Prereader Call · 8:47pm Oct 14th, 2016
So. Remember the little caffeine stunt? I went to class while still on the high, more coffee than human, and, uh.
I think I either seduced a teacher, or became a part-time lecturer myself. Or both. I'm still not sure.
Anyway! That will be explained in detail later, in a different blog, because I'm being actually serious, and this is the kind of story you share, god dammit. I thrive on the attention.
For now, let's talk prereaders.
As in, let's talk about how I need some.
Yeah. Not a lot of depth to this blog, 'cause I'm currently busy as hell, and I figured business comes before pleasure for once. Wacky hijicks will come in a couple days, sorry 'bout that.
So! I have proofreaders. A lot of proofreaders. People who check my story, judge the grammar and more technical side of it, and then move on. What I need now are prereaders, people who give me an opinion on the story's quality. Character, plot, dialogue, all that stuff. Actual critique of the least quantitative elements of the story.
SCARY STUFF, YO.
I'm currently on the very last steps of editing a story I've written. It's based on a commonly shared fanon subgenre that I've never touched (for many reasons), and you know what? I'm actually not gonna tell you what's about, exactly, 'cause god dammit the story is supposed to be enjoyable even if you know jackshit about the genre.
(I know my audience, yo).
Comedy, I can say that. On the 10k words range. Really Celestia-focused. Really character-driven. Really "Today is a Good Day to Die" -ish.
Any volunteers? Or any questions about the teacher thing, I suppose. I'm seriously swearing off coffee for a while, 'cause fucking hell.
I do write a shit-ton about Celestia, don't I? I've got extremely comfortable with her.
Which is weird, because I never give her the same personality, I really vary how I write her from story to story. Aside from the most obvious OOC-ness of my two most popular stories, I actually like to explore different sides of her. Guess a classy immortal queen lady with an angsty past is too juicy not to bite, writing-wise?
'Unno.
I volunteer as Ground Zero.
I mean, sacrifice. I mean, tribute. I mean, prereader.
One of them being sanity, presumably.
Dear President Aragon,
After your exciting speech yesterday about the future of our educational institution, I am proud to have passed on the office of university president to such an intelligent individual, and I look forward to serving your administration in whatever capacity you wish. I'm proud to say since we distributed your speech to our alumni, contributions have been through the roof, and over a hundred new scholarships have been endowed, including that elusive World Cheerleader Competition we have always been trying for but never won until now.
Sincerely, your advisor and former university president
Bob
P.S. The WCC asked to have you as one of the judges, and I accepted on your behalf.
P.P.S A cappuccino machine has been installed in your new office, as per your suggestion.
1. Did you coffee contain any additived? (eg: Milk)
2. Does you editors not tell you if they dislike something about the story? One would think the two would go hand-in-hoof.
3. By when do you need it done? I could offer to preread for you. Heck, I'm pretty good at ripping apart my own words. But it depends since I have other stuff coming up later this month.
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Question, did the Teacher lectured you on your love Coffee ?
Is she herself made of Coffee, you might want to be careful with that.
Also if you still need Prereaders, i would love to help
I volunteer as tri...
Damn, KingMoriarty already made that joke.
But yeah, I'd love to help out as prereader.
As for the teacher thing: Will your lectures be available online?
Edit: I just realised the lectures would probably be held in spanish... So I wouldn't understand them anyway.
I definitively volunteer.
I kinda read most of your stories the day they are out anyway. You are my favorite writer on this site, after all.
I'll try to keep personal biases away while reviewing though, should you accept me as a pre reader.
Hey hey hey, this is something that's up my alley. I'd love to help out, if you'd like.
Robert Zimmerman has been properly recognized as the Poet Laureate of the United States. By Sweden. I am okay with this.
Oh, right, the stuff that isn't hashtags. Heck, I'll give it a look if you want. I'm probably just going to give you the textual equivalent of a thumbs-up sticker, but every pair of eyes helps.
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Literally just finished the second GREAT WAVE OF EDITING, so the story is proofreader's territory at the moment. And I'll probably get queasy and try to edit at least the last scene once or twice.
Which means that those of you whom I ultimately choose (throwing a fucking dice, I assume) should expect the link in, like, twelve hours or so. Gimme time to breathe and sleep first. It's past midnight here!
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I actually had you in mind when writing this blog, believe it or not! Part of my thought process was "Oh man, Kingmoriarty is gonna fucking hate this story, I can't wait for it." [1]
No idea if you'll ultimately hate it, but a man can dream, god dammit. I still remember your reaction to SMILE FOR THE CHILDREN, and that sorta left a mark.
[1] Also, like, I'm not being facetious here. Someone hating the story and giving me points to why it doesn't work is always useful. Reasons why it works and why I'm great are flattering and all, but then fucking MrNumbers or whatever read the story after it's posted and cockslaps me to hell and back because I was too blind to see a blatant mistake.
So yeah, I expect y'all guys (not just KingMoriarty) to tear me a new asshole here. I mean, be gentle about it, because I'm human, but there's a reason why I ask for prereaders.
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You little twerp, always commenting JUST IN TIME for me not to reply in time. Gagh. GAGH.
Hmm. To volunteer or not.
On the one hand, I have, like, a dozen things I need to get done with my free time to try to build a semblance of a life.
On the other hand, I'm not going to do them.
Sure, I'll take a gander.
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The fact that you know who I am. The fact that I leave a big enough impression that I honestly came to mind while you were writing this blog post. The fact that you still remember that... utter mess I made of giving my thoughts on SMILE FOR THE CHILDREN.
All of these things surprise me to no end. You're freaking Aragon. You're part of the bloody elite. HOW AM I LEAVING THIS MUCH OF AN IMPRESSION?
Of course, the most surprising thing is the idea that my rant on SFTC left a mark.
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This kind of reaction will never cease to amuse me, because I never expect it. If I'm part of the bloody elite, then society has a severe case of hemophilia, mate.
4256055 Ye've got big numbers, mate.
-Raises 3 fingers from a hoof, somehow.- I volunteer as tribute.
Sign me up.
Please.
I want the stories, mang...
-cri-
I"d love to help pre-read you're story. I've worked for Harmony's Warriors, I've done stuff for SpiderEmblemBrony, I'm currently helping with a re-write of Rainbooms and Royalty, and holy crap I'm writing a resume.
Right now, I'm writing a resume to get a chance to edit a magic horse internet story.
Still want the job, mind you. I just realizing its kinda weird.
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This is wisdom that every writer needs to heed! Those that coherently criticize you the most will do you the most good!
Aragon is wise, yes!
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I was going to make various innuendo jokes on the "I've got extremely comfortable with her." line but then you just went and made it not at all fun with all of your other easily turned into innuendo comments.
The best part is they can all be taken at face value and not as innuendo but are at the same times very obviously being hidden as innuendo.
The levels of word play here are masterful and beautiful.
I volunteer! I've edited for Cloud Hop's One Last Trick, as well as his one-shot The Calamity, and edited born2baBrony's A Different Kind of Distortion and Lucien Bubblegum's Spike's Bimbo-Filled Life.
I'll pre-read, Aragon, if for no other reason than that you do it old-school and call it pre-reading and not beta reading. Takes me back, that does. To the old days, when we wrote our fanfiction on mailing lists! In ASCII, the way god intended!
If you need references Skywriter will vouch for me.
Does asking for early access because my standards are shit count?
I mean, I guess I can be the lowest common denominator check box, or something.
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I only cockslap you when I'm flaccid! Is that not gentle enough?
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We actually legit talk about you all the time, man. Sometimes we actually go looking for your comments specifically when a thread's a complete clusterfuck and we're trying to find the voice of reason.
From Aragon in Skype right now, when I asked about sending this:
Oh yeah that's my Skype name for him, and I refuse to edit that.
4256756 Off the top of my head, I can remember about three times I've ever had conversations with either of you. At least one of those times was a totally clinical 'thanks for the corrections'.
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Two can play at this goddamn game.
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Are you both kidding? HOW COULD YOU NOT GIVE OFF AN ELITE VIBE?
The two of you can go months without writing a single publicly viewable word and still top the charts any time you so much as breathe something that isn't labeled as a blog post, when you do blog it's either scathingly witty or some kind of deep writing advice (or waxing philosophical about the melting point of brains), what you write either consistently hits the RCL or is just one of the best-written AU I've ever seen (respectively), you come from two of the sexiest countries out there, and your numbers are frickin' enormous!
Contrast myself, who sometimes makes it to the Featured box with a semi-interesting sharting out of headcanon. Even someone who doesn't give a rat's ass about popularity would see a bit of a gulf between myself and you guys.
Depending on genres, I might be free in a couple days. It all comes down to how bad the jetlag winds up being.