As I transition from hobbyist to pro in the writerly field, it occurs to me that I should have a few more beta readers. I currently have a small-but-dedicated pool of folks who I toss writing fragments, ideas, or even whole stories at for feedback, approval, or general tearing-apartness, and while they do a fine job, I would still like to have a few more different perspectives on things. My projects are going to get larger in scope and (hopefully) require more rigorous editing, so a few more eyes on it would be welcome.

The requirements are:

• A LiveJournal account. I put my beta-reader posts on my LJ, locked to a custom list, so you’ll have to have an account to see them.
• The ability to articulate specifically what you like or don’t like about an idea or piece of writing. Neither “It rules!” nor “It sucks!” are particularly useful bits of feedback, while “I couldn’t make out who was supposed to be speaking each line in the interchange between Alex and Susan…” is. Also, while I’m not looking for people to just savage everything I write, the ability to be (gently) ruthless in the search of quality is a big plus.
• You actually check LJ from time to time. ;) Since the posts are closed, there won’t be Twitter announcements or the like for them.

The benefits are:

…uh…

You get to see the messy, unfinished part of my work? And listen to me ramble about the process, even more than I already do here?

Okay, yeah, it’s kind of a hard sell. But there are folks who like that sort of thing. ;)

Seriously tho, if you’re interested, please shoot me an e-mail at thegneech@gmail.com or leave a comment in my LiveJournal.

Suicide Prevention Walk

This Saturday (September 28th), Mrs. Gneech and I will both be participating in the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention fundraising walk at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. If you’d like to help out or join in, please check out my fundraising goal page for details. This is the first time I’ve done one of these, but having lost a friend to suicide, it’s a cause I’d really like to help with. Big thanks to everyone involved!

That’s all for now! Keep being awesome, everyone. :)

-The Gneech