Sentinel Slash Virtual Season Interview with Poledra

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Sentinel Slash Virtual Season Interview with Poledra
Interviewer:	Sentinel Slash Virtual Season
Interviewee:	Poledra
Date(s):	2000?
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	The Sentinel
External Links:	interview
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Poledra was interviewed for Sentinel Slash Virtual Season for her role as a beta reader.

Part of a Series

See Sentinel Slash Virtual Season Interview Series.

Excerpts

Not so much 'like' as 'fell into it' because I was a zined for many years and a good (or conscientious, anyway) zined betas her submissions. I always wanted what we printed to be at least competent.

I think you have to have a natural gift of understanding the flow of language, but you also need to have a reasonable grounding in basic grammar and punctuation. The ability to spell reasonably well doesn't hurt either.

A writer can be too close to her story and leave things that she understands perfectly well underdeveloped. Sometimes things she puts in as a throwaway could do with further expansion too, but it needs a fresh eye to see that.

Seeing some of the mistakes that have slipped past the writer. Especially typos... As a zined, saying tactfully to a writer that her deathless prose ought to be decently buried. Seriously, writers who look for a beta are often (not always) better writers anyway than ones who don't, and I've found are always more willing to accept constructive criticism. With really poor writers though it's sometimes hard to be constructive without doing a personal rewrite.