Progress Report III: Help Wanted! (Positions Filled!) · 3:22pm Oct 13th, 2022
Morning/Afternoon/Evening everyone!
If it's not evident enough from my other blog entries, I am a huge somewhat of a mess. I've mentioned this before, but I have a hard time catching typos, and sometimes my sentence structure is a little wonky. As I've been working on this new story, I've been working with a friend who's been a second pair of eyes to help remedy these issues. That said, they're not explicitly proofreading – it'd be more accurate for me to say they're editing and helping me with conceptual elements of the story. On top of that, four eyes is still hardly enough to catch all the mistakes I am prone to making. Even with the extra help and the extra time I took to get everything out, I must have spent the majority of yesterday tweaking what I had before and after they went up. If you read what I have when it released, you might notice a few very slight changes here and there. Like I said, I'm a fucking trainwreck lol somewhat of a mess
So this is my appeal: I'm looking for people to proofread and make suggestions. Before I get into how I want it all to work, I'll go ahead and say it is unlikely I'll be able to give you much in return aside from getting to view chapters early, and special shoutout on the story page/authors note. I would love nothing more than to give proper compensation as I'm asking people to do work for me, but unfortunately that's not really feasible in my current position. As fun and rewarding as fanfic writing is, it does not pay the bills.
Now, I know I'm already asking for free work, but I only want people to inquire if they're genuinely interested, and are frequently available. When I say frequently available, I do not mean you need to be there every single time I message you with something. I'm not very stringent about these things, and will not expect you to message me back within the same day. The only thing I ask is that you get back to me within a few days of me sending you something. And by "get back to me", I mean any correspondence in general. Even if it's just to say "sorry, life's too busy right now," that's perfectly fine. If you just don't feel like it? You can tell me that too, and I'll be fine with it. This ain't a job, and I ain't gonna be your boss lol. I just want to know whether or not to expect you to work with me so if not, I can plan and move ahead accordingly.
Are you still interested? If not, that's totally fine. If you are? Great! Here's how things will work:
- Send me a PM with an example of your work (either one of your own stories, or something you've proofread for someone else), and I'll look it over. Some of my frequent commenters might be exempt from this step, and you should know who you are. If you're unsure, send me some of your work anyway. I'm not looking for perfection, and my standards aren't exceptionally high – I just want to make sure you have a decent grasp on writing. If I decide it's not up to my standard, please don't be offended!
- If I like what I see, I'll respond to your message and let you know. We can swap discord IDs, or just keep using PMs if you're so inclined. From there, you can also let me know how you want to be mentioned when I credit you.
- My friend and I will workshop a chapter together on our own. After it's gone through enough drafts/revisions, I'll send it off to you through your preferred method of contact.
You'll receive a gdocs link* (or an .rtf file if you're so inclined). In that doc, every paragraph will be numbered from beginning to end.
*If I send you a link, and you don't think you'll be able to get around to it for any reason, PLEASE let me know as soon as possible. If I don't hear anything within 3 days of sending you the link, I will just assume you're unable to do it. Again, I don't expect anyone to be able to do this for every chapter, so it would be appreciated if I could know whether or not you'll be contributing as soon as you know.
Give the chapter a scan or two. For the most part, I want you to focus on finding typos and grammar mistakes*. Especially tensing. Tensing is hard for me lol.
*If you notice plot inconsistencies, something that sounds tonally off, or someone acting jarringly out of character, feel free to add that too, but try to refrain from making narrative suggestions. I have a vision in mind, and when it comes to creative decisions I can be kind of a control freak. So if you do comment on the narrative, I am likely to push back. That said, I'm not unreasonable! So don't be afraid, but understand I may not agree.
- If you notice something, jot down the paragraph number, which line(s) needs to be corrected, and how you would suggest correcting it.
- When you've gone through each paragraph and have notated all your suggestions, send them to me through your preferred contact means. If you're doing it over discord, you may want to put it in a txt file or something depending on how long it is.
And that's it! Sounds like a lot, but it's really not I promise. I just wanted to be extra thorough so you know what all to expect.
So if my wall of text didn't scare you off, send me a PM at your earliest convenience. 
Other than that, I don't have a whole lot to mention! I am very happy (and a little shocked, honestly) with the reception my story has gotten in the short time the introductory bits have been up. It's a little intimidating! But it gives me lots of motivation, too. I hope you'll enjoy what else I've got in store.
That's all I got for today. Thanks for reading! 
If you're using Gdocs, then giving people comment access will make this moot, since they can just comment on the doc exactly at the sentence, paragraph, or even word that needs correcting!
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I didn't even notice it had that feature! I am Always aware of my surroundings you see.