenty of time to work on it, so your deadline is no problem at all.

As for everyone else, I am still...

Highly Available!


~Sophie

[Ginny Weasley Potter]

Hello, Sophie!

Soraya loved your Beta skills and I was very tempted to come to your thread. Now I have a story I'm about 1000 words into, which I'm writing for the CC one-shot triathlon. It's for the travel prompt and the minor character has to be in a country which they've never been to.

I'm writing about Scorpius Malfoy in India.

Username: Ginny Weasley Potter/ Pooja
Story title: Not sure yet (I will most probably come up with one once I'm done and would love suggestions after that)
Genre: Next-gen
Ships: Scorpius Malfoy/ OC (still picking a suitable name. Most probably 'Prachi')
Rating and Warnings: Mostly 3rd-5th years. Warnings will include character death, DH spoilers, strong profanity and maybe... just possibly sexual situations. Sexual situations are based on the flow and what I feel like writing at THAT moment, so unless it comes to that I won't be writing it. And if sexual situations are there it might become 6th-7th years.
Esitmated Length: 2000-4000
Permanent Y/N: Um, I might come back later on with a co-author for a chaptered next-gen fic.
Summary: I don't have a solid summary yet but Scorpius visits India as a part of a Healing program and he falls in love with a sweeper. And it gets complicated.
Anything you particularly need help with? I would love you to help me with Scorpius. Due to the nature of the story, I want to control him from being goody-goody (seeing he falls in love with a poor sweeper girl) or too Draco-ish. Also, I'm bad at punctuation. And I would love brit-picking too. You have said that you're not comfortable with OCs, but there's not much about her because the story is more about Scorpius. About India-- I live here and I am very sure about the details, so you don't have to worry about that either.
Anything else I should know about? The deadline for this is the 31st of July. And of course there's chocolate cake coming your way! Oh, and I'm most comfortable with e-mail and MS Word track changes too. I have the .docx (2010) version but I used to have 2007 and I'm pretty sure they're compatible.

I hope you can do this.

Thank you!
Pooja

[The owl]

Hello Pooja,

I would love to get involved with this, but there is a slight snag in that I'm going away on the 25th and will be without my laptop. That leaves us with four days maximum If you can get the story to me within that time, I am determined to get it back to you before I go, even if it means an overnight job. Otherwise, I'm afraid that I won't be back before the deadline, and you'll have to find someone else Let me know if you can work with that, and I'll PM you my email.

Everyone else, I am..

Available if you can get the story to me by Tuesday (I'm in BST, btw)

~Sophie

[shaun056]

Username: Shaun056, Shaun05 on MNFF
Story title: The Serpent Master
Genre: Next Generation
Ships: None
Rating and Warnings:
DH Spoilers
3rd-5th Year
Esitmated Length:
As it is a series the first story, which is completed, is 31,000 words long. The second story is currently about 16,000 words long.
Permanent Y/N: If possible yes.
Summary:
This is a next gen story focusing on the adventures of three new students at Hogwarts. Much like with the HP series, this story is spread across seven fics detailing their adventures throughout their Hogwarts career.
The first in the series, The Serpent Master, introduces the reader to Jenny and Cleo Abel, twins who discover that they are magical and will soon be heading off to Hogwarts School to learn magic. They also meet up with Will Douglas who has known of the magical world since he was born.
In The Serpent Master, Jenny, Will and Cleo discover that one of their classmates is up to something, something that will bring an even greater change in their lives.

Anything else I should know about?
Sorry for the very... forced summary but I thought it was the best way to describe it.
Basically. After DH was released I started writing a fan fic. The spelling and grammar were terrible but the story wasn't half bad. Over the next three years I continued writing it until I was done. It has been posted in several places before but I want to post is somewhere else, somewhere I can get more views. I haven't got as many reads or reviews as I would have liked. Many people say that once they have read it they wonder why it hasn't had more reviews. The later stories are pretty much all planned out and I have an idea of what happens to pretty much every character. I just need a bit of help to get it up to scratch and ready for reading. I can't offer you cake... but I can give you cookies!

Thanks!

[The owl]

Shaun (for I assume that's your name),

I'd love to take this on, and the cookies sound great I'll PM you my email address now, along with a couple of other housekeeping questions, and we'll be on our way.

Everyone else, I am...

Unavailable for a few more days(starting from August 4th, because I need some time to get on top of things)

~Sophie

[majestic_ginny]

Hello, Sophie! I know your thread says unavailable, but I know you were supposed to be back on the fourth, so I'll request anyway . If you're still away you can look at it once you're back, no rush.

Username & Preferred Name: Nadia/majestic_ginny and Pooja/Ginny Weasley Potter (it's a co-authored fic, if that's not a problem)
Story title: When the Rose Fell (this may change)
Genre: Next-Generation
Ships: Rose/OC, Rose/Scorpius, Lily(II)/OC and the other (unimportant in context of the story) canon pairings
Rating and Warnings:6th-7th years, Sexual Situations, Strong Profanity, Suicide, DH Spoilers, Abuse
Estimated Length: Chapterd story of >20 chapters, so it's likely to be over 50,000 words
Permanent Y/N: the whole of the chaptered fic only, thanks
Preferred Return Time? A week's good enough
Summary: Not decided yet, but it's about Rose being in a relationship with an OC, but the OC cheated on her and how Scorpius helped Rose get through it, and the ensuing madness and mess-ups.
Anything you particularly need help with? Briticism
Anything else I should know about? No, I don't think so.

Thanks for considering this! <3

[The owl]

Hello, Nadia

I'd love to take this on Pooja mentioned it to me a while ago and I thought it sounded interesting. I don't see why the co-author thing would be a problem. Just to clarify, I hadn't changed my thread back to available because I had a few chapters waiting to be beta'd, left over from before I went away. I wanted to get up to date on them before I took anything new on but, I reckon I've got them under control now and I should have plenty of time for you. I know Pooja has my email address, but I'll PM it to you now, just in case.

To everyone else, I am

Available

~Sophie

[iMusic17]

Username & Preferred Name: iLuna17 and Ellie
Story title: Human Debris
Genre: Dark/Angsty
Ships: Hit of Albus Sev/OC
Rating and Warnings:6th-7th years, Strong Profanity, Suicide, Violence, Abuse
Estimated Length: It's a one-shot. Only about 2.5 k or so.
Preferred Return Time? A week's good enough. It's for the CC thing, so it just needs to be validated in 20 days, and with the queue ...
Summary: Not decided yet, but it's really dark. (I blame Jamie for what it's about) If you watch the music video for Filth by A Band of Buriers (in which Matthew Lewis stars) .. well, it's based off of that. Basically, Albus and this unnamed OC are in a really bad relationship, and he's beat up, and then he gets mad, flips a table (coughJAMIEcough), and then even more stuff happens.
Anything you particularly need help with? Briticism, believability, and if it makes sense.
Anything else I should know about? No, I don't think so.

Thanks!

Ellie